Arca is a game system that ties all other game systems and stories together. The basic idea is that you create a character (probably a fantasy/super hero version of yourself) that is able to travel to other stories and go adventuring there. Your character is able to do this traveling with a sort of "space ship" (really more of a "story ship") called an Arca. You are also able to recruit heroes, myths, and legends from these stories to come live on your Arca with your hero, and generally the point is to go gallivanting around the Storywarp (where all the stories exist) saving the day, gaining power, and ultimately saving the Storywarp from the crushing fate currently bearing down on it. All you need to get started is a graph paper notebook, a two pocket folder, and something to write with.
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1. Character Creation
Come up with a general idea for a character. It is encouraged to imagine "what kind of super powers would I have" and go from there. Decide what the general sense of the character's personality is (The Lawful/Chaotic and Good/Evil alignment grids are good for this.) and what kind of setting they would most likely exist in (Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Steampunk, etc..)
Your character at this point is considered an Apex Character, meaning they don't have a single story or point of origin, they are instead more of an idea. Think of mythological figures like Odin and Athena; we have some surviving stories of them that could be considered original, but at this point they are more of an idea that can be placed in to various settings. A more modern example would be a character like Spider-Man. Spider-Man is a nerdy jokester who is always in way over his head but he perseveres through ingenuity and a sense of responsibility. There are the comic versions of him, the cartoon versions, the movie versions, the game versions, but they all share similar story threads like the death of Uncle Ben and a struggle to balance a normal life with super hero duties. When characters reach this mythical legend status they become more of an idea than a single personality, and that is the type of character you are making.
Now that you have thought of the basic "spirit"of your character (they should also at least have a name at this point) you need to decide what kind of memories they have. Your character's game begins when they answer the call of their Lodestar (more on that later) and become an Apex Character, but it is up to you to decide what, if anything, they did before that point as traditional character. To use Wonder Woman as an example, you may just decide "Well, my character, Diana, is a warrior from a lost Amazonian civilization that is super strong, can fly, and has a few other abilities granted to her by the Greek Pantheon" and just jump in right there, or you may decide to flesh out details like her mother Hippolyta, her first adventure to man's world, and even tales of her work with the Justice League. Either way, at some point this "spirit" was drawn to their Lodestar and entered a place between stories, known as the Storywarp. (Probably the easiest way to handle this step is to come up with a bunch of backstory elements and cap it with "but then they died, drifted to the Lodestar and now this is their afterlife. They have some amnesia from the ordeal but their previous memories are slowly returning." This gives you wiggle room to fluctuate the story of their past a bit if you change your mind, and also means you don't need to write every detail of their accomplishments and relationships before starting to play.)
You should now be ready to fill out a character sheet:
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(You may print this or use a page of graph paper to recreate the same design. Tuck this into the right side of your folder.)
These last steps are optional, though highly encouraged:
1-Something written:
Write your ideas for their personality, appearance, abilities, and past experiences into your journal. How you format this is your choice, but be sure to date it.
2-Artwork:
Draw your character, have someone else draw your character, or collect images from other sources of what your character generally looks like. When drawing your own character, don't be afraid to trace or use reference. These images can be paper clipped to the character's sheet in the right side of the folder.
3-Playable Representation:
Have a 3D representation of your character. A 1in-1.5in figurine (Heroclix, Heroscape, Warhammer, LEGO etc...) would be most useful, but other scales do exist, and even a deck of cards for a game like Magic: The Gathering technically counts in this category. Player created characters in digital games (World of Warcraft, Diablo, Destiny, Elder Scrolls) are also technically part of this category.
2. Lodestar Setting
4-called to lodestar/Arca Commander/Personal idea of an established character/
How does your character come to the 4th dimension? An easy choice would be they died and this is their after life. This could also explain why their memories are fuzzy (if you haven't really figurined out much of thier story yet) Other ways to acheive the 4th dimension may be through a portal designed by either magic or technology, a dark pact for knowledge, or a divine intervention from a diety.
*or*
Your character
lodestars
-inside a ldoestar is imagination stuff. its where teh main chars homestory is, and other stories not yet in the warp or draftlands.
-main char coems out of lodestar and sets up arca in hteir system. (draftlands)
-main char coems out of lodestar and sets up arca in hteir system. (draftlands)
0-idea of a place to live in the warp/draftlands
1-something written, written description. "flagship" character sheet. (Arca levels) Arca name, crew (1-20ish)
3 colums, main signal, frequncy and amplitude. there are also army support Arca shhets that have a general and feature a faction. (these would be for armies with a few heroes, not all heroes) general factions=nature based, mechanical based, high tech vs low tech, high magic vs low magic. some could be "astral" based (deties, angels, demons). these factions have lawful/destructive good/evil charts as well. Things like greenskins would be destructive(chaotic) evil or maybe destructive neutral. Arthurian knights would be lawful good. Society of elves could be lawful neutral (Rivendell) and maybe a forest society would be Lawful Good, or more true neutral. Diablo and his demons would be chaotic evil
2-maps, drawings
3-playable terrain/figurines, digital
4-travel the storywarp
5-answer the lodestar
3. Arca Creation
5-Arca Commander
You come through the 4th dimension, out of the Storywarp and enter the Draftlands. From here you can connect to drafts of stories in the Storywarp based on their frequencies. These lands are chaotic at times, and strictly orderly in others. You begin to build yourself a home base, a place to live among the expanse before you.
Part 1: Mechanics Explained
How Arcas Work:
-Lodestars and Arcas are in the Draftlands on the 4th Dimension, orbiting core earth (push back the dark)
-Draftland battles are 4th Dimensional. Multiple versions of characters can exist here, and everything is an apex version.
-the 4th dimension is governed by teh lodestars. some kind of energy comes from them and holds thigns the way they are. its like the soalr flaires and sunlight. storms may chagne things. (it's actually roots and wings)
-4th dimensional chars can travel to 3 dimensional planets and places. they can do it as 4th dimen or as a 3dimen dive-in.
Setting:
-Fortress Earth. push back the dark mechanics. characters start here. stasis of current world/slow decline. each lodestar sets up a ward stone type thing ,and gamestores are even bigger ones. when demons attack they are thwarded (through skirmish games typically, like lol, rts skirms, magic, warhammer etc) and they mess thigns up but it gets healed back. still things are in a slow decline.
What's Happening:
-demons have a grip on the core earth to the point of a SW collapse.
-sigmund manifests in my draftlands with the sudden emergence of the lodestar among hte twisting void. meets valerra when she saves him, she was told to come here by odin. previously she had been just recruiting (all my rpg chars)
-sigmund has plan to save the warp: skim as much demonic energy off the lodestars as he can by inviting it to the fortress earth and battling it in the draftlands (using an arca) and on the surface of the planet. recruit the lodestars that are ready to rebel. plan for an Earth gain power until it is time for phase two (a special dive in he is planning that will deal a massive blow to the demon's grip.)
Part 2: Sigmund and Valerra.
Sigmund wasn't sure where he was, but it looked to be some kind of Astral Plane. Typical. As a wizard he had figured out how to reach places like this long ago, and even created a few himself. He had no memory of coming here, though. he does remember figuring out magic on Rome. he figured out looping spectrum magic where it is a personal ability. everyone else's magic comes from a sort of external engineering. he realizes how powerful this could be and began training others. word got out and they were rounded up and killed. So this must be some kind of afterlife? Awesome, he always assumed there would be one.
He was drifting toward a point of light in the distance. It was calling him in. He saw scenes of himself doing things, some he remembered, otehrs he didnt. but did little to complete a narritive for him. when he arrived at the ball he touched it and warped out.
He arrives at his tower on a floating rocks. is attacked by demons, valerra comes and saves him. she was drawn to the spot same as he, they both end up at the lodestar. gives him the spiel of Odin ( she needs to find odin, shethere is a different Ragnarok, it all has to do with this place, the draftlands), val has been meeting with the others (Samdormir, Espilthork, Jens, Rjinegore, Taen, Dethork) by a form of portaling similar to planeswalking, using her rootwing pendant. odin shows up here (roots wings) and tells them about the draftlands, the other lodestars, and tells them to recruit heroes to explore thees places and defeat the demons that live there. valerra must recruit heroes from other lodestars, and sigmund must find the plan to show them that will save the warp. odin was led here also, doesnt know its rootswings but he suspects. he has seen the wings tree before. sig develops the tower into the arca and finds a connection to all the signals and frequencies.
888
He suspected his world was in danger of collapsing and his views of the timelines conformed that was mostly likely the outcome if things didn't change. Here he faced a crisis though: he wanted to act, he wanted to save the world, but there were so many timelines, how could he save them all? Even if he went back in and fixed everything in his own timeline it would only hold so long as he was alive, not to mention the infinite expanse of realities where he failed, or didn't even try at all. He decided to postpone his decision and hopefully find something to make it more clear by exploring this fourth dimensional realm he was in. He found timelines from other people and worlds, some human, some Earth, others not. Then he began to come across characters he recognized! Suprised at first but then realized it made sense that the energy from each timeline radiated out and influenced the others. People on his timeline must have picked up on htese waves and found the inspiration to write them as stories. The more he traveld the more stories he found. He tried to connect to them, and while he wasnt able to actually join the story he would observe them as a ghost of sorts. After exploring many stories he began to explore again and found all these stories, including his own, were part of a great stream coming from a shared point far in the distance and continuing on in the other direction like the timelines of the stories. He could see the future of the storywarp in a great flux, sometimes stretching for millenida beyond his sight, others times sputtering out a few years from now. He knew this is what he was looking for and confirmed his suspicion that actions in his own timeline would be meaningless. (if the whole warp was doomed anyway what was the point of improving his place?) He goes to the source point to see what he can find.
His curiosity led him to study science to learn more about how science fiction might be possible, and history to connect better to mythical fantasy. He always wanted to write a story that combined science and magic in a way that made sense, and in his 20's he got more than he bargained for. By using the elements of design as a basis, simple things like color and shape, he found a common thread between science and myth, but rather than using it as a basis for a story he totally outdid himself and actually discovered real magic.
The possiblities were countless, and he was both all of them and none of them. He felt a calling, it was the lodestar. he goes.When he arrived he found a glowing ball similar to a star but not burning. He touched it, and reality warped around him, the star engulfed him and he was suddenly on the other side.
4. Arca Adaptations/Mods AKA Adventuring
Arca: Age of Empires II
Signal:History (600AD-1600AD)
You troops in this game are led by a general character, someone who lives on your Arca. You can decide that each unit in game is a character, and each multiple of them is a clone controlled by the main character. You can also decide that each troop is a unique mortal life or unique immortal life who lives in a local branch of your Arca on this frequency.
Progression Format: Regicide
Level 1=25 population
Level 2=50
Level 3=100
Level 4=200
Level 5=Whatever
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