Diving into the Arduin Underworld - OSR Commentary On House of the Rising Sun (Arduin Grimoire volume 6)

 The House of the Rising Sun is the sixth volume of the Arduin Grimoire series, released in 1980. Authored by David A. Hargrave, it is a seminal piece of the "Old School Renaissance" (OSR) DNA, known for its kitchen-sink fantasy style, high lethality, and unapologetic weirdness. This picks up from 

Diving into the Arduin Underworld - OSR Commentary On Winds of Chance (Arduin Grimoire volume 8) By David A. Hargrave

Like its predecessors, Volume VI is less of a cohesive rulebook and more of a chaotic, creative "data dump" intended to expand the Arduin Multiverse.

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### Key Contents & Features

1. New Character Classes

Hargrave continued his trend of introducing highly specific, often overpowered or mechanically unique classes. Notable additions include:

• The Amazon: A specialized warrior class with unique combat maneuvers and social restrictions.

• The Medicine Man: A flavor of healer/shaman that operates differently from the standard Cleric or Druid.

• The Wind-Walker: A high-mobility class focused on speed and aerial utility.

2. Expanded Combat & Critical Tables

Arduin is famous for its brutal critical hit and fumble charts. Volume VI introduced even more specific tables, including:

• The "Social" Critical Table: Rules for critical successes or failures in social interactions.

• New Melee and Missile Charts: Increasing the complexity and "gore factor" of combat results, which often included limb loss or instant decapitation.

3. Monsters and Bestiary

This volume introduced dozens of new creatures, ranging from high-fantasy tropes to sci-fi horrors. These included:

• The Magno-Pede: A metallic, magnetic centipede-like creature.

• Interdimensional Horrors: Various entities that leaned into the "Lesser Lovecraftian" vibe common in Arduin.

• The "Rising Sun" Themed Foes: Creatures inspired by Eastern folklore (Oni, etc.), reflecting the title of the book.

4. Magic and Artifacts

The book added hundreds of new spells, many of which were designed to bypass traditional "Vancian" magic limitations. It also detailed several unique artifacts, often with extremely high power levels and devastating drawbacks for the user.

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### Design Philosophy: "The Arduin Way"

The House of the Rising Sun exemplifies the Arduin philosophy that defined early tabletop gaming:

Feature	Description
Multiversal Scope	It assumes your campaign isn't just one world, but a nexus where sci-fi, horror, and fantasy collide.
Lethality	Death is frequent, and the rules are designed to make every combat encounter feel genuinely dangerous.
High Density	The layout is famously cramped; Hargrave squeezed as much text, tables, and lists onto every page as possible.
Independence	While designed to work with Dungeons & Dragons (specifically OD&D), it was part of Hargrave's push to make Arduin a standalone entity.

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### Historical Context

By the time Volume VI was released, Arduin was at the center of a legal and cultural tug-of-war with TSR (the makers of D&D). The House of the Rising Sun represents a bridge between the early "zines" and the more professionalized Arduin Adventure boxed sets that would follow.

OSR Campaign Commentary On House of the Rising Sun (Arduin Grimoire volume 6) By David A. Hargrave - Dragon's Graveyard & Bloody Arduin's Dragon Magick

 

 Let's talk about House of the Rising Sun there's some of the great Arduin world building in this Arduin supplement. I've been working with Mathew Tapp's Barrows & Borderland rpg and I wanted to add a section of the Dragon's Graveyard too the wilderness. Now in the past I've looked into Arduin's House of The Rising Sun back in Jan 13th in 2024. Now this is based on the classic Dungeons & Dragons S02E07 The Dragon's Graveyard - Oct 20, 1984. Now Tiamat guards the graveyard and could it be that she actually guards the ancient secrets of Dragon magick. And this ties into our plans for Arduin's Portal to Adventure Kickstarter. 

What did the dragon magick actually do and according to Arduin's House of the Rising Sun?! According to Brave's A.I. Leo; "House of the Rising Sun (Arduin Grimoire Volume 6)  Dragon Magick"

House of the Rising Sun, the sixth volume of the Arduin Grimoire series by  David A. Hargrave, includes a dedicated section on  Dragon Magic, spanning  four pages. This section presents a collection of powerful and perilous spells attributed to dragons, most of which are extremely dangerous for non-dragons to attempt.

The spells are described as being so potent and inherently draconic that only dragons can reliably cast them. The section concludes with a list of additional dragon-exclusive spells, noted only by name and a brief effect description, emphasizing their inaccessibility to other spellcasters.

Key aspects of the Dragon Magic section include:

• Spells that reflect draconic nature, such as breath weapons, regeneration, and elemental control.

• High risk for non-dragons, often resulting in severe backlash or death.

• Integration with the broader Arduin magic system, yet distinct in power and origin

Since Tiamat is the final guardian of the ancient dragonic magicks and artifacts then it makes sense then that she also guards the deepest secrets of dragon magick! 

OSR Commentary On House of the Rising Sun (Arduin Grimoire volume 6) By David A. Hargrave For The Arduin Grimoire series & Your Old School Campaigns

Alright so it's another snowy night here in Connecticut and once again our game has been cancelled due to high winds. Which means that I find myself reaching for one of my favorite alternative old school original Dungeons & Dragons or AD&D first edition supplement series. House of the Rising Sun was published in Eighty Six. 

 In addition to the usual collection of new monsters, spells and magik items, “House of the Rising Sun” provides rare insights into the Arduin campaign setting with presentations covering:

* Background information on many of Arduin’s Noble Houses and Landed Siege Lords

* An in-depth look at the hierarchy, organization and activities of Arduin’s many Street Gangs

* A detailed review of the Beggars Guild and guidelines for the new Beggar character class

* An expose of Arduin’s infamous Assassins Guild, their unique weapons and deadly poisons

* A wide variety of culinary delights including unique appetizers, odd entrées and bizarre beverages

* Medical Wonders to cure numerous ills and maladies

* Unique Arduinian Pets and natural denizens of the wilds

* Legendary Gems and Jewels, magikal artifacts and mythical musical instruments

* A review of the “Elder Gods” – gone but not forgotten religions

* “Dragon Magiks” and a whole lot more!

Please note that all Classic Arduin products were written by David A. Hargrave in the 1970’s and 1980’s and are presented here in their original unchanged format.

 Let's talk about House of the Rising Sun in a  deeper context and talk about the fact that this little supplement from Eighty Six reveals far more on Arduin’s Noble Houses and Landed Siege Lords. These folks are the royals as well as the movers & shakers on Arduin. Back in Eighty Seven our own party of adventurers ran afoul of two of these wankers. And they slapped us in irons and traded us as slaves to one of the Orc tribes. 
Needless to say that we escaped as soon as possible and then got deeply invovled with the thieves guilds and street gangs of Arduin. This led our campaign to go deep into the underworld and criminal elements of Arduin. And this is where the article on the street gangs of Arduin was crutal to my uncle's campaign. 
And we also got different assignments from the Begger's Guild & we had two of these scum in our party. The Begger's guild is deeply tied into the Asassins Guild of Arduin. And so House of the Rising Sun was key to my uncle's campaign 
One of our adventures revovlved around an exotic monster produced ingrediant for a libation of a certain noble. And I believe my uncle was inspired by the meals and bizarre beverages of Arduin. 

And this led to our getting involved with procuring medical ingrediant for some of the potions and poluctices on Arduin especially to the healers of the begger's guild. Yes the begger's guild has it's own doctors and healers. 
And we eventually had to flee one of the Arduin kingdoms because of the crime we never committed. We then got involved with the Bardic Lord of Song who was looking for one of the legendary musical instruments covered in the article of Legendary Gems & Jewels plus magical items. And this led to our involvement with one of the temples of the Elder Gods of Arduins which was covered in the next article. Round this out with our brush with Dragon magick and you pretty much have the entire ark of part of my uncle's campaign.

  House of the Rising Sun (Arduin Grimoire volume 6) By David A. Hargrave  is incredibly useful because Hargrave made all of his articles modular. Sure the DM could use all of some articles for thier own campaigns. And then disregard the next article but most of the Arduin Grimoire supplements were brillant because of the breath and depth of information they give on Arduin.