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Exalted are chosen by the gods. they start out human (Or what have you) and then at some point in their life they Exalt, which menas they flare up and a symbol appears on their forehead. Ususlly in order to be chosen, and Exalted must show some kind of drive beyond what an average human might have.

This works differently for certain Exalted, the Dragon-Blooded for instance. The DBs can littereally breed up their numbers, because part of being Exalted is in their blood, which is one of the reasons they are called Terrestrial Exalted. The rest of the Exalted, draw from an essence pool, each deiety has a certain amount of essences at his disposal with which to Exalt a person, 300 Solar essences means there can only be 300 Solars ciculating creation at any given time.

Abbysals work slightly differently also, When a person with the potential to be a good Abbysal Exalted dies, a Deathlord comes to them and offers to make them live again under his service.



So Yoko's charactor Exalted through her blood, and when I didn't (since technically I'm in a dragon-blodded line) I got shunned, and when I died I pounced on the chance to be Exalted.

As for the dice bonus thing, yes, basically you plan out what are called "stunts" which are moves in battle that split up your dice pool to do really cool things.

A stunt would be something like having your charactor backflip onto someone's shoulders and then stab them in the face. Bad example, but you get it. Teh dice pool for this might be something like "1st roll=Dex+Athletics-2(for splitting dice pool twice) 2nd roll=Strength+Melee ability+Knife specialty-3(for splitting dice pool twice)" A gracious GM might let you forgo one of those negitive dice.

I'm thinking Yoko dosn't want us to touch Infernals and Autocathonians. Reason being is because Autocathon's are too powerful, and I thik we're playing in an age before they arrived or something. Infernals havn't been defined quite yet, so we'd be making up almost every aspect of them using another exalted as a template, as well they're supposed to be super powerful, there's only about 50 of them.

For you I think we should stick to regular old Solar, especially if you're planning to make your own charactor. Solars are supposed to be good, but there's nothing that says that a Solar can't define what good means. If your hell bent on being super evil though I could very well help you make an Abyssal, I have Yoko's Abyssal book here, really we only need it for teh charms, since and Abyssal is nothing but a Solar, but with slightly different charms and equipment.

Consider though that if my premade get's used we'll have three Abyssals in the party. I'm almost certain that Yoko packed all of her Exalted stuff, so she can help you make another kind of Exalted, I can only do Solars and Abyssals.

I think I got something wrong up there, there will only be two Abyssals in the party if my premade gets used. And It's kind of strange and unbalanced to have so many of one type and barily any of any others. I'll plan out a few more premades to give people more choice.

Yes, there are rules to it. Although the system is much different then D&D. I think it's also much more simple (except for charms, charms are... bleh).

Exalted is much more of a story based game, as any White Wolf game is. The first step to charactor creation is to come up with a concept, and a backstory. Then you build the charactor off of that backstory. If a charactor never got any physical training, forgo putting points into her strength, if she never went to school, and was raised by barbarians, put points into her wits instead of her intelligence.

In D&D it's very much the opposite, you get right to rolling stats, and choosing what you want to be high or low, and then think about what you want these things to represent while you're in the process of constructing them.

Is there anything I can look at to get a general feel for how characters are made?

Actually, Shadowrune was correct, this is a rulebook of sorts, it a demo, and it also has an adventure in it, it basically give you everything you need to play the adventure that is contained within.

Also, as for putting together a back story, I don't care if you don't know very much about the world of Exalted. Take your best stab at a culture your char comes from and I can pretty much guarentee you it exists somewhere in Creation.

The only thing your really gonna want to avoid in your backstories is dimmension jumping, constantly interacting with angels and demons as equals, and generally being a powerhouse before you exalt. Magic however, is permissable, but it comes through rigorous training, not natural talent, and even the greatest mortal mages are hard pressed to do overt feats much greater than parlor tricks.