So Shall Ye Reap Remastered

Ah, So Shall Ye Reap, my second attempt to write an adventure, (the first being For Duty and Honor, but that's another story). I remember sitting down at the Coral Gables library one morning and just cranking that thing out in one sitting. I needed to get it out quickly as it was due to premiere at Gen Con and I needed to have it ready months in advance.

That adventure kicks off what was to be a one year, 6 part storyline but instead ballooned into the 6 year extravaganza, which had the players traveling about the Known Lands of Arcanis, dealing with just about every aspect of the world setting and which is, I'm proud to say, still being spoken of in glowing terms years later.

With So Shall Ye Reap, my main purpose was to, besides introduce the world setting, showcase an adventure where the Heroes could fail even though they didn't lose any battles. I had heard stories about other adventures that allowed the players to not play smart but kill everything and still be victorious.

Not in Arcanis!

I remember running the first table of this adventure and seeing the players assume that everything was as it seemed and that no one could possibly lie to them so convincingly that they would be fooled. I won't go into details to avoid spoilers, but when they discovered that they were duped and had failed with no hope of salvaging the mission, I had a table full of blank looks all around.

Except for one kid.

I have no idea who he is and I hope he's still with us, but this guy looked like he was going to have an aneurism - his facial muscles fought one another in the hopes that one of the many conflicting expressions would manifest.

To his credit, he didn't shout in disgust, hurl expletives at me or his dice. He simply closed his slack jawed mouth, collected his gaming material and walked away without a single word. I hope he came to terms with the loss.

While the other members of his party walked off in various shades of incredulity, one of them came up to me and said - "So that's it, huh? We lost?"

I explained why and pointed out the clues they had missed and said, "Sorry. I hope I didn't ruin your gaming experience."

He just looked at me and smiled and said, "I've been playing for years and we always win by just making sure there's nothing left standing. I think it's cool that we failed for once!" He thanked me and walked away.

As I was exiting the room where the other tables of the adventure were being run, I heard one guy huff in disgust, "A Vampire? We're first level! What idiot wrote this mod?"

I waved at him with a big smile on my face and said, "That idiot would be me, sir. Have a good time with your vampire." I chuckled evilly as I walked off.

All in all, it was quite the experience to write So Shall Ye Reap and I hope you guys enjoy playing through it.

This "remastered" series, as we're calling it, takes the original Living Arcanis adventures and presents them i reedited, with new color layout and art, and stated out for the new Arcanis the Roleplaying Game system.

I hope it stirs fond memories for those that played it back in 2002 (yep, its been 10 years already) or creates new ones if this is your first introduction to Arcanis.

Just don't trust anyone - this is Arcanis, after all.

New Art from Pat Loboyko

As promised, here's some new art from the very talented, Pat Loboyko.

The piece to the right is for the upcoming Codex of Heroes and illustrates the marvelous chameleon ability of a new playable race introduced in book. Called the Ghost Scales, this Black Talon offshoot were once found solely in the sewers of Old Coryan, but have since spread across the Known Lands.

And below we have a nice set piece showing the back stabbing nature of certain Secret Societies.

Here we have a thief in someone's employ, breaking into one of the secure warehouses of the Emerald Society and locating one of the fabled Keys of Man. But look out...is that an Emerald Society member making sure that the Key stays in its place or another, more lethal intruder breaking in for yet another unknown master?

Who knows? Such is the cloak and dagger world of the Secret Societies!

Codex of Heroes

The guys at PCI have been hard at work on the Summer releases and I wanted to give everyone a peek at the cover of the Codex of Heroes.

The CoH is slated to be a full color hard back book clocking in at 192 - 224 pages in length. It's a compendium of sorts, with three new races, new Talents, spells, Paths, weapon maneuvers, etc.

Additionally we're including Secret Societies for players to join should they wish, along with a couple of other extras, such as the new Battle system.

CoH is designed to be a companion product to both the Core Arcanis Role Playing Game as well as the forthcoming Chronicler's Codex, but more on that later.

I'll see if I can add a couple of illustrations from our resident artist extraordinaire, Pat Loboyko, in the next entry.

It's Been a While

Hello everyone,

Yes, I know it has been over a year since I last blogged, but 2011 was a particularly rough year for me. Here's hoping that 2012 is better.

So with that I intend to write a little more about the goings on at PCI as well as book reviews and whatever other topic strikes my fancy.

Thanks for hanging in there.