Arcanum - a boardgame using tarot

truelighth

Hi all,

I just came back from Spiel 2011 in Essen, which is the biggest boardgame event in Europe. Had lots of fun! I just had a look at the website of Spiel to look at what I missed and to my surprise I saw that Lo Scarabeo was also there with a booth. They were presenting their very first boardgame: Arcanum.

This is what I read about it on Gameboardgeek:

The game is played with a regular Tarot deck, used to move the game pieces on the board. There are four noble Houses, fighting for power and supremacy in a medieval city. They are named after the four Tarot suits: Pentacles, Chalices, Swords and Wands. Players will represent different paths for Fate, and will try to shape the destiny of those Houses to best suit their goals.

Arcanum is the first board game by the world acclaimed Tarot publisher “Lo Scarabeo”, and includes a complete tarot deck, featuring wondrous illustrations by the artist Patrizio Evangelisti.

Anyway, now I am very curious about this one. Has anyone else heared about this game and more importantly, seen images of the tarot deck? Will it be usable on it's own?
The thing is, I saw the booth and the game Arcanum, but I didn't know it was Lo Scarabeo and there was so much to see that I skipped it. I can't believe I missed my chance to see this! :(
 

Le Fanu

Is it released yet? I think you may have simply had a sneak preview. I'm curious about this one. I believe it was one of their late 2011 (?) or 2012 releases.
 

truelighth

They were presenting it Essen and you could buy it there too. So I think it has been released.

You can watch an interview with Andrea Chivesio on the Essen fair explaining the game here:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18030261
 

Amaterasu

The game is played over 6 or 9 turns, and at every turn each player has the opportunity to hide one (and sometimes more) cards under the board in front of him (this is called "influencing" the Houses and it's like an hidden bet on the house, trying to get control over it) and to play cards for their effects (Major Arcana cannot be hidden but have stronger effects). Playing cards will impact, among other things, the ranking of the Houses in terms of prestige. To optimize his point scoring, a good player will try to gain influence over "winning" houses without wasting too many cards for acheiving that, and/or to influence Houses in the lower positions with little effort. Experienced players will learn how to deceive their opponents about their real intentions.

Skill, bluffing, intuition and reading your opponent’s moves are all skills required to gain victory.
Click to expand...

And there are images of the actual board game and two cards (Justice and 8 of Pentacles) in Lo Scarabeo's site. I think it looks fun, and the art looks promising (I actually like Justice's impassive stare and how she's stepping over a beast but the 8 of Pentacles just confuses me) but I don't think I'll be getting it. Maybe if they sold the deck separate from the game... :(
 

Cerulean

Ric announced a game with Ludy Lescott style characters...

but I have to find the thread.

If this is a different game...I will have to check.

Sounds like fun...I like the small scans.
 

Cerulean

#34 in Ludy Lescot thread has links to Boardgame Geek & 16 Pictures

...very cool, this game looks. Hope it is available to U. S. soon.

Cerulean
 

truelighth

Le Fanu said:
But it's the Initiatory Tarot of the Golden Dawn by the looks of it. So enough of unhappy smilies })
Click to expand...

You are right. I just checked the images on gameboardgeek as well and they are the same. Ok, well, that at least satisfies my curiosity about the deck. The game.. well, I hope one of my fellow gamers may have picked it up so I can try it out sometime. My main interest is still tarot over boardgames :D.
 

Mabuse

A language free Tarot!

Here are some more pics including some court cards!
http://www.gamepack.nl/gamepack/N2011-loscarabeo.html


I think the OP means Boardgamegeek
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/99770/arcanum
Some more pictures there


Compare the Majors of this Tarot with the Tarocks of this one

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_tarot
This is one of many reasons I think Tarot artists should be exposed to these game decks.
For quite some time I've had an interest in the graphic design aspects of Tarot cards and thought of the possibility of language free decks as an alternative to multi-lingual borders we see so often on some modern decks.
This is one thing I like about the game's Tarot deck!
 
Loving the Steampunk Tarot App Tarot software