I've been a fan of Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved since back when it was first published as Arcana Unearthed. AE brings a fresh approach to dungeoning and dragoning, with flavorful new classes, races, and spells. With 20 plus years of swording orcs under my belt, a new approach might be just what the doctor ordered to revitalize flabby gaming muscles. But my big problem with AE, beyond the learning curve for the new spells and whatnot, is the setting. Neither the 'giants in charge' gimmick of the original nor the 'return of the dragons' dynamic of the new edition are sufficient to make me groove on Cook's campaign world. So I've been knocking around a couple of other ideas. My basic approach is to treat AE just like baseline D&D: as a toolkit for creating your own fantasy setting. So far I've got two ideas.
Warmains & Magisters - AE neatly excises many nauseatingly familiar bits of post-Tolkien garbage that have accumulated around D&D. What if we simply re-inserted the Evolved rules into a pseudo-historical dark ages setting? Think Pendragon or Harn, but with the knights played by warmains and the Faen standing in for the elves. I'd probably cut some things to make this concept work. You don't need the Akashic or Oathsworn classes, for instance. And the furries would get the boot as well. The giants would prolly be recast as villains. Add some squabbling barons, wicked sorceresses, damsels in distress, and a few hungry dragons and you're ready to go.
The Algine Chronicle - Here's a weirder idea. The planet Algine in Traveller's Spinward Marches setting, an Earth-like balkanized lowtech world. For reasons unknown, the 3rd Imperium has declared Algine a Red Zone, i.e. all civilian traffic is interdicted. Under this campaign proposal Algine is subject to Imperial quarantine because those naughty Ancients mucked with the world. Back in the day they transplanted several sentient races to Algine: humans (which may have since split into multiple branches), Aslan (Litorians), and Vargr (Sibbeccai). Droyne still living on Algine are played by the Dracha. Aberrations take the role of native flora and fauna. Toss in some hi-tech stuff or psionics for that science fantasy feel. Crash a shipful of Imperial PCs for a Planetary Romance kind of game. Rock out on an alien world.
I still have at least one half-formed idea for AE with its cononical setting. One of my favorite things about AE is the lack of a separate category of Divine Magic. Without clerics and their ilk constantly treating the divine like their own personal toolboxes, the gods are much more mysterious and distant. And the truth about the divine is much harder to suss out. Which leads me to the Return of the Rune Messiah. Is he or she really the Chosen One? If the self-proclaimed Messiah changes the world for the better, does it matter? What if the realm catches 'messiah fever' with multiple competing messiahs preaching different messages? Can the PCs both support the real Messiah and prevent large scale religious bloodshed when their Messiah is opposed by a convincing faker?
- American Racing : Compete for stock-car dominance on 12 different tracks in this power-packed racing game. Free Online Car Games from ...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
The Star Wars Heromachine toy solved a problem for me. I needed a character sketch for one of my PCs for my upcoming Encounter Critical c...
-
Spongebob and Squidward held a jet ski match,you can choose the hero you like,and try your best to win the first prize.come on!
-
Me: How's it hanging? God: I am fine, thank you. Me: I hear your birthday is coming up. God: Who is saying my birthday is coming up?...
-
The prince of the fruit Kingdom fell in love with the princess of enemy country. they have no alternatives, the prince and the princes...
-
Honestly, now that I've seen the Tyranid codex in all its "glory", I think it's time for me to say it: I think Games Work...
-
Royal Spartans! Summer's been pretty dry for in terms of minis, but I have been playing a lot of computer games. Right now, I'm pla...
-
In D&D as I have known it for 20+ years most combat encounters go to a definite conclusion, mostly the death of one side in the conflict...
-
I'm probably going to get thrashed for saying this; but I think Dark Eldar are going to be a master-class army. I've read through t...
-
Looks like it's a write-off guys! You guys probably know that I like Phil Kelly's writing and design philosophies, but I have really...
No comments:
Post a Comment