.I want to recommend this lovely RPG for the club. Made by Troika, the first title they shipped in fact, in 2001 after being 3 years in development.
Arcanum takes place in a fictional historical land, that is gradually discovering science and industry, but which hasn’t yet rejected it’s knowledge of mysticism and spriritualism. Such that both feel equally arcane and otherworldly here.
While the game does unfortunately make use of the all-too-familiar Tolkien-esque races, the setting has more in common with victorian britain and early industrial europe, complete with gothic overtones. It’s really all there in the title: Steamworks, Magick, Arcana. 😀
The game doesn’t have a linear story either, with player choices being able to take things along radically different paths at various points. It’s also possible to play the game as an ultraviolent character or as a total pacifist. This freedom to choose can be quite liberating from a player’s perspective, if unusual for an RPG to be designed with such a broad range of play styles in mind.
So yeah, it was a quality game, that deserves a good looking at. Winter is traditionally the time of year to play RPGs, and the design of this game fits halloween too, so… may be it would be a good one to play during Q4?
