Castebook: Night is a supplement for
Exalted. It’s the fourth in the series devoted to the five castes of the game’s default protagonists: the Solar Exalted, Chosen and favored by the Unconquered Sun.
Night’s contents follow the structure established by
Dawn and maintained by
Zenith and
Twilight: a four-page short story, introduction, a chapter describing how the caste’s broad description allows for a breadth of archetypes, a chapter describing what the caste’s duties, one describing how the Night caste sees Creation, one showing how others see the Night caste, one showing the memories of the First Age as seen by the Night caste and one premiering new magics—Charms and Artifacts—that Night characters would find particularly useful or interesting. The two appendices detail the five characters used to provide the subjective points of view used in most of the book and a brief description of other notable Night caste members throughout Creation.
Most of the book—as with the others that precede it—is fluff. The book’s method is to show the reader how Solars of the Night Caste go about fulfilling the mandate of their caste: to seek out hidden threats and destroy them for the good of Creation. The five characters that provide the majority of the book’s stories are the five sample characters detailed in the first appendix: Narmonious Jade the former assassin of a Yozi cult, Huyla the investigator-turned-vigilante, Elias Tremalion the Halansti League superspy (in the James Bond vein), Havesh “The Vanisher”- a small-minded hired killer and Jiunan Nightwarden- Hunter of the Dead. Others of the caste—those described in the other appendix—appear in some stories, and a few others fill out the rest. Together, this corpus of gamer fiction combines to show the reader what the Night caste is about while simultaneously giving the reader a window into what the state of Creation is at this pivotal point in the Second Age. If you’re not into fluff—however good or useful it may be—then you can safely skip this (and all of the other) castebook.
The crunchy bits are all in Chapter Six (the last chapter) where an array of new Charms and Artifacts await those who seek such things. All five of the Favored Abilities of the caste receive new Charms, and there is a new Martial Art style- complete with its own Charm tree: Ebon Shadow Style. (Want your Ninja goodiness? Here you go.) The new Melee Charms focus upon the use of two weapons; fans of Drizzt Do’Urden, Yagyu Jubei (Samurai Showdown), Miyamoto Musashi, Dumas’ Musketeers and other two-sticking powerhouses will definitely groove on this Charm tree. (They’ll also groove over the Hooked Daiklaives of Dual Prowess; for dedicated two-stickers, this Rank 4 Artifact is well worth the dots and the Essence.) Lore has a poison-making Charm tree, with a Medicine Charm tree to counter it. Athletics has a horde of Charms that deal in increasing the speed of travel or improving upon the effects of other Charms. Awareness has Charms that Spider-Man and Batman would kill to possess. Larceny and Stealth have more superspy Charms that most readers won’t see outside of a Bond film. With the array of new mundane weapons and items—most of which come from martial arts films, save for the crossbows—as well as the expected magical items, the book makes it so that Night caste PCs can be all that the caste exemplifies: spy, assassin, bounty hunter, bodyguard, or whatever icon of stealth and finesse comes to mind.
I am very glad to see a new Martial Arts Charm tree that gives the ninja fans what they want at long last. I’m also glad to see the new Melee Charms. Both of these fill holes that players want filled, and I expect that they’ll become popular choices for Solars of all castes soon enough. The new martial arts weapons will make fans of such movies and comics happy, as will the crossbows—heretofore used only by Alchemical Exalts—that make (in my mind) a noticeable change in the setting’s technological development. The new Hearthstones address concerns that spies and other actors behind the scenes have: memory, getting ambushed and being betrayed by scent or wind. The magic items range from utilitarian—Sling of Deadly Prowess, Circlet of Spirits (aids interaction w/ spirits), Gauntlets of Distant Claws—to the powerful: the Cloak of Vanishing Escape and the Hooked Daiklaives of Dual Prowess. There’s nothing here that doesn’t fit the theme of the caste, or wouldn’t be useful to other castes. Again, I expect a lot of the new content to become well-liked additions to the game.
There’s nothing broken here. There are reasons to take, and not to take, all of the new magic powers and items in this book that are equally compelling. My crew and I agree on that. The only bad to say is that there isn't enough crunchy stuff to use. (i.e. Charms with that need Essence 3 or less, etc.) Other than that, it’s fine. Sure, the new stuff allows for some nasty stuff to go down; so does the stuff in the preceding books, as well as in all of the other books in the Exalted line. Nothing here that is within likely reach is unstoppable, and that which isn't will be stoppable by the time that any PCs acquire enough Essence to gain access to it.
With regard to the signature characters, once again I must state that I appreciate seeing them as if they were starting PCs. As I said previously, it cements in the mind of the reader what the signature characters mentioned over the course of the book’s fluff content are capable of doing (and being) from the get-go. It shows the reader how it can be done and that goes a long way with minimal expenditure of time (for the reader) and resources (for the writer). I must also point out here that the opening fiction for Night is the best I've seen yet in the series, and one of the best I've seen in all of products to date. Well done!
The surprising this for me was to see how broad the characters are: one is a spy that makes Bond look weak, one is a confused ex-Yozi cultist, one is a female Batman sort of vigilante, one has it in for the Deathlords and uses a Soulsteel Grimcleaver upon the servants of the dead and one is a venal, cowardly hired killer with shallow ambitions. The other characters of note are just as diverse: an exiled hawkrider, an Exalted beastman (Yes, there are stats for this creature’s racial type; no, there are no stats for him.) turned crime lord that’s the enemy of the above-mentioned vigilante, yet another Western pirate captain (a rogue Tya with obsequious breasts), a master thief masquerading as a circus acrobat and a confused Dynast that once was one of the Realm’s better mortal spies. More than the other castes to date, the diversity of the sample Night characters really shows the reader that the Night caste isn’t so easy to pigeonhole into a rigid class. I dig that, and now I'm thinking of what Night caste character I'd like to play should I get to play in an Exalted game again. That's a good thing to invoke.
In conclusion, this book is recommended to all but required by none. You can get by without Castlebook: Night just as much as you can get by just fine without any of the rest. That said, you do yourself a disservice by not snatching this one (and the rest) up as soon as you can afford it. By now I sound like a broken record but it's still true: this is one of the best splatbooks yet published. I’m glad to have a copy.
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