Polski opis

Gra Arduin powstała w roku 1970, a stworzył ją David Hargrave. Stanowi ona mieszankę różnych gatunków RPG, dzięki czemu każdy znajdzie coś w niej dla siebie. Pomysł Hargrave'a został kupiony przez TSR, które dostrzegło potencjał gry. Wiele pomysłów z niej zostało wykorzystanych w mechanice D&D.

Historia tego świata rozpoczyna się w momencie jego powstania, kiedy to wybuchła wojna pomiędzy gadami Khtoi, Władcami Gromów i Wielkimi Szarymi Bestiami a pierwszymi ludźmi - Rune Weaverami. Weaverzy wygrali ten konflit, po czym ich rządy nad światem trwały blisko milion lat. Jednakże zostały przerwane przez Wielką Wojnę Nocy. Trwała ona 20 tysięcy lat, Weaverzy, pomimo gromnych strat własnych co obecnie prowadzi do powolnego ich upadku, wygrali konflikt, a ich wrogowie - Tytani i Magowie Potęgi Gwiazd niemalże przestali istnieć. Tak to właśnie wszystko się zaczęło.
(by harfista)

 English description

Arduin is a fantasy role-playing game created in the mid 1970s by David A. Hargrave. It was perhaps the first "cross-genre" fantasy RPG, with everything from interstellar wars to horror and historical drama, although it was based primarily in the medieval fantasy genre.

Arduin began as a personal project shared with friends, but became so popular that Hargrave was inspired to publish his material.

Arduin was one of the earliest challengers to TSR's Dungeons & Dragons. The Arduin suite of supplements, dungeon modules, and gaming aids were initially self-published, but were then later produced by Grimoire Games, and then Dragon Tree Press, and finally by Emperor's Choice Games and Miniatures. Note that Dragon Tree Press now receives its Arduin material exclusively from Emperor's Choice Games and Miniatures and no longer produces it.

Although the Arduin books did not explicitly claim to be a Dungeons & Dragons supplement, they were treated as such by most users. Eventually, a few of the rules first introduced in the Arduin series were incorporated into the official rules for D&D published by TSR, including:
- Fumbles
- Critical hits
- The two-dimensional alignment system (good/evil combined with law/chaos)
(www.wikipedia.org)

Arduin's history stretches back to the dim dawn of creation and the world's first rulers, the dread reptilian Kthoi, the Thunder Lords, the Great Grey Beasts from beyond time. It encompasses the wars between them and the first true men, the Rune Weavers. The victory of the Rune Weavers and their subsequent half million year rule would come to a conclusion when the Titans (old allies of the Kthoi) and the new borning Star Powered Mages joined together to fight The Great Night War. This conflict raged for about 20,000 years, and though the Titans and the Star Powered ones were nearly annihilated, the Rune Weavers themselves were so decimated that they were no longer a major force in the world and slowly faded from the ken of Almanity.

The next 3000 years were relatively peaceful, allowing the Free Mages of the Circle of Light to predominate the guiding of the planet. That ended with an interstellar war (caused by allowing an influx of starfaring races, beings, and creatures) that left the fifth continent (the planet's largest), and most of civilization a fused, radioactive ruin. The Dark Years (or Interregnum) followed, lasting some 10,000 years as the survivors shifted their remnants to the third continent (the world's second largest and the wildest) of Khoara. Many nations rose and fell, to hold and then to lose power on Khaas as the world was now called (the old name for it, Ssass-Khaa, being long forgotten).

Civilization struggled up out of the long night once more, set back at times by war and natural disaster, but ever upward did it go. However, the real problems began when the College of Sages in the country of Falohyr discovered an area of trans-temporal and inter-dimensional instability had manifested itself in the area roughly contiguous with the small Elven Kingdom of Arduin. As word of this discovery spread more and more nations plotted to overthrow the kingdom, realizing that whoever controlled the area and the newly discovered "Gates" also controlled not only this world but perhaps untold thousands of others as well. Thus the bloody Wars of When (also called Nexus Wars) began.
(www.arduin.com/)