So, having dipped my toes into Arcanis at Origins and being very impressed by the system (so much that I dropped $90 on hardbacks and another $65 on PDFs for the iPad), I'd like to try and drum up some local players and hopefully get them interested as well. I think I have a good enough handle on the system mechanics themselves to run a game, and after some reading I should be able to provide enough insight into the lore of the game. The problem is, I'm shiny new and really don't know the best mods/scenarios to start with.

Can anyone give me some suggestions on which mods would be good to introduce new players to the game? I can't really sort out which are intros and which are not based on the names alone.

Thanks!

Hi Chad,

Welcome to the community! The game is currently in the second arc under the current system. My recommendation would be to run the Hard Points in the Crusade arc to begin. That starts with Desperate Measures followed by Desperate Times. There are 14 mods in that hard point series, taking characters roughly from 1.1 to 1.5. The midpoint of the arc is a battle interactive - Where is Your God Now? BIs run a bit differently as you experienced.

Hard points detail a central story. They're tied together and should be played in order. There are recurring NPCs and the events of previous hard points are the foundation for the ones that follow.

Soft points are other adventures in the world. They are stand alone and with few exceptions may be played in any order. Soft points after SP11 typically assume that characters are rank 1.5 or pretty close to it.

Once you get to 1.5 and through the first arc, you could start the second hard point series. The second series feels a bit less tied together at times as the groundwork gets laid and later mods start pulling what seem to be unrelated pieces together.

If you need additional support, feel free to post in the forums. There are many who will happily lend a hand.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

Awesome, that gives me a good place to start.

Briefly looking over the adventure and chronicles it appears these were made for a previous system? Specifically the treasure portion seems a bit off kilter. From everything I've been told, gold is a pretty rare thing to see flowing like wine in adventures, and it's a really rare thing when you find yourself rewarded for more than a handful of silver at the end of a mod. However, HP1 and and HP2 seem to be offering a lot of it, and the breakdown on equipment at the end has things like ring mail selling for 100gc. Is there some sort of conversion that needs to be done for these rewards?

Just want to make sure we are keeping everything legal, should I manage to convince these local players to attend some of the convention level events.

The initial adventures were done using the Quick Start/Beta Rules. There should be a conversion document available, which will have updated AR's with proper XP and Treasure.

The creatures should be mostly fine, with only minor tweaks or changes - mostly, some abilities, talents, skills had names changed or were eliminated.

Found the conversion rules, thanks for pointing those out! The newer sheets make much more sense.

Now to go convert some of the unwashed masses and get them to try it out!

I also will echo the "Hard Points ftw!", though I will caution that if you wish to play using the 1.5 levelling cert there are only 3-4 adventures from Arc 1: Crusade! that are legal to play. If you start at Tier 1.1, then go nuts, however. Below is a list of adventures, not counting introductory adventures (which I do not have access to), with the 1.5 cert legal adventures highlighted in red.

Arc 1: Crusade!

HP1 "Desperate Measures" by Henry Lopez
HP2 "Desperate Times" by Henry Lopez
HP3 "Strange Bedfellows" by Henry Lopez
HP4 "Born of the Fires of Hell" by Henry Lopez
HP5 "Relevance" by Henry Lopez
HP6 "Victory at Any Cost" by Henry Lopez
HP7 "Where is your God now?" by Eric Weiner
HP8 "Judgement" by Henry Lopez
HP9 "Into the Heart of Darkness" by Henry Lopez
HP10 "Desecration" by Henry Lopez
HP11 "Condemnation" by Henry Lopez
HP12 "Wolves in the Fold" by Henry Lopez
HP13 "For Hates Sake" by Henry Lopez
HP14 ". . . I Strike at Thee!" by Eric Weiner

SP1 "Whispers of the Gods" by Eric Weiner
SP2 "Dry Rain" by James Zwiers
SP3 "Cardakkx Rising" by Scott Reid
SP4 "Ancient Secrets Left Unspoken" by Anthony Nijssen
SP5 "Kiss of the Beautiful Devil" by Scott Charlton
SP6 "What Lies Beneath" by Cody Bergman
SP7 "Into the Verdant Heart" by Anthony Nijssen
SP8 "The Bramble Labrynth" by Anthony Nijssen
SP9 "Not My Daughter" by James Vacca and Anthony Nijssen
SP10 "The Dark Face of War" by Cody Bergman
SP11 "Cache" by Lucas Amodio
SP12 "A Thousand Words" by Anthony Nijssen
SP13 "Espionage" by Lucas Amodio
SP14 "In Darkness, Light" by Anthony Nijssen
SP15 "To Slip the Surly Bonds" by Anthony Nijssen

Arc 2: The Coming of the Destroyer

HP1 "Into the Blessed Lands" by Henry Lopez
HP2 "That Which Lies Beneath" by Henry Lopez
HP3 "Ancient Battles Left Unfinished" by Henry Lopez and Jim Beck
HP4 "Visions of Lives Past" by Henry Lopez
HP5 "Vexing Priests" by Henry Lopez
HP6 "The Price of Honor" by Henry Lopez
HP7 "The Words of the Seer" by Henry Lopez
HP8 "Blessed are the Heretics" by Henry Lopez
HP9 "Hide and Seek" by Henry Lopez
HP10 "Into Dar Zhan Vor" by Henry Lopez

SP1 "Once Upon a Time in Metra" by Joe Cirillo
SP2 "Elements of Faith" by Scott Horn
SP3 "The Horror Within" by James Vacca
SP4 "Long March, Dark Coda" by Cody Bergman
SP5 "Gleams of Fire" by Anthony Nijssen
SP6 "The Edge of the Knife" by Joe Cirillo
SP7 "Salvage Operations" by James Vacca
SP8? "To Die Alone" by Eric Gorman
SP9? "In Plain Sight" by Dean Bailey
SP10? "Purity, Fraternity, Justice" by Cody Bergman
SP11? "Pride Goeth Before a Fall" by Cody Bergman
SP12 "Trouble's Tide" by Josh Elliott and Lindsay Elliott
SP13? Dance Among the Bones by Tony Nijssen

I still strongly recommend starting at 1.1 with the crusade arc for a few reasons.

1. You start with basic characters and get a chance to learn the rules with starting characters before needing to advance them.
2. The leveling cert isn't worth as much experience as all the mods that it replaces. You can have higher level characters when you've started at 1.1 than 1.5.
3. From a story and learning the world perspective, playing through the crusade is useful.

Certainly do what you want, but that's where I'd start.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

Hello Chad,

Welcome to the campaign, Chad!

I'm glad you had a good time at the BI and that it left you with such a good impression about Arcanis!

You'll find those on here are the most helpful, knowledgeable and friendly people one could hope to have as fellow players.

Enjoy!

Welcome to the family!

Something our GM does that really helps is breaking up the BI's in half and playing them over two days instead of all at once. It really helps new players.