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Arcanis: The Roleplaying Game
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<blockquote data-quote="Arcanite" data-source="post: 6600425" data-attributes="member: 6794492"><p><strong>3 out of 5 rating for Arcanis: The Roleplaying Game</strong></p><p></p><p>Arcanis under 3.0/3.5 presented a world where NOTHING could be taken at face value, everything had an ulterior motive and even seemingly concrete facts were presented from a biased perspective meaning that they could not always be taken as the actual truth. It led to an interesting pseudo-roman centric world that had a steep learning curve but which rewarded players for peeling back the onion like layers of complexity with more layers. Fascinating for those that like a little depth to their world. With the advent of 4th edition they released their own system. The book suffers for a lack of a map but is otherwise pretty to look at however rules are tucked away all over the place that make referencing it time consuming. The basic rules rely on a variable die type (bigger is better) that can 'explode' on a maximum along with a flat skill bonus and 2d10 control dice. It sounds fine in principle however additional dice can be added from talents etc and keeping track of them isn't as simple as DnD. As you progress you are free to assign your increases wherever you like so long as you choose them from a set list and the system assumes that you make some decisions as standard but doesn't automatically increase them for you so if you don't you miss your chance to improve them and you'll forever be behind on the power curve. Given the chances of success this can be crippling. The magic 'strain' and combat maneuver 'recovery' system can be interesting and let you develop your own advanced techniques however it can give you 3 separate timers to track when you include initiative which counts round like a clock and potentially more if you have a pet or poison ability. It adds too much tracking potentially although you can keep a simpler character that doesn't need to worry about such things. Magic is rarely spectacular and you find that as the spells can each be modified (so burning hands, fire ball and scorching ray are essentially all the same spell now) means that some spells are much better than others due to most of them being very situational or underwhelming. Bad guys come in two flavours, mobs of minions and characters. If you can't do area effect the minions are dangerous however otherwise die in round 1 or 2 leaving you to gang up on the main bad guy. If you go unconscious that's ok, you can get quickly healed and back into the fight as it's only the rare wound damage that can actually kill you however this can lead to yo-yo fights as bad guys heal each other and stand back up to knock down the pcs who heal each other to stand back up to knock down the bad guys who heal each other etc. The initiative system and little difference in the weapon damages means that going faster is usually the best option and unless it is all riding on there being a single decisive blow...a speed 3 weapon (dagger) out damages a slower great sword very quickly against a single standard opponent especially if moving around the battle field is needed as well it feels like.The setting is lush and complicated but the system supporting it feels like it was rushed out. It has some interesting mechanics and feels full of promise however actually using it feels lacklustre with lots of rough edges. For an epic like setting with magic everywhere there is absence of actual magic users (being hunted for using magic if spotted) and magic items are rare and unimpressive. On the plus side there is a small but dedicated band of supporters and the ability to get direct feedback from the designers and developers at their paradigm concepts forum.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Arcanite, post: 6600425, member: 6794492"] [b]3 out of 5 rating for Arcanis: The Roleplaying Game[/b] Arcanis under 3.0/3.5 presented a world where NOTHING could be taken at face value, everything had an ulterior motive and even seemingly concrete facts were presented from a biased perspective meaning that they could not always be taken as the actual truth. It led to an interesting pseudo-roman centric world that had a steep learning curve but which rewarded players for peeling back the onion like layers of complexity with more layers. Fascinating for those that like a little depth to their world. With the advent of 4th edition they released their own system. The book suffers for a lack of a map but is otherwise pretty to look at however rules are tucked away all over the place that make referencing it time consuming. The basic rules rely on a variable die type (bigger is better) that can 'explode' on a maximum along with a flat skill bonus and 2d10 control dice. It sounds fine in principle however additional dice can be added from talents etc and keeping track of them isn't as simple as DnD. As you progress you are free to assign your increases wherever you like so long as you choose them from a set list and the system assumes that you make some decisions as standard but doesn't automatically increase them for you so if you don't you miss your chance to improve them and you'll forever be behind on the power curve. Given the chances of success this can be crippling. The magic 'strain' and combat maneuver 'recovery' system can be interesting and let you develop your own advanced techniques however it can give you 3 separate timers to track when you include initiative which counts round like a clock and potentially more if you have a pet or poison ability. It adds too much tracking potentially although you can keep a simpler character that doesn't need to worry about such things. Magic is rarely spectacular and you find that as the spells can each be modified (so burning hands, fire ball and scorching ray are essentially all the same spell now) means that some spells are much better than others due to most of them being very situational or underwhelming. Bad guys come in two flavours, mobs of minions and characters. If you can't do area effect the minions are dangerous however otherwise die in round 1 or 2 leaving you to gang up on the main bad guy. If you go unconscious that's ok, you can get quickly healed and back into the fight as it's only the rare wound damage that can actually kill you however this can lead to yo-yo fights as bad guys heal each other and stand back up to knock down the pcs who heal each other to stand back up to knock down the bad guys who heal each other etc. The initiative system and little difference in the weapon damages means that going faster is usually the best option and unless it is all riding on there being a single decisive blow...a speed 3 weapon (dagger) out damages a slower great sword very quickly against a single standard opponent especially if moving around the battle field is needed as well it feels like.The setting is lush and complicated but the system supporting it feels like it was rushed out. It has some interesting mechanics and feels full of promise however actually using it feels lacklustre with lots of rough edges. For an epic like setting with magic everywhere there is absence of actual magic users (being hunted for using magic if spotted) and magic items are rare and unimpressive. On the plus side there is a small but dedicated band of supporters and the ability to get direct feedback from the designers and developers at their paradigm concepts forum. [/QUOTE]
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