Arcadia Issue #30 Breakdown – Tribalism

All art belongs to MCDM

So, after 30 issues, Arcadia is finally finished. I’m so glad you all stuck with me. I may have skipped an issue or two for one reason or another, but nearly every issue of Arcadia has been reviewed and I have no idea how they managed to maintain such a high level of quality. My deepest respect goes to all the people who work at MCDM and those who write for them. Arcadia will definitely be one of those things I’ll return to in the future, just like I’ll return to see the 2e products.

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Erin Roberts writes about organizations that can be added to the game. These articles about groups of people, factions, or organizations that can be incorporated into a campaign are something I always enjoy in Arcadia. This time, the organization is known as The Thread (love the name). It is an organization that has been around for a very long time, but no one knows how it was created. There are various theories that vary from place to place, but there is no exact answer to the question. The Thread is about folk magic, or the magic of everyday life. These people come to help society in times of need, and they make sure to teach their practices to make life easier for everyone in the long run.

The thread is led by a Fortune Teller, a Healer and a Traveler. These are titles given to people, meaning that when a Healer retires, a new one takes their place. The three NPCs, one for each role, are well described and seem full of personality and a lot of fun to roleplay. If I were to add this organization to my own setting, I might actually create one of the NPCs I’ve already created and replace one of these three to easily integrate them into my world. The three leaders play key roles in helping the organization successfully achieve its proposal.

In addition to organizations and leadership, this article includes encounters with threads that serve as fun short adventures, and folk magic practices. The latter adds new depth, as those who decide to become part of the organization can learn Craft Magic, Fortune Telling, or Heartwork. Each of these has its own mechanics. Craft Magic allows you to create items similar to enchanted items, and with a book to learn it, you can become proficient in everything. Fortune Telling allows you to grant random boons to others, as if you had read the future. Then there is Heartwork, which allows you to learn certain rituals that cause different effects, similar to spells. It is easy to imagine each party member learning one of these three folk magics and using these boons to add new and fun things to the game. However, folk magic can make PCs more powerful than they need to be for their level, so it should be taken into consideration.

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As in the previous article, Crossroads acts as some kind of organization, but it’s more like a black market. An extra-dimensional black market! As I continued to read about Crossroads, I became more and more fascinated with the idea of ​​an extra-dimensional black market. I’ve made something similar to this in my games, but this is definitely much better and I’m going to steal it. This market is run by a powerful crime family, but they have no problem working for you if you have the money. They are the Pariarks. There isn’t much information about them, but we know their prices and success rates (I really like that you’re gambling whether they will succeed in the mission or not).

Crossroads has a myriad of NPCs and interesting characters. There are people who perform assassinations for various prices for important people, those who have bodyguards, or those who want to leave a message. There are many things you can find here, such as the Imp Fence, a brass dragon that can forge anything. But my favorite is the human who was turned into slime by the Aboleths and is now connected to all of their knowledge, which can be obtained for either a price or a ridiculous boon. As if this wasn’t enough, there are actually Pit Fiends who are tricked by the Pariarchs into working for them indefinitely, giving them access to other franchises of Crossroads across many planes. It’s easy to imagine that players will want to come here and see what lies ahead.

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The last Arcadia installment… let’s end it with a bang! Or in this case, a chorus sung by celestial figures. In this adventure for level 7 characters, you will traverse a cathedral overrun by celestials and demons to appease the wrath of the celestial beings. In this short adventure, different characters take on roles, each containing one of the seven notes that are missing to fully accomplish the task. That’s right! You will need to play music to calm the celestials. If you have at least one player who really loves music, they will love instructing them to collect notes and create a coherent piece of music to play at the end.

While the rest of the adventure is pretty safe and doesn’t add much new to the table, the whole music theme definitely stands out. I really like how Sadie tied everything to sound and made every encounter during the dungeon delving have some sort of musical theme. Enemies can steal sounds from wizards, preventing them from casting spells and NPCs have to be saved by singing as they will be attacked by enemies if they stop playing music. The way the PCs encounter notes given to them by NPCs is also very original, with some NPCs dying while writing notes in blood or recording notes on plants that can mimic sound.

Overall, I thought this adventure was really original. The combination of the music you’re making (downloadable MP3 files) and the very epic battle with the Celestials will no doubt create a very cinematic ending in the players’ minds. Sounds fantastic!