Legends of Arcanis

Legends of Arcanis is a shared, multi-player role-playing game set in and using the Arcanis: World of the Shattered Empires rules set.

Legends of Arcanis emphasizes role-playing over roll-playing, giving players a unique, immersive world and story line that is full of moral ambiguity and hard choices – a world full of different shades of grey, where stark Black and White/Good and Evil are a rare thing. You play Heroes and fairly competent ones at that, traveling through the world of the Shattered Empires doing what you believe is right (or, if you join a Secret Society, what your hidden masters believe is right).

While the “story’s the thing” in Legends of Arcanis, that doesn’t mean that challenging combats and epic battles are non-existent; on the contrary – we have battles galore, but they always have a reason for being there and either advance the story in some way or reveal a new aspect of the world to the players. You’ll never find the meaningless thug encounter in Legends of Arcanis! What you will encounter are enemies who have motivations and feel that they are as much in the right as the Heroes, strange and deadly races who vie for supremacy over the world and large scale battles that affect the shape of the campaign!

Leave Your Mark Upon the Shattered Empires

When the Arcanis “living” campaign started back in 2002, it was designed to feel like a home campaign spread across hundreds of tables across the world. A key feature designed to give that feeling is that certain key and critical outcomes in the Campaign’s story was decided by the actions of the players. Certain adventures have a Critical Event Summary in the back which the Chronicler is encouraged to fill out and send in to the Campaign Staff, detailing what occurred at their table.

These Event Sheets are held for an average of three months after the adventure premieres and tabulated, with the majority of tables determining what becomes canon in the overall campaign. Over the years, cities have fallen or survived, beloved NPCs have been saved, and an entire, new family of the Val race was created – all by the actions of the players!

Legends of Arcanis Campaign Structure

The tales told in the Legends of Arcanis Campaign usually fall into Story Arcs that normally run for a minimum of one year and no longer than three years. The last story-arc, which focused on the Kingdom of Milandir’s campaign against the Infernal Horde, just ended and took place over a two year period.

When you download a Legends of Arcanis adventures, you’ll note that each one is numbered and designated as a Hard Point or a Soft Point. Hard Point adventures are the main backbone of the story arc and should be played in order to make the most sense of the story line. Soft Points, on the other hand, serve as standalone stories that are tangentially associated with the main story arc, but can be played in any order and be enjoyed equally.
In addition, Paradigm Concepts maintains a forum on their website that has a very active and friendly group of players that are always available to answer rules questions or to clarify any story questions that may be confusing or unclear. You can find the forums at www.paradigmconcepts.com/boards

What Is Needed for Play

Players who enjoy the Campaign and wish to continue to play should consider purchasing the Origins Award winning Arcanis: World of the Shattered Empires RPG. This is the Core Rule Book used by the Legends of Arcanis Campaign and is indispensable as a player and Chronicler resource. The Arcanis: World of the Shattered Empires RPG is available in both hard copy and PDF format at your FLGS or on Paradigm Concepts webstore.

Other products exist that give players additional options, such as the Codex of Heroes and Forged in Magic, vol. I and II.

Lastly, for those who wish to learn more about the world setting, Paradigm Concepts has made available their Origins Award winning Codex Arcanis PDF for FREE on their webstore as well as on RPGNow and DriveThruRPG.

We hope you join us as we continue to explore and unravel the mysteries of Arcanis and Leave Your Mark Upon the Shattered Empires!

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