I'll apologize now if I've made any comments that offended.

John

After reading this thread, I've got things I feel I need to say. I don't where else to put them, so I'll say it here instead of making a new thread.

I think I'm done with Arcanis. I just came back from a convention where a grand total of one person signed up for my games. At the same convention last year, I had signups and walk-ups and people interested in the system. None of them were interested this year.

Maybe Arcanis isn't dying, but it's practically dead here in South Carolina. I only know of a couple of players in North Carolina. I've spent the last few years trying to revive the setting here after the restart, and it's been like walking through quicksand.

In short, I've had several people tell me that the environment on the forums is toxic. I've lost potential players who have already heard rumors about Arcanis, and had those rumors apparently confirmed by the posts here.

For me though, I'm tired of being ignored. I've sent multiple emails, posts, and PMs asking how to become a Harvester so I can work on rebuilding the local community. All ignored. I've had submissions go unanswered. Requests for help redownloading my books has still gone unanswered. Offers of help are repeatedly ignored. Hell, I've tried to submit a new adventure outline twice in the past week, and I can't even get that answered.

I don't expect instant answers of course. There's not enough staff for that. But all I've done over the past few years is try to do my part to help out, and nearly everything I've tried to do is just whispering into the wind.

Maybe Arcanis isn't dying, but I don't see it growing either. It might just be me, I don't know. I'm just tired of feeling unwanted, and that might be a little self-centered, but it's got me at the end of my rope.

I will admit that I don't see THAT much toxic attitude here on the forums (especially compared to many others that I have seen), with the problem mainly being that a few voices (such as mine) simply overwhelm everyone else, be it because we are talking too much or others do not want to talk at all. That being said, the reason I may not see it is because I am one of the major toxic forces on these forums, and if that is true than I apologize profusely. I do not mean to be toxic, and if I have done anything to personally poison someone's experience I apologize profusely.

FGJustice,

You are not alone. I created this thread, and have talked to Matt Flinn on the phone about this. I would ask that you not give up just as I get the fight started in earnest. I am really trying to get this turned around, and your expression of support is helpful. Giving up is not helpful. Stay with me and fight, politely for more civility and professionalism on these forums. The actual PCI folks work hard on keeping this professional and personable. We just need to work on the rest of the vocal minority here.

Everyone else,

I am trying very hard here to impart an impetus towards bettering Arcanis and the online interactions on this forum in 3 ways doing my best to live up to the high standard, requesting that others do the same, and being vocal about what my specific problems are. I started changing myself with a smug line misquoted in a fantasy book, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”, but truthfully these two quotes embody it better:

“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. ... We need not wait to see what others do.” Gandhi

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” Thoreau

In plain modern English, "Do not settle for the way things have always been done. Hold yourself to a higher standard in both thought and action. Doing these two things improves the average of all human interaction just a bit and your own life greatly." Matthew Jenkins

I'm sorry this was your experience. If you do leave, I hope you consider coming back.



There is the occassional heated thread and there are some folks who should probably consider how they phrase things, but my personal experience at least is that the boards are not toxic. If someone happened to catch the wrong thread or the wrong person on the wrong day, it's certainly possible to have a bad experience.

If you can find the offending posts to use as reference points, I'd look a bit further down in the threads to see if someone already stepped in. If not, I'd recommend contacting a moderator to politely point out the concerns, especially if it's leaving such a bad experience. Being able to point to specific exchanges greatly increases the likelihood of action as there's a reference point.



I can appreciate the frustration in not getting a response, especially when you're offering to be helpful. Henry's mom was sick for a number of months and died just 2 - 3 months ago. The company is very small and they are all close friends. Needless to say with that going on it impacted all of them. That was all in the lead up to Origins which is their major con for the year and to a lesser extent to Gencon. Submissions are handled as time allows. The campaign staff are all volunteers. Yes it would be nice to get a quick note acknowledging your submission. Realistically speaking, answers on whether a mod proposal is accepted for drafting is usually measured in multiple weeks.




The current storyline and setting with the First City has a lot more appeal to many folks than the Crusade did. It's easier to find reason to get involved as every race and nation has an interest and stake in it much more tangilbly than with the Crusade.

We do our hobbies for fun. If it's not fun, it's time to find something else at least for a time. If or when you're ready to give it another go, it will hopefully be waiting here for you to try again.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

Are there examples of "toxic behavior" you can point out?

It's been my experience here that most people greet new posters cordially. Obviously mileage must vary.

I'll chime in here since I've been in the same boat as these guys. The forums are far less caustic than they used to be, it seems like it really got better when we lost the baggage of the old forums. As sad as it is to lose that much collected data I do think that the fresh start was helpful for the tone of the entire forums. I actually left for a while before the change of forums and didn't return until I checked for errata on an issue and saw the new site.

Also Arcanis is hard to get into. The main thing is that there is so much that is important to the setting and being able to play in it that is only known by those who have been able to play at the cons since the beginning. I've been hoping the new Codex Arcanis would help alleviate this, but as of yet it is still in production. I have read the original Codex from the D&D 3.0 days as well as the Codex Arcanis section of the ARPG and still don't understand the world that well. There is just too much taken for granted that we are expected to know but can't unless we played the old campaign.

I completely agree with this. I picked up the mechanics of Arcanis pretty quickly (though I still find small rules I missed occasionally). However, I feel like I'm missing huge amounts of information about the world. I've read the old Codex Arcanis, the new CA section, and these forums (but I did not play in the old campaign). However, I still regularly see things being discussed or topics/names mentioned that I've never heard of before (when I ask, people are usually happy to explain but it is a barrier to getting into the game).

The world is definitely very rich. From that perspective it's very hard to understand all of it, but I don't know that that's the point any more than any of us understand all the intricacies of culture and politics within the real world. I've played from the beginning and there is still a ton I don't understand. There's a lot that the characters arguably understand better than the players ever will. If you don't believe me, ask any of the old long term Elorii players. They've waited a long time to understand why even they don't know much about their own culture.

Henry writes from an in world perspective or has at least through much of the early supplements. It is a rich voice, but also one that's inherently flawed by the limited understanding, misconceptions and biases of that in world narrator. It's part of what has led to so many discussions and arguments about fundamentals of the world.



The old Codex Arcanis has a ton of useful information and can be downloaded for free. There are two supplements covering the first 2 years hard points that can be purchased. They are the Year of Ill Harvest and the Year of the Fall. You can find snippets of information about the world in each of the D20 books. Henry also recently announced that they planned to make more available and that he'd make an announcement I think before end of summer. It's a separate thread somewhere.

Another thing to realize is that there are times when it's an advantage not to know more than your character. The reactions are more genuine than if you recognize X horrible monster. Not everything is as it appears.

Give it some time and you'll pick up on things. Or ask people about specific topics and they can help fill in answers and details.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

Alright, I can't keep quiet any longer.

I'm locking this thread down as it is no longer serving any positive purpose.

If anyone has any issues with anyone on this board or a particular thread, then send me an email or PM. Making blanket accusations that the "board is toxic" without giving any examples is worthless and is causing some who (IMO) are an asset to the community to question their own posts.

Enough!

You know what is toxic: Making statements like, "Arcanis is dying". First off, Arcanis is a commercial line and if we didn't have the sales to keep it in the black, we wouldn't keep supporting it. Obviously we are and have three or four new titles in production - something we wouldn't do if the line were dead. I'm sure some day it will, as all good things must, but that day is not today or anywhere on the horizon.

It is my experience, with some few exceptions, that the players on here are friendly and helpful; going out of their way to explain things.

Is Arcanis hard to get into cold? Yep. It does take a certain amount of investment of time and energy to know every nook and cranny of the game. If you're the type of person that needs to know everything about something you're interested in (I happen to be such a person) then it will take a lot of time and energy to do so, but none of the back story is essential to the current storyline (or the previous one for that matter).

So play nice and be polite on these boards. If anyone is out of line and I (or someone else from the Staff) doesn't put a stop to it, then bring it to my attention. My email is PCIHenry@gmail.com

Thank you!