Artesia Becomes RPG

Posted: Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Posted By: Shawn Patty

ARCHAIA STUDIOS PRESS TURNS ARTESIA INTO ROLEPLAYING GAME

Critically acclaimed and award-winning series to debut as RPG in December.

Archaia Studios Press (ASP) is pleased to announce that for the first time ever the award-winning graphic novel Artesia will come to life as a fully realized roleplaying game called Artesia: Adventures in The Known World. Based on ASP’s Artesia comic books and graphic novels, Artesia: Adventures in The Known World (ISBN: 1-932386-10-6, Stock# ASP1010, $29.95, 192 pages, full-color, 8.5" x 11") is slated for a December 2004 release. A sneak peak of the cover can be found here.

Fans of the graphic novels and of rich fantasy settings can now be a part of "the thinking man’s fantasy epic for the 21st century" [Source: Mike Bullock, www.brokenfrontier.com]. Using a modified and easy-to-use Fuzion-based roleplaying system as well as an adaptation of R. Talsorian Games’ LifePath character-generation system, Artesia: Adventures in The Known World takes players into the strife-riven realms of the Known World, where war and magic, fantasy and mysticism take center stage as religions, warlords and empires vie for power.

"The setting of the comic book Artesia actually began as a roleplaying game world," says Mark Smylie, creator of Artesia. "I think that’s one of the reasons that fantasy fans and gamers have responded so well to the comic, that they can sense that there’s a deeper world beyond the immediate one depicted in the book, a world with a complex history and cosmology. The RPG gives me a chance to more fully explain the mechanics of the world, and allows me to bring the setting back to its roots in gaming. You don’t have to read the comic to play the game, or vice versa, but I hope each will lead naturally to the other."

Included in Artesia: Adventures in The Known World:
**Expansive character generation rules adapting RTG’s LifePath system, including birth omens, star signs, and divine and heroic lineages.
**Rules for talents and abilities accessible to characters through the Arcana, the Tarot-like system representing The Known World’s archetypal paths of power and the foundation of a unique system of experience, allowing game rewards for virtually all types of character actions.
**Rules for the use of hermetic, folk and divine magic, along with alchemy and astrology.
**Explanations on the interactions between the divine and supernatural realms (including rules for player characters’ own hero cults and ascension).
**Full-color interiors, including fully painted art by Mark Smylie, whose illustrations have appeared in works by Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf, and AEG.

Supplements to Artesia: Adventures in The Known World are planned with the first one, Artesia: The Known World Sourcebook, scheduled for March 2005.

ABOUT ARCHAIA STUDIOS PRESS
Mark Smylie founded Archaia Studios Press (ASP) in 2002 as the home for his epic fantasy comic book, Artesia. Artesia was first published by Sirius Entertainment beginning in 1999 and was followed by the sequel series Artesia Afield. Artesia Afire, the third installment in the Book of Dooms, is the most recent storyline and the first one published under the ASP label. Each series has been published by ASP in trade paperback formats [Artesia (ISBN: 1-932386-00-9, $24.95); Artesia Afield (ISBN: 1-932386-02-5, $24.95); Artesia Afire (ISBN: 1-932386-08-4, $24.95)]. The next installment, Artesia Besieged, is slated for a spring 2005 release.

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