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Exalted: The Lunars divides its content in a manner now familiar to its fans: four pages of fiction that serve to establish the theme and mood of the book; Chapter One covers the setting against which most Lunar campaigns operate, the wilderness beyond civilization (including the Wyld); Chapter Two covers Lunar cosmology and society; Chapter Three covers Lunar character generation; Chapter Four covers Lunar-specific character traits; Chapter Five covers their Charms; Chapter Six covers the Wyld in considerable useful detail; Chapter Seven is about campaigns centered upon Lunar Exalted characters, with some information on how to use Lunar characters in campaigns that focus upon other types of Exalted. In all chapters, information that is useful to both players and Game Masters abounds and the opening fiction accomplishes its objectives of setting the tone and mood quite well.
Chapter One stood out for me because the information about the barbarian people of the Age of Sorrows is both deep and broad, yet not so much in either direction that it ceases to be useful to either players or Storytellers. The social content focuses upon common cultural elements, and then uses specific tribes to show how these elements manifest in a specific set of circumstances. By doing so, this chapter also provides a representative example of the major barbarian tribes throughout Creation. Storytellers and players alike will appreciate the ready-made tribes, while more adventurous folk will use them as the basis for their own creations. (The correlation between various real cultures and their fictional counterparts—including where those counterparts can be found—makes this secondary use quite clear.) Players will greatly appreciate the clear delineation of the common barbarian values (a open and more-or-less honest merit-based society, subject to local taboos), and their one flaw is equally clear: all outsiders are non-people, voiding the rights to fair treatment that otherwise prevails.
Chapter Two builds upon the concepts present in the previous chapter, as it deals with Lunar society—The Silver Pact—which is a world-wide version of the mortal tribal societies of Creation. This chapter is more useful to players than Storytellers, as it has more direct relevance to the player’s game-play experience; this chapter goes into deep detail about the precepts and traditions of the Lunar Exalted, from Exaltation through social relations to spirituality. Most important to note here is that Lunar Exalts are all about change, specifically changing themselves to adapt to their circumstances as a way of surviving—even thriving—amidst the hardships of Creation. The Lunars preserve their ways through the promotion of honor, as delineated by the code called “The Silver Way”; if you’re familiar with the Litany described in Werewolf: The Apocalypse then you already know most of The Way. (If not, you’ll catch on quick enough; the book explains The Silver Way in plain terms.) Yes, this means that there is a Reknown system with Ranks and all; the caveats given above apply here as well.
Chapters Three through Five goes into character generation, Lunar-specific traits and Lunar Charms (respectively). The process is the same as it is for a Solar character; all that’s different are the details. Players have three castes—Full Moon (warrior), Changing Moon (spy, rogue and leader) and No Moon (sorcerer and lore-master)—to choose from; the castes’ anima effects and favored attributes reinforce these archetypical divisions very well. (You can also play a casteless character, but you get screwed hardcore for doing so; if you’re not playing a hardcore ass-kicker (Full Moon), a hardcore lore-junkie or a spell-flinger (No Moons) then play a Changing Moon and get on with it already.) They start with nine Charms, one of which is Finding the Spirit’s Shape and at least four others must be tied to the character’s favored attributes. (Note: Ox-Body Technique is always a good purchase; the Lunar version grants two –1 levels or four –2 levels, so don’t hesitate to snatch one level of it.) Lunars get access to the Cult and Reknown Backgrounds and a new Background called "Heart's Blood" as well as the other standard stuff; Backing is rare, but allowed.
As with building any other Exalted character, build your character first to survive—take care of basic combat and skill competencies first, within the boundaries of his niche—and second to be flavorful; dead characters get neither spotlight time nor experience points, while dull characters contribute nothing to the overall enjoyment of the game. Your character is a supernatural hero capable of epic deeds; build him such that he’ll be able to do that and live to brag about it later. For Lunars, this is very much a major facet of their culture.
Lunar Exalts get a handful of inherent shapeshifting powers and at least two True Forms (three if the character has Deadly Beastman Transformation) that he can always assume; the only way to gain more shapes is to slay an example creature and consume its heart’s blood on the spot. (Yes, this works for humans as well as beasts; cannibalism isn’t necessarily a taboo for Lunars.) Their Personal Essence pools are equal to or smaller than Solars or Dragon-Bloods, but their Perpheral pools are larger. (On average, of course.) If a Lunar’s anima banner blazes too bright, then his shapeshifting powers lock down and restrict him to his true forms. As for the Great Curse, it’s animalistic in nature; when Lunars hit their Limit Break, reason flees them and instinct seizes control for the duration of the break. (This is like a Frenzy episode in one of the World of Darkness games.) All this combined acts to serve as powerful incentives to manage Essence uses wisely; foolish Lunars soon find themselves on the wrong end of the Wyld Hunt, which cures that problem one way or the other. Their greatest benefit is the absolute immunity from all other shapeshifting powers, be it the Wyld or the mightiest of sorceries; only a Lunar’s own will can alter his form.
Lunar Charms extend from their shapeshifting powers. Either in gross or fine measures, Lunar Charms employ the powers of the beasts of Creation via shapeshifting to do their deeds. Where Solars display superlative sublime skill, Lunars display raw power focused by will alone, be it physical or otherwise. (The only exception is sorcery, which is truly a universal display of power for all Exalted.) Lunar Charms use attribute scores instead of ability scores for prerequisites, and the Charm trees (as displayed) are actually small parts of a greater whole; if mapped in full, each Charm category could easily take one or two full pages. What’s published is instead an arm of the overall tree, focuses upon a smaller theme of the overall Charm category; “Unarmed Combat I”, therefore, is the piece of the full Unarmed Combat tree that focuses upon swift, speedy strikes while “Unarmed Combat II” focuses upon small or subtle shapeshifting that allows the Lunar to employ animal traits in melee combat. Lunar Charms are narrow in focus, as is all of a Lunar’s powers, in that they are focused upon promoting the lifestyle of a barbarian or a beast: wander as you like, taking whatever you want from those weaker than you when you like. There are champions, warlords and predators- not officers, rulers or rangers. They can lead a mob, but not forge an army. They can inspire a tribe, but not forge a nation. They can fight (and be) vicious monsters, but they can’t make bureaucracies dance to their tune or sail rings around hurricanes or otherwise make good use of collective agencies (large or small). Lunar Charms—as with Lunars on the whole—are about the individual and how he adapts to hardship; outside of this narrow purview, Lunars are no better than (very) heroic mortals. Keep that in mind and you will never go wrong.
Chapter Six is about the Wyld: what it is, how it works and how to make it work within a campaign. That makes it far more applicable for Storytellers than for players, which is not at all a Bad Thing. As this is a Storyteller chapter, the content focuses upon the use of the Wyld within the setting and how to make it useful as a plot device for one’s own games. From the geography (such as it can be) of the Wyld, how it interacts with Creation, who lives there (and why), how time and distance alters and what mutations come from over-exposure (and how that could possibly interfere with Exaltation): it’s all here, so this chapter has everything that a Storyteller would ever want or need in order to make the Wyld whatever that he needs it to be.
Chapter Seven is the Storytelling chapter, so it’s also more applicable for Storytellers than players. Much of the advice given here is common sense: first you identify what you want to do, then you pitch your idea to your players and figure out what they want to do and then you figure out how to get any conflicting ideas to mesh well; a Storyteller must reward the behavior that he desires from his players, so he has to take care not to undermine his efforts through past habits that now slip under his notice; even an action-focused campaign, an effort must be made to bring forth barbarian culture (mortal and Exalted alike) because that will act as the moral compass around which adventures and campaigns revolve. The chapter goes into specifics, detailing the usual life cycle of a pack of Lunar heroes from Exaltation to (if they survive long enough) the height of the Silver Pact’s society; within this structure is the synopsis of what’s commonly done by Lunars at this point of their existence. With this default structure exposed, Storytellers are able to shape and tweak their concepts with better chances of success now that they have a standard to judge their creations against. The chapter discusses Lunar actions versus the Fair Folk, other Exalts, civilization, etc. but nothing is so vital than the section on the Barbarian Hero and how to avoid making such a character dull, clichéd and stupid. This chapter—as it addresses other Exalts—also covers crossovers; the short version is that Lunars don’t necessarily play well with others, due to nature as well as politics past and present. Finally, Lunar-specific experience point costs are on page 251; everything else is as in the Exalted rulebook.
In practical play, Lunar characters—as with all Exalts—work best amongst their own kind. This is as much due to the nature of the themes associated with Lunars as it is the territories wherein they live, the powers that they possess and the goals that Lunars often pursue. As noted above, and in the book, the narrow focus of their powers makes it hard to not pursue the path of the Barbarian Hero. It’s easy to play a Lunar game like a super-charged Werewolf game, but that’s not the point. Beware that you have no access to good reflexive or scene-length parry or dodge Charms, unless your character is a martial artist; this means that your character ought to consider picking up a style that best fits his style of fighting, at least while unarmed. If you’re used to stuff like Dipping Swallow Defense or Seven Shadow Evasion, then you’re in for a rude shock; you are far more reliant upon using alternate forms to get high attribute ratings, and thus high dice pools, than anything else. Instead, go for the massive soak ratings; sure, there’s always that one die minimum to worry about, but that’s what massive amounts of Health Levels—something that a Lunar character can easily get—is for anyway. There’s more to it than this, but this is enough to get started.
Do I recommend Exalted: The Lunars? Is water wet? Get yourself a copy as soon as time, money and your chances of making immediate use of the thing allow. Otherwise you can make do with what’s in the rulebook and the Exalted Storyteller’s Companion.
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