Arcane Noir
A downloadable game
Arcane Noir is a game for 2 players in which a wizard detective has to solve a desperate case before sunrise. It uses d6s and a deck of standard playing cards to generate scenes, and flesh out the mystery. Perfect for rainy nights.
update: minor spelling and grammar fixes
update: a variety of accessible file formats to be screen reader friendly
Download
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Development log
- New accessible files for Arcane NoirDec 24, 2022
Comments
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Such an interesting mechanic, we will definitely play it again with reversed rolls. Really liked that it is devided between the players to tell what is happening.
One player is the noir and sets scenes with random inspirations from cards that are drawn. The other player is an aracane detective who rolls dice to find clues. As the noir the only roll to make is at the beginning, and there is a page with helpful names, locations and such to narrate the scenes.
We came across minor things that were not totally clear to us. In our game we only let the detective explain what happens if he had a six, but afterwards I thought it would have also been interesting to tell every outcome by the detective, no matter what he rolls.
In one roll the detective had two 6, would he have gotten two clues? We played that only one clue was gained, because it was early in the game. But in the end I thought he should have gotten two clues, because our game ended due to exhaustion of the detective.
Thank you so much for the feedback! There is nothing a designer likes hearing more than that people are actually playing the games. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.
For multiple 6s on a roll, treat the extra 6s as Lucky Breaks (regain a die or clear exhaustion). The card suit is still the same as a clue the investigator is getting in that scene.
And as far as narrating the conclusion of scenes, I had intended it to still be a back and forth conversation between the players, but simply one that ends the scene and answers the dramatic question at hand. The Investigator gets to declare clues specifically. Upon rereading it, you're absolutely correct in that it isn't very clear. I may have to update this with some errata when I have the chance. This was the project I was trying to learn layout by brute force, and there's definitely some cleaning up that could be done here.
I'm still laughing at "Jim the Butcher."