#arcanum rpg

[vtmbbot]

“Have you ever spoken with the dead? Called to them from this side, pulled them from their silent rest? Do you know what it is that they feel? Pain. Pain, when torn into this wakefulness, this reminder of the chaos from which they had escaped. Pain, at having to live. There will be no more pain. There will be no more chaos.”

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (Troika Games, 2001)

[stellastra-scribbles]

March 30, 2024 - Face design for my Living One, Ri'an Mal'los.

Her outfit design by pommeplisa can be viewed here.

Additional info under the cut.

Ri'an is my player character in Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, a 2001.

She's is a (relatively) young elf of 200 years who grew up with a foppish lifestyle in a city of a continent outside Arcanum. She is a bit disconnected from her elven heritage but otherwise developed a silver tongue and a silly streak.

Ri'an has a very harsh resting bitch face, which can put off some folks when they meet her. In actuality, she's quite the goofy goober and Virgil (the player's first companion) is usually there to keep her grounded. Ri'an considers him to be her closest confidant.

Her aptitude is magickal and her favored spell colleges are Temporal and Conveyance. Ri'an other major skills include Persuasion, Throwing, Melee, and Dodge.

As for her attire, she tends to bend the rules of the late 19th century aesthetic while still mostly adhering to that era's sense of prudery. Ri'an typically wears what would be considered women's athletic wear for that era, like Victorian cycling split-skirts/cycling bloomers and hiking boots (sometimes just wearing men's shoes).

Main Companions: Virgil, Magnus Shale Fist, the dog, Torian Kel, Loghaire Thunder Stone, Raven, and Z'an Al'urin.

[colorfulfoxengineer]

[arcanumlegio]

"Las hojas crujían bajo sus pies, y el aire denso parecía guardar un secreto que sólo el susurro del viento entre las ramas osaba contar." G. A. Bécquer.

¡Feliz día, queridas almas en desgracia! Hemos preparado otra aventurilla como aperitivo previo a la Spooky Season. Una nueva brecha se ha abierto en el bosque. Unos visitantes inesperados os esperan allí. ¿Estáis listos para sobrevivir a la siniestra noche? Sí, nos hemos puesto nuestras mejores galas para haceros pasar un rato espeluznante. Bienvenidos al Laberinto de las Almas Perdidas. Donde vuestras peores pesadillas se pueden hacer realidad y vuestros miedos son vuestros verdugos. Nosotros vamos a prepararnos un Bloody Mary para ver cómo lo gozáis. FORO ARCANUM LEGIO 🕸️BÚSQUEDAS 🕸️ TUMBLR

[dwimepon]

Something about western RPGs makes me instantly forgiving of their failings. If a game has enough roleplay options and enough texture in its writing I won't even care if the combat sucks or if it looks horrendous. it becomes my own little imaginary universe where even the worst gameplay mechanics become part of the world.

Arcanum's combat is kind of shit - so shit in fact that they let you choose between turn-based and real-time combat, and both are pretty bad, but to me it's enough; it does the bare minimum such a system should do, i.e translating how you built your character into raw, tangible stats and outcomes. Sure accuracy rates are shit and getting proficient with a weapon type means you'll only be able to hit things 40% of the time at most, but it's made of the same *stuff*, built off the same sets of attributes and skills and proficiencies, so I can very quickly get past the flaws!

It's a a bad branch of a great tree, not the entire trunk.

[artwithextremeprejuice]

The Shrouded Hills Bank Shootout Based on a quest I did in Arcanum! Also based the half elf on the portrait I used. With Vergil and doc Roberts.

[aramis-dagaz]

Game stream schedule for the week of 6 Feb!

Monday, 6 Feb, 8pm: Super Lesbian Animal RPG

Thursday, 9 Feb, 8pm: Super Lesbian Animal RPG

Saturday, 11 Feb, 2pm: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

[ghostcat3]

TW:Rape, Racism, War, Possible others I might have missed.

Arcanum and a direct take of Racism

May! An actual post from me. Never thought I would see it. Figure it was time. Never used tumblr to post something so sorry if the formatting it wrong. I am sure my one mutual can murder me for that.

Arcanum, a game made by the late Troika games who made such a classic as Vampire: the Masquerade bloodlines (Most likely gonna make a post about that game) and shovel ware such as the temple of elemental evil, which was good, but not really a narrative breakthrough in gaming now is it. They probably made other games, I know they were gonna make a fallout game but got outbid by Bethesda who made The Elder Scrolls Games (Definitely gonna make a post about that one). Troika games was rendered defunct as of February 24, 2004.

Arcanum which full name is Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, but only losers on Reddit use the full name. I would like to take this time to do the polite thing and give my hopes and prayers out to the people of Ukraine, mainly because a person known online as Drog Black-Tooth is currently living there and is going through the war. (The patch is basically required to play the game smh)

Arcanum is a setting which is a blend of classic Tolkien-like fantasy and cool steampunk science (The science is better for the purposes of guns ((and the fantasy equivalent of racial supremacy)) ). The setting is completely based around this concept (sort of to the detriment to the actual characters of the game which I find are good ideas but due to needing to release the game on time often reach conclusions in judgement or skip parts of character arcs), the setting generally pulls from the time period of the industrial revolution.

Phew! We can finally actually talk about the topic in large text at the top! I mainly have two main ideas. Body paragraphs? Whatever’s to talk about. Starting with

Orcish Classism

In Arcanum, you can enter and come across factories. Walk in and out of enough of them you will notice something. Most if not all of the works... Are half-orcs. Instead of describing how the player does stuff to find out why, I will just skip straight to what is happening. The Half-Orcs are treated as the lowest class or people, thought of as too stupid or violent for anything else. You can even help then rebel which may eventually turn violent and people will blame your character for inciting what they will call the event “The Orc Riots”. The citizens viewpoint on the Half-Orcs are actually unfounded, as you can play a Half-Orc and be pretty smart... Time for point two.

The Half-Ogre Conspiracy, or how I learned that systemic racism is the best racism.

Time for the lore point that all the people who played Arcanum was screaming at me about. There exists Half-Ogres in the game, playable as a character preset, the rising amount of Half-Ogres is described as odd as even if a normal ogre forced themselves onto a woman, the ogre would then most likely just... Kill and eat the woman. Which makes the large amount being born so strange along with the fact that they seem to always be around gnomes. You get a quest to investigate this by some guy whose name I forgot until you arrive at Half-Ogre Island where you find blood, cages and a journal describing what they were doing. See the gnomes being as smart as they are... Are small. So the other races starting stealing inventions or violently beating them up until the gnomes worked for them. Being tired of being mistreated they discovered they tried enslaving ogres for breeding purposes. It did not work. The ogres were to aggressive and could not understand most commands. Then they realized they can breed humans and ogres and make Half-Ogres. Originally half-ogre births caused deaths for the mother, as the process began to be more refined, multiple births became possible. They began kidnapping female royal family members and putting them through process. When you learn of this you can go to a reporter and give him the journal to report this. He never does. Some people on the forums believe that he was a plant for the conspiracy, I personally find that hard to believe due to the fact that he is human. I believe the conspiracy killed him, as he is never found again in game and the island is cleared out of all proof of the conspiracy. Leaving you and the people involved in the conspiracy the only ones in the know. You can talk to a member of the conspiracy, he admits you the player could stop this plot, but it would require total dismantling and destruction of the government, their plot runs too deep, and you don’t have the time to do that needing to save the world and all. I will leave this section with a quote from the conspiracy member. “The queen birthed three until she died”

It is now time to connect this post to my second statement in my title “and a direct take of racism”. As I play games, I find that most racial topics in other games are ultimately hidden under the veil of allegory and metaphor, and when used right this could be even more powerful then just outright talking about it, but most don’t use this to its advantage. For example, a personal favorite dragon age. Tell me how the hell the mage circle makes sense. What are the sub-factions (Fraternities as they are called in the game) in the circle such as Loyalists, etc (Watch someone who understands the lore read this post a response clearly and concisely and invalidates this example). Arcanum is refreshing because it talks about the innate classism of races, a systemic prejudice of race. Other buzzwords. That is why I chose to talk about this. (Arcanum isn’t even my favorite game, Oblivion better)

[onlycosmere]

Amazing! How does it feel going from tumblr fanartist to having news articles being written about projects you worked on in an official capacity for the same fandom?

(Not to imply you stopped posting fanart on tumblr)

The Kickstarter goes live tomorrow!

When Brandon Sanderson began working with Brotherwise Games on the first adventure for The Stormlight Roleplaying Game, he considered how it could help him fix holes in the narrative of his bestselling fantasy series. He settled on a mystery from the first Stormlight Archive book, The Way of Kings, that will have big implications for the fifth book in the series, Wind and Truth, which will be released in December.

The Stormlight Archive is set on the planet Roshar, where 10 heroes known as Heralds spent millenia protecting humanity with the help of highly magical swords dubbed Honorblades. All of them abandoned their duties except Taln, the Herald of the Common Man. Despite Taln’s best efforts, the forces of the vengeful god Odium have returned. Taln was left maddened by his ordeal and soon after he first appears in the books, his Honorblade goes missing. Its whereabouts remain unknown.

“The adventure is answering that question,” Sanderson told Polygon. “What happened? Where did it go? What’s going on? And you get to be part of the story. We were looking for an adventure you could do that would intersect with the canon of the books in an interesting way, and allow you to fill in a hole yourself.”

The Kickstarter for the d20-based game goes live on Aug. 6 along with a beta preview of the rules and a first level adventure meant to walk players and game masters through the setting and core mechanics. The hardcover Stonewalkers Adventure, where players encounter Taln and learn what happened to his honorblade, will be released in 2025 along with the Stormlight Roleplaying Game Handbook and World Guide.

...

Players will hunt for Taln’s honorblade across Roshar, from the Shattered Plains where much of The Way of Kings is set, to the magical forest of the goddess Cultivation, where bold souls can receive both a boon and a curse. There are a mix of dungeon crawls, puzzles, chase scenes and prison breaks. As they choose how to approach the problems they face, player characters will be able to attract the attention of spren, spirit-like beings who can bond with like-minded people to bestow them with incredible abilities. Completing the mission can allow them to join the newly re-founded ancient order known as the Knights Radiant.

...

The PCs can meet major antagonists from the books, including the twisted Herald of Justice Nale and the traitorous General Meridas Amaram, and learn how the talking sword Nightblood first featured in Sanderson’s 2009 book Warbreaker wound up on Roshar. As they move through key moments from the series, like the emergence of a raging storm that brings Odium’s most powerful lieutenants back to the world, Sanderson welcomes players to reshape his narrative.

...

“There’s a lot of cultural details being filled in, but at the same time, we dig a little bit further into what each order of Radiants’ oaths, spren, and motivations are,” Sanderson said. “There’s some new stuff there that I think fans will really enjoy.”

[1sneakysquid]

Going live with some old school pc gaming- Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. Come hang out and check out this fun 90's RPG.

[shuunnico]

You like rpgs. Do you recommend any games like baldurs gate 3?

Absolutely. I'll assume you mean CRPGs and not RPGs in general.

Computer Roleplaying Games (CRPGs) refers to a style and genre of game that BG3 follows. Some have started calling CRPGs "Classic RPGs" instead. CRPGs are typically identified by an isometric, top down view style, a heavy focus on story and exploration.

I'm going to split my list it three main categories based on accessibility factors. These factors include the amount of reading involved, the depth of mechanics and the level of abstraction/math required.

Easy Entry Level

Baldur's Gate 3 - 2023 - Larian Studios. The current gold star for easy entry CRPGs. Exceptional graphics, every character voice acted, very little reading and fairly straightforward mechanics and concepts.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 DE- 2017 - Larian Studios. This is basically a less polished, more complex version of BG3 and made by the same studio.

Disco Elysium, Final Cut - 2019 - ZA/UM. Disco Elysium is a detective/social focus game that dives into heavy narrative concepts. Failing rolls is just as viable for the story as succeeding them, making the game's mechanics take a backseat to story. However, there is a lot of reading and that may be a barrier to entry.

Tyranny - 2016 - Obsidian Entertainment. A game about being evil, it's mechanically pretty simple, but there's a fair bit of jank due to it's low budget, and the game ends on a cliffhanger, but it's story is very solid.

Mid Entry Level

Wasteland 3 - 2020 - inExile Entertainment. The long awaited third installment of the Wasteland franchise and significantly less complex than its predecessors. Post apocalyptic, frozen Colorado, grim reality and goofy ideas. This is the franchise that originally inspired Fallout.

Shadowrun: Dragonfall DC/ Shadowrun: Hong Kong EE - 2014/2015 - Harebrained Schemes. Set in the Fantasy/Cyberpunk hybrid setting of Shadowrun. Fair bit of reading, but the game's mechanics are relatively easy to grasp and don't require a lot of math. Always play Dragonfall before Hong Kong.

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire - 2018 - Obsidian Entertainment. A unique setting, exploring a fictional parallel to the age of piracy. Very wordy (but a lot is voice acted), with a lot of world building, but well worth engaging with. The first game, Pillars of Eternity, is less accessible, but still good.

Kingmaker/Wrath of the Righteous/Rogue Trader - 2020/2022/2023 - Owlcat Games. Owlcat adapts existing systems into CRPGs, like how BG3 is an adaption of DnD 5e. Do not be fooled, these games are where you start hitting a lot of complexity, a lot of math and a lot potential to damage your playthroughs by accident. This is where things start to get difficult.

Difficult Entry Level

Baldur's Gate 1/2 - Bioware - 1998/2000. The prequels to BG3, these games use an older, much more complex version of DnD's rules. Be prepared for a lot of reading and complex mechanics, but you'll be rewarded with some amazing storytelling.

Planescape Torment - Interplay - 1999. Another game using DnD's older mechanics, Planescape is a completely different beast from BG3. Many consider this series mechanically inferior to the Baldur's Gate franchise, but with better storytelling and world building to compensate.

Fallout 1/2 - 1997/1998 - Interplay/Black Isle. One of the most widely known game franchises started as an isometric CRPG. Universally considered more complex, rewarding and deeper than the Bethesda portion of the franchise, you'll need some experience to get into them, but you'll be happy you did.

Games I haven't played but I've heard good things of:

Wasteland 2, DC - 2015 - inExile

Torment: Tides Of Numenera - 2017 - inExile

Neverwinter Nights - 2002 - Bioware

Arcanum - 2001 - Troika Games

Ultima 7 Part 1/Part 2 - 1992/1993 - Origin Systems

Icewind Dale - 2000 - Black Isle Studio

[leather-snow]

psssst. hey. you know what would be a fun thing to do today? try out my game horror arcanum, a solo rpg where you grab a tarot deck & some dice and play through a lil slasher movie. it's pay what you want so you can grab it for free 👀

[arcanumlegio]

[rainbowgod666]

A few oddities on the funny floating island of the tumbler

Over 65% of spells are related to henital punishments

@the-gnomish-bastard's tower: scanning and FreeCam didnt show any sort of system to move the island so yeah, his "dont fuck with the tower" makes sense because theres nothing to fuck with. However: the tunnel leading to his horde (the one with anachronistic dragons due to yours truly) is... not the only one. Theres a second tunnel leading into the gnome's Personal Piggy Bank and let me tell you. That shit is long and worrying, there are NO RATS in THAT tunnel.

@official-megumin: HER HOUSE IS CUP SHAPED AND THE ROOF IS HER HAT (squeals like a fucking anime girl)

Most of the island is... empty. Trees trees trees and maybe some critters but everything else is accessible through clearly mapped portals. Deep Reality Analitic Scanning yielded NOTHING either when the island was lifted, currently, or when itsgoing to be destroyed. Which means its either Like That From Before The Wizards, or Faunocide.

The area around my base (which is basically in a crater) is even MORE uninhabited. I tried it all: the rats, the gnome's fungus, ants... it doesnt "stick".

Turns out im immune to fucking chronological manipulation. Maybe i added "chronosapien bullshit" to my splicing and just... did not remember??? Huh.

On that note, this explains why lancer rpg's whole "lich licenses are retroactive" thing doesnt work on me. Cool huh.

Turns out this place is a few thousand miles off the USA east coast. Neat.

Internet and cable work here, but piracy is still based

I heard of "revolutionaries", what i dont get of them is why their boss looks REALLY similar to Sabo from one piece

Found the bowl of the original stew arcanum: someone stole it and used high-dimensionality to hide it... RIGHT where @the-illegal-wizard-council put their access. Good thing i have more dimensions than inches on my di

Theres a shrine to @nyancrimew. For some reason. I dont know but it looks cool. Left some flowers there cause it felt like the right thing to do. Idk

Theres a strange version of american wood bamboo (a thing that exists but isnt called like that) but metallic growing on the southeast side, and analysis shows that those are... caused by my presence. Whoops.

I saw TF2 POOTIS ENGAGE HEAVY in the forest. Not fucking with that

There is a portal (which didnt exist until my arrival so its probably some kinda fracture in spacetime) that apparently shows something like the future. I saw a bunch of wizardblr users crucifed and my literal corpse on a shining marble throne. Whats up with that huh?

The Fungus fears me. Which is dumb cause dude im not gonna use all of you for rice you dumb fuck-

Someone owns a giant rooster simply called "Mr.Cock". Not sure why tho... considering the name arrived to the new owner in a dream

[ifeelgeek]

NOVEDADES ROLERAS

FOROS NUEVOS (desde que actualizamos) ¡Nos alegra ver que ya esten aquí, les deseamos todo el éxito!

• Savage Garden : Sobrenatural : Año 1837 - Pb real • Next Life Online : Realidad virtual de fantasía - pb animado • Jujutsu Kaisen You are my special z : Anime - pb animado • Golden Blood : Canción de Hielo y Fuego - pb real • Fragments of the Masks : Sobrenatural - pb animado • Blinding Dreams : Realista - pb real • Synnara rpg : Sobrenatural - Pb animado • Pokemon Astria : Pokemon - Pb animado • Yugitest : Reapertura • Harry Potter Head

CAMBIOS Y ACTUALIZACIONES ¡No se pierdan las novedades!

• Yu gi test : Cambio de Skin • Sempiternus : Qué linda está la mañana En vengo a saludarte Venimos todos con gusto Y placer a felicitarte ♪ ¡Felices 2 añitos! • The cosmos Aftermath : ¡Que los cumplas feliz, Que los cumplas feliz , Que los cumplas The cosmos aftermath Que los cumplas feliz! ♪ • Arcanum Legio : ¡Feliz, feliz en tu día amiguito que dios y mr shadow te bendigan, que reine el rol en tu vida y que cumplas muchos más más ! • God Save the king : ¡Feliz feliz en tu día ójala que no te pise un tranvía que no te den torta podrida y que Sí cumplas muchos más! • Kasiopea Valerian : ¡FELICIDADES POR ESOS 7 AÑOS!

TRAMAS ¡Que viva el rol!

• Rails of Cosmos : Inscripción a la trama global hasta el 6 de octubre • Tokyo Revengers rol : Inscripción a la trama global hasta el día 22/09 ¡Corre!

FOROS PRÓXIMOS ¡Esperamos que lleguen pronto y les vaya de maravilla!

Marvel Eden : Superheroes - Seguir para conseguir los chimichangas y conocer más del proyecto @marveleden The greatest : Realista - 22/09 se abren sus reservas de fcs - @thegreatestrp The spiral Dance Rpg : 28/09 REAPERTURA @thespiraldancerpg Star Wars Dawn of the galaxy : Ciencia ficción - Reservas abiertas - @dawnofthegalaxy Neidan : Foro de tématica yuri / Girls Love : Reservas abiertas - @neidanrol

Harold Harrison : Community College - pb real - ¡Abre hoy! @haroldharrisoncollege-rpg

[soulmuppet]

THE BANDOLIER BULLET-EATER AND HOLSTER ARCANUM by Linda Codega

One of the Tales of the Barren, a series of hooks and adventures - or in this case MAGICAL BULLETS - by various writers for Inevitable, our Arthurian Western TTRPG.