On Pitfalls of Porting Elements into Exalted

If you’re straight up porting over elements from other fiction (Dark Souls or whatever) into Exalted, you are doing it wrong. Exalted is Exalted, its not Dark Souls or Nasuverse or Nier or Tales From the Flat Earth.

You can certainly take inspiration from Dark Souls or Kill Six Billion Demons into Exalted but should be looking to adapt those properties into the setting. The best way to do that is to conceal the original inspiration. That way, you’re playing Exalted with a flavor of another setting.

It’s like how Bloodborne was interesting because while it was obviously inspired by gothic and Lovecraftian horror, it was not literally Dracula and Cthulhu fight.

Don’t confuse aesthetics and jargon for themes and mood. The Abyss in Dark Souls is not thematically connected to the Abyss in Exalted, and trying to cram the two together is just going to result in cognitive dissonance.

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