The past year or so has been the Year of the Sequel for RPGS on my shelf. Starting with L5R 3rd Edition, to Mage: the Awakening, to finally Exalted 2.0, I haven't really bought any "new" lines as of late.
Not that I mind of course. L5R 3rd Edition is buggier than most Beta Test software, but it still holds a special place in my heart. As such, I'll forgive the hack job of editing that they did, and focus on the positive aspect. It's the most comprehensive rulebook they're released. Outstripping the revered (and still equally buggy) first edition with sheer crunch.
Mage: the Awakening is different from its spiritual predecessor, Mage: the Ascension. So many of the old has been removed, replaced with an admittedly more solid set of mechanics for magic, but the loss of all the Gonzo goodness of the first iteration. Instead, we've got Paradigm in a box, and the secrets of Atlantis. It's definitely a different game, and perhaps, of the three games I'm looking at in this post, the one that is not a true sequel.
Finally, my latest purchase... Exalted 2.0. Exalted is the one game that my current gaming group can't get enough of. High flying Wuxia-esque maneuvers crossed the heroes of myth. But what does this new edition bring to the table that the old one didn't?
New mechanics. A boatload of new mechanics. Mass Combat (cleaned up), Social Combat (new) and an entirely different initative system that runs on "ticks". It's way crunchier than what most people expected, and that made the detractors of Exalted's massive charm trees recoil in horror. Even older players gave pause to the content, but tried it anyway.
I'm going to be off my first game of Exalted 2.0 tomorrow, and I'm hoping it'll be a good experience. Having played HERO for several months in a row, I think Exalted's mechanics won't be that complicated, but I do expect to see some sort of learning curve.
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