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Artesia

Artesia: Adventures in the Known World

mark smylie

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The award-winning graphic novel Artesia comes to life in the Adventures in the Known World RPG, using a modified and easy-to-use Fuzion-based roleplaying system to plunge players into the strife-riven realms of the Known World, from the Warring Citadels of the Daragjan Highlands to the never-ending feud between the Sun Court of Illia and the Phoenix Court of the Empire of Thessid-Gola. Includes an expansive adaptation of R. Talsorian Games' LifePath character-generation system including birth omens, star signs and divine and heroic lineages, and 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 an unique system of experience, allowing game rewards for virtually all types of character actions.

352 pages, Hardcover

First published December 14,2005
Series
Artesia

This edition

Format
352 pages, Hardcover
Published
December 14, 2005 by Archaia
ISBN
9781932386103
ASIN
1932386106
Language
English

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About the author

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mark smylie

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While The Barrow marks his first published prose novel, Mark Smylie has worked as a writer, illustrator, editor, and publisher for over a decade.

His epic military fantasy comic book, Artesia, was first published by Sirius Entertainment in 1999, and then later by Archaia, a publishing company that he founded. He was nominated for the Russ Manning Award for Best Newcomer in 1999, and for an Eisner Award for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition in 2001. His illustrations have appeared in works from Wizards of the Coast (for Dungeons & Dragons), White Wolf (for Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse), Brigand Publishing (for Avlis), Kobold Quarterly, and collectible card games from AEG (L5R and Warlords). He contributed a short story to the Eisner-Award winning Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard anthology; designed and illustrated a roleplaying game based on Artesia that won the Origins Award for Role-Playing Game of 2006, three Indie RPG Awards, and was nominated for six ENnies; and contributed an essay on Artesia and religion to Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books & Graphic Novels, published by Continuum International Publishing.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 16 votes)
5 stars
6(38%)
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5(31%)
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5(31%)
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16 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Geyorge
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 17,2025
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This book got six ENNie Nominations, including Best Art, Interior; Best Production Value; Best Writing; Best Campaign Setting/Setting Supplement; Best Game; and Best Product. Written and illustrated by Mark Smylie, this book in the crown jewel of my TTRPG collection.

The world building is staggering, and the details of the setting is amazing. No wonder it got the Origins Award Winner for 2005 RPG of the year.

The system is based on Mike Pondsmith's Fuzion system and Lifepath system (a second edition is coming soon.)


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cambrei
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 17,2025
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Fantastic art from the stories.
The world history is well presented.
The game system is rich and playable.
I really like the tarot based "XP" awards system.
The combat system was good.
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Borealiz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 17,2025
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My spouse is into comic books and because I am not the caped superhero type, got this for me to try. This is a graphic novel with great art. The non-primary characters and wars are a little bit difficult to keep track but the lead female character has very interesting and unique dimensions.
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Stefanbishopton
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 17,2025
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Having read the comics, I loved this game book. It provides a wealth of information, both current to the storyline and of ages past. The experience system rewards characters for doing significant things in-game, providing experience that can be spent to improve in the vein of what was done, allowing organic growth of charaters (i.e., "I seduced the countess to achieve our goal, which gained experience points in Lovers, allowing me to improve my looks, my Seduction skill, or one of my appearance/personality feats").

The magic system is VERY free form while channeling genre appropriate actions. The GM will need to pay attention as high levels of magical skill can get mighty powerful.
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eleven_exists
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 20,2025
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I had thought that the days of all inclusive rule books had long passed. Most companies seem to focus on grinding out book after book of questionable quality, milking their product for all it's worth. But this book is an example of what should be the gold standard. Not only does it provide a setting with more depth then other games achieve after decades of dubious supplemental materials, and provide  simple, working rules, to cover all aspects of the game, but it's a joy to just page through it. Not just the wonderful illustrations and maps, but even the layout is heads and sholders above it's "main stream" rivials.
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floralz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 20,2025
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Se cercate un gioco stile d&d 3.5, 4.0 o pathfinder, non avete fatto una buona scelta.

Il libro è tutto a colori con disegni molto ben fatti ovunque.
L'ambientazione è molto ben descritta e se conoscete il fumetto ne sarete soddisfatti, anche perchè l'autore è lo stesso.
Il sistema è un Fuzion, derivato da Interlock di Cyberpunk, costumizzato a dovere, tanto da superare qualsiasi perplessità avessi sulle regole generiche.
Contiene inoltre un sistema di generazione dei background dei Pg molto carino e che aiuta molto ad arricchire il gioco.
Altra parte molto interessante sono i tarocchi usati come "percorsi di vita" che stimolano il giocatore a fare gioco di interpretazione.

Il sistema di combattimento è molto dettagliato e ad alto tasso di mortalità, per es. consente di rispondere a un attacco di arma bianca con un disarm difensivo (e sinceramente non mi dispiace come possibilità).

Forse la meccanica può essere un po' lenta ma di sicuro vi darà soddisfazione.

Aggiungo che il prezzo è molto conveniente.
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r3vboss
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 20,2025
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There are a lot of things to be said about this book. It's a lavish and sumptuous offering for both Artesia fans and RPG fans alike. The breadth of information about our beloved Artesia, and the world she occupies is staggering and entertaining. The RPG aspects of the book have interesting mechanics and character generation is both fun and engrossing. The aspect I love most about it, is as a graphic designer it is wonderfully designed. As a book it is a finely crafted work of art. You can tell that thought and care was put into every aspect of its production. Very well done. Mark has done an outstanding job and I wish other companies would follow his lead. The world could use more RPG prouducts of this caliber.
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