Themes
Two of the most important themes of the game are ritual and character choices. Both the setting information and the game rules emphasize these areas far more than is typical of Dungeons & Dragons products. Two examples are metamorphosis, in which faen become tiny, winged sprytes, and Chi-Julud, in which the wise giants temporarily lose their wisdom to become stronger and more warlike. Both involve rituals, and both also involve choices on the part of both the player and character that are much more far-reaching than those typically faced by D&D characters (especially Spryte transformation, which is permanent and irrevocable). Cook emphasizes that players should avoid archetypes (presumeably referring to the character archetypes of Dungeons & Dragons) and design their characters more creatively. In fact, shortly after the game was released, Monte Cook's website, www.montecook.com, held a character design competition.
Read more about this topic: Arcana Unearthed
Famous quotes containing the word themes:
“In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)