OSR Campaign Starter Commentary - The Dave Hargrave Arduin Angle With An OSR Twist Up

 

So going over some OSRIC notes from 2006 there's  a whole section on Dave Hargrave's Arduin?! Hmm that might be a tad hard for some OSR folks. If only there was a far more easier way to combined these two?! By using OSRIC with Ruins of Arduin for Swords & Wizardry Light this might give us exactly the sorta of Gonzo that would work! But what's the advantage here?! 

Well besides getting all of the goodness of two well edited OSR products here's an old school flare without the fiddly bits of some of the original copies. This would be a cultclassic echo of the origins but with a more modern flare. 

Now you might be asking yourself why do this?! Several reasons but the biggest?! There are a ton of OSRIC adventures that could potentially be run as lower tier Arduin adventures. This is because of a comment that Ken Moscardini made on one of our Facebook posts; "
One of the issues is a lot of the talk is about the first book an its impact on the hobby. The first book stands alone. The second and third book begin to introduce us to his actual game style. He created a system for example where low and high level characters could adventure together. In a sense the first book stands alone as a supp. to Grayhawk, in fact he copied tables from Grayhawk to add to his book. The other two books form a duality in that you need both to get all the information. After that the rest of the books were used to share details of his world." 
So this got us thinking why not go with OSRIC as a possible Arduin style rpg & then go back into many of the classic adventures of the OSR?! This gives the player's PC's an 'in' into Arduin without killing the player's PC's outright. This goes against the 'Bloody,Bloody, Arduin'  grain in a way. This is the formula for a more successful campaign set up.  Couple this with a classic OSR adventure such as Dragon Foot's 'The Village With No Name' By Robert James & the PC's are off to the races! 


 If we want to keep the spirit of Arduin's power attracts power then suggest combined this adventure with Jon Thompson's 'The Beast of Geshtein'.  Now your off & running with a month or two of OSR adventure goodness. 


From here's a simple leap frog into the world of Dave Hargrave's Arduin using OSR refined rpg retroclone systems. The DM can easily transition into the warped Gonzo world Hargrave adventure goodness! 

Cha'alt Three Kickstarter 'Dancing in the Streets' or Saving Cha'alt - Cha'alt/Godbound Campaign Update

 So there hasn't been a lot of movement on the Cha'alt/Godbound campaign front for a few weeks now. Mostly because of scheduling & Covid related player issues. Then a barrage of emais came in from players, 'Have you seen Venger's new Cha'alt kickstarter?' or 'Did you know about what's happening to Cha'alt?' 
Cha'alt has been a major NPC player in my campaigns ever since the first book came out last year & now DM Greg emailed me the following; " The first adventure is titled Six Hours To Save Cha'alt.  It's about a meteor on a collision course with the planet.  Only the PCs can avert disaster.  They have to venture inside a sleeping spawn of an Old One in order to find the tech that can save Cha'alt."  'We can do this!'


When the Cha'alt wave hit the multiverse there was a ripple effect causing chaos of all kinds & alerting the gods. And this has been on going campaign to kill lots of the cults crossing over into Earth from Cha'alt. 

This gets into the idea of several bands of Swords & Wizardry light  PC's mixing it up with Ruins of Arduin rpg NPC parties & this includes deodanth bounty hunter blood parties out to end several party members. Ruins of Arduin is this sixty five page OSR book that ports over much of the Arduin awesomeness over to Swords & Wizardry. You can still get it for free right here.  The Deodanths are in the employ of a crime lord from Cha'alt 

The Deodanths would like nothing more then to eat the heart of a godbound or two but their real target is a renegade  Mystara immortal whose been helping the PC's from the side lines. Its highly unlikely they will achieve this goal. But the guidelines from The Vaults of Panduis Guide to the Immortals available right here. 

Let's face facts here the Mystara Immortals are the busy bodies of the multiverse & stick their noses into everything. Their entire ethos is opposed to everything Cha'alt stands for. So its game on between the rivals. When & where this game campaign will pick up again is still anyone's guess because of Covid at the moment but we'll keep you posted. 

Some Thoughts The Arduin Rpg & Free ' Ruins of Arduin' Swords & Wizardry rpg retroclone

" Rules for Fantastic Campaigns with Paper and Pencils

User summary:

A fan-created adaptation of the Arduin campaign setting to the rules for Swords & Wizardry Light."

Its been a long time since we dusted off our notes on the Bloody,Bloody, Arduin rpg campaign & some of the weirdness that's flowed under the campaign  bridge here. The fact is that the Ruins of Arduin Blog is now gone & only reachable by the Waybackmachine.  That's fine because some choice bits remain such as the free Ruins of Arduin rpg retroclone by John Miskimen 

What 'Ruins of Arduin' has is an OSR  engine based on Swords & Wizardry light with a whole cloth Aruin setting build into it. Because its free there's quite a bit that can be done with it. Arduin remains one of the best of the gonzo old school settings created by game designer/DM legend David Hargrave. 

All of the major player PC alien races of Arduin appear in 'Ruins of Arduin' , the most interesting monsters, different magic item options, Arduin treasures, etc. There's just enough of the Hargrave magic in there to make this so worth downloading. 

There's just enough of the weirdness of Arduin's setting to get & keep a game rolling for years. And its this element that we're going to be plugging into. Over the years various bits & pieces of Arduin have appeared in my games & Ruins of Arduin has made it far easier to do on my part. Deodanth bounty hunters, Star Mage NPC's & patrons, the occasional very nasty version of a slaver, etc. 

What makes 'Ruins of Arduin' work so well is the 'Swords & Wizardry light engine', its easier to use, simple to get into, & highly reliable when it comes to actual play. Its literally a page of 

'plug & go play'  game.                                                                                                                                        

What works with 'Ruins of Arduin' is that essence of the Arduin experience is there without the extrainous manure that crops up in some of the experiences that have happened to me with D&D's 'other three brown' books. Arduin is the mother ship of gonzo gaming that we love & from a time long before the OSR was a twinkle in the eyes of anyone. 
What's going to happen with me taking on Ruins of Arduin?! Well its gonna be interesting & somethings really are gonna change in the coming months. If you haven't got a copy of Ruins of Arduin then grab it now before its gone into the ether.