Arcana RPG

Shape new realities through the science of spellcraft.

Play the game ⇢

Shape new realities through the science of spellcraft.

Play the game ⇢

What is Arcana?

Arcana is a standalone tabletop RPG system with a complete ruleset focused on in-depth spellcrafting and adventures that can only be overcome by magical ingenuity.

Players are spellcasters, developing their unique approach to spellcraft while navigating a world where their studies may be the only solutions to complex problems or dangerous quests.

If you enjoy thought experiments, creative problem solving, and a sense of discovery at the gaming table, Arcana will appeal greatly—rewarding player curiosity, creativity, and cleverness.

Craft Spells…

Arcana is a hard-magic spellcraft simulator, designed to create an experience that's grounded in reality and enhanced by fantasy.

As a player, you begin your academic career with a few basic components to craft spells with. Throughout your studies, experiments, and expeditions, your repertoire will expand and evolve into a singular — perfectly unique — book of spells that illustrates your journey.

You can play with character sheets or use a blank journal to record your character's stats, spell components and, of course, their signature spells. Using a journal creates a real life piece of fantasy legacy you'll treasure for years.

…with Limitless Potential

In Arcana, spells are constructed from modular components. Build spells with virtually any effect using…

40+ Essences
40+ non-Essence spell components
50+ Essence Aspects to apply to newly discovered (custom) Essences
40+ Status Conditions that can apply to spell effects

The kinds of spells you create have no limit other than your imagination.

You can craft spells to Conjure creatures or Imbue yourself with their Aspects. You can write charms to never again lose your wallet or keys. If you so wish you can formulate evocations to materialize opulent extradimensional boudoirs in which to gleefully recline, basking in your own marvelous power! You will soon find lists of pre-made spells as drab as a value meal menu.

Achieve the Impossible

Inspired by the stories and atmospheres of works like Frieren, Earthsea, Witch Hat Atelier, and The Name of the Wind, a typical session of Arcana immerses players in the challenging pursuit of discovery and magical academia.

You'll research mysterious arcane artifacts, creatures, and materials. You'll experiment with new spells to solve problems ranging from everyday inconveniences to matters of unfathomable societal impact. You'll explore diverse magical societies and places of forgotten power throughout your adventures.

Whether your goals are lofty or mundane, Arcana offers a sandbox-style game system that gives you the freedom to pursue your ambitions in any way you can imagine.

Create Expressive Characters…

Go beyond race and class. In Arcana, characters are not constrained by a class system. Your unique abilities come from your style as a player in what powers you endeavor to attain and how you employ them in your spells.

Arcana features a 20+ fantasy race and subrace options, but beyond that, you may choose your specific character lineage. Perhaps your ancestors were blessed by the spirit of the sky generations ago? You decide what effect that has on your magic today.

There are also optional rules to build your character's goals and ambitions, NPCs to support and/or oppose you, and define their daily routine and progress during downtime.

…and Your Own Style of Fantasy

Arcana is designed to work around you and your group's personal philosophies on magic. If your group enjoys breaking the processes of magic down to the point where it's practically science-fiction, Arcana is built for that.

Conversely, if your party runs on vibes and values wild ideas over realism, the game will enable that!

Most gaming groups land somewhere in the middle of those two extremes, and as your group plays session after session, you'll develop a personalized style of fantasy all your own.

Social & Combat Mechanics

Encounters follow a phased round structure: Action Phase for movement and standard actions, Spell Phase for casting and resolving magical effects, and Environmental Phase for ongoing effects and environment changes. This approach keeps players engaged while adding tactical depth without long waits between turns. Grid-based combat encourages strategic positioning and innovative spell combinations.

In Arcana, Recovery requires thematic downtime activities, creating a natural rhythm between adventure and rest that reinforces the game's emphasis on balance and preparation.

70+ Authentic Illustrations

The rule book will feature hand drawn illustrations from over a dozen working, professional artists commissioned specifically for Arcana.

This game is made 100% free of any content generated by artificial intelligence. 🚫🤖

In a Nutshell

🔮 Invent your own spells from modular components
🧑‍🏫 Be an arcane scholar — research and evolve your magic
📖 Your spellbook is your character and your legacy
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Supports solo, duet, or group play.
🌍 Setting-neutral, but filled with flavor and tone

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What exactly is Arcana?
Arcana is a standalone tabletop RPG system with a complete ruleset focused on in-depth spellcrafting and adventures solvable primarily with magic. Unlike systems where spellcasters choose from pre-made spell lists, Arcana puts the creative power in players' hands, encouraging them to design custom spells that solve challenges in unexpected ways.
The game combines a robust spell creation system with traditional adventure elements like exploration, combat, and social interaction. Players take on the roles of individuals with innate and/or learned magical abilities, developing their unique approach to spellcraft while navigating a world where their magical studies may be the only solutions to complex problems or dangerous quests.
Characters in Arcana are not constrained by a class system. Typically, your only special abilities come from your spells and your style as a player in what powers you endeavor to attain and how you employ your magic.
In Arcana, no single solution is provided to any given task. The players must use their own ingenuity to ideate, develop, and execute solutions to problems as simple as crossing a rushing river or as perplexing as rescuing an archmage trapped in their own Time Stop spell.
While the system is setting-neutral to accommodate various worlds and stories, the core gameplay loop revolves around discovering arcane phenomena, experimenting with it to learn its properties, and applying your findings to overcome obstacles and achieve your goals.
Who is this game designed for?
If you enjoy thought experiments, creative problem solving, and a sense of discovery at the table, Arcana will appeal greatly.
It's a great fit for:
- Fans of high fantasy who have unique ideas for spells.
- Simulationist players who enjoy game mechanics that result in consistent, outcomes—grounded in reality and enhanced by fantasy.
- Game designers and aspiring designers interested in inventing spell components with new mechanics and toying with fun ideas.
- Min-maxers and mad scientists who love to push boundaries.
- Indie TTRPG enthusiasts looking for a ruleset that encourages sandbox style play.
Whether you’re the kind of player who loves to improvise clever spells, or a GM who enjoys collaborating on a world built from first principles, Arcana rewards player curiosity, creativity, and cleverness.
What does a typical session of Arcana look like?
A typical Arcana session combines classic TTRPG elements with the game's unique spellcrafting system. Here's what players can expect:
A session might begin with the Game Master presenting a challenge or mystery that requires magical expertise. This might be investigating an arcane anomaly, retrieving a magical artifact, helping a community with a supernatural problem, or exploring locations with mystical properties.
As players navigate the adventure, they'll:
- Investigate and gather information
  Speaking with NPCs, researching magical phenomena, and examining strange clues
- Encounter and overcome obstacles
  Anything from environmental challenges, to hostile creatures, to tricky social situations
- Craft custom spells
  As new challenges emerge, players design spells specifically suited to address them, drawing on their characters' knowledge and the magical components they've discovered
- Make meaningful decisions
  Moral choices and strategic decisions that impact both the current scenario and future adventures
- Grow their magical knowledge
  Discover new magical principles and components that expand their spellcrafting capabilities
For example, in one adventure, players were tasked by an archmage to learn more a mysterious stone with time-warping properties and locate its source to gather more of it. The journey involved crafting spells to overcome travel obstacles, investigating a mining village for clues, delving into a hidden laboratory, battling a magical guardian, and ultimately finding a wizard trapped in his own time-stopping experiment. The session concluded with players making critical decisions about the fate of the discovered magical materials and the wizard hoarding his arcane secrets.