Artefact Review

 

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog! Today I’ll be reviewing Artefact by Mousehole Press, a game you can find on itchio here. It’s a wonderful creation tool for designing backstories for items in your game world. I’ve had so much fun with it that I thought I’d share some of my thoughts about it and also share a magical weapon’s backstory that I created using Artefact’s rules.

To start, I discovered Artefact thanks to my husband. He introduced me to his physical copy of Artefact and explained the premise, that it’s a game you play to create magical items and their backstories, and I was immediately swept away by it. I enjoy worldbuilding and creating items for my world’s I’ve “built” is a part of that. Artefact provides a detailed structure to design magic weapons and their histories.

Not only is Artefact useful for creating weapons and other magical items, but it’s also a relaxing game as well. Throughout the book you are reminded to dim the lights, listen to some music, and just breathe as you reflect on your creation.

I found this to be nice as I’m the kind of person who zooms through everything. I tend to rush and not appreciate things until after I’m finished, so being reminded to just breathe and think really allowed me to appreciate the process of creating, as well.

You don’t need much to play Artefact, just something to write and draw on and something to write with. The game includes a soundtrack, which I found lovely. I liked that I didn’t need dice or cards to play. Not that I don’t like these implements in my solo games, but it meant I could take Artefact on the road and play in the car if I wanted to, which is always a nice touch.

The magical items you create in Artefact can be sentient or semi-sentient. They react and change based on their Keepers, or wielders, as well as during significant events during their lifespans. You answer prompts in a certain order and this will help you establish Traits and a history for your item. Yes, this is a journaling game. You will be writing a lot. I know that’s not for everyone, but there is something satisfying about reading over what you’ve written when what you’ve written is as detailed as Artefact allows for.

This is a slow-moving game, or at least it was for me the first time I played it. That’s because the author encourages you to take breaks as your magical item passes from one Keeper to the next. I like that it gives me time to reflect and think, but I could also see someone just going ahead and skipping this part to keep on writing while they’re inspired.

I’ve played Artefact three times already. I’ve used all of the items I’ve created in different games. I’d like to share one of the histories of a magical item I made using Artefact to give an example of what journaling the game could look like. The Artefact I made was a shortsword that my reoccurring character in many of my games, Winona Wrath, used in Four Against Darkness. I had acquired a magical sword in 4AD and knew that was the perfect time to pull out Artefact to learn more about the sword.

Here’s the tale of the shortsword, Heartbreaker, written using Artefact’s promps and rules.

 

The shortsword was tempered in the heat of a great forge by the legendary Elven smith, Aoric. He used the most powerful ore in the land to forge the blade, Dreadsilver. Dreadsilver is strong enough to kill a dragon and pierce through magical barriers. Aoric named the sword Heartbreaker, for all the widows created due to its use in battle.

Heartbreaker is a force of its own and thinks of its Keepers as comrades. It is a very loyal sword. Heartbreaker was forged in the city of Lihtos in Echodia during the Imperial Age and longs to return someday, though the city is full of undead in modern times.

Aoric was once forced to use Heartbreaker to kill a woman he was in love with who turned out to be a thief, stealing his weapons for her anarchist rebellion faction. He dealt her the killing blow after a thrilling battle. Legends say she cursed him with her last breath, but the truth is she died immediately when she was stabbed the final time.

Of all its comrades’ predilections over the years, revenge is the most confusing to Heartbreaker.

The first Keeper of Heartbreaker after Aoric was Rhangyl. He was a rogue from the same faction as Aoric’s lover and murdered Aoric in revenge and took Heartbreaker.

Rhangyl was a Moon Elf, a former slave, who escaped and now lived a daring life as a rebel against the Empire. He eventually left the faction when his ideas for revolution were considered too extreme.

He used Heartbreaker to kill an evil Human noble and freed all two hundred of his Elf and Gnome slaves. Rhangyl eventually tracked down his own old slave master, a man named Gael Spanghero, and slew him in a duel. But Gael cheated and used a poisoned sword in the duel and mortally wounded Rhangyl.

Before Rhangyl died he gave Heartbreaker to a new Keeper, a freed Gnome slave named Palmyn. Palmyn used Heartbreaker to become one of Xosnea’s most famous monster hunters of the Imperial Age. Palmyn used Heartbreaker to slay the legendary Fire Giant, Buwar. She also belonged to the highly competitive monster hunting guild, the Beast League.

She traveled to Wocrex and fought many battles with the Lich, Deeghis, though she never successfully defeated him. She did save a great hero from Deeghis’s tower once. It was the Elf warrior Zhoron Zinra, who had once been a fellow slave.

Eventually Palmyn was slain by the orc Urgan in a duel to the death. The sword entered Urgan’s treasure stash until decades later when two treasure hunters found it in the orc’s old lair.

The treasure hunters were two Humans: Cleeve Ermyn and Marian Bothy. Despite their mutual distrust, they were sometime-lovers, and shared ownership of Heartbreaker.

Eventually Marian ended up with the sword when the two split after the distrust between them became too great. Marian died in a dungeon, leaving Hearbreaker to sit in waiting for centuries for a new Keeper, who happened to be Winona Wrath.

 

As you can see, I was inspired greatly by the prompts in the book and developed a detailed history of Heartbreaker, whose Traits ended up being Romantic, Loyal, and Spectral. I decided to define these Traits as she deals +1 damage against any enemy who has just harmed someone she loves when she wields Heartbreaker.

I love journaling and I love games that make me really think about the kind of world I’m building. From the story above, I created numerous characters that I can bring up again in future stories set in the land of Xosnea. That’s an exciting prospect for any worldbuilder.

I highly recommend Artefact to anyone who enjoys journaling games with minimal set-up, as well as for GMs of pretty much any game who want to create a deep history concerning a magical item.