The battered book from above is titled The Arcanum, first published in 1984, which was supposed to be the first volume of a three part series called The Atlantean Trilogy. The other volumes were The Lexicon and The Bestiary. The three were intended to be a complete fantasy role playing game system and setting; and to serve as supplements for other games (i.e., D&D since it was, like today, the overwhelmingly most popular RPG of the time).
The Arcanum was the rule book for the Trilogy, containing rules on character creation and the game mechanics, including combat; and detailed rules for magic (including spell lists) and alchemy. The Lexicon was described as "the complete atlas of the antediluvian age" containing "detailed maps of the legendary continents, countries, and cities of the Atlantian World, plus information on trade routes, the history of Atlantis' First and Second Ages, and much more ...". And The Bestiary, as the name indicates, was "a compendium of the fantastic beings and creatures of the Atlantean age."
I probably purchased The Arcanum book in 1984, because there were some problems with the editing which were quickly corrected in a second edition released in 1985. Some of the issues were inconsistencies between rules in different parts of the text and references to skills that apparently never made it into the final product. Nevertheless, the issues were not insurmountable. I never purchased (or even came across copies) of the other two books until much later.
My interest in the book was originally for use as a supplement, particularly the rules on alchemy (of which D&D had virtually none) and the expanded list of character classes (of which D&D only had a handful). I had thoughts of trying to use the rules, but I don't believe I actually had an opportunity to do so while still in high school. It was only years later, after I was married, that I was able to get a group together and give it a shot and it worked fairly well. I still did not have the other two books, so I used my own setting and borrowed monsters from D&D.
Eventually, I found a PDF of The Bestiary from 1986 which I printed up and crudely bound (see the photo above) but have never come across a copy of The Lexicon.
My oldest son at one time expressed an interest in The Arcanum, and in trying to track down a copy, discovered that the author had published a 30th Anniversary edition of the game, incorporating the rules from The Arcanum and the contents of The Bestiary into a single volume published in 2019. There was a third edition that apparently was published in 1996 by a different game company.
According to the author's forward, this 30th Edition uses the rules from the second and third editions. But the rights to the artwork and the setting (i.e., The Lexicon) are owned by another company and so, necessarily, not included. However, much of the layout has been rethought and other edits made to correct errors and make the book more usable.
But there have been other changes I've spotted. For instance, the first edition has 8 character races/species, while the 30th Anniversary book has 10. However, one of the races from the first edition--Druas--is missing from the 30th Anniversary book, while it adds gnomes, halflings, and selkies.
The first edition illustrated the various races and professions, but had little in way of illustrations beyond that. Most of the illustrations were simple pen and ink drawings, but there were a few larger pieces that appeared to be charcoal and pencil.
This 30th Anniversary edition has many more illustrations, also pen and ink, but the style is very different. For instance, below are the illustrations for elves from both books, the first edition on top and the 30th Anniversary edition below:
And as between the 1986 version of The Bestiary (the top illustration) and the 30th Anniversary Edition (the bottom) looking at the illustrations of undead skeleton warriors as an example:
Unfortunately, not all of the creatures or beasts are illustrated in either edition.
The rules for these games are definitely old school, but differ from other games from the 1980s like AD&D or Basic D&D. Although this game uses similar attributes (strength, speed, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, will, charisma, and perception) with the same basic range of 3 to 18 for a starting character, and professions which are largely analogous to the character "class" system in D&D, it is also a skill based rule system. Although D&D was limited to just a handful of character classes (i.e., professions or callings), The Arcanum had 27 total professions, all of which were compatible with or easily transferred to D&D.
Professions are also categorized as to whether the characters in those careers are "untrained fighters", "skilled fighters", or "highly trained fighters". This is important both for gaining hit points and because "skilled" and "highly trained" characters gain "to hit" and "damage" bonuses as they reach certain levels in their Professions.
Character creation in the first edition follows these steps: (i) selecting a character race; (ii) selecting a professions; (iii) selecting a background (which gives certain skills and, potentially, other benefits); and (iv) determining attributes. What skills a character has is a matter of his background and his career. As a character advances in a career (that is, achieves higher levels) he or she will obtain additional skills. Professions may also special abilities.
It appears that character creation is similar in the 30th Anniversary Edition.
Because this game system uses skills, much of the rules are found in the skill descriptions. For example, the skill "Evade Pursuit" describes the skill as "the ability to confound pursuers by moving with speed and stealth, leaving false trails, etc." And it gives rules for the chance of success (rolled with a percentile dice) and modifiers if he or she is being pursued by someone skilled in tracking. Of course, that is a basic skill rules. Some of the skills have tables or much more detailed rules to determine whether the character is successful. And others grant certain abilities, such as the skill "weapon training" or "weapon" allows a untrained character to use a weapon without the non-proficiency penalty, but grants no other special rules or options.
Combat is fairly straightforward. Players roll a 1d20 and their role plus (or minus) applicable modifiers equals or exceeds 11, they hit their target. If a character has a non-proficiency penalty, the sum of their roll and modifiers is divided by two before determining a success. Characters can also employ special tactics such as making an "unarmed attack", seek a "specific hit" (i.e., a special attack allowing special effect or dealing double damage) but with their odds of a successful hit halved; or defensive tactics such as dodging or parrying a blow, taking evasive action, etc. Cover makes it more difficult to hit someone with a missile weapon, and there are other modifiers depending on the character's attributes or due to situational factors (e.g., it truly is easier to hit something as large as a barn door).
Unlike D&D where armor makes it more difficult to strike a target, this game uses armor to subtract from damage. Of course, the amount of damage that can be dealt depends on the weapon. For instance, a dagger might only deal 1d6 of damage while a long sword will cause 1d10 of damage.
I don't generally like playing magic users, but this is a fantasy role playing game after all and, so, there are various spell casting professions such as magicians, shamans, witches, sorcerers, etc. Besides, in combat, with the right spells, a magic user essentially acts like a support weapon, able to deal heavy damage but only for a limited number of rounds.
Unlike D&D, where a magic user must relearn spells each time he wants to case one--the act of casting a spell erases it from memory--this game does not have a similar limitation. Rather, the character is limited to casting a certain number of spells per day based on his level, or else resort to using a magic item or casting from a scroll.
In addition to, or as a supplement to, the magic system, the game also has detailed rules on alchemy, which actually covers everything from making herbal remedies to poisons to potions. There are also rules covering the manufacture of magical devices or magical/alchemical processes.
So the basic question is whether this game would be worthwhile playing today. It is "old school" in a real sense that there is no universal resolution system. Many skills and checks are determined by rolling a percentile die, while combat uses 1d20 with a target number of 11+, and there are many tables that have to be consulted for other matters. That said, it is no harder to use than the first edition AD&D, and offers more options for players. I think if someone were looking for an old school style of play and a game to go with it, this game would work well.
The options make it easy to customize for a particular setting as well. For instance, if you wanted something like Middle-Earth or classic D&D, you could limit characters to being humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings, and go with that. If you want something different, ditch the elves, dwarves, and halflings and use the other races included; or just limit the characters to humans. The variety of professions also allow you to have a balanced party such as D&D encourages for general adventuring. But if you wanted a campaign focused on rogues, you could have a party of various rogue type characters (charlatan, rogue, spy, pirate); or an outdoor type party could be made made up of a beastmaster, hunter, and druid. Similar theme, but different enough abilities that the characters are not just copies of one another.
The 30th Anniversary Edition is still available from LuLu for $39.99 which is pretty good for a complete game.
No comments:
Post a Comment