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Arcadia… What!?

Arcadia Temebra box

Arcadia… What!?

Prelude

Four an’ a half years ago in a pub far, far away…

Four penniless writers around a wooden table, towering over their pints of strong dark ale.
“We’re going to starve”, said the blue-eyed guy. “We need to find a gold mine!”
“I believe they are all already found” said the black-beard guy. “And occupied.”
“I didn’t mean it literary, for Christ’s sake! That’s exactly why your poetry sucks!”
“Like your prose is any better!”
Brown-haired guy giggled. The blue-eyed guy inhaled, ready to shoot back.
“I think we could make a board game and put it on  Kickstarter.” Interruption came from the brown-eyed girl.
“A board game?! Are you serious? How we’re gonna make it? Have any of you ever played board games seriously, like every weekend? I have! And I believe half of you lot don’t know a thing about board games”, said the black-beard guy.
The blue-eyed guy asked the brown-eyed girl: “Is there any money in it? I’m sick working for nothing!”
“What about fame and glory?” she replied.
“That’ll do it.”

We’re not so sure about fame and glory but, four an’ a half years later, we are now absolutely sure that creating a board game was one of the best and funniest rides of our lives…

WE PROUDLY PRESENT ARCADIA TENEBRA!

What is Arcadia Tenebra?

Arcadia Tenebra is a heavily story driven mystery adventure RPG board game in which every player assumes a role of investigator and tries to stop a serial killer before The Blood Moon rises.

When is Arcadia Tenebra?

The story is set in the late 19th century. It is the age of new technological wonders and the rise of the industrial revolution. Finally free from the mythical Dark Age shackles,  human mind now gives birth to a new worldview: rationalism! Steam machines, electrical power, coal, oil, mass production, public transportation, chemistry, vaccines, national states, democracy, colonialism…  The setting stones of today’s modern world. It’s is a turbulent time where new states are emerging upon the ashes of fallen empires, where the promises of better world seem at hand. However, the forces of old age don’t give up just yet.

Where is that Arcadia Tenebra?

Arcadia Tenebra is a fictional province of Hungarian-Austrian Empire somewhere in a south-eastern Europe, a region commonly known today as Balkan Peninsula.

At the time, north-western Balkan – which is where  Arcadia Tenebra actually takes place – was a part of The Hungarian-Austrian Empire or the so called Dual Monarchy. In a way, this empire was a prototype for European Union. Basically, it was a constitutional union of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, along with several half-autonomous regions, including the Kingdom of Croatia. Not something very common at the time. The crown prince Franz Ferdinand had in mind many reforms but, like many other individuals in human history who were slightly ahead of their time, he got assassinated. That led straight into the First Great War. You know the rest: the unfair treatment of surrendered Germany in Versailles, the rise of Nazism, World War Two, Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of European Union, Brexit, Trump and voila: the post-truth world is here!

These are historical facts but, as it turns out, we’re more prone to fiction, which lead us to…

What can I expect in Arcadia Tenebra?

Arcadia Tenebra board game is not exactly historically accurate. In brief, it is partially inspired by history and then fictionally upgraded, with a twist of absurd and dark humor. That’s why players will meet genius Nikola Tesla (the guy that invented all the Edison’s patents, you heard of him, right? 🙂 ) and use some of his brilliant steam punk prototypes. Players can meet other famous characters, such as T-1800, half-man half-steam machine (or vice versa?), who roams Arcadian forests in search for some chick named Sarah Connor that no one never heard of.

As you can see, Arcadia Tenebra is an RPG board game with a bit of a weird streak. And this is not only because of its pop-culture references or its alternate history setting in a rather unusual part of the Europe – but because of its playable characters, too.

They are all antiheros.

That’s it.

Anyway, who wants to play another knight-in-shiny-armor who saves the world in the end – AGAIN???

Well, we certainly don’t. 🙂

If you loved Vanessa Ives, Rustin “Rust” Cohle, Lorraine Broughton, Rorcharch, Rick Deckard or Lisbeth Salander, to name a few, and secretly wanted to be more like them… Arcadia Tenebra welcomes you!

So, what’s to do in that Arcadia Tenebra?

You mean besides visiting Brothel, drinking local dark ale in Wolf’s Head, enjoying beautiful landscapes, chewing and kicking some asses around?

Well, the main plot is quite simple… Some maniac kills people and hangs mutilated bodies from the trees. You must find who that is and put a stop to his evil deeds.

To achieve that, you will explore Arcadia Tenebra by using your power, charm and wits. You will choose your path: either violent or peaceful one. Or both. You will follow the leads and collect clues, which are bits and pieces of a greater story and do so while Blood Moon is on the rise.

You will visit different places in Arcadia Tenebra to meet a variety of characters, trying to charm, intimidate or outsmart them in order to find out who the mysterious murderer is. Sometimes, you will break a safe, solve a riddle, pick a lock to collect a clue or fight a bear to earn trust. Sometimes you will need to pay for information and occasionally you will have to roleplay your way out.

While exploring Arcadia Tenebra and progressing through a story, you will get a broader picture of what is going on in the region, and you will unlock new options to boost your skills, or to trade for better equipment, or to gain new traits and companions.

It goes without mention: path is difficult, enemies are fierce, obstacles rise from both inside and outside… And, last but not least, the Fate in Arcadia Tenebra often has a sense of (dark) humor. 🙂

Are you willing to walk in antihero’s shoes and try to solve a crime and (maybe) save your soul?

Ok, I’m in! What now?

Subscribe to our newsletter, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and spread the good word. 🙂

We shall be update our web weekly, and once a month send a newsletter to notify you about further game developments. Soon we will go on Kickstarter and give our best to bring this project to players around the world. Also, all our subscribers will get timely notice enabling them to pick up one of our early bird pledges. 😉

Don’t miss it, adventurer!