I think I've already mentioned that one of the goals I set for myself with Arcana Unearthed was to make things a little less generic. Generic isn't bad, but if I were to create some general fantasy classes and races, they'd end up looking just like the existing classes and races. To put it another way, the Player's Handbook already does generic fantasy just fine. (One could argue that D&D is not generic fantasy, but its own brand of fantasy -- I'm not going to worry about semantics at the moment, however.) One way to accomplish this goal involves tying the rules a bit more closely to the setting -- or in this case, to what I like to call the "implied setting."

Another goal was to tailor the game to offer more interesting activities in the "down time" between adventures. I made this a goal because, without hefty DM intervention, the game can devolve into an "Okay, next dungeon" sort of feel. You finish one adventure, count your treasure, and look for the next adventure. That's all right, but it's not the feel I wanted for Arcana Unearthed.

I addressed both these goals through the heavy reliance on ceremony and ritual in both Arcana Unearthed and its Diamond Throne setting. Rites of passage, social ceremonies, and rituals with cultural importance are prevalent in the flavor of the land. But taking that a step further, they are also built into the rules.

For example, gaining each of the giant's racial levels involves a ceremony important to the giantish culture. Even more, however, you'll see rituals as a part of the new feats in the book -- specifically, the new "ceremony feats."

Ceremony feats provide minor supernatural effects and can be obtained only if the character goes through a special ritual (each feat has its own ritual requirements). These ceremonies provide an impetus for a character to come back to civilization -- performing the ceremony requires the character to get involved in the local culture to some extent. (The rituals also provide DMs with adventure hook opportunities, in that PCs will need to get ingredients and develop relationships with people to help with ceremonies. Plus, you can set adventures using the rituals as backdrop.)

Now, of course, DMs and players can choose to "gloss over" the ceremonies and just play the game as normal if they want. But it's all there to give things more flavor, and to bond the PCs with a part of the society around them.

I should mention that even a character's discovery of his or her own truename comes as a part of the "naming ceremony" held for everyone, except those who choose to be Unbound -- which is to say, they have no truename.

What's that? I haven't told you about truenames yet? Well then, I guess I know what to write in next week's diary....

DESIGN DIARY PAST ENTRIES

* Things That Rules Take Away -- March 21, 2003
"There are aspects of fantasy roleplaying that rules, inadvertently, can actually take away...."

* Still Talking Classes -- March 13, 2003
"I've saved some of the best classes for last. Let's talk about the runethane, the mage blade, and the witch...."

* More Classes -- February 27, 2003
"This time, I want to tell you about some of the other classes: akashics, magisters, and greenbonds...."

* Build a Better Fighter -- February 23, 2003
"The title this week is facetious. It really should be 'build a different fighter'...."

* The Magic Balancing Act -- February 13, 2003
"In Arcana Unearthed I'm introducing a new method of magic item pricing. First, I streamlined the item creation feats..."

* More Magic -- January 23, 2003
"This week, I thought I'd talk more about the new magic system in Arcana Unearthed."

* Magic -- January 17, 2003
"As a designer, magic in Arcana Unearthed posed a huge challenge. I knew that I wanted to ditch the Vancian system...."

* Design Decisions, Part Two -- December 24, 2002
"Here's a bit more discussion of some of the general issues I faced as I began designing Arcana Unearthed...."

* Design Decisions, Part One -- December 19, 2002
"Before jumping into another big area of Arcana Unearthed's design, like classes or the magic system, I thought I'd discuss some of the general issues I faced as a designer starting the book...."

* Arcana Unearthed Races -- December 5, 2002
"I started with the races. While I knew that the game needed humans as a basis, I wanted all the other races to be new. I didn't want to just create dwarf and elf analogs with different names...."