Welcome to Atlantis!

This is The Arcanum, the main rulebook for Stephen Michael Sechi and Vernie Taylor’s 1984 derivative D&D RPG set in Atlantis before its sinking (this is the 1985 revision).

The Atlantis setting was born out of Bard Games first trio of books – the Compleat Alchemist, Compleat Adventurer and Compleat Spell Caster (so named because of the early support the publisher got from the famed Compleat Strategist store in New York City). Sechi combined the best material from these three books into The Arcanaum, The Lexicon and The Bestiary (the latter two I don’t own, alas).

As I mentioned, it is essentially a generic D&D hack, borrowing a good amount of DNA from David Hargrave’s Arduin Trilogy. The big mechanical difference that separates Atlantis from D&D is the skill system and the point-based character creation. That’s in line with much of what was on the market at the time – everyone, it seemed, was creating “generic” RPG material that was bought and sold with the expectation it would be bolted on to existing homebrew D&D campaigns.

What’s interesting about Atlantis is the setting. It is…strange. A lot of thought went into the idea of Atlantis before the fall, its magic systems and the sorts of people who lived there – the latter producing over 30 different character classes. That quirkiness, and Atlantis’ location in our world, makes the inclusion of typical fantasy races like Elves and Dwarves feel a bit jarring.

Sechi must have thought so, too, judging from his next RPG. Atlantis would shortly form the foundation for something infinitely more unique…