Arduin fans are familiar with the term Arduin, Bloody Arduin.
I ran across this essay by Sarah Newton back in 2017. The really unique thing is that she started her RPG gaming with Arduin. For those that don't know, women have been playing Arduin and D&D from the beginning. I have previously noted that my 1975 OD&D group was 50/50 male/female.
Arduin, Bloody Arduin – Thinking About How It Could Be Done
If you haven't read this essay I recommend that you do so.
As some of you may know, I’m a big fan of The Arduin Grimoire – the original gonzo fantasy fest RPG which followed hot on the heels of White Box D&D back in the 70s. I was actually an Arduin player before I was a D&D player; back in 1980/81, I got the very first Arduin Grimoire Volume 1 (the one with the Erol Otus Tunch on the front – you remember!), and for the best part of a year I played the game just with that book, before getting hold of White Box and the other 2 Arduin volumes. Yes, Virginia, you can play an entire game with just the first volume of The Arduin Grimoire. You have to wing it a fair bit in places (mostly in how many experience points to award), but it can be done.
Here is her take on how she would write it:
Well, one of the big hurdles the original Arduin Grimoire faced was that it wasn’t allowed to be a complete RPG using the D&D system. There was all kinds of litiginous stuff flying around in the day, and Dave Hargrave tippexed out all mentions of the game in subsequent printings. That left Arduin in the weird situation of not being quite a game, not being quite a supplement, which was always a bit of a shame.
That’s no longer the case. With the open gaming license, the d20SRD, and the whole Old School Renaissance movement, the d20 game system which underpinned Arduin is now available for use — and still wildly popular! So that’s where I’d start.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable read and it I enjoyed it on the re-read today.
I think one of the best things Emperors Choice could do right now is put out their Arduin Eternal "Beastiary & Treasures" in an original Arduin Trilogy format, advertised as "Compatible with The Arduin Trilogy and other old-school TTRPGS!" The advantages are #1 Pre-existing "Arduin Trilogy" book rules to refer for folks who are interested in a set of rules now, #2 Easily convertible with the retro-clones out there which will broaden the audience, #3 so long as "Arduin, Bloody Arduin" sits within the wheelhouse of the original trilogy, the book would build an audience for those rules and help gauge the production budget for that (there is even precedence for this with the AD&D Monster Manual being release a year before the Players Handbook), and #4 Emperors Choice still has Dave's dungeons, grimoires 5-9, CA, and Arduin Eternal to mine for stuff people won't find in the original trilogy or the "Beastiary & Treasures." (Of course, I would recommend following the James Raggi rule of exhausting your print run before selling a PDF-version because once a PDF is out, odd are someone somewhere will post a bootleg version somewhere.)
ReplyDeleteI am in full agreement with you.
DeleteGood to see someone else who started in September 1975. I was at Norwich, the military college in Vermont, to start my college education. Joined the Tactics Club. We most played Avalon Hill or Strategy & Tactics military games, but once a week was ODnD. I still have my original Little brown Books I bought with my Christmas money that year. :-)
ReplyDeleteA couple years later, added Traveller, and getting Anita hooked, too.
Good Gaming - Steven
I was at Ohio University in Athens OH. We played OD&D every Friday and Saturday night for four years. I never had a chance to play any of the military games. I was missing that part of it. Only discovered Classic Traveller a couple of years ago. There is a pbp game on my forum.
DeleteMy wife gave it a try, but did not get into it. But she always encouraged me to play.
Good Gaming - Halenar