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Scroll of Kings
Details the way Creation's great nations conduct wars. Features a myriad of new rules for use in mass combat. Provides an array of siege weaponry, naval craft and engines of war for use in any series
160 pages, Paperback
First published February 20, 2008
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Michael Goodwin
30 booksThere is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
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December 11, 2015
One of the aspects I liked most about Exalted when I first read it was the way the game was calibrated. The basic rules are all about a dangerous world where people have to worry about infected wounds, and dying of dysentery, and getting tired from wearing armor all day, and so on, and then providing a way for the Exalted to ignore all that as a way of demonstrating that they were mostly above the concerns of mortals. Here's an example of where they took the opposite route and I think it hurt the game--much like how Oadenol's Codex should have been published before Wonders of the Lost Age to show the basic level of mortal magic in Creation, Scroll of Kings should have come before Wonders of the Lost Age to show the mortal capabilities of warfare before airships and sentai teams and Essence laser cannons set the tone.
Scroll of Kings is about the way that the civilizations of Creation wage war, and so there's a lot of rules in here for environmental conditions, like the freezing winters of the North or the swamps of the East, as well as building fortifications, traps, moving armies over long distances, conducting sieges, fighting naval battles, hiding in forests, and everything else you need to conduct a game of mortal warfare. I especially liked the directional sections for explaining how war is conducted differently in different parts of Creation. In the North, war is short because no one wants to fight during winter except the Haslanti, whose airships allow them to ignore the snow and move troops even in the freezing cold, whereas in the South, war is mostly raiding except on the coasts, whose fertile fields allow them to support long sieges and large armies. What's more, warfare is influenced by the gods of war in each direction. The Eastern god of war, Sunipa, supports measured responses and adherence to the rules of war, and so conflicts in the East tend to have more restraint shown, whereas the Western god of war, Siakal, is also the goddess of sharks, so Western wars are brutal raids and often leave no one alive. And in the Realm, the god of war is also the god of Exalted warfare, so the Realm's emphasis on Dragon-Blooded receives divine support. All of that is great.
The problem comes out in the details, though. Distances rear their ugly head again, with nations thousand of miles away being in conflict for no obvious reason. For example:
Another problem is in the unit and equipment descriptions. I don't mind units using remnant First Age technology here and there, since a single lightning ballista passed down through the centuries through a city-state's arsenal which is only brought out in times of greatest need helps sell the fallen grandeur themes of Exalted pretty well. No, it's in how so many leaders of units are described as being enlightened, and what's more, of having been enlightened by divine Charms. I admit that this is a logical output of the rules--enlightenment is a huge mechnical advantage, and Charms exist that allow spirits to bestow it to mortals, so of course spirits with an interest in mortal populations would use it as often as they can get away with--but it ends up completely devaluing enlightenment as a concept and the very idea of mortal combatants in a book that's ostensibly about mortal warfare. When so many units have enlightened commanders and notes that the local gods always enlighten anyone put in command, well. Exalted 2e already has enough problems with devaluing mortal contributions and ability to affect the world, and seeing it in a book that's entirely about those things is especially disheartening.
I realize that the game is called Exalted and that a certain thematic direction should be expected because of that, but I would have preferred even more of a focus on mortal warfare with occasional notes about how the Exalted change that, much like the Exalted 1e corebook and its disease rules. There's some lip service paid to that in the Realm section, since the Realm never conducts warfare without Exalted backing and so there's mention of how raising siegeworks, building fortifications, and coordination troop movement are all much easier when supernatural warrior-poets lead your armies. Just the ability to send information to a central location and receive orders back in real time mean the Realm has an almost overwhelming advantage against its enemies. That's pretty good, and I appreciate it, but it's mixed in with the "armies as pants" ruleset for mass combat that allows a single Exalt to parry an entire volley of arrows because *waves hands mysteriously*.
Also, the art is very odd. Apparently no one told the artist that Dragon-Blooded aren't elves, because a lot of them have pointed ears. And Scroll of Kings is the source of the infamous "heart panties" picture, which manages to be better than the cover of Savant & Sorcerer only by virtue of it not being on the cover.
There are other plot directions I don't like, like the Silver Prince's invincible arsenal of First Age warships, or the way that the Haltan military is incredibly disciplined and the Linowan military is mostly untrained barbarian tribe members, but those are relatively minor compared to the above issues. I had high hopes going on that I'd be able to find this useful for the low-level Exalted games that I tend to prefer, but all those small problems add up.
Scroll of Kings is about the way that the civilizations of Creation wage war, and so there's a lot of rules in here for environmental conditions, like the freezing winters of the North or the swamps of the East, as well as building fortifications, traps, moving armies over long distances, conducting sieges, fighting naval battles, hiding in forests, and everything else you need to conduct a game of mortal warfare. I especially liked the directional sections for explaining how war is conducted differently in different parts of Creation. In the North, war is short because no one wants to fight during winter except the Haslanti, whose airships allow them to ignore the snow and move troops even in the freezing cold, whereas in the South, war is mostly raiding except on the coasts, whose fertile fields allow them to support long sieges and large armies. What's more, warfare is influenced by the gods of war in each direction. The Eastern god of war, Sunipa, supports measured responses and adherence to the rules of war, and so conflicts in the East tend to have more restraint shown, whereas the Western god of war, Siakal, is also the goddess of sharks, so Western wars are brutal raids and often leave no one alive. And in the Realm, the god of war is also the god of Exalted warfare, so the Realm's emphasis on Dragon-Blooded receives divine support. All of that is great.
The problem comes out in the details, though. Distances rear their ugly head again, with nations thousand of miles away being in conflict for no obvious reason. For example:
The Varangian city-states have a treaty with Paragon to contain the expansion of Chiaroscuro, while Chiaroscuro curries favor with the Lap against Paragon.These city-states are all hundreds of miles apart. It's like talking about war between New York and Chicago and ignoring everything in between. The worst is the conflict between Wavecrest and the Coral Archipelago, who are thousands of miles apart and on opposite ends of the West. Gem rents a group of mercenaries from Lookshy, which is a bit like Rome during the Punic Wars renting mercenaries from Han Dynasty China. This produces a book about the non-Exalted, more "realistic" dimensions of warfare where all the conflicts depicted are completely unrealistic.
Another problem is in the unit and equipment descriptions. I don't mind units using remnant First Age technology here and there, since a single lightning ballista passed down through the centuries through a city-state's arsenal which is only brought out in times of greatest need helps sell the fallen grandeur themes of Exalted pretty well. No, it's in how so many leaders of units are described as being enlightened, and what's more, of having been enlightened by divine Charms. I admit that this is a logical output of the rules--enlightenment is a huge mechnical advantage, and Charms exist that allow spirits to bestow it to mortals, so of course spirits with an interest in mortal populations would use it as often as they can get away with--but it ends up completely devaluing enlightenment as a concept and the very idea of mortal combatants in a book that's ostensibly about mortal warfare. When so many units have enlightened commanders and notes that the local gods always enlighten anyone put in command, well. Exalted 2e already has enough problems with devaluing mortal contributions and ability to affect the world, and seeing it in a book that's entirely about those things is especially disheartening.
I realize that the game is called Exalted and that a certain thematic direction should be expected because of that, but I would have preferred even more of a focus on mortal warfare with occasional notes about how the Exalted change that, much like the Exalted 1e corebook and its disease rules. There's some lip service paid to that in the Realm section, since the Realm never conducts warfare without Exalted backing and so there's mention of how raising siegeworks, building fortifications, and coordination troop movement are all much easier when supernatural warrior-poets lead your armies. Just the ability to send information to a central location and receive orders back in real time mean the Realm has an almost overwhelming advantage against its enemies. That's pretty good, and I appreciate it, but it's mixed in with the "armies as pants" ruleset for mass combat that allows a single Exalt to parry an entire volley of arrows because *waves hands mysteriously*.
Also, the art is very odd. Apparently no one told the artist that Dragon-Blooded aren't elves, because a lot of them have pointed ears. And Scroll of Kings is the source of the infamous "heart panties" picture, which manages to be better than the cover of Savant & Sorcerer only by virtue of it not being on the cover.
There are other plot directions I don't like, like the Silver Prince's invincible arsenal of First Age warships, or the way that the Haltan military is incredibly disciplined and the Linowan military is mostly untrained barbarian tribe members, but those are relatively minor compared to the above issues. I had high hopes going on that I'd be able to find this useful for the low-level Exalted games that I tend to prefer, but all those small problems add up.
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