The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Have you ever tried to convince a friend to see a movie that you really liked but found yourself at a loss for how to describe it? You liked the film, but can't think of anything exceptional to say about it, but you think your friend really should see it. This is how I feel about Caste Book: Zenith, a sourcebook for, guess what, the Zenith Caste in White Wolf's Exalted. It's a good, solid book that I would certainly recommend for any storyteller of Exalted and for most players of the Zenith Caste. Unfortunately, I can't quite convey just why I would recommend it to these people. Hopefully this review will give you some inclination why I think you should be interested in Caste Book: Zenith.

Style and layout

Caste Book: Zenith is a 96 page perfect bound sourcebook for Exalted. Overall, this is a very attractive book. In general I'm not of a fan of anime style art, but I found the art in Caste Book: Zenith to be very attractive and evocative of the text. My one complaint is the cover: I don't think it necessarily reflects what a Zenith is. While the iconic Zenith does have a tattoo of the Unconquered Sun on his chest, there's little else that indicates he is a priest and righteous warrior. This problem is mitigated by the convention of the cover drawings for the Caste Book series: an iconic character on the simple background of his Caste mark.

The vast majority of the information in the book is presented in the first person. Thus all the information you get from these passages is, of course, subjective. To compensate for this, there are a couple text boxes scattered throughout the book that tell some objective truth that that the characters themselves may not be aware of.

The book starts off with a 3 1/2 page piece of fiction. This describes the efforts of one of the iconic Zeniths to defend a village against an attack of supernatural rats. This story functions very well to highlight the differences between the Zenith and Dawn Castes. Rather than simply going out and confronting the leader of the rats, Fire Orchid, the Zenith, trains the village in how to defend itself from the rats and only engages the leader when she feels the village itself is ready. Certainly the Zeniths can fight, but they are leaders first and warriors second.

I found only one error in the book: The character sheet for Panther, one of the iconic Zeniths, has the wrong number of wound levels. This is a relatively minor error and certainly does not detract from the usefulness of the book.

Substance

Caste Book: Zenith is laid out in a nearly identical manner to the other Caste Books. As mentioned above, nearly the entire book is written in the first person. This means it serves as a very useful guide for what various Zeniths think about the world and how they act. Caste Book: Zenith is thus a very good storyteller supplement because it will help them keep the unique goals and motivations of the Zeniths apart from those of the other Solar Exalted. It is also useful for players of Zeniths who feel that they don't quite see the difference between the Zeniths and the Dawn Caste.

Our Souls Through Our Eyes

Caste Book: Zenith starts off introducing five iconic Zenith Exalted. These are: Panther, a former gladiator who now seeks to right that which is wrong; Ocean Pearl, a sailor who killed a minion of the Deathlord and now uses his ship as a privateer, harassing shipping from the realm; Armattan, a southerner who wishes to bring down the prefect of Paragon; Fire Orchid, a former general from a noble household; and Wind, a former member of the Immaculate Order now part of the Cult of the Illuminated. For each of them you learn their back story and how they became Exalted. I was a bit disappointed the Exaltations of some of these characters. Panther, for example, was simply sitting in his apartment when the Unconquered Sun came to him and told him to go forward into the world and promote righteousness. I imagined Exaltations should be more like that of Fire Orchid. She was trying to defend a village and when she could not stand up to the Fair Folk warriors, the Unconquered Sun came and Exalted her. While I understand that people do not necessarily have to be paragons of virtue to be Exalted, I thought that they needed to be actively doing something more than simply sitting in their apartment.

Obligations of the Caste

We next learn what being a Zenith means to these five Exalted. Here we learn how they go about their respective missions and what their own interpretations promoting righteousness means. We see examples of Wind trying to come to grips with his new status as an anathema after his indoctrination in the Immaculate Order. Panther believes that the best way to further his cause is by being an example to others, while Fire Orchid believes that she must teach and guide others so that they can deal with their own problems when the Exalted are not around.

The World Awaiting Us

The next chapter deals with how these Zeniths deal with creation. This section is mostly composed of short vignettes from the lives of the iconic Zeniths. We see different examples of how they have interacted with the Dragon Blooded and what lessons they've learned from that. I was the most disappointed in this section of the book, because it spends more time telling the stories of how the Exalted dealt with various aspects of creation than it does in describing their reactions to it. I would have preferred to learn more on how their individual takes on their mission to promote righteousness influenced their views on creation.

Voices Not Our Own

Here we find more first person writings on the Zenith, but this time not from their perspective, but rather from that of those that they've come into contact with. The passages from the perspective of mortals are not as enlightening -- mortals blend all types of Solar Exalted together since the Solars' power so greatly exceeds their own. Other Solar Exalted, however, tend to see Zeniths differently. I found it very interesting to learn how others charged by the Unconquered Sun view his priests and their quest to spread righteousness. Another interesting segment explains how a member of the Immaculate Order views the Zeniths as the most troubling of the Solar Exalted, for they are the ones who threaten to undermine the people's belief in the Immaculate Order.

Dreams of the First Age

In this final chapter written in the first person, we enter the dreams of a newly Exalted Zenith. In his dreams we see some of the wonders that existed in the first age and also the corruption that brought about the downfall of that age. This section gives both players and storytellers ideas of what the Solars were capable of building before their downfall and what sort of dreams an Exalted may get from their immortal essence.

I must admit that I was somewhat disappointed with the section. While parts are quite good, such as the recounting of an example where the leader of the Zeniths lied to the other Exalted about the wishes of the Unconquered Sun, other sections seem to only illustrate that the first age was a time of wonders without actually indicating what purpose those wonders served. While unexplained examples of first age magic and technology certainly serve to illustrate how far society has degenerated, I think that the section would be more used to players and GM's if a bit more explanation were given.

Magic of the Zenith

We finally come to the crunchy bits portion of the book. The first part of this chapter describes new charms, all of them from the Zeniths favored abilities. While I have not had a chance to playtest the charms, they do all seem balanced. There is the usual assortment of useful charms and also a number of quite interesting ones. One of the most interesting new charms, although not likely to be useful to a PC in play, is the Extended Life Prana. Although it has three prerequisite charms and requires an essence of 7, the Prana is still incredibly powerful, for it gives the Exalted the lifespan of a Sidereal. Another interesting set of charms is an entire tree developed around the concept of the drunk fighter.

The second half of the chapter is devoted to hearth stones and artifacts. The hearth stones range from one to four dots in power and there is even a five dot artifact. While all of the artifacts are interesting and certainly evocative of the setting, I question why two out of the five artifacts presented are weapons, not even ones that necessarily seem best suited for Zeniths.

Appendices

The book ends with a description of the signature characters who were the narrators for the first three chapters. All of them are written up as beginning characters, an idea that I heartily approved of; the book has presented the daring exploits of these characters and it serves to reinforce just how powerful Exalted are when you see that they are, in fact, beginning characters. The write-ups seem to fit the characters quite well with possibly two exceptions. First, everyone has Ox Body Technique. While it certainly is one of the Zenith's favored abilities, it does seem rather odd for every one of the signature characters to have it. Secondly, none of the characters have any combos. While they are certainly not required for beginning characters, they do make characters far more combat proficient, which all of the example characters are supposed to be.

After the write-ups come brief descriptions of other Zeniths. Here we see some very unconventional Zeniths, including a sorceress, a Zenith who has decided to stay and be the leader of his village rather than spread the word of the Unconquered Sun, and a Wyld touched man who tries to bring enlightenment to those in the wilderness.

Conclusion

Caste Book: Zenith is a very well put together supplement for Exalted and one that I very much enjoyed reading. Looking back on it, however, I'm hard pressed to come up with very many good reasons for why I enjoyed the book so much. The new charms and artifacts are good but not overwhelming. The book does a good job of providing some insight into the world of Exalted and some possible roles for Exalted in it. What it doesn't do, however, is provide much insight into what makes Zeniths different from other types of Solar Exalted. I would have liked a few more sidebars with some more information on the Caste itself rather than just some individual members of it.

I would recommend this book for anyone who's planning on running Exalted and also recommend anyone who is planning on playing a Zenith read through the book. I don't want the criticisms in this review to make people think that I didn't like the book. My biggest criticism of the book is that it could have been a great supplement for Exalted rather than merely a good one.

Caste Book: Zenith
Caste Book: Zenith Capsule Review by Matt Clay on 29/10/02 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Caste Book: Zenith offers an interesting look into the world of Exalted. While not excellent, this is a good, solid splat. Product: Caste Book: Zenith Author: Steve Kensen and David Wendt, Ph.D. Category: RPG Company/Publisher: White Wolf Game Studio Line: Exalted Cost: $14.95 Page count: 96 Year published: 2002 ISBN: 1-58846-660-4 SKU: WW8831 Comp copy?: yes Capsule Review by Matt Clay on 29/10/02 Genre tags: Fantasy Anime	Have you ever tried to convince a friend to see a movie that you really liked but found yourself at a loss for how to describe it? You liked the film, but can't think of anything exceptional to say about it, but you think your friend really should see it. This is how I feel about Caste Book: Zenith, a sourcebook for, guess what, the Zenith Caste in White Wolf's Exalted. It's a good, solid book that I would certainly recommend for any storyteller of Exalted and for most players of the Zenith Caste. Unfortunately, I can't quite convey just why I would recommend it to these people. Hopefully this review will give you some inclination why I think you should be interested in Caste Book: Zenith. Style and layout Caste Book: Zenith is a 96 page perfect bound sourcebook for Exalted. Overall, this is a very attractive book. In general I'm not of a fan of anime style art, but I found the art in Caste Book: Zenith to be very attractive and evocative of the text. My one complaint is the cover: I don't think it necessarily reflects what a Zenith is. While the iconic Zenith does have a tattoo of the Unconquered Sun on his chest, there's little else that indicates he is a priest and righteous warrior. This problem is mitigated by the convention of the cover drawings for the Caste Book series: an iconic character on the simple background of his Caste mark. The vast majority of the information in the book is presented in the first person. Thus all the information you get from these passages is, of course, subjective. To compensate for this, there are a couple text boxes scattered throughout the book that tell some objective truth that that the characters themselves may not be aware of. The book starts off with a 3 1/2 page piece of fiction. This describes the efforts of one of the iconic Zeniths to defend a village against an attack of supernatural rats. This story functions very well to highlight the differences between the Zenith and Dawn Castes. Rather than simply going out and confronting the leader of the rats, Fire Orchid, the Zenith, trains the village in how to defend itself from the rats and only engages the leader when she feels the village itself is ready. Certainly the Zeniths can fight, but they are leaders first and warriors second. I found only one error in the book: The character sheet for Panther, one of the iconic Zeniths, has the wrong number of wound levels. This is a relatively minor error and certainly does not detract from the usefulness of the book. Substance Caste Book: Zenith is laid out in a nearly identical manner to the other Caste Books. As mentioned above, nearly the entire book is written in the first person. This means it serves as a very useful guide for what various Zeniths think about the world and how they act. Caste Book: Zenith is thus a very good storyteller supplement because it will help them keep the unique goals and motivations of the Zeniths apart from those of the other Solar Exalted. It is also useful for players of Zeniths who feel that they don't quite see the difference between the Zeniths and the Dawn Caste. Our Souls Through Our Eyes Caste Book: Zenith starts off introducing five iconic Zenith Exalted. These are: Panther, a former gladiator who now seeks to right that which is wrong; Ocean Pearl, a sailor who killed a minion of the Deathlord and now uses his ship as a privateer, harassing shipping from the realm; Armattan, a southerner who wishes to bring down the prefect of Paragon; Fire Orchid, a former general from a noble household; and Wind, a former member of the Immaculate Order now part of the Cult of the Illuminated. For each of them you learn their back story and how they became Exalted. I was a bit disappointed the Exaltations of some of these characters. Panther, for example, was simply sitting in his apartment when the Unconquered Sun came to him and told him to go forward into the world and promote righteousness. I imagined Exaltations should be more like that of Fire Orchid. She was trying to defend a village and when she could not stand up to the Fair Folk warriors, the Unconquered Sun came and Exalted her. While I understand that people do not necessarily have to be paragons of virtue to be Exalted, I thought that they needed to be actively doing something more than simply sitting in their apartment. Obligations of the Caste We next learn what being a Zenith means to these five Exalted. Here we learn how they go about their respective missions and what their own interpretations promoting righteousness means. We see examples of Wind trying to come to grips with his new status as an anathema after his indoctrination in the Immaculate Order. Panther believes that the best way to further his cause is by being an example to others, while Fire Orchid believes that she must teach and guide others so that they can deal with their own problems when the Exalted are not around. The World Awaiting Us The next chapter deals with how these Zeniths deal with creation. This section is mostly composed of short vignettes from the lives of the iconic Zeniths. We see different examples of how they have interacted with the Dragon Blooded and what lessons they've learned from that. I was the most disappointed in this section of the book, because it spends more time telling the stories of how the Exalted dealt with various aspects of creation than it does in describing their reactions to it. I would have preferred to learn more on how their individual takes on their mission to promote righteousness influenced their views on creation. Voices Not Our Own Here we find more first person writings on the Zenith, but this time not from their perspective, but rather from that of those that they've come into contact with. The passages from the perspective of mortals are not as enlightening -- mortals blend all types of Solar Exalted together since the Solars' power so greatly exceeds their own. Other Solar Exalted, however, tend to see Zeniths differently. I found it very interesting to learn how others charged by the Unconquered Sun view his priests and their quest to spread righteousness. Another interesting segment explains how a member of the Immaculate Order views the Zeniths as the most troubling of the Solar Exalted, for they are the ones who threaten to undermine the people's belief in the Immaculate Order. Dreams of the First Age In this final chapter written in the first person, we enter the dreams of a newly Exalted Zenith. In his dreams we see some of the wonders that existed in the first age and also the corruption that brought about the downfall of that age. This section gives both players and storytellers ideas of what the Solars were capable of building before their downfall and what sort of dreams an Exalted may get from their immortal essence. I must admit that I was somewhat disappointed with the section. While parts are quite good, such as the recounting of an example where the leader of the Zeniths lied to the other Exalted about the wishes of the Unconquered Sun, other sections seem to only illustrate that the first age was a time of wonders without actually indicating what purpose those wonders served. While unexplained examples of first age magic and technology certainly serve to illustrate how far society has degenerated, I think that the section would be more used to players and GM's if a bit more explanation were given. Magic of the Zenith We finally come to the crunchy bits portion of the book. The first part of this chapter describes new charms, all of them from the Zeniths favored abilities. While I have not had a chance to playtest the charms, they do all seem balanced. There is the usual assortment of useful charms and also a number of quite interesting ones. One of the most interesting new charms, although not likely to be useful to a PC in play, is the Extended Life Prana. Although it has three prerequisite charms and requires an essence of 7, the Prana is still incredibly powerful, for it gives the Exalted the lifespan of a Sidereal. Another interesting set of charms is an entire tree developed around the concept of the drunk fighter. The second half of the chapter is devoted to hearth stones and artifacts. The hearth stones range from one to four dots in power and there is even a five dot artifact. While all of the artifacts are interesting and certainly evocative of the setting, I question why two out of the five artifacts presented are weapons, not even ones that necessarily seem best suited for Zeniths. Appendices The book ends with a description of the signature characters who were the narrators for the first three chapters. All of them are written up as beginning characters, an idea that I heartily approved of; the book has presented the daring exploits of these characters and it serves to reinforce just how powerful Exalted are when you see that they are, in fact, beginning characters. The write-ups seem to fit the characters quite well with possibly two exceptions. First, everyone has Ox Body Technique. While it certainly is one of the Zenith's favored abilities, it does seem rather odd for every one of the signature characters to have it. Secondly, none of the characters have any combos. While they are certainly not required for beginning characters, they do make characters far more combat proficient, which all of the example characters are supposed to be. After the write-ups come brief descriptions of other Zeniths. Here we see some very unconventional Zeniths, including a sorceress, a Zenith who has decided to stay and be the leader of his village rather than spread the word of the Unconquered Sun, and a Wyld touched man who tries to bring enlightenment to those in the wilderness. Conclusion Caste Book: Zenith is a very well put together supplement for Exalted and one that I very much enjoyed reading. Looking back on it, however, I'm hard pressed to come up with very many good reasons for why I enjoyed the book so much. The new charms and artifacts are good but not overwhelming. The book does a good job of providing some insight into the world of Exalted and some possible roles for Exalted in it. What it doesn't do, however, is provide much insight into what makes Zeniths different from other types of Solar Exalted. I would have liked a few more sidebars with some more information on the Caste itself rather than just some individual members of it. I would recommend this book for anyone who's planning on running Exalted and also recommend anyone who is planning on playing a Zenith read through the book. I don't want the criticisms in this review to make people think that I didn't like the book. My biggest criticism of the book is that it could have been a great supplement for Exalted rather than merely a good one.