The Bureau of Fantastical & Arcane Affairs

The Bureau of Fantastical & Arcane Affairs is a narrative-driven exploration game for those who love good stories and stumbling into secrets. In fact, there might be something to discover right here on this very Steam page, just below this paragraph.

Oh, what's this, a pair of letters written just for you, the handsome and/or beautiful reader of this well-crafted steam page?

To our newest inspector.

Welcome to our little family here at The Bureau of Fantastical & Arcane Affairs. I trust you’re settling into your cubicle well? (That was rhetorical. If you write me back, I can assure you I will not be reading it.) Consider this letter your formal introduction to the Bureau and the noble work we do.

Our job is to keep stories from falling into complete narrative disrepair. To sand off the rough edges, slap a fresh coat of destiny on the walls, and make sure the hero isn’t walking into a disaster. Bards do not sing of stories where the inn ran out of ale and the villain failed to file the correct zoning permits.

To that end, we’re assigning you to inspect this realm. Our policy demands extreme thoroughness, every nook and cranny in the valley below and the mountain peak above must be in tip top shape.  

Your responsibilities include:
Speaking with the story’s inhabitants (some more cooperative than others).

Issuing proper fines and citations.

Ensuring the story is Hero-ready and Bureau approved.

We have rules, yes, but breaking them often leads to a more interesting tale. I’ll look the other way, Just don’t put it in writing.

Fail to meet our standards, and you will be unceremoniously sacked and possibly cursed, depending on the severity of your incompetence.

Once your work is done, you’ll extract, and the real story will begin, the hero’s story.

Dearest Noble Hero,
I write to you in our darkest, most miserable, most terrible hour. Our once-thriving valley has been abandoned, left to the horrors of villainy, chaos, and whatever it is going on in that mushroom village.

The forests crawl with monsters. An evil wizard looms atop his tower. A wretched necromancer is doing unspeakable things to skeletons. Worse still, some clipboard-wielding bureaucrat came through, and somehow, everything’s gotten even worse.

And that’s just the valley, word is the mountain peak has been infested as well. I dare not imagine what became of the poor priestesses.

Only someone as strong, as brave, and as devastatingly attractive as yourself could save us.
Your fate, and ours, awaits.

Well, Steam page reader? Will you take up the mantle of both Bureau Agent and Hero? Or will you add this to the depths of your wishlist, never to see the light of your glorious Steam library? The choice, as always, is yours.