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The Introduction starts with a "what is roleplaying" discussion with a comparison with acting. An odd distinction is made between Ardiun, which is part of "Adventure Gaming" which "started several years ago as something called 'Fantasy Role Playing'". The 'script' according to the next section for the gamemaster, must have a legend or history of an area, a specific location that the characters must proceed to, written description of all items, monsters, people and treasure, a reason for journeying to the location, pre-set encounters, 'special happenstances', and all the naterial necessary for play.
Character generation is initially determined from a selection of familiar races (Elf, Dwarf, Hobbit, Human, Amazon and Half-Orc). We are pleased to learn that the Hellenic Amazons "DO NOT hate men". The only addition apart from expected descriptions of culture and physique to these races is the suggestion that "sometimes" Elves can be Warriors and Mages simultaneously, and that Dwarves have a 20% chance of "simply grabbing any valuable without thinking". A section is included on character and monster vision which notes that Elves have a 60% chance of hearing anything within 60' of themselves, with Half-Orcs (50%), Dwarves (40%), Hobbits (30%), Amazons (20%) and Humans (10%) being progressively worse. Character classes consist of Warriors, Mages, Priests, Thieves, and Foresters. Differentiation between the classes is slight; Warriors get +1 to Constitution and Strength and a 20% chance of detecting ambushes and surprise which increases at 2% per level., Mages get +1 to Intelligence and Ego and 10% of detecting magic, +3%/level., Priests get +1 to Wisdom and 20% chance of sensing evil, +2%/level - they must also tithe 30% of their income., Thieves get +1 to Agility and Dexterity and have a 30% chance of hiding in darkness and shadows, +3%/level., Foresters gain +1 to Constitution and Agility and have a 30% chance of tracking, +3%/level.
Basic Characteristics consist of Dexterity, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, Ego, Wisdom, Charisma. These a determined on a d20 roll, which does not give good sense of averages, with modifiers for race; Elves have +12 points to distribute to Dex, Agil, Int and Char, Dwarves have +12 points to distribute to Con, Stre and Ego, Hobbits +8 points to Agil, Dex and Char, Amazons +8 points to Con and Str, Half Orcs +6 to Con and Str and -4 to Wis or Int, and Humans roll a d10, with 5 or less giving a subtraction and 6 or more an addition of 4 points to any two characteristics. Final values even after modifications must be between 5 and 20. Hit points are based on CON plus one per experience level, regardless of class. Alignment is based on a familiar Lawful-Neutral-Chaotic and Good-True-Evil array but with the odd exception of "Amoral" tacked on to the former; "A character that doesn't know 'right' from 'wrong' or understands laws. He will do what he wants - regardless of whether it is legal or illegal - if he wants to do so". As a result of the array, one of the suggested alignments is 'amoral-evil'.
Characters gain one level of experience every five adventures through to fourth level. Every experience level means "one point less on any die roll the character has to make". The following sentence points out however that sometimes this "one point less" means one point more, such in combat where a d20 roll-over Armor Class value is used. In practical terms the one less rule means saving throws, which exist for some ten possible adventurer-type situations (dragon breath, fear, paralysis, poison, spoken spells, device magik, acid, lightning/energy, mesmerisation and stoning). Monsters have their own saving roll values as well. Finally, starting characters receive a d20 in "Gold Sovereigns". There are 20 Silver Shillings to a GS and 20 Copper Pennies to a SS. Each gold coin weighs one ounce and a silver or copper coin half an ounce. A page of adventurer character equipment is provided.
As mentioned the melee section begins with movement (melee, ordinary, penalties and daily overland) with a weather table thrown in. Combat rounds appear to be in six second increments, with melee movement based on DEX+AGI times 5 per round, but with a subtraction of 5' per turn for every AC below 9 or every 10 pounds of equipment; there is the odd suggestion that one must "subtract penalties for armor worn before adding your DEX and AGIL together and multiplying", which makes no difference whatsoever. Ordinary dungeon exploring movement is one-tenth of melee movement. Characters with a faster DEX may always elect to parry a weapon with a successful hit against a DF (Defense Factor or, read, Armor Class plus Dexterity bonuses) of 2+1 - if that number seems odd it is because Armor Classes go from 9 (no armour) down to 2 (full plate) and then with lower ACs such as AC2+1 (full plate and shield or half-plate and tower shield) and AC2+2 (full plate and tower shield) and so forth; as evident a shield provides the equivalent of 5% protection or 10% if a tower or kite shield. Hitting one's target is based on a d20 roll above a cross-referenced number based on Armour Class and Weapon. A dagger, for example, requires and 11 to hit AC 5 (scale or chain mail, leather plus shield etc, modified by Strength) whereas a longbow requires a 1 or more (no range differentials are provided). A '20' is usually a critical and a '1' is a fumble; just under half of the short critical chart (a d10 roll) will cause death. Otherwise weapons do a flat rate of damage. Any character who takes more than 1/2 their current HPs in a single block is knocked down, and (shades of RuneQuest!), puncturing weapons have a 20% chance of impaling for double damage.
The next chapter is "Magik", which consists of "Thaumaturgical" and "Priestly". Spells are powered by Mana, which for mage is equal to the characters INT+5 and addition 3 per level thereafter. From this Mana, a mage must allocate a number of spells from first through to fourth order. Mages can use magik of an order equal to half their experience level. Priests on the other hand, have 15 Mana and 3 per level gained after the first, they do not have to memorise spells, and also have the ability to 'lay on hands' usually to those of their faith (a "God Reaction Roll" is made otherwise!). Laying on hands costs the Priest 10 CON/HPs and knocks them out for d10 hours - however it will heal any wound except a fatal one and will stop bleeding. Priests also have the ability to "turn away" the undead with a 10% chance for each 10 hit points less than 100 the undead have. Their spells take a turn to cast rather than a round for the mages.
The actual quantity of spells is very modest (about 6-8 per Order) and the descriptions are minimal, usually a sentence or two. There are, as is probably expected by this stage, many similarities with another well known FRPG, with a couple of interesting changes such as Tangle Trap (read: Web) being available at 1st level, Flash Point (read: Fireball) doing a fixed quantity of damage. Following this is two pages of magikal artifacts and treasures, which includes those which are found (crystal balls, enchanted weapons, enchanted rings, amulets, clothing and magik potions) and those which a mage can make (book of power, scrolls, wands, rods, and staffs). It is not clear how the other magic items come into existence, but a Crystal Ball is described as being "normally worth 5,000 G.S. and is hard to find but not rare".
Some twenty-two "Monsters and Other Creatures" are described, with four-five sentences each, mainly dedicated to size, hit points and combat ability - nothing on where they live, how many are encountered or anything exotic like that! However, receiving more weighty consideration is the dragon, whose breath weapon is equal to its hit points, with damage divided among those affected, and with a number of breath weapon attacks per day per 25 hit points. Dragons are differentiated by color - and you can guess what these are - which also determines where they're found, what they breath and their hit point size. The monster list is pretty standard; dire wolves, ghouls, giant spiders, kobolds, orcs, zombies etc, but with one exception - the phraint, "main-sized insect warriors".
Finally the game provides an adventure, called "The Forgotten Tower". The background involves a an ancient mage (evil) who was driven from his lands by a priest-king (good, because good people invade the lands of evil people). The mage in exile built a tower, populated it with monsters, and then returned with vengence in his mind - and was killed in combat. The tower of mage is dutifully forgotten except one day a dusty traveller arrives at an inn (no less) and for a small price draws a map to the location for the adventurers who are convinently located. The tower itself, consisting of five floors and a cavern complex, has neither rhyme nor reason; simply rooms and monsters (especially orcs and goblins) and some deadly traps which the GM can key in as they wish along with eight of the caverns. On rare occassions the events are synchronised - a kobold hides from a giant spider from another room, for example. Oddly the giant spider, which is described as starving because it hasn't eaten for two weeks, makes its home in a stairwell - at the top of the stairs is a room consisting of more than four score giant rats.
The final pages of The Ardiun Adventure consists of another page of potential monsters (faeries, giants, hydra, monatour, titans, "slimes, oozes and other yucky things"), a page of more magikal artifacts, advanced rules for multiple actions per combat round, and a bibliography.
Overall there is little to recommend in The Ardiun Adventure. It is a largely plagarised version of Dungeons & Dragons with a much narrower scope and less rules and a greater proportion that make little sense. The only saving grace is that the entire game is in one 64 page book, but even that is not particularly impressive considering how minimal the content is. Did you notice that Thieves can't actually, well, steal? That hit points do not vary by character class? That Ego, Charisma, and Wisdom don't seem to integrated into the game system at all? Heck, there isn't even rules for drowning and falling! One could go on describing the flaws of The Ardiun Adventure, but a careful reader would have already picked them up simply by reading through the review. It is vaguely interesting for historical reasons only.
Style: 1 + .3 (layout) + .5 (art) + .1 (coolness) + .3 (readability) + .2 (product) = 2.4
Substance: 1 + .1 (content) + .3 (text) + .2 (fun) + .1 (workmanship) + .1 (system) = 1.8
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