Jason Liang
Arcane
Let's do this, Codex! Who else loves Arcanum more than us, and knows Arcanum better than us (What's up, Drog?)? Who else has the will, resources and autism to update Arcanum into an experience for the 2016 gamer? Who else will make it so, except us?
As a community, let's rebuild Arcanum using the Shadowrun engine. Why the Shadowrun engine? Since it has built-in compatability with Arcanum's setting, and it's strength improves Arcanum's deepest flaw: Arcanum's banal combat engine. Yes, I hate Shadowrun's editor. It is a joke to call it a game editor. But it exists. And it's greatest asset, which are the graphical assets of the Shadowrun games, are things this project can use.
Using Shadowrun's graphic assets, we can remake Tarant, and Shrouded Hills, and Tullah. Tarant might look a little more like Seattle and less like London, but using the SR assets we don't need to convert Arcanum's graphical assets. It's mostly all there already. One less thing to worry about.
OK let's divide this project into several modular parts: 1) rule conversion 2) world building 3) game content.
1) Rule Conversion
A. Character system
Shadowrun has a similar character system to Arcanum. There are humans, elves, dwarves, orcs and trolls. Shadowrun is missing gnomes and halflings but then Arcanum was missing female gnomes and halflings too. So race is basically compatible betwen the two systems: if we figure out how to add gnomes and halflings later then sure let's do it, but basically it's already there.
Shadowrun's stat system is also similar to Arcanum. Both have a skill system tied to primary attributes, where to advance a skill the primary attribute must be raised first. Shadowrun has 6 stats while Arcanum has 8: Shadowrun does not have the quivalent of Perception and does not distinguish between Beauty and Charisma. I don't think Arcanum really misses Beauty- the game doesn't do anything with it anyway. Perception poses a bigger problem since the closest SR equivalent is Dexterity, which is already an overloaded stat. To alleviate this, SR moves melee to Stength- probably a reasonable change? Also, Shadowrun combat uses a fixed AP system instead of a Dex-based AP system so that helps alleviate Dex overload as well.
My opinion is that we can convert Arcanum's character system without making serious alterations to SR's system. We would have to implement several Arcanum skills, especially rogue skills, but that's not a major obstacle overall.
B. Character progress system
This is a big difference between Arcanum and SR. Arcanum has an experienced-based level system while SR has a Karma point reward system and progressively more expensive attribute and skill advancement. Here I prefer Shadowrun's system, where Karma is rewarded for completing quests and encounters, instead of for just hitting things. However, there are some real fundamental problems here. In Arcanum, primary attirbute advancement come at the expense of skill advancement- as a result in Arcanum it's rarely a good choice to spend level ups on stat boosts, whereas in Shadowrun most characters end up having 4-6's in nearly every stat. I'm not sure how to fix this.
C. Character class system
Here is where the two games are very compatible. Both have classless, open-ended character development. In both characters any character can learn any spell or skill. This leads us to the next two topics:
D. Arcanum magical/ technological aptitude system
This would have to be implemented in Shadowrun, but I think it would be a great improvement to Shadowrun's system. The problem with Shadowrun's character system is that you end up with a munchkin PC that casts spells, snipes, decks and has 2 drones following you around. Implementing an aptitude system in place of or in addition to Shadowrun's Essence system would help alleviate this. Magical aptitude could decrease accuracy with firearms and grenades, forcing magic characters to rely on melee or throwing knives, decrease drone accuracy, and deactivate cyberware. Technological aptitude decreases spell accuracy, increases spell cooldown and drain, cause spell failure.
E. Arcanum magical system
I think we could make this work by implementing all the spell schools as skills based off Willpower. Under Willpower there would be a primary skill, Magick Aptitude. Increasing this skill increases the character's magic stat, increasing spell effectiveness Under Magick Aptitude. Tied to these skills, each of the spell schools would be implemented as specialist skills, which unlock more powerful spells.
F. Arcanum crafting system
Just make this equivalent to the spell system, but based off Intellect. There would be a primary skill, Technology Aptitude, which decreases the character's magic stat. The science system would be implemented as special skills under this primary skill and unlock more powerful schematics.
Next I will discuss the world-building module. Please post your thoughts on this.
As a community, let's rebuild Arcanum using the Shadowrun engine. Why the Shadowrun engine? Since it has built-in compatability with Arcanum's setting, and it's strength improves Arcanum's deepest flaw: Arcanum's banal combat engine. Yes, I hate Shadowrun's editor. It is a joke to call it a game editor. But it exists. And it's greatest asset, which are the graphical assets of the Shadowrun games, are things this project can use.
Using Shadowrun's graphic assets, we can remake Tarant, and Shrouded Hills, and Tullah. Tarant might look a little more like Seattle and less like London, but using the SR assets we don't need to convert Arcanum's graphical assets. It's mostly all there already. One less thing to worry about.
OK let's divide this project into several modular parts: 1) rule conversion 2) world building 3) game content.
1) Rule Conversion
A. Character system
Shadowrun has a similar character system to Arcanum. There are humans, elves, dwarves, orcs and trolls. Shadowrun is missing gnomes and halflings but then Arcanum was missing female gnomes and halflings too. So race is basically compatible betwen the two systems: if we figure out how to add gnomes and halflings later then sure let's do it, but basically it's already there.
Shadowrun's stat system is also similar to Arcanum. Both have a skill system tied to primary attributes, where to advance a skill the primary attribute must be raised first. Shadowrun has 6 stats while Arcanum has 8: Shadowrun does not have the quivalent of Perception and does not distinguish between Beauty and Charisma. I don't think Arcanum really misses Beauty- the game doesn't do anything with it anyway. Perception poses a bigger problem since the closest SR equivalent is Dexterity, which is already an overloaded stat. To alleviate this, SR moves melee to Stength- probably a reasonable change? Also, Shadowrun combat uses a fixed AP system instead of a Dex-based AP system so that helps alleviate Dex overload as well.
My opinion is that we can convert Arcanum's character system without making serious alterations to SR's system. We would have to implement several Arcanum skills, especially rogue skills, but that's not a major obstacle overall.
B. Character progress system
This is a big difference between Arcanum and SR. Arcanum has an experienced-based level system while SR has a Karma point reward system and progressively more expensive attribute and skill advancement. Here I prefer Shadowrun's system, where Karma is rewarded for completing quests and encounters, instead of for just hitting things. However, there are some real fundamental problems here. In Arcanum, primary attirbute advancement come at the expense of skill advancement- as a result in Arcanum it's rarely a good choice to spend level ups on stat boosts, whereas in Shadowrun most characters end up having 4-6's in nearly every stat. I'm not sure how to fix this.
C. Character class system
Here is where the two games are very compatible. Both have classless, open-ended character development. In both characters any character can learn any spell or skill. This leads us to the next two topics:
D. Arcanum magical/ technological aptitude system
This would have to be implemented in Shadowrun, but I think it would be a great improvement to Shadowrun's system. The problem with Shadowrun's character system is that you end up with a munchkin PC that casts spells, snipes, decks and has 2 drones following you around. Implementing an aptitude system in place of or in addition to Shadowrun's Essence system would help alleviate this. Magical aptitude could decrease accuracy with firearms and grenades, forcing magic characters to rely on melee or throwing knives, decrease drone accuracy, and deactivate cyberware. Technological aptitude decreases spell accuracy, increases spell cooldown and drain, cause spell failure.
E. Arcanum magical system
I think we could make this work by implementing all the spell schools as skills based off Willpower. Under Willpower there would be a primary skill, Magick Aptitude. Increasing this skill increases the character's magic stat, increasing spell effectiveness Under Magick Aptitude. Tied to these skills, each of the spell schools would be implemented as specialist skills, which unlock more powerful spells.
F. Arcanum crafting system
Just make this equivalent to the spell system, but based off Intellect. There would be a primary skill, Technology Aptitude, which decreases the character's magic stat. The science system would be implemented as special skills under this primary skill and unlock more powerful schematics.
Next I will discuss the world-building module. Please post your thoughts on this.