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Theocracy of Canceri $14.99
Average Rating:4.8 / 5
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Theocracy of Canceri
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Theocracy of Canceri
Publisher: Paradigm Concepts, Inc.
by Kenneth W. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/18/2009 12:22:23

Great for Living Arcanis, gotta love it. Wonderful sourcebook.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Theocracy of Canceri
Publisher: Paradigm Concepts, Inc.
by Stephen E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/04/2007 00:00:00

Quick comment really- the Unholy Champion prestige classes (which are Living Arcanis-legal) are significantly more powerful or at least front-loaded than the Holy Champion equivalent in the Players Guide to Arcanis.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thanks for the review.
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Theocracy of Canceri
Publisher: Paradigm Concepts, Inc.
by Akira C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/08/2007 00:00:00

This is an excellent sourcebook for people who don't have a weak stomach. The Theocracy of Canceri provides excellent source material for the Living Arcanis setting, or any home campaign that needs a little extra evil. I do not regret buying it, and I would recommend it to anyone (other than small children).

More great work from Paradigm Concepts<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Glad to read that you enjoyed the title. Rob "Dr. Evil" Schwalb outdid himself on this one.
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Theocracy of Canceri
Publisher: Paradigm Concepts, Inc.
by Peter I. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 11/08/2006 00:00:00

The Theocracy of Canceri: Nation of the Damned is a 146 page d20 pdf product for the Arcanis: World of Shattered Empires setting. This product forms part of Paradigm Concepts' series of Empire Books, each detailing a different region of Onara, the world of the Arcanis setting. Canceri is the topic of this product in the series, a nation of despicable evil and untold horror. As such, this product is for more mature readers based on the nature of the content in the pdf. The Theocracy of Canceri contains material that is approved for Living Arcanis.

The product comes as a zip file containing two version of The Theocracy of Canceri - a screen version and a printer-friendly version. The latter removes the bordering, but largely leaves the remainder of the pdf intact, including the interior art. As far as I'm concerned that's fine - I want my printed version to still look good and that means including at least a little bit of the enhancing art. And, the art is good, in places very good, though naturally a little depraved in some instances. This is a splendidly presented product, as good as most of the products that Paradigm Concepts released. Writing, editing, mechanics, layout, etc. - they're all top notch and high quality. While there are naturally one or two overlooked problems, they're easily lost in the quality of the product.

The product itself is divided into ten chapters. It mentions an appendix, but there is in fact no such thing in the product. It starts by providing a brief introduction to the product, and even provides a handy product overview in the introductory text. Table of contents and bookmarks are included for easy navigation. There is a good balance of crunch and fluff here, with a lot of attention to detail, something which I always appreciate. Arcanis has got to be one of the most detailed worlds and settings available on the market today, and in my opinion one of the best as well. It's a shame the same cannot be said for one of the few things that were sub-par on this pdf - the map. The entire product contains one black and white map, which isn't even the size of a full page. The font used is not the best in terms of legibility, and maps is one area where this product could've been dramatically improved, by, for example, including color or larger scale maps, city maps, etc.

The first three chapters of the product deal mainly with the fluff aspects of the pdf. The product goes into delightful and vivid detail on aspects such as history, society and geography. The detail is plentiful, the atmosphere compelling, and the writing lucid and clear. Paradigm Concepts and Arcanis have done a splendid job of bringing Canceri to life, and presenting a nation in a campaign world in more detail than most other campaign settings can only dream of. The history is riveting and detailed, the society offering a lot of information that will enhance any roleplaying experience, and the geography presents its fair share of cursed, ancient and downright evil places. A compelling read.

Chapter four onwards up to chapter ten contains the new crunch material, although fully detailed with enough fluff to get a good idea of concepts, execution and nature of any particular mechanical element. As a nation of undead, devil, and all things sinister, chapter four deals with dark-kin (tainted by devil blood), dark-kin PCs and undead, including undead characters (with a very useful generic undead template). Chapter five looks at classes, including new Holy Champion base classes, epic level rules for all these classes, and a delightfully wicked selection of prestige classes that scream to be used in Arcanis or any other setting. Arcanis' detail and history allows the setting to include a lot of new material and make it work at the same time. There are very few settings out there that can say the same thing.

Chapter six presents a whole slew of new feats, a depraved selection of wicked feats for the truly evil. One of the strengths of this product is that it leaves no stone unturned when it comes to the taboo, and it handles that well, particularly mechanically. Drugs, poison, slavery, undead, etc. are all covered in extensive detail with good rules support. Most of these topics are covered extensively in chapter seven, that deals with all things that can be bought in Canceri. Once again, these chapters come up on top with regard to content and execution. There are very few flaws within this excellent product.

The last three chapters deal with monsters, magic and NPC statistics. A fantastic selection of new and vile spells is included as well as a innovative selection of evil creatures to throw at your PCs. The last chapters presents some very useful details on typical NPCs in Canceri, as well as details on the more important NPCs on the nation.

One could barely ask for anything more in terms of content. Paradigm Concepts have delivered a compelling product with excellent content, and no stone left unturned. The material slots in very nicely with the rest of Arcanis, and can easily be incorporated into other campaign settings. If it's dark fantasy you're looking for, then a few adventures in Canceri will be an enjoyable, but horrific, experience. Top notch product.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The Theocracy of Canceri is a fantastic product of high quality and splendid detail. It provides high quality content, both mechanics and descriptive detail, and presents a definitive guide to the nation of Canceri. This products offers splendid opportunities for gaming, and for exploring things rarely touched upon by other products. Excellent all round.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The maps or rather map included in the product is poor. I'd have appreciated more and higher quality maps than the one poor attempt made on half a page in the middle of the product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thanks for the review, glad you liked the book. Rob is a sick, sick man, who should seek professional therapy... right after he gets done with Witch Hunter anyhow. City of Secrets would be a good addition for anyone that wants to delve the depravity of Canceri further.
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Theocracy of Canceri
Publisher: Paradigm Concepts, Inc.
by Shane O. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 09/28/2006 00:00:00

Theocracy of Canceri is a sourcebook for the Arcanis campaign setting by Paradigm Concepts. The zipped file is almost exactly 8 megabytes in size, and contains two PDFs, which are the main file itself and a printer-friendly version, each of which is roughly 6.5 meg in size. Both PDFs are 146 pages long, with two pages for the covers, one page for the credits/legal/table of contents, and a page for the OGL. Both have a table of contents and bookmarks.

The book is, like most Arcanis products, filled with rather stunning artwork. The front and back covers are the only examples of full-color art, with the interior work being black-and-white, though it?s no less spectacular for it. Each page has a gothic-looking pillar as a border on alternating sides, and at the top of every page is a border saying what chapter and subsection you?re in. Ironically, while the printer-friendly version has the borders removed, it keeps both the covers and the interior artwork. This means that printing this will certainly be easier than the full version, but at some points you may still have to print a picture or two.

The book begins with an introduction, which briefly describes the nation of Canceri before it deals with some metagame issues. A brief note here explains that this book pulls no punches in the vile darkness that it presents; the authors don?t shy away from the practices of slavery, cannibalism, drug abuse, and worse depicted herein. It then covers what other books this one works in conjunction with, and has a brief overview of the chapters. The introduction closes with a short bio of the author, and special thanks, before ending with a sidebar noting what in here is of interest to Living Arcanis players.

The first chapter presents the history of Canceri, presenting ten pages covering everything from before recorded history to the most tumultuous events that happened within living memory. No game mechanics are presented here.

Chapter two deals with the specifics of Canceri society. As with the preceding chapter, there is no crunch here, but this chapter is still rich in details for anyone wanting to examine an evil nation closely. This chapter covers Canceri?s castes, birth and death customs, entertainment and games, holy days, coinage, language, and law. It then offers a look at eight different secret societies, giving the headquarters, leader, religion, alignment, and symbol of each group before discussing them in more detail.

Opposite the last chapter, chapter three deals with the geography of Canceri. Opening with a map of the nation, it briefly discusses the nation as a whole before looking at major features. Here we start to get some hard stats, as the very first area, the Blighted Mire, has several new diseases. After over a dozen of these features, we then start examining major cities and sites. Each city has its game rule information (DMG-style) given. Seeing places like Stanivel, whose major industries consist solely of prostitution, drugs, slaves, and bound fiends, drives home what sort of place Canceri really is.

Chapter four is a short but interesting section about player-characters that are fiends or undead, instead of one of the more traditional races. It opens with a discussion of Dark-Kin, expanding on their PHB-style racial information, before giving brief description to the playability of several fiends from the MM. It then presents the dretch in full PHB-style, giving its fluff information and PC racial information. After this, roughly a page of text is given to discussing playing an undead character, with the three most powerful (and popular) forms of undead; the mummy, vampire, and lich, being discusses in particular. The chapter closes with the Undead template, which simply consists of a character?s type becoming Undead, with all of the ensuing changes (as opposed to becoming a specific undead creature).

Chapter five deals with new base and prestige classes. It opens with three new base classes, the Conflagration Knight, Nerothian Reaper, and Sarishan Knife. Each of these is an unholy champion class, presenting the evil counterparts to the holy champion class from the Player?s Guide to Arcanis. A sidebar discusses the relevant details of playing an unholy champion. Each class also has a sidebar presenting their epic level information. After this, five new prestige classes, Blight Bearer, Cortasu Tomb Raider, Dark Consort, The Master of Incandescent Flame, and The Ventaka Razor, are given. All of these are exceptionally vile in their own regard.

Chapter six presents almost three dozen new feats. The majority of these are general feats, but there are a few metamagic, psionic, and spelltouched feats also. While not all of these require an evil alignment, many of these still deal with dark subjects (such as feats that let you resist the effects of overdosing on drugs).

New non-magical materials are the province of chapter seven. Innovatively, this chapter opens with a guideline on modifying prices to normal items. Since Canceri has few resources, and must therefore trade with other nations, prices have naturally been altered for various things. A pair of tables shows the price adjustments. After this come several new alchemical items, along with information on crafting them. This is followed by a variety of new drugs and poisons, with the relevant information on creation and use, along with a sidebar reiterating the information on drugs. Finally, chapter ends with guidelines on purchasing slaves. Steps are given for calculating a slave?s price based on age, ability scores, race, class, and level, with a table giving some of the most common slave listings.

New magic spells and items are covered in chapter eight. Opening with spell lists for the new spells, along with a sidebar discusses new components (such as conditional components, environmental components, etc.), over forty new spells are given here, including cool new spells that are the opposite of the traditional buffing spells; you can now give an opponent a -4 Strength penalty with the Child?s Weakness spell, for example. New magic items of every stripe follow afterwards.

Chapter nine presents new monsters. There are a total of twenty new creatures here, which includes five templates. Challenge Ratings vary from 1 to 19, with many of them being new fiends or undead. As with the rest of the book, some truly vile material is presented here, particularly in the new types of undead (the Flesh Swarm, in particular, is exceptionally gruesome).

The last chapter presents people of Canceri. The first half of this is stats for non-specific characters, such as local necromancers or assassins. Each of these is 5th-level, and has a full stat block along with discussion about their place in Canceri society. After this are over a dozen specific individuals who are important in the nation. These people only have brief mechanical information given (gender, race, and class), with most of their entries being a discussion of who they are and what they?re up to.

All in all, Theocracy of Canceri shows us the best of the worst, and does so with a no-apologies attitude. It?s not afraid to deal with material that some may find objectionable, and does a remarkable job showing a society built on evil and depravity. Whether you?re looking to expand your knowledge of the most evil land in Arcanis, or are cherry-picking new badness for your own game, Theocracy of Canceri is a must-have for vile material. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: There's a lot in here that I loved to hate. From the rules on slavery, to the new drugs and poisons, to the exceptionally wicked and foul monsters, this book has what's necessary to torment your player-characters, or reward them if they descend into evil.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It was slightly odd how the printer-friendly version of the book retained not only the color covers, but all of the interior artwork as well.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Shane, Glad to read that you enjoyed the work, Rob Schwalb went into evil overdrive on this one, and captured the feel of Canceri very well. "Everything wicked comes from Canceri" is a Milandisian proverb, and Rob took those words to heart.
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