I wasn't really expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. The Lunars just didn't appeal to me at a glance quite as much as other Exalted character options. Epic fantasy werewolves just didn't grab me immediately. That was a gross oversimplification and assumption on my part.
The Lunar Exalted are indeed fascinating role play options, far beyond just being were creatures. The array of abilities and opportunities that comes from being able to assume other creature shapes is pretty dazzling when you get down to it. Their history is actually quite compelling and their current projects in social engineering make them seem just as if not more sophisticated than any other Exalt.
My players wound up choosing to play in a Lunars game which caused me to go ahead and plow through this one and I'm now extremely happy with their choice and look forward to running it!
The system feels more like the older World of Darkness Storytelling system than the new. However it's still very easy to grasp on the surface.
However truth be told beyond that the system becomes far more complicated. Combat is handled in ticks down to the second, which leads to a very intense combat system. Players assuming the role of Solar Exalted have a wide array of skills and abilities to deploy which add a necessary level of complexity onto the simpler system, though the results typically pan out very worth while in sheer fun.
The setting itself is where the game truly shines. Creation feels very original and unique compared to most fantasy settings. Forgoing Tolkien as the primary influence, and instead mostly turning to world mythology and anime as the predominant influence. The result has a very unique flavor combining some of the best elements in Western and Eastern mythology and the perfect excuse for intense drama and action you would expect of the synthesis.
Though it mostly focuses on artifacts and other wonders created in the First Age, this winds up being a spectacular list of magical items. The last portion is especially valuable, in providing the rules and details on deploying Warstriders. Magical mechs certainly make the game's anime inspirations bleed through all the more, but could be a fun addition to any game if the players or the storyteller desire it.
Like the Book of the Dead, this is another WoD book that really wasn't written to be generic. References to Hunter are all over the book. However it is pretty fleshed out on it's own all the same. You basically get the rules for generating and running a host of serial killers of all sorts. Ranging from Hannibal Lecter and Jigsaw, to Freddy Kruger or Jason Voorhees. In other words merely psychotic but pretty mortal, to supernatural killing machines, and everything in between. This can be used without Hunter to add a lot of spice to any game, but with so many references to compacts, conspiracies, and other Hunter elements you'll definitely benefit from having it on your shelf as well.
What you get here is just the core framework and implied setting for the NWoD line. That being said, what you get here is solid gold. For character generation you're pretty much limited to human beings and ghosts. Ghosts expected to be Storyteller run characters of course.
The rules are a refinement of the old WoD line, now far more straightforward and simple while still being extremely versatile. The implied setting is simply this world through a dark veil, where you assume that things really do go bump in the night. However nothing is really hard defined leaving it up to the story teller to flesh out the world to suit the story.
Bonus points for being a nice hardback edition, on top of being a solid release of the rules in general. However it's still the same old game it's always been. The editing and cohesiveness feels a little rough at times, but this is par for the course with Palladium. Would definitely recommend this for any Rifts fan or someone curious about the game for a comprehensive look.
Let's be up front, the game can be very crunchy. Comparisons to an Exalted modern aren't unfair. The systems possess a great deal of overlap though they're hardly identical. The basics of character generation and combat overlap a great deal, however supernatural abilities and attributes are handled quite differently. There are some bits of crunch that probably work best houseruled, which leads me to take it down a star. However the game itself is solid and setup to explore really fun character concepts. After all if you were the child of a god, who would you be?
In more ways than one even. The setting information is a little lighter than I would care for, in fact I've considered getting some of the 3E books published for more fluff. However this is in part because of just how much crunch we have here. Several new classes all get a lot of detail with new mechanics for existing ones. Some of the classes predate things that would come in later Player's Handbooks even for the most part. Arcane Defenders, Mystics, and Wokan in many respects beat Sword Mages, Monks, and Druids to the scene. They're far more thematically tuned into the setting here of course, but provide a very nice alternate take on classes that would be covered by WotC later on.
Over all this is a very solid release and a good example of what to do with 4e if you're a third party. I only wish we could see more material from them.
Aesthetically the flip-over design is actually rather nice. It feels like two completely different books in one.
Both sides are handled in roughly the same fashion. The White Treatise on Sorcery has a bit more information, though only because redundant information is not repeated in the Black Treatise. You get a great deal more fluff about the origin of magic than you did in the core rulebook. It expands upon things nicely and gives a good background of magical schools of thought and education in Creation, (as well as the Underworld.) And of course, last but probably why you bought the book, a large list of spells for all three circles.
All in all the easiest way to acquire a large number of spells to use in your games of every circle. Practically a necessity if you plan to make a character focusing on sorcery as the core rulebook is a little sparse in sample spells.
Regardless of how you feel about how often the rules are updated in 4e, updated a lot they are! At this point the rules and revisions are roughly spread across five different books. This book takes those rules and consolidates them to one smaller, though quite dense volume. That alone is incredibly useful as a table-side reference for the game.
The only reason I'm not giving it a full five stars is because it really is dense. For being in the Essentials line aimed at new players it looks incredibly intimidating. (Even as someone that's been playing 4e for over two years, flipping through evokes a bit of a "yikes!") However it's an extremely well written and easy to digest volume in spite of this. The rules for the game have never been presented more clearly and concisely.
If you're a regular 4e player this is a no brainer. If you don't play 4e, it's an excellent book to start with. Combined with a DDI subscription you aren't really going to need anything else to get by.
What you basically get is an extremely detailed campaign setting and rules expansion of sort for 4e. The game inherits from 4e the basic rules, human race stats, along with several fantasy classes (non-divine however), as well as some monsters from the Monster Manual. Aside from that you're pretty much in their world. Several new fey races to choose from and four new base technology classes that can cover two of the standard roles each, along with their own bestiary and of course lots of fluff about the world.
The setting itself is a nice mix of slightly futuristic and fantasy elements. If you're not into that sort of thing, it's unlikely you're going to dig it here either. It's also worth noting that canonically your players are likely to either be all on the fantasy side of the fence or all on the technology side. They follow the convention of magic and technology not getting along with mechanics to deal with the conflict.
Over all it's a really well thought out product and really helps 4e shine in a new way. Unfortunately it also highlights some of the downsides of what makes 4e popular. Good luck using the Character Builder with all of these lovely new options. But building one by hand isn't that bad either, and it's done in plenty of other games all the time!
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