I disagree, mostly because the problem with Arcanis lately has been a lack of established players. There is a reasonably healthy player base, but I think the campaign could use a few. . . softer ways of getting players into the system and the story. The 5ed conversions are one way of doing this, but ultimately PCI will want to sell the SYSTEM further and for that will need a a way to ease players into the story and system in a more contained, controlled way.

I just got caught up on this thread and wanted to put my two cents in here.

Thanks to Akira over here, I got into roll20 as a basis for finding more campaigns and players to get my RPG fix going. At first I joined a 5th Edition DnD game and through that basis of players I started my own Campaign set in Arcanis, but I homebrewed Arcanis into 5th Edition. It just wasn't cutting it for me, and finally we all decided to purchase the books online, and got them all into playing the new (better) system. Since then, they've been addicted to it as well!

That story aside it has led me to a few ideas that I would like to throw out.
- With the Campaign I am currently running, we are starting with the Crusades. I have made it clear to them that it is mostly a home game, and they can do whatever they like as far as where they go from there. What if; we get some impromptu adventures that are totally off script, and it turns out to work out pretty well. After the fact, I write out the adventure using there adventure as a base but still following the general context for how adventures are written in the Arcs? Then I could submit that as a possible canon adventure, in turn allowing others to try it? As well as getting them Living Campaign experience for it eventually?

- As far as sourcebooks and more content to sell goes, I think there is a large amount of content and writing from the previous 3.0-3.5 adventures that were written as well as the new Arcs, that could be utilized. Those adventures as well as older sourcebooks that haven't been updated yet would make it easier and faster to bring out more content. An updated Codex Arcanis? That book has vital geography that probably hasn't changed so much it wouldn't take too long to update. Personally, I would love to get my hands on some of the older adventures from the previous Arcs and utilize them in my home game and update them to this system.

- I am currently working with two friends to write up the code for a roll20 Arcanis character sheet on that platform, mostly modding the already built Witchhunter sheets. My main point with that is if it does work out, and were able to recruit a few more, I just wanted to make sure that anyone who does end up buying your books online, is still supporting your system more than just playing it.

Thanks in advance,
Slade

I had fun running for you guys, glad to hear you like the ARPG system. We are always excited to get new blood into the community!


You are, of course, free to do anything you want for a homebrew campaign. As far as the official published modules, there is tight control over that through PCI. I know that they are always looking for authors, however, so if you have an idea for a module you can type up a quick synopsis of your plot idea and email it in. They don't accept every suggestion (take my word for it), but if they like the plot then PCI may give you the okay to develop for the campaign.


This is something that has been discussed many times on the forums. The Cole's Notes version is that there are plans to update the old sourcebooks (the updated Ssethregore book will be coming out fairly soon as a result of the last Kickstarter). Unfortunately Henry seems to do the bulk of the writing by himself, and there is only so much of Henry to go around. Like most of us he has a 'real-life' job as well, so he can't write full time.


This is a great idea, I know that there is a fairly large group of us who play on Roll20. I considered writing one myself a few months back, but I don't know the code and quickly realized I didn't have the time to devote to learn it. I'm excited to see what you come up with!

We used to have 60 or so regular/semi regular Arcanis players in Victoria (we were nucking futz for it, seriously !!!), back in the day. I have literally run every module atleast 5 times just so that various different groups could get a play in before running it for there other side groups, and would run "catch up games" cramming three adventures into one Sunday after another to help new players get the depth of experience to level up and be on par with more seasoned gamers (the number of times I have lost my voice.....)

Everyone sorta drifted off close to the end of the first Living Campaign because releases were slowing down and certain story arcs were never resolved (or certain modules were recalled shortly after coming out), certain modules never came out, promised home game adaptations of the Battle Interactives never arrived, and most importantly new shiny things were coming out rapidly and regularly from other companies and for other rpg lines. Mark of Heroes got very popular and we lost 60% of our player base, then Pathfinder Society came out, and now nothing else for any other style of game or living game gets run here, except for that. to be honest I'm not sure if Arcaniacs can ever recover now, but I do love Arcanis and run it and use it as a basis and inspiration for many home campaigns (even when I hack it up and reglue it together)

Aside from the vitally important supplement books Arcanis fans have been waiting for (forever it seems), I think three things need to be done before Arcanis can become viable again

1) A Website that is updated, no longer underconstruction, and has a functional webstore (tie the Living Campaign pages right into the main site).

2) Rerelease all of the old campaign updated to the current ARG system....I don't think this would be terribly hard, cut and paste and such, a few releases a month would reinvigorate things (and since the current campaign is so slow releasing as it is this shouldn't interrupt). Sell them through the aforementioned revamped website for a few bucks to help garner some income.

3) A nice promotional poster with some art (maybe a picture of the continent ) with a short
break down about the setting and advertising for local events (so stores can have a nice visual way of showcasing the product and tie it directly to the Living campaign). (You'd be suprised how few game stores have open games anymore, or any rpg's at all, mainly because companies don't suggest they do so or provide simple basic support for them to more easily do so).

After we get some players again then new functional books need to come out. Shorter filler books akin to the Pathfinder Companion series would fit the niche nicely. Who doesn't have $10 to blow !

It's alot to ask for but "I think" it's the simplest way of turning the game around and getting more people involved.

More adventures would be good but I'm not sure converting the old campaign would be any easier than writing new adventures. d20 is a very different system from Arcanis (mechanically and just with regards to what's possible (lots of d20 spells/items did things that are impossible or very limited in Arcanis)).

Speaking as someone who has put some time into converting some of the 3.5 stuff to ARPG and into 5ed, it is NOT as easy as it looks. Sure, the box text can be converted, but it takes up a fairly small portion of a written adventure.