6 years of Runarcana

Or, sit down and here comes the story

On December 6, 2024, Runarcana completed 6 years of publication.

It's not 6 years of existence, because when it was published, Runarcana had already existed as an idea for at least 4 years, since I created the Icathia website (in 2014( which was dedicated to lore and fan content about Runeterra.

Add to that the initial creation time that went through several phases and concepts, almost being made with other systems and even having some experimental tables. So Runarcana is something that has existed for at least 10 years.

Still, the fact is that it was on December 6, 2018 that I published on Medium and X (it was still called Twitter) the PDF download of Runeterra RPG 1.0, a 5th edition D&D supplement for playing adventures in the world of Runeterra that was produced in just under a month.

Since then, a lot has happened, it stopped being a supplement and became an autonomous system, it was at risk of disappearing more than once and one of the most important events was in 2020 when it was renamed to Runarcana and was published under version 0.9.

If you check the blog, you won't find a 5-year celebration. During that time, we were working on the new visual identity and we ended up having a problem that seemed terrible at the time and ended up erasing even this celebration. Nowadays, this fact is remembered only as another of the many funny stories of Runarcana.

From the 4-year celebration to the 6-year celebration, what we have is a more robust system, with fewer failures and errors, more content and with a clear direction, something that is done with a proposal and a vision, not just because it is a momentary interest without any foundation.

Runarcana does not please everyone. This is a fact and I am calm about it, after all, only once was the system “pushed” in this direction of wanting to please everyone, which resulted in a rupture after betrayal and falsehood and later in a poorly done plagiarism. 

Delays

A few weeks ago, Runarcana's profile on a social network was questioned in a very calm manner about “when will it be ready”. On another occasion a person in a much less pleasant attitude said something like “It’s been in the works for years and it’s not ready”, with some not so pleasant words.

It's curious that at no point did I give a date, not because I learned from Riot that giving dates without absolute certainty is a terrible thing (when it's ready), but because Runarcana has always been developed in the participants' free time.

It may be strange for some people under 20, but I am not a person who has financial resources, I still need to work to pay my bills like rent, electricity, water, internet and even to put food on my table and, I hope it is not a surprise to anyone, but Runarcana has never provided that.

Runarcana is completely free, the only forms of monetization that exist are the advertisements displayed on the website and on the wiki, in addition to the support made on apoia.se and on patreon, which at its most profitable time did not exceed US$200 in a month. 

Have you tried paying rent, water, electricity, internet and putting food on the table with this amount? Good luck. 

So, if there was never a date announced, there are no delays either, right? Wrong, although a deadline was never presented to the public, internally these dates have always existed, as a guide to achieving each goal on the path to 1.0 still underway. 

Delays occurred precisely because of the need to resolve everyday problems, bills to be paid, work to be done to survive another month and various events in the life of someone who is not financially supported by mom, dad or both. 

Everyone currently involved with Runarcana has to work or has real world commitments like college, so Runarcana is still done in their free time by these people. 

Support

More than once I have already disclosed the costs that Runarcana has monthly and annually, during many of those months this cost was not covered by support, while in other months the support was able to cover it for more than a month.

Adding up how much I've spent on Runarcana and how much I've received through support, I can assure you that the account is far from being in the red. Although Runarcana demands a lot of my time, it still almost always ends up demanding my money as well.

The following question has been asked more than once, in different ways and in different corners, whether on social media, discord or even live streams. “Doesn’t Runarcana get anything from Riot?” and the answer to that question has always been, still is and most likely will continue to be: No. 

It wasn't for lack of trying or contact, as I contacted Riot employees or contractors several times, but let's call them all "Rioters" to make things easier. One of my last attempts to do something for Runarcana resulted in me waiting more than 3 months to hear no and, to make matters worse, it was followed by a "suggestion" that I should do vertical content (TikTok) to maybe get something.

A clarification is necessary here: Runarcana is one thing, Arddhu the content creator is another. From my entry into Piltover Academy (League of Legends Partner Program in Brazil) to my expulsion, including events like Anime Friends and BGS that I attended courtesy of Riot, all of this was achieved thanks to my YouTube channel and the videos I've been making for years. None of this was ever achieved thanks to Runarcana.

So my categorical answer is No, with the exception of the 2020 licensing agreement, Runarcana never received any support, help, collaboration, income, funds, invitation or anything else from Riot Games, whether in Brazil or abroad. 

I will talk more about the contract later, but let it be clear that any action I have taken with Riot, books I have received, skins I have distributed or anything else connected to Riot, have always been a direct result of being a content creator for YouTube (and Twitch at the time) who produced videos, they were never a consequence of the work that is Runarcana.

In the past, this has already eaten away at me, it has caused sadness and discontent due to this lack of attention and support, which could make Runarcana climb several steps and reach countless more people with a simple mention in the client or any advertising action. 

I'm currently at peace with this too, I understand that unfortunately the people who are responsible for dealing with this at Riot in Brazil either don't have enough power to do something, or are limited in their understanding of what an RPG system is and what Runarcana means. 

The License Agreement

On July 17, 2020, I was contacted by a Rioter to discuss a licensing agreement with Riot Games involving “Runeterra RPG”. After the conversation, this was made official in the email that I reproduce below with the information regarding the identity blurred to keep the Rioter's identity confidential:

This agreement was signed on October 13, 2020 for a duration of 3 years. On October 22, we informed the public about the name change of Runeterra RPG to Runarcana RPG in accordance with the signed license agreement. 

At the time this contract was signed, it seemed that Runarcana would receive minimal attention and affection from Riot Brazil, but this turned out to be a completely wrong perception, as in the following months there was silence on Riot's part, which continued practically until the end of the contract in 2023. 

During this time, the Runarcana project ended up splitting into two, with one part remaining as Runarcana and the other part developing a project that would in theory “use Runarcana” but make its own “adaptations”. In the end, what happened was that the Runarcana system was completely plagiarized by these people.

It is important to mention this plagiarism here because there was a contract that I, Ardhdu, signed with Riot Games, which was what in theory “allowed Runarcana to exist without legal problems” but in practice it only served to give up the name Runeterra RPG, after all, the plagiarized project did not have this contract and other RPG system projects using League of Legends and Runeterra were published without any need for a contract.

So, even in the only moment when Riot paid attention to Runarcana, it was not to add, help, add, support. It is important to expose this here, so that it is understood once and for all that Riot Brazil (and even the international one) never in fact collaborated with anything in Runarcana, all the financial support we received came from the ADs or from the support made by community. But if Riot never supported Runarcana, the same goes for other similar projects, right?

Double standards

Not receiving support from Riot with an original project is not a reason to not move forward with that project or to feel excluded by Riot. In this way, Runarcana has continued to be produced and has always moved forward, even after the contract was terminated with updates, improvements, fixes and new content. Support would be important and could help, but it's okay if it doesn't exist. 

But what happens when the project is plagiarized, Stolen & Copied, not only receives attention from Riot Brazil, but also starts distributing RP and other game coins from Riot for those who participate in this project?

This is where we discover that there are double standards. While one project is original, has a contract, and reaches thousands of people daily in Brazil and around the world, the other plagiarized project that never signed a licensing contract and barely reaches a few dozen people receives special attention and even benefits for having a Rioter who is friends with the person who maintains this project.

Who could have imagined that having a friend among the Rioters would mean that even if your project is a plagiarism with no reach, it would gain attention while another one with which the company signed a contract, is original and internationally recognized, barely gets any attention?

As I said above, this has bothered me in the past, and made me question whether I should continue with Runarcana even with this neglect on Riot's part. But when I stopped to evaluate the size of Runarcana, its reach and importance, in addition to the affection of the community, this question almost disappeared.

But the final blow to this doubt was when I saw that, even with “financial” incentive, the attention of important people within Riot and with “rewards” continuing for months, this project barely left the bubble of its creators and some friends. 

Not even by “paying” people to play this system could it achieve anything even close to Runarcana. But wait, maybe the people involved in this project never had this intention, never had the goal of doing something big, right?

Well then… 

Narrow-minded pursuit

Runarcana's success is undeniable. Many people have criticisms and opposing opinions, but Runarcana is still a milestone in something produced in an amateur way*, without resources and distributed for free. So much so that it manages to generate repercussion organically, with content being created on social media by content creators spontaneously. 

But when checking out this content about Runarcana and reading the comments made on it, something curious happens:

Interestingly, in several contents about Runarcana, comments about the project appear Stolen & Copied and so far, so good, right? These are two projects that have similar proposals, RPG systems about the world of Runeterra. 

But what if I told you that all these “spontaneous” comments are made by members of this project? Yes, all these comments are made by people who are members of the project (not just players) and who comically try to pass themselves off as “engaged players”.

Even the messages are the same, always containing a “the people of…” simulating a disconnection of these people from those who “created and maintain” this project. Interestingly, the messages always attack Runarcana to then bring something “better” and never assume themselves as the creators of this.

These and many other similar messages come to me frequently, because although I always search for “Runarcana” on Tiktok or even on Youtube, when I find a result, I limit myself to watching the content and leaving a comment, identifying myself as the creator of Runarcana.

Before they rush to delete these comments, they are all saved here, without blurred names, and with proof that the people are the same ones who are part of the so-called “teams” that develop the system, manage it and even do “social media”, just see an example below, again blurred so as not to expose the identity and not to do free advertising.

While these messages are quite childish and pathetic, they are somewhat harmless, as Runarcana continues to experience historic highs in interest with dozens of new people joining our discord every week. 

But unfortunately, these people's strategies to make their system "gain relevance" are not limited to these childish messages. The example below also has the name blurred to protect the person, who went through a situation that was quite common, reported by other people:

As you can see, they don't just try to make negative propaganda under a false premise of disinterest, they also lie blatantly, since to this day there are dozens of live broadcasts in which various Runarcana contents were written (even though much of the content from this time has been completely updated due to poor quality).

What about Runarcana?

While all this is happening, Runarcana continues to grow steadily and sustainably, with people getting in touch with the project and being delighted with its quality. I could post wonderful messages praising Runarcana here, but that would take longer than necessary. 

To those of you who invest even just a few seconds of your time to leave a positive message, my THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

As we can see, Arcane always renews interest in Runarcana, bringing many people to learn about the system, this has been a constant in the last 3 years as can be seen in the graphs below:

Knowing that this is achieved completely organically, without “paying” players with RP and in-game currency, without having any big-name streamers or influencers supporting us, and again, without any support from Riot? It gives me a wonderful feeling that what I produce really reaches people on its own merit.

For this reason, I can say that Runarcana is doing very well, thank you. We continue to work whenever we can to make the system more refined, looking for errors and ways to improve the system, making texts clearer and more intuitive, among others.

Finally a date?

And yes, I know I've gone on for a long time in this anniversary post, but let's finally answer a question that has plagued too many people, a question that always brings people to ask the same question: Where can I download the Runarcana pdf?

First, let me summarize our schedule for the next few months:

• 0.96 – Creatures and NPCs

In update 0.96 we will bring the new creature/monster system and non-playable characters already balanced for the system in its current and final state. This update should also bring changes to some classes that have a connection with creatures, whether through summoning, friendship, etc. 

• 0.97 – Spells 

The Spells update brings not only the revision of existing Spells, but also new spells to meet the need for at least 3 spells per Mystery up to the 4th level of spell, so that there are diverse options in the choices. This update depends on 0.96 because spells that summon creatures need the creature system finalized. 

• 0.98 – Magic Items

Following the structure of what was created with the Crafts system, Runarcana's magic items will be presented, each with the formula needed to create them. This gives agency to players who can seek resources in-game to build (or pay for) the items they want and not depend on the GM eventually putting these items into play. This update depends on 0.97 because most magic items require one or more spells to be crafted.

• 0.99 – Pre-release

This is the time to review and prepare. After reviewing the system as much as possible (we will count on your help) we will prepare the PDF versions and consolidate the Wiki for Runarcana, which leads us to:

• 1.0 – Publishing the PDF

Once the review is complete, the wiki will be updated and the PDFs will be published. Yes, they are “the” PDFs because Runarcana will have 2 books with more than 400 pages each at its launch:

Runarcana: Core – Contains the entire system, such as creating characters, playing, mastering, creating adventures, using creatures, etc. It is the “basic” book of Runarcana and the only one really necessary to play.

Runarcana: Opus – Containing additional content that will not be part of the “Core” but will still be official. Here you will find more subclasses, origins, spells, runes, enhancements, heritages, sutras, etc. This book contains all the content 

And with that, the question that plagues us so much will be answered.

Oh, I almost forgot, I told you we would finally have a date, didn't I? Well then, our Runarcana 1.0 release schedule is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025. 

I know it's not exactly a date, but let's remember that we still need to work to pay the bills and work on Runarcana so that it lives up to what it sets out to do. Believe me, it won't be easy, but it won't be difficult either. 

Conclusion

I took advantage of this moment of celebration to finally get some events and truths out of my chest. I know that most people won't read this text in its entirety, but there is a therapeutic factor in putting these things out in public.

Runarcana was, is and always will be free.  

It always was, is and will be done by the community and for the community.

Thank you for reading this far, I appreciate comments and especially financial support, use patreon without fear, and even if you can only support with US$1, that is already a huge help and the certainty that more people want to see this launch. 

Special thanks to the current Runarcana team: Mizuhiro, Dennys, Angular and vivi!

Thank you for supporting this idea so much and giving so much of yourselves so that we can achieve this goal and an even bigger thank you for embarking on the crazy things that arise along the way.

This way, in less than 1 year, we will have a new publication celebrating Runarcana's 7th anniversary and who knows, the financial scenario we find ourselves in will be a little more pleasant, kind, fun and provide greater dedication to the system.

See you then!