Arcanis: Cradle of Empires KickStarter is now LIVE!

The problem with many of those is that they can fall into the category of “Story-breaking”. For example, we all KNOW that Calmemnon is going to come back in some horrifying way from Dar Zhan Vor, and to have some of his Legionnaires come back would be 1) telling of what happened, 2) kind of hamstrings PCI for telling that story somewhat. The same for the Khitani: Until PCI writes up the new Codex Arcanis or a Khitani Empire supplement similar to this Blessed Lands one, playing a Khitani would be a bit hard as we really no nothing about them and it crimps stories to reveal.

Possible options that are less-Story breaking:

1) Exiles from a ‘proscribed’ nation – From Canceri or Abessios are the easiest, and you can have certed permission to play an Exile/Expatriot from those nations, or even a simple “you can play an Ashen Hide!” While I’d love to see one from Ymandragore, I think that it is a bit hard to fit into the Living Campaign as any exile from Ymandragore would probably be hunted so much that they’d have to have a set of stat-blocks to give to every Chronicler at every mod they play for a ‘random encounter.’ Similar thing to the Malfelans, though it would be EVERYONE hunting you and not just the Ymandrakes.

2) Ability to play a Hainese/Legion of Unyielding Courage – We already have an option for playing a Bastionite val’Vasik, so possibilities for opening up the other two main ‘free’ nations of the Blessed Lands.

3) More “Descendant of” Certs – Allow players to be minor children or cousins (in character) of members of some of the ruling houses of Arcanis. Not one of Scipio’s or Gerhardt’s kids, but say a cadet branch of the val’Dellenov of Sylvania or the val’Ossan of Salantis, or even one of the Vassal families (like a Gracchi of Grand Coryan).

4) Minor Artifact – Allow the Heroes the opportunity to purchase a single published item of their tier or less that would otherwise not be allowed to buy (ie: Magical items which are thus far un-purchasable).

5) Portrait of a Character – Have yourself (or, with description, your character) done up by Pat Loboyko (since you’re paying extra, you are basically using PCI as a broker for a commissioned piece). This could take the form of a Digital portrait, with extra money going to providing a REAL portrait (digital, however, can be printed. . .).

6) Cert Shirt Return! – I’d love to see more of these, and get some

7) A less-important ‘special mission’, say at a BI or Convention – Basically, you pay for the right to go on one of the special missions that were so famous about some of the earlier BI’s, such as a commando raid on an Altheran Airship, while everyone else is defending the walls of a city. This is not a unique adventure where you learn terrifying secrets of Arcanis, but it is still a fun activity!

8) Knighthoods – Get a chance to play a former Knight of the Dolphin Guard, or Red Dragoon from the Western Lands.

9) Able to play a Descendant of Caneturec the Infernal, and therefore gain the ability to play a Psionic Dark-kin.

Allow a character to be made an NPC of some sort. Either a previous campaign character or a current one but if it is current, the character must be retired immediately, becoming unplayable.

Allow someone to play a member of the Legion of Tempestuous Fury . This was the legion from Metra and had Ig of the Many Tongues. They found the lost standard and Calcestus granted them permission to reform.

Maybe a ‘hidden’ reward. Basically, you pledge and based on the character background you supply, PCI will work up something specific just for that character. Sort of like you would do in a home game setting. Depending on the amount you decided to make this pledge and the level of trust in the specific person, this could be rather neat.

Weren’t some people wanting to play a val’Sughn at some point?

Something that I thought was really neat from the last campaign that hasn’t made its way into this version is the idea of something bonded to a character’s soul/intellect. It doesn’t even have to be an item and it doesn’t have to be positive. But it added an interesting dimension.

Maybe another special table, specifically done in person? Or, this is something that you could just do at the bigger cons for free. *hint*

Titles, Knighthoods, Legionnaires, etc. . I liked the Dolphin Guard idea, but that’s a personal bias and something I’d hope could be added to an existing character.

I think that you should really branch out from just putting up new character options, instead offering some things that can be added to existing characters.

I think that you should really branch out from just putting up new character options, instead offering some things that can be added to existing characters.

My wife has good ideas (at times). I want to support this one.

Since many of us are already down the path pretty far would be nice to add some cool story/role-playing things to those characters.

I like a lot of ideas so far, though wanted to comment on a few.

For the ul I was thinking maybe a single family or maybe 2 if there could be enough information provided for them rather than fleshing them out fully. Maybe it’s even a minor family limited mostly to the Blessed Lands / First City area. If there’d be too much cultural information required, then I agree it’s too much. The same applies with the val’Sungha, though that would be cool.

I’m not in favor of the minor artifact suggestion as that feels like spending money for mechanical advantage. With the other options so far while they open up new opportunities or combinations (combining psionics and ss’ressen for example) they’re available separately. Even something like Ashen Hide is likely balanced against other available races.

I like Tori’s suggestion for official canon NPC status for a character, potentially even a former character. I’m toying with the idea of having one of my characters from the last campaign own the business in the first city or perhaps his child and in so doing make the previous character canon.

Many of us that play, play because of the story far more than the mechanics. That’s always been Arcanis’ strength. Tori’s suggestion for the tailored “hidden” reward also sounds intriguing. Very likely a double edged sword, but fun nonetheless.

Another idea I had was for Henry to put up certain answers or information as target goals. He would provide the list or a list to be voted on and then once those are achieved decide how to provide it. Consider for example him telling us that X from the Codex is false. That certainly opens up a lot of questions of what is truth, but would be very interesting to know. Ygg = Anshar is confirmed, what about Belisarda though?

Lots of possibilities.

With a sweep of his…

Hat

Dark kin life redemption quests, some to mind as possible Path advancement choices

You already have 1,2,3,4,5, you may want to try 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 as daily releases until people dont seem to have a lot of interest in special options.

Those are fantastic options, and Elorii and B.E.A.S.T. would probably be really happy with them

Hello everyone,

4. The special table was a big hit and I’ve been asked (threatened) to make more tables. I’m considering opening another table.

Thoughts?

I like the general idea of (more) special tables. I think many others do, too.

These have to be a fair bit of work, so a notion that struck me is, would there be a chance to have more tables by spreading the burden around some possible?

Can there be tables written/run by the rest of Team Paradigm, or some of the campaign staff? I think both Tony and Joe have pretty extensive experience writing, etc….

Though _obviously_ these seats would not get the same top-dollar as if Henry was running the event… *grin* I bet they’d still have significant popularity.

Alternate thought/option – have a 6 person table be X dollars, where one person makes the pledge then gathers their pals to fill out the table. Or a group that plays together could request a specific mission.