Summary
Artefact is a solo art-and-or-journaling tabletop RPG in which you develop the story of a magical artefact as it passes through many hands, exalting in its glories and wallowing in its darkest moments. It was written by Jack Harrison, and he distributed it through his too-cute mousehole press website.
The core principle of the game is straightforward - a starting artefact is passed from person to person (Keepers), with gameplay detailing out changes to both over time. Between Keepers, additional tables are used to evolve the artefact even further. The prompts are quite prescriptive, making it a more specifically curated experience. The game ends with the last Keeper relinquishing the artefact.
10$ USD (digital), 9£ GBP (physical) booklet, shipping extra.''
Thoughts
Overall, I enjoyed Artefact well enough. It's a fun creative exercise and we love a game that encourages - but does not require - more than one way to play. It would be very easy to adjust according to one's whims, extending the game or shortening it accordingly.
The basic game loop is that at intervals chosen by the game, your artefact resurfaces in the hands of a new Keeper - someone who uses the artefact to change history, typically. Each prompt centers around he relationship between your artefact and the Keeper and the things that happen during that era. Rinse and repeat a 'maximum' of six times - you can easily make it shorter or longer to taste here. I found this a really satisfying loop. It lets you explore a static object (the artefact itself) and an impermanent one (the Keeper). Later eras also give you more time between Keepers, which lets you make sweeping changes to the world stage, as you choose. I really liked this aspect and balance.
Artefact also has explicitly built-in breaks if you would like to spread it over several sessions like I did, but it could just as easily be played over the course of an afternoon. I could see making a nice rainy day or cute date night out of it, no problem. Also a huge bonus.
There's plenty of extra content available with the game to encourage replayability - a multitude of artefact archetypes (sword, deck, amulet, etc.), Keepers, extensions to the tables, additional random tables you could include to give yourself additional challenges or spur creativity. That's something we love to see.
Still, I don't imagine I'll be revisiting it. It was a nice romp, but even with that vast array of extra content available, I've gotten what I'd like out of it.
For it's strengths, I also struggled quite a bit with the game at some points. My biggest point of contention was one I called out early, possibly in the pre-ample or set-up - the game really, really wants you to be a thinking, sentient object and I wasn't at all interested in that. Most of the time, this meant I was wrestling with some prompts from jump, often having to subvert the prompt when I just wanted to write. This isn't a criticism of the game, but is part of the reason I'm not as favourable toward it as I am toward A Mending or Thousand Year Old Vampire.
A note I have that is a bit more a critique of the game is that most prompts - particularly in the tables (eg: Shifts and Currents, Victories and Valour, Neglect and Mischief, and Dust and Rust) - were geared to a very particular sort of classic fantasy. Sorcerers locking people in towers, cutthroat noble politics, huge heaps of treasure, fell beasts - sword and sorcery, through and through! Despite epic fantasy being one of my preferred genres, this all felt a little too shoehorned for me. If you really enjoy classic sword and sorcery fantasy, such as Arthurian legend or Michael Moorcock, this may be a positive for you.
Ultimately between the positives and the negatives, I think the summary is just this - it's a well-made game and it has a lot of replay potential, but I don't resonate with the theming.
Biometrics
- 37 days, start to finish - but this includes a huge gap.
- 7 active days of play - one per Keeper, and then the Epilogue.
- 4983 words written, to an average of 712 per day. This doesn't include the ongoing world notes.