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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:45 am 

Joined: Thu Feb 13, 2014 11:17 am
Posts: 208
I don't run a home campaign because I like your story of Arcanis better.

I run people through the 3.5 adventures using that rule set because I'm too lazy to convert it. I have a pool of 150+ modules that I could run people through with about a week of prep per module. Obviously some are more complex. I can take them to specific nations, cities, or through the epic world changing event you wrote. Some of my friends who have gone through the campaign before get to try new character builds, unlock new secrets, and lore they missed the last time, because they weren't the right race or didn't have the right abilities. And they still get surprised when I pull out a module they hadn't played before.

Once we're done going through everything, they now have the option to start again (maybe with that all Elorii table or that all Ss'ressen table) because I don't reveal the secrets to my players when we finish a module. So my players aren't sure of where everything they missed is located. OR continue to move forward with the A:RPG (which we play on opposing weekends). Even that campaign we are replaying the Crusade Arc, partly to help level up some newcomers to the table.

Starting to write up our own Arcanis adventures is last on the list when replaying and continuing with the new stuff is still available.

Now that's not to say we're against picking and choosing what we like every once in awhile. My wife is building an Elf campaign under the 3.5 rule set, and she grabbed the Elorii immediately, along with some choice feats, and all their base and prestige classes.

And whenever I look at a campaign of my own, "Lizardmen" are immediately filled in with the far superior Ss'ressen, and Dark-kin are selected as my "part Infernal humanoids." And I'll always grab some of the many prestige classes that were created in your books. The races and classes you helped build are much better then the material available in other source books, like compared to the Complete Series for example.

I don't run Arcanis home games but I do pull from Arcanis books when I do come up with a home game idea.

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Last edited by The Vault on Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:33 am 
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Posts: 2046
I personally would like smaller Bestiary Books, but I think they need a 'theme'. Assuming we could regularly get one every 3-4 months, each one could cover a particular region of the world or a particular type of monster.

Examples would be: A bestiary for the Hinterlands, one for the Blessed Lands, one for Unsealed Lands, or one for "Fiends" or "Undead". They could include some 'character' crunch with some new Talents, spells, etc. around that theme to help draw in players to buy the books as well.

John

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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 8:11 pm 

Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 11:41 pm
Posts: 363
Location: Australia
We play Arcanis twice monthly (usually) and have been working through the crusader mods.

The other games I run is Earthsawn on alternate Thursday nights (started when 3.5 campaign finished) and Pathfinder 1 saturday a month.

There are two reasons why I don't run a home campaign for Arcanis.

The first is time. I ram my own D&D world for 7 years before my last daughter was born. It was a lot or work. When I finished up that campaign, I started a new one, but soon dropped it as I could not keep up the prep time needed and move to a pathfinder adventure path. (Gave players choice or Arcanis, Pathfinder and Earthdawn. Majority wanted pathfinder)

The second is story. The story and the people (ie Henry and co) were the original reason I go into Arcanis. The story being provided is so rich and due to being in Australia we are not outpacing the writing.

But would I run as a home campaign is the chance arose? Yes I think I would.

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Marco val'Sheem - Master Sword Sage
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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 3:27 pm 

Joined: Thu Nov 07, 2013 9:37 pm
Posts: 842
Location: Michigan
val Holryn wrote:
I'm another person who is primarily interested in the Living Campaign. Again for me the best part of the campaign is slowly peeling the onion of truth to find out the secrets of the campaign world. If I were to judge a home campaign I'd have to figure out and detail all those secrets of my own. And deal with both the divergence from my campaign from the shared world campaign ... and perhaps judgement between the two similar offerings. I'm not sure off the top of my head I could "do it better" than the living campaign. And if i couldn't then really what would be the point.

If I was really going to do campaign it'd be my own world.


This

But if I did my own world I could totally see trying the arcanis system if there were more pregenerated monsters

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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 5:18 pm 

Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2013 4:16 pm
Posts: 12
I have been running the Arcanis Living Campaign (slightly modified to more individualize for the characters) for about a year and a half. We're going to take a brief break to go back to the Firefly verse, and we plan to switch back and forth when I and the other GM need breaks.

Thanks, Ryan Wendling


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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 6:51 pm 

Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2013 4:03 pm
Posts: 179
Location: Mahwah, NJ
I have actually ran a couple of home campaigns set in Arcanis. One was set in Ancient Ssethregore where the 'heroes' were servant/slaves of their Ssanu master. It was a mini campaign that lasted for about 8 sessions and had at least one racial genocide during it. :D

The other was an alternative history one...very much like the old Marvel Comics "What If?" series. It took place right after "Carnival of Swords" with the premise that Luoch val'Dellenov succeeded in assassinating the Emperor. The Civil War was no less blood but with very different battle lines drawn.

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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 7:48 pm 
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Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 3:59 am
Posts: 813
Location: Ontario, Canada
blackthorn wrote:
I have actually ran a couple of home campaigns set in Arcanis. One was set in Ancient Ssethregore where the 'heroes' were servant/slaves of their Ssanu master.

That is actually really cool. I have always wanted to run a home game where the players start off as common folk/apprentices, and they have to find someone who will even agree to train them in the first place. One of the nice things about the ARPG system is that you could easily do this...at character creation you would simply skip certain steps, such as archetype and background.

In regards to Henry's original question, I have never run an Arcanis home game. I would like to, but we lack a regular local group of players, and my time is so limited I find it difficult to play all of the published modules.

I could see some people being held back by the limited number of published beasties, but I have a hard time believing that it is a huge impediment. I'm sure we will see additional Beastiaries eventually, and I would be surprised if books such as the Ssethregore one don't have some monster stats in it.

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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 6:28 am 
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acurrier wrote:

I could see some people being held back by the limited number of published beasties, but I have a hard time believing that it is a huge impediment. I'm sure we will see additional Beastiaries eventually, and I would be surprised if books such as the Ssethregore one don't have some monster stats in it.


For me, I would just make things up to be honest. Pick a few 'abilities', assign them an attack roll, damage, and 'special effect' and then figure out the speed/strain/recovery of it based on something similar and go with it. Unless you're at a table with heavy Arcanis Rules Lawyers, it won't matter :) It just depends on the DM's comfort level for running things 'ad hoc' like that without hard and fast rules to back him or her up.

John

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Kelb'Bakari Masalio, Dark-kin Altherian Corsair, Gentleman Archaeologist, and Wandering Bard
"The highest compliment an Altherian can pay you is to shoot you with his flintlock. It means you were worth the expense."


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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2016 6:30 am 
PCIHenry wrote:
So if I understand Cody and Josh correctly, the living campaign itself is an impediment or a discouragement from running Home Campaigns?

What if there wasn't a living campaign? Would you just stop playing Arcanis or would you start up your own game?


I'd quit.

Not to be dramatic, but ...y'know when some really impressive author of a setting -PCI staff or someone else equally skilled- says "use what I made to tell your own story" I sometimes have that dog-like "cock head and aroo quizzically" reaction because it seems to me there's a sort of disconnect at work.

My experience is that the mind who dreams up the amazing setting is very often one of a very small number of people able to really make it work.

Take Mass Effect. It's actually pretty damn smart is a few clever ways. It's much more Buck Rogers than Modern Warfare. But lots of bad feelings are engendered by what're poorly understood as "bad story choices." They're not. But you've really got to be watching the corners to know that.

Or Warhammer 40k. The perpetual floating level of fan community turmoil about fanworks around it is pretty thick. It's hard to actually keep the "grimdark" tone consistent, and it's hard to like much of the setting if you do. It takes a damn creative, deft author to truly make it sing in all it's eternal horror. Most paid Black Library authors can't even do it.

Same deal Arcanis. I wouldn't have thought up the Mourner subplot from the 1st Arc. That idea was a spectacular, engaging extrapolation. Or the metaplot with the Black Moon and Umor/Kassegore/whatever? I really don't know, but I'm dying to find out.

I wouldn't have designed the history of the Elorii quite as it is. I'm not that ..uh... "merciless" is too strong a word, so let's say "thematically focused." :lol:

I loved the Dark Kin Life Quest of Redemption. Never would have taken that idea as far as it was, and oddly the few times I've brought the idea up with various PCI bright they react with something like curiosity flavored by a tiny little splash of outrage. "We have our name on what and it's campaign legal?!"

It's been fifteen bleeding years folks. I'm still waiting to see the "Belisarda Question" unraveled. In that time I've been through 20 jobs, 3 cars, 2 homes, 3 years of Uni, 1 near-death experience (hard to measure, but 1 for certain) and an attempt to Enlist. Living/Legends of Arcanis is the strongest single through-line in my life. The others are family and friends -and the ones who've lasted that long I know because of Arcanis.

Frex: we've met at Origins. For me total Origins costs run ~$1000. That's the most money I've ever spent on any one total thing.

Housing and transportation have doubtlessly amounted to far more. But for money saved, allocated, and spent on a single event? Living Arcanis, bar none. Taken in total all those trips to Origins are more than I've spent on anything except my student loans.

If PCI gave it all up, burned the books and moved to Tibet I'd go to my grave wondering if I'd missed something in the lore that'd answer some last burning mystery.

So to me the various Living campaigns are utterly worth the time and effort to know and love, but they're what really brings the setting to life. Without them it's just whoever making up whatever story. Odds are good they don't see the angles critical to keeping the sky where it is.

This also informs lots of the friction I'm part of about "interpreting" aspects of the lore or rules. I don't toss a salad for someone's "interpretation" of what they think the "spirit" of the thing is; this is dogma to me -I want to hear the answer directly from the mouth of God, not some jagoff "priest." I'm happy to speculate and extrapolate, but when we're talking What Actually Happened I have one source I want to hear from above any other -and he looks like Sam the Eagle. :)


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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2016 6:33 am 
The Vault wrote:
I don't run a home campaign because I like your story of Arcanis better.

*Snip*


Also basically everything TV says here. 8-)


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