Didn't see this thread until after I had posted in the main one, but does anyone have any advice/tips on getting into Exalted? I've been interested in playing it for some time but am still somewhat inexperienced with tabletop stuff. (I'll probably be GM-ing for it since I'll most likely have to force friends to try it with me, but I'm even less experienced with that XD)
My main advice would be to take some very, very tentative dips into the main Exalted thread's homebrew sections.
@EarthScorpion's work is always good, even if I don't entirely agree with parts of his take on Exalted, and at the risk of narcissism I'll point to the link in my sig for some of my own contributions.
However, the best advice I can give you is simple: go fuck around on the Internet looking for ancient history facts. It really is that simple. If a single uniting quality of Exalted across the countless interpretations of it can be said to exist, it's that you should gleefully, shamelessly rip bloody chunks out of RL history and culture and religion, just so long as it isn't part of mainstream pop culture already, and staple it into your setting. Did you know that Viking smiths would mix powdered bone from bears and elk into the iron they made swords from, because they believed that the spirit of the animal would strengthen the blade? It actually did make their swords better, because of the added carbon from the bones.
Look up the weird pyramid the Minoans somehow built out on an island. Look up the Cucuteni-Trypillian Culture or the Mississippian Culture. Hell, go dig around in old Facebook or Tumblr meme archives for history-based factoid JPEGs. I've successfully reaped ideas from various podcasts, ranging from
Radio War Nerd to
The Dollop to
Well There's Your Problem. Don't be afraid to plunder book series (and not just fantasy, either) for plot and characters - half the fun of Exalted is in having stories which involve completely prosaic motives and methods that happen within the semi-feudal, semi-animistic, Asian-inspired fantasy setting of Creation.
My other main advice would be to accept that every fan of Exalted ends up having their own, completely unique picture of what Exalted *is* in their head, and there's always going to be a degree of personal authorial and editorial curation when adapting other fans' work. Don't be afraid to rip canon - or even popular fanon - apart so you can build something that works better for your group out of the pieces. I happen to like a version of the setting where every village has at least someone who can barter with minor spirits of Earth and Wood to drive out common pests and every blacksmith's forge has prayer talismans tied to the forge's chimney, to ward away certain spirits of Air which can fly down the chimney and cause an explosion... but that's my Exalted, not yours.
Tone up the magic, tone down the magic, have DBs be chumps, have DBs be legit claimants to the title of "Princes of the Earth", just go for it and do whatever makes your campaign more interesting and engaging for your players.
EDIT: Another extremely important bit of advice? Don't trust the rulesets for 2e or 3e. Feel free to pilfer the Charmsets for ideas, but both systems are fairly janky in their own ways.
