For the computer role-playing game, see Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is a single player / multi-player computer role-playing game developed by Troika Games and published by Sierra Entertainment. It was released in North America and Europe in August 2001 for Microsoft Windows...

.

Arcanum is a fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

 (RPG) by Bard Games, set in the ancient world before Atlantis

Atlantis

Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....

 sunk. Like other fantasy RPGs, the game uses paper, pencils, dice, rulebooks, and imagination. It is a conversational game in which ancient warriors, magic, dragons, and other mythical creatures and beings exist.

The main rulebook The Arcanum, noted for its extensive magic system, was published in 1984, which was followed by a cleaned up and expanded Second Edition, as clearly indicated on the cover, in 1985. A setting The Lexicon: Atlas of the Lost World of Atlantis was released in 1985, followed by The Bestiary in 1986. The two latter books were republished in 1989 with some new material added as Atlantis, the Lost World.

The world setting is similar to our own world, but thousands of years ago and with different continent names: Mediterranea (Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

), Eria (North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

), Tamoanchan (South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

), Turan

Turan

Tūrān is the Persian name for Central Asia, literally meaning "the land of the Tur". As described below, the original Turanians are an Iranian tribe of the Avestan age. As a people the "Turanian" are one of the two Iranian peoples both descending from the Persian Fereydun but with different...

 (Arabia), Gondwana

Gondwana

In paleogeography, Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland, was the southernmost of two supercontinents that later became parts of the Pangaea supercontinent. It existed from approximately 510 to 180 million years ago . Gondwana is believed to have sutured between ca. 570 and 510 Mya,...

 (Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

), Jambu (Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

), the Nether Realm (Antarctica), and Anostos and Jotunland (Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

 and Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

-like). Mythical continents are added: Atlantia (Atlantis), Antilla, Hyperborea, Lemuria

Lemuria (continent)

Lemuria is the name of a hypothetical "lost land" variously located in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The concept's 19th century origins lie in attempts to account for discontinuities in biogeography; however, the concept of Lemuria has been rendered obsolete by modern theories of plate tectonics...

, Mu

Mu (lost continent)

Mu is the name of a hypothetical continent that allegedly existed in one of Earth's oceans, but disappeared at the dawn of human history.The concept and the name were proposed by 19th century traveler and writer Augustus Le Plongeon, who claimed that several ancient civilizations, such as those of...

, and others.

The Arcanum was one of the many fantasy RPG games that followed the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

RPG. However, Arcanum gained a strong following by offering several things D&D didn't have. Arcanum researched historical mythology closer than D&D. Arcanum has some different beings and creatures from actual myth, such as hantu, bakru, alastor

Alastor

Alastor can refer to a number of people and concepts related to Greek mythology:...

, bat horin, korupiru, balaha, and others. Arcanum detailed each country's individual culture, based on the actual real world cultures. The ink drawings by artist Bill Sienkiewicz

Bill Sienkiewicz

Boleslav Felix Robert "Bill" Sienkiewicz [pronounced sin-KEV-itch] is an Eisner Award-winning American artist and writer best known for his comic book work, primarily for Marvel Comics' The New Mutants and Elektra: Assassin...

 were especially liked by the fans. Arcanum was a real mythology alternative to D&D's increasingly fantasy fiction game. A new 3rd edition has also been released by Death's Edge Games, which consists of three books (Arcanum, Lexicon, and Beastiary).

Links

The Arcanum at RPG Talk, an external wiki