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The Artesia: Adventures in the Known World RPG (here after referred to as Artesia) is an RPG based on the Artesia series of comic books written and illustrated by Mark Smylie. It uses the Fuzion system with a certain amount of tailoring for the specific genre.
The world of Artesia is set materially in 15th century Europe but Europe where monotheism has not made such considerable inroads.
In this review I will begin with art and layout, and then I will move into a chapter by chapter overview, and conclude with a final analysis.
ART AND LAYOUT:
This is the first RPG product I have ever encountered that has all of the art done by one artist. (I am aware that Mage: the Awakening book does as well but I saw Artesia first) This is an incredible boon in that the entire world has a unified appearance. For example, in flipping through the book the reader can identify certain cultures based on their armor and that look remains constant throughout the book, and I will hope in future supplements as well. The art itself is drawn largely from the comic book series and the supplemental annuals, with the most noteworthy new pieces depicting the 22 Arcana.
The layout is a double column format with little white space. Colored text boxes are used to enclose examples and asides.
THE GAME: Introduction: This is a small half page intro answering the age old question of: What is an RPG? It also addresses question of what Artesia is and if knowledge of the comic in essential for the game. The other one and one half pages are taken up with a nice overview map of the Known World.
History of the Known World: Is the history of the Known World from the time of creation to the present, which is incidentally one year before the events in the comic begin. The history of the Known World draws on a variety of influences from, Atlantis, in an early culture, Ürüne Düré, that was a powerful sea faring culture that eventually was attacked and the island sunk; to Hellenistic Greece and Alexander the Great, embodied in the person of Dauban Hess.
First there was the Age of Creation where the goddess, Yhera, brought the world and otherworlds into being. This age ends when, “The race of Man, favorites of the gods and goddesses of the world, commits a grievous crime.” This crime is never stated and remains a point of debate among theologians to the present.
The Golden Age follows with the rise of the island power, Ürüne Düré, and the Gola Empire on the continent. The gods are still very active in this period mainly siring semi-divine offspring who then found nations. This age ends with the siege and sacking of Ürüne Düré and a war in Heaven.
This war resulted in the Age of Legend, where the semi-divine kings wander the world in exile due to the fall of their divine fathers. Refugees from Ürüne Düré settled on the continent and founded new nations amongst the indigenous peoples and a period of prosperity followed. This kingdom was destroyed by invaders who then settled the conquered lands. In other kingdoms new rulers rose and brought stability to their respective realms. Among these kings was one named, Dauban Hess, he set forth from the island of Illia and proceeded to conquer most of the Known World. After accomplishing this he left to find the Islands of the Dawn and rule of his empire fell to lesser men. These men fought amongst themselves as to how successors were to be chosen: the Sun Court believed succession should be inherited, and this court established itself in Dauban Hess’ old capital Heliopolis on Illia; while the Phoenix Court felt that successors should be chosen, and they used Dauban Hess’ new capital of Millene.
The end of the Age of Legend came when it was discovered that the Phoenix Court had become corrupt in their pursuit of eternal life. The rulers of the Phoenix Court were then known as Worm Kings. The Worm Kings set forth against the Sun Court in a war for power. Eventually the Worm Kings were defeated when a powerful curse was cast upon them and their capital was destroyed.
The Bronze Age begins with the Winter Century in which the Sun Court exhausts itself hunting down the last remaining Worm Kings. Also in this century a northern power, Palatia, reestablished many of the trade routes that had initially flourished under Dauban Hess. In the Worm Kings old homeland a new power arose in the man of Akkalion, who sought to remake the empire of Dauban Hess. He quickly conquered portion of the Known World until before one battle a black sun rose and Akkalion was (and still is) trapped in a dream.
The Age of Iron and Fire begins with halt of Akkalion’s conquest and the slow loss of many territories taken by him. Then another series of wars erupts when the thrones of the various kingdoms are stolen. It is not known by who or why the thrones are taken and the War of the Throne Thief is still being fought.
This is where the game begins as tensions between nations run high and it looks as if war will break out at any moment. Mixed in with this is the tension between rival belief systems, that of Yhera (the creator goddess) and that of Islik (the Divine King).
Known World Today: This chapter discusses the various nations of the Middle Kingdoms with brief overviews of neighboring powers. Each of the four Middle Kingdoms is given a short description consisting of who the king is and who are his vassals. Following the Middle Kingdoms is a section on the Daradja Highlands (no kilts here though) who occupy a good one third of the land of the Middle Kingdoms the format is the same for the Middle Kingdoms with additional sections on brigands and the Highland Clans. The rest of the chapter gives brief overviews of the remaining powers on the Known World including the Thessid-Gola Empire, Palatia, and the Hemispian Leage, all of which will be getting their own source books in the future.
Playing the Game: Discusses the basics of the Fuzion system as it applies to Artesia. In a nutshell the system is a d10 + Characteristic + Skill + Specialty + +/- modifiers against either a fixed target number or a variable one (Opposed tests). Included in this chapter are three important systems: Gifts, Bindings and Pollution. Gifts are fairly self explanatory in that they are various supernatural abilities that have beneficial effects, either personal or on others. These powers can be gained during character creation with appropriate rolls on the Lifepath tables or purchased in the game with Arcana points (more on those later). Bindings are negative Gifts, these are things which hamper your character, but not all bindings are negative in connotation. For example, the Binding of Hate is negative but the Binding of Love is not (at least not usually). Bindings impose penalties to dice rolls and can be bought off over time by expending Arcana points. Pollution is a special type of Binding which can be removed by performing certain rituals, through the course of a game Pollution is usually not a problem but when encountering holy sites too much Pollution present can force the site to go dormant until it is cleansed.
Book of Dooms: This chapter deals with the experience system in Artesia. In this game there are two basic kinds of experience points. The first type are called training points. These can be acquired and used to improve any skill. The beauty of this is that the training points can be saved between training sessions. The drawback is that training points can only be used to improve skills and nothing else. Arcana points on the other hand can be used to improve skills, characteristics or acquire Gifts and reduce Bindings. These are earned by doing things and fall into 22 different kinds all based on the 22 different Arcana. The Arcana are presented as a progression of personal development and included in each of the descriptions are who typically walks each path and which characteristics, skills, Gifts and Bindings a player can spend the points on. Also in each description are tables of various actions and how many Arcana points the action is worth. If this sounds very confusing not to worry as on pages 128-129 is an excellent example of how Arcana points are awarded, and most importantly, “in order for an action to qualify for an Arcana Points reward, it must occur as part of the game’s narrative, as a reaction or contribution to the events, goals, and activities put forward by the Guide [GM] or generated by the Players themselves. The Known World rewards activity with purpose, actions taken towards a goal (paradoxically, even if a goal of passivity), rather than mere activity itself.” Keeping track of these points is also made easier on the character sheet which has divisions for each Arcana.
Creating Your Character: This chapter lays out the tables for the Lifepath character generation system. Like most Lifepath systems this one allows a player to roll (or chose) from a progression of tables to determine your starting Characteristics and Skills. The first set of tables is used to determine the character’s culture and social class. Culture and social class are important as they determine which professions are available to a character (as some cultures have a gender bias) and social class is applied as a modifier to all social rolls. Second are the tables for lineage and birth. These are which heroes your character is descended from, and which star sign the character and what omens (if any) accompanied the character’s birth. Following are tables for your family and childhood, followed by a table for previous experience.
Playing the Game, Combat: This chapter goes into detail about the combat system. A problem crops up here in that some measurements are given in feet, i.e. movement and missile weapon ranges, while an important mechanic range is given in steps. The steps become important in determining Intercept Attacks, where a weapon with a longer reach can get a free shot in on an opponent with a shorter reach weapon. A house rule standardizing measurements would take car of this nicely. Attacks are resolved on a hit location table; this table becomes important in the resolution of critical hits, as each hit location has different detrimental effects. Aimed attacks also become meaningful as armor is now location specific. There is an overall armor rating divided into cut/puncture/impact ratings, but there are provisions for light and no coverage on certain areas (usually face, feet and hands). Armor also has a type applied to it and the type has different effects on attacks made, for example plate armor changes damage from cut or puncture into impact damage. These damage types are important in that they heal at different rates. Over all it seems to be a fairly gritty combat system with the threat of permanent injuries and long healing times.
Playing the Game, Magic: This is perhaps the most complex part of the game. In Artesia magic is divided into seven Lores, covering the different styles of magic from alchemy to faith to astrology. Each Lore draws upon a specific Characteristic to learn and cast, and each casting requires either Mind or Spirit points to be spent. Each Lore has specific Incantations (fast spells) and Rituals (slow spells) that are available. There are tables specifying which Lores get access to which Incantations and Rituals. The confusing part is that each Incantation or Ritual is metaphysically generic (the same for all Lores) in nature but must be learned separately for each Lore. For example, the Summoning Ritual is mechanically the same for all casters, but if a character had scores in both Cult Lore and Hermetic Lore they would need to learn the Summoning Ritual twice. The number of Incantations and Rituals a character can know are limited by their MEM score but Incantations and Rituals can be suppressed (essentially unlearned) in order to learn new ones. This may seem limiting at first but just because a character does not know the Summoning Ritual, they could still summon things using a Shaped Form (as long as the shaped from was for the appropriate Lore skill). Shaped Forms are the Incantations and rituals given physical shape and are limited to a single purpose, to continue our Summoning example, knowing the Summoning Ritual a caster could summon an elemental, ghost, spirit, etc. while a caster using the Shaped Form would be limited to summoning a ghost using their prayer book (for Cult Lore summoning).
Beyond casting spells there are rules covering the creation of enchanted objects, both permanent and temporary, using runes and sigils (this requires knowledge of ancient alphabets and knowledge of the Inscription Ritual), the brewing of potions, and alchemy.
Overall a very meaty chapter with lots of information to digest but it is well worth it. This spell system is a good balance between free form and spell lists.
Playing the Game, Religion: religion plays a very important role in the Known World. This chapter deals with the two main religions in the Middle kingdoms, the Cult of Yhera and the Cult of Islik, the Divine King. It also discusses briefly the role of priests and worshipers in the setting. Following this are the descriptions of the two cults, including holy days, offerings, and lists of invocations that are to be used with the Invocation Ritual from the Magic chapter. Rounding out the chapter are lists of other gods in the pantheons and a short write up of a common Mystery Cult (to be used as a model for other mystery cults).
The religion of the Known World is heavily influenced by Classical Greek religious practices (as can be gathered from the bibliographies in the Artesia graphic novels) with a heavy emphasis on offerings and sacrifice to appease the gods and curry their favor.
The World Around You: discusses the physical and spiritual realms in the Known World. Included in this chapter are rule for traveling to the other worlds including the dream realm and the land of the dead. Rules for the dead are included as well with options to return as a ghost (thought as an NPC only) and the process of divine judgment and what happens to a soul whether it is remaining in the underworld, being reborn or ascending into the heavens. Finishing of the chapter are three pages dedicated to the various calendars used in the Known World. All of these rules will be expanded in a forthcoming supplement.
A Bestiary of the Known World: This is a fairly standard bestiary covering the most common natural animals and then moving on to supernatural creatures. Spirits and spirit combat are covered here, as are celestial beings and the restless dead.
For the Guide, Adventuring in the Known World: is a chapter devoted mainly to an introductory adventure. Included are two pages of advice for a Guide including some excellent advice on mystery cults which include, “a mystery need not actually have a true answer” and, “the revelation provided by a Mystery Cult becomes true to a Character as a result of their Initianation into the Mystery, regardless of whether this revelation is really true or not.”
Final impressions: For a core rule book this is a very complete one, with enough setting information to begin a campaign right out of the box. Much of the feel of the world can be gained from the wonderfully unified art throughout the book. The feel of the world is also maintained by the use of the Lifepath system, so as to avoid the inclusion of disruptive elements. The only drawbacks are in the organization department, for example the Birthright charts are placed in an appendix, not in the chapter on character creation.
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