When I found out the developers originally intended for Exalted to be the Pre-History of the World of Darkness I wanted to play an Exalt in the WoD setting.

To be a little more specific, not a modern-day Exalted like in the Shards book, but a game that is 90% World of Darkness (Werewolves, vampires, mages, etc) and then a random Exalt.

I have two ideas on how something like this could happen; 1. an Exalt who helped end the Age of Sorrow and move the cycle forwards is released from the effect into the modern WoD, probably by a group of Mages chasing a Mystery, though any type could work.

Idea 2 is someone (I keep picking on Mages but then tend to be the ones to poke the unknown until it does something) finds a broken Exalted Shard (the bit that actually makes an Exalted, Exalt) and binds it to a 'volunteer.'

I'm cool with either idea, the first one is more a fish-out-of-water story, while the second is a little more classic nobody gets power.

Obviously there is a problem in that any Exalted type is going to be vastly more powerful then the WoD characters, I was thinking this kind of thing would work really well in an existing game, where the characters have had a chance to gain some real power. I'd also want to play as a Lunar, which are weaker then the other Celestial Exalts, and don't have the weird issue Sidereals have.

Anyway, hope this sparks someone's interest.

I'm thinking the power difference is mostly fluff, right? What's preventing a more futuristic WoD? Sufficiently advanced technology might as well be Essense, or something to that effect.

Are Exalted builds that much more mechanically powerful than WoD? If they're all the same dice mechanic, then there's no saying that the Exalt's powers are outdated, or that the world has "moved on" from the Exalt being so irresistably powerful. Werewolves and other were-beings are covered by the Lunars. The Sidereals are kinda Mage-y, Abyssals/Infernals could kinda be the Vampires, there are a lotta parallels to draw. So you could very well get a modernized Exalted game mechanics and effects-wise, but with the WoD narrative structure/cosmology rather than invoke all the Games of Divinity and various small gods. Or like you're proposing, where there's something of a clash between "the old way" and "the new way".

If there is a mechanical power level difference, there'd be little call for PCs to try playing a WoD character when there are more powerful Exalts to be played. No reason to play a character that's more easily killed off, their story would have less time to be "interesting". It's just a logical choice. So you'd probably be getting more of a solo experience.

The main mechanical difference is that an Exalted succeeds on a 7 or higher and 10s double. In WoD it's 8 or higher and 10s explode.

Exalted charms are also stronger for how much XP they cost compared to the abilities other supernatural can get in WoD for the same cost.

I still think it could work if all the players and ST we're invested in the story rather then focused on making the most powerful collection of numbers possible.

You're looking at nWoD? New WoD is considerably less mechanically compatible with Exalted than oWoD was. oWoD had variable target numbers (typically 6 to 9) rather than a flat 7, with no special rule for 10s without specialty, and with 1s subtracting from successes. Exalts have also got perfect effects from charms, massive dice-pool adders, automatic successes, and a bunch of other effects that even a starting character can have (at least in 2E) to overwhelm most of the critters in the World of Darkness.

Regarding the power of Exalts vs other oWoD supernaturals: Exalts are categorically more powerful than basically everything that isn't a Master ranked mage or very low generation Vampire elder (and even they're eclipsed by Exalts in that Exalt's area of specialization, particularly as Essence reaches the 4+ range). I've actually played a Lunar (Wolf totem - Garou thought he was practically the Second Coming) with a circle of Solars in a PbP game on another site. One of our first acts was to kill a Methuselah. As starting characters.

Scenario 1, above, is to me the most interesting. The world has all its various supernaturals doing their thing when suddenly one or more Exalts appear and shake things up. Is this Gehenna? The Apocolypse? Has humanity achieved some unforeseen form of Ascension? None of them can really say, and depending on the behavior of the Exalt(s), they might be either ally or enemy. In either case, their overwhelming power automatically makes them a force to be reckoned with.
This message was last edited by the user at 19:57, Thu 08 Mar 2018.

I'm referring to nWoD because it's the one I know, I didn't get into the games until nWoD had started and I've mostly missed CoD. I don't think Lunars have perfect effects, I could be wrong though it's been a while since I really looked at their charm trees.

I still think the idea could work, it would obviously need quite a bit of tinkering to make it functional, but a Storyteller who wants to make it work could. And I'm willing to help.

In reply to SillySnowFox (msg # 1):

Actually it was OWoD that they wrote Exalted for. They shoehorned NWoD onto the rubric after they killed OWoD. That being said I tried to run a game like that once. Guardians of the Orichalcum Gates. Never got far. Let me know if you want to give it a go.
This message was last edited by the user at 17:34, Thu 29 Mar 2018.

Sounds like an interesting way for me to learn about WoD with familiar mechanics.

I'd love to give it a shot.

I'd love to play an oWoD Changeling or Mage in a setting with Exalted.