Latest revision as of 15:27, 8 June 2010

Exalted Storyteller's Companion

$15.95. Published on July 1, 2001; 80 pages. Softcover.

Writers: Heather Grove, Dean Shomshank, and Adam Tinworth.

Review total: 1

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Review by Shataina

This book wasn't great even when it came out, but back then we had no idea what Lunars, Dragon-Blooded, Sidereals, spirits, etc, could do, so we bought it anyway. Now, the vast majority of the information in this book has been retconned, and what hasn't been retconned has been published elsewhere, except for the spirit Charms, which were supposed to be published in "Games of Divinity" but were left out due to typical White Wolf publishing confusion. However, even those are available free to download on the White Wolf website (under "Games of Divinity Appendix"), so you have absolutely no reason to spend money on this book. Don't.

Comments on Shataina's Review

...and it comes with a GM's screen, which (like most of White Wolf's screens) is poorly organized and only moderately useful. On the other hand, it's still the primary source for information about the Eye of Autochthon (the first "Artifact N/A" published in canon). --MF

I feel that the book has it's uses. If you don't want to shell out 30-odd dollars for each of the splat books, but you want to have, say, the players fight some abyssals or Dragon-Blooded, then it comes in handy because it gives more info than the basic book. See also the first section of Thus Spake Zargrabowski/EssentialSupplements for further thoughts on this.
--BrilliantRain

Although if you do have all the splat books and GoD you don't really need it.
--BrilliantRain

There's a spirit charm or two in there that are nowhere else. Not even in the appendix... Touch the Real is the main one, since it's really useful. I think it's in an errata somewhere, but certainly not in GoD or the GoDAppendix, which is a shame.
-- Darloth

Yeah. Touch the Real was mentioned only in the errata, and not in any books. All of the spirit Charms in the STC are also reprinted in the GoD Charm appendix download on the White Wolf somewhere, however. - confirming Moxiane

I'm not sure I'd say it's worth the purchase price just for the spirit courts, but they're the major reason I'd hesitate to characterize the book as completely worthless. It's also useful for those who haven't the desire or the funds to buy all the fatsplats. _Ikselam

I don't personally think the book gives an accurate picture of the fatsplats -- just an accurate picture of the half-baked ideas that were mostly thrown out when the fatsplats were written. Honestly, the various Exalt-type sections are so incredibly inferior to the fatsplats that I think it would be better to go to a bookstore and read the fatsplats and try to remember their info than it would be to buy and own the ST Companion. As for the spirit courts, don't those also come in "Games of Divinity" and "Sidereals"?
~ Shataina
PS: I'm pretty sure Touch the Real was retconned and doesn't "count" as canon, but I could be wrong.

If you could confirm that for me, I'd really, REALLY appreciate it. I havn't found anything about it apart from a listing in some pdf errata somewhere, and it seems to be a very useful charm, not to mention spirits are often statted as having it. Indeed, I've used it before, so if it's been officially changed, I'd be really grateful if you could point me to the latest official ruling please.
-- Darloth

Spirits are canonically statted as having it? Where? I've never seen Touch the Real reprinted in a book. As far as I know, it exists only in the errata. The idea that it's not canon was a rumour that I heard ... somewhere, I forget, but I figured it must be true because nothing counts as canon unless it's put in a book, and I'd imagine Touch the Real is no exception. In fact, I believe the errata that listed it came out before "Games of Divinity" did, so if they wanted Touch the Real to be a canon Charm, they would have put it into "Games of Divinity" -- especially when they explicitly stated that they'd put out Charms that would help spirits affect the material world while immaterial. Generally when they contradict themselves like that it means that the later example (in this case, the Touch the Real-less "Games of Divinity") stands. This is White Wolf we're talking about, though, so it could just mean that some random freelancer was clueless and no one noticed.
~ Shataina

Uhh... not sure. I think it was some setting-book... Can't find it off hand. Oh well. I've used it already anyway as I think it's a cool effect, not to mention it creates a concrete reason for people to have spirit-affecting charms, so I'll just have to adopt it.
-- Darloth

The only actual content in the book that isn't either reprinted or revised in other books are some spirits (yes the stats are in ToT but these are the full write-ups), some artifacts, and a bit of fun info in the introduction. Everything else is either printed elsewhere or expanded and revised in the splat books and GoD. So if you have all of the splat books and GoD then you really don't need it. If you don't want to buy the splat books, then this book gives more info on the other exalt types and spirits, although much of it has been rendered invalid by the splat books.
--BrilliantRain who felt the need to give another two bits on the subject