Arcana Agency: The Thief of Memories, a Full-Color Gamebook

Harrrbinger · Nov 3, 2012

Arcana Agency: The Thief of Memories, a Full-Color Gamebook: Richly-illustrated print gamebook. Go back to 1930s New York and control a group of private investigators facing occult mysteries.

For more RPG Kickstarter projects, check out RPG Kickstarters.

Sir Knight · Nov 4, 2012

Good day! I'm Richard S. Hetley, and I set up this Kickstarter project. I was searching for people interested in a new RPG/gamebook, and was pleasantly surprised to see us posted already. Here's more information.

My friends in Megara Entertainment are experienced in taking known game universes and adapting them to new formats, including iOS games and pencil-and-paper roleplaying games. These all have been classic gamebook series ("Choose Your Own Adventure" games, but with full RPG rule sets), including Lone Wolf, Fabled Lands, Fighting Fantasy, and The Way of the Tiger.

Arcana Agency: The Thief of Memories is our own original work. It looks like this:

You control a group of 1930's private investigators as they try to deal with the paranormal in New York City. It is written in third person ("he," "she") instead of second person ("you"), which is a departure from other gamebooks, and makes it possible for you to control multiple characters at once (like an adventuring party in print book form). Add to this all those little stunts you can only manage in a book, like "Go to the page number that matches the combination on this lock," and the game is a more deep experience than a "Darn, wrong route, I'll just cheat and take the other one" fest.

We really think that it's fun and challenging, and we hope that you'll take a moment to look at the Kickstarter and think about pledging. If this project succeeds, we'll be able to do yet more exciting things in the future.

Thanks for lending me your ear!

mikaelfmk · Nov 8, 2012

A great gamebook to pledge for!

Sir Knight · Nov 15, 2012

Hello! Here's a small update with a big bit of news:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...thief-of-memories-a-full-color-g/posts/349315

This is a free "demo" of our gamebook. It's a prequel, really, and is completely self-contained. Download it, play it, admire the art, and spread it across the internet. If you want to see more, you can link up your play with The Thief of Memories if and when the latter is published. Take a look; I think you'll like what you read.

And if you do, then please consider pledging! Even if you can't, please show our mini-gamebook "demo" to people you know.

We really hope we can succeed in bringing Arcana Agency: The Thief of Memories into the world. Thanks for reading!

Sir Knight · Dec 10, 2012

Arcana Agency: The Thief of Memories is more than 2/3 of the way to the goal, but has only a few days left (the last full day for pledges is 12/12/12). Response so far has been terrific!

We've partnered with fellow gamebook Maelorum (successfully funded) and a "history book" for the classic Fighting Fantasy series YOU ARE THE HERO (ongoing).

Gamebook authors Dave Morris, Stuart Lloyd, Jonathan Green (see: YOU ARE THE HERO), and Herbie Brennan have all weighed in on our project.

We got a little nod from Ryan North, author of Dinosaur Comics and Adventure Time comics, during the Kickstarter for his gamebook To Be Or Not To Be: That Is The Adventure.

We got a review on a new site called Table Tested. And though we think the book stands on its own merits, the Campaign Master blog even reviewed the project as a gaming aide for roleplaying in general.

We still have a ways to go, and for that we need your help. If you like the pretty graphics we've posted (see more below), and think a literate bit of gaming might be your thing, then please take a look at Arcana Agency:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1615043334/arcana-agency-the-thief-of-memories-a-full-color-g

. . . And/or try out our fully-playable game sample:

http://www.megara-entertainment.com/ArcanaAgencyFreePreview.pdf
http://richardhetley.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/arcanaagencyfreepreview.pdf

. . . And/or tell your gaming friends by 12/12/12. Thanks once more for listening!