Greetings!
I finally recieved the book, and must say that I am impressed. I think you all did a great job. I first picked up Arcanum back in the late eighties (My mom bought it for me despite concern regarding the big red pentagram on black!). Soon after I was able to find a copy of the Bestiary. I never did find a copy of the Lexicon however. All I ever had to go on was the map and brief gazeteer in Arcanum. So perusing the "world" section of Atlantis was a treat indeed. Surprisingly, it is far different than I expected - and I mean that in a good way. We ended up using Arcanum in FR (another present from my mother!) and didn't do much with the Arcanum setting way back then. Now perusing the setting I see it in far more detail, and it really appeals to me. It is kind of like a more diverse "Age of Conan" for lack of a better term. The world seems to stretch from Precursor Real World Cultures to Sword and Sorcery staples to extremely High Magick Atlantis. It leaves open the possiblitiy of vastly different types of campaigns depending on where you are in the world - and the possibilites of such worlds overlapping. I love it. As I never had the Lexicon, I don't know how much of the material is existing or was expanded upon. Whether old, new or a combination of the two, as it stands it is a world rife with gaming possibilities.
Well done.
Back to memory lane....
For our group, Arcanum soon became the system of choice back then, with many of its innovations and diverse magic systems, and we used it all the way up until 3e came out. I have always looked for a way to incorporate a lot of that into 3e, and other than the spells, was unable. When I picked up Tal4 by shooting iron a few years ago, I right away noticed some of the similarities between it (now called the OMNI system) and D20. Closer examination revelaed that the original system had several people who were likely key in the design of 3e/d20 as well. Imagine my surprise when I found the OGL system reference at the back of the Atlantis 2E book. I am guessing that this offically ties a rope of some sorts to between d20 and OMNI - the both have the same ancestors ofically now, it seems. Anyways, as I was saying, I was always looking for a "bridge" between the old Arcanum and d20, and I am thinking that this may be it! For me, like Arcanum did to Old DnD - OMNI might do the same to DnD - innovate d20 into something that fits my style of gaming more.
For those that don't know, the OMNI system is very much like a rules light version of D20. It is far more open ended than D20, which I like. It is a level-less class-less system that utilizes a lot of the D20 staples, but then heads of in its own directions as well. A neat little elegant system that does a lot of what D20 does in a lighter frame. Classes are replaced by "Callings" and every calling can be unique based on the Talents you choose. Talents are like feats and/or grouped like the ability chains unique to each DnD class. Then there are weapons skills to replace D20's BAB - something I have always been in favor of. In the end it is a real nice flexible system that allows you to create the exact type of character you want.
Even if you don't decide to use OMNI, the system is close enough to D20 that conversion will be rather easy. In the end, I will probably find a medium in between the two, allowing me to run OMNI, but still utilize the vast library of D20 that I have accumulated. Best of both worlds
I do have some other questions, but I will post them over on the yahoo group. I just wanted to express my kudos, and hopefully give some other people a reason to check it out.
Thanks Morrigan for breathing new life into Arcanum again.
Razuur
I finally recieved the book, and must say that I am impressed. I think you all did a great job. I first picked up Arcanum back in the late eighties (My mom bought it for me despite concern regarding the big red pentagram on black!). Soon after I was able to find a copy of the Bestiary. I never did find a copy of the Lexicon however. All I ever had to go on was the map and brief gazeteer in Arcanum. So perusing the "world" section of Atlantis was a treat indeed. Surprisingly, it is far different than I expected - and I mean that in a good way. We ended up using Arcanum in FR (another present from my mother!) and didn't do much with the Arcanum setting way back then. Now perusing the setting I see it in far more detail, and it really appeals to me. It is kind of like a more diverse "Age of Conan" for lack of a better term. The world seems to stretch from Precursor Real World Cultures to Sword and Sorcery staples to extremely High Magick Atlantis. It leaves open the possiblitiy of vastly different types of campaigns depending on where you are in the world - and the possibilites of such worlds overlapping. I love it. As I never had the Lexicon, I don't know how much of the material is existing or was expanded upon. Whether old, new or a combination of the two, as it stands it is a world rife with gaming possibilities.
Well done.
Back to memory lane....
For our group, Arcanum soon became the system of choice back then, with many of its innovations and diverse magic systems, and we used it all the way up until 3e came out. I have always looked for a way to incorporate a lot of that into 3e, and other than the spells, was unable. When I picked up Tal4 by shooting iron a few years ago, I right away noticed some of the similarities between it (now called the OMNI system) and D20. Closer examination revelaed that the original system had several people who were likely key in the design of 3e/d20 as well. Imagine my surprise when I found the OGL system reference at the back of the Atlantis 2E book. I am guessing that this offically ties a rope of some sorts to between d20 and OMNI - the both have the same ancestors ofically now, it seems. Anyways, as I was saying, I was always looking for a "bridge" between the old Arcanum and d20, and I am thinking that this may be it! For me, like Arcanum did to Old DnD - OMNI might do the same to DnD - innovate d20 into something that fits my style of gaming more.
For those that don't know, the OMNI system is very much like a rules light version of D20. It is far more open ended than D20, which I like. It is a level-less class-less system that utilizes a lot of the D20 staples, but then heads of in its own directions as well. A neat little elegant system that does a lot of what D20 does in a lighter frame. Classes are replaced by "Callings" and every calling can be unique based on the Talents you choose. Talents are like feats and/or grouped like the ability chains unique to each DnD class. Then there are weapons skills to replace D20's BAB - something I have always been in favor of. In the end it is a real nice flexible system that allows you to create the exact type of character you want.
Even if you don't decide to use OMNI, the system is close enough to D20 that conversion will be rather easy. In the end, I will probably find a medium in between the two, allowing me to run OMNI, but still utilize the vast library of D20 that I have accumulated. Best of both worlds
I do have some other questions, but I will post them over on the yahoo group. I just wanted to express my kudos, and hopefully give some other people a reason to check it out.
Thanks Morrigan for breathing new life into Arcanum again.
Razuur
