Exalted Versus World of Darkness

Exalted versus World of Darkness
Role-playing game published by White Wolf
Rule System	Storyteller System
Authors	Holden Shearer
First Publication	2018
Essential Books	Exalted Versus World of Darkness, Exalted Versus World of Darkness Companion

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Exalted Versus World of Darkness is a fan supplement written by ex-White Wolf game designer Holden Shearer primarily to answer a niggling question many a fan has asked ever since Exalted came out: What would happen if you bring the Noblebright Exalted into the dark, gritty, and dying setting of the World of Darkness, a place where the bad guys have essentially already won?

The answer is Awesome. All sorts of crazy awesome.

For something remarkably similar in concept for the New World of Darkness, please look at Princess: The Hopeful.

The Fork in the Road

Shearer takes the old-and-discarded hook given in Hunter: The Reckoning that the World of Darkness is the same as Creation from Exalted, just aged really really badly and was ground down by the Wheel of Ages. Some sort of epochal apocalypse had occured thousand of years before, which caused the Celestial, Infernal, and Abyssal Exaltations to be sealed. Since then, the Terrestrials have kept their heads low, tried to shepherd their bloodlines, and keep out of the way of all the other supernaturals when they can help it.

Then sometime in 1999 magical nukes get dropped on Bangladesh, and the Dragon-Blooded families suddenly had a lot to discuss.

In the main metaplot, one of the major consequences of this massive supernatural clusterfsk involving an Antediluvian, a trio of Wan Kuei Bodhisatvva, a few Garou, and The Technocracy was the creation of the Imbued, essentially the Ebon Dragon and Scarlet Empress using watered down Exaltations in an effort to stem the dark tide of supernatural nastiness threatening to drown the Mortal world.

Here? What happens instead is the heads of five families have a marathon nine-month conference in Tibet, and finally realizing they were now staring the End of Days in the face, decide to break open the Black Vault, which held within it the legacies of the Age of Legends, both good and ill.

With the Vault's seals removed, the long-held Celestial exaltations burst forth, seeking worthy bearers of the powers they represented... And yet along with them, the Abyssal exaltations sought their own hosts in this new and darker age. Far below the Ten Thousand Hells, sensing the return of their ancient enemies, the Infernal exaltations burst forth from their forgotten prison (alarming the Yama Kings when this happens, as they had no idea the prison was underneath their demesnes this whole time). Out in the Deep Universe, the defense mechanisms of the barely-awake Autochthon detect the power of the Celestian exaltations return, and set into motion the re-awakening of its own champions...

And finally, with the return of these reborn heroes, the Dragon-Blooded clans still remaining have to now contend with a world where they can no longer simply stand by and do nothing.

Here's Your Shovel

Congratulations! The Exalted have returned... Except to a world where the badguys outnumber then at least five hundred to one, the Exalts have NO idea what they really are besides some vague dreams related to their past lives, they have no support structures to catch them in case things go pear-shaped, and there's not a lot of Essence around anymore to fuel their superpowers. And yet even then, the Exalted might just be enough to prevent the incoming Apocalypses... At the same time.

The fanbooks use a V20 baseline for the rules, with some aspects cherry-picked from specific rulebooks like V20 Dark Ages. Otherwise, they have a few Exalted-specific rules:

• Castes and Aspects: Exalted have Abilities that "belong" to their Caste/Aspect, and in rolls involving these 1s don't subtract successes. This is the same for Lunar Exalted and their Attributes.
• Parrying: An Exalted may parry ranged attacks up to including bullets. They cannot block these however, unless they have some way to make their skin steel.
• Soak: Exalted may roll Stamina (plus any Armor they're wearing) to soak bashing, lethal, and aggravated damage at difficulty 6.
• Poison and Disease: All rolls to resist, soak, or recover from poisons are reduced by 2. Non-supernatural diseases may weaken, but no longer kill, Exalted, and each successive difficulty roll to recover from a disease is reduced by 1. Otherwise incurable diseases are automatically purged from the Exalted's system after (8 minus Stamina) weeks.
• Health and Healing: Exalted heal much MUCH faster, seemingly like slow regeneration, and never heal badly. Exalted will never suffer crippling injuries from anything less than full amputation, even from powers like Vicissitude.
• Supernatural Resilience: Exalted are never considered merely human for purposes of any supernatural power that has less effect on supernatural targets. Anything that would normally kill a human outright, will just knock out an Exalt for a few hours.
• Stunting: An Exalted is never penalized for doing something in the flashiest yet dumbest way possible.
• Intimacy: An Exalted will have something or someone that they feel strongly about, whether a loved one, a place, or an enemy that they really just want to squash flat. If an Intimacy ceases to be relevant, they can change it at any time judged by the Storyteller (usually in between major turning points). An Exalt may make a Willpower roll vs difficulty 8 if they are forced to act against, abandon, or betray an Intimacy (like while under magical compulsion). Once a session, when an Exalt strongly affirms one of their Intimacies, they may regain a Willpower point on the spot.
• Essence: The spark of the divine in each of the Exalts, this is what is used for their superpowered feats. Each Exalt will have an Essence Rating (which measures how in-tune they are with their divine powers and how much they can use at a time), and Essence Pool (how much Essence they can store at a time). Essence renews itself at a set time of day depending on the type of Exalt, but there are also other ways of regaining Essence.
• Charms: The miracles that Essence fuels. Exalted need not purchase dots in these in an ascending order, unlike other supernaturals.