I think it depends on what you consider "First Arc" and where it ended. By the time the 2nd Arc started ("Into the Blessed Lands") I had around 10200 XP (Tier II). However, as the 'interlude mods' were not technically part of Crusade, I think 1.9 is the right number for pure Crusade Arcs.

For my purposes I'm including released homeplay adventures only available to those characters who are not using a 1.5 cert. Excluding 1 time only events, a 1.5 cert character will be about 4 ranks behind one who played through the original material. It's 27 rounds worth of mods (~110 hours of play).

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

Overall I agree with the changes and look forward to the new document. One caveat: Even though some people may have characters getting close to T3 most if not all of the people I play with both at home and at cons were below T2. I can count on one hand the number of players I have gamed with since I started playing again who are in T2. I have one character who is clawing his way to T2 but is still at 1.9, the rest are 1.6 and below. Please don't assume that everyone is T2 or higher. I imagine the campaign staff plans to address this based on the quote from Tony's email below. I put in bold the relevant passage.

"Going forward, we are going to be lowering the XP of all modules in an attempt to balance out the campaign. Right now it feels like we're rushing through levels, and there really isn't much time to truly appreciate the story, or tailor the stories well to the relevant levels. Hereafter, soft points will be 200XP and hard points will be 250XP, with up to 25 bonus experience available for secret societies, national factions, etc..."

I just want to make sure I face appropriate bad guys set for my level. Sometimes I feel that every mod I play is built for a higher APL (to use a LG term), because generally their defenses are way above what I have a decent chance to hit (and my characters are pretty well balanced). I know that's part of the price I pay for trying out multiple character concepts in this game, but I don't feel that I should be penalized for trying to sample all this game can offer. At least I don't have 12 active characters like I did in the old campaign

In closing I want to say again how much I appreciate the campaign staff listening to us and thank them for all their hard work. This OP campaign would not be the same without them. Take care all.

Thanks Tony and the Campaign Staff and PCI for sharing their thoughts and vision on things moving forward, and for trying to meet the interests of a diverse group of players. Its impossible to please everyone and I think its as much a responsibility for the PLAYERS to understand that as much as it is PCI and the Staff's.

The reduced XP levels mean all the more playing time!
As someone who does have a character rapidly approaching T3 I am good with slowing down, and with the notion that the campaign adventures will be designed with role-playing and combat stories that fit all levels of player/character interests.

Hey if more playing time means more mods that explore more areas of Arcanis I am cool with that. To be honest I am starting to get curious as to where the next story arc will be set. My understanding is that current story arcs only last two years, so this one should conclude at the 2015 Origins. Given all the effort Henry and crew have put into the Blessed Lands book I'm okay with staying there, but there are other areas that could use some love.

I just received the updated cert, thanks for getting them out. I don't expect anything to be changed at this point, but I'm curious why it is that the PCs didn't receive any national fame. Especially considering that Tony went to the trouble of updating the cert layout to include a section for fame.

I would have though that something as influential as the invasion of Tultipet would get the PCs' names out there (for better or worse). Was fame discussed by PCI? I'm just curious whether there was a rationale behind not granting any.

Either way, thanks again for reissuing the certs, I'm sure it was a pain in the butt.

All *player* BI Certs have been sent out. If you have not received your cert, please contact the Campaign Staff.

All GM BI Certs will be sent out once we figure out an appropriate reward for eating such an event.

Additional notes:
The Tier 1.5 cert will not be changing.

With extra risk, we will try to be more cognizant of appropriate rewards associated with BIs.

Though I cannot say for certain, I strongly suspect the current story arc will not be ending at Origins 2015, although it may well depend on how far the story progresses over the year in the hard points. We'll be getting a fair amount of use out of this Blessed Lands book, make no mistake.

The rationale behind no fame at the moment is that we are still discussing how exactly fame will work, and thus want to limit how much is out there until we've figured it out properly. Once we have determined that, we can start putting it back into modules regularly.

The new certs have a place for national fame and secret society fame because we were redoing them anyway to remove the Fate tracking and update their look; it made sense to look ahead and not have to redo them again if we didn't have to do so.

Got it, thanks.

Actually letting the progress of the story dictate when it ends is fine with me. Henry had said that the story arcs were going to be two years as opposed to the last one which lasted six, which is why I thought things would wrap up next year. Now I'm even more interested to see where this one leads. Especially after just having played Vexing Priests with my Beltinian...talk about waving the proverbial red flag in front of the bull...

I thought it worked something like this ...

"Hello, I am <so and so>"

"Whoa! Aren't you part of that group that took down the Destroyer?!" *crazy hand shakes 'n' so on*

-or-

"Those are dem bastards that let the kids burn in the fire! .... KEEEEEL DEEEEEM!" *pitchforks 'n' torches mania ensues*