Thursday, September 22, 2011

Arduin, Bloody Ardiun

Different Worlds was Chaosium's house magazine back in the day. Although never as popular as The Dragon or The Space Gamer it was a pretty good zine. One notable feature was the "My Life & Role-Playing" series. As editor Tadashi Ehara explains,

"To provide content for the first issue, I invited all the prominent game designers and role-playing personalities at the time to submit a "My Life & Role-Playing" article. The response exceeded expectations and many heart-felt articles were submitted. The premiere issue of Different Worlds debuted in early 1979 with articles from 13 of these members of the role-playing world. Many others followed in subsequent issues. To my chagrin, Greg Stafford himself has never contributed to the "My Life & Role-Playing" series."

Dave Arneson, Ken St. Andre, Steve Jackson, Marc W. Miller, Paul Jaquays, and others talked about their experience with gaming. They provide a great glimpse into the early days of the hobby. One of the others to contribute was David A. Hargrave, author of the unforgettable Arduin Trilogy. The second issue of the magazine featured an article by him titled "Arduin, Bloody Ardiun" in which he wrote about his eclectic (eccentric?) campaign setting and which included this cool early map of Arduin.


Whether that article was written before or after his infamous spat with Greg Stafford I can't say, but he didn't seem to have a problem with promoting Arduin in the pages of Chaosium's zine.

4 comments:

Alex Osias said...

interestinging. I have a fascination with Arduin and find these windows into the past interestinging. :)

Jerry Cornelius said...

Arduin is so OTT that it's both amazing and slightly ridiculous. It always struck me as more like Slayers than LotR. But it is fun trying to get a feel for the early wild and woolly days of the hobby.

Anonymous said...

Have you looked into their latest system and its insight into that older game?

Jerry Cornelius said...

No, after Hargrave passed away I quit paying attention.