I'm with Toni on this one. One of the reasons I add lots of smilies is I realize what an imperfect communication medium the internet is. Too often people take offense because there's no body language or voice tone to read. On another note I will also agree with Akira that special events are a major draw to a convention.

I guess we all need to step back and take a deep breath. Many years ago a friend and I got into a heated arguement over a BattleTech game. As voices were raised my roommate who was in the same room leaned back from the computer he was working on and said, "You realize you guys are arguing over something that doesn't exist." Talk about putting things into perspective and shutting down the hostilities right then and there. In the end it's just a game we play to have fun.

Take care all.

Michael, I am offended by your statements that Battletech is not real! How could you blaspheme saying that His Celestial Wisdom Sun-Tzu Liao will not come to deliver us from the vile Davions, led by their Dwarf Prince Victor and his turncoat toady, Kai! Of course Kerensky will come to aid us in our efforts to place His Celestial Wisdom upon the throne of the Star League where he belongs!

Seyla.

Yeah history shows how Kerensky handled things.... Seriously I picked up Alpha Strike at Origins. We got a ton of Mechs at home gathering dust and if this game can speed things up maybe I can saddle up in my Crusader again and blast some Kurita scum into dust!

I need to start playing again. With how they've been doing lately, the Taurians need all the help they can get

Moving back to the subject at hand, I really hope PCI continues doing special events at the major Cons. Do these have to be BI's? No. A BI (in the traditional sense) should be story appropriate, so if a delve is better, do that! If an extra-involved LARP is better for story, by all means (I should note I am not a HUGE fan of LARPs, but if it tells the story I'm all for it)! These special events (whatever they may be) are what Con play SHOULD be and have over homeplay as it allows PCI to more directly tailor the campaign to the players. I only ask that they be treated as Soft Points if they are not to be opened to the greater community, but please PLEASE continue to make these awesome events!

Don't know if it's been mentioned elsewhere but after playing one of the Origin WH Larps we got to talking about what might be a cool venue for an Arcanis Larp. One idea that came up was the gladiatorial games in whatever passes for the Collisseum in Grand Coryan. Those interested in political skullduggery would be up in the stands with the movers and shakers while those more interested in martial activities could bang heads in the arena. Something for everyone and very much in keeping with the Roman theme of the Coryani Empire.

Just a quick observation from my cell phone. We have been using the same BI and larp format at origins for nearly 15 years. Most game systems don't have that kind of longevity. Perhaps the format just needs to be freshened up. After all the rules set has gone though 3.0 3.5 a beta and arpg.

Frankly it is pretty amazing that the format has survived this long.

The LARP format is something we are looking at. A 3rd party company is doing our WH LARP rules, and I think those are suitable for adaptation for Arcanis as well. The trick will be using them in a way that serves the story.

From what I've heard second hand the WH Larps went fantastic! But I have to admit I wasn't there.

As for the BI's at most I think a 10% change is all that is being called for, if that. Really, it is pretty amazing that the core of what makes for a BI is still persuasive after all these years. I see the core as being that multiple tables are working on the same adventure. What I point out as the main difference between the BI's of past and the Arcanicon Delve into the Vault of Larrissa is that at the Delve PC's where able to go were they wanted, and fight what they chose to encounter. Thus everyone got a customized experience consistent with the choices they made. If they didn't like a particular encounter they only had themselves to blame, or perhaps the nosy PC idiot at the other table across the room.

Applying that to the Blessed Lands...

Say that city X was overrun while the PC's where away. The hero's then band together to go door to door and clear the town. The main difference from the Battle of Tanin is that the PC's get to chose how to enter and clear the town as individual strike teams. So functionally it would be run like the Vault of Larrissa. An alternative would be that the PC catch the bad guys entering through the tunnels under the town, and orchestrate a search and destroy counter attack before the town in run over. Pretty much any situation where the PC are on offense or a counter attack could be run this way.

I don't see that as a big change from the -players- side of things but it would resolve everything except the experience award concerns that have been raised. It would also mitigate the tenancy to pile on comments after the fact about a rough patch in writing since everyone had a different experience. Granted that is a bit more involved from the writer's side of the encounter and certainly more involved from a map-maker's side of things.