System......

The game uses ten-sided dice and a rules system similar to the Storytelling System[22] to arbitrate the action, and, as with many other RPGs, requires little beyond the rulebooks themselves, dice, pencil, and paper. The ten-sided die storyteller system is one where the storyteller (or game master) is the person setting up a story and creating the adventure. The players create their characters using a pre-assigned number of points (as opposed to games like Dungeons and Dragons where an element of randomness can be introduced into character creation) and begin to interact with the story that the storyteller presents them with, much like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, although the possible actions are limited only to the imagination of the players and the discretion of the storyteller. When a challenge presents itself to the characters, they roll a number of dice determined by the statistics of their character with a difficulty assigned by the storyteller. If they gain the required number of successes (7 or higher on any given die, 10's usually counting as double), they succeed in their efforts. If they do not gain the required number of successes, they fail. The storyteller describes the nature of the success or failure and the game and story continue on. Since the stories are player-created (by the storyteller, of course), there is no one way to "win" the game, except to achieve the goals set out in each individual story.

The rules system used in Exalted uses the attributes from an earlier version of the World of Darkness system. These are Strength, Dexterity, Stamina, Charisma, Manipulation, Appearance, Intelligence, Wits and Perception. There are many differences in abilities (Exalted's counterpart to the Storytelling system's skills), in line with the difference in setting. For example, while the standard Storytelling system uses the skills Academics, Firearms, and Politics, the Exalted system uses the skills Lore, Archery, and Bureaucracy. For these and other reasons, the two systems are not directly compatible without adaptations. White Wolf's Scion game uses the same attributes, but not the same skills / abilities, as Exalted.[23] Time within combat is divided into units called ticks, most actions in combat have speed values, which indicate the number of ticks which must pass before the character's next turn, if multiple characters take turns on the same tick, their actions are considered to take place simultaneously.

The Exalted version of the rules were derived from the trilogy of white wolf games Aeon(Trinity), Aberrant, and Adventure where the idea of a fixed target number of 7 or higher was first introduced. It has since been carried on into Scion. Thus there are two distinct but similar versions of the system derived from the original storyteller system. The rules underwent numerous changes with the introduction of Exalted 2nd Edition. Changes include the removal of the Brawl and Endurance abilities (which were merged into Martial Arts and Resistance respectively), the addition of the Integrity and War abilities and the addition of mass combat and social combat systems and clearer, more detailed combo rules.

The Storytelling System itself has been applied both to tabletop and video gaming systems, and has been a subject of note to gaming enthusiasts such as Chris Crawford, who wrote a book entitled Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling which details many elements similar to the Storytelling System in use in Exalted.

Stunting

Innovative to World of Darkness systems is the concept of stunting, whereby a player will describe their action in detail in order to receive a bonus to the number of dice they roll (determined by the Storyteller) and recovering a number of motes of Essence or points of Willpower back in accordance with the level of their stunt. This encourages players to become more active participants in the story by rewarding them for taking a more active role in the description of action.