Arcanis or Scarred Lands - Help me decide

[catsclaw227]

I really love the Scarred Lands.

I have many supplements, and though they do a lot of cross-referencing, they are really cheap to find now and you can get a really well described setting that is different than vanilla.

That said.... In my opinion, I think you would kill some of the flavor of the Titanspawn if you took away their non-human aspects -- just look at the Hornsaw and tell me how to make that human-centric...

 

[Voadam]

That said.... In my opinion, I think you would kill some of the flavor of the Titanspawn if you took away their non-human aspects -- just look at the Hornsaw and tell me how to make that human-centric...

The Hornsaw is not part of civilized PC society. It is not really a home base for PCs to come from IMO. It is a source of bad guy nonhumans the good guy humans go in to wipe out.

 

[catsclaw227]

<snip> .... not devoid of the other races but they should have there own homes away from the human settlements and should be an uncommon sight ... <snip>

Oops... I didn't see that part.

Let's just chalk up this case of selective thread skimming as result of lack of sleep and guilt over reading enworld instead of working.

 

[Leatherfut]

That said.... In my opinion, I think you would kill some of the flavor of the Titanspawn if you took away their non-human aspects -- just look at the Hornsaw and tell me how to make that human-centric...

I'm a little unclear on Titanspawn. Are they part of society or are they warped people who now live away from civilization and are there to be killed by the pc's?

Oops... I didn't see that part.

Let's just chalk up this case of selective thread skimming as result of lack of sleep and guilt over reading enworld instead of working.

Guilt Shmilt. Enworld makes you happy and therefore a more productive worker.

happy gaming
Frank

 

[catsclaw227]

I'm a little unclear on Titanspawn. Are they part of society or are they warped people who now live away from civilization and are there to be killed by the pc's?

Titanspawn are the monsters/creatures/races that were created by the Titans, and were their allies during the war between the Gods and Titans. Each titan created different types of creatures, for example Hags were generally children of Mormo.

These creatures are fairly important to the world's (recent) history and cultural/ecological system.

I would recommend that you read a few of the freebie articles available on the Scarred Lands. If you can't find them, shoot me an email (matto323 [at] yahoo [dot] com) and I can point you in the right direction.

 

[GreyWizard77]

Arcanis

I'll put in another vote for Arcanis. In additiona to what Sunaj2k3 mentioned earlier, I'll add some additional informaiton.

Alignment - Arcanis is much more "morally grey" then other settings. The gods themselves don't have alignments, and not everyone who is "evil" detects that way. Sometimes you just don't know who's on who's side. Also, Paladin's don't need to be LG, just Good. There are paladin alternatives called Holy Champions, which represent a specic deity/church faction. Those alignments can vary depening on what aspect of the god they serve.

Non-Humans - Most of the standard non-hum races have been radically altered. Dwarves are cursed, elves are descended from elementals, and halflings are extinct. It provides some nice RP opportunities, as each of the various races all have different relations with humans. Most of the races have their own nations. There's even a race of psionics who rule the humans and are descended from the gods, and also a race of humans decended from Infernals (demons/devils) who all share a "taint"

Historcial flavor - In addition to the Roman flavor, there's also a nation with flintlocks and clockwork constructs, along with more "standard" medieval nations.

Product support - Paradigm listens to it's fans. They have several books in the pipe and some that have just come out. They just produced their own psionic system, and also have a Divine book in the making. The original "fluffy" Codex should be out in the next couple months. They have MANY free adventures online at www.livingarcanis.com. Also, the LA Year 1 mods have just been re-released and should be in stores soon.

I hope that helps.

 

[Fedifensor]

Both are good settings, though Scarred Lands was a bit hit or miss with their books. I also wasn't impressed with the one god per alignment setup, which felt too artificial. That said, Hollowfaust is still one of my favorite gaming supplements.

The creator of Arcanis, Henry Lopez, puts story first and does very little on the rules side. While the rules vary somewhat in quality based upon who is writing them*, the story elements of Arcanis are consistently excellent. While Arcanis is a fantasy setting with no direct links to the real world, there are a few analogs that make it easier to picture the setting. Coryan is similar to the Roman empire, Milandir is similar to medieval Germany, etc. It also has an interesting take on the nonhuman races - an Elorii is the Arcanis equivalent of an elf, and yet quite different than your typical pointy-ear from FR or Greyhawk.

As for the Year of Ill Harvest, it came out at Origins this year (along with the revised Codex Arcanis and Psionics Unbound). It's not on the website yet because it's not hitting the retail stores until September or October. Keep in mind that while Scarred Lands had White Wolf doing the publishing, the people writing Arcanis are doing this in addition to their real-life jobs (kind of like how Necromancer Games works, I believe). So they put more effort on high-quality books than keeping their website 100% current.


* Disclaimer - I'm listed as a (unpaid) contributor in a few of the books, with a few PrCs and spells to my credit.

 

[Wik]

I'm a little amazed NightFall hasn't shown up. He is, after all, a Scarred Lands freak.

I'm not a huge fan of either setting, truth be told. Scarred Lands really is hit or miss, though - And some of the "misses" are godawful.

 

[Ceresco]

I am an unapologetic Arcaniac.

I strongly encourage you to take a close look at Arcanis: The World of Shattered Empires. The setting book, The Codex Arcanis, is 95% story and setting. The support and degree of responsiveness from Paradigm Concepts is unparrallelled among gaming companies.

The Year of Ill Harvest has just been released at the big cons this summer and will be seen in a retailer or online store near you. This is the beginning of the amazing story arc that will drop you deep into the flavor of Arcanis. After that I recommend A Carnival of Swords as your next adventure. Then, you and your players will truly be initaited into the majesty that is being an Arcaniac.

And if you have any speicifc questions I'd only be too happy to answer them for you.


Respectfully,

Edward Kopp: Arcaniac at Large

 

[Paradigm]

Hello all,

There has been a lot of good information as regards Arcanis in this thread already. I would just like to add some information:

Year of Ill Harvest, which is a great place to begin your Arcanis adventures has a street date of October 15. Some Arcanis fans have a few of our advance copies that were available at Origins and GenCon.

Arcanis is a setting that highlights moral questions. For example, the Codex Arcanis (our bestselling setting book) was designed with that very idea in mind. Each chapter of the Codex details an individual nation and each was written from that nation's point of view. Therefore, the same event will be told from two (or more) points of view. Also, unlike most fantasy settings the Gods are not portrayed in absolute black and white. The Gods handed down their commandments thousands of years ago and men have translated them into other languages, interpreted as they see fit, and in some cases possibly perverted them into profane mockeries of what once was.

Arcanis is already human dominated. It will require little work to extract the non-humans if you so choose, though I think you may really enjoy the unusual treatments of the nonhuman races.

An additional benefit is that Arcanis remains a going concern and one can expect more Arcanis titles in the future.