4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid coverage of Mountain Folk and Dragon Kings, January 28, 2009
This review is from: Exalted Scroll of the Fallen Races (Exalted: Second Edition) (Paperback)
The short and sweet is that this boo covers almost all you need to know about the Mountain Folk and the Dragon Kings.
The book is presented in the flip side format as was done with the Black and White Treaty, save that the comics do not meet in the middle.
The Dragon King section covers all the history of the race, as well as the vegetative artifacts and paths, the powers and abilities of the Dragon Kings. Also covered, that was not covered in first edition is several dark paths, those of corruption that were mentioned in first edition but only briefly touched on. They are given a full and clearer write up here.
The other side of the book, literally, covers the mountain folk, and their history, artifacts and the details of the great geas. The artifact section is short but covers a great deal including synthetic leather crafting. The charm section is as is expected as well. My only gripe here is that they mention a chaos pattern of charms that only the most insane mountain folk would use, inappropriate for a player perhaps, but it can be irritating for a some one running the game, especially as this seems like a book for stand alone games mainly.
After reading the entire book it is very helpful for mountain folk and dragon king knowledge, and some artifacts, but if your not interested in them there is little for you other than setting information (and a neat illustration of a mountain folk mad scientist.) Also the game idea info points out pretty quickly that mountain folk would have issues integrating into any game not set underground due to their curse, and the dragon kings have issues in dealing with society.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost everything you could want, December 29, 2008
This review is from: Exalted Scroll of the Fallen Races (Exalted: Second Edition) (Paperback)
Scroll of the Fallen Races is a double sided book, not unlike the Black and White Treaties. It covers the Mountain Folk and the Dragon kings. Both sides have the same layout, so for simplification, I am going to just give them at the same time.
Introduction- Both sides give a short introduction to explain what the races are like and give a short glossary of important terms.
Chapter 1- This section is the most informative for both races, as it is the only chapter to actually discuss the races, their history, the sociology, physiology, psychology, current situation, cities, technology, etc. Both of these chapters end with several pages of artifacts mostly exclusive to the races. It includes several new weapons and armor designs, but this stuff is intended for the races that made it, not Humans. Dragon Kings make use of both essence enhanced crystal and plants for their technology, and it is all most impressive. The Mountain Folk gear just seems slightly overpowered, especially for its cost. This chapter for both sides contain a several campaign hooks buried in the information, and will make character creation much easier.
Dragon Kings are savage creatures that need to be trained/tamed, so as they raise in essence score, they start to regain their personality and then memories from their previous lives. They come in four races corresponding to the four directions. The Dragon Kings that have for the most part been mindless hunters for most of the second age are now randomly recovering their minds. This used to take a decade of dedicated training to do, but several have just started to recover personalities and functioning again. This is mostly associated with the Solar return.
Mountain Folk are divided into castes. Workers, Soldiers, and Artisans make up the society, and some of them (all artisans, a small portion of the others) are enlightened. They have a massive, powerful empire that surpasses anything in creation, just under the surface. They are under something called the Great Geas from the first age that is forcing them to work, but hopes are pinned on the returning Solar to end this curse and allow them to work together once more.
Chapter 2- This is the actual character creation chapter. Both races have two options to choose from as for character creation. Mountain Folk can either be enlightened or unenlightened. Dragon Kings can either be modern or ancient. For both sides, this means a lot more points to spend building your character. Mountain Folk are by far the most powerful things I have seen in Exalted at character creation yet. Dragon Kings have a small group that has been sleeping since the first age and is now waking up. Be assured, Storytellers, players will want to either play enlightened Mountain Folk or ancient Dragon Kings. These chapters are pretty straight forward for a character creation section, and mirror just about any other you have seen in an Exalted supplement.
Chapter 3- This is the chapter of dedicated to spiffy powers. Mountain Folk get Pattern Charms, while Dragon Kings follow paths of enlightenment.
Jadeborn Pattern Charms are virtue based, and are divided into 5 groups. There are 3 caste groups, a general group, and an enlightened only group. Unenlightened can only take charms from their own caste's selection and the general group. A number of these charms have permanent effects. Others can be taken several times to increase the overall effect. They also have charms that are more powerful based on how many other Jadeborn are around. In general, the major difference between these charms and Exalted charms comes from the dice rolled. Virtues are used on the rare occasion that dice are called for. Normally it is just some sort of enhancement, permanent or otherwise.
Dragon Kings follow 10 paths of enlightenment that grant them their powers. Again, these are associated with virtues, and all but two of the ten paths are associated with one of the four breeds of Dragon King. Pterok deal with air based paths, Anktok are associated with fire, Mosok are command water, and Raptok have wood. The realm of earth is not associated with any breed of Dragon King. There are six steps to every path, unlockable as your essence increases. Your power with the entire path increases as you take a higher step, and represent the character's greater enlightenment as well. There are no excellencies, universal charms, or any way to create your own steps. You can take martial arts charms and sorcery spells however. Dragon Kings also have alternate paths that have dark sources. These are paths that do not lead to enlightenment and are meant to provide an early boost to power, but are less powerful later on than the base set of charms (kind of dark-side-ish from Star Wars). There are several to choose from and are most useful for making evil Dragon King NPCs.
Chapter 4- The final chapter is pretty straight forward. It is the Storyteller chapter, and gives information on running a game for either race. Balancing is a serious problem for these guys, especially because the villagers would riot upon seeing a Dragon King walk into town (they are almost universally seen as savage, mindless beasts that will kill humans if given the chance). The Mountain Folk still carry the Great Geas, and are simply incredibly powerful if they are enlightened. There is a lot of information about running dedicated chronicles for both races, however.
This book was pretty good. I enjoyed reading up on all the history, that is generally not discussed in Exalted. There is even a lot about before the Primordial War. I had two major problems with this book. The editing was sub-par. There were a number of typos, including references to abilities from first edition that have since been removed! That surprised me, but I was also more than a little disappointed at the utter lack of character sheets. White Wolf still hasn't published any on their website, so all we are left with is editing 1st edition sheets.
Keep in mind this is a shorter book, about 160 pages long and split exactly in half. There is enough there to play a chronicle with either race, or to integrate them into an already going Exalted game as major factions or what not. This is a good buy, especially considering this is the only second edition material to discuss either group in any detail.
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