Ars Arcanum

[Voidgere]

This has been my pet project for over two years. I placed a reply in the general category and am placing this thread for responses and feedback.

I look forward to everyone's thoughts.

[Rob Lang]

Hey voidgere, welcome to 1KM1KT - is Ars Arcanum a free game? You might not get much response here because 1KM1KT is about free games.

[Voidgere]

Well, I mean I would hope to market it to make some dough but as of right now, lets just be honest. Independent studios of one (like myself) don't make much of a dent in the industry, lol.

So yea, I guess its free.

By and by, why do you ask?

[Rob Lang]

Two reasons, really. 1KM1KT is really about free stuff, so you might be better off getting feedback somewhere like , where there are small press publishers that have made some cash from print on demand. Most of the people here are more along the lines of 'I made this free thing, anyone want it?'. The second reason is that I write , where I review free things on the web and I'd be happy to review it but it really does need to be free. Of course, you can have the PDF free for download and then sell a book for people who want a hardcopy and can't be bothered to print.

So, onto more interesting things...

Give us all a couple of lines about what you're trying to achieve with Ars Arcanum... why is it different? Give us a pitch!

[Voidgere]

Ah, I got ya. With that said, I see no reason why not to share this game with everyone.

In a nutshell, Ars Arcanum was designed around the notion that magic users are not just support characters. I wanted to really let the traditional support "class" really shine. So I designed a system and background to bring them to the forefront of the action.

However, because my system is more skill and maneuver based really any "class" can be designed. I also really despise the "spell system" of D20 games and really wanted to design an open magic system similar to White Wolf's Mage the Ascension.

The background is a rich fantasy setting that is on the verge of open war. It provides a fertile ground for roleplay and action. It can lend itself to all the spectrum's of game play (i.e political, action, dungeon crawl, exploration, etc.)

I personally have 15 years of gaming experience and attempted to use all my knowledge of a dozen different game systems and a myriad of game environments to bring the game to life.

I just wanted to to get an extra set of eyes (or a dozen as the case may be) to look it over and find any weak points in the mechanics or see any unexplored aspect of the world setting that feels like it needs to be developed.

[Rob Lang]

Cool, you'll certainly get your extra sets of eyes here.

Quite often, system difference aren't really enough to make people switch - even if the game is free. The setting really does need to be special too. What unique elements will AA have?

[Voidgere]

You are making me work for this aren't you.....?

Well I could drool on and on so Ill just hit the high points.

*Elves, dwarves, humans, trolls, goblins, orcs, dragons, demon, elementals and the undead. These make up the majority of the creatures one will find in the land of Heghruil. Normally a creature that differs from these major species is merely a mutated form.

*My setting is Earth-like in the respect that you can find all the major flora and fauna (i.e. cats, dogs, pine trees, horses, cows, etc) you normally find on earth.

*The major factions include the city states (humans and dragons), the enemy (orcs and demons), the neutral (elementals, dwarves, elves) and the unaligned (trolls and undead).

*I also hint at a secret faction that will make its debut in an upcoming source book ( i've begun work on it but it is nowhere near anything resembling fit for consumption).

*The focus of the game is around the city states of the humans. For the most part, everything else is an antagonist.

*Its a magic heavy setting.

If i can cram the whole book unto the website I will. The whole book includes background and setting. My limited space is the reason I cut out the fluff, but if the fluff is what will attract people to look it over I will see what I can do.

Thanks for the tips, by the way.

[Voidgere]

Website update.

I had to remove the lite version of the rules to make room for the full version. Its a hefty download. Sorry for anyone that does not like hefty downloads.

[Rob Lang]

Hefty is good. Hefty means content! I like content.

I clicked on the image link on the download page and it threw a file not found screen. Also, if you're running out of space, you could try a third part document host, such as Scribd:

[Voidgere]

Oops, forgot to change ALL the links on the site to re-direct to the pdf. Its been fixed.