Arcanis: Cradle of Empires KickStarter is now LIVE!

Let me say upfront, that I haven’t purchased anything off the Kickstarter, though I’m sure I’m going to at some point.

If I were one of those people who picked up something that was initially touted as ‘limited’ and ‘special’ and then later the same, identical thing would become available, it would SERIOUSLY irk me. It is one thing if something was similar but still have some differences; that wouldn’t really bother me.

I agree with Toni, as well as Joe and Encali (can’t remember what name goes with the Screen name, sorry). We are in a small Living campaign, with only–what?–100 players that showed up to Origins? This means that, assuming everyone who took a backer tier for a unique character (not counting the “current character as undead”, or the Elorii tier) and used that character at Cons would correspond to some 12% of the total player base! Granted that there are probably more than 100 players in total in the greater ArcaniSphere, but this still represents a MASSIVE percentage of your player base, exclusive of all other things. Each of these tiers represents individuals within the universe, not the variations of the common people that make up the rest of the campaign. There are thousands of val’Holryns out there, so there is no need to restrict their play, but there are only 4 TOTAL Psionic Black Talons in the entire world of Arcanis. As such, every additional one of these ‘special characters’ makes them extremely LESS special within the bounds of the story.

But Nierite, you may say, but who cares about the Living Campaign as all I want is a neat character?! Well, the thing is that once the rules for these are published (and for some of them they will be published eventually), you can play them in home campaigns to your heart’s content, but NONE of them will be campaign legal. These tiers are for Campaign legality, and as such the more rare they are the more precious they are, which means no more of them.

This means that, assuming everyone who took a backer tier for a unique character (not counting the “current character as undead”, or the Elorii tier) and used that character at Cons would correspond to some 12% of the total player base! Granted that there are probably more than 100 players in total in the greater ArcaniSphere, but this still represents a MASSIVE percentage of your player base, exclusive of all other things.
The flaw in the assumptions in your math is that there are single individuals that bought multiple rewards. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, I’m by no means complaining as I honestly don’t care. Sure, there are some things that can’t logically be increased (the daughters, for example), but how would creating 5, 10, or even 20 more ‘slots’ for PCs to own businesses hurt anyone, for another example?

Hello,

I assume that there is a limited amount of space in the book to mention PC run businesses amid the guide to the city. Otherwise I agree that there is no reason why other players shouldn’t have the chance to run a business.

Correct. The book was originally planned as a 128 page book. Since there’s a good chance that the Bestiary add on is going to be met, that pushes the book up to 144 pages. In looking back through the material and the great new crunch the Development Team is creating, I’m concerned we’re going to go above the 160 page mark, which would throw all costs and shipping calculations out the window.

So as I’m going to write up each and every new business and include them in the book and because there is a limited amount of space available, I can’t throw open the gates on that Reward Level.

Ahhh my mistake! I missed the part about the businesses being written up in the book. In that case, from a (real world) business perspective, it totally makes sense.

Hello,

I assume that there is a limited amount of space in the book to mention PC run businesses amid the guide to the city. Otherwise I agree that there is no reason why other players shouldn’t have the chance to run a business.

Correct. The book was originally planned as a 128 page book. Since there’s a good chance that the Bestiary add on is going to be met, that pushes the book up to 144 pages. In looking back through the material and the great new crunch the Development Team is creating, I’m concerned we’re going to go above the 160 page mark, which would throw all costs and shipping calculations out the window.

So as I’m going to write up each and every new business and include them in the book and because there is a limited amount of space available, I can’t throw open the gates on that Reward Level.

I’m betting that val’Vasik ability gets nerfed a little. It was just silly.

Well, the thing is that once the rules for these are published (and for some of them they will be published eventually), you can play them in home campaigns to your heart’s content, but NONE of them will be campaign legal.Assuming all get printed.

Hopefully whoever wins the pledge levels will post details for those of us curious about them (and/or wanting to use them in home games). Unless, of course, there is something in them that other players should not know…

@Akira – THe issue I have with the Master Smith option that you mention is that it would effectively take a character out of play. Such an apprenticeship would require a considerable amount of time to complete. If taken as a background, then what would be the real benefit? Crafting of items, etc is not supported by the campaign, so I don’t see it being worth the money spent.
Henry/other campaign staff,

I meant to ask about this a while ago, and didn’t get around to it. The rules under Artisan seem fairly complete. I would agree that the campaign doesn’t make it easy to craft (I’d love to see something on CPs to record crafting more easily), your statement above seems to imply that we aren’t allowed to craft items.

If my Nol Dappan were, for instance, to craft himself a set of armour, with my roll observed by a GM, etc, would it not be campaign legal? I thought there had been a ruling earlier that PCs could create anything up to and including Exceptional items.

This is a bit of a concern as I was planning on having my ‘special item’ be a set of smith’s hammers.