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In Short

Unlike many other supplements of this nature that give endless lists of swords and armors, WotLA provides stories along with the equipment. These are typically a half page in length and make the object far more interesting than the effects alone would make it. The flavorful allies, familiars, followers, and other Background focused creatures make it easy for players to incorporate setting flavor into their characters while also providing concrete examples of Backgrounds for the Exalted GM.

The only downside to this product is that in being so broad there is little depth. Individual items, such as just weapons and armor, have to give up space to some of the exotic inhabitants of Creation. Those wanting a more traditional equipment book may be disappointed, but as a general support book for Exalted 2nd this is a great addition.

The Physical Thing

However, there is good news. The art is of good quality and clearly depicts the equipment and creatures found in the book. Full page black and white spreads depict interesting scenarios often using the equipment found in WotLA. This excellent use of art makes the book much more fun. For a highly visual game like Exalted, where stunts and player description are an important part of the game, having illustrations for equipment is very helpful.

The Ideas

The presentation of Exalted 2nd edition is such that the game can be run as a high fantasy game with little to no magitech. This was done to keep fans happy, as many folk did not like the inclusion of magitech in the core material. Wonders of the Lost Age is meant to add all that magitech back in for folk that like that sort of thing. Magitech here ranges from genetically engineered beings, to cyberware, to blaster weapons, to giant mecha.

Under the Cover

In addition to presenting a brief overview of the rest of the book, the introduction presents all the rules for repairing first age devices. Most of the devices found in this book are ancient, and the technologies for creating and repairing them were largely lost long ago. Thus, being able to fix a broken item is an incredibly powerful ability. All a character needs is sufficient skill and sufficient tools, with escalating requirements based upon the complexity of the object.

Chapter 1 A History of Wonders 19 pages.

This chapter discusses how the fall of the first age affected technology. A historical overview is provided discussing what happened to the various technologies as the years continued with no one maintaining them. The Dragonblooded Shogunate is discussed here, and in a few other places in the book, as adapting various technologies since the Solars were no longer around to power the greatest devices. Examples are given of wondrous first age machines that either lie dormant now or have been patched together to new purposes.

Chapter 2 The Purview of the Golden Barque 26 pages.

Devoted entirely to vehicles, the art in this chapter will make you want to find a way to incorporate naval battles into your Exalted game. While the vehicles presented are mostly water craft, various sky craft are presented as well. Vehicle rules as well as rules for the composition of the vehicles (moonsilver, soul steel, etc) are provided. While this isn’t an endless list, there’s probably enough here for most campaigns to use a variety of vehicles and not run out. Several personal travel sized artifacts, such as wing devices, are presented as well.

Chapter 3 The Purview of the Cerulean Lute 18 pages.

This chapter focuses on unusual devices that don’t fit any specific classification. Many of these devices have a utility focus, such as first age tools and slavery equipment. Climbing towers, translation devices, building equipment, and battery chargers are just a few examples of the equipment found here. Simple rules are provided for prosthetics as well, and unlike many games Exalted 2nd makes prosthetics easy to understand.

While many of the devices may seem mundane to you, gentle reader, they aren’t. Each has about three large paragraphs of write up. This gives every artifact a unique feel and provides Storytellers with ideas for interesting hooks involving these items. Since every artifact is illustrated as well its easy to get a feel for these devices.

Chapter 4 The Purview of the Crimson Panoply 20 pages.

Weapons and armors of all types are presented here. Six-shooters, daiklave switchblades, special power armor for every type of Exalted, and mines are just a few examples of the stuff found in here. All of it has a technomagical feel and, without a doubt, many players will pore over these items trying to determine which object of stylish destruction is best for their character. It’s a solid collection of items, and I especially like that the book presents things that would be useful for a variety of Exalted instead of just Solars. Armors clearly meant to be worn by Dragonblooded, for example, are included here.

Chapter 5 The Purview of the Forbidding Manse 35 pages.

Crafted beings! Robots, genetically engineered dinosaurs that urinate heroin, and companion monkeys are all presenting this chapter along with a discussion of created beings. This includes how they were created, what happened to them afterwards, and what sorts of design flaws they may have. Each critter gets a lengthy write up, and most of them are illustrated as well. The quality of creations is debatable. While the dinosaur that is a living drug machine is interesting from a certain perspective, it’s also silly and has the potential to derail an otherwise serious game.

What’s especially nice about this chapter is that these creations are purchased with the Allies, Followers, and Familiar background instead of Artifacts or Resources. This gives players who want to have exotic companions a lot more choices than they would otherwise have. While many of these beings have a magitech feel, some would be entirely appropriate in an Exalted game that downplayed technology.

Chapter 6 The Purview of the Violet Bier 8 pages.

This chapter is all about heavy weapons. Giant energy ballista, energy bazooka, and a weapon of mass destruction are just a few examples of these hard hitting first age devices. These weapons are neat, entire adventures could be focused around a lot of the objects, and they’re fun to read about. The only real downside here is that weapon emplacements are probably not going to be encountered with any real frequency, making stats for them of questionable use to most Storytellers.

Appendix Warstriders 24 pages.

Warstriders are the mecha of the Exalted setting, powered both by the martial skill of the pilot and the first age technology that created them. The Appendix presents a variety of Warstriders, including intelligent Warstriders and Warstriders created by the Abyssals. A large number of weapons and devices are listed to allow for additional Warstrider customization. While there are no rules for actually building Warstriders (such as space, equipment slots, etc) that is appropriate to the game since new Warstriders would be extremely difficult or impossible to create.

My Take

The big downside here is the weird text boxes the designers put a lot of the equipment in. It resulted in large margins with small text, which hurts the readability of the product. The book could have been designed differently, though not all chapters use these boxes.

If you want to expand on the Background options available in your Exalted game while embracing technomagic then pick this one up.

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