Short entry this time. I hate spells with 1 minute/level durations. Spells that last 1 round/level basically last "one combat." Spells that last 10 minutes/level basically last through the better part of a day's encounters and battles (most adventurers tend to put themselves in danger about an hour a day, and then either travel or rest the rest of the day). Spells that last 1 hour/level basically last through the important part of a day.

But spells that last 1 minute/level last through a battle, and then encourage the group to race off to the next encounter before the spell runs out.

DM: "The last of the bugbears drops from your relentless assault. What do you do?"

Player One: "Let's search the bugbears for treasure, see if any of them are still alive for questioning later, and check if there are any secret doors in this room..."

Player Two: "No time, my spell has only got three and a half minutes left!"

Player Three: "Hey, you're right! Mine too. I fling open the door and race into the next room, looking for battle!"

Player One: "But..."

Player Two: "Go, go, go!"

As a DM, I tire of the whole "Go, go, go!" approach. It makes for sloppy and unrealistic play, and the game system encourages it. That's why you won't find hardly any 1 minute/level spells in Arcana Unearthed, and most of the few that are in there aren't really combat spells.

Okay, truenames next week, really.

DESIGN DIARY PAST ENTRIES

* Ceremony -- April 3, 2003
"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...."

* 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...."