Was kann das?
Das Spiel erschien 1994, und war so weit ich weiß tatsächlich das erste RPG das Nationen als "Spielercharaktere" anbot. Ich habe schon mal gesehen das man es als "Civilisation: the RPG" bezeichnete. Es bot außerdem die Möglichkeit zwischen Nationen und normalen Charakteren hin und her zu switchen, und bot zudem die Möglichkeit das Magie"System" eienr welt und die dazugehörige Metaphysik zu erstellen. Wikipedia schreibt dazu:
Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth was a role-playing game published by Last Unicorn Games in 1994. Unlike many other role-playing games which centered on individual characters in a pre-set game world, Aria was intended to facilitate the creation of gameworlds, complete with cultures, histories, and politics. Players play not a single character, but a series of characters across the history of the game world, in essence playing the role of a given guild, city or culture, and telling a larger, grander story than would be accomplished with individual characters.
The emphasis for character, culture, and world creation is placed on concepts over statistics, and is meant to encourage players and game-masters to create fully fleshed-out, realistic worlds and cultures with feasible histories and politics. Magic is largely left open for the game master (the Mythguide) to decide, in terms of how magic is performed, how one learns it, and what it is capable of within the world. As with most other aspects of Aria there are no set rules on how magic has to work, which races are available, or any other aspects of the culture or world.
Aria is based on the concept of the 'monomyth', the fundamental story that is at the core of most if not all myths, legends and fairy tales. The system is meant to encourage and inspire gamemasters and players to come up with grand tales that not only tell a story but serve a deeper purpose and meaning, in the vein of Joseph Campbell's assertions about myth and the Hero's journey.
Was Wikipedia verschweigt ist das dieses Schmuckstück so wie es geschrieben ist unspielbar ist, und dringend eine englische übersetzung bräuchte. Da der Verlag bei dem es erschienen ist, Last Unicorn Games, um 2000 von Wizards geschluckt wurde, und die Rechte daran deswegen wohl auf nimmer wiedersehen verschluckt wurde.
