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Why
The Challenge
And So It Begins Are you beautiful? NPCs will generally treat you better, even offering lower prices at the market. Or did you choose to be exceptionally ugly in exchange for other bonuses? If so, don't expect to be treated too kindly by the common citizens. Maybe your character is dim-witted? It will be commented upon, you can be sure. Or perhaps a highly charismatic character was more to your liking? Then you will definitely find more people willing to follow where you lead. Are you an elf? Well then, the mages quarter of Tarant will treat you right, but you might not find the nearby dwarven smith quite as civil. As you play through Arcanum, the reactivity of the world shows even more, as the choices you make, such as which quests to complete and HOW will further define people's interactions with you. For instance, if you complete too many quests in an evil manner, then you should expect to lose favor with most people. Although you may find friends in new quarters that admire such malevolent behavior. Your sway toward either magick or technology will also cause a stir. Are you on your way to becoming a powerful magick user? Don't expect the train conductors to let you anywhere near their delicate technological steam engines. Perhaps you are an up and coming technologist? You might be advised to stay clear of the magick shops… they don't look highly upon your type. In addition to the people of Arcanum reacting to your characters race, gender, basic stats, magick/tech aptitude and alignment (whew!), you will also gain reputations that will follow you about. Perhaps you went on a killing spree in a particular town. Neighboring towns will know of your reputation and while the townspeople will flee from you in terror, the guards will not be so fearful. Or maybe you chose to behave in a particularly lewd manner in public? You can be sure such behavior will cause a stir, and gossip spreads like wildfire in Arcanum. Don't be surprised to have perfect strangers comment upon your deeds. Now, if we were going to have the word be as reactive as possible, what were we going to do if you wanted to kill a main character? Why… Be our guest. They won't save themselves for the sake of the story. You get annoyed with a main character, take 'em out. (That's what we'd do!) You'll still be able to finish the game. It may be a little more challenging, you may have to go "the extra mile" for information. But if that's what you want to do, then go for it. There is not one single person OR item in Arcanum that is necessary to finish the game. In fact, you could complete the entire game without talking to ANY key characters. All in all, the level of detail we went to in order to make Arcanum reactive was done for one purpose. To immerse you in the game. We think the extra effort was worthwhile, and we hope you will to.
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