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The product contains a map, in-character pamphlet, two 160-page books detailing the setting and characters, and a cardboard "battle wheel" for use in Exalted combat.
Dreams of the First Age: The Box
The box feels quite sturdy, especially compared to some of the box sets of antiquity. I can pull off my shelf my carefully preserved copies War Law or The Frozen North and definitely tell a difference between the two. The art for the front of the box is the same as the cover for one of the interior books, which is disappointing, but art is the third thing I buy RPG books for.
Apparently, the map and battle wheel were added very late in production or there was a printing error. In any case, the list of contents on the back of the box includes a sticker underneath all the rest denoting the presence of map and battle wheel. Ghetto fabulous.
Battle Wheel & Counters
Though it's at the bottom of the box (at least the bottom of mine), I'll get this item out of the way: It sucks. It's not especially sturdy cardboard, and it's a punch-out sheet rather than individual pieces that should have come laminated. Every single battle wheel available from the fans is of superior quality, particularly since this cardboard one dooms itself by trying to be star-shaped. Without heavy backing and/or lamination by the customer, the wheel is destined for floppy, bent or broken tines; this shape also contributes to it's uselessness because it takes up a lot of room looking pretty that could have been used to include mechanical information like some battle wheels out there.
The small counters are all pictures of characters from the books, and there are plenty of them. These are all made of the same thin cardboard as the battle wheel, but their size and square shape mean they should hold up to wear and tear much better.
The Map
As some have mentioned, the map of First Age Creation isn't of the greatest quality. The resolution of the image, size of text and symbols and texture of the material all conspire to make it somewhat difficult to read. The entire thing is the same scale as that in the corebook, expanded to include land and sea that has been subsumed completely by the Wyld. Because it is an expansion of the map we already know, with some modifications, it can "feel" like it's not much bigger; but this failing can only be attributed to perception, as the expansion of the map makes Creation absolutely enormous. The Elemental Dragons that border the map seem overly large, drawing too much attention to themselves.
Despite the above downsides—the clarity of the image in particular—the map is excellent. Some have complained of the texture of the material on it's own, but I did not find it to be off-putting. I was expecting actual "cloth" for the cloth map, however, and not the nylon material it is made of, but I am indifferent to whatever it's made out of except insofar as it hinders the use of the map as a map.
Meru: A Guidebook to the Exalted City
This is probably my favorite part of the set, if only for the inclusion of "Rain, as you know, is for farmers." Long live farmer-rain! This book is bound in some almost-faux-leather material, and is stamped on the front and back with golden symbols (the front with Old Realm glyphs; the back with the standard Solar sunburst); sadly, the golden symbols are similar to those on previous "totally in character pamphlets" that White Wolf has done before, and the sunburst on the back of mine was already wearing off in places before I even opened the box (unless it did so the instant I opened the box, to be fair).
This orientation/welcoming/tourist's pamphlet is otherwise superb. It is written by an Eclipse Solar as a primer for a newly Exalted fellow Solar, including both overviews of all the important aspects of life as a Solar, in Meru and elsewhere, and certain helpful hints ("Remember that your vote in the Deliberative is a commodity to be traded by your elders."). The text advises the fresh Solar on the parade that will be held in his honor, what to do if he desires other than "perfect" weather, and how to handle his pre-Exalted estate and family (if he has one).
The arrogance of ancient, casually transcendent übermenschen drips from nearly every paragraph. It is even, in places, condescending or even hostile to the newly Exalted Solar. Some passages carry the tone of someone instructing a simpleton who should know these things already, and the book is rife with thinly-veiled scorn for the ways and lives of the Solar's "lessers."
There is a simplistic map of the districts of Meru in the middle of the book, at the front of the section highlighting certain locations of the city. Another map, being a three-page fold-out at the back, is much prettier and has on it's back a numbered key for important locations. It also gives a very good impression as to just what Meru looks like, which is not explained to the greatest extent elsewhere in the pamphlet: there is an enormous, layered disc at the top of the city, stretching out far beyond the peak's own bounds and casting in shadow the parts of the city below it. The city itself is implausibly, gleefully over-the-top gigantic, covering the slopes of the 600-mile-tall Omphalos.
This is, as a whole, the best thing in the box. Of course, those more interested in toys, Charms or more worldly information on the First Age would probably disagree. However this pamphlet, along with the book Lands of Creation and the sample characters in the back of Lords of Creation, paint a portrait of god-kings not mad with power and ravishing or eating young babies, but rather god-kings wallowing in the hubris their power brings. The Solars of the First Age committed some heinous acts, but few of them did so without a reason that is at least sound on the surface.
Absolutely wonderful.
Things to look out for:
• The Conservancy of Unexpected Life Forms.
• Dates with anyone who's visited the Heavenly Unity Service.
• Yeddim rodeos.
Book One: Lands of Creation
This book gives a grand overview of First Age Creation as a whole, including it's relationships with other realms of existence. It is my second-favorite book in the box because it helps drive home the idea that the Solars weren't so much evil or insane (in the hand-rubbing, cackling, Deathlord sense), but that the atrocities and wickedness they perpetrated on Creation were rooted firmly in the fact that they were both too powerful, treated too well, and subtly cursed. One part of the book, at the very beginning, addresses just what playing in the First Age is about and what playing ancient god-kings is meant to be like. It deals with the issues of unstoppable power and unfathomable wealth that accompanies even the lowliest Celestial Exalt in the First Age.
The first chapter, "Life in the First Age", begins with an overview of the history of the First Age. This includes a March of Years-type sidebar with important events for each era, as well as a few paragraphs on each as well. It goes on to discuss what the life of mortals in general is like, since even the poorest has easy and ready access to an infrastructure that meets every basic need of human life and then some. The melancholy and sense of entitlement that comes with such technologically advanced societies is present even in the First Age, and for most un-Exalted it wouldn't be too different than living in a modern city like Los Angeles, except with far less crime and grime. The architecture of the First Age favors beautiful, sprawling landscapes and cityscapes, particularly in areas frequented by the Solar Exalted.
The chapter goes on to explain some of the basic principles that sustain such a paradise. I AM is the super-computer intelligence that manages all manner of tasks, including banking, in-home companionship, broadcast news and caring for at least some minor needs of children (new Desus lunchbox!). The greater, Creation-wide society is expounded on, including club-like Societies that manage economies, research technologies, produce art or conspire. After this the Deliberative is discussed, outlining the major factions of Solars and explaining the minor roll that other beings can play in the Solar's enormous debate/administrative temple at the peak of Mount Meru. Finally, some of the laws of Creation are discussed and it is stressed that the Solar Exalted treat these as suggestions rather than rules.
Chapters two through six describe the six cardinal directions of Creation in the First Age, giving both overviews of the directional culture and lifestyle, as well as more in-depth descriptions of the most important or interesting locales in that direction. "Chapter Two: The Blessed Isle" provides some insight into the Sword of Creation (later called the Realm Defense Grid), while "Chapter Two: The East" includes information on the River Province (formally "the Beloved of Danaa'd and Sextes Jylis Province") that in the Time of Tumult is known as the Scavenger Lands.
All of these chapters contain some mechanical goodies in one way or another, but "Chapter Five: The West" stands out because it includes some rather important information that is interesting and wonderful, but really belong in Lords of Creation. Mobile Platform 3, or Luthe, is discussed here and given statistics; while Luthe is certainly peculiar compared to the other Platforms, it would have been better I think to include a more general description and statistics block for the Platforms in the artifacts section of the other book. Later in the chapter the Titan-class aerial citadels are given the same treatment, and the description is not as unique as Luthe's, which provides even less warrant for it to be in the West chapter. Also present is Terrestrial Charm Tiger-Dragon Drill Approach and the Solar Circle spell Fountain of Fathomless Dreams, both of which feel a little out-of-place. In any case, it's good to have them somewhere, as they likely wouldn't be published at all if not here, considering the size of both books.
The Appendix is a syllabus of the Old Realm ideogram alphabet. Like the High and Low Realm scripts from First Edition's Players Guide, these glyphs correspond to English letter combinations that can be strung together to form vaguely English words (Da're'ma'se = Dreams) which are used throughout the books much like the Second Age scripts in other books.
To summarize, this book gives an excellent perspective on the First Age. Despite some people's distaste for magitech in general, which is ever-present in the First Age, such technology is only subtly omnipresent. Even the most ostentatious flying vehicles or floating fortresses could simply be considered regular artifacts by ignoring things such as "motonic buildup", Repair ratings and certain whole items such as the flying fortresses of death that unfold into even bigger fortresses to shoot miles-wide lasers at the ground. None of these aspects of First Age technology is vital to the setting as presented, leaving the book a great buy even if you think everything should be ziggurats and wheelbarrows.
Things to look out for:
• First, look at the comic at the beginning of Chapter Two on page 48. Then, look at the comic at the beginning of the Introduction on page 4 of Compass: Scavenger Lands.
• Page 15: Facet Raven probably didn't expect it, either.
• The Copper Web and the Cauldronists. There is always someone crazier than you.
Book Two: Lords of Creation
After the "Introduction" this book begins with a chapter on "First Age Character Creation." It addresses the differences between standard character creation from the Manuals, as well as providing templates to create elder Exalts. It even includes guidelines for creating mortals in the First Age, mostly noting that they have severely limited access to some Backgrounds.
The first big mistake in this book is here in character creation. While the first two templates for each Celestial are fairly reasonable, the third is a template for creating a survivor of the Primordial War. This template includes so many dots that it is nearly impossible to be unskilled at anything without dumping as many of your dots as you can into various Crafts. Even going to the trouble of having six Crafts at 7, you can at worst have three Abilities below 4. This problem persists for Attributes as well as Abilities, with whatever primary category you choose being completely maxed out; this is particularly problematic for Lunars, who have the same Attribute spread as other Celestials and still get extra dots for caste and favored Attributes. Elder Exalts can only fail at being bad at anything, it seems.
That is the only real failing of the first chapter, however, and is easily fixed or ignored. Backgrounds are revised to reflect the decadent nature of the First Age, adding a "sixth rank" to some in the form of Legendary Backgrounds. Anyone who is familiar with Adventure! will recognize Background Enhancement, which provide largely narrative, bottomless well-type levels to their respective Backgrounds. With Legendary Wealth, for instance, you can buy anything, including the greatest warships of the Deliberative.
"Chapter Two: The God-Kings' Prowess" is where one can find new Charms for the Solars, Lunars and Dragon-Blooded. The first and most voluminous collection is also the least well-done, and it belongs to the Solars. They have at least two new Charms for every Ability, though most have three. Most include one Essence 4, one Essence 5 and an Essence 7 Charm. In addition, two new Excellencies have been included which allow a character to automatically succeed at an action: Ultimate Mastery of (Specialty) is relatively cheap but very narrow in it's use, while Supreme Perfection of (Ability) is pretty expensive but can be applied to any action using the Ability in question. The utility of these two Excellencies is very spotty, because they provide a threshold of 0 successes, making them almost useless for Abilities such as Craft or Melee where the threshold of success is extremely important. This wouldn't be too much of a problem, except that every single Essence 7 Charm requires Supreme Perfection of it's Ability, no matter how speed-bumpish this is. Further bottlenecking access to these Charms is that you can only buy a very limited number of Supreme Perfection of (Ability) Charms based on your permanent Essence.
Another persistent problem with the Solar set is the prevalence of Charms that require (Ability) Essence Flow, including those that don't really have much to do with what Essence Flow seems to be all about. Further exacerbating this is that other prerequisites seem excessively light or simply of tenuous connection. A powerful Performance Charm requires Heart-Compelling Method, yet it produces an Intimacy much more like Husband-Seducing Demon Dance. The text of these Charms is also very terse, rarely more than a short paragraph; they crammed as many as they could into the space they had, and it shows. All of the Charms are interesting, and most of them would be more so with a little more text, but some feel too much like sorcery spells with their effects and costs. This may be intentional, blurring the line between the ultimate external power of sorcery and Solar awesomeness, but the complexity and cost of these Charms seem to go against the grain of every other Charm Solars possess. We also see the return of effects that say they bypass perfect defenses.
All that said, the majority of the Solar Charms are "good" and some are "great." Only a few things here are "bad," but one of those things (Supreme Perfection and Essence 7 Charms) stands out sorely.
Where this chapter shines is in the Lunar and Terrestrial Charms. The Lunars gain interesting new capabilities with their new Knacks, such as the popular "sacred sexual hunt" and a Charm that allows them to act as if they were in the Wyld for the purposes of their Wyld charms. The Terrestrials shine brightest here, as they gain three new keywords and, though they only get one new Charm for each Ability, their Charms are innovative and extremely interesting. They come together to reinforce the closeness and dynastic attitudes of the Dragon-Bloods, and also showcase powers that help explain how the Empress had been doing what she was doing. The only really odd point that jumps out is the Lunar Charm Flowing Body Ascension, which contrasts far too favorably against the Solar Charm Refinement of Flowing Shadows. Both are action-long perfect dodges, and while the Lunar Charm has higher prerequisites it costs half as much to use and instead of being a separate dodge Charm, it enhances the capabilities of it's prerequisite Flowing Body Evasion.
"Chapter Three: Wonders of the Age" is jam-packed with toys. Most of it is taken up by artifacts, from a general description of the apparently common level-1 utensils; widespread small tools that are artifacts. Some of the suggestions for specific effects hark back to specific items found in Oadenol's Codex. The sections of this part of the chapter are: Transportation, Quality of Life, Artificial Entities, Shaping Technology and Warfare. These sections deal not just with specific artifacts, but also briefly summarize the First Age outlook and use of their type, such as Artificial Entities treatment on the prevalence of engineered beings. The most-talked-about pair of artifacts is probably the Great Hand of the Maker and the Protoshinmaic Vortex, which combine to vastly enhance a Solar's Wyld manipulations. The one I'm personally most excited by is the Metasorcerous Phylactery, which allows one to temporarily drain the power of a hearthstone to lessen the cost or increase the effects of spells.
The last part of chapter three is another toy list, this one containing a large array of Manse powers. These are all very interesting, useful and many of them can be used to answer a reader's questions about how some things work. One answer in particular that can be gleaned from this section is how one makes a manse that flies around freely (it's harder than you might think). Some of the powers expand on those previously published in Oadenol's Codex, including better rules for just what an Aetlier Manse or Factory Cathedral can be used to do.
The fourth chapter deals with "mortals," which actually includes Enlightened beings as well. A wide variety of such creatures are found here, including mundane humanity, Genesis-engineered races, criminals, evil humanoids that worship dark gods, and "slave races" who were engineered for unpalatable tasks and whose existence is somewhat secret. Each type of being gets a short description of it's place in the Era of Dreams, and a statistics block or three.
"Chapter Five: The Mighty" provides eighteen elder Exalted statistic blocks with backstories, including all five of the First Age incarnations of the signature Solar circle depicted in the corebook. All of the character descriptions are interesting, except for Chejop Kejak's which is rather flat. These all suffer from the overabundance of dots that First Age character generation hands out. The repugnant failure of this chapter, however, lies in the lists of Charms for each character. While they do not make these character write-ups unusable, the Charm lists themselves are largely worthless; they alphabetically list every Charm the character has and are otherwise unorganized. These take up an enormous amount of space, space that certainly would've gone to much better use in the actual Charms chapter. There are a number of much better alternatives to listing Charms, none of which were used.
Apart from the battle wheel, this is the worst product in the box. It's not terrible, but some of the most important stuff to be found in this book is poorly written or badly presented.
Things to look out for:
• Torrent of Inner Light. Be sure to give your character Intelligence 1 and spiky hair.
• Solar-Lunar Synergy: Donning the Rainbow Mantle plus Wyld-Shaping Technique.
• Honored Ancestor Exhalation: Holy shit!
• Desus' right hand.
The Product As A Whole
The single greatest failing of Dreams of the First Age is also one of the most important parts of the set. However, this is not a monumental, or even very great, failing and the product remains a great asset. It provides a glorious setting of arrogant god-kings to romp about in, and despite the overwhelming power of the main protagonists/antagonists (depending on who you play), it gives you plenty of room in which to maneuver without it being absolutely dominated by ancient NPCs with unstoppable magic. Combat-based games are probably the least well-supported parts of the setting presented in Dreams, and I consider this a refreshing change of pace. It's not that character-driven stories need a whole lot of help, but this box set gives us a world to play in where, as a setting element, combat has become largely meaningless because the characters are just too good at it, and it does it so well that there's endless amounts of interesting things to do.
