Devlog
Development Journal
The tower duel, reborn - built in the open. 161 dispatches from the workshop, newest first.
Who Actually Plays This
An argument with received wisdom.
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Three Subclasses, and a Question About Horns
The Collector, the Hell-Broker and the Freelancer get faces. And I need your opinion on horns.
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Pricing the Thing
Fourteen, not fifteen.
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The Revision Day
No new art. Just fixing what was already wrong.
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The Appendix Question
Inline equipment, or a section of its own.
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Print Layout, and a Rabbit
Four-up, six-up, nine-up. The unglamorous day that makes the props actually printable.
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A Third Book
It did not need to be one.
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Dice, Contracts, and a Collector's Edition
Components day. Also the day the contract pad turned into a real prop.
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The Moat Warden
Full page, and easy to miss.
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It Has a Box
The day the project stopped being a document and started being a product.
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On White
Getting art to look like a book, not a printout.
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Character Sheets Are Harder Than Monsters
Three sheet layouts, and the first time the books existed as objects.
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Pointed Ears
Checking the rules before defending a choice.
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Forty-One Monsters
The biggest art day of the project so far, and most of it was people, not monsters.
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Grey Hides
Folk wisdom that happens to be correct.
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The Back Cover Problem
Front covers sell a book. Back covers explain it, and that is much harder.
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Which House, Not How Much
A design mistake I nearly shipped.
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Eleven Covers and a Daemon
A day of cover roughs, and the one piece that decided what the whole book looks like.
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Black and Grey
Two families, two colours.
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Mapping the Outskirts
Before anything else, I had to know where things were. The map came first.
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Horn Jewellery
When you have earned it.
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Growth Rings
Horn keeps growing, and it keeps score.
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Why the Crown Won
Anatomy, not taste.
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Bronze, Silver, Gold
Ranks, badges, and the map of the kingdom.
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Three Styles of Horn
The official one, and two better ones.
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ArcoMage Over Telnet
Because MUDs are dead and that is exactly the appeal.
Read entry →Mercy on the Battlefield
Heal and Greater Heal - restoration, hand-painted in the old Ultima style.
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Daemon Horns
An hour on horns, and no regrets.
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Shadows and Knives
The rogue spells, and a question about what Shadow Jump can target.
Read entry →The Grimoire Pages: Lock & Unlock
Two cards, one spellbook - one chained shut, one bursting open. Read the fine print.
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A Taboo Subject
Why nobody answers the question.
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I Drew the Signpost Myself
Ninety percent of the day on one sign, and a costs table borrowed from Ultima Online.
Read entry →The Desktop Forge
A behind-the-scenes look at the tool we build ArcoMage inside of.
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Daemon Clans
Some huge and red, some you could pass in the street.
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Paralyze Field, and Summoning the Fey
Three spells finished, one of them twice.
Read entry →Things That Crawl Onto the Board
Walls that grab, walls that cut, and the creatures that hold your lanes.
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Borrowing Against the Otherworld
Should every daemon get it?
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Create Food, and a Bug That Was Not There
A spell finished, and two hours lost to a rule working exactly as written.
Read entry →Magery: The Classics
Fireball, Lightning, Polymorph, the Elementals - the spells everyone knows, finally illustrated.
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Blood, Not Species
A correction that came from the art.
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One Hook For Every Model
Routing every generator through a single interface.
Read entry →Chivalry & Spellweaving
Holy fire and woven magic - the light-aligned schools get their due.
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Tiefling Only
Who can take the class.
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Hexes, and the Sheet on a Phone
Tile work, and admitting people will use this on a phone.
Read entry →The Way of the Warrior
Bushido and Ninjitsu - the disciplines that win a duel with a single perfect strike.
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Spoiler Alert: The Only Things Worth Killing After 17
A short list.
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Teaching It To Play
Why a neural net needs to know what your opponent is building, not just what the board looks like.
Read entry →The Art of Necromancy
The dead do not stay down - a first look at the Necromancy card art.
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Not the Biggest Fight in the Game
Keeping one encounter in proportion.
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Texting the Workshop
Built a phone relay so I can send work in from wherever I am.
Read entry →The Outskirts: The Crossroads
Where every road meets and every deal is struck - the final Outskirts set.
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Casters Are Not Useless
A correction to my own read.
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A Bake-Off Between Image Models
Six models, one job: clean up a piece of art without repainting it.
Read entry →The Outskirts: The Bog
Hex and rot - the slow, patient set that poisons the game one turn at a time.
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Rolling Straight Twenties
A test run with the dice on your side.
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Balances and Colour Variants
FlopCoin balance polling, and far too long spent on four shades of the same thing.
Read entry →The Outskirts: Cemetery
Night Sight, the restless dead, and creatures that see what should stay hidden.
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Spoiler Alert: What the Playtest Broke
Notes from a session that did not go to plan.
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Stop Paying For What You Can Host
Moving image generation onto our own GPUs.
Read entry →The Outskirts: Jane's Tavern
The first Outskirts booster - blink, vanish, and be somewhere you shouldn't.
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The First Playtest
Jane's Tavern, and everything that went wrong.
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Found RunPod
Printed and laminated the character sheet, then went looking for cheap GPUs.
Read entry →Blackwater Academy: Applied Mischief
Tricks, swaps, and clever chaos - the set that steals the spell out from under you.
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Abilities or Mechanics
Two ways to extend a class.
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The Character Sheet, Again
Third layout. The cursor became a wizard.
Read entry →Blackwater Academy: Study Hall
Knowledge is power - literally. The Study set turns Intelligence into a weapon.
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Their Witch, Our Daemon
Comparing signature classes.
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The d20 and the Business Cards
A day of millimetres.
Read entry →Blackwater Academy: Bestiary
Beasts, familiars, and the tribal creatures of the Academy menagerie.
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Reading the Reference
Reverse-engineering someone else's table of contents.
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Mana Defaults to Zero
A rules clarification that sounds trivial and is not, plus the 11x17 board.
Read entry →Blackwater Academy: Warding Arts
The first Academy booster - shields, counters, and the art of the unbroken guard.
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An Em Dash
One new class - the Crossroads Daemon - and well over a hundred spells.
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Blade Spirits
One spell, several passes, and a favour for a friend.
Read entry →The Kingdom of Aethelhelm
Every resource you fight over - Keep, Wall, Quarry, Mage Tower, Altar - is a real place on the map.
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Coming in 2027
Teasing the next book from inside this one.
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Printing a Rulebook Is Not Writing One
Turns out an 8x5 colour rulebook is a manufacturing decision before it is a writing one.
Read entry →Two Worlds Await
One box, then two worlds to grow into - Blackwater Academy and the Outskirts beyond its walls.
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Where Credits Go
The end, or the back cover.
Read entry →Preorders Are Open, and the Road Ahead
The moment's here. Preorders for the physical ArcoMage are open, $58 $38 as a Founder, saving you $20 before launch (and a Founder badge to boot).
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Spoiler Alert: The Mage Tower Is Not a Shop
A correction I am glad I caught.
Read entry →The Physical Board Revealed
This is the one we've been dreaming about. Feast your eyes on the ArcoMage tabletop board, hand-illustrated corner to corner, the same battlefield you play...
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Fealty Is Dry
And that is fine.
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Move, Attack, Conquer
Combat just got tactical. Creatures now move across the hex board with true pathfinding, march them at the enemy wizard, block the lanes, and choose every...
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Chapters Over Twelve Pages
An audit that changed the running order.
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Archmage GPT Enters the Arena
Meet your new rival. Archmage GPT is a genuine AI opponent that reads its spellbook, plans its turn, and trash-talks in real time. No practice partner has...
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A Table of Spells
Where the reference goes.
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The Forums Are Open
For the long conversations, deck guides, strategy threads, bug reports, and lore, the forums are live. Pull up a chair.
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The Grimoire
Biggest chapter by a margin.
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Discord Online
Our Discord is open. Find opponents, talk strategy, share your best plays, and hang with the community. Everyone's welcome.
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Spells First, Then Words
I did this backwards and it cost me.
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Telegram Online
ArcoMage is now on Telegram. Get updates, chat with players, and follow the build in real time. Come say hi.
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The Art Wishlist
A list is cheaper than a surprise.
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Become the Monster
Why cast spells when you can become one? Wizard forms let you transform, into a rampaging Horrific Beast, a mana-draining Wraith, or a rooted Reaper....
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Counting Creatures
How many, and how many have art.
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Ranked Play and the Ladder
Think you're an archmage? Prove it. Ranked matchmaking and an ELO ladder are live, climb the ranks and earn your title one duel at a time.
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Loot Tables
Why do bestiaries not do this?
Read entry →Lights, Camera, Magic
We've been making videos, spell effects, animated art, and campaign teasers. A tower duel should look as good as it plays, and we're only getting started.
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Elementals
Earth, fire, water, air.
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Statting the Daemon
Read three, then write one.
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The Searchable Spellbook
560 spells is a lot to thumb through, so now you don't have to. The online spellbook is fully searchable at arcomage.org/spellbook, find any card, any...
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Summon Daemon
Which means the bestiary needs a plain daemon.
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Blade Spirits, Twice
A spell and a creature sharing a name on purpose.
Read entry →Every Spell, Illustrated
A spell deserves a portrait. We've been illustrating the library card by card, so every page in your book is a little piece of art worth casting.
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Energy Vortex
The spell and the creature.
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Cutting the Charnel Hound
One hound too many.
Read entry →The Spell Store Opens
Build the book you want. The spell store is open, browse, buy, and slot new spells into your deck, with a proper cart and instant checkout.
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The Hydra
Several heads, several attempts.
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Spoiler Alert: The Leviathan
Deep water problems.
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Sign In with Google
One click, no new password. Google sign-in is live, so you can go from 'never heard of it' to 'first match' in about ten seconds.
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Balor
Already in the SRD, already good.
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Claim Your Wizard
Accounts are here. Save your progress, your decks, and your rank across every device. Your journey from apprentice to archmage now follows you everywhere.
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Spoiler Alert: The Executioner
A daemon with an axe.
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Spoiler Alert: The Reed King
Found in my own folder.
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Play in Your Browser
The tower duel is live, and it runs anywhere. No download: open play.arcomage.org, pick your wizard, and start casting. The full game, right in your browser.
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The Clay Moorehound
Rarely seen on the banks.
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The Aboleth
An old thing with opinions.
Read entry →The Desktop Spellbook
Behold the spellbook. Our client renders your whole arsenal as a real, page-flipping tome, drag an edge to turn the page, click a page to cast.
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Hippos
Docile, until they are not.
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Ella
Not a duplicate.
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Spoiler Alert: Hitting the Princess Hurts
Why the mandrake switches targets.
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Spoiler Alert: Princess Alaya
Can she hold her own for a few rounds?
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The Rulebook Goes Online
New to ArcoMage, or just settling a table argument? The full rules are live and searchable at arcomage.org/rules. Learn in five minutes, spend a lifetime...
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Spoiler Alert: The Mandrake
A scream, and a fight that turns.
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Spoiler Alert: Rare Spawns at the Quarry
Not everything needs to be guarding something.
Read entry →Creatures of the Realm
Blade Spirits, elementals, daemons, familiars, the bestiary is filling out, every creature with its own art, stats, and tricks. Some fight for you. Some...
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Explosives Are Illegal
And enforcement is spotty at best.
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Spoiler Alert: Silas's Coin
A small object with a long shadow.
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Locks
How homebrew handles a locked thing.
Read entry →The Board Takes Shape
ArcoMage isn't just cards, it's a battlefield. The hex board arrived: summon creatures, march them across the field, and lay siege. The same board you'll...
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Spoiler Alert: Grave Robbing
Rules for a thing players will absolutely do.
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Spoiler Alert: The Cemetery Guards
Weaker, and that is deliberate.
Read entry →Meet the Wizards
A wizard needs a face. This week we began the avatar gallery, mages, liches, sorceresses, and stranger things, each ready to sit across the board from you.
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Spoiler Alert: The King's Guards
Lawful, and not stupid.
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Spoiler Alert: Parts of Creatures
Statting a single tentacle.
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Spoiler Alert: Feeding Time
Why the moat monster is tougher than its numbers suggest.
Read entry →Five Hundred and Sixty Spells
We didn't want a handful of spells. We wanted a world of them. Today the library crossed 560, from Magic Missile to Meteor Swarm, each one scripted and...
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Spoiler Alert: The Moat Monster
Nobody has seen more than the tentacles and lived.
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Inline Creatures
Serve the cake where the plate is.
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An Engine of Magic
The core engine lives. Towers, walls, moats, mana, and a turn clock, all humming, every rule that made the original ArcoMage sing, rebuilt from the ground up.
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Three Buckets
How I decide what gets a stat block and where.
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The Bestiary Begins
You cannot have a setting book without monsters.
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The First Spell
Today, ArcoMage begins. A tower-duel of wizards, reborn: build your tower, breach theirs, and let the spells fly. We're building it in the open, and you're...
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Longbows and Crossbows
A rules detail that turned into a silhouette.
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The Freelancer
Sworn to nobody.
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The Hell-Broker
The one who is the weapon.
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The Collector
First of the three subclasses.
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A Party of Four Daemons
Where the class actually breaks.
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Half-Caster Maths
The class was too weak and flavour was hiding it.
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The Souls Problem
Who gives the daemon its fuel.
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Bargains Need Terms
If a deal has no cost it is not a deal.
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A Class of Their Own
The Crossroads Daemon starts to take shape.
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Spoiler Alert: What Goes in the DM's Book
The arrest rules, and why players do not get to read them.
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Two Books, Not One
Splitting the player material from the game master material.
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Player's Guide, Players' Guide
Half an hour on an apostrophe.
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Naming the Book
Three words, and a lot of arguing with myself.
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Who Do You Meet First
Starting the players at Jane's, and why.
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A Signpost Is a Table of Contents
The first thing a player sees has to promise three kinds of trouble.
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The Outskirts, Not Mordor
A tone decision that ruled out about half of what I had drawn.
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Four Places That Matter
Jane's, the Bog, the Cemetery, the Crossroads.
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Somewhere to Put a Campaign
A frontier needs a shape before it needs a story.
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