Disclaimer II: The majority of this review is opinion; your actual enjoyment of this product should vary accordingly.

Exalted is a fantasy-based storytelling game, published by White Wolf. Best known for their play-the-monster works (Vampire, Werewolf, etc.), White Wolf tried stepping out into more overt fantasy with Exalted (which may be shortened to "play-the-legend"). Exalted features the Storyteller system, but with a more cinematic eye towards the anime movies and series that floods the import market. (My friends tell me that Exalted has the underpinnings of the Trinity Storyteller system, but I don't have access to the books to double check.)

Exalted features the return of the mightiest exalted (a supernatural powered figure, for lack of a better term), the Solars. Solars once held the Realm from the forces of the Wyld. Prosperity ensued, until some other exalted, the Sidereal, looked into the furute and saw a bleak world should the Solars continue to rule. Enter the Dragon-Blooded, descandants of the elemental dragons, desperate for glory and power. They aligned themselves with the Sidereals, and took down the Solars-even hunting them down for their Empress until her disappearance.

The world of Exalted is changing. For the last 800+ years, the Empress and the Dragon-Blooded have hunted down the Solars as they were being reborn. The Wyld Hunt, made up of powerful Dragon-Blooded exalted, has made it its job to wipe out the Solars wherever they may appear. Until five years ago, when the Scarlet Empress disappeared. Without a strong will to guide the Realm, things that had been taken for granted have collapsed under bureaucratic pandering for the throne. The Solars have returned.

That's where the game starts, a new dawn for the world of the exalted. A world where your character is a legend reborn-but weakly equipped. Not quite as powerful as they once were, but still more mighty than the Dragon-Blooded, Solars need to rediscover themselves and their powers, while fighting an uphill battle to reclaim the Realm for their own.

Exalted takes cues from melodramatic anime, comics, and hyperkinetic motion pictures. Exalted's Storyteller system has one set difficulty rating (7, for those counting at home) and each dice pool that they have-built from a characters stats, like Strength, Manipulation and Wits, used with abilities, like Stealth, Linguistics or Occult-has to roll a success that matches or exceeds that number (7,8,9-10s count as two successes). A character in Exalted may wish to perform stunts to add to their dice pool. To gain these bonus stunt dice, a player describes what their character is doing in vivid detail, maybe even trying something more reserved for a wire-stunt movie set (the stop-motion leap or wall running from the Matrix, perhaps).

Solar characters come from castes, a term to pigeonhole characters into one basic set or another. A caste is the pull that the Unconquered Sun has on one Solar versus another. The castes are named after positions the sun may have in the sky, or a celestial event that happens rarely in the world. Dawn caste members form the brightest warriors for the Solar, with the new sun, bright rays stab forward into the world, making it a better place for others. Those of the Zenith caste are full of the sun's power, speakers for the Unconquered Sun, the priests or shamans that display the sun's power and glory. With the Twilight caste, the sunrays glimmer on the edges of learning, a place in the sky full of reflection and acknowledgement, making those Twilight caste members the best keepers of knowledge or secrets. While the sun slumbers, its powers still reach members of the Night caste, the assassin or the mistress, the learner of the whisper and more; these caste members notice things more easily than other castes. There is another caste filled with the sun's power, though balanced with the moon; the Eclipse caste is the caste of balance, an almost neutral player between the extremes that the sun may reach, the diplomat or advisor.

While the book makes a great plea against stereotyping character roles based on caste, the rest of the book reinforces the caste-concept lock. Those from the Dawn caste are made to be fighters; those from the Eclipse caste are the diplomats, etc. The drama section of the book really drives this concept home but breaking certain gaming systems into caste sections.

One of the nice things about Exalted is that a Solar's Charms-a character's magical abilities-are broken into feats, special tricks that a character can perform while using that ability. One ability may allow the Solar to fire an arrow against the wind with no penalty, while another may grant insight into the cost to get a person to do whatever they wish done. The Solar's Charms are fueled by Essence, the power of magic in Exalted.

There is little fun in a rulebook of this nature, as most of what Exalted does is set up the world and gets lost in the thickness of too much backstory. The book introduces the Solars, but whatever fun may occur must work around a wealth of detail about the world of the Dragon-Blooded, Lunar or the Abyssal exalted (even the Fair Folk) when I wanted to know more from the Solars' prespective. With the main thrust of the book being setup and rules, the Solar exalted seem to get the shortest stick as other books in the series will get to spend more time dealing with the full development of their focus, while Solars get to sit in the same bus as the setting.

Overall, Exalted has a nice basic idea for a fantasy world where the elements of anime and adventure come together, but it weakens greatly by not setting their focus more on the Solars, which the book is supposed (according to itself) to be focused on.