Syrris:
I've read/skimmed a couple of the books. In general, it seems to be better put together and more internally consistent, not just in the rules writing but in that the setting itself got a bit of a rebuild (still the same premise, but everything has a proper place in it now, and some of the... stranger things that found their way into the previous versions were axed).
It remains a very crunchy system, though.
Exalted always was a growing game written by a rotating stable of writers, many of whom had very little idea what anyone else was writing. Sometimes in the same book (looking at
you Infernals). 2E was better but hardly perfect although the writers did keep up with errata as a labour of love.
3E had the benefit of having most of the conceptual work done for them and written more consistently by the same group of people. As such it is more consistent but recently it had some of its own weirdness creep in. Build-a-bear exalts are something I can see vexing storytellers for quite some time. The main problem is that 3E is relatively new, a lot of people already own at least the corebooks for 1E and 2E. 3E? Depends.
If I may make a suggestion, how about a story centering around the reincarnations of a former Circle brought together by circumstance? The core party should already know each other well within one degree of separation. If everyone already knows everyone
before Exalting it is less that you all "meet in a tavern" as "my friends and family need help".
That means the core would be Solars, corrupted Solars (like Infernals and Abyssals) as well as a possibility of their Lunar mates. That would be a good cross-section of splats and allow for Dragon-blooded to join as friends, allies or even fugitives. Sidereals of the Gold Faction could also easily join to "guide" the returned Lawbringers. This would give you the largest possible number of splats without being too newbie unfriendly.
