Not longer than 10 minutes ago, my doorbell rang and my postman handed me a package containing the following valuables:
The Arduin Grimoire Volume 1, Welcome to Skull Tower (Volume II) and The Runes of Doom (Volume III).
I now have something I had heard about but never owned.
I was supposed to be reading the OD&D boxed set today, but I have a feeling these little treasures will be stealing some of my attention today ;)
My first RPGs were Wizard and Melee, then Holmes D&D with the first Arduin book. Back then, it had illustrations by Erol Otus -- you can see some here.
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Arduin had kind of a badass reputation, and one of the reasons was a poorly-rendered thigh that accidentally looked like full-frontal nudity.
It wasn't until Dave Hargrave complained publicly about this assumption that I took a closer look and realized it was just bad draftsmanship.
Hey, it was the seventies, I was reading Heavy Metal and underground comics -- it all seemed like the same thing to me.
As I recall, the Arduin books eventually numbered 7, though the first three are considered core. Another thing to remember is that the Arduin books are examples of stream of consciousness put into publication. They are badly organized. I understand Hargrave was working on a consolidation and revision, but died in an automobile accident before he could finish it. His ultimate goal was to present it as a game in its own right, but he never got the chance.
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