Arcana Evolved -- is it worth getting?

Hi,

I had a look through Arcana Evolved yesterday in my FLGS. It looks very nice, but it's £30 and I already have Arcana Unearthed and PDF copies of the Diamond Throne and the Player's Guide/DM's Screen.

Is it worth buying for the new bits and the nice art? Is it too heavy to carry to a game?

Views please!

Cheers


Richard

Would you buy a director's cut of a DVD that you already owned?

Hard to compare this to that, but Monte's called it his 'director's cut' from day one so perhaps if you think of it that way.

There are some new game mechanics in there and the timeline has advanced so that may be something you like or dislike.

I'm a sucker for full color art so I'll probably wind up getting it.

That's a tough call. It is a great book. The new class options are nice, bit not essential. If you game is going to go about 20th then the bookm is more useful since it has options for that. I haven't done a complete read through yet though. Personally, I'd wait off for a while and maybe try to catch it on sale or till some reviews are written on it.

Or if you have a group, you can ask your players to donate a few bucks each to help wityh the cost since the book would be used by everyone.

Advantages:

Ritual Warrior Class: A fighter-type who uses non-magical free-action rituals to boost himself.

Dracha: Half-man-dragons who are servants to the Returned Dragons (also a new PC race).

Evolved Levels: The Returned Dragons, in exchange for faithful services and gifts, can bestow racial levels 4 through 6 on the various races (and 1-3 on Faen and Humans).

New Spells: Level 10 spells that annihilate people, places, and things, and which raise armies and castles from the ground in an instant.

Additional history backgrounds, AND the Dragons return, thank the Giants for getting rid of those pesky Dramojh, and have now asked the Giants to get the out of their lands.

Finally, Additional Errata from AU - it's also listed on Monte's Site, but it's in print here now, for the completist.

Hi Rich and fellows ! Nice to meet you guys.

Rich, you got MCAU, The Diamond Throne and DM screen. Is MCAE worth getting ?

It all depends on what you want and the things you like in an RPG book. If you are the kind of guy who wants a new edition of a game to be 100% new, from beginning to end, then MCAE is not for you. If you are a fan of Arcana Unearthed, and want all the latest updates of the rules, including the Dracha, the Ritual Warrior, the 25th level progression, new spells, causes, totems, 10th level spells for your AU game, then that's the book you need.

Nothing is really 100% new in AE. It is a compilation first, for those who do not have AU and DT (not your case). For those who do have them (like you), it's a beautiful collector edition, it's a director's cut with a bit more of everything (just like getting the extended edition of the Lord of the Rings even if you have the theatrical version at home, like someone else above hinted at). Personally, I have MCAU, DT, Mystic Secrets, Legacy of the Dragons, the DM screen... you name it. And yet I am buying MCAE because :

- I am a fan. I want as much stuff as I can get, and the few things new seem cool enough for me to be interested in the content
- I am a book lover, and I certainly won't spit on a hardcover color book for my collection

To know more, you can read the Arcana Evolved FAQ on Monte's site.

Hope this helps.

I just got this one today. I was on the fence about this one, figuring I'd just pick up the PDF and add the bits that I want, but I bought the print version instead. I'm happy that I did. Not only am I trading in my old copies of AU and Diamond Throne (after all, why not?), but I've got it all in one huge tome. The new race, Dracha, is well done. I'm not overly keen on Ritual Warriors yet, but I'm sure they'll grow on me once I put them into play. I plan on expanding the regular D&D core classes to 25 levels as well to keep them in line with AE.

All in all, it's up to what you want. You don't need AE, but it does have some great material AU doesn't have.

Kane

I have AU & Diamond Throne, so I've been conflicted about getting AE since I first learned of it. I've come to the decision (helped by the fact I am in GMing hiatus) to wait for the second printing.

It's been my experience that AU is different enough from core rules, but complex enough, that players each need to sit with the book for at least an hour (or four) even to make their third character! So having two books around wouldn't hurt at all.