Crazy 'Scaper said:
I think that I'm going to give it a shot. I'll try to find out whether or not my FLGS deserves the "F" when I see if they'll let me crack open the shrink-wrap on the Player's Guide first but if not I'll probably still buy it. I assume that the Codex and the Player's Guide are pretty essential, but are there any other books that I should probably start thinking about picking up if I do like the setting?
The idea of the free Living Arcanis adventures sounds interesting but I assume that I'd have to join the RPGA for that and if I'm not mistaken you have to go to a Con to do that. There aren't that many in the North of England (where I'm based at the moment) and, much as I'd like to go down to GenConUK, there's no way I'm going to travel the length of the country to hang around a tent at Butlins.
Our books are not sent shrink-wrapped, so your FLGS probably shrinkwrapped it to begin with. They should be able to put it back in shrink wrap if they so desire.
The following are PCI products for v 3.5 available in stores:
In the Shadow of the Devil - Adventure
Slaves of the Moon (not Arcanis)
City of Secrets - City Sourcebook and Adventure
Player's Guide to Arcanis - The guide to playing a PC from Arcanis
Ssethregore: In the Coils of the Serpent Empire - An in-depth look at the ancient reptilian empire that ruled Onara in the past and still remains in the south
Legacy of Damnation (look for it this week) - An in-depth look at infernal-blooded characters and the area north of the Wall of the Gods
Non 3.0 books to think about:
Codex Arcanis - This is the setting. The rules material is 3.0 but has been reproduced for 3.5 in the Player's Guide. The overwhelming majority of this book is story and setting so the 3.0 material shouldn't be a concern. This one is the primary book to get ahold of.
Forged in Magic - This book has more than 400 magic items and also new weapon abilities, spells, pclasses and more. Even if you don't do Arcanis, this is a good book to have. It spent months on the top 20 here on EnWorld. If you do Arcanis, each item has a little history and some details of Arcanis are revealed in ways that can also serve as adventure hooks.
Carnival of Swords - An adventure and City Sourcebook.
Freeport: City of Adventure - Green Ronin Publishing. There is a conversion document on our yahoo group that sands the corners to make it fit into Arcanis. Freeport's history was tied into the Codex Arcanis, to the point that we even hired Bill Simoni, author of Freeport adventures to write the Pirate Isles chapter.
To join the RPGA, just visit
www.wizards.com/rpga. To order adventures, you will need to pass the Herald-Level GM test, it is an open book exam, so just have your 3 core books near at hand. If you mess up, just start over. There are about 60 currently available. Some are already retired, but the best of them will see print as mini campaign in the near future.