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In Short

The Good: The book does an excellent job of communicating what life is like for many Sidereal Exalted, and the description of the heavenly bureaucracy is easy to understand. There is a lot of opportunity for player creativity while playing the Sidereal Exalted, thanks in part to their Astrology and fate manipulation Charms, and this is likely to appeal to many players.

The Bad: There are some issues with the Charms and mechanical implementation of the rules, which comprises a substantial amount of the text. The chapter beginning comics wildly vary in quality.

The Physical Thing

Under the Cover

Chapter One The Five-Score Fellowship - 27 pages.

The Sidereal Exalted were born from the 100 greatest events in Creation, plucked from fate and spun out into exaltations to create servants of destiny that could assist the Five Maidens in making sure the universe continued to operate as it was supposed to after the defeat of the Primordials. In the war they served an intelligence role, and up until the Usurpation they continued this role. Informants, advisors, and problem solves when it came to tangles in reality, the Sidereals occupied a unique role in Creation.

This chapter provides an excellent history of the Sidereal Exalted. It walks the reader through their history beginning with the creation of all Exalted and ending with the present day. The primary schism among Sidereal Exalted, the Bronze and Gold factions, is explored and the reader is left with a very clear understanding of why the groups behave as they do. The initiation process, major NPCs, and similar information is all included.

In summary, the Sidereals today occupy a role as the hidden rulers of the universe. The only powers they negotiate with are the Scarlet Empress and Deathlords, so great is their influence. They can travel the world with ease, live in Heaven, and make use of some very potent Charms. The major limiting factor is the bureaucratic nature of the Celestial Bureaucracy within which they work. Combined with the feuding nature of the factions you end up with a setting where the characters wield great cosmic power… when they have authorization to make use of it.

The primary difference in philosophy among the Bronze and Gold factions revolves around how the Solar Exalted should be dealt with. It was the Sidereals who discovered that Solar Exalted were growing mad, and through a powerful dream all Sidereals saw that it was possible the madness would destroy creation. The Bronze faction wanted to destroy the Solars to guarantee the destruction could not occur while the Gold wanted to advise and aid them in dealing with the madness. Ultimately the Bronze faction won out and that’s how we have the Creation of today.

Far more detail is included than I’m providing here, but my goal is to inform you while also critiquing this work. I think the history is well written and comprehensive. It gets in, gets the job done, and gets out which is exactly what I expect from a good writer.

Chapter Two The Bureau of Destiny - 46 pages.

While Chapter One focuses on the history of the Sidereal Exalted and what the present day is like, Chapter Two is all about how Sidereals go about their day to day and the organizations they interact with. Heaven is a complex place, and the Sidereal Exalted have more than just the Bronze and Gold factions to contend with. A variety of different conventions focus their activities on specific topics, such as the spread of Shadowlands, and the Bureau of Destiny itself has many different aspects and competing goals.

In addition to showcasing how everything fits together this section does a good job of combining setting with simple game mechanics. Take, for example, the idea of the audit. Sidereals who commit crimes or draw the ire of their betters can expect a time consuming inquisition. Based on the severity of the offense a full trial might be played out. The list of crimes does an excellent job of demonstrating the limits placed on Sidereal Exalted by the bureau. Simple mechanics support characters leading or defending an audit, and with this addition the danger of making enemies in Heaven seems more daunting.

The best part of the chapter is that it paints a picture of a world of wonder… and bureaucracy. The organizations, rules, and red tape start to come together here to provide the reader with a sense of how complex Heaven can be. There’s a lot to do for any Sidereal Exalted, and just gaining permission for something a character desires could consume an entire adventure. The Conventions are interesting and joining one or more of them could easily propel a campaign in a new direction.

The only major downside is that Heaven remains an amorphous blob in my imagination. I’d like to have more description, but then it may be best to leave it as a wonder unique to each gaming group.

Chapter Three Character Creation - 8 pages.

Characters are initially constructed by determining Allegiance and Caste. Allegiance includes the Gold and Bronze factions, Independents, and Ronin (rogue Sidereals). There is no direct mechanical benefit for any choice here though Ronin do suffer from having fewer points to spend (but get to skip certain prerequisites). It’s nice to have more options than just the Gold and Bronze to join at the start, though they do remain the largest and most influential factions.

The five Sidereal Castes include Journey, Serenity, Battle, Secret, and Endings. As with other Exalted games, each Caste has five Favored Abilities and a unique Anima power. I really like how they’re balanced out, and I’m impressed that they each end up with a different feel from Solar Exalted even in their Favored Ability selections. Anima powers tend to be ally-only area of effect buffs such as increasing movement speed substantially or reducing all damage taken in a battle.

Character creation otherwise progresses much the same as it does for Solar Exalted, with the main exception that Sidereal Exalted have a whopping 15 Background points to spend (with the standard 3 point cap). How have Backgrounds and other mechanics changed? Let’s take a look at that next.

Chapter Four Traits - 24 pages.

Backgrounds are a little different for Sidereals, which isn’t surprising considering how well funded they are. Some Backgrounds remain unchanged, such as Artifact. Some are slightly modified. Because of their natures as beings of many faces few people in Creation can remember them so Allies and similar Backgrounds are heavily restricted.

New Backgrounds include Acquaintances, Celestial Manse, Connections, Salary, Savant, and Sifu. For the most part these are just variations of already existing Backgrounds. Salary, for example, is the compensation earned from heaven and is far more extravagant than Resources. Sifu is effectively a super-mentor who knows many Sidereal martial arts styles. The main exception is Savant, which reflects knowledge of First Age lore and technology. It gives a 1 for 1 dice pool bonus on rolls dealing with the First Age.

The rest of the chapter is dedicated to exploring the five Chosen and it does a good job. The roles are very intuitive to say the least. Chosen of Journeys travel, Chosen of Secrets hide knowledge, etc. Unique markings, associations, Anima powers, and more information is all presented to provide the reader with a solid overview of the Caste and what it means to belong to it.

While I enjoy the write ups for the Castes I also enjoyed the Background changes quite a bit. While it’s a strange thing to praise, the thematic alterations really help to set a certain mood for a Sidereals game. There’s no new ground being broken in terms of game mechanics, merely a repackaging of existing material, but sometimes the package can have a notable impact on play and how players approach their characters.

Chapter Five Charms - 65 pages.

Charms! You may have heard that many Exalted products are not as mechanically sound as we could all hope for. I think that’s correct. While I’ve played a good bit of Exalted 1st and 2nd editions I’m not the sort of person who can really critique Charms well. Many other Exalted fans in the RPGnet community can do an excellent job, however, so if you want a strong analysis of the 2nd Edition Sidereal Charms then I recommend looking up a few of those threads or popping over to Tabletop Roleplay Open and asking the kind people there.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s take a look at Sidereal Charms! These Charms have new Keywords including Fate, Maiden, and Prayer Strip. Fate Charms have little ability to influence or harm creatures outside of Fate, such as the Fair Folk. Maiden Charms require permission before they may be used. Prayer Strip Charms are the pinnacle Charms of a given tree and involve the Sidereal using an actual prayer strip which may be destroyed.

Sidereal Excellencies involve altering the difficulty of an action downward in order to effectively increase the character’s successes. Sidereal Charms in general tend to involve altering or moving things through Fate in some way. Take Becoming the Wilderness, a Survival Charm, for example. The Sidereal tangles her own Fate with that of the local environment to gain a strong influence over the natural environment. This allows her to command animals to a limited degree, escape harm, and better negotiate with local gods.

Many fans have harshly criticized the 2nd Edition Sidereal Charms for a variety of reasons, from lacking keywords to power level to appropriate scope. I think there’s plenty of room for criticism here, but I also think that the more casual fan of Exalted isn’t going to have any problems building and playing Sidereal Exalted and having a great time with it. The Charms are inventive, appropriate to the role of Sidereal Exalted within Creation, and fun to mess with.

Chapter Six Sidereal Astrology - 27 pages.

Astrology is raw fate manipulation. The Sidereal asks the pattern spiders to warp fate to gain a desired effect. It has two principal applications which involve aiding/harming the destinies of others and weaving disguises for Sidereals to use. Both have a chance of invoking Paradox if misused and Paradox can cause serious harm. If Paradox ever reaches 10 (and there are tricks to keep it under control) then a pattern spider bites the Sidereal and causes an extremely unpleasant injury.

The first application, Ascending and Descending Destinies, offers characters the ability to provide a small positive or negative bonus to a person, place, or geopolitical entity. The Sidereal arranges for a blessing or curse to attach itself to the subject, with a Paradox cost based on several different factors. The mechanics are slight and really here more for flavor, though cursing an enemy or blessing an ally could be very worthwhile over the course of a lengthy campaign.

The second application, Resplendencies, allows the Sidereal to don an amazing disguise by taking on a new archetype persona. A character might become The Captain, for example, stepping onto a ship and immediately assuming control. All aboard know the character to be the captain of the vessel and react appropriately. For a mission to make sure a certain ship reaches a certain destination this would be an excellent disguise to wear.

The Resplendencies are a little more complex and a little more useful than the Destinies in terms of the strength of benefits they grant. While Destinies small bonus may help the characters considerably over time, or provide fun window dressing, the disguises offered here are potent tools for immediately accomplishing the character’s goals when interacting with Creation. The Resplendencies also offer several mechanical bonuses to aid a Sidereal in her mission. The only downside is that a reckless Sidereal could quickly accumulate immense amounts of Paradox while wearing one of these disguises. Using Sidereal abilities, interacting with past acquaintances, and acting out of character can quickly cause tangles in the loom of fate.

Chapter Seven Storytelling - 16 pages.

What I need from this chapter is a discussion of what to do with a Sidereals game, and it delivers exactly that. A variety of excellent ideas are presented to help the reader come up with campaign proposals, and the chapter generally does a good job of showing the reader what a Sidereals campaign looks like. This is important since the Sidereals are a system-level power in the universe, and any time a game has so much potential it can be difficult to find a focus.

My Take

If you’re looking to the book for the setting, history, and background information on the Sidereal Exalted then pick it up. The explanations are very clear, well written, and enjoyable to read. I’ll be coming back to the book for Exalted game ideas even if I never run an exclusively Sidereals game, and I think that makes it a good product.

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