Magic in a Box!

by Randy

Hello, hello! Happy holidays to everyone out there! I hope everyone is having a great time celebrating with their families, and hopefully playing a few games, too. Today I wanted to share a gift idea and craft project. This is a Christmas gift that my wife and I put together for Katie, who just turned six. We introduced her to Magic: the Gathering this year, and she has been craving more!

Angie and I have played Magic for a few years now. Though initially we were hesitant to start playing a collectible card game, we have had a blast with this. Currently, our preferred format for playing is Commander, which is a multiplayer format we feel works great for casual players like us. Katie also showed interest, and, earlier in the year, set a goal to learn to read better so that she could play Magic with us (I'll let Angie relate more on that later, if she wants to!). Now, she wants to play Commander. And Angie came up with the idea to make a Commander deck for her for Christmas with Damia, Sage of Stone as the general.

Here's where I come in: I made a box for the deck. I started with a standard small corrugated cardbox that you can pick up at any card shop. I have been a miniature painter for years, but I haven't really done much in the way of character painting. Still, I decided that on every face, I would paint an interpretation of a card that appears in her deck. I was pretty happy with the results, for the most part. If you click on the name of the piece, it will take you to the card listing in the Magic: The Gathering card database, the Gatherer.

Howlpack Alpha: We picked up the Mayor of Avabruck/Howlpack Alpha card at the Innistrad prerelease and Katie loves this card. Her favorite deck thus far has been a green one that has a variety of effects that create Wolf tokens and this seemed like a no-brainer to put in her Commander deck.

Damia, Sage of Stone: This is the general of her deck (for what that means, check out the Commander Rules). This was the first side I painted, and sadly my least favorite; it was a bit later in painting that I "found my groove". If you check the link, this is the one that diverges the most from the card art.

Wydwen, the Biting Gale: A fun and tricky fairy to throw in. I don't feel I did the shimmery pieces justice, but whatever. I'm happy with the background, and I feel it came out okay.

Prized Unicorn: In a six year old girl's deck, a unicorn is practically obligatory. Not only is this card pretty, it's also super useful; I've seen many games won by use of this card. I was really happy with this piece, too. This one is tied with the next one for being my favorite.

Full Moon's Rise: This is a utility card that boosts Werewolf creatures, of which there are a few in the deck. I really liked the card art for this one and thought it would be great for the front of the box and with a Magic logo glued on top. I liked my results on this one!

I also did a top for Katie's box. This is not my favorite piece, but gets the point across. Here it is:

So that's it. Katie loved it, and the deck. If we feel particularly ambitious after a few rounds of play and tweaking, I may ask Angie (who is building the actual deck) to post the deck list. If we do, please note that it isn't a deck focused on power combos or designed for super-competitive play, it is instead focused on simple rules and ease of play for a beginner.

For those interested in something like this as a creative project, I want to point out that the box itself is one that you can find at any card shop for around a dollar. The paint I used for this one was tube acrylics (Reeves brand) applied with Citadel brand brushes, with the help of a Privateer Press P3 Wet Palette. If you work with acrylic paint at all, I highly recommend use of a wet palette (Google it and you will find both commercially available ones, as well as instructions for making your own). Prior to painting, I used a non-photo blue colored pencil to lay down the lines to start with. These pencils are super light and will not show up even with heavily thinned layers of paint. Here is another similar box I made for my son for his Super Mario Bros. trading cards:

Anyway, that's that! Any other gamer geeks out there who did game-themed crafts for holiday gifts? We'd love some links!

Event Report: Rainy Day Games Game Day and Auction!

by Randy

Hello! Welcome back! As you all may know, we were at Rainy Day Games' Game Day and Auction at the Washington County Fairgrounds last weekend, and we had an excellent time. Angie and I arranged a weekend in the Portland area to coincide with the event so we could get in some gaming, and haul out a few games. We were not disappointed.

We got things started by playing a great game called Mermaid Beach with its twelve year old designer! How often do you get to have a game taught to you by its designer? Emily Ehlers was fun to play with, and we enjoyed playing a couple rounds with her and her mother. In fact, we like it so much we're going to need to Katie to try it out and share what she thinks.

Next, we played a little Ascension with James Eastham and his son. James is one of the designers (along with Steve Ellis, one of the owners of Rainy Day Games) of the Railways of the World Card Game, another game we think very highly of. Sadly, we had to call it quits before we finished up. Why did we not finish, you ask? The auction started!

For those of you who haven't seen this auction, let me tell you... it's a lot of games. I was amazed at the sheer number of games on the tables. Chances are, your local game store doesn't have this many games, and this was probably the main attraction for most of the attendees. The bidding started silent auction-style, with bidders writing a bid on a sheet attached to the games. After a while of that, an auctioneer then started doing live bids for items that received three or more written bids. All in all, it was handled very well.

One of thee tables of games!

You're probably wondering what we walked out with. We certainly left with a nice armload. Here's the list:

-Lords of Vegas
-Camp
-Snorta
-Talisman
-Runebound 2nd Edition
-Bringing Down the House
-Munchkin Holiday Edition

That's seven games... and we paid significantly below retail. Next year, we're going to be a little more prepared. We didn't put any games into the auction to sell, but we will next time. Sellers receive the sale price in in-store credit at Rainy Day Games. It's a great way to turn games on your shelf into new games. And even better, some other gamer is going to get to enjoy the game! As far as I can tell, that's a win all around.

Well, I'd like to wrap this up by saying a big "Thank You!" to Steve and Amy Ellis of Rainy Day Games, as well as Emily Ehlers, James Eastham and everyone else who gamed with us. We had a fantastic time and hope to do all of this again!

Rainy Day Games Game Day!

by Randy and Angie

Hey there!

We want to alert everyone to an upcoming gaming event in the Pacific Northwest, particularly for people in the Portland/Beaverton area. If you've read our blog, you have certainly heard us speak about our good friends at Rainy Day Games. In our opinion, this is the best game store ever. And in no small part due to the great events they put on. Today we are talking about the Rainy Day Games Game Day and Auction happening on Sunday, October 16th at the Washington County Fair Complex.

The first component of this daying is the gaming. From 9am to 11pm you can play games. All day. Board games will definitely be the most represented, by there will also be roleplaying events. You will at the very least find D&D RPGA and Lair Assault events for official offerings. For the board games, people may sign up to run their favorite games throughout the day. If you are in the area and like gaming, I would advise you to consider saving this date on your calendar.

The second component is the auction, and this absolutely rocks. Gamers bring in their old games which can be bid on in auction. A live auctioneer will be present starting at 2pm. If your game gets sold, you get that much in-store credit at Rainy Day Games. And other gamers can pick up games at well below retail. A completely win-win situation! Note: Game drop-offs for the auction are 10/1-10/12; hurry if you want to put your games in!

And what's more is that we (the Growing Up Gamers crew) will be present for at least part of the day to cover the event, game, and (hopefully!) add some gems to our collection. We hope to game with you!

Complete details can be found at this link:

Rainy Day Games Game Day!

Join us for a great day of  fun!

Conquest of Planet Earth!

by Randy

Greetings, gamers of the internet! We of the Growing Up Gamers collective come in peace to be your benevolent and protective game reviewers. Do not be alarmed.  We have recently acquired a review copy of Conquest of Planet Earth from Flying Frog Productions and wish to impart our wisdom upon you. Or consume your resources and leave it a dried husk. Whichever works. We have not yet come to a decision, so on with the review.

Are any of you familiar with Flying Frog Productions? We certainly are. I really enjoyed playing Last Night on Earth, their scenario-based zombie survival game. Complete with a soundtrack and stunning photographic art, it is a very nice game and worth a playthrough. So we were pretty excited to try out Conquest of Planet Earth, with its quirky 1950’s B-movie saucermen theme. And we love it.

How it looks

For starters, it’s pretty . This game does not use the fun photography and makeup of the Last Night… series. Instead, this goes for a more traditional painted/drawn style. The alien races are all well illustrated and really convey those B-movie tropes. You could totally see these in a monster movie from the 50’s or 60’s, or maybe even off of the original Star Trek series.  The Rantillion Beetlemen, the Fishmen of Atlorak, the Vyborian Arbiters…  heck, there’s even some warrior-women and and space emperors in faux-Roman clothing. The miniatures are well-scuplted, with four tokens of each color (all the same sculpt), and four unique ally tokens. They very much capture the theme. Embrace the cheesiness! And then there’s the soundtrack…

Player tokens

Why a soundtrack for a game? Why not! On the CD, there are eleven tracks of instrumental music that goes a long way to set the mood for the game. Most of the ten alien races have tracks named after them, themed after their breed of vileness. Crazy, spacey, atmospheric… I highly recommend those of you trying out the game play this in the background. Sure, it’s not absolutely necessary; but don’t let that stop you from turning a playthrough of a boardgame into an experience.

 Four different games in one!

The Orzax

For those of you really trying to make the most of your gaming dollar, I want to point out that there are four ways to play this game. That’s right: four. The first is the competitive game. In this, each player  plays an alien species bent on taking over the Earth, but there’s these pesky humans in the way… not to mention the other aliens who want this prime real estate! The second is the cooperative game, in which the alien players join forces to take over the Earth, but the humans are much craftier and have a more active resistance. The third is a team game, which has two teams of two aliens fighting for the planet. And the last is the solo game, which is just like the cooperative but it is played solitaire, with the player choosing to play one or more alien races, again, trying to subjugate Earth.  Of those four, the competitive and cooperative games fit our play style the best, and both offer great gameplay.

Overview

All styles have a similar board setup, with a central human capital and an additional adjoining board for each alien player. Location cards are played on the spaces when aliens move to an undiscovered one, and each have a Terror rating (victory points for the controller) and a Resistance score. The resistance score determines the number of battles a player will do with human defenders from the Resistance deck. Watch out! Those crafty humans have ways of joining forces and some cards will stack and give bonuses. Woe to the saucerperson who finds Captain Fantastic… he’s the toughest the humans have to offer, a pulp-era hero ready to swing his super-powered fists at any alien daring to land on his planet! A dice roll for each side, plus modifiers, determines the outcome, though cards in players’ hands can, of course, alter outcomes. Simple resolution, meaningful choices…  perfect for a theme-heavy game of this sort.

Our thoughts

The Venezian Matriarchy

We love this game. It’s just that simple. This is a game that can be equally enjoyed by those looking for a game with a quirky, fun theme, or a more strategy-oriented player. Granted, there is enough randomness here that hardcore eurogamers may have cause to turn up their noses, but this isn’t for them. This is an experience in a box. If you have ever delighted in watching a cheeseball low-fi movie with aliens and rayguns, check this game out. You won’t regret it. My advice is to make a night of it; try watching something like The Green Slime (1968, rating a whopping 3.8 of 10 stars at IMDB!), or maybe just an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series after playing the game. You'll have a blast!

Bellwether Games interviews Randy!

by Randy

Hey, all!

I just wanted to let everyone know about some upcoming projects by the Growing Up Gamers crew. Bellwether Games, publishers of Drop Site, did an interview with me about some game design work I'm doing (some with my wife Angie and Julian of Cool Factor 5). We discuss Princess of the Hill as well as some other projects in the works. Drop by and check it out! Here's the link:

Interview with Randy

A big thanks to Dennis of Bellwether Games for giving me this opportunity!

Befuzzled!

Hello! Who likes party games? We at Growing up Gamers do, and we wanted to share one with you. The excellent people at FunQ Games provided a review copy of their newest party game, Befuzzled. And here are our thoughts...

Okay... party games. It's an interesting and important genre in the boardgaming world. I would guess that most boardgamers had their first taste of boardgaming via a party game. Overall, they focus on social interaction. The rules tend to be simple and the idea is that you can open the box and have things going in a few minutes. Some party games are games to play at parties, and some are kind of meant to -be- parties, meaning they consume a lot of time and overshadow other social activities. A good example of the latter is Cranium, though most people could probably fill in one or two more. The game we're looking at today fits in the latter category... a game meant to be an activity (and a fun one at that!).

Befuzzled by FunQ Games is light, quick and fun. The game consists of three types of cards: Shape, Flip and Action. Eight Action cards get dealt out and randomly paired with one of the eight Shape cards. Once that has been set up, one player is the judge for the turn and looks at the Flip card, which will have one of the eight shapes on it. The judge then reveals the Flip card and will award the card to the first player to perform the action corresponding to the shape on the card. The the next player to the left is the judge, and the process is repeated until the Flip cards are gone. Pretty simple, yes?

What makes this game a lot of fun is the frantic race to perform the action. The actions range from Clap Hands, Laugh to Say "Arr" Like a Pirate. It's very amusing to see several people clamoring to pat themselves on the head! Each Action card also has an illustration with a little guy who looks like Einstein showing the action (to the extent they can be shown; the "say" actions have him with a word balloon). This is great... and I'll tell you why.

We at Growing Up Gamers are all about playing games with kids. We love to teach them to play games, and we believe that are great reasons to play games with them. It's always great when a game has features that can make it more feasible to play with non-readers. The little illustration of each action allows you to play this with kids too young to read. To scale this to work with a pre-reader, simply replace any Action cards that come up that require reading. There are plenty of Action cards that will work for kids who haven't yet learned to read, so at the startup swap out any like "Say 'Befuzzled'" for something like "Make Antlers" or "Flap Arms". Then prior to starting, go over each action and perform it. Voila! Kids are ready to play!

Our verdict on this game is that we like it a lot. It's a party game makes no illusions of being "the" thing at the party, but can certainly generate a few laughs. This is an excellent choice for younger kids, with the advised changes above. The box recommends age 7 and up, but we played this with our five year old and had a blast. And we're not the only ones to think so, either! Creative Child Magazine named it their 2011 Game of the Year. Check it out!

Using Games to Teach: Through the Ages- A Story of Civilization

By Angie

The Big Idea:

Games are fun. They invoke optimism and curiosity, create systems in which it is ok to try new strategies, acceptable to make mistakes and to fail, and provide an environment in which to compete with others in healthy ways while developing and practicing a myriad of social skills. Games encourage us to enjoy time spent together socially while also critical thinking and doing what our brains love to do best: solving problems. Games help boost a sense of efficacy and inspire esteem, in a game you CAN accomplish great things, and believing in yourself is the foundation for all future successes. Regardless of their inherent “educational value”, games provide all of these amazing benefits and more. Many games also involve opportunities to learn and practice reading skills, language, vocabulary development, math concepts, and spatial relationships… to name a few! Games also provide meaningful opportunities to hone essential life skills such as thinking ahead, strategic planning, resource management, positive social interactions, conflict resolution, and teamwork. Some games model basic economic principles such as supply and demand, while others encourage players to evaluate multiple possibilities and decide on the best course of action, while still others demonstrate probability in action. Learning is everywhere in our lives, and games offer a very specific type of experience that is innately educational in all of these ways, and likely more that I haven’t listed here.

A basic concept of educational theory and pedagogy taught to teachers is that students learn best when they are engaged and interested in the material, and that a sound way to build engagement is to connect the material at hand to prior experiences or background knowledge. Effective teachers often build lesson plans that include “anticipatory sets”, activities designed to introduce students to concept and pique their curiosity, or review concepts previously learned. Effective teachers also find ways to connect the subject material in a personal way to the students, asking questions, invoking imagery, telling stories, and progressively building up ideas so that students understand not only the learning objective of the day, but the context in which it occurs.

So, here’s where I think a good number of modern board games can REALLY shine… many “off the shelf” games designed with optimal play experience in mind (not learning objectives or content standards!) can be used to introduce broad concepts to students and set up a base of knowledge and experience that will help cultivate curiosity and create connections. By interacting with game pieces and cards representing historical elements, playing through systems that are designed to emulate some of the important events and relevant themes, and experiencing fun and engaging game play centered around a specific time period, teachers can use games as an activity to help create an optimal learning environment that will motivate students to learn the content. The game doesn’t need to “teach” the concepts, just introduce them in a fun way, provide some interesting mechanics that encourage thoughtful decision making, and create an experience the players will remember.

This is a bit of a revolutionary idea, and it doesn’t necessarily integrate well into a typical classroom setting, however I think this is something worth exploring. Within the current educational climate, this idea could be implemented through parental interventions (play games with your kids!), afterschool board game clubs, through individual or small group tutoring sessions to help struggling students, and in libraries and other community outlets to enhance learning. Additionally, if time and resources allow, many games could be played in small groups in the classroom, or modified for whole group play. Games can be used to introduce a lesson block topic or could have entire lessons built around the concepts presented in the game. The point is to make the learning fun for the students and to engage them by activating their curiosity about a topic and providing relevant “experience” that can’t be easily replicated in other ways.

Forming connections with material is a key factor in retention and engagement, and playing games gives students a potential reason to care about a topic. Have you ever heard a student ramble off a giant list of stats and details about a game character they loved? Looking at ways we can use the power of games to interest students is an invaluable step in providing top notch engaging curriculum. Board games seem like an especially great avenue because they encourage social interaction and require the players to keep track of the game state information that is often hidden behind the scenes in video games, which can help provide a more solid understanding of the overall framework and enhance the learning capabilities.


An Example: Using Through the Ages

 Here are a few general ideas of how existing games could be used in this way with a complex game called Through the Ages. Through the Ages is an in-depth civilization building game by Eagle Games with a long play time that may make it challenging to use in a classroom, but it offers amazing potential to explore world history and provides a broad knowledge base upon which a teacher could build a vast array of lessons that connect back to the experience of playing the game.

As an introduction to world history, this game has mechanics that represent the how development of new technologies influenced the capabilities for food and resource production. It provides a wide range of historical leaders which each have game play mechanics that help reinforce the philosophies and tactics they are best known for. It uses wonders to present historical monuments, and again reinforces the theme through mechanics. This game provides a broad reference and jumping off point for many historical explorations, and it’s amazing strategic depth and game system really reinforce the theme well and provide an opportunity to practice many of the skills discussed above as well as cover a broad base of world history.

Playing through a game of Through the Ages can help provide an experienced base context for a wide array of lessons, and can inspire curiosity that will motivate students. “Who is Hammurabi?” “What is the Kremlin?” “Why does Genghis Khan give me a bonus to my horseman units?” On the flipside of that, playing a game that includes historical figures and places will provide something for a student to “latch” on to when they are learning about a topic. “Oh, Frederick Barbarossa? I remember him! He was my leader in that game we played and I got to turn my workers into military with him… that totally makes sense because he led his people into all those wars”. Educators can capitalize on this curiosity or reinforce these connections and make the experience richer and more educational.

 In addition to specific people and places, key concepts can be represented in a game in a way that allows students to experiment with these ideas and really get a grasp of how they work. For example, in Through the Ages technology advances such as the development of irrigation (then later selective breeding and mechanized agriculture) really affects the food production of a civilization, which influences the population level that can be sustained, the happiness of the people, and the ability to generate armies. These broad concepts can be emphasized by a teacher and used as a basis for lessons on how the availability of food has significantly impacted civilization growth, achievement, and conflict throughout history. With the experience of interacting within the environment of a concrete game mechanic, this concept can become much more tangible for students, and also far more interesting.

I could go a lot deeper into the specifics of this game, or the multiple "teachable" moments this might present so over the next few months I am planning to develop some of these concepts into curriculum ideas and discuss some specific games that seem especially suited for this purpose here on the blog. Feel free to comment or send any ideas or comments my way. I’d love to hear what other people think, how games have worked (or not worked!) for you in educational settings, and recommendations for games that can be used to teach “right out of the box”.

Sacred Arrow for Pathfinder RPG

by Randy
@coffeeswiller

Hello! I noticed that we were neglecting pen-and-paper roleplaying for a while, so I decided that I would share a bit of custom content I made for my favorite roleplaying game, Pathfinder. The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is the successor to Dungeons & Dragons version 3.5. One of the very first prestige classes in D&D 3rd Edition, the Arcane Archer has stood the test of time. It's an excellent concept: an elf fighting tradition that fuses arcane magic and archery.

So what I have done is I took the Pathfinder version of the classes and modified it to combine divine magic and archery... why should the arcanists get all the love? I think that this is an overdue concept! I have reworked abilities to focus on combating enemies of the faith, including abilites primarily good against undead and outsiders. So... here it is! Enjoy!

Sacred Arrow

Elves or half-elves who seek to perfect the use of the bow in service to their deity sometimes pursue the path of the Sacred Arrow. Sacred Arrows are masters of ranged combat, as they possess the ability to strike at targets with unerring accuracy and can imbue their arrows with powerful spells. Arrows fired by Sacred Arrows smite the enemies of their faiths. At the height of their power, Sacred Arrows can also deliver the blessings of their deities via their arrows, as well.

Those who have trained as both rangers and clerics excel as Sacred Arrows, although other multiclass combinations are not unheard of. Sacred Arrows may be found wherever elves travel, but not all are allies of the elves. Many, particularly half-elven Sacred Arrows, use elven traditions solely for their own gain, or worse, against the elves whose very traditions they adhere to.

Role: Sacred Arrows deal death from afar, winnowing down opponents while their allies rush into hand-to-hand combat. With their capacity to unleash hails of arrows on the enemy, they represent the pinnacle of ranged combat.

Alignment: Sacred Arrows can be of any alignment, though as elves and half-elves tend to be free-spirited, they are rarely lawful. Similarly, it is uncommon to find evil elves and half-elves, and the path of the Sacred Arrow is therefore more often pursued by good or neutral characters.

Hit Die: d10.

Requirements

To qualify to become a Sacred Arrow, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Race: Elf or half-elf (Note: many think this requirement is unnecessary!)

Base Attack Bonus: +6.

Feats: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Focus (longbow or shortbow).

Spells: Ability to cast 1st-level divine spells.

Class Skills

The Sacred Arrow's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Knowledge (Religion), Knowledge (The Planes), Perception (Wis), Stealth (Dex), and Survival (Wis).

Skill Ranks at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Table: Sacred Arrow
Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
1st	+1	+0	+1	+1	Enhance arrows (magic)	—
2nd	+2	+0	+1	+1	Align arrow	+1 level of existing class
3rd	+3	+1	+2	+2	Enhance arrows (righteousness and retribution)	+1 level of existing class
4th	+4	+1	+2	+2	Seeker arrow	+1 level of existing class
5th	+5	+2	+3	+3	Enhance arrows (distance)	—
6th	+6	+2	+3	+3	Disruption arrow	+1 level of existing class
7th	+7	+2	+4	+4	Enhance arrows (elemental burst)	+1 level of existing class
8th	+8	+3	+4	+4	Hail of arrows	+1 level of existing class
9th	+9	+3	+5	+5	Enhance arrows (aligned)	—
10th	+10	+3	+5	+5	Arrow of life	+1 level of existing class

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Sacred Arrow prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Sacred Arrow is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light armor, medium armor, and shields.

Spells per Day: At the indicated levels, a Sacred Arrow gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in an divine spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class. He does not, however, gain other benefits a character of that class would have gained, except for additional spells per day, spells known (if he is a spontaneous spellcaster), and an increased effective level of spellcasting. If a character had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a Sacred Arrow, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day.

Enhance Arrows (Su): At 1st level, every nonmagical arrow a Sacred Arrow nocks and lets fly becomes magical, gaining a +1 enhancement bonus. Unlike magic weapons created by normal means, the archer need not spend gold pieces to accomplish this task. However, an archer's magic arrows only function for him.

In addition, the Sacred Arrow's arrows gain a number of additional qualities as he gains additional levels. The elemental, elemental burst, and aligned qualities can be changed once per day, when the Sacred Arrow prays for spells.

At 3rd level, every nonmagical arrow fired by a Sacred Arrow gains one of the following weapon qualities: Merciful, Ghost Touch, Undead Bane, (Aligned) Outsider Bane (chosen alignment must not be either component of patron deity’s alignment)

At 5th level, every nonmagical arrow fired by a Sacred Arrow gains the distance weapon quality.

At 7th level, every nonmagical arrow fired by a Sacred Arrow may gain one of the following elemental burst weapon qualities: flaming burst, icy burst, or shocking burst  instead of one of the qualities in the Enhance Arrows (Righteousness and Retribution).

At 9th level, every nonmagical arrow fired by a Sacred Arrow gains one of the following aligned weapon qualities: anarchic, axiomatic, holy, or unholy. The Sacred Arrow cannot choose an ability that is the opposite of his alignment, or the alignment of his patron deity (for example, a lawful good Sacred Arrow could not choose anarchic or unholy as his weapon quality).

The bonuses granted by a magic bow apply as normal to arrows that have been enhanced with this ability. Only the larger enhancement bonus applies. Duplicate abilities do not stack.

Align Arrow (Sp): Starting at 2^nd level, every nonmagical arrow fired by a Sacred Arrow is aligned, as per the spell Align Weapon. For the purpose of overcoming damage reduction, the arrow is treated as Good/Evil/Lawful/Chaotic (only one). The Sacred Arrow may not choose an alignment opposite his own, or of his patron deity. Therefore, a Lawful Neutral Sacred Arrow of a Lawful Good deity could not choose Evil, for instance.

Seeker Arrow (Sp): At 4th level, a Sacred Arrow can launch an arrow at a target known to him within range, and the arrow travels to the target, even around corners. Only an unavoidable obstacle or the limit of the arrow's range prevents the arrow's flight. This ability negates cover and concealment modifiers, but otherwise the attack is rolled normally. Using this ability is a standard action (and shooting the arrow is part of the action). A Sacred Arrow can use this ability once per day at 4th level, and one additional time per day for every two levels beyond 4th, to a maximum of four times per day at 10th level.

Disruption Arrow (Sp): At 6th level, a Sacred Arrow can launch an arrow once per day at an undead target, granting it the disruption  quality, except that the Save DC is 10 + half the Sacred Arrow’s class level + the Sacred Arrows Wisdom modifier. Using this ability is a standard action (and shooting the arrow is part of the action). A Sacred Arrow can use this ability once per day at 6th level, and one additional time per day for every two levels beyond 6th, to a maximum of three times per day at 10th level.

Hail of Arrows (Sp): In lieu of his regular attacks, once per day a Sacred Arrow of 8th level or higher can fire an arrow at each and every target within range, to a maximum of one target for every Sacred Arrow level she has earned. Each attack uses the archer's primary attack bonus, and each enemy may only be targeted by a single arrow.

Arrow of Life (Sp): At 10^th level, once per day the Sacred Arrow may fire an arrow at a target as a touch attack. If it hits, the arrow itself does no damage but instead acts as a Heal spell cast at the Sacred Arrow’s effective caster level. As with a normal Heal spell, this may be used as a Harm spell against undead.

So... I hope you liked it! This is one example of how you can tweak existing content to give you new and interesting options. This could be a great advancement option for a Cleric or Inquisitor focused on archery, or perhaps a Paladin with the new Divine Hunter archetype from Ultimate Combat. Lots of possibilities!