Arcana unearthed Vs. Unearthed Arcana

[Henry]

Don't know if the new UA was in the works at the time that AU came out and which if either party was aware of the other.

Piece of update to that: When Monte started the gruntwork of making AU a reality (late 2002), he asked the WotC Licensing department if it was premissible to use the Name "Arcana Unearthed" in his product. They gave him the go-ahead. Then, about two months after AU is released, WotC announces that they have a variant rules book being released called "UA" in homage to the old title. I know Monte didn't ride the new UA's coattails, but Truth is I don't think WotC did the reverse either. It was more like "The marketing department didn't know what the license department was doing" which is par for the course in any organization over 10 or 20 people.

 

[Tolen Mar]

You know what really gets me angry?

When I mention my Arcana Unearthed Campaign, and someone goes "You cant run a campaign in that, its just optional rules!"

The problem is, I never know whether to be angry that they just are uninformed, or be angry that the titles are so similar...

I also wish people wouldn't put down Monte Fanboys. I like Monte's work, in general, but I dont rush out to buy everything he writes. Some of it just isnt that impressive or useful. However, if it has his name on it, I will pick it up and give it a lookover. I like his work enough that when he puts something out, I want to see it, but it doesnt mean I have to have everything he's done.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

More likely, Monte named his book AU as a tip of the hat (sarcastic or genuine) to the then old book.

This story, incidentally, is explained in the original FAQ on the book, very last question. Monte talks about his reasons for doing AU here.

With respect to the Diamond Throne setting, that's a separate book. I think it's a mistake to say that you have to use it. There are bits of the implicit setting in MCAU, but you can easily ignore those to slot the new races, classes, feats, equipment and spells into your existing campaign. Diamond Throne is a really neat setting, but I wouldn't pass by a chance to get the base AU book because the setting's mentioned once or twice. The spellcasting system alone was worth the price of the book.

Unearthed Arcana was a decent book. I liked a lot of the ideas in it. I also particularly enjoyed the notes from Ed Perkins on his houserules. My one notable disappointment with UA was that I thought there wasn't enough detail on the variant rules. I can do a lot of work on my own to adapt stuff, but if I'm going to pick up someone else's take on a variant ruleset, I like to get it reasonably complete. My secondary disappointment with the book was that it wasn't as much like the original, but that's just a flare of nostalgia that I ignore.

A lot of folks were asking for the variants like Wounds/Vitality, Action Points, Item Familiars and Gestalt characters. So Wizards delivered. One of the best variant rules for my use was Test-based Prerequisites for Prestige Classes. I wish that had been triple the page size! Complex Skill Checks is a concept that I used before coming back to 3E. If only that had been part of the 3.0 DMG. Ah well.

Some people will use one of these two and like it. Some will us both. A few will use neither.

 

[Thotas]

Actually, Diaglo, when you start approaching the speed of light one of the more notable effects is time dialation. It causes time to go slower for you. Go fast enough, and while everyone else lives out 3 decades, you might only notice, oh, say, 3 years.

From what I gather, you like it that way ...

 

[Red Viper]

So if AU doesn't work well to use with D&D then, do any of the books work to intergrate w/D&D, like The complete book of Eldritch might?

 

[Frilf]

So if AU doesn't work well to use with D&D then, do any of the books work to intergrate w/D&D, like The complete book of Eldritch might?

AU works pretty well with D&D, actually, if what I've heard is to be believed. The new races, classes, etc. were designed with the idea of coexisting peacefully with the current D&D ruleset & settings or replacing them entirely (with many degrees of variation in between) at the DM's option.

BTW, there at least one basis for comparison between UA and AU: They both present the DM with options for their campaign. Monte's work does it in a full-fledged campaign setting format and WotC's is a collection of disassociated rules for use in existing D&D worlds.

Like Mouseferatu pointed out earlier, however - I find UA much more useful and interesting than AU. Not that AU isn't done well - it's top notch. It's just not my cup o' java... A good idea mine, though.

 

[HellHound]

Unearthed Arcana is a source of variant rules - an excellent toolbox for a GM or a d20 game designer working on alternate settings, a homebrew campaign or whatever else. We have used about 1/3 of the material from UA in our various campaigns since it was released, to generally great effect. The main thing here is that this book stays well within the accepted D&D memes (elves live in trees, dwarves underground, goblins are filthy).

Arcana Unearthed is related to Dungeons & Dragons the same way a lot of other fantasy roleplaying games were related to Dungeons & Dragons in the 80's. It is a game with different races from the ground up, that basically uses the same rules, but breaks away from SOME of the D&D meme to enter its own territory. Just like Arcanum in its day, this book has inspired me with ideas and has made me interested in running a game using the rules, but in the end all that will happen, most likely, is that I will grab a few tid-bits from this and add them to my D&D game.

 

[Barcode]

I don't think it's fair to characterize it as a poor seller, though, as this kinda implies. AU sold a buttload of books. Last year at GenCon, when it wasn't officially released (but was about to be) it sold more books than White Wolf has ever sold at GenCon. Also, the nature of the book shouldn't really have been a surprise to anyone who ever heard a Monte Cook fanboy rave, because it was all over the 'net. Not only that, if you just flipped through the book you would have seen what kind of book it was, and that you'd have a lot of material redundant with your basic D&D books.

I'd call that a testament to the power of hype. I was one of the many buying, at list price with few middlemen, AU at GenCon last year. I didn't read it through carefully enough, mostly because I trusted the stellar recommendations I had heard on this board and elsewhere. (And because my time in the dealers' room was cut drastically short by GenCon's organizational debacles, but that is another topic). I only gave it a good read through on the flight home, and it was at that point that I concluded that the recommendations must have been based at least as much on personality as content. S'okay, my fault for being (at least in this instance) a sheep. Mea Culpa.

I do not contest it's market performance, nor did I intend to mischaracterize it. I only mean that after the initial release excitement passed, I had buyer's remorse, ditched my copy and my FLGS hasn't sold it yet. That's all. YMMV.