Arcana Evolved

[Breakdaddy]

I bought a copy of AE off of Overstock for about 33 bucks and have really enjoyed reading it. Solid rules, beautiful book, nice setting. I need to convince my players to give it a shot as well, but might be a hard sell; as these fewlz love teh forgottan relms!

 

[satori01]

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

I'm not sure I would catergorize it as High Magic overall as a setting. Magic is certainly an intergral and important part of people's life, but unlike D&D when characters gain the abillity to cast 4th level spells, the power spike doesnt go through the roof.

As for running an AE game or Hybrid game it works fine. Most people agree that when running a Hybrid keep the magic systems seperate, which I agree with in general. I have been experimenting with letting sorcerers spell weave and take spells from all lists, as a sorcerer and Wizard in many ways are less powerful then a Magister.

 

[GlassJaw]

I'm not sure I would catergorize it as High Magic overall as a setting.

I don't know about that. The power level of magic might not increase as rapidly but the fact that almost everyone has some kind of magical ability certainly makes it a high-magic setting.

 

[Morpheus]

We are currently playing AE using The Ruins of Intrigue. One of the players made an interesting observation yesterday and since Ken helped write The Siege on Ebonring Keep, it had some validity. He noted that of all the AU/AE games he had dmed or played in, roleplaying was significantly less than in a "normal" D&D game. We talked about it for awhile and came to the agreement that the races are difficult to identify with when you first start playing. It takes some time for the players to adjust to the mentality of litorian, sibeccai, giant, verrik, etc. and some of them seem to lose interest before making the adjustment. It will be interesting to see if we stick with AE or change to something else (probably the new Adventure Path in Dungeon).

 

[Blastin]

Humm.....haden't thought of that. The diffrent psychology and new oppertunities for roleplaying were what I found interesting in the new races. Hadn't thought of the aspect of what you mentioned above. My group, If I get them interested, is pretty mature , so I think they can handle it. If not, it's one more obsticle to overcome....
Blastin

 

[GlassJaw]

We talked about it for awhile and came to the agreement that the races are difficult to identify with when you first start playing. It takes some time for the players to adjust to the mentality of litorian, sibeccai, giant, verrik, etc. and some of them seem to lose interest before making the adjustment.

That makes a lot of sense, and it's one of the reasons I've never like non-humanoid/monstrous races. They just seem too distracting. I like the faen a lot though.

I also know that the few times I've played AU/AE, I spent quite a bit of time looking at my character sheet and reading through the book for rules rather than focusing on the game itself. I've never played in a campaign from level one mind you so that may be a moot point. There is a lot more to take in though.

 

[Morpheus]

That makes a lot of sense, and it's one of the reasons I've never like non-humanoid/monstrous races. They just seem too distracting. I like the faen a lot though.

I also know that the few times I've played AU/AE, I spent quite a bit of time looking at my character sheet and reading through the book for rules rather than focusing on the game itself. I've never played in a campaign from level one mind you so that may be a moot point. There is a lot more to take in though.

When I DM AE, I find myself trying to come up with the basic tropes that help to identify the races. Things like: Verrik are mysterious and have mental powers, giants are wise and mostly peaceful, etc. Although it isn't any different than doing the same with orcs, dwarves, elves, etc., it is more challenging because they are so new and unknown. I think if an AE campaign is to be successful, the DM and players will need to learn to identify with the races and classes in these terms. If it is done, then AE can be a lot of fun.
As a side note, we have been playing for 3 seesions now and the Giant Ritual Warrior just started using his combat rites. It seems he would always forget about them during combat.

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

Hey, Morpheus, just curious, but where in Florida are you?

Follow-up question: Any room in your game group?

 

[JoeGKushner]

I use it with D&D, not as a replacement for D&D. THe core races, many of them, are too 'animal' like or weird for me. It's alternative fantasy, but that's not always a good thing.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I use more core races, too. I like the AU/E races, but I'm going to be playing with newbies.