The Atlantis Trilogy
Cover for The Arcanum (1st edition)
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| Designer(s) | Stephan Michael Sechi & Vernie Taylor |
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| System(s) | Custom, Omni System |
The Arcanum is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) originally published by Bard Games, set in the ancient world before Atlantis sunk.
The Arcanum was one of the many fantasy RPG games that followed the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons RPG. However, instead of featuring a fictitious world, Arcanum is based in a pseudo-historical version of the real world and features historical mythology and creatures from actual myth, such as hantu, bakru, alastor, bat horin, korupiru, and balaha.
The world setting is Earth, but in a fictionalized Antediluvian Age (a quasi-historical/mythical interpretation of the ancient past).
The geographic regions and real-world influences are: 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 origin of both the "Complete Series" and eventual "Atlantean Trilogy" came out of a group of friends, including Vernie "Butch" Taylor, Steve Cordovano, and dungeon master Stephen Michael Sechi, who were somewhat incessant D&D/FRP gamers in the early 1980s. This little group also had a penchant for fantasy/sci-fi literature, world mythology, and crypto-zoology, as well as mysticism and the occult. Wanting to expand the magic system and player options available in the FRP games of the time while also minimizing game complexity, they experimented with new and various ideas in their own game play. This culminated in the Arcanum/Atlantean game system which included the introduction of schools of magic and added character classes and monsters
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