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.)

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.

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.

Fantastic setting. Wrong choice of rule system.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A great role playing book that has gone out of print. The seller kept this one in good condition too. Plus it arrived on time.

I have yet to actually read any of the comic books this RPG is based on, but this book is all you need to play the RPG. The book contains a tremendous amount of detailed information about the dramatic history of the Known World, which is so real-sounding it's hard to believe Mark Smylie was able to come up with this stuff on his own. The game uses a unique kind of experience system based on Tarot-like paths of decision making. The gameplay is based on the Fuzion system, which I dislike, but the game makes up for the system's shortcomings with a wealth of new systems for spells, enchantments, inscriptions (weird runes of power), potions, alchemy (not the same thing), divination, and religious invocations. There's also some really cool options available for interacting with the afterlife, and the game gives an interesting way for parents to pass on their abilities to their children. Making a character is a detailed and fulfilling process. The combat system is realistic and extremely lethal when more than bare fists are involved. Get this game if you like to roleplay deep characters.

The book even used is great. But it's damaged and no one stated this in the condition section. It took a spill and ripped the backing from the leaflets sometime ago. This is a death sentence for the book. And one of my biggest issues with used book store sellers who pass the damaged product on to the consumer without warning. But the depth and richness of the setting is almost mind breaking. It's similar to games like talislanta and eclipse phase in it's cultural content. That will take hour of study to Easley run a game without referring back to the book. I've enjoyed the engagement of this IP. Even with the knowledge of the book being damaged and so old I can replace it. It's wounded and I'll nurse it till the end. At which point I'll cherish it's loss. I waited over 15 years to read it and I wasn't disappointed.

Este escenario de campaña reune, en un solo y francamente magnífico volumen, toda la información necesaria para adentrarse en el "Mundo Conocido" de los comics homónimos obra de Mark Smylie. Si bien el manual de campaña emplea el sistema Fuzion TM, se puede adaptar sin mayor dificultad a cualquier otro sistema de juego. La información contenida en este manual es, sencillamente, abrumadora, por lo que podemos ahorrarnos la necesidad de ampliar datos comprando una infinita cantidad de sumplementos, cosa ahora tan de moda en este mundillo. A la gran cantidad de datos y el atractivo de este mundo de juego (si lo tuyo es la fantasía de corte histórico no te lo puedes perder), hay que añadir que en el apartado gráfico Artesia es, sencillamente, genial. Una delicia para los ojos.
Lo dicho, si estás interesado en adentrarte en una ambientación de baja fantasía, con numerosas referencias al mundo clásico, y encima quieres disfrutar visualmente, "Artesia: Adventures in the Known World" es una opción que debes de tener en cuenta.