Map of Arcanis Taking Form

Hello everyone,

As some of you may know, a new map of the main continent of Arcanis was commissioned last year, but unfortunately, the cartographer had to withdraw from the project.

After searching for a new cartographer, I'm happy to announce that Award Winning cartographer, Sean MacDonald, is hard at work giving the continent of Onara a new and more realistic look.

Below is a Work in Progress of the map, but you can see from just what's there, that this map is going to look beautiful.

What do you think?

Cover for forthcoming Malazan Novel

As some of you may know, I was enthralled with Steven Erickson's 10 volume epic saga, the Malazan Book of the Fallen. Now, Erickson is writing a new trilogy going back to the distant past and exploring the mysterious Tiste Andaii race with Forge of Darkness.

It's due out in September, according to Amazon, and this is the newly released image of the cover.

If you haven't read this amazing series, start with Gardens of the Moon, which kicks it all off. Truly great, if wrist breaking, (most of the novels break the 1000 page mark or get very close to it) epic fantasy!

RIP Professor M.A.R. Barker

I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Prof. M.A.R.Barker today.

While many outside the RPG circle and academia may not know the good professor, he leaves behind a great legacy - a burning curiosity in his former students and a sense of wonder and imagination in those who explored his imaginary world of Tekumel.

I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Prof. Barker a number of times and in each he was open and friendly; always willing to discuss his creation, even from a gawky teenager who called him out of the blue one day and spent over an hour on the phone discussing Tekumel. Yep - I had some chutzpa back then.

Happily, the Professor led a full life and though his twilight years found him in poor health, I'm told he was active in the hobby we all share and love.

RIP, Professor. You will be missed.

You can read the notice from the Tekumel Foundation here: http://www.tekumelfoundation.org/

Rotted Capes - Coming this Summer

The Golden Age of Superheroes has ended, not with a BANG but with a BITE!

The Dead have overrun the world and humanity’s protectors are either missing, dead or worse yet, Z’ed! Dismissed as the Poor Man’s Super Hero, you are mankind’s only hope for survival in this horror-filled world where the greatest threat is not the Living Dead, but the Super Zombies that sit at the top of the food chain looking hungrily down upon you!

Rotted Capes is a cross genre Role-playing Game where the gleaming world of Superheroes crashes headlong into the gritty and horror-filled world of Zombies!

Using a streamlined version of the Arcanis RPG system, Rotted Capes is a fast paced game which can be played in which ever style best suits your group – Campy or Horrific seriousness!

It’s the near future and Z-Day has come and gone. No one knows how or where it started, but when the dead started attacking the living, the populace turned, as usual, to its Super Heroes! But this was a threat unlike any other and the unthinkable happened: their Heroes failed!

As one of the B-listers, men, women (and aliens) who were sidekicks or low powered superheroes or villains, you’re all that stands between the ravening hordes of the Unliving and humanity’s total extinction.

But as if mindless zombies weren’t enough to deal with, many of those Heroes everyone looked up to have been Z’ed! Now they too hunger for flesh and with their super powers and inhuman cunning and intelligence, they may be unstoppable!

No one ever said being a Hero was easy!

Rotted Capes: Coming this Summer from Paradigm Concepts, Inc.

Join the conversation on the PCI Forums: http://www.paradigmconcepts.com/boards

John Carter of Mars - A Review

Last night I saw John Carter (of Mars) , a movie I had been waiting years to see. As a big Burroughs fan, I was curious to see his Planetary Romance novel translated to the Big Screen and hoped that it wouldn't be too Hollywood-ized - i.e. completely destroy the magic of that first novel.

I'm happy to report that it was an amazing film, filled with all the wonder and marvels that so captivated me as a young boy. The special affects were amazing - especially the rendition of the Tharks! These 8 feet tall, four armed Martians were a joy to see; their appearance in the film was seamless with the "live actors" and were thrilling to see.

Now - I must mention that Burroughs purists may well find issues with the movie version of his Mars stories - but frankly I find those type of people as ones who must complain about something to retain their membership in the "Elitist Snob's Club", so forgive me if I give them a short shrift herein. This is by no means a 300 or a Watchmen where the movie followed the original to such a degree that it was if the comic book had come to life. If that's what you're expecting or wanting - save your money and go do something else. For the rest of us, it's quite the thrill ride that even now, hours after having watched it, brings a smile to my face.

I don't believe that the writers and producers intended for this movie to be a slavish retelling of the Princess of Mars (or for you purists out there still reading this - Under the Moons of Mars). Instead what we have here is a faithful interpretation, loving produced by those who "got it!", keeping many (and I mean lots and lots) of scenes, elements and characters from the original stories to enthrall and delight fans like me.

Yes, they took certain liberties in explaining certain confusing things, such as (and I assume since its been 100 years since publication we're past the need for Spoiler Alerts) the fact that John Carter's transit to Mars was never really explained in the novel, rather it was glossed over as some sort of spiritual Indian cave that sent him to the Red Planet.

But so much of the original is there, including the fact that Burroughs wrote himself into the stories as a relative of John Carter. Including small details like that into the film makes it very hard to find much fault with it.

Was it perfect? No, I can't say that. The actor playing the titular role seemed off to me. Perhaps I have had my version of John Carter so engrained in my imagination for over 40 years that when I finally saw him in the flesh, I couldn't help but be slightly disappointed. However, this is no fault of the actor, Taylor Kitsch, who did a good job in the role. In fact, all the actors did a phenomenal job - though special mention should be given to the actress playing Dejah Thoris, Lynn Collins, who truly made her "incomparable" and James Purefoy (who some may remember as Mark Antony in the HBO series ROME) was great fun to watch!

I was entertained. I was enthralled. I was once again that boy of 9 who first cracked open that ugly Ballentine edition of A Princess of Mars and was whisked away on flights of fantasy and high adventure on a dying planet known as Barsoom.

Here's hoping the cries of the critics who feel one must be critical to critique are drowned out by the voices of our inner child and that Disney allows us, once again, to visit Mars!

T-Minus 5 Days for Secret Project Annnouncement

Besides all the many hours of hard work spent on Arcanis products, such as the forthcoming Codex of Heroes, Forged in Magic II and Arcanis Bestiary Vol.II (not to mention the free adventures we produce for the Legends of Arcanis Campaign), we've been quietly working on a new project.

We'll be announcing this new product on March 15th (The Ides of March) but I figured I'd drop some clues as to what it is (or isn't):

1. It IS a new Role Playing Game.

2. It's not another Fantasy RPG, although it could have Fantasy elements.

3. It's NOT a Science Fiction game, although it could have Sci-Fi elements.

4. It's a genre that PCI hasn't delved into before, but in a way we have.

5. As far as we know, there's not another RPG in existence that covers this genre/sub-genre.

6. We'll have an Introductory adventure and a full (4-hour) adventure for this new game at Origins and Gen Con.

and lastly,

7. We don't (at the moment, anyway) have any plans to create and maintain another "living" Campaign for it.

Still can't guess what it is?

Well, that's OK - only 5 days until the big announcement!

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.