- For the computer role-playing game, see Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.
Arcanum is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) by Bard Games , set in the ancient world before Atlantis 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.
There are three main rulebooks (the trilogy) (1988): Atlantis, the Lost World, The Lexicon: Atlas of the Lost World of Atlantis, and The Bestiary . The world setting is similar to our own world, but thousands of years ago but with different continent names: Mediterranea (Europe), Eria (North America), Tamoanchan (South America), Turan (Arabia), Gondwana (Africa), Jambu (Asia), the Nether Realm (Antarctica), and Anostos and Jotunland (Iceland and Greenland-like). Mythical continents are added: Atlantia (Atlantis), Antilla, Hyperborea, Lemuria, Mu, and others.
The Arcanum trilogy was one of the many fantasy RPG games that followed the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons RPG. However, Arcanum had its followers. It offered a few things that 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, 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 were especially liked by the fans. Arcanum was a real mythology alternative to D&D's increasingly fantasy fiction game.
