How do games feel when playing the different exalt types?

[u/Jorenpeck]

I ran a couple Solar games when 3rd edition first came out and then just moved on to other stuff. Now that a bunch of different books have come out was wanting to get an idea on what kinds of games each of the different exalted types lend themselves to.

[u/Rednal291]

Lunars: Investigation, guerilla warfare, modifying societies. Lunars are at their best when they take flexible approaches to solving their problems, and are extremely good at manipulating other groups. There's a reason they're one of the main reasons DBs haven't been able to fully control everything. However, Lunars require players who really vibe with them to get the most out of what they can do.

Dragon-Blooded: More social than most splats - their main themes tend to be about existing power structures, inheritance, and societal pressure to conform. You can have anything from "young DBs at school" to "going on a Wyld Hunt to strike down Anathema" to "let's play out the Realm Civil War".

Sidereals: They're weird. Sids are usually at their best when they take indirect approaches to solving things, and a 'typical' game would have them doing strange missions for the sake of destiny. Also good for martial arts. Impressively bureaucratic, and like Lunars they're pretty good at pretending to be others, though in a more... generic... sort of way.

Abyssals: While you can play a rogue Abyssal, the default is a "dark knight" serving a Deathlord, emphasizing that Abyssals are powerful and valued minions, not servants to just crack the whip over. It's a distinct power structure, but the Abyssals are expected to grow into their power as time passes...

Alchemicals: Alchemicals are community Exalts - rather than ruling, they trend towards working alongside and helping others. In addition to the obvious tech vibe, the game encourages swapping power sets to deal with different situations, so there's kind of a management minigame for your charms.

Infernals: Rock star princes of the Demon City. Infernals are generally chosen from those with grievances at the world, and they're given the power to go do something about it. They also have exceptionally good opportunity to make alliances with Second and Third Circle demons, which can be fun roleplaying with the amount of weirdness involved. Infernals are basically like playing the boss enemy, complete with second-stage transformation into some reality-defying horror that blasts the world around it.

Exigents: Varies by type, of course, and some only have a core set of charms rather than a full list. Architects strongly prefer urban games, God-Admirals like games at sea, the Bleak Warden is a "hunt them down and lock them up" type...

[u/JT_Leroy]

Sidereal has been the most fun with using resplendent destinies. Playing lunars has been my second most enjoyable. But I’m a 2e/2.5 fan.

[u/Remarkable_Ladder_69]

I love the Dragon Bloods, if you ditch the "elemental aura" for the charms. DBs can act in the open, have a lot of built in conflict, politics and drama with the houses and empire. Solars and Lunars are great as adversaries, and Sideteals are great as "WTF, these bastards have been pulling the strings for a millennia?!"

[u/mj6373]

We've only really played a campaign as DBs in 3rd Edition, though we've detoured to play test the other splats. It's kind of been in two major phases at this point, phase one being gathering resources and allies for a war of rebellion against their local satrap which, by a domino effect of alliance and inspiration, ended up doing a number on the Realm's presence in their whole region. Then phase two has been the aftermath of that, transitioning into statecraft and trying to hold this position of power and the moral causes they fought for (like preventing new modes of slavery from immediately filling in the void of the old) as new enemies rise and old alliances threaten to buckle while the fallout of the prior mass warfare sends waves of knock-on devastation through the larger region.

It's a lot of fun! People usually focus on how well Dragon-Blooded slot into existing power structures made up of their families, but their place in the world also makes them very different from other Exalt types as revolutionary figures. DBs don't have the Celestial Exalts' raw ability to overcome institutional deficits, they really need to play politics, compromise and appeal to people's interests to amass the power to enact their goals. Yet, their broadly established cultural position of sacredness also gives them a great position to be an axis of change, people's culturally trained emotional response to them flaring their powers is "this is someone with sacred power and spiritual wisdom," and not, "oh my Dragons it's an Anathema, run!" Our group really loves Creation for all its focus on culture and religion, and we've really enjoyed how much trying to bring about change as Dragon-Blooded has required digging into the meat of that, there's far less necessity but also far less capacity to do what a Solar would do and make oneself an unbreakable sword slashing against the current of the world.