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Games of Divinityis the spirit sourcebook for White Wolf’s Exalted game line. The review presumes you’re familiar with the game and its storyline up to this point, and you are considering whether to spend your hard-earned $20 to add this book to your Exalted shelf. If you are new to the game, I highly recommend you check out some of the archived RPG.net reviews of the core rulebook.

I should start by admitting that I’ve been waiting for this book with bated breath. The core rulebook and many previous supplements repeated say that the Exalted world is filled with spiritual entities and that mortals have dealings with spirits quite often. Despite this, there’s been very little material concerning these spirits as compared to Exalted’s other antagonists until this point. Games of Divinity more than makes up for this, and leaves me with the impression that the previous lack of material on spirits was only so that they could be given the full attention they are due.

What follows is a chapter-by-chapter summary of the book. I will try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, but Games of Divinity greatly expands the metaplot of Exalted and some spoilage is inevitable. You stand warned.

Introduction– The Introduction provides an overview of the book as well as gives new Exalted Lexicon definitions to the terms that deal specifically with spirits. In a very clever and helpful move, there is also a book and page listing for most of the spirits published in previous Exalted supplements.

In addition to the bits of metaplot scattered throughout the book, the Introduction contains the most concentrated portion of metaplot expansion: a re-telling of the early history of the world, describing the Primordial War where the gods rebelled against and defeated the creators of the world, the gods’ motivation for their rebellion, and the unintended consequences of their betrayal. The most important cosmological concept introduced here is the Games of Divinity – a form of entertainment like sex, heroin, and artistic inspiration combined. Access to these Games is why the gods deposed the Primordials, and as the gods become more and more obsessed with the Games they neglect Creation and allow the world to fall apart.

Chapter One: Gods– I like that the gods are presented in classical Greek fashion – they are essentially massively powerful people, They have the same selfish drives and petty desires as any human, but they can shatter mountains and incinerate cities if they don’t get what they want. A significant portion of the chapter devotes itself to the current chaos and corruption of the spirit courts, and how modern spirits relate not only to each other but also to the various Exalted.

The spirit statistics in the second half of the chapter range from the mundane (like the spirit of that jar on your kitchen shelf) to the absurdly powerful (like the Southern God of War, who can destroy a starting PC group in one round while half-asleep). Good to have as power scale reference for creating your own spirits, and the greater gods (i.e. unique spirits) were written with strong interesting personalities. Also useful are the statistics for the God-Blooded – the result of a sexual union between a spirit and a human.

Chapter Two: Elementals – Obviously, this chapter described elementals. At first glance, there would seem to be little to differentiate gods and elementals from each other. The difference between them is simple and yet profound. Elementals are the essences of natural phenomenon such as forests and storms where the gods hold dominion over more “higher” concepts as hunting, war, and roads. Further, whereas the Primordials formed the gods to govern Creation for them, the gods formed the elementals to govern Creation for them once they had thrown down the Primordials.

For me, this chapter was the least interesting of the three. There was less story and setting background here than in the other chapters, and most of the spirit statistics here were of elemental types rather than individual personalities as in the Gods chapter. That said, if your games need monsters-of-the-week this chapter will provide a few months worth at least.

Chapter Three: Demons– This chapter is nearly worth the cover price of the book by itself. It describes the Demon Realm and its inhabitants. It details the demonic hierarchy, and how demons can move up and down in the hierarchy. There are lots of new demon statistics of all three circles, along with character descriptions for unique demons. Rules are provided for entering and leaving Malfeas as well as for the environmental factors of Demon World, for those brave souls who feel some strange need to spend a holiday in Hell. What the Yozis are scheming in order to break free of their prison is also described, but only in tantalizingly vague terms.

The demons and Yozis (Demon Lords) of Exalted are not very nice, which this chapter makes that abundantly and painfully clear. You probably wouldn’t be very nice if someone stole the Games of Divinity from you and imprisoned you in a poison world for thousands of years. Beyond that, this chapter does a great job of conveying the alien nature and enormous power of the Yozis. They are vast beyond simple human comprehension even as compared to the current Celestial rulers of Creation. The most beautiful idea suggested here is that the Primordials were so powerful that the only force capable of confining them was their own force. Their great bodies and unimaginable power are warped and twisted to bind themselves and each other in place, forming the very Demon World they are unable to escape - the prisoner creates and is his own prison. The major Yozis are described in terms of what part of the Demon World they comprise: the great city of Malfeas, the endless desert surrounding the city, the silent wind that kills all it touches, etc. Reading this chapter was pure pleasure.

The book ends with an appendix listing the rules for the new spirit powers presented. The best bit here is a new Background: Cult. Having a rating in Cult allows spirits (and Exalted) to regain Essence and Willpower from having people worship them. This gives PCs the rules impetus to create cults around themselves, and provides another good reason for Storytellers to sic the Immaculate Order or a competing spirit on them. After all, if the people are worshipping / providing Essence to the PCs they can’t be worshipping / providing Essence to anyone else, right?

In another clever and helpful move, White Wolf has provided the rules for many of the other spirit powers cited in Games of Divinity as a free PDF download from their Web site. You can access that PDF here.

In summary, this is yet another strong sourcebook for Exalted and an absolute necessity for storytellers who want to involve sprits and/or demons in their stories. If you are heavily into the Exalted metaplot, I strongly encourage you to buy this book, as well. It adds width and depth to the setting, and provides exciting glimpses of what’s to come.

Games of Divinity
Games of Divinity Capsule Review by Quentin Blasingame on 12/09/02 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!) The spirit and demon sourcebook for Exalted. Superbly done and an essential addition to the line. Product: Games of Divinity Author: Michael Kessler, John Snead & R. Sean Borgstorm Category: RPG Company/Publisher: White Wolf Line: Exalted Cost: 17.95 Page count: 128 Year published: 2002 ISBN: 1-58846-659-0 SKU: 8823 Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Quentin Blasingame on 12/09/02 Genre tags: Fantasy Anime Asian/Far East	Games of Divinityis the spirit sourcebook for White Wolf’s Exalted game line. The review presumes you’re familiar with the game and its storyline up to this point, and you are considering whether to spend your hard-earned $20 to add this book to your Exalted shelf. If you are new to the game, I highly recommend you check out some of the archived RPG.net reviews of the core rulebook. I should start by admitting that I’ve been waiting for this book with bated breath. The core rulebook and many previous supplements repeated say that the Exalted world is filled with spiritual entities and that mortals have dealings with spirits quite often. Despite this, there’s been very little material concerning these spirits as compared to Exalted’s other antagonists until this point. Games of Divinity more than makes up for this, and leaves me with the impression that the previous lack of material on spirits was only so that they could be given the full attention they are due. What follows is a chapter-by-chapter summary of the book. I will try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, but Games of Divinity greatly expands the metaplot of Exalted and some spoilage is inevitable. You stand warned. Introduction– The Introduction provides an overview of the book as well as gives new Exalted Lexicon definitions to the terms that deal specifically with spirits. In a very clever and helpful move, there is also a book and page listing for most of the spirits published in previous Exalted supplements. In addition to the bits of metaplot scattered throughout the book, the Introduction contains the most concentrated portion of metaplot expansion: a re-telling of the early history of the world, describing the Primordial War where the gods rebelled against and defeated the creators of the world, the gods’ motivation for their rebellion, and the unintended consequences of their betrayal. The most important cosmological concept introduced here is the Games of Divinity – a form of entertainment like sex, heroin, and artistic inspiration combined. Access to these Games is why the gods deposed the Primordials, and as the gods become more and more obsessed with the Games they neglect Creation and allow the world to fall apart. Chapter One: Gods– I like that the gods are presented in classical Greek fashion – they are essentially massively powerful people, They have the same selfish drives and petty desires as any human, but they can shatter mountains and incinerate cities if they don’t get what they want. A significant portion of the chapter devotes itself to the current chaos and corruption of the spirit courts, and how modern spirits relate not only to each other but also to the various Exalted. The spirit statistics in the second half of the chapter range from the mundane (like the spirit of that jar on your kitchen shelf) to the absurdly powerful (like the Southern God of War, who can destroy a starting PC group in one round while half-asleep). Good to have as power scale reference for creating your own spirits, and the greater gods (i.e. unique spirits) were written with strong interesting personalities. Also useful are the statistics for the God-Blooded – the result of a sexual union between a spirit and a human. Chapter Two: Elementals – Obviously, this chapter described elementals. At first glance, there would seem to be little to differentiate gods and elementals from each other. The difference between them is simple and yet profound. Elementals are the essences of natural phenomenon such as forests and storms where the gods hold dominion over more “higher” concepts as hunting, war, and roads. Further, whereas the Primordials formed the gods to govern Creation for them, the gods formed the elementals to govern Creation for them once they had thrown down the Primordials. For me, this chapter was the least interesting of the three. There was less story and setting background here than in the other chapters, and most of the spirit statistics here were of elemental types rather than individual personalities as in the Gods chapter. That said, if your games need monsters-of-the-week this chapter will provide a few months worth at least. Chapter Three: Demons– This chapter is nearly worth the cover price of the book by itself. It describes the Demon Realm and its inhabitants. It details the demonic hierarchy, and how demons can move up and down in the hierarchy. There are lots of new demon statistics of all three circles, along with character descriptions for unique demons. Rules are provided for entering and leaving Malfeas as well as for the environmental factors of Demon World, for those brave souls who feel some strange need to spend a holiday in Hell. What the Yozis are scheming in order to break free of their prison is also described, but only in tantalizingly vague terms. The demons and Yozis (Demon Lords) of Exalted are not very nice, which this chapter makes that abundantly and painfully clear. You probably wouldn’t be very nice if someone stole the Games of Divinity from you and imprisoned you in a poison world for thousands of years. Beyond that, this chapter does a great job of conveying the alien nature and enormous power of the Yozis. They are vast beyond simple human comprehension even as compared to the current Celestial rulers of Creation. The most beautiful idea suggested here is that the Primordials were so powerful that the only force capable of confining them was their own force. Their great bodies and unimaginable power are warped and twisted to bind themselves and each other in place, forming the very Demon World they are unable to escape - the prisoner creates and is his own prison. The major Yozis are described in terms of what part of the Demon World they comprise: the great city of Malfeas, the endless desert surrounding the city, the silent wind that kills all it touches, etc. Reading this chapter was pure pleasure. The book ends with an appendix listing the rules for the new spirit powers presented. The best bit here is a new Background: Cult. Having a rating in Cult allows spirits (and Exalted) to regain Essence and Willpower from having people worship them. This gives PCs the rules impetus to create cults around themselves, and provides another good reason for Storytellers to sic the Immaculate Order or a competing spirit on them. After all, if the people are worshipping / providing Essence to the PCs they can’t be worshipping / providing Essence to anyone else, right? In another clever and helpful move, White Wolf has provided the rules for many of the other spirit powers cited in Games of Divinity as a free PDF download from their Web site. You can access that PDF here. In summary, this is yet another strong sourcebook for Exalted and an absolute necessity for storytellers who want to involve sprits and/or demons in their stories. If you are heavily into the Exalted metaplot, I strongly encourage you to buy this book, as well. It adds width and depth to the setting, and provides exciting glimpses of what’s to come.