Roleplaying a Solo Campaign for Artesia: Adventures in the Known World
Inspired by other wonderful Actual Play threads, I dug out my old copy of the Mythic Game Master Emulator in order to run a solo campaign myself. In my search for an adequate RPG to do so, I eventually decided on Artesia: Adventures in the Known World, created by author/comic artist Mark Smylie. So far, three comic collections, two novels, one RPG, one adventure, and one sourcebook have been published for the setting of Artesia, the Known World.
- Artesia has a strong artistic vision and is made coherent by a singular art style.
- History, cultures, and religions in Artesia feel real and nuanced.
- Artesia offers an in-depth setting that I can sink my teeth into. It also avoids common unplausible fantasy tropes, like gigantic landmasses or millennia of cultural stagnancy.
- Artesia is anthropocenric. There are no elves, dwarves etc. in the setting. There is an Otherworld with spirits and deities however.
- Artesia doesn’t shy away from adult themes, such as sexuality.
I want to know more about the setting and Artesia: Adventures in the Known World!
You can purchase the RPG Artesia: Adventures in the Known World, the adventure The Last Barrow, the historical sourcebook Historiae Mundi, the comics Artesia, Artesia Afield, and Artesia Afire, and the novels The Barrow and Black
Heart here (DriveThruRPG).
Mark has a Patreon page where he releases new content for the Known World and posts artwork from other projects.
Mark's old website for the Known World: The Sword & Barrow
This is a compilation of Mark's answers from the Q&A threads on Reddit (PDF, 152 pages).
Why do I think that Artesia: Adventures in the Known World is a good fit for solo RPGing?
- I really love the setting in all its incarnations, whether as a comic book, as a roleplaying setting, or as a novel. Unfortunately, in my experience, the RPG’s elaborate setting and involved character generation make the game a tough sell for most groups. Moreover, the crunchiness of the rules further discourages potential players. To put it succinctly, there’s an extremely low likelihood that I will get to play or run Artesia in an actual group.
- With its super elaborate lifepath character generation, its advancement system based on the Arcana, as well as all its detailed subsystems, I feel that the game is well-suited for a ‘going with the flow’ type of playstyle.
- Artesia is not exactly a balanced game. Depending on lineages, social level and a few other random rolls, starting characters can vary in their basic competence tremendously. Unchecked magic use can unhinge a group in favor of one PC. In a group, this can lead to a lot of frustration. In a solo campaign, on the other hand, I do not have to pay attention to that. In fact, I can follow my natural preference for highly talented characters with impunity and it’s actually supported by the game itself! 😁 (So, you will notice that my PC is quite powerful. This is not unprecedented, however, considering the titular heroine.)
In order to give the campaign more ‘space’ to breathe (independent from any canon plot), the game is set in the year i1453 (Imperial Avellan calendar), that is, 18 years before the events of the comics.
Also: If you are a fan of the RPG, please visit this dedicated Reddit, this fan Discord server, or this official Discord server to keep the flame alive!
Finally, two short disclaimers:
I am not a native English speaker, so I am sure there will be a lot of awkward phrasing, grammar mistakes, and so on. Please bear with me.
This campaign has seen several hiatuses and it's going very slowly. There are many reasons for that, but I have never abandoned the campaign altogether. 😊
House Rules
After a few previous attempts to run Artesia: Adventures in the Known World as well as after having read Mark’s novels, comics and other Known World content (thereby getting a clearer idea how the setting is supposed to look like from the perspective of the Middle Kingdoms), I established a few house rules:
They can be found here (PDF).
Moreover, I will generally override random dice results that would kill the PC. (Artesia characters are a lot of work to create!)
Debilitating effects, such as grievous wounds and possibly resulting disabilities, are generally fine however.
How to read the Actual Play scenes:
Mechanics (and occasional OOC comments) are colored brown.
OOC comments are cursive.
Important mechanical bits are bold.
Exceptional answers go like ! ← that.
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