History YMMV / Exalted

* DemonicSpiders: Anuhles, [[IncrediblyLamePun Ahaha]]. Seriously though, the Demon Spiders can be this for mortals. Exalts, on the other hand, tend to view them as minor inconveniences.
* DesignatedHero: Due to the Great Curse, most of the Solar Exalted will eventually become this, becoming so jaded and perverse that their "heroic" designation comes largely from what they fight against: [[TheUndead Undead]] {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s, [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Demon Lords]], and {{Eldritch Abomination}}s from beyond Creation. This is largely why the Dragon-Blooded [[TakeAThirdOption Took A Third Option]] and deposed them, although they now have kind of a DeadlyDecadentCourt thing going on, too. (Emphasis on ''most''...)
* DoingItForTheArt:
** The (former) Ink Monkeys have a lot of enthusiasm for the game. And all the Ink Monkey material was written up for free. Although it has been discontinued as the writers are now the line developers--and now have a production schedule of paying work for the line--it did a good job of keeping interest and enthusiasm, both positive and negative, up.
** Many of the authors for "Masters of Jade," went well over the wordcount limit, without being paid for the additional words, just to make the product as awesome as possible. The general--albeit not universal--consensus is that they succeeded.

** On Autobot going to the Wyld: Wasn't he fleeing the Solar Exalted? Cause they can go through the Wyld. Don't they have a Charm that lets them impose Creation-standard physics anywhere?

** Hoping to counter the trend, the developer's last outline at the beginning of 2nd Edition, he urged that SavingTheWorld is neither [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption hopeless]] nor [[PyrrhicVictory pointless]]. This was [[WriterOnBoard not necessarily taken to heart by the writers.]]

** Some books are infamous for horribly designed mechanics or poorly written setting details. There's fuel enough for countless internet flamewars.

** The Craft system in 3rd Edition is considered to be a overly complex by some, often being compared to games like VideoGame/CookieClicker. The most important distinction in the system is between "basic" and "major" projects, which the former providing a special sort of experience point needed for the latter. This results in perceptions such as an armourer needing to forge a dozen knives to get the points needed to make a suit of armour, or a tailor needing to stitch embroidery samplers to get the points needed to cut and sew a dress. Of course, ''repairing'' items also counts as basic projects, so it's actually quite realistic for a craftsman to accumulate the required experience in the course of the tasks one would normally expect of them. The exalted also have charms that allow them to side-step this and pull superweapons out of nowhere whenever it's dramatically appropriate.

** The Craft system in 3rd Edition is considered to be a overly complex by some, often being compared to games like CookieClicker. The most important distinction in the system is between "basic" and "major" projects, which the former providing a special sort of experience point needed for the latter. This results in perceptions such as an armourer needing to forge a dozen knives to get the points needed to make a suit of armour, or a tailor needing to stitch embroidery samplers to get the points needed to cut and sew a dress. Of course, ''repairing'' items also counts as basic projects, so it's actually quite realistic for a craftsman to accumulate the required experience in the course of the tasks one would normally expect of them. The exalted also have charms that allow them to side-step this and pull superweapons out of nowhere whenever it's dramatically appropriate.

** The Craft system in 3rd Edition is generally considered to be a complete disaster, mostly due to the developers' utter lack of experience with any sort of hand tools. The most important distinction in the system is between "basic" and "major" projects, which the former providing a special sort of experience point needed for the latter. This results in such things as an armourer needing to forge a dozen knives to get the points needed to make a suit of armour, or a tailor needing to stitch embroidery samplers to get the points needed to cut and sew a dress. Effectively, the player has to take a second Craft and a relevant Intimacy and two specific Charms just to do the normal work of a professional craftsman.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Shoat of the Mire. The Dowager of the Irreverent Vulgate in Unrent Veils operates the [[OrphanageOfFear Mound of Forsaken Seeds.]] The "seeds" are children, little girls specifically, who grow up [[ReligionOfEvil learning Deathlord dogma]], living [[BeneathTheEarth mostly underground]] and surrounded by black metal... almost everything, really. And the metal [[AndIMustScream moans occasionally.]] You see, it holds the souls of the girls' parents, who were often murdered and soulforged [[ForcedToWatch in front of them]]. And the souls of their predecessors, and so on back for millennia. When one of them is chosen to become the [[WeHaveReserves current]] [[TykeBomb Shoat of the Mire]], she's outfitted with armour and weapons of the same material,[[FromBadToWorse possibly incorporating her murdered playmates' souls]]. Oh, and she's going to be a preteen for decades or centuries, assuming she lives that long.

** The Craft edition is generally considered to be a complete disaster, mostly due to the developers' utter lack of experience with any sort of hand tools. The most important distinction in the system is between "basic" and "major" projects, which the former providing a special sort of experience point needed for the latter. This results in such things as an armourer needing to forge a dozen knives in order to make a suit of armour, or a tailor needing to stitch embroidery samplers to be able to cut and sew a dress. Effectively, the player has to take a second Craft and a relevant Intimacy and two specific Charms just to do the normal work of a professional craftsman.

** Character creation. It uses flat costs, while advancement has each dot in a trait (except backgrounds) cost more than the last. If, during chargen, Dace buys his primary attributes at 5/5/1 and the Maiden of the Mirthless Smile buys 3/5/3, it will cost Dace 40xp to get to 5/5/5 while the Maiden will pay 56. Advancement in Exalted goes at 4-6xp per session, and that this is just one set of traits where this can happen - there are still two other sets of attributes, plus abilities, plus Charms, where careful investment can leave [[DragonBall one player as Goku while]] [[CantCatchUp another is left to be]] [[OvershadowedByAwesome Krillin]].

** Started up again during the 3e kickstarter, during which one of the authors admitted they were ''deliberately'' leaking the most risky things in most of the previews to test out which parts would need to be changed heavily ''now'' rather than making it into the books. Even then, some Abyssal preview Charms that through poor phrasing ended up with rather heavier rape overtones than were intended, combined with some rather tasteless commentary on SomethingAwful from one of the developers (who later ended up [[NeverLiveItDown apologizing profusely,]] and which led to an official apology as a Kickstarter update), managed to kick off one beyond their wildest dreams and confirmed that the vampire/succubus tree in question would be ''heavily'' edited before the Abyssal book came out.

** There are various examples, but the most extreme and infamous is probably ''The Mirror Does Not Lie'' from the Obsidian Shards of Infinity Form. This technique, in exchange for a low one-time cost per scene, will allow a martial artist to automatically redirect any attacks against their person to any other target (and have it look like the attacker was attacking that target all along) as long as ''anyone'' (not just the martial artist, but anyone at all) can see the attack coming. On top of that, the technique (like all Sidereal martial arts) is massively secret, so the chances of anyone knowing even that extremely narrow limitation is essentially nil.

** The massive success of the [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/deluxe-exalted-3rd-edition 3rd edition Kickstarter campaign]] resulted in the book's length doubling, with some sections being rewritten entirely, which pushed back the release date by over a year. This has lead to [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment some disgruntlement in some fans]].

* ScrappyMechanic: Most traits bought up in character creation are paid for at a flat rate, but increase in cost exponentially afterwards when bought with experience points. Sub-optimal point investment in character creation, consequently, can leave a character behind literally the equivalent of hundreds of experience points (in a game where 4 per session is the baseline rate). This has persisted through the first and second editions of the games, and despite this rule's long history of protest from players, [[http://avatarcomic.net/ExaltedWiki/mediawiki-1.19.1/index.php?title=Exalted_3E:_What_We_Know#General_3E_System it persists through the new third edition]], because the developers have stated it would be "fake equivalence" to correct it, and because "[they] never really bean-counted with any of [their] characters," and [[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?768985-Exalted-Why-is-Everyone-Praising-3e&p=19548177#post19548177 "[they] have a policy not to give people bad rules just because they think they want them."]]

* ScrappyMechanic: Most traits bought up in character creation are paid for at a flat rate, but increase in cost exponentially afterwards when bought with experience points. Sub-optimal point investment in character creation, consequently, can leave a character behind literally the equivalent of hundreds of experience points (in a game where 4 per session is the baseline rate). This has persisted through the first and second editions of the games, and despite this rule's long history of protest from players,[[http://avatarcomic.net/ExaltedWiki/mediawiki-1.19.1/index.php?title=Exalted_3E:_What_We_Know#General_3E_System it persists through the new third edition]], because the developers have stated it would be "fake equivalence" to correct it, and because "[they] never really bean-counted with any of [their] characters," and [[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?768985-Exalted-Why-is-Everyone-Praising-3e&p=19548177#post19548177 "[they] have a policy not to give people bad rules just because they think they want them."]]

* ScrappyMechanic: Most traits bought up in character creation are paid for at a flat rate, but increase in cost exponentially afterwards when bought with experience points. Sub-optimal point investment in character creation, consequently, can leave a character behind literally the equivalent of hundreds of experience points (in a game where 4 per session is the baseline rate). This has persisted through the first and second editions of the games, and despite this rule's long history of protest from players,[[http://avatarcomic.net/ExaltedWiki/mediawiki-1.19.1/index.php?title=Exalted_3E:_What_We_Know#General_3E_System it persists through the new third edition]], because the developers have stated it would be "fake equivalence" to correct it, and because "[they] never really bean-counted with any of [their] characters".

* ScrappyMechanic: Most traits bought up in character creation are paid for at a flat rate, but increase in cost exponentially afterwards when bought with experience points. Sub-optimal point investment in character creation, consequently, can leave a character behind literally the equivalent of hundreds of experience points (in a game where 4 per session is the baseline rate). This has persisted through the first and second editions of the games, and despite this rule's long history of protest from players, the developers have [[http://avatarcomic.net/ExaltedWiki/mediawiki-1.19.1/index.php?title=Exalted_3E:_What_We_Know#General_3E_System stated it will continue through the upcoming third edition]], because it would be "fake equivalence" to correct it, and because "[they] never really bean-counted with any of [their] characters".
** Though not quite as widely maligned, due to having some positive upshots, the Resources system is similarly problematic. The Resources trait gives a simple zero-to-five abstract rating of a character's general wealth, meant to avoid having to do painstaking math or accounting. It does avert this, which is the upside. A character can't buy something that costs more than their Resources rating. Purchases below it are "out of pocket" expenses and don't affect the rating. A purchase equal to the rating is a significant expense, and lowers the rating by 1. However, this means that characters can purchase "insignificant" things in infinite quantities, characters with Resources 1 literally cannot buy anything at all without bankrupting themselves, and merely buying the same items in a certain order completely changes their impact on your wealth. Ex: At resources 3, buying a resources 3 item, then a resources 2 item, then a resources 1 item would drop you to resources 0. If you bought them in reverse order, despite their prices and your wealth being completely unchanged, you would only drop to resources 2.

* EvilIsSexy: While they can start out looking normal, as the Abyssal Exalted grow in power they must choose whether to spend experience to raise their Appearance to as high as it can go, or allow their bodies to decay hideously.
* EvilMakesYouUgly: While they can start out looking normal, as the Abyssal Exalted grow in power they must choose whether to spend experience to raise their Appearance to as high as it can go, or allow their bodies to decay hideously.

** '''''[[KeychainOfCreation Dodge Charms.]]'''''

** GLORIOUS SOLAR <OBJECT> is getting pretty popular too, especially [[MundaneUtility with ridiculously mundane uses]] such as a [[KeychainOfCreation Glorious Solar [Desk]]].

* RunningTheAsylum: In a case of TropesAreNotBad, the addition of the Ink Monkeys and Errata Team Prime has lead to a general increase in the quality of the rules and has been very well received on the White Wolf forum (seriously, saying you dislike them is FandomHeresy there now)- but see also BrokenBase. They have their detractors, some of whom get as vehement as the fans.

* DorkAge[=/=]EightDeadlyWords[=/=]DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Exalted's had a lot of writers, and [[DependingOnTheWriter different writers]] have different opinions on where exactly Exalted should be on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism, [[ArmedWithCanon with individual chapters often reflecting the desired tone of individual writers]], sometimes in the same book.

** Many of the later 2nd Edition publications, in an attempt to diversify opinion on the Incarnae and other topics, accidentally created one true way of interpreting these facts. For many people, ''this'' was the trigger of EightDeadlyWords. One especially glaring example is the Daystar: while many loved it, many others hated it so much they swore off Exalted.

* EvilIsSexy / EvilMakesYouUgly: Both in one package: while they can start out looking normal, as the Abyssal Exalted grow in power they must choose whether to spend experience to raise their Appearance to as high as it can go, or allow their bodies to decay hideously.

* FridgeHorror:
** The Scarlet Empress and Ebon Dragon are responsible for giving the Wan Xian/Wan Kuei a second chance and for imbuing the [[TabletopGame/HunterTheReckoning Hunters]] in the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness. It's implied that they are, effectively, the "good guys" in a BlackAndGrayMorality CrapsackWorld. That's right; going on the old idea that Exalted is the prehistory of the classic World of Darkness, the embodiment of vice and his bride, who has the same powers HE does, are the GOOD guys. That also makes you wonder how bad something has to be for them to undergo a HeelFaceTurn...
** Chejop Kejak, leader of the Bronze Faction, can theoretically perform the Creation-Slaying Oblivion Kick combo with ease.

** And, in a specific character, Adorjan. Yes, she's an AxeCrazy {{Yandere}}, but she loves running ''so much'' that she does it ''instead of sleeping''. And the Infernals she powers can do so too. Really, the Infernals in general can become this, since most of their charms involve doing fairly mundane things in insane and alien ways. For example, what does an Infernal of the Ebon Dragon do when he wants to hurt someone? He warps the core of his being in such a way that his entire life becomes devoted to hurting that person, until such time as that person is dead. At higher Essence, he can become the target's EvilTwin, as well.

** The massive success of the [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/deluxe-exalted-3rd-edition 3rd edition Kickstarter campaign]] resulted in the book's length doubling, with some sections being rewritten entirely, which pushed back the release date by about a year. This has lead to [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment some disgruntlement in some fans]].

** And whether or not the 3E Abyssals Charm preview endorsed/railroaded the player into rape. Opinions varied from "The devs are misogynistic bastards ruining our game!" to, "These are Charms from the ''Deathlords,'' what did you expect?" to, "Who the hell cares?" to, "Why is Solar brainwashing and [[DeliberateValuesDissonance canon sex slavery]] acceptable, but not this?" to, "The Charmset is perfectly fine," to, "The Abyssals are ''supposed'' to be evil (itself the cause of a BrokenBase)" to, "No one is being forced to use it, what's the problem?" to, "My God, people, shut up. The whining about this is poisoning the forums," to... [[LongList you get the idea.]]