Arcana Evolved

[Blastin]

IS anyone running/playing this?
I was looking for some diffrent gaming material to read, so I bought/downloaded the PDF.
Wow...the character classes and magic system really trip my trigger
I really want to play this ( Winter witch) but I'm having about an impossable time getting anyone in my group to even think of looking at it.
Just wondering if anyone is playing this and what they think of it in an actual game. The boards at Monte's site are kinda slow in the AE section, so I thought I would try here.
Thanks,
Blastin

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Yeah, the witches are pretty sweet AU/E's pretty popular around here, I think.

You should be able to use the witch in a regular campaign with no hassle; just don't mix systems. By that I mean, you shouldn't have the witch ready magic missile or shield, and you shouldn't let the wizard learn sorcerous blast.

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

I'm surprised at the reluctance of your group. If they normally play D&D, it's basically just a campaign setting with a few tweaks, I think, universally regarded as improvements, i.e., the magic system. You could run them through an AE adventure letting them use their regular D&D characters to get a feel for the world and interact with the new classes and feats via interactions with NPCs.

I'm always looking to get people hip on AE. If you click on the link in my sig to my website, you'll see info about our AEvolutions line in support of AE. If you contact me off-list at justin[at]bluedevilgames[dot]com, I'll forward you a free pdf of our Akashic Nodes book, which has some neat ideas to flesh out your game and includes a full-length adventure that might do the trick for your players.

Good luck.

 

[Crothian]

Ya, we are playing this though the game is on hold since the DM is moving.

 

[GlassJaw]

I've played AE as a one-shot and I definitely liked it. I wouldn't mind playing a campaign in it but I don't think I would want to run it. Couple of observations I had about it:

1. It's VERY high-magic and high-fantasy, even moreso than standard D&D.

2. The classes have a TON of options. This is both good and bad. In a one-shot game, it takes a little while to figure out everything your character can do. All the options make multiclassing and prestige classes a lot less important (which is a good thing IMO). Two people playing the same single-classed character can be significantly different.

3. The magic system is very cool, especially the dimished and heightened effects.

 

[Blastin]

I've played AE as a one-shot and I definitely liked it. I wouldn't mind playing a campaign in it but I don't think I would want to run it. Couple of observations I had about it:

1. It's VERY high-magic and high-fantasy, even moreso than standard D&D.

2. The classes have a TON of options. This is both good and bad. In a one-shot game, it takes a little while to figure out everything your character can do. All the options make multiclassing and prestige classes a lot less important (which is a good thing IMO). Two people playing the same single-classed character can be significantly different.

3. The magic system is very cool, especially the dimished and heightened effects.

Number 2 is the exact thing I love about the system. I'm one of those people that can't get enough ways to modify things. I think it's great that you can have 2 people playing the same class and yet have very diffrent characters.
Same thing with the spell system. The spell templates and the deminished/heightened aspects of the spells allow a huge variety, and I LOVE variety
My problem with my players is that they are all busy adults and they look at the massive tome that is AE and don't want to take the time to read it/get to know it. When you only have a limited amount of time in your life to dedicate to gaming, you can become very adverse to change, especialy big change.
And Justin, thanks for the heads up. Expect an e-mail from me soon
Blastin

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

My problem with my players is that they are all busy adults and they look at the massive tome that is AE and don't want to take the time to read it/get to know it. When you only have a limited amount of time in your life to dedicate to gaming, you can become very adverse to change, especialy big change.

Believe me, I can totally understand that problem. They should keep in mind that about 30% of that is setting material that is not all that important for play and can be digested over time, and another 30% (skills and adventuring/combat) is essentially the same stuff out of the PHB.

 

[Blastin]

Believe me, I can totally understand that problem. They should keep in mind that about 30% of that is setting material that is not all that important for play and can be digested over time, and another 30% (skills and adventuring/combat) is essentially the same stuff out of the PHB.

I know...believe me...that's what I have been trying to tell them ;P
I figure that all I have to do is run a one shot for them and they should be hooked

 

[Khorod]

The boards over there are only as fast as the population can manage. EN World has far more people. But if you start posting there, you will get responses!

If you are looking for additional material, have you checked out www.diamondthrone.com? It has dozens of articles of advice for running games, short fiction, new crunch of all sorts, new places and characters in Diamond Throne, and more.

I've run a number of one-shot and multi-session adventures with AU. I refuse to play a Core Rules spellcaster ever again... or at least not until I have a chance to play an AE spellcaster for an extended period.

The High Fantasy aspects of AE are a little troublesome for me, as pure High Fantasy is not my thing. But a very little bit of flavor tweaking, a replacement class or two, and good GMing can twist it back down fairly easily.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Oh, yes....can't believe I forgot Diamond Throne. Heh.

Yeah, probably the biggest complaint I've seen about AU is that everybody and his dog has magical mystical powers. Want to be a skill monkey? Here's a magical memory well. Want to be a woodsman? Have an animal companion and shapeshifting. Want to be a swashbuckler? Here, you can block spells with your sword. In fact, with the warmain given combat rites in AE, there's not a single non-magical class. Not a huge problem for me, but odd.