Customer Reviews

Exalted The Lunars

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Exalted: the Lunars is the second hardcover sourcebook for White Wolf's exciting Exalted RPG. The book starts with an introduction vignette, featuring several characters from the main rulebook. Next are two chapters of background, one about the Lunar Exalted themselves and their society and the other about the barbarian tribes they usually come from (and, in some cases, lead). I particularly enjoyed the shapeshifting Charms, numerous amounts of which are detailed in the book, along with two-page write-ups for each Caste similar to the Solar Castes in the main rulebook and the Dragon-Blooded Aspects in Exalted: the Dragon-Blooded (which is also a superbly-written book that I highly recommend). The book also contains an entire chapter of storytelling ideas (for those of you who aren't familiar with White Wolf's games...the Storyteller is similar to a Dungeon Master or Game Master) with info on how to possibly integrate the other types of Exalted into a Lunars story.

The one thing I didn't like about this book was the fact that it's a slight bit shorter than Exalted: the Dragon-Blooded, although it does cover the Lunar Exalted in much detail.

I see three reviews here, all positive.

While most of us who were there back in the day don't need to be told the Emperor has no clothes--and even in the greatly improved second edition he's merely sporting a well-placed tea towel--I think that what follows needs to be said.

The Lunar Exalted of the First Edition were just not very good. Each type was meant to function in a different milieu: Solars as the standard fantasy hero, for instance, and Sidereals as a kind of divine Man In Black. The Lunars were placed as savage, Conan-style fantasy, which could have been interesting, save for a few factors:

1.) Their history just wasn't particularly compelling. The sum total of their achievements in the 1500 years between their Exile and the start of the game can be summed up in a short paragraph. And before the Usurpation of the Solar Exalted, they were even more vague.

2.) Whoever wrote the powers for them did not do it particularly well. Some charms are literally useless, while the sequence of attaining powers resembles less the trees of any other Exalt type, and more like clouds instead. Further, while other Exalted took vague direction from their World of Darkness counterparts, the Lunars sharply resembled the Werewolves: powerful, brutal, and despite whatever roles they might be meant to take, ultimately a warrior at heart. And while the Lunars had tools to make them perfectly effective warriors, these were more or less mandatory for any long term survival and also permanently impacted a character's ability to disguise himself--especially painful for a playable character type with amazing shapeshifting powers.

3.) The pitch of the Lunars within the book was also more than lacking. Above and beyond the relative lack of history or general relevance to the setting, it's very clear that whoever was writing large portions of the book took "Barbarian" and "old World of Darkness Garou" and ended up with savage heroes who didn't just eschew advanced civilization, they actively warred against it, complete with raping, burning, and pillaging. Lunar concepts were by and large shoehorned into various shades of Hates-Indoor-Plumbing.

The first edition iteration of the Chosen of the Moon was easily one of the least-liked options for playable characters, and the fanbase rejoiced when the Manual of Exalted Power: the Lunars came out several years later. It isn't perfect, but it's much better than this.

Exalted, the epic anime-style fantasy roleplaying game from White Wolf Game Studio, continues to dazzle like the sun with this, the second hardcover sourcebook, detailing the barbaric Lunar Exalted, the barbarians that worship them, the chaotic realm known as the Wyld, and the beastmen offspring of Lunar mating.

This hardbound gives the prospective Storyteller endless material to work with, from a chapter on barbarian culture, to a thick and healthy chapter on the Charms (i.e., special powers) of the Lunars.

I heavily recommend this book to all Exalted players.

Firstly, for those of you who are new to Exalted (or new to pen and paper RPG's for that matter,) you need the core rulebook of this game entitled "Exalted" to play this game. You could try playing a lunar without it, but your game would be lacking many core rules and it would get confusing and frustrating very quickly. A quick search for "exalted" here on amazon will get you to this book, it should be near the top of the list if not at the top allready. This book is an expansion allowing you to play a different type of character in this gigantuan and fairly detailed world. This RPG is made from white-wolf and you can find source material (such as the much-needed character sheets) at thier website to help you. [...]

About the exalted RPG in generall: as allready stated this is a huge world, and there are many sourcebooks such as this one to flesh out the game. The core rulebook will make a complete game in of itself: but with only small mention of all the other exalts and poor examples of other exalted in there it hardly makes for a fully fleshed out game. The game can be extremely confusing to begginers at first. In fact, I highly suggest finding someone who knows what they are doing or who have experience with pen and paper RPG's in General to run the first campain. That isn't to say that this can't be done without one, but it most certainly helps and gets things moving much quicker. Rules for social and physical confrontation are spread wide and can be quite hard to find, although if you buy the Storytellers companion the combat rules are nicely listed on a Dungeon Master's (shortened to "DM") foldup board with many other usefull things you might need quickly, such as weapon prices and such.

If you really want to flesh out an exalted Campain, you need the core rulebook and several sourcebooks. This can get quite expensive unless you have access to several inexpensive used copies. The game is great fun, however, especially if you have an excellent DM who has fleshed out a great story. If you enjoy RPG video games, you will probably like this quite a bit. Do note that this game does not play like Dungeons and Dragon's at all and is a completely different experience.

Exalted: the lunars gives you a new option as a playable character as well as the ability to create other exalted a DM can use however he wishes. It also gives detailed information about Barbarians and Wyld Barbarians and extended Wyld rules. Again, the information can be spread out throughout the book and if you are new to the game creating your first character can be confusing. Luckily, there is a quick sheet covering only two pages of the book which is easy to find because of the pages different color which generalizes how to make a character and can speed the process up quite a bit. However, you will still want to go through a few of the details throughout the book as that quick guide won't tell you the charms you can take or what the backgrounds give you, which you need to know.

Basically, if you are playing exalted and want to further flesh out the game: this book should be one of the first ones you should get, it's absolutely needed if you want to get into some of the finer aspects of the game and will be sorely missed if some of the people playing want to play as something other than a solar exalt, and the first prime candidate for someone who doesn't want to be a solar exalt would be a lunar exalt.

If I could have, I would have given this a 4.5 because of the way the book is organized and because of how confusing they make this for new players. Luckily, if you are getting into gaming it's usually because you have an experienced gamer talking you into it who will kindly show you the ropes.