The pen has three side. It keeps the main colours of the Exalted book - red for the middle, white for the promotional writing down the sides, and a yellow end and front bit (sorry, my knowledge of pen technical terms isn't all that great). It writes in black ink (although I had to scratch mine on a bit of scrap paper first to get the ink running at first). Turning each of the three sides over, I can read the printing on each of the pen's three sides as follows:
EXALTED SECOND EDITION
EPIC FANTASY RE-IMAGINED
www.white-wolf.com/exalted
I don't really like the colour scheme for the pen - it feels very LOUD and GARISH and reminiscent of a certain fast food chain, but that's Exalted for you. At the end of the pen, there's a clip so you can clip it to your pocket and a clicky bit to press where you can make the nib slide in and out of the pen. While the pen can be used to write stuff, I didn't find it terribly comfortable to hold for long periods of time due to the three-sided design - my preference is for round pens with nifty rubber bits around the grip making them more comfortable to hold. I'm assuming that the three-sided design is to proudly display the text down each side, which wouldn't be as clearly visible on a rounded pen:
EXALTED SECOND EDITION
EPIC FANTASY RE-IMAGINED
www.white-wolf.com/exalted
Despite my complaints about the grip, after some extensive scribbling, the pen performed admirably and kept a continuous flow of black ink going. All in all, it behaves in a suspiciously similar manner to most biros that I've used over the years.
While a hybroc quill and siaka ink or a orichalcum-tipped fountain pen would have been more thematic, the Exalted pen holds its own with other promotional writing implements.
I would recommend the Exalted pen to people who want to write things or to those who enjoy utilising garish merchandise in order to promote new editions of role-playing games.
I've given it 2 for Style (due to my lack of appreciation for its colour scheme and grip) but 4 for Substance, as it behaves and writes like a solid member of the pen species.
