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14 April, 2009

Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net

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Back in the saddle Dave Arneson Website and


APR 14, 2009 02:28A.M.
Information
APR 13, 2009 08:11P.M.

For the first time in a very long time I wrote something using the d20. It Dave’s family has established a website that includes up to date
is a new monster and will be up on Megadungeon.net in a day or so (I information about funeral home visitation and memorial bequests, as
sent it to James for his editing and approval). well as how to contact them if you have any questions.

I never thought I would be writing d20 again. Funny how life works The website is located here.
sometimes.

Posted in Games, Life, Rogue Games, thoughts Tagged: Games,

Megadungeon.net, writing
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Dave Arneson Tribute Painting


APR 13, 2009 03:01P.M.

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We will be at GenCon
APR 13, 2009 10:51P.M.

Got the booth assignment on Friday, and I am pleased. GenCon here we


come.

Like year’s past, this GenCon will see a debute of new product, new
surprises and a few other cool things. One of the cool things? Packs of
d12s for sale.

There are other cool things as well, but we are selling d12s. This is what
makes me geek out.

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 14 April, 2009

If there’s a winner of the “Most Influential Fantasy Novel You’ve Never


Kevin Mayle has produced a gorgeous painting as a tribute to the Heard Of, Let Alone Read” award, odds are goods that it’d be The Worm
memory of Dave Arneson. As you can see, the painting recalls the cover Ouroboros. Published in 1922, this ground-breaking novel is the work of
of Supplement II, Blackmoor, which I always felt had the most evocative an English civil servant named E.R. Eddison. There certainly had been
cover of all the OD&D supplements. fantasy novels before, both in English and in other languages, but The
Worm Ouroboros is the first one to turn world building into the high art
If you’re interested, you can buy a copy in poster form or on canvas. it’s become. J.R.R. Tolkien recognized this fact at the time,
simultaneously praising Eddison’s creation for its depth and criticizing it
for its underlying philosophy. It’s interesting to note that, like many
fantasy authors, the world and story Eddison imagined grew out of
childhood fancies that he kept with him his entire life.
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The novel tells the story of the conflict between two realms, Demonland
Pulp Fantasy Library: The and Witchland. The king of Witchland demands that the lords of
Demonland submit to his authority. The lords agree to do this only in the
Worm Ouroboros event that the Witchlander king can defeat the greatest of the
APR 13, 2009 01:41P.M. Demonlander lords, Goldry Bluszco, in a wrestling match. When the two
leaders undertake this feat of strength, the king of Witchland is slain. His
successor contrives by magic to imprison Goldry Bluszco so that
Demonland will have lost its champion and be vulnerable to attack by
the invading Witchlander armies. The novel then proceeds with the story
of the clash between these two kingdoms and the attempts by the
Demonlanders to find and free Goldry Bluszco in time to be able to save
their land from conquest.

The Worm Ouroboros is, quite simply, an amazing piece of work that
defies easy categorization. With its unique prose style, it’s quite unlike
any fantasy novel that has come in its wake. Its characters are vividly

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 14 April, 2009

drawn and compelling, even the villainous ones, who come across as very
real, if flawed, human beings. The story itself reads like a Greek tragedy
in the form of a Norse saga: a dark, larger-than-life struggle in which
hubris plays as large a role as heroism and honor. It’s this, I think, that
so offended Tolkien. Eddison’s characters, even the putatively noble
ones, are arrogant brutes who adhere so thoroughly to a warrior ideal
that they pray for the resurrection of their enemies so that they may
avoid the boredom of peacetime. This is part of what makes the novel so
compelling. The world it presents is at once attractive and repulsive,
making it hard not to be drawn headlong into it, despite one’s feelings.

Interestingly, The Worm Ouroboros is not listed in Appendix N. I’d be


amazed if Gygax had never read the book, but, if he did, he never made
mention of it, making it hard to gauge its direct influence over the
development of D&D. There’s no question that it had a huge influence on
the game indirectly, through the world building template it laid down for
the genre. It’s a pity so many latter day fantasy novelists seem incapable
of telling an epic story as succinctly as Eddison does (it’s under 500
pages in its original edition), but I fear the fantasy novel is too deep into
its decadent phase to allow for such a possibility. For that reason, if
you’re tired of 1000-page long, interminable series, you might want to
give Eddison a try. His style certainly isn’t for everyone and I admit that
there are stretches of the novel where my eyes started to glaze over, but
there’s no denying his was at least a unique and imaginative voice and
one of the founders of a modern literary genre.

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