OSR Review & Commentary On First Edition Fantasy: Dungeon Hazards By Philip Reed For OSRIC & Your Old School Campaign

 " Ronin Arts steps back in time to an age of excessive violence, deep dungeons, wandering monsters, and late-night gaming excitement! DUNGEON HAZARDS, the latest release in Ronin Art’s FIRST EDITION FANTASY series, features almost 100 slimes, molds, fogs, environmental, terrain and other hazards for use with OSRIC or any other first edition-style game system. Perfect for use with mid-level and high-level campaigns. Throw these new hazards into your next adventure and watch as your players try to save their characters' lives! Great fun for game referees everywhere! This product uses the OSRIC System (Oldschool System Reference and Index CompilationTM)"

Going all the way back into my campaign notes from 2006 I came across a curious campaign note for First Edition Fantasy: Dungeon Hazards By Philip Reed For OSRIC. First Edition Fantasy: Dungeon Hazards is a delightlfully deadly little tome clocking in at thirty five pages of dungeon dressings & hazards for OSRIC & other retroclones going all of the way back to the early days of the OSR. This book reminds me of the resourefulness & creativity in the early days of OSRIC. It contans an incredible array of dungeon hazards for your mega or smaller dungeon. There are slimes & oozes, traps, deadfalls, & worse. But its the sheer weirdness of these hazards that holds my interest for example:"Crystal, Harmonic These beautiful but fragile crystals are often found near underground sources of magic; they are especially prevalent near the lands of the dark elves. Harmonic crystals are very sensitive to noise and any loud noises (yelling, battle, even elevated talking or running) produce enough sonic energy to cause the crystals to shatter. The referee can decide whether or not the sounds in the area are loud enough to cause the crystals to shatter." And the book covers all kinds of not well known hazards to cause havoc to an adventuring party. These dungeon hazards are meant for OSRIC but could easily be added to your favorite retroclone.

Because of the way that First Edition Fantasy: Dungeon Hazards are set up this set of dungeon hazardous set dressing could easily be added into a Science Fantasy game or post apocalyptic retroclone as well" 
"Pool, Boiling Various factors, including steam vents, geothermal heat, or magic can heat natural pools of water to a slow, rolling boil. Any character or creature walking through one of these boiling pools suffers 1d6 points of damage each round – if the character or creature is submerged in one of these pools the damage is increased to 10d6 points of damage each round. A boiling pool adversely affects any carried potions, canteens, or foodstuffs – there is a 5% chance such items will be completely worthless after submersion in a boiling pool. Most boiling pools are, obviously, shrouded in a thick cloud of steam that may affect visibility, increasing the risk of stumbling into the water."
The layout & material within First Edition Fantasy: Dungeon Hazards is solidly done. Easily used & interesting in the classic TSR or Gygaxian dungeon ecological niche. Philip Reed  does a nice job with this older title from the haycon days of OSRIC & this is a book that I can see returning to again & again. 

Set Up, Back Stage, & Lovecraftian Maintenance For Dungeons With Adventurer,Conqueror, King, Arduin, OSR, & Classic Old School Flavors

The concept of the kilodungeon goes back further then most folks realize & pops up in places that dungeon master's least expect it. All the way back to T1 The Village of Hommlet By Gary Gygax. Hommlet's moat house is the perfect metaphor or preview of coming attractions for PC's before they get to the main event.



Everything about Hommlet is the perfect PC base that mirrors many of the elements later found in the the rest of the Temple of Elemental Evil. That is once its been cleared of any & all resistance by the player characters. The dive into the moat house is a dive into the evil of the Underworld infecting the rest of the campaign world. That is to say that its a boil on the face of world & its not one to be taken lightly. This is a mini dungeon setting with plenty of 'shoot from the hip encounters'. The second the PC's enter this place is the second that they're taking on Chaos in all of its glory! Chaos in Advanced or Basic Dungeons & Dragons has always been there as soon as the player or dungeon master has read his first monster alignment that says 'Chaotic' or 'Chaotic Evil'.



Oh and if you don't think that the occult forces of Law & Chaos are just as important in OSR games such as Adventurer,Conqueror, King? Well let me let you feast your eyes on the Kickstarter for Secrets of The Undercity;
"The adventure takes place in the Auran Empire campaign setting, the default setting for ACKS. The eponymous Nethercity lies below the city of Cyfaraun, just fifty miles northwest of Türos Tem, making it a perfect sequel to our introductory adventure The Sinister Stone of Sakkara. But if you don't play in the Auran Empire, don't worry - a special appendix in the book offers advice on how to adapt the adventure for use with our Kanahu setting or with your own favorite campaign world. The Nethercity can be placed under any long-inhabited urban settlement that's changed hands between law and chaos over the centuries."
The really important bit here is,"The Nethercity can be placed under any long-inhabited urban settlement that's changed hands between law and chaos over the centuries."This is exactly what we see in T1 The Temple of Elemental Evil By Gary Gygax & Frank Mentzer. The moat house of Village of Hommlet is the set up for the bigger & nastier temple which we got a taste of.

The Auran Empire campaign setting,has had its major bush fires with Chaos before & destroyed it outright time & again. But Chaos is a festering disease that breeds in the hearts & minds of the campaign setting. The results can be & are catastrophic for a world. Don't believe me? Just take a look at Barsoom whose Green Martians consumed the entire world of Mars & whose presence is found all over early Dungeons & Dragons adventures encounter tables. Edgar Rice Burroughs creations are some of the most destructive warriors your party is ever likely to encounter. And they are the symptom of a much larger disease. The death of your campaign world should the forces of Chaos get the upper hand.


For world of Dave A Hargrave's Arduin there's one dungeon that consumes the heart of chaos & comes back for more that's Death Heart. This living & breathing chaos magnet lays at the core of a tractless wilderness. The place is pure evil, simple & quick to understand as an adventure location. Its a horrid place that deals in pure chaos and should not be placed too close to a civilized area. There's no warm up dungeon location for Death Heart merely a lone sentinel of evil & choke point for the forces of chaos in Arduin.


 Now I've talked about Lovecraft's Dream cycle & I'm going to again. The Underworld of the Dreamlands represents what happens after the battles have been lost & one. There was an apocalyptic battle in the Dreamlands, the cost was horrid for the gods of Earth. A deal was struck & the role of the gods of Earth was reduced to a mere shadow. Then you might ask where are the forces that fought in this apocalyptic event? Does the Vale of Pnath contain them? Yes it does but these of Chaos forces are right where they were when they were banished! The ghouls & ghasts are some of the most common inhabitants of HP Lovecraft's Underworld. But its in the Gugs of HP Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926) that we get our answers about this apocalypse.
The Gugs were partially responsible for this apocalyptic event, "The gugs were banished to the underworld by the earth’s gods, the Great Ones, for an unnamed blasphemy. Now they reside in a terrifying, underground city, dwelling in lofty, round, cyclopean towers. Nearby, colossal monoliths mark the cemetery of the gugs."

Whose responsible for what happened during all of these events? Well the answer is writ large all over the events of the background of The Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath & its easily Nyarlathotep.

 He holds the keys & the ruination of mankind. Chaos was given a stale mate  but the cost was terrible to the dreams of mankind. There are more hints about it in the writings of Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith.

 The real question for Secrets of the Nethercity what's the mega dungeon that Secrets is warming the characters up for? After the events of the adventure location for Adventurer, Conqueror, King what comes next. This is only taste of what's to come & we get a similar vein of adventure in T1 Village of Hommlet.
Secrets of the Nethercity's Cyfaraun might be the PC's base of operations for connecting the kilodungeons of the Nethercity with some of the upper levels of ACK's Dwimmmermount. Many of the hoards described in this product have direct corroborations with Labyrinth Lord's treasure & horde tables.

Chaos never sleeps & sooner or later the PC's are going to be confronting it again. This is where Dark Albion comes in very handy. Cults of Chaos for Dark Albion goes down exactly the same route as Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu . Lovecraft's mythos forces are chaos unbound in all their glory & they're dangerous as Hell itself.
This is the same treatment that we see of the Mythos from the Arduin books where Lovecraft's creations jump from one civilized world to another destroying wantonly and dangerously again & again.

Most folks don't know that the Arduin books don't have this take in the main rule books but in the adventures themselves as a part of the monsters & NPC forces of the dungeons of Dave A. Hargrave. These forces though are left overs from apocalyptic events of Arduin's campaign setting.
Here are six rules for bringing the pain of the Mythos to your favorite science fantasy game setting: 

1. Its not always about Cthulhu, there are literally legions of Great Old Ones & Outer Gods to use in adventure settings. 
2. Alien artifacts & treasure can convey far more then miles of exposition during an adventure leading to rolls to help figure out the item 
3. Make up stuff on your own, got a Lovecraft scholar among your ranks than create your own Old One or Outer god for fun & profit during adventures. 
4. Don't get bound by the scale & BS of the Mythos. If you need a god or other thing to be certain way for an adventure then change it. There are so many contradictions in the Weird Tales literature. 
5. Make the Mythos your own & let it work to enrich & not hinder your campaign world. 
6. Earn treasure & items as needed during adventures especially with a cult or mythos flavor.

Six More Ways To Get The Most Out of David A. Hargrave's Arduin Grimoires For Your Old School Games

So the usual controversies have been brewing in OSR land & pretty much I'm getting back into reading through the original Dungeons & Dragons along side David A. Hargrave's  Arduin Grimoires again. This is going to be about the fifth or sixth time I've tripped through The Arduin Grimoire, Welcome to Skull Tower, and The Runes Of Doom.


The best way of handling this material is to look at the modularity Arduin systems. Then decide what your players want & need for the campaign setting. The rules set has a certain familiarity to those gamers who have delved into Arduin at their leisure. Gamers & dungeon masters know that a  complete, viable, and playable Old School game system is found in the original Arduin books. Accessing that system can seem daunting at times.


 

Don't get intimidated by the Arduin books or material, deciding what to use is the key to bringing the old school flavor into the game for the players.


So here are six ways of bringing more Arduin into your adventures;

1. You are not David A. Hargrave & you don't have to run Arudin as he would. Gasp, yes that's right you don't have to bend over backwards to try & fill the shoes of another dungeon master. One of the keys to Arduin or even Gary Gygax's material is the accessibility of it. Find your rhythm & flow as a dungeon master when reading Arduin & then apply it as necessary. The players will often without realizing it give you the yard stick needed during conversation & play. 
2. Adjust the weirdness & gonzo level as the game dictates. I can't stress this enough. There's a solid set of actual playable races, PC classes, etc. within these systems. Let the players guide the game through actual play & not 'adventure' script writing. 
3. There's a lot of give & take within the Arduin magic systems so apply it as it comes when the wizard players start delving into it. Don't get discouraged & there's nothing wrong with going back to D&D's Vancian  spell system. 
4. Monsters can be extremely lethal from Arduin because this system was from a time when it was players vs dungeon master. If the players want to play this way & I've been in a few of these games then more power too them. 
5. Arduin systems are best used before & during actual play. The Arduin system & books are fun. They can & should be shared with players to get the most fun & utility out of them. 
6. Arduin dungeons have a lot to offer but take them sparingly when mixing them with published TSR modules. There are two different approaches to game design when looking at the Arduin dungeons vs the classic TSR modules. The modules are formulaic in some regards & the Arduin dungeons are competition convention  modules unto themselves.In fact in many ways they form the basis for the competition or tournament style adventures. I've learned a lot from reading, studying, going through tournament modules. There's a lot of good stuff hiding within the Arduin adventures & dungeons.

Set Up, Back Stage, & Lovecraftian Maintenance For Dungeons With Adventurer,Conqueror, King, Arduin, OSR, & Classic Old School Flavors

Its about 2:00 A.M., I've been off line most of the day with work & some of the general necessities of life. As it stands at this moment several of Dark Albion's elements have been re introduced again into my general campaign.  The concept of the kilodungeon has shifted its way back into the consciousness of the OSR with Autarch’s eighth Kickstarter project: The Secrets of the Nethercity. The concept of the kilodungeon goes back further then most folks realize & pops up in places that dungeon master's least expect it. All the way back to T1 The Village of Hommlet By Gary Gygax. Hommlet's moat house is the perfect metaphor or preview of coming attractions for PC's before they get to the main event.



Everything about Hommlet is the perfect PC base that mirrors many of the elements later found in the the rest of the Temple of Elemental Evil. That is once its been cleared of any & all resistance by the player characters. The dive into the moat house is a dive into the evil of the Underworld infecting the rest of the campaign world. That is to say that its a boil on the face of world & its not one to be taken lightly. This is a mini dungeon setting with plenty of 'shoot from the hip encounters'. The second the PC's enter this place is the second that they're taking on Chaos in all of its glory! Chaos in Advanced or Basic Dungeons & Dragons has always been there as soon as the player or dungeon master has read his first monster alignment that says 'Chaotic' or 'Chaotic Evil'.



Oh and if you don't think that the occult forces of Law & Chaos are just as important in OSR games such as Adventurer,Conqueror, King? Well let me let you feast your eyes on the Kickstarter for Secrets of The Undercity;
"The adventure takes place in the Auran Empire campaign setting, the default setting for ACKS. The eponymous Nethercity lies below the city of Cyfaraun, just fifty miles northwest of Türos Tem, making it a perfect sequel to our introductory adventure The Sinister Stone of Sakkara. But if you don't play in the Auran Empire, don't worry - a special appendix in the book offers advice on how to adapt the adventure for use with our Kanahu setting or with your own favorite campaign world. The Nethercity can be placed under any long-inhabited urban settlement that's changed hands between law and chaos over the centuries."
The really important bit here is,"The Nethercity can be placed under any long-inhabited urban settlement that's changed hands between law and chaos over the centuries."
This is exactly what we see in T1 The Temple of Elemental Evil By Gary Gygax & Frank Mentzer. The moat house of Village of Hommlet is the set up for the bigger & nastier temple which we got a taste of.

The Auran Empire campaign setting,has had its major bush fires with Chaos before & destroyed it outright time & again. But Chaos is a festering disease that breeds in the hearts & minds of the campaign setting. The results can be & are catastrophic for a world. Don't believe me? Just take a look at Barsoom whose Green Martians consumed the entire world of Mars & whose presence is found all over early Dungeons & Dragons adventures encounter tables. Edgar Rice Burroughs creations are some of the most destructive warriors your party is ever likely to encounter. And they are the symptom of a much larger disease. The death of your campaign world should the forces of Chaos get the upper hand.


For world of Dave A Hargrave's Arduin there's one dungeon that consumes the heart of chaos & comes back for more that's Death Heart. This living & breathing chaos magnet lays at the core of a tractless wilderness. The place is pure evil, simple & quick to understand as an adventure location. Its a horrid place that deals in pure chaos and should not be placed too close to a civilized area. There's no warm up dungeon location for Death Heart merely a lone sentinel of evil & choke point for the forces of chaos in Arduin.


 Now I've talked about Lovecraft's Dream cycle & I'm going to again. The Underworld of the Dreamlands represents what happens after the battles have been lost & one. There was an apocalyptic battle in the Dreamlands, the cost was horrid for the gods of Earth. A deal was struck & the role of the gods of Earth was reduced to a mere shadow. Then you might ask where are the forces that fought in this apocalyptic event? Does the Vale of Pnath contain them? Yes it does but these of Chaos forces are right where they were when they were banished! The ghouls & ghasts are some of the most common inhabitants of HP Lovecraft's Underworld. But its in the Gugs of HP Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926) that we get our answers about this apocalypse.
The Gugs were partially responsible for this apocalyptic event, "The gugs were banished to the underworld by the earth’s gods, the Great Ones, for an unnamed blasphemy. Now they reside in a terrifying, underground city, dwelling in lofty, round, cyclopean towers. Nearby, colossal monoliths mark the cemetery of the gugs."

Whose responsible for what happened during all of these events? Well the answer is writ large all over the events of the background of The Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath & its easily Nyarlathotep.

 He holds the keys & the ruination of mankind. Chaos was given a stale mate  but the cost was terrible to the dreams of mankind. There are more hints about it in the writings of Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith.

 The real question for Secrets of the Nethercity what's the mega dungeon that Secrets is warming the characters up for? After the events of the adventure location for Adventurer, Conqueror, King what comes next. This is only taste of what's to come & we get a similar vein of adventure in T1 Village of Hommlet.
Secrets of the Nethercity's Cyfaraun might be the PC's base of operations for connecting the kilodungeons of the Nethercity with some of the upper levels of ACK's Dwimmmermount. Many of the hoards described in this product have direct corroborations with Labyrinth Lord's treasure & horde tables.

Chaos never sleeps & sooner or later the PC's are going to be confronting it again. This is where Dark Albion comes in very handy. Cults of Chaos for Dark Albion goes down exactly the same route as Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu . Lovecraft's mythos forces are chaos unbound in all their glory & they're dangerous as Hell itself. 
This is the same treatment that we see of the Mythos from the Arduin books where Lovecraft's creations jump from one civilized world to another destroying wantonly and dangerously again & again.

Most folks don't know that the Arduin books don't have this take in the main rule books but in the adventures themselves as a part of the monsters & NPC forces of the dungeons of Dave A. Hargrave. These forces though are left overs from apocalyptic events of Arduin's campaign setting.
Here are six rules for bringing the pain of the Mythos to your favorite science fantasy game setting: 

1. Its not always about Cthulhu, there are literally legions of Great Old Ones & Outer Gods to use in adventure settings. 
2. Alien artifacts & treasure can convey far more then miles of exposition during an adventure leading to rolls to help figure out the item 
3. Make up stuff on your own, got a Lovecraft scholar among your ranks than create your own Old One or Outer god for fun & profit during adventures. 
4. Don't get bound by the scale & BS of the Mythos. If you need a god or other thing to be certain way for an adventure then change it. There are so many contradictions in the Weird Tales literature. 
5. Make the Mythos your own & let it work to enrich & not hinder your campaign world. 
6. Earn treasure & items as needed during adventures especially with a cult or mythos flavor.
   

Arduin,The Underworld, Lovecraft, 'Kilodungeons', & More Science Fantasy & OSR Dungeon Commentary

Sewing machine repair work  pretty much defines my life & its been taking up most of my day today. I've had the thought bubbles about 'Kilodungeons' which seem to clock in at about 200 or more rooms. These dungeons have been brought back to attention by Adventurer, Conqueror, King's latest kickstarter for Secrets of the Nethercity;
"An epic "kilodungeon" with 240 location entries spread across 20 different dungeon sub-regions that can be explored in a nonlinear fashion over the course of your campaign."
The concept is much older then that however & it goes all the way back to Judge's Guild product lines. No scratch that, the concept belonged to Gary Gygax's Keep On The Borderlands .

The idea of the adventurer base campaign location being  right off the adventure location dungeon is a homage callback to B2 .
"A home base (the city of Cyfaraun) for use by your adventurers in between dungeon delves. The city is presented in summary format in the adventure itself, and the city and the sewers below it are presented in more detail in a supplement called Capital of the Borderlands (available at $20 and above pledge level). With every bonus goal, we'll expand the city and sewer levels!"




But its more then just a simple homage, when the PC's enter the lower levels of a dungeon such as the Caves of Chaos or even your home campaign they're treading on the entrances to the Underworld.

I mentioned the apocalpytic events of opening of mega dungeons the other day on this blog.

That wasn't by accident folks. The fact is that many early old school dungeons had levels or rooms that I've played in connected with the Underworld. In Dave Hargraves three Arduin books you've got the twenty two Hells & they're ripe with fallen cities, ancient ruins of alien civilizations, etc.




The Lovecraft circle of writers including Clark Ashton Smith all cite to varying degrees different aspects of the Underworld.  H.P. Lovecraft has his own version of the Underworld & in Lovecraft's novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926) we get a glimpse of it.But there were hints of the alien nature of the Underworld going all the way back to Edgar Allen Poe & even older writers of weird fiction.
But all of these hint at the Fall of ancient & alien civilizations predating mankind but whose survivals live on in our dreams. Could it be that dungeons are actually sinks of evil which connect to these alien places attracting greater evil. A sort of ecology of madness & depravity which must be cleaned out from time to time lest the surrounding countryside & urban areas be destroyed?!
We get hints of this in Labyrinth Lord's Realms of Crawling Chaos but elsewhere in the Labyrinth Lord rules set. This actually goes back to original Dungeons & Dragons even the Basic/Expert rules have it with.



Make no mistake the mythos of H.P Lovecraft is chaos, horror, & insanity unbound, its the evil outside the door & its scratching to come in. Rpg Pundit's Dark Albion setting & Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos are perfect for rooting out & destroying the mythos in an inquisitor style game. All of this ties in perfectly with the dream worlds of Lord Dunsany where the Underworld is used to extremely good effect and he's essential reading for anyone looking to create solid dungeon worlds. 

When it comes to tying all of this in with science fantasy here's where it counts:

1. There are always hints of an ancient & forgotten civilization which is often alien & corrupt but don't give out too much detail during adventures let the players fill in the details. 
2. The hint of chaos is in the monsters & dungeon surroundings, again the adventure location is everything. 
3. Let the players do all of the heavy lifting when it comes to getting the most out of the science fantasy or the fantastic 
4. The adventure play is everything & the players have a good time but let them earn it in sweat, blood, and mud 
5. The Lovecraft circle of writers isn't the end all. Be sure to expand your scope into other writers to provide you the DM with everything.
6. Spare the treasure in favor of the mundane as well was the fantastic. Don't over indudge the players in this setting.

Next time more OSR material, the dangers of the other Apocalyptic Events of Mythology & the dungeons

Arduin, The Labyrinth Lord retroclone system, Science Fantasy & The OSR Dungeon Commentary

One of the things I've learned to do is to keep dungeon mastering tastes on a short leash. This means basically keeping my 'flip book animated attention' span in check when it comes to dungeon mastering. I own a good chunk of the Dave A. Hargrave rpg books & last night I 'ohhed' & 'ahhed' over certain science fantasy aspects of the books. But its not about me at all its about the players & their PC's struggles ascending up the long level ladder. The play is the thing thanks to Gary Gygax & David Lance "Dave" Arneson. Some days it feels like I'm the only one in my little corner of Connecticut doing my OSR thing. But I'm not! More on that another time!


You may not have noticed this but over the last week or so I've been on a one man quiet crusade for the Labyrinth Lord retroclone system. I've dialed it back down to a dull roar but Labyrinth Lord is the backbone the system for Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg system. And I've taken it on the chin because of advancing the hobby cause of both Alexander Marcus & Rpg Pundit. But this is nothing new. This blog has gone from two thousand views to eight hundred to four hundred to two hundred. I'm not trying to reach everyone. I'm trying to reach those advancing the table top hobby of old school & OSR games. We need new blood in this hobby & taught in both the new techniques & to preserve the old ways of gaming. Do you want to make this hobby inclusive? Here's a character sheet, some dice, roll up a character, & let's get playing. Did your PC die? Roll up another one!


There are large differences between the values of Labyrinth Lord & say Swords & Wizardry. Don't believe me? Check this comparison out here. Swords & Wizardry has a dedicated fan base & community, this is fine. But for me LL is the choice especially for doing science fantasy style games.
I've said restraint is the really the watch word here & you can see that in Alexander Marcus's latest Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg kick starter. The PC's advance in regular adventure path pattern even though the adventure campaign is far from ordinary;
"Secrets of the Nethercity is designed for a party of experienced mid-level adventurers and is stocked with sufficient monsters and treasure to advance them by four to six levels. As such it serves as a mid-level environment in which the adventurers can acquire the wealth and power they need to advance into high-level play. "



High level play is often fun but only when its achieved by slugging through PC levels. Dungeon masters have to realize that patience is a virtue for a DM & its about the play as much as the players enjoyment. This is where the meet point is for both old school & OSR game systems.
Lately for me I've been drooling over the old Planet Stories covers from the Forties & Fifties. These covers were great inspiration for my Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition game campaign I've got coming up. The players seem excited by the prospect but its background is drawn more from Clark Ashton Smith then it is from Edgar Rice Burroughs.



Note that the heroines of Planet Stories always had some really well fleshed out backgrounds. I'm reminded of several of the charts in Arduin that I'd seen for PC backgrounds as the PC's levels go up with their experience.


Yes I posted this on G+ but doesn't that gun look like something straight out of AS&SH's radium pistol section. The fact is that science fantasy elements can be mixed in with traditional Dungeons & Dragons for more then mere window dressing. There are six ways that I observed that the Arduin rpg books did it successfully in my opinion;

1. Historical technologies & odd artifacts were mixed in liberally not over the top within dungeons & these were often artifact level treasures with whole adventure concepts built around them. They gave kingdoms a step up and advantage in warfare & battle. 
2. The mundane were often used as both window dressing & to give a more traditional veneer to the fantasy adventure but the science fantasy bubbled under the surface of the Arduin material.
3. Adventurers suffer for anything their taking out of the dungeon & suffer hard for any material that gets taken from a dungeon have a techno or scientist hireling to take care of treasures.
4. Science fantasy  adventure elements of the fantastic were often it seems mini adventure settings themselves isolated from main campaign locations in Arduin 
5. Arduin seems to owe more to Lord Dunsany in its fantasy as much as to Tolkien & Robert Howard. The conceits are very Seventies Sword & Sorcery here with the science fantasy taking a back seat when needed. 
6. PC's earn everything from the dungeons in blood, sweat, tears, & PC's. Arduin is harsh on the players as an old school game adventure should be.
   
   Next time Dark Albion & The Lovecraft underworld plus much more so stay tuned!