Stat Monkey Says;
What constitutes a scene?

When we wrote Arcanis: The Role Playing game we attempted introduce mechanics to help the bridge the gap between cinematic and “crunchy” game play. One such mechanic was to draw the focus away from encounters to scenes. We felt encounters were too “crunchy” as they always represented a direct challenge of some kind, be it social or physical.

Scenes are an event or collection of events which take place in a single location though a continuous stream of time. As such a scene can consist of several “encounters” encompassing several challenges/opportunities for roleplaying. Scenes do not have set duration; a scene can last several minutes to hours, though the chronicler may feel free to split up a large event into smaller scenes.

When “setting the scene” (designed one) the chronicler should focus on a location, event, or specific set of circumstances which resolve a particular plot point.

Plot Points consist of specific goals or conclusions, such as traveling between two points, having a discussion with a supporting character, or defeating a foe a.k.a saving the day. These are goals not the event themselves but their climax.

Entering a castle to stop someone from summoning an infernal could be one scene, if that was the climax of the event. But, if the heroes have to save someone first (let’s say, saving a captured ally being from castle’s dungeon), the Chronicler may decide to handle that as two separate scenes.

I like it. Would it be possible to add some mention of handling buff spells within the framework of scenes? That seems to be where the most direction is needed.

that is going to have to wait for the campaign guide.. because as far as the core system the Chronicler makes the call when a scene starts...

In a living campaign we need a structured system for buff spells and so on.

I disagree on a fundamental level here, the more rules you put in place in a living gampaign about what a hero may do, the more you are tying a GM's hands to be bound by said rules.

I personally see this point as the largest difference between 2e D&D and 3rd ed D&D (please note I'm not disparaging either system here), the control of how the game flows and is played in 2E was largely in the hands of the GM but that changed to be largely in the hands of the rules. The rules were enforced(?) by the person(s) that knew the rules best, and a lot of times that was not the GM.

Instead I think what we need are guidelines for GMs on how to deal with scenes and what the ideas behind them are. Scene, probably one of the most important concepts in ARPG, doesn't have a write up (that I can recall, or find easily), and then using the example of the person that wants to adventure with a maximized heighten senses all the time and various ways for a GM to deal with that.

But we have a fundamental difference between a home game and a living campaign.

In a home game the scenes are crafted by the chronicler, he controls the pacing and knows what his heroes are capable of. He also has the ability to make adjustments on the fly.

Chronicles in the living campaign should have some of the same ability to make adjustments on the fly, to challenge the players or tell a good story. But the design of those encounters are out of his hands, he has no way to pace the story or to brake it up.

He may come across a scene that mixes together traveling to a location and the exploration of that location, something that should be two scenes.

What we would like to pushing for is very NOT 3.5 "living campaigns"... we don't expect every table to be the same and every experience to be the same. Even though this is a living campaign we do not expect our game masters to be atomotons who simply read box text and roll dice.

I can keep going, but as you can see.. this is a campaign issue touching upon campaign topics.

I have a feeling that once we get into the meat of the situation you may see mods take a different form and start to really take advantage of the scene "mechanic".

but for now we need to give the living campaign some guidance on how to handle "in between scenes (which would never take place in a home game) or "extended scenes" where a writer mistakenly combined two distinct scenes into one, and how they interact with spell casting.

OK, how about this. A different sidebar later in the doc saying something like...

Buffing Magic. Generally speaking, if a character could cast a spell with a scene duration with their passive casting, the characters should (of shouldn't - I again don't care so much about the ruling, just the clarity) be allowed to have those spells active.

Just a thought. Not a ruling, just a guide. Like the scene guide.

that opens up an entire can-o-worms of someone having several buff spells up all the time, even to the point where someone may argue they walk into every scene "spelled up" and ready to go.

walking around with spells active makes you a target for harvesters and heretics..

also there is a STRONG story reason why you would not have spells up all the time.. it slowly kills the caster.. read page 341 the side bar.

I may have to create the "Wasting Disease" in the chroniclers guide to drive this home so Choniclers can smack players with it if they go through, lets say 3, adventures with spells up all the time.

Sometimes I start to think you need a "rules sledge hammer" to drive a point home when it should be something in character.

You might have to add rules for this. Well there is no mechanical reason not to have spells up all the time. Story wise, there is no reason for Psions and Priest not to have spells up all the time.

But ask the average player what the wasting is. See what they say.

Pedro, this is brilliant. Put something like this in a side.

Stat Monkey Says;
Can buff spells be up all the time?

The Arcanis system was designed for buff spells to be up only durring times of need and crisis. Walking around with spells active makes you a target for harvesters and heretics. Also there is a STRONG story reason why you would not have spells up all the time.. it slowly kills arcane casters. read page 341 the side bar. While casting spells to go into a combat or expected hazdarous situation would be acceptable and expected, walking around "spelled up" all the time would be a good way for a character to get himself killed quickly."

The wasting only affects a Sorcerer or Magi.. not divine or primal or psionic casters. At least according to how the sidebar as written.

Also there is nothing in the sidebar to indicate that having a persistent magical effect attracts harvesters. I'm not saying that it doesn't make sense... because it does I get the harvesters sensing magic and following the use of magic for them to find their targets.

I'm just saying that the Wasting disease doesn't really address the issue of what is a scene and should not have any bearing, because at best it is only true half of the time or less. At best it saying Magi and Sorcerers should not have spells active most of the time because it could lead to their death either by Harvester or disease.

I like the concept of the wasting disease and it should be in the Chroniclers handbook as an optional rule.

Also, there are binding spells. Once cast they stay on.... until the binding condition is met, they are dispelled or a new binding spell is cast. This is the mechanic in place for spells that last multiple scenes... you can have one (with special circumstances or spells that may be altered). Every caster type has access to at least a few binding spells.

Buffing needs to be handled with care by the GM and players. I like the direction you are heading with giving guidelines as to what constitute a scene. I like that it can be flexible and isn't a fixed duration. Long scenes do several things... scene wide buffs are up for longer periods but once per scene powers like (smite, leadership tier 1) can only be used once. Short scenes allow for multiple uses of your once per scene powers but make you "rebuff" more frequently. There are benefits to both and as we grow as a gaming culture our use of scenes will grow more nuanced.

Scenes are intentionally divorced from primarily being combat encounters as you are making it more cinematic. This will occasionally lead to scenes where people are prebuffed for a combat or not depending on what happened in the scene previous to the combat. I think if people think about it like it is a movie or a chapter in a book the scene flow seems more natural. As long as scene beginning and ending isn't arbitrary, but a mechanic in story telling it will all work out. It is also up to the GM to let people know when a scene is over and when a new one begins.