''Atlantis'' is a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

(RPG) originally published by

Bard Games Bard Games was an American game company that produced role-playing games and game supplements. Products Bard Games was formed in 1982 by Steven Cordovano, Vernie Taylor and Stephan Michael Sechi, who each put up $600. Their intention was to marke ...

, set in the ancient world before Atlantis sank. It first consisted of three books: '' The Arcanum'', '' The Lexicon'', and '' The Bestiary'', and for this reason was originally called ''The Atlantean Trilogy'' or ''The Atlantis Trilogy''. ''Atlantis'' was one of the many fantasy RPGs that followed the rise of the popular '' Dungeons & Dragons'' RPG in the late 1970s. However, instead of featuring a fictional fantasy world such as ''D&D''s

Greyhawk Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. Although not the first campaign world developed for ''Dungeons & Dragons''—Dave Arneson ...

or ''

Runequest ''RuneQuest'' (commonly abbreviated as RQ) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson (game designer), Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of ...

''s Glorantha, ''Atlantis'' is based on a pseudo-historical version of the Earth and features historical mythology and creatures from myth.

Setting

The world setting is

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

, but in a fictionalized Antediluvian Age (a quasi-historical/mythical interpretation of the ancient past).

Geography

The geographic regions and real-world influences are: * Mediterranea (

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

) * Eria (

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

) * Tamoanchan (

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

) *

Turan Turan ( ae, Tūiriiānəm, pal, Tūrān; fa, توران, Turân, , "The Land of Tur") is a historical region in Central Asia. The term is of Iranian origin and may refer to a particular prehistoric human settlement, a historic geographical re ...

(

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

) *

Gondwana Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages ...

(

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

) * Jambu (

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

) * the Nether Realm (

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

) * Anostos and Jotunland (

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

and

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

). Mythical continents are also added: * Atlantia (Atlantis), * Antilla, * Hyperborea *

Lemuria Lemuria (), or Limuria, was a continent proposed in 1864 by zoologist Philip Sclater, theorized to have sunk beneath the Indian Ocean, later appropriated by occultists in supposed accounts of human origins. The theory was discredited with the di ...

* Mu * and others

Publication history

In the 1980s a group of friends — Vernie Taylor,

Steven Cordovano Steven Cordovano is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career In 1982, Stephan Michael Sechi, Steven Cordovano and Venie Taylor each put in $600 and formed the company Bard Games Bard Games was an American game co ...

, and

Stephan Michael Sechi Stephan Michael Sechi is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career In 1982, Stephan Michael Sechi, Steven Cordovano and Vernie Taylor each put in $600 and formed the company Bard Games to produce their own ''Dunge ...

— who played a highly customized version of '' Dungeons & Dragons'' with new, specialized character classes and magic spells, decided to publish their improvements to the game. Each of them put up $600 to form

The Compleat Series

In 1983 the new company published three books known as the "Compleat Series": ''

The Compleat Adventurer ''The Compleat Adventurer'' is a 1983 role-playing game supplement for published by Bard Games. Contents ''The Compleat Adventurer'' is a collection of character classes intended to be used for fantasy roleplaying games. The book presented vari ...

'' by Sechi, ''

The Compleat Spell Caster ''The Compleat Spell Caster'' is a 1983 role-playing game supplement for published by Bard Games. Contents ''The Compleat Spell Caster'' is a supplement intended to add new material to the magic systems existing in fantasy roleplaying games. The ...

'' by Taylor and Sechi, and ''

The Compleat Alchemist ''The Compleat Alchemist'' is a generic role-playing game supplement first published by Bard Games in 1982. Publication history Bard Games was formed in 1982 by Steven Cordovano and Stephan Michael Sechi to market generic fantasy role-playing su ...

'' by Cordovano and Sechi. No specific role-playing system rules were mentioned, the unwritten assumption being that players would use the popular ''Dungeons & Dragons'' rules.

First edition: ''The Atlantean Trilogy''

The following year, the books of ''The Compleat Series'' were combined with a new role-playing system into one central rulebook, '' The Arcanum'', a 156-page softcover book by Sechi and Taylor. This was followed in 1985 by '' The Lexicon'', a 128-page softcover book by Sechi, Taylor and Ed Mortimer that provided the setting, and ''The Bestiary'' in 1986, a 132-page softcover book written by Sechi and

J. Andrew Keith John Andrew Keith (August 31, 1958 – August 7, 1999) was an American author and games developer. Career J. Andrew Keith, and his brother William H. Keith Jr., responded to ads in ''Journal of the Travellers Aid Society'' for authors to wri ...

that provided the creatures. As a result, the role-playing game became known as ''The Atlantean Trilogy''; later versions with fewer than three books were simply titled ''Atlantis''. Sechi would go on to produce the role-playing game ''

Talislanta ''Talislanta'' is a fantasy role-playing game written by Stephen Michael Sechi and published by Bard Games in 1987. There have been six different English-language editions and several foreign language editions published. All English-language pr ...

'', also published by Bard Games in 1987. In the 2014 book ''Designer & Dragons: The '80s'', game historian Shannon Appelcline wrote that "Because of the success of their ''Compleat'' books, Bard Games decided to combine the best information from those supplements within a game system and a setting. The result — which would become known as "The Atlantis Trilogy" — would really put Bard on the map. Stephan Michael Sechi oversaw this new and daunting project — which took three years to complete. Eventually he produced three books: ''The Arcanum'' (1984), ''The Lexicon'' (1985), and ''The Bestiary'' (1986). The system was clearly derivative of ''D&D'', but it also introduced character skills and point-based character creation. The setting was a bit more unique, as it portrayed an antediluvian world of myth (though it also contained some off-key elements including typical fantasy races of ''D&D'' and even druids). Some players embraced the new game as a more complex ''D&D'' with a uniquely textured setting."

Second edition: ''Atlantis''

A second edition of ''The Arcanum'' was published in 1985 with revised and updated rules. Three years later, Bard Press combined ''The Lexicon'' and ''The Bestiary'' into a single book, ''Atlantis: The Lost World''.

Third edition: ''Atlantis''

In 1996, Death's Edge Games released a third edition, largely based on the second edition, with the addition of a new race, the Selkie.

''Atlantis: The Second Age''

In 2005, Khepera Publishing released ''Atlantis: The Second Age'' replacing Bard Game's original role-playing rules with Morrigan Press's Omni System.

30th anniversary edition

In 2012, K. David Ladage purchased the rights to ''The Arcanum'', but not the rights to ''The Lexicon'' and ''The Bestiary'', which were still held by Khepera Publishing. The following year, doing business as ZiLa Games, Ladage ran a Kickstarter to re-release ''The Arcanum'' in a new, cleaned up and re-edited form. However, when ZiLa was unable to deliver after three years, all backers were reimbursed their entire pledge. In 2017, he ran a second Kickstarter to re-release ''The Arcanum'' and both a PDF of the book and the book itself were delivered in 2019.

Reviews

In the December 1986 edition of ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes fro ...

'' (Issue #85), Phil Frances reviewed all three books of the original edition of ''The Atlantean Trilogy'', and noted the similarities to ''Dungeon & Dragons'', commenting "I found myself playing ''Spot the D&D Equivalent'' — a game not mentioned in the book. It sure whiffs of That Game a lot ..It's pretty obvious from the start which game this was primaririly intended for." He concluded that ''The Arcanum'' was probably not an essential buy for more experienced gamers, saying, "You can get by without this if you already own a roleplaying game; if not, its a solid starting base." Frances had good things to say about both ''The Lexicon'' — "oodles of pretty maps" — and ''The Bestiary'' — "my favourite because of the illustrations by Bill Sienkiewicz (of

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

)."

References

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