Okay? Why is that a bad thing?
On it's own, it isn't. The bad thing is that people tout 3rd edition as being so
vastly greater and different from second edition, when in fact it is not.
I feel like the 'but it's just attrition combat when you boil it down' argument doesn't hold much weight since, when you get down to it, the same is true for Starcraft, but that doesn't stop it from being an engaging experience. In fact, I suspect you could boil a huge number of games down to 'just attrition combat'. As long as the gameplay is deep and satisfying (whether it is or not is a worthy discussion to have), being reductionist about it doesn't get us much of anywhere.
I am reducing the argument to illustrate the above point that functionally,
nothing has changed in context of 2e and 3e. Initiative and it associated mechanics serve the exact same purpose of 'Clock' to ensure that
someone will be vulnerable. In 2e, this time was 'When you run out of motes'. We agree this is unfun and was why 2nd edition combat was unsatisfying.
3rd edition combat does
the exact same thing, but it does it with
unnecessary complexity. This is
terrible design.
A totally rewritten Charmset built along a different underlying paradigm
That ended in SEVEN HUNDRED CHARMS, MOST OF THEM UNNECESSARY.
an entirely new social system
This I actually cannot offer a comment toward, save that they did away with Motivation as a concept and included very... Guided mechanics? The social system to my understanding is very regimented, with highly specific actions that do specific things.
an entirely new crafting system
AHAHAHAHAHAHA. More seriously, they tried to copy
MMO RPG DESIGN into a tabletop game.
It's a fucking grind.
an entirely new sailing system
I'm going to give 3e deserved props for
having sail rules in the core book. (2e had them divided amongst WotLA and Scroll of Kings, and they weren't very good either).
Having given them a look over, I am actually quite impressed. Of particular note is equating # of rolls with the
size of a hazard, and the Difficulty with how treacherous it is. That's actually quite elegant.
I admit me
saying this amidst all this vitriol is going to be jarring, but it's the truth.
deep changes to movement and stealth rules
I can't speak to movement or stealth at the moment, suffice to say that I cannot declare 3e's system as either good or bad, better or worse than 1e or 2e, or any comparable system.
an entirely new combat initiative system
Which is
still functionally 'Raw Damage', on top of a
stupidly complex interaction.
a new setup for experience spending and Essence increasing
Do not speak of spending experience in Exalted 3rd edition. It is a fucking
trainwreck. SOLAR XP. CRAFT XP. SUPERNAL.
All of this is shit.
Why is it shit? Supernal exists as a quick-fix bandage for allowing players to specialize themselves out the gate in a single ability. Aforementioned abilities are
not created equally nor are they well articulated. Supernal Craft is
vastly different from Supernal War from Supernal Lore.
Now, I can appreciate the
novelty of Supernal, of being able to get a 'sneak preview' or similar of high-level powers without spending a lot of in-session time, but by the same token, it
quickly skews the nature of the game and complicates the experience for
everyone.
Exalted needed to be
simpler, and they made it more complicated.
Okay, I want you to look at Wonders of the Lost Age or Oadenol's Codex. I want you to think in terms of 'This artifact has a list of powers'. Each paragraph or bulletpoint is effectivey an evocation. They're probably not as evocatively worded or as 'Conditional' as 3e Evocations are, but they illustrate my point-
Evocations are essentially mini-charm trees for artifacts, and
organizationally that's actually rather neat! It makes them
readable, if you're okay with an Artifact having an entire page dedicated to it. That's fine! The issue is that Evocations are clearly meant to mechanical complexity offloaded onto the
players and Storytellers, and there is no training or guideline on how to make them. They
rely on players being
geniuses and understanding the system completely to even utilize properly. Yes- we're supposed to be getting rules for them
eventually...
But that's fucking
asinine.
On top of this, you must
pay for them. You split your character advancement in a game that
already punishes divergence. Remember, this is the same game that has
Supernal, which
rewards monofocus.
different Caste abilities and powers
While this is true, it's honeslty irrelevant. In 1st and 2nd edition, the anima powers hardly ever came up anyway
except the eclipse anima, because it had balance and storytelling impact beyond the other more directly quantitative efforts. Oh and the Twilight Anima, because of essence reactor.
the removal of the old bureaucracy system
We HAD no bureaucracy system, save for Mandate of Heaven (which no one used) and Masters of Jade (which no one used). And oh hey,
third edition gave us one in the solar charm tree instead of the core rules. How bout that shit?!
Yes, I'm angry. Yes, I feel like I'm the only sane man in a land of crazy people. Yes, I'm being extremely critical. I'm okay with that, because at the end of the day, I'm not worried about you folks having fun- I'm
glad you're having fun. I'm glad you're having fun
despite me. I'm however
extremely frustrated that you believe my perspective is one rooted purely in negative opinion. I'm deeply annoyed that my perspective is ignored because I'm being critical or using direct language.
I get it, I don't support 3rd edition. I don't read it charitably. A lot of you don't either, that's great. But if you don't stand the fuck up and start telling
everyone why it needs to be fixed, then it won't get fixed, or you won't know what to fix at your tables.
3e is an illusion. It is not good, well made or ideal.