Bagpuss
Legend
If anyone has picked up the Arcana Unearthed (AU) PDF's at RPGNow, could they let us know how useful they might be to someone that already has the book to print out character/race information for their players?
I've picked up the DM's Screen and Player's Guide, which compared to other PDF's isn't really worth the $6 price tag, but then DM screen's are never really worth the price tag, when you consider your are usually paying for a bit of card with rules you already own print on it.
The screen itself comes in three forms all included in the one download, full, letter and 11 x 7, I guess us poor folks in Europe with A4 printers will have to make do with resizing the letter option. Full is two PDFs, front cover (tables) and back cover (the tables). 11 x 7, is the a two panel screen so its like the full PDF cut in half making 4 PDF's, left and right of both sides. The Letter is 6 PDF's as its cut into three panels.
The tables run right to the edge of the page with the cuts running through the tables. This will probably mean people will have to resize them to avoid lossing information in the printers deadzones. The tables are, all the weapons details, Weapon Size adjustments, Size adjustments (useful considering AU's Tiny to Large PC sizes), Strength Checks, Cover & Concealment, Armor, Grenade Weapons, Spotting distance and difficulty, Influencing Attitude, Common weapon/shield, and items hardness & HPs, Attack roll modifiers, Movement, Hampered movement, Actions in Combat and finally Miscellaneous Actions.
Personally I would have prefered to do without the weapon and armour tables (which take up nearly half the screen) never find this sort of information useful myself as DM I write that sort of info with the NPC statblock and the players are already familiar with their weapons. That would have left room for information on two-weapon fighting, modifiers for mounted combat, effects of spell templates, skill checks and the stuff you do need to look up on the spur of the moment.
So the DM's Screen is not really what I need as a DM but I can forgive him since thankfully a lot of the information I need is on the Player's Reference Card. This is a single sheet which has the following tables, Ability Score modifiers (like you really need a table to work them out?), Light sources, the check tables for various skills (Spellcraft, Alchemy, Balance, Climb, Concentration, Heal, Handle Animal, Listen, Use Magical Device, Jump, Ride, Intimidate, Search, Swim, Use Rope, Tumble and Wilderness Survival, did he miss any?), also carry capacity and the effects of loads.
The color front panel is the cover of the main book with some additional art work on either side (I think one side is the Diamond Throne cover). As the picture runs to the edge (and/or you've got a A4 printer) you are going to need to resize this to match the back. Its worth reading the printing instruction text file included for some good advice.
Once you've got it all printed then stick the whole lot to some card, and if you can laminate it or UK audiences can cover it in stickyback plastic as they learn on Blue Peter. It's never going to look as good as one bought in the shop but and it might cost you just as much in ink, card and laminating costs so if you arn't in a rush it might be worth waiting for the hardcopy version.
That leaves us with the Player's Guide, part is primer for the rulebook and part if conversion guide for standard 3rd Edition (and/or 3.5) material. For the players pages 2 to 11 are designed really as a primer for the races and classes Arcana Unearthed rulebook. About a column of discription for each race, including advice on how to roleplay that race, why they might adventure, what classes they tend to prefer and how they view the other races and it even finds room to list their favourite food, drink and weapons at the end. There is a sketched illustration of the races as well which isn't the same as the AU book, and has the Sibeccai looking even more Egyptian. The classes three paragraphs each, each paragraph details an archetype of that class, for example the Akashic suggests archetypes of Jack of All Trades, Loremaster or Spy. These archetypes give a handy grip on the new character types and inspiration for players.
The next section is sort of the opposite to the class section, say you had an idea for a character the next section suggest what class it would best suit and what feats or skills would compliment it. You want to be an Archer then try the Hawk Totem Warrior, with its free Point Blank Shot feat, fancy being a Thief then the unfettered make good burglers, but arn't so good with locks, Runethanes are great with locks but not so sneaky, but Akashics can cover all the skills you need for breaking and entering.
The second chapter (pages 12 to 18), is really for DM's as it's a conversion guide for using AU with a standard D&D (3.0 or 3.5) setting or using other D20 resources with AU. Its pretty straight forward for most things and even has some examples for coverting spells, which is probably the most complex thing to covert.
The last few pages are character sheets, designed to be double sided with a common page detailing skills, racial modifiers, feats, description and equipment; the other page is specific to the character class. They are a nice extra and much more useful than the one in the AU player's handbook.
Overall its very slim for $6 PDF, but its good primer for your players and it's handy to have the Player's Reference Card and character sheets for printing out, but if you cost all the materials you'll need to make the DM's screen and how it will look, it might be worth waiting for the hardcopy.
I've picked up the DM's Screen and Player's Guide, which compared to other PDF's isn't really worth the $6 price tag, but then DM screen's are never really worth the price tag, when you consider your are usually paying for a bit of card with rules you already own print on it.
The screen itself comes in three forms all included in the one download, full, letter and 11 x 7, I guess us poor folks in Europe with A4 printers will have to make do with resizing the letter option. Full is two PDFs, front cover (tables) and back cover (the tables). 11 x 7, is the a two panel screen so its like the full PDF cut in half making 4 PDF's, left and right of both sides. The Letter is 6 PDF's as its cut into three panels.
The tables run right to the edge of the page with the cuts running through the tables. This will probably mean people will have to resize them to avoid lossing information in the printers deadzones. The tables are, all the weapons details, Weapon Size adjustments, Size adjustments (useful considering AU's Tiny to Large PC sizes), Strength Checks, Cover & Concealment, Armor, Grenade Weapons, Spotting distance and difficulty, Influencing Attitude, Common weapon/shield, and items hardness & HPs, Attack roll modifiers, Movement, Hampered movement, Actions in Combat and finally Miscellaneous Actions.
Personally I would have prefered to do without the weapon and armour tables (which take up nearly half the screen) never find this sort of information useful myself as DM I write that sort of info with the NPC statblock and the players are already familiar with their weapons. That would have left room for information on two-weapon fighting, modifiers for mounted combat, effects of spell templates, skill checks and the stuff you do need to look up on the spur of the moment.
So the DM's Screen is not really what I need as a DM but I can forgive him since thankfully a lot of the information I need is on the Player's Reference Card. This is a single sheet which has the following tables, Ability Score modifiers (like you really need a table to work them out?), Light sources, the check tables for various skills (Spellcraft, Alchemy, Balance, Climb, Concentration, Heal, Handle Animal, Listen, Use Magical Device, Jump, Ride, Intimidate, Search, Swim, Use Rope, Tumble and Wilderness Survival, did he miss any?), also carry capacity and the effects of loads.
The color front panel is the cover of the main book with some additional art work on either side (I think one side is the Diamond Throne cover). As the picture runs to the edge (and/or you've got a A4 printer) you are going to need to resize this to match the back. Its worth reading the printing instruction text file included for some good advice.
Once you've got it all printed then stick the whole lot to some card, and if you can laminate it or UK audiences can cover it in stickyback plastic as they learn on Blue Peter. It's never going to look as good as one bought in the shop but and it might cost you just as much in ink, card and laminating costs so if you arn't in a rush it might be worth waiting for the hardcopy version.
That leaves us with the Player's Guide, part is primer for the rulebook and part if conversion guide for standard 3rd Edition (and/or 3.5) material. For the players pages 2 to 11 are designed really as a primer for the races and classes Arcana Unearthed rulebook. About a column of discription for each race, including advice on how to roleplay that race, why they might adventure, what classes they tend to prefer and how they view the other races and it even finds room to list their favourite food, drink and weapons at the end. There is a sketched illustration of the races as well which isn't the same as the AU book, and has the Sibeccai looking even more Egyptian. The classes three paragraphs each, each paragraph details an archetype of that class, for example the Akashic suggests archetypes of Jack of All Trades, Loremaster or Spy. These archetypes give a handy grip on the new character types and inspiration for players.
The next section is sort of the opposite to the class section, say you had an idea for a character the next section suggest what class it would best suit and what feats or skills would compliment it. You want to be an Archer then try the Hawk Totem Warrior, with its free Point Blank Shot feat, fancy being a Thief then the unfettered make good burglers, but arn't so good with locks, Runethanes are great with locks but not so sneaky, but Akashics can cover all the skills you need for breaking and entering.
The second chapter (pages 12 to 18), is really for DM's as it's a conversion guide for using AU with a standard D&D (3.0 or 3.5) setting or using other D20 resources with AU. Its pretty straight forward for most things and even has some examples for coverting spells, which is probably the most complex thing to covert.
The last few pages are character sheets, designed to be double sided with a common page detailing skills, racial modifiers, feats, description and equipment; the other page is specific to the character class. They are a nice extra and much more useful than the one in the AU player's handbook.
Overall its very slim for $6 PDF, but its good primer for your players and it's handy to have the Player's Reference Card and character sheets for printing out, but if you cost all the materials you'll need to make the DM's screen and how it will look, it might be worth waiting for the hardcopy.
And I have nice printable character sheets.
