The second I saw Realms of Arkania remake on Steam, I did not hesitate to buy it. As a matter of fact, doing a remake of such a strong title requires guts and patience, because the scrutiny of its fans will be at a serious level. And developers should not rush for anything, the real players and fans will wait a little while longer to see a good game.

The features below I suggest are intended for a time when the game reaches the features of old Arkania:


-Sailing: In RoA 2 and 3 sailing has no serious part but in RoA 1 it has a significant place. After reaching a certain amount of wealth, it should be possible for adventurers to buy their own ship and sail to whichever destination they wish for. The ship would have small harboring cost which is paid to harbormasters and can act as a place to put your loot as well. Another alternative would be to sign to a ship for a voyage as guards or crew (depending on your talents you could even be a helmsman and get paid more. A Driving check perhaps?) With additional sea events such as trading ship encounters where you can hail, trade, or attack(piracy!), pirates boarding your ship, lethal Krakenewt encounters etc etc. the sailing can be a treat. And a delicious Daspota alternative: After getting your ship (or signing to one or helping pirates at some encounter) you could be respected in Daspota, get benefit from their smiths (better rapiers), taverns, brothels a few piracy/smuggling quests perhaps would spice things up. (And yes getting your tattoo and turning your loot in!)

-Towns: Most towns stands there as a place to rest and sell things, before going to your next adventure. Adding fairs/festivals (with tournaments, drinking contests, musical contests, special market stalls etc etc) for certain towns at certain dates would provide an incentive for people to be at somewhere at the right time. And stay for a few days to participate in contests, contracts and shopping. And you do not enter a drinking contest with a Leaf Elf but feel free to try! For example a town on map mentions conflict between Nostrians and people of Andergast. You could get a quest to resolve a murder of a Nostrian from authorities of Nordvest. That would give a better feel for the world around. Or defending a town from a massive Ork raid on northern part of the map. A godforsaken village turns out to be a village of cannibals(you know which village I refer to on map description ) or robbers etc. Also delivery quests(timed) by Stoerrabrandt Offices would be an alternative to make coin off your travels for brave adventurers.

-Houses: More house events fitting to the lore of the town would be quite nice. Such as a man in Rybon getting angry to the party saying that he could not get away from the likes of -you- despite he lives in a godforsaken town. (Locks the door) Or a house in Varnhome harboring smugglers from Daspota who will be hostile (unless you have your tattoo). Some of them just talks and rumors. That would encourage people to explore cities and towns more.

-Means of Travel: Horses which can be used on horse-friendly roads, coaches which can carry loot would give you a solid reason to invest in Animal Training, Driving and Riding. Of course when climbing through a mountain you'd have to park them somewhere or leave them at an Inn.

-Animal Training: Especially druids could do with a helpful familiar which cannot be controlled by party directly (except Druid could order to stand, flee or attack). The orders depending on Animal Training skill, may fail. At your free time in Inns or at Camps you can use that talent to train animal for fighting, intelligence or health. Train horses to be sturdy against weather or to be faster etc.

-New Dungeons: The more, the merrier. No need to explain it

-Taverns: Some taverns could refuse to serve you depending on your clothes, wealth or your fame/infamy. If you get caught cheating you'd get beaten, thrown out or lose a part of your coins. They might not let you gamble there again or innkeeper can raise his prices for you. At worst case they might even bar the tavern entrance for a few months. In contrast Tailoring shops which does custom clothes for your character which makes them seem more presentable could be implemented. Who will dare to refuse a lavish looking gentleman to their fine establishment? (And what kind of thief will let such a rich looking gentleman go unscatched at an alley? )

-Adventuring Parties: Other adventuring parties, good/neutral/evil which can cause conflict, give rumors or trade with you simply. Nothing is more lethal then a roving band of lunatic dwarves who deems you evil and are after your coin purse in order to give them away to local orphanage!

That is all I can think of for now. But I am positive these features would enhance the spirit of Arkania.

Of course! There is nothing more natural then sharing ideas. After all, we are in the same boat, wishing for a great Blade of Destiny game

One of my favourite games was King of Dragon Pass and I really loved its choice based approach due to the characters' abilities. And sometimes same choices could lead to different outcomes (favorable or unfavorable). Today I will try to give more detailed ideas on features with some examples.

BURGLARY


In every city and town there are several empty houses ready to get filled with random events and stuff. Some spots could offer casual thieving opportunities while some of them could be open to unique burglary events when you are hinted towards them. I will cover my idea with an example, going phase by phase.

Casual Burglary


Opportunity may arise at a random house and it will not yield very much loot besides a few ducats, general goods and maybe some herbs.

#Event


You knock the door but there is no answer. And the door won't budge.

1. Pick the lock
2. Smash the door
3. Use a crowbar
4. Leave it as it is
5. Loiter around a few hours

Consequences:

1. Picking the lock depending on who picks, will have three results. Open the door and enter the building. Failed attempt allowing a retry. Failed attempt which broke the pick and jammed the door. Picking the lock is the most silent method.

2. Smashing a door with a strong warrior generally leads to a guard encounter. Chances that guards appear is high. But depending on how effective the door smashed, guards can pretend they have not seen you (a high roll of dice) which allows you enough time to get whatever you wish from the house before guards return with back up. The door may not budge upon failure and guards can appear to ask what are you doing. A successful check of social stats can allow you to slip away from the scenery. At best case, you smash the door and leave without alerting any guards because the house is away from the guard patrols or center of city. If you do not wish to risk to face battle-hardened Thorwalian guards, there is always the opportunity to surrender for a few week vacation at dungeons and dine bad food.

3. Crowbar will make less noise then smashing door. So its chances to lead to a guard encounter is far smaller then smashing the door with a weapon.

4. No use for standing around.

5. Loitering can end in three events. First the occupant returns and throws some insults before entering his house. Second he may invite you for some food and drink, providing you a rumor before you leave. Third he/she may threaten you with calling guards where it is up to you to leave or face a guard encounter.

Unique Burglary Opportunities


Taverns are good places for rumors and sometimes people talk too much about other people's wealth, prized possessions and secrets.

Casual opportunities are highly random, but unique ones happen at certain towns or villages and they have their own encounters.

#Event


A tavern braggart speaks about the lovers visiting Erica Olfgardson in the middle of night behind her husband Hubert who is a Thorwalian pirate who left for a raid.

Around the midnight our dashing party goes to the house of Erica. The door is left slightly open for the visitor, you allow one member enter and there is no light but a sonorous voice calls for you. "Dear? You came a bit early tonight...why don't you come to bed? I read your letter and...I cannot stand without you any longer"

1. Act as her lover and join her in the bed (Seduction check)
2. Threaten her directly with blackmailing
3. Start to rummage through her possessions
4. Leave quietly

Consequences:

1. A successful check on Seduction will lead to a nice bed adventure with Erica. And before sun breaks you will get the letter from her lover along some jewellery and other stuff. A failure will make her scream for guards which leaves you for an option to silence her or leave. Guards will not hear her at all.

2. Direct threatening will lead her to submit to your burglary. If you fail at crushing her courage she will find a way to grab the letter and slip outside the house at first opportunity and call for help. You will face her noble lover and his goons which is a tough fight.

3. Starting to steal directly make her suspicious or not depending on character's sneak ability. Not suspicious you will get the letter and possessions. Suspicious, you will get less possessions and face a screaming Erica. Leave or silence her for more loot.

4. If you leave quietly, that is all about it.

Returning back with letter will allow you to blackmail Erica for some more ducats. Killing Erica will lead to face her husband and his battle-hardened friends in future. Apparently he was tracking you all along. Otherwise, it is a successfull unique burglary event!

@ugralitan:
Love all of your ideas! Implementing even a small percentage of that stuff would add so much flavor and immersion to the game... So much potential. I am almost sure most of it can't be hard to achieve.

Thank you for the comprehensive collection of great and enriching ideas!

cheers!

Recently I have been wondering what kind of idea could make Reading&Writing skill useful more then a few skill checks. And then I realized existence of inks, writing utensils, scrolls which had no use in the original game. Thus all this led me to idea of Spellscribing.

SPELLSCRIBING


It is the art of scribing magical spells and directions on how to cast them for the less talented people or for those who have no knowledge on that particular spell. With good literacy even the most stupid ork can throw a small ball of fire!

Rules:


-The quality/spell level of a scroll is determined by a combined check of Read&Write, availability of a good writing utensil and cleverness of the scribe. Naturally a scribe is someone who is talented in spellcasting.

-The scribed spells will always be lesser in level then the spellcaster scribing it. Level 10 Lightning knowledge could make a Level 9 Lightning scroll for the exceptionally talented scribe. Also the reader's Read&Write skills may reduce the effectiveness of resulting spell even further. Such as a Thorwalian with no literacy trying to spell out a few words will cause a spell failure and may even cause the astral power in scroll to backfire.

-Scrolls can be scribed at camps or inns when the party is relaxed. The scribe will use Astral Points to enhance scroll with the necessary power to enable spellcasting. The amount of Astral Points used is larger then casting the spell directly. But this allows a non-talented person to cast the spell with enough literacy.

-Of course the channeling of the astral energy contained within the scroll will destroy the brittle medium. So stocking on scrolls and such will require ducats for scrolls and astral energy for enchanting them.

-There is always a chance for failure which might waste scroll and astral energy, but it degrades much with increased Read&Write and Arcane Lore since you know how to properly spell things out and deliver suitable amount of astral energy to medium.

This feature would make people consider investing in Read&Write skills in case they run out of astral points or they wish to add increased spell attacks by other members of party, they can resort to scroll-casting.

Events Separated by Acts


In RPG games like Realms of Arkania, the players can never get enough of random and unique events while they traverse Northlands. But encountering specific events (such as hunting boars etc) despite their randomness can get old after awhile. The game could get enhanced with events separated by several acts over the game time (I consider 2 years enough to have such events with recurring characters.) I shall give 2 examples, one is quite simpler while the other one is a bit more complicated which gives the player some choices to determine outcomes.

#Event 1: Way of the Trader


This is a travelling merchant event where your party gets to encounter from time to time. Some goods and special stuff he can sell, considering you have the ducats for it. But it is always good to be careful with such merchants, who knows the bag they sell you might be or might not be special. It can be triggered on random anywhere in the world.


Goramun-Event 1: An old traveler hails you with an honest smile and approaches you with a large pack on the back of his donkey. "Hail honest adventurers, would you like to take a peek into Goramun's Travelling Emporium?"



1. Yes, certainly. (Which will lead you to a barter window with differing selection each time you meet the guy)
2. Inquire about him. (Which makes Goramun tell you his long story of travels across Aventuria, then he claims it is getting late and makes his final offer without giving you access to barter window)
3. No, we are not interested, stranger. (Goramun will proceed to final offer)


Final offer: This is the part when Goramun offers you an item of interest.


FO-1: Goramun lets out a soft chuckle then claims it is getting late and he should reach to nearest inn for he is tired. After packing the last bit of his wares, he returns to your party holding a tightly tied bag in his hands. "I have an enchanted bag of wind, which will unleash terror on your enemies, for 30 Ducats it can be yours! I cut my own throat with this offer but I need some clink clink to sleep on a good bed and to fill my tummy. Oh poor Goramun, you are too old for this."


1. Ask to examine item. (Which will give you a one shot of appraise, identify spell or knowledge check. There is a small chance items may not be what is claimed.)
2. Buy it.
3. Haggle for price. (Haggle check which may lower the price by 5-10 Ducats. At a failure Goramun will pack the item claiming that you do not know how to bargain and he has a reputation)


A Bag of Wind: When opened it will knockdown your enemies for a turn. And then it is just a bag of no interest.


Goramun-2: Same bartering options. This time you can inquire about his journey where he will tell you more about himself without allowing you barter.


FO-2: This time he will offer you a dagger named "Deathbringer". As usual, there is a chance it can be fake. A Knowledge on Arcane items can prove to be useful whether it is the actual Deathbringer or not. He asks for 100 Ducats.


Deathbringer: It is a dagger which can be evoked to kill someone (save unique monsters) instantly. But you cannot do it frequently for it draws from your life, astral points and worldly experience. (And it has an increasing chance to break or turn to ash with each usage). It is a fabled weapon of a Thorwalian who forged it with the assistance of an evil druid and a witch. The warrior won many skirmishes and duels but in the end dagger consumed him to the end. (Otherwise it is just a magical dagger, if it is fake...you have been ripped out for a common dagger with a fancy carving)


Goramun-3: If you listen to his story this time, actually he'll let you to barter afterwards.


FO-3: He will offer you an enchanted crystal ball for 25 Ducats. (Same checks above applied, haggling possible as usual and it will not make him pack the item on failure this time.)


Crystal Ball: It will cast a successful Penetrizzel on invoking, 3 charges. Then it shatters to pieces.


Goramun-4: If you listened all his stories so far, he will give you a Codex of Seductive Mysteries which gives a point to highest stat of a char, while reducing the lowest one further.


FO-4: He will offer you a glass shield for 150 Ducats this time. (Same checks)


Magical Glass Shield: It has better protection then usual shields. But can break with a small chance.


Goramun-5: At a tavern you will hear a rumor about Goramun going to town and he did not leave the place.


Goramun-6: You will meet with Goramun's wife at Thorwal(city encounter, after the rumor) who curses the old man for travelling all over the lands despite his old age. She will ask you to go to town to inquire.


Goramun-7: You'll find and kill the thieves/bandits who killed Goramun for his goods. Frankly there is not much ducats left, for he already entrusted them to a Stoerrabrandt account with the help of a Beilunk Rider. At return to Thorwal, you'll be invited to a food and drink by his wife, along some ducats in thanks.


These events are not in player-initiative(except the avenging part where you go to a random town), rather they happen over 1-1.5 year at random places, when journeying. I will give the next example in the upcoming days.




Well, I think if most of these offers are rip-offs it would be more appropriate in line with low-magic setting of Arkania. And giving you a good reason to invest in proper checks or whether you have guts to gamble on item or not. Also I just threw item descriptions without considering balance issues, thus they can be more mundane then what I described. The main idea is having events which have impacts throughout game time.

I'll cut on giving event examples on this thread (while writing some events in backgrounds) and concentrate on other features of the game. About spells, I have checked the missing ones and some prototype ideas came into my mind. Originally I shared them in a Steam forum, but for the record I am putting them here too.

I think some of those spells can be returned with additional events (small events or quests) and by revamping their effect to fit into new Arkania game. Possible additions would be (aside from demons and stuff);

Ecliptifactus: Providing a NPC shadow of the character to aid him/her in the battle. The shadow would be a diluted version of the original character it copies. Or it could be the shame shadow character with same attacks but in form of the character it copies.

Necropathia: I think in original it made me really excited at first but I really found no use to it at all. Scripting a quest regarding a murder case which requires talking to dead as well or some neat graveyard encounters could add some flavor to skill as a simple check.

Destructibo Arcanite: Well, destroying magical things by drawing their Astral Power looks like a bad bargain always. What if heroes could get some cursed items along their ways and they stuck on them or cause mischief upon them? After all there is an option in Thorwal Academy to remove curses for ducats. It can be a cheap alternative to that. In another idea, it can be a casual remove curse spell, at the expense of Astral Points of the target on top of their usual usage. (It can draw LE from non-Astral cursed chars, hence curse removal being something not to be triffled with.)

Great Need: Great Need could cause an opponent to prioritize the caster as its main target. (As in feeling a great need for something the caster possess, irrationally)

Chameleony: It can give a room of breath for the flanked or weakened characters. All enemies can ignore them. For example, while a group of robbers can be baffled with the sudden disappearance of target, an orc party with a talented shaman can cast Exposami to keep bashing on your poor Chameleon.

Duplication: Duplication can be one time only great chance of miss for the enemy, instead being a constant AC modifier like Fastness of Body. It would stay on caster till he gets targetted or it can be targettable to other characters then caster to make it an effective saver for characters under heavy fire.

Without a Trace, Without a Track: It could reduce the chance for a negative encounter for awhile, when journeying through the wilderness. On top of that, it could even further reduce your chances to get ambushed in a wilderness camp. (Difference then Silentium would be, it is limited to wilderness where tracks have some meaning, while Silentium can allow you safer camp in urban and dungeons too.)

Salother Mutother: Well, everyone likes to turn another to a toadstool. Maybe instead making it permanent, it can be a turn based debuff. Like turn to a toadstool for 3 turns and if you are still a toadstool at the end of combat, you will get chewed up by the boots of adventurers (or enemies).

Walk on Ice, Walk on Snow: Instead being a caster specific thing, it could be a party buff allowing you to access places where normally you could not access during the winter. It would be enough to re-cast it every time you do a camp. (Hence if you are slow enough, you'll risk running out of AP midway and start to take serious freeze damage with frostbite no matter, till you leave the impassable road to safety)

Abvenenum: Well, it would add to charm of difficulty if walking through weird swamps and such would spoil food rations or worse poison them. Such food would be useless till they are purified. Of course, people are welcome to eat them and sate their bellies at the cost of after effects

Darkness: An area wide debuff for attack values of enemies and allies, save the caster. It could get a good use if used right.

Freeze the Soft, Stop the Flow: It could be an alternative to Solidirid for river crossing. Easier to cast then Solidirid but less useful on other passage events.

Melt the Solid, Flow the Hard: Maybe, just maybe, it can alter the strength of doors, making them a piece of cake to bash. Also it could make rocks melt and open some passages etc. (It would be fun if the Old Bailey collapsed passage would be opened by this spells or gathering a bunch of miners from Oberorken by paying in ducats)

Just some thoughts, many of your ideas are really nice .

@Necropathia: As you said, that one is strictly event-based. But then it could be wonderful indeed
@Great Need: It could also serve with a similar effect as Horriphobus - the reason is a different one ("you *really* need to eat strawberries right now"), the effect is the same
@Walk on Ice: According to the P+P rules, this spell lasts for a couple of minutes at the very most. Stretching it to "once a day" would be *really* bending the rules on it.
@Destructibo: According to the P+P rules, when removing a spell in such a way, part of the cost is permanent Astral Energy. So again you need damn good reason and according events for the spell to make sense and balance gain and cost.

I have been thinking for possible archetypes. (And we need Jester back!) A possibly wild idea came to my mind from the Rondra priestess at Star Trail. Disclaimer: This request/idea is purely experimental. And perhaps it would be a good DLC stuff, unsure.

Priest/Priestess Archetype (Maybe Deont Archetype?)

As a devoted servant of a God, often times you find yourself in search of something to please your deity. For a servant of Rondra it can be a fight against odds, for a servant of Efferd making long voyages overseas and for a servant of Boron to provide proper burials of the deceased. While alone they are powerful enough to hold themselves in martial arts or by the grace of their Divine, they are a welcome addition to any adventuring party.

Mechanics

-They get a bonus on Unarmed and Maces or the bonuses can be entirely dependant on the Deity.
-They have good bonuses on Lore skills.
-Unlike other Archetypes, they can get to choose their Deity.
-Having a certain priest/deont in your party will make asking for a miracle to that god -slightly- easier.
-Having a certain priest/deont in your party and disregarding that Deity too much will make asking for a miracle to that god harder. (Such as not burying the corpse between Daspota and Rybon, Boron will frown on the Priest)
-They can invoke their god for small miracles every day/week/month(timing can be decided), infight or outfight. (This may require a small subset of miracle spells, some of them may be even copies of magician spells. A Praiot throwing a ball of flame makes sense. A servant of Boron raising a skeleton to defend himself etc)

Talent: Public Speech/Conversion(useable at cities) :Making a public speech about your god, you can convert new people to your faith, increase your standing with your god and even gather donations to your cause. Of course, if you speak greatness of Boron at a town dedicated to Praios fanatically you'll ask for trouble.

The idea in its raw form is like this so far.

[quote='ugralitan','index.php?page=Thread&postID=55293#post55293']Having a certain priest/deont in your party and disregarding that Deity too much will make asking for a miracle to that god harder[/quote]

No. A "Geweihter", as is the German P&P archetype you're describing wouldn't just sit through the party taking actions against their very own believe.

[quote='ugralitan','index.php?page=Thread&postID=55293#post55293']A Praiot throwing a ball of flame makes sense. A servant of Boron raising a skeleton to defend himself[/quote]

No. NO! Lord, NO!
You're actually describing the very opposite of what the gods are in Aventuria.

Prios despises magery in all forms. His servents gain prophecy, charisma, magic resistance (which should actually be called resistance against magic, else it implies resistance through magical means), knowledge of human nature and knoledge of magic arts.

Boron raiseing undead is very, very, very, rare, but he actually helps to remove undead creatures. His servants gain prophecy, or might even help them through sending people to a deep slumber (and removing parts of their memory.

There's a special rulebook dedicated to these kind of heros. Please don't take this as offensive feedback, but I'd rather keep the P&P-world of Aventuria than see it converted to a wiked form of a lame D&D.

[quote='Fujak Loganson','index.php?page=Thread&postID=55363#post55363'][quote='ugralitan','index.php?page=Thread&postID=55293#post55293']Having a certain priest/deont in your party and disregarding that Deity too much will make asking for a miracle to that god harder[/quote]

No. A "Geweihter", as is the German P&P archetype you're describing wouldn't just sit through the party taking actions against their very own believe.

[quote='ugralitan','index.php?page=Thread&postID=55293#post55293']A Praiot throwing a ball of flame makes sense. A servant of Boron raising a skeleton to defend himself[/quote]

No. NO! Lord, NO!
You're actually describing the very opposite of what the gods are in Aventuria.

Prios despises magery in all forms. His servents gain prophecy, charisma, magic resistance (which should actually be called resistance against magic, else it implies resistance through magical means), knowledge of human nature and knoledge of magic arts.

Boron raiseing undead is very, very, very, rare, but he actually helps to remove undead creatures. His servants gain prophecy, or might even help them through sending people to a deep slumber (and removing parts of their memory.

There's a special rulebook dedicated to these kind of heros. Please don't take this as offensive feedback, but I'd rather keep the P&P-world of Aventuria than see it converted to a wiked form of a lame D&D.[/quote]Ahem....cough....they were very random examples, I did not -think- in the detailed (God by God) concept yet. Hence I put that towards to discussion since I could not find an English detailed book on Aventurian God's servants.

The main idea is to have a Priest/Priestess archetype, their capabilities can be subject to a detailed discussion not to make them lame D&Dish cleric or alien to Aventurian lore. There are religious references always in the game, and it would make sense they would be playable as an archetype by the players. The miracle idea was a brash thought from Drakensang: River of Time where Cano could call upon Phex. I thought far less frequent and appropriate miracles for Priest/Priestess archetype would be fitting. And on Praios, my bad...<.< I didn't mean to disrespect him!

But at this point I'd like to be be educated on Gods by those who know more detailed about them (or if there is a site on rules of God-servants. I can suffer through Chrome translate no worries ).

Most unfortunately there doesn't seem to be enough interest to warrant a full translation and since the German books are under copyright, I can't simply write a detailed summary here (which would take lots of time), or link to it. There have been 2-3 postings concerning that kind of archetyp in the German forum already, it's not the lack of people wanting them, but rather finding a decent way to implement them without completely butchering the very detailed world of Aventuria. Not only are they rarely found outside their temple, but their miracles are much unlike spells and the Karma they require doesn't really regenerate like the astral energy of magicians. It's actually a very good example of how diverse and different new creations should be (not simple clones of previous spells with different names and graphics like it is handled in most 99% of all modern games), but it leaves implementation in a non human Gamemaster system incredibly troublesome as well.

Drakensang was actually such a success because it dumped down the rulesystem of RoA to the very extreme. Had it not slaughtered the very complex system by cruel means and converted it to a modern mainstream slight no brainer, far less people would have played and enoyed it.

I can understand the concern about "not butchering the world of Aventuria". I agree that such heroes may be rare outside their temples but then your adventuring party is something close to rare. For example a druid, a magician, a warrior, a dwarf, a shady rogue and an Ice Elf having a common cause. If your party encounters several religion-touched warriors etc, it would be awkward; but if your party had such a character it would not be awkward.

And yes, Drakensang was quite shallow as a game.

Anyways in the light of what you have said, I will try to find more data on Aventurian Gods , their servants etc. then come with a more concrete request on Priest/Priestess Archetype. (Or will give up and cry at my corner quietly )

For English players, I have started a poll about 2D image revamp of the Blade of Destiny.

2D Revamp of Blade of Destiny HD