Esq
June 7th, 2006, 21:58
Arcana Evolved Ruleset (Fantasy Grounds)
Digital Adventures
Let me begin this review with a quick overview of “Monte Cooke’s Arcana Evolved”. Arcana Evolved (AE) is described as a ‘variant player’s handbook’. Both the print book and this ruleset are for anyone interested in reviewing a setting that has been crafted with the boundaries of the system in mind. Given that, AE has attempted to ensure that the system itself helps to represent the setting, rather than simply allowing the ‘flavor’ to be consumed by the system at any point of tension.
Especially if either of the following interest you, you should take a closer look at AE. (1) A setting where rituals are taken very seriously and, hence, tie into feats, class abilities, and racial abilities. (2) A setting that expands meaningful character choice, such as exhibited by options such as whether to take racial levels and / or evolve, or to take an oath, or to pick a cause. Characters are not limited by multiclassing restrictions. I highly recommend visiting:
https://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?arcanaevolved
for information on AE from the publisher
https://aewiki.criticalhit.dk/Books/ArcanaEvolved
for a description of rules differences between AE and 3.5 D&D.
https://www.digitaladventures.net/downloads.htm
for information on free AE modules for Fantasy Grounds
Now, I’ll touch on the highlights of the AE Ruleset from Digital Adventures. With the AE Ruleset the top level of hierarchy contains the following divisions: AE System Rules and AE Quick Reference.
AE System Rules contains the following divisions: Abilities, Races, Classes, Skills, Feats, Equipment, Playing the Game, and Magic & Combat Rites.
AE Quick Reference contains the following divisions: Characters, Skills, Feats, Combat, Adventuring, Equipment, Spells, Credits & Legal, and Common Modifiers.
As is the case with the Complete SRD Ruleset, the AE Ruleset contains much more information than the default d20 ruleset which comes with Fantasy Grounds. In this case, the additional information is consistent with the variations from d20 that are found within AE. This ensures that anyone playing in an AE campaign can find just about anything needed to play the game within Fantasy Grounds while playing.
For those of you wondering whether you must have any particular ruleset (AE or something else) to play a specific campaign, the answer is no. I have played in a couple of campaigns that did not use a ruleset, but instead used outside materials as reference. (Hard copies of rule books, PDFs of rule books, online SRD, etc.) However, for those that play AE and want to have all of this information presented from within Fantasy Grounds, the AE Ruleset provides your first opportunity to make that a reality.
This product takes the majority of the reference information from AE and presents it to the user so that the entire campaign can be contained within Fantasy Grounds. Digital Adventures has done a good job of partnering with Monte Cooke and using the ruleset functionality provided by Smiteworks and ensuring that AE gamers have an actual ruleset to use. With the ruleset, it seems that you will never have to crack open your AE book again. Good news if you are hoping to preserve the spine of your bound book! It even has the XP chart for AE, which is different from the 3.5 XP chart.
If the AE setting interests you, this ruleset can make a Fantasy Grounds campaign as simple as a core 3.5 D&D campaign. All the information you need will be right there inside Fantasy Grounds so that you do not have to use an outside resource, whether print or electronic.
To rousing gaming and ample rewards,
I. Perez
Liked:
1. Presents AE in a well organized manner.
Rating - four out of possible five point ratings.
For the sake of comparison to other reviews I have written, you may visit: Reviews by I. Perez (https://www.rpgnow.com/product_reviews.php?cid=80673)
Digital Adventures
Let me begin this review with a quick overview of “Monte Cooke’s Arcana Evolved”. Arcana Evolved (AE) is described as a ‘variant player’s handbook’. Both the print book and this ruleset are for anyone interested in reviewing a setting that has been crafted with the boundaries of the system in mind. Given that, AE has attempted to ensure that the system itself helps to represent the setting, rather than simply allowing the ‘flavor’ to be consumed by the system at any point of tension.
Especially if either of the following interest you, you should take a closer look at AE. (1) A setting where rituals are taken very seriously and, hence, tie into feats, class abilities, and racial abilities. (2) A setting that expands meaningful character choice, such as exhibited by options such as whether to take racial levels and / or evolve, or to take an oath, or to pick a cause. Characters are not limited by multiclassing restrictions. I highly recommend visiting:
https://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?arcanaevolved
for information on AE from the publisher
https://aewiki.criticalhit.dk/Books/ArcanaEvolved
for a description of rules differences between AE and 3.5 D&D.
https://www.digitaladventures.net/downloads.htm
for information on free AE modules for Fantasy Grounds
Now, I’ll touch on the highlights of the AE Ruleset from Digital Adventures. With the AE Ruleset the top level of hierarchy contains the following divisions: AE System Rules and AE Quick Reference.
AE System Rules contains the following divisions: Abilities, Races, Classes, Skills, Feats, Equipment, Playing the Game, and Magic & Combat Rites.
AE Quick Reference contains the following divisions: Characters, Skills, Feats, Combat, Adventuring, Equipment, Spells, Credits & Legal, and Common Modifiers.
As is the case with the Complete SRD Ruleset, the AE Ruleset contains much more information than the default d20 ruleset which comes with Fantasy Grounds. In this case, the additional information is consistent with the variations from d20 that are found within AE. This ensures that anyone playing in an AE campaign can find just about anything needed to play the game within Fantasy Grounds while playing.
For those of you wondering whether you must have any particular ruleset (AE or something else) to play a specific campaign, the answer is no. I have played in a couple of campaigns that did not use a ruleset, but instead used outside materials as reference. (Hard copies of rule books, PDFs of rule books, online SRD, etc.) However, for those that play AE and want to have all of this information presented from within Fantasy Grounds, the AE Ruleset provides your first opportunity to make that a reality.
This product takes the majority of the reference information from AE and presents it to the user so that the entire campaign can be contained within Fantasy Grounds. Digital Adventures has done a good job of partnering with Monte Cooke and using the ruleset functionality provided by Smiteworks and ensuring that AE gamers have an actual ruleset to use. With the ruleset, it seems that you will never have to crack open your AE book again. Good news if you are hoping to preserve the spine of your bound book! It even has the XP chart for AE, which is different from the 3.5 XP chart.
If the AE setting interests you, this ruleset can make a Fantasy Grounds campaign as simple as a core 3.5 D&D campaign. All the information you need will be right there inside Fantasy Grounds so that you do not have to use an outside resource, whether print or electronic.
To rousing gaming and ample rewards,
I. Perez
Liked:
1. Presents AE in a well organized manner.
Rating - four out of possible five point ratings.
For the sake of comparison to other reviews I have written, you may visit: Reviews by I. Perez (https://www.rpgnow.com/product_reviews.php?cid=80673)