Chat Transcript: Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved

Featuring Monte Cook and Mike Mearls

February 3, 2005 — 5 p.m. PST

Last week in our chat room we welcomed designers Monte Cook and Mike Mearls to talk with us about their forthcoming Arcana Evolved books. Thanks to everyone who attended and asked questions! And thanks as well to Conrad Hubbard for sending us this transcript*.

Galhavoc
Just to briefly identify those products a little better, Arcana Evolved is Monte's special "Director's Cut" edition of Arcana Unearthed. The 432-page full-color hardcover variant player's handbook comes out in PDF and print on Feb. 28. The Dragons' Return is a tie-in fiction anthology with 12 new stories that take place in the Lands of the Diamond Throne. It's available now in PDF and goes on sale in print Feb. 28. Mike Mearls has designed two followup books for Arcana Evolved: Ruins of Intrigue is a cool campaign sourcebook that explores the hidden city of Serathis and offers an unusual modular approach to adventure design. And Transcendence is a player's companion book, with info to help you customize your characters.

Galhavoc
So without further intro, welcome to Monte and Mike, and I'll start with our first question!

ericnoah
Does Arcana Evolved "advance" the storyline of the Diamond Throne? How many years later than Arcana Unearthed does Arcana Evolved's timeline begin?

Monte Cook
Sort of. The "present" year in the timeline for the setting in Arcana Evolved is a couple years later than that in The Diamond Throne book. This is only done to facilitate the catalyst of the dragons' return, however. The dragons' return spurs a lot of the new additions to the rules. So it's not like we rewrote your campaign for you. It's pretty much the same campaign, but now with a lot more dragons. We didn't, for example, kill anyone off, or take away any adventure hooks. We only added new ones. I always hated when companies would change the campaign setting based on some plot that would mess up individual DM's campaigns.

Galhavoc
If you don't mind, I'll just add a quick note to that. The new anthology The Dragons' Return covers an indeterminate period that could be at least one year, from the first prophecies of the wyrms' return to the period where their existence in the realm in large numbers is a reality. It's fun to be able to do these fiction books to take better advatage of storyline threads, and our authors did a great job of it. And now, a question for Mike...

ericnoah
I'd like to hear more about Ruins of Intrigue.

Mike Mearls
Sure, no problem. Ruins uses a bit of a new format in RPG books. It's a combination setting book/adventure module/campaign. It has the sort of usual gazeteer-type stuff for a setting book, but it also has lots of bits that are useful for campaigns/adventures. For instance, the major NPCs give you three different options for maybe their backgrounds, or their goals, or their attitudes. So, you have background info, but you also have flexibility to use things as you need them. Since Arcana Evolved doesn't use alignments, this sort of thing is a lot easier to do. Also, a lot of the NPCs and locations have natural connections and story links, so hopefully making adventures is as easy as picking an NPC, a location, and a goal.

Galhavoc
I love the fact that the book gives you what you need if your party wants to ally with the dragons or with the giants in the city. It could make for two totally different campaigns.

raleel
In Arcana Evolved, did you better detail the runethane at all? For instance, some ideas on how to play him, and perhaps detailing Runic a little better? (Runic, for instance, seems pretty unbalancing wehen applied to ammo with touch trigger runes that don't hurt you, like conjuration and healing)

Monte Cook
Some of the runethane's runes needed some clarification, and they got it. Also, each class has additional information on "how to play" more or less.

Galhavoc
Here's another for Monte, from Nightbringer: "Now that Arcana Evolved is almost out, is there anything you've thought of since and wished you had time to put in?"

Monte Cook
Not really. In a sense, though, that's what Arcana Evolved is all about. That's why I call it a director's cut. It's got stuff in it that I wished was in Arcana Unearthed, or I wished we'd done differently (like package the Diamond Throne [setting material] with the rules). It's more than just that, but that's a part of it.

anubis
Ruins of Intrigue: I know this is a campaign sourcebook, not a collection of adventures. Will it have any timesaving material for DMs who want to run adventures from the books seeds, like pre-generated NPCs, encounter templates, etc.?

Mike Mearls
To some extent - the idea is to save time via story material. There are NPCs, but it doesn't have rosters of generic stat blocks or things like that - there really wasn't space for them. The idea is that it spurs your creativity. The NPC motives and plans receive some detail, so hopefully it suggests lots of stories and scenes.

Galhavoc
Okay, back to the hardcover again...

Taoist
What kinds of things will the ritual warrior's combat rituals be able to do besides what's been posted on your website?

Monte Cook
Basically, combat rites are very simple, straightforward and to the point. They modify attacks, damage, criticals, and various combat maneuvers. They modify movement, defense, and even the user's condition (nauseated, stunned, etc.). They don't do anything big or flashy.

Taoist
How will the dracha interact with the existing races? Are they primarily servants of the dragons?

Monte Cook
Primarily, yes. But there are always exceptions. The dracha basically arrive first. They're almost like exploratory scouts and/or heralds. Plenty of them just do their own thing. They get along with the other races well, from their point of view -- they have no preconceived notions about any of them. From the point of view of the existing races, the dracha might be unwelcome outsiders, interesting newcomers, scary interlopers, or approachable representatives of the dragons. And the mojh... well, they just resent the hell out of them.

Galhavoc
You'll meet some interesting dracha in Ruins too. And we have some cool dracha characters in The Dragons' Return anthology as well. We see them in Kate Novak's story as servants of a dragon in a mojh community. Now, Taoist and cupchurch had the same question here, but Taoist got it in first, so here's the way he asks it, Mike...

Taoist
I'd love to see just a quick "what's inside?" on Transcendence. What can you tell us at this point?

Mike Mearls
I wanted Transcendence to be useful for every character class and race, so a lot of the options are general use sort of things. Others focus exclusively on one class. One of the big things in the book is the idea of even more options for the classes. If you're a mage blade, you can now take optional levels that replace the traditional mage blade abilities with new ones. I also created other, similar options for other classes. For example, the oathsworn can now take oath feats. These are feats that give you abilities based on your current oath. Once you complete the oath you lose the feats but can then choose new ones. I tried to make a lot of stuff like that, to add new dimensions to the options in the game./ga

Galhavoc
Speaking of Transcendence, we just got the final art in for it yesterday, from artist Scott Purdy, and it's so cool! There's a totally butch litorian character portrayed that I can't wait to preview to you all.

raleel
A question from my Arcana Unearthed group that's online right now: What new champion types are there?

Monte Cook
Knowledge and Justice. Plus, now champions can use their call weapon and call shield abilities to imbue their existing weapon or shield with powers. And wait until you see the champion's 21st+ level abilities!

Galhavoc
And back to Mike for a moment:

Taoist
What levels will Ruins of Intrigue be for?

Mike Mearls
It's usable for almost any level of play, but it's probably best for 3rd to 15th or so. One of the strengths of the format is that it's very flexible as far as levels and stuff go. The NPCs range from simple thugs to godlike beings.

Taoist
How big a division will allying with the giants or dragons make for a character?

Mike Mearls
It's really up to the DM. You can cast the giants as good guys or bad guys; same with the dragons. You can also make them both essentially neutral, with the PCs stuck in the middle. One of the things I tried to do was make the book as flexible as possible. You could play dracha warriors in service to the dragon that lives in the city, secret agents of the Diamond Throne there to spy on the dragon, or freelancers caught between the two feuding sides.

anubis
To follow up on Ruins: generic stat blocks, NPC groups (the Wizards of the Coast Book of Challenges had some great ones), etc. -- might we see those in a web enhancement or two?

Mike Mearls
That's actually a good idea, but it depends on our time budget right now. I'm pretty busy with a few products, but it's definitely something that would be cool to do.

Galhavoc
You're right. I'll make a note of it.

anubis
Will the mix of products this year be roughly the same as in the past in terms of Arcana Evolved vs "straight" d20? Will there be dual-nature books, with more extensive coverage of things like flavor for the Diamond Throne? More specifically, if there were to be a hypothetical mega-module would it have dual-statted NPCs? Or would there be too many flavor incompatibilities?

Monte Cook
I'd say yes, roughly the same. We'll also continue putting conversion material in the books to make them useful (Book of Roguish Luck, for example, has an Arcana Unearthed/Arcana Evolved appendix). I have a difficult time imagining writing a big module that works equally well with both Arcana Evolved and d20. Mechanically, it wouldn't be hard, but the flavor is fairly different.

Hydro
The Arcana Evolved product page says there will be some new feats. Mind describing a few of your favorites for us?

Monte Cook
My favorite new feats probably involve adding the new spell templates to spells. Most of the new templates are racial, so now a faen caster can give some of his spells more faen flavor, while a litorian caster can do the same thing with very different results. I also like the Runecaster feat, which also adds a spell template, called runic. This template (obviously geared toward runethanes) makes spells more mathematical and symbol related. Victims' saving throws are based on Intelligence rather than the normal stat (Con, Dex or Wis).

cupchurch
Can racial spells only be cast by a character of the appropriate race?

Monte Cook
Actually, no. You either have to be a member of that race or be really knowledgeable about that race (in Arcana Evolved, you can get ranks in Knowledge [race], like Knowledge [giant]). Thus, you could have a sibeccai casting spells with the giant template. Also, you could have a magic item (like the staff of the faen, or something like that) that could allow you to cast spells like the member of another race. I'm glad you asked that. I like the Knowledge (specific race) skills addition./ga

Galhavoc
Here's one for Monte from Raleel: What new things happened to the mage blade?

Monte Cook
The mage blade got a few minor clarifications but basically remains the way you know it. Their high-level abilities all involve making their athames really cool.

Raleel
And one of my players asks, "What [new] abilities were so interesting that they got applied to other classes?"

Monte Cook
The only thing I can think of regarding your player's question are combat rites, which were added (in a small way) to oathsworn and warmains.

IanAAWatson
Will Arcana Evolved "replace" Arcana Unearthed? i.e., will future books in the game line be branded Arcana Unearthed or Arcana Evolved? Or will both be supported seperately?

Monte Cook
Going forward, the "branding" will be Arcana Evolved. They aren't separate lines, or--in my mind--separate products./ga

cupchurch
Did Wizards' release of Unearthed Arcana have anything to do with the decision to change the brand from Arcana Unearthed to Arcana Evolved?

Monte Cook
Not exactly. There was some name confusion, and that's too bad. As I've said elsewhere, when I named this book Arcana Unearthed, I didn't know Wizards was coming out with Unearthed Arcana. But by the time we were coming out with the book, we knew. Nevertheless, when we decided to do Arcana Evolved, we thought a name change was a really good idea, to distance ourselves.

Galhavoc
I'm not sure if everyone knows, but Monte's latest Malhavoc Press adventure is a PDF exclusive product called The Temple of Mysteries, and all the proceeds from its sale go to aid tsunami relief efforts. (You can buy the PDF on DriveThruRPG.com.) Here are a couple questions about Temple...

cupchurch
I really loved The Temple of Mysteries. Will we be seeing any more adventure material from Monte? Anything on the scale of The Banewarrens or Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil?

Monte Cook
Thanks. I'm glad you liked it. You'll certainly be seeing more adventure material from me. As for the scale of a mega-adventure, well, we'll see (not in the immediate future).

anubis
Might we see web enhancements for products like The Temple of Mysteries that have conversion notes and characters converted for Arcana Evolved/Diamond Throne? I know this is something that could be done through the boards and diamondthrone.com, but...

Monte Cook
That's the kind of thing that would be cool to see on Diamondthrone.com. Normally, as you probably know, we do put conversion material for Arcana Unearthed/Arcana Evolved in our products. I didn't do it for The Temple of Mysteries for two reasons. 1. Because there's really very little to convert. Make the orcs rhodin, I guess. That's about it. The pregenerated characters need to be all different, but there's nothing all that special about them except their backgrounds, and that doesn't depend on the system. But more importantly, 2. It was originally designed to be an adventure to commemorate the 30th anniversary of D&D. It was intended to be a quintessential D&D experience. So I left it at that./ga

Galhavoc (Feb 3, 2005 9:05:29 PM)
Monte, here's one from Knight of the Sword:

Guest
Will classes such as the mage blade and witch get upper-level spells post 20th level?

Monte Cook
Yes. Both get up to 8th-level spells rather than 7th. That kicks in at 22nd level for both, I think.

absurdmusician
Will the new "epic" scale of the levels include some new "epic" feats, such as those seen in the Epic Level Handbook?

Monte Cook
Well, Arcana Evolved introduces a new concept where that's concerned. Many feats can be "improved" by taking them again at higher levels (that is to say, the improved version has high prerequisites). This gives them new additional abilities.

Galhavoc
Slight change of topic for a minute...

ericnoah (Feb 3, 2005 9:08:33 PM)
What do you think of the developments at DriveThruRPG (their move away from Digital Rights Management, etc.)? Does this change how you will sell your PDF products?

Monte Cook
I think it's great, and I don't think anyone will be too surprised to learn that I think I, or we, had some influence in those changes. Now that DriveThruRPG sells only non-DRM versions of Malhavoc Products, we'll be using only them to sell our PDFs. There are exciting things going on on that front. I'm thrilled to see PDF products become so prominent.

cupchurch (Feb 3, 2005 9:10:54 PM)
Are there plans for any more Arcana Unearthed/Arcana Evolved fiction?

Galhavoc
I guess I'll take this one. I've had a really good time editing our two anthologies (the one before The Dragons' Return was Children of the Rune). But I think we need to get a look at their long-term performance before we put any new fiction books on the schedule. I hope they sell well enough to allow us to do more of them! And now, our last question, also one that looks to the future a bit...

anubis
Can you give us any vague, general hints about unannounced products for 2005/2006? For instance whether there are any new event books, a mega-module, a product of a type that is totally new to MP, etc.

Monte Cook
Well, we're really focused on Arcana Evolved right now. In mid-March, however, look for a big announcement about an amazingly cool product (whole new product line, in fact) coming out in August. After that, look to mid-summer for another announcment about something really special for 2006./ga

Galhavoc
Well that's about it for us for tonight! Thanks to Monte and Mike for sharing their time with us... And thanks to all of you as well for coming in to join us. Monte and I are so glad you're psyched for Arcana Evolved and its followup books from Mike. We are too! In fact, we understand that copies just arrived in the warehouse, so we'll be able to see them soon.

Monte Cook
Thanks to everyone for coming. We're really excited about Arcana Evolved and the fact that's it's almost out. I'm really proud of this book, and I think it looks amazing. 432 pages, full color, with a great new graphic design. I can't wait for you to see it.

Galhavoc
Look for more previews of Arcana Evolved on Monte's website between now and the end of the month, too! For now, good night, everybody!

Monte Cook
See you all later!

Related Products

Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved An expanded, full-color "director's cut" edition of Monte's popular variant player's handbook.

Ruins of Intrigue Adventure and intrigue in the Lands of the Diamond Throne!

Transcendence Beyond mortal limits lies unimagined power!