Today we want to show you our review of Arcana Familia, the exoteric cyberpunk rpg with an intimistic soul. It must not be easy, with so many projects on the crowfounding’s websites, to reach the goal of editing, especially when there isn’t a high-sounding names behind. I was therefore happy to see that Arcana Familia, by a Game of Nerds, will reach the gamers community in a new revised and correct guise, with Walter Brocca‘s great artworks.
The game written and developed by Aurora Torchia and Marco Calesella, is available on the official website at a cost of € 14.00 in digital format and € 49.00 in the physical version.
The goal, therefore, with this campaign that ended successfully, was to create a new edition also in a printed version. In order to reach a wider audience. However let’s analyze this product, which will be soon in the hands of the backers. Arcana Familia is a game that blows you away, in a good way. Not only for the system, but also (and mostly) for the setting. Let’s see what this revised and corrected version contains.
Review of the Arcana Familia Setting
Arcana Familia‘s calendar has replaced our AD with the acronym AA, which stands for After Advent or the advent of The One Who Has Many Names which represents the year 0 AA.
It’s the 153 AA: a version of our future not so difficult to imagine. Everything is already decided. Men live their lives in vertical cities of glass and steel, lulled by alchemical technology in apparent order.
Many tensions have led the world as we know it to progressively annihilate the smaller nations, crushed by economic speculation rather than a real war. Now, after more than a century from these unfortunate events, there is the Earth Union which, despite the name, includes only the old Europe and the whole North America.
An Enlightened King?
Under the leadership of Basileo, absolute and apparently immortal monarch, the confederation of states has only one religion, that of The One Who Has Many Names; this is the god who descended on Earth to offer humanity peace and tranquillity in exchange for the possibility to determining their own destiny.
The Order of Royal Art is its organized religion and its ministers, called Alchemists, are the perfect marriage between priests and scientists. These are men and women who control the lives of the rest of the population, guaranteeing their well-being and peace thanks to science mixed with theology.
The rest of the world outside the Earth Union is divided. The City, a region that includes the territories that were once Japan and Korea, lives in a neverending night because one day all lights went out and never came back on. Libra covers the entire African continent and it’s a holy land, consecrated to the Many Names. Violence and financial speculation are banished here. The Sentient, sentient machines called the First Sons by the Order, make sure that the laws are respected. India is the land of wonders where everybody is rich and spends his life hanging out with friends and having fun.
Strange Pacts and Dangerous Ties
Who are the Lost Children and who are the Aos? What is the Exchange that binds them? A Lost Child is a human being who, marginalized and rebellious, has seen the falsity of the world; he, therefore, decided to look beyond the calm and order offered by Basileo and the Earth Union. Lost Children are the ones who bargained an Exchange with an Aos, the contract with a creature that comes from a non-place, Wonderland, the sentient computer network.
Wonderland is a kingdom inaccessible to human beings unless they are in contact with the Nameless, the artificial intelligence that moves this bizarre and imaginative kingdom, divinity of Aos and Lost Children. .
This place grants power to bend reality and realize the fantasies it contains starting with its inhabitants; in fact these ones, the Aos, have no other way to get in touch with our world than through a Lost Child.
In this future, distant and very close at the same time, players can choose to play two different types of characters: Lost Children or Aos, closely interconnected by a pact that makes the first guests and the second symbiontes or, in another way of thinking, parasites.
The Exchange
This pact is the Exchange, an agreement between an Aos and a Lost Child that grants the latter immortality and a series of undeniable advantages like strength and speed out of the ordinary, as well as a fragment of Aos power so that the human can perform actions that go beyond natural limits.
In return, the Lost Child pays a price in blood; in fact, every time he activates a power granted by the Aos, a part of his blood is absorbed by Wonderland.
Each Aos is a creature in its own right and it is almost impossible to understand if they have common motives or goals as a whole or if eachvone works only for its own interests.
What we know is they are divided into extended “families” called Dynasties, all engaged in a mystical and political war that even the Lost Children struggle to understand; the only feature that all of them seem to have in common is an incompatibility with human technology.
Above this Exchange is the Arcana Familia, a secret organization that is part, at least nominally, of the army under the direct command of Basileo. A sort of paramilitary group that deals with bringing together, creating, and keeping under control all the Lost Children and their respective Aos.
The main seat of the Arcana Familia is London inside the Cathedral of St. Paul, but there are other smaller headquarters scattered for the whole Earth Union. It is interesting to note that there are no Lost Children registered outside the Earth Union, thus concentrating, on the one hand, much of the game in this region.
Arcana Familia and Duality
This relationship between Lost Child and Aos is somewhat reminiscent of the human/monster duality of Vampires. The manual proposes several approaches to manage this dynamic. In my opinion, the most interesting one is playing the Aos and its connected Lost Child by two different players. Arcana Familia thus allows to create interesting dynamics within the group, guaranteeing versatility and an interchange that is difficult to find in other games.
The development of the relationship given by the Exchange is one of the games main features. The interests of Aos and Lost Children can diverge significantly, but compromises must be reached in order to continue the plots.
Finally, the Aos, although nominally have complete control over the capacities and development of the Lost Children, still depend on them to interact with the material world.
As can be seen from this review, even in Arcana Familia, like in other games with similar theme, a certain level of depth is assumed in the plots and interactions at the table.
Characters in Arcana Familia
Therefore in Arcana Familia it’s possible to play two types of characters: the Lost Children and the Aos. Both types have a dedicated sheet that has as a preponderant part of the chosen role. Both sheets are graphically and conceptually very simple as well as being mirrored.
The player who plays a Lost Child will also have the management of another player’s AOS thus making the relationship dual. Charachter sheets are aesthetically very essential, also in this case conveying how refinement and depth are to be sought beyond mere scores.
The System
Proceeding in the review, the Arcana Familia system is based on Blackjack; the players use a deck of poker cards called the Destiny Deck in place of dice.
A test whether it be a skill check or a fight is divided into several phases:
- The Affirmation: The player declares the action and the GM indicates which Attributes and Skills should be considered for the test as well as the difficulty.
- Shuffle and Initial Draw: the deck is shuffled and the top two cards are drawn randomly.
- Next draw: one at a time as many cards are drawn as determined by the Attributes until the sum equals or exceeds the degree of difficulty without exceeding 21.
The choice to abandon the dice certainly gives the game dynamics a particular flavor. However, I had the impression that this choice is not an advantage for the immediacy of the results of the tests.
Conclusions of the Rewiev of Arcana Familia
As can be seen from this review, Arcana Familia is an interesting game. I hope it will not go unnoticed in the ever-growing multitudes of the most well-known productions.
Even if, in my opinion, the game system is a bit slow, I recommend that you download the quickstart and give a chance to a setting that can offer intense moments and interesting twists.