just a note for the arduin fans

[shadowcat1313]

the World of Khaas sourcebook was shipped monday, and its a monster
it makes Fantasy Hero look like a short story sizewise, its on the order of 865 pages...

just from the samples off the website, it looks great
www.arduin.com

[Killer Shrike]

the World of Khaas sourcebook was shipped monday, and its a monster
it makes Fantasy Hero look like a short story sizewise, its on the order of 865 pages...

just from the samples off the website, it looks great
www.arduin.com

What is Arduin exactly? The website kind of assumes you know already....

[shadowcat1313]

The Arduin Grimoire started off as a 3 volume parchment bound set that dates back to about the same time as the white boxed set of D&D. we always used it more as a supplement for D&D instead of as a system in its wn right.

it used a similar enough system to make adapting really easy...
and it had a lot things D&D didnt have... along with a wide variety of monsters and spells, a lot more demons and dragons especially

eventually there would be a total of 8 books in tbe small size format, 3 by Grimoire Games, 5 by Dragon Tree, and the latest by Emperors Choice...
the newer books are ok... I have the first 8, but I like the original 3 the best

Arduin had the first critical hit system for D&D, which we used til we found Arms Law and adopted its system... which we still use even.

[Killer Shrike]

"Grunts" -- I think I recall the old school Arduin now. Wasnt Arduin pretty thoroughly disliked and even mocked? Or am I thinking of a different vintage AD&D spin off system?

[lemming]

"Grunts" -- I think I recall the old school Arduin now. Wasnt Arduin pretty thoroughly disliked and even mocked? Or am I thinking of a different vintage AD&D spin off system?

I remember Arduin was liked. I did pick up the two book collection that came out semi-recently. $5 apiece.

[shadowcat1313]

I think it all depended on who you ask, it was definately a love or hate thing
but it still had a lot of interesting ideas

[Markdoc]

Arduin was for those people who felt a 16th level wizard was "kinda wimpy" and that an invisible two handed dancing vorpal sword was keen - in other words, it extended, the um, "bleeding edge" of DandD (so to speak).

So whether you liked it or mocked it depended on your style of play.

I kind of liked the "nuclear bomb" spell though...(it wasn't called that, but that's what it was)

cheers, Mark

[Pattern Ghost]

We used to use it for the crit table, of course, and adapted a few of the other conventions, like base HP being based on your CON score so you could survive lower levels. (HP would be CON +/- stat adjustment + the normal HD roll). I liked some of the flavor stuff in the Grimoires, and when I dumped a lot of unused gaming stuff, years back, I kept them. The world did tend to be over the top.

[grymlocke]

I met Daivid Hargrave (the Author) once, he had a game shop in the bay area called 'the Phraint' (one of the insect races of arduin).....if I remember right, the guy was an ex-vietnam vet and didn't he have a heart attack back in the late 70's?...

[lemming]

I met Daivid Hargrave (the Author) once, he had a game shop in the bay area called 'the Phraint' (one of the insect races of arduin).....if I remember right, the guy was an ex-vietnam vet and didn't he have a heart attack back in the late 70's?...

David A Hargrave 1946-1988
He hadn't quite finished the Revised Arduin project by that point, but Jim Mathis finished it off and got it published in 1992.
That was taken from the foreword of the Revised Arduin.

Apparently there's a World of Arduin that just got published from http://www.empcho.com

[shadowcat1313]

A lot of the world was over the top, I will agree with that, but it was also great for throwing curveballs at munchkins and such who thought they knew all the monsters and such.... and Arduin did have quite a variety of different monsters.

[gewing]

I thought it made a VERY useful and fun addition to old AD&D. Some of the stuff was awefully silly(bust size roll for female characters, random skin colors, etc) but the idea of a chart where you would roll to give your character something just a little(or sometimes a lot) different from others of his class was nice.

I still remember the first two magic weapons my Phraint got. a +3/+3 spear and a halbred that was +1 to hit, but +7!!! to damage.

other fun magic items I remember:
Shark bolts, Mighty magical mistical sling stones of slaying, hobbit stones, a shield that ATE opponents on a shield bash, if crit rolled iirc, I had a two ended pole arm that was fun...




Then there were some of the monsters. SHock bones... Biggles, Black scorpions, the list goes on and on.

A lot of the world was over the top, I will agree with that, but it was also great for throwing curveballs at munchkins and such who thought they knew all the monsters and such.... and Arduin did have quite a variety of different monsters.

[shadowcat1313]

and some of the classes, the Techno, The Saint, the Highwayman, the Slaver

and some of the other monsters
Valpyr, Moondog, Night Demon, Shadow Dragon
Sun Dragon
Star Spider

[Killer Shrike]

Yes, Im starting to recall elements of this more clearly. As Markdoc says, I would not be the target audience of this type of material.

I remember a group of players in the game club I was in my Freshman year of HS that probably were using this material; I remember one of them had a character portrait that looked vaguely like an insect if you werent an art critic and were being kind to the artist (and this was before Thri-kreen to the best of my knowledge), and as a group from overhearing their table talk they did seem to place great importance in women's bust size ratings for characters and other such minutia -- I remember that bit because the teacher that hosted the game club was a woman and she made a few comments about it.

Somehow, fate or mutual determinism perhaps, I never played a game with any of those players and thus was never fully introduced to Arduin.

[Arthur]

My very first introduction to RPGs (1978) was playing in a D&D game where the GM made extensive use of Arduin. My very first D&D characters had an "Agility" stat. When I finally bought the three D&D books, I searched in vain for the Agility stat. I almost always played with the Arduin books; playing without them seemed weird and stunted.

Oddly enough, this DM was by far the most non-MontyHaul DM I EVER played under. It was not unusual to play a dozen sessions without anybody getting a SINGLE magic item. Not so much as a +1 sword. And then, the magic items were usually cursed. On the plus side, this guy was a good storyteller. However, IMO, that's taking it too far the other way (even non-munchkins usually want a halfway decently powerful PC). It was frustrating as hell, and when some of us finally started taking turns as DM, a period of serious Munchkinism ensued. Since we all had the Arduin books, it got pretty crazy. We had to get it out of our systems.

Some of the things I remember/liked about The Arduin Grimoire:

The Critical Hit / Fumble tables.

The table where each character would roll for some sort of modification. I remember a few of them (Mountain Man: +2 to CON; You are an obese glutton of foul and unsanitary habits: +6 saves vs. poison; You are half-demon and regenerate like a troll; You are an experienced sailor and will not drown even if full armor (you shed it); Undead friend - they recognize your aura and will not attack you.).

The character classes: Barbarian (4d for STR); Techno (almost unplayable); etc. Then there were the Star Powered Mages. They were very munchkin, but I liked playing them back then. I made up GURPS and Hero conversions, quite depowered.

The monsters. Back then, I went for the big ones. The Maggoth and the Ibathene were 30 Hit Dice each. Others: Kill Kittens; Undead Dragon; a large selection of Demons (Sea; Earth; Fire; Air; Storm; Night); a selection of new golems (Steel; Mithril; Orichalcum; Adamantine; Gold; Silver); new Dragons (new colors); etc.

The spells: They went up to 20th level. The Hounds of Tindalos (summons the Lovecraftian creatures to stalk and kill the victim); Davalon's Death Star (half lightning; half cold); etc. I don't recall many spells.