The kickstarter is really shaping up. It is designed for multi-splat play, even, so... say... DBs aren't insanely underpowered compared to Solars. Sidereals are appropriately zany. And there's going to be a guide for charm conversion/creation at some point.
WE BEGIN WITH ATTRIBUTES, by which I ask you to prioritize how your characters solves problems. Do they attempt to brute force it? Do they try to finesse it? Do they... uh... try to stamina-it? First one is a 4, second is a 3, third is a 2. GONE ARE the DAYS OF 9 ATTRIBUTE SPREAD (this is the thing I have the biggest mixed feelings on, but I get it).
There's only 14 skills now, you get 1x5, 1x4, 3x3, 2x2, 1x1. Which is great, because I hate freebie points, I hate the subconscious need to min-max my skills for the most efficient XP spends in the future (bonus points: no XP. We got MILESTONES NOW. Which... yeah, will take some balancing on a MU, but ought to be easy enough.)
You do not have to have combat skills (close combat or ranged combat, not spread across 5-6 skills) to participate IN combat. Stare down the enemy as you both size each other up and prepare to duel... a cheerleader bard-type can use performance to increase the sword princess' skills... use Athletics to ninja-flip around and gain an advantageous position before unleashing an attack... or even actually use close combat to ATTACK and DISTRACT the enemy. ALL OF THESE use the same mechanic for building combat power, with the exception of the bard... who rolls the dice the same way, just helps an ally build power instead.
That bard can also give a rousing speech to bring companions back from the brink of death, in the most 11th hour anime companion helps save the day way! Or, I guess... they could use medicine to save them, too. The dice roll/difficulty is the exact same, aside from picking which Attr+Ability to roll, same as building power.
All of that? ZERO charm use. That's no majik bullshit.
Social combat is less 'mirror copy of physical combat' as 2e, and includes a mechanic that every social system in the future needs to include forever and ever - Read Intentions: How can I get my target to do what I want them to do. And then in addition to THAT, they go a step further - 'I achieved the win condition but they still refuse, so now I get X bonus that I can use during Y future encounter'.
Perfects are GONE. By which I mean, if you use an unblockable charm to attack, and I respond with a 'automatically block attack' charm... they negate each other and dice are rolled as normal.
To help save on word count, we got UNIVERSAL CHARMS. Which is to say, a whole section that is just 'every exalt may buy this charm.' It might be slightly modified... EVERYONE has access to Glorious Exalted Bolt. For Alchemicals, it is a Samus arm, and their pew-pew adds knockback. Solars can increase damage. Infernals get bonus damage dice if they already hate you. DBs get their elemental stuff. Lunars don't have an upgrade, but they still get the basic stuff for it - an essence laser that counts as an artifact attack that you can increase the range of if you want to let your anima dim just a bit.
Which you don't. Anima effects are all insanely good now. But you CAN drop a level of Anima, if you absolutely NEED to shoot this bolt at medium range.
Gonna stop myself before I go on like this forever. You can get access to the manuscripts at the $5 backer level, or... maybe find it elsewhere, but I haven't seen it. Then again, I haven't gone looking.
