Announcing DFRPG Arden Vul

Announcing DFRPG Arden Vul (2025-03-05)

Campaign Overview

The GM decided to run a fantasy megadungeon campaign using “The Halls of Arden Vul” by Richard Barton, written for OSRIC (a variant of Advanced D&D First Edition). The adventure is noted for its huge size (1100+ pages), a well-developed world, and a challenging dungeon.

The campaign uses the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (DFRPG) as its base rule set, with specific modifications to character generation and experience point (XP) awards.

Character Creation Rules (Summary)

• Point Total: 125 points for player characters (PCs).
• Disadvantage Limit: -25 points.
• Sense of Duty (Adventuring Companions): [-5] does not count against the disadvantage limit.
• Quirk Limit: -5 points.
• Templates: Uses “Five Easy Pieces” from Pyramid 3/113, which are 50-point mini-templates. PCs can afford three Pieces (or two with an expensive racial template). Disadvantage points embedded in a Piece count against the limit.
• Playable Races: Dwarves, Elves, Half-elves, Halflings, Humans, and Imperial Goblins. Cat-folk, half-orcs, half-ogres, and gnomes are not allowed.
• Languages: Languages can be taken at Accented and Broken levels to save points.
• Starting Money: Per DFRPG rules, with options to buy Wealth or trade points for cash.
• Equipment: Standard DFRPG: Adventurers equipment is available at list price, except for plate armor (which does not exist in the setting). Some non-magical items can be requested from the GM. Special orders or magical equipment may require availability rolls or travel to larger cities.
• Coinage: Uses AD&D coin value ratios with a silver piece standard ($1=1silverpiece).Acopperis$0.1, a gold is $10,andaplatinumis$50.
• Perks: “Burdock’s Valley Local” [1] grants extra rumors, an area map, and default Area Knowledge for the local area.

Setting Introduction

• World Name: Magae.
• Major Power: The Archontean Empire.
• Historical Context: The old Archontean Empire (analogous to ancient Rome) expanded across nearby islands and parts of Irthuin. 1200 years ago, a magical civil war led survivors to retreat to the home island of Mithruin. The current empire (analogous to Byzantium) is re-occupying old territories. Arden Vul was a frontier city destroyed in this civil war.
• Local Geography: The play area is Burdock’s Valley (90x80 miles), containing Arden Vul, Gosterwick (half-day’s march south of Arden Vul), Newmarket (3 days further south), six small villages, and a couple of castles. Most inhabitants are Thorcin.

Cultures

• Archonteans: Rulers of the empire, Byzantine feel.
• Thorcin: Local population in Irthuin, conquered then independent, now conquered again.
• Wiskin: Vikings from northern islands.
• Khumus: Horse nomads from far to the west.
• Halflings & Imperial Goblins: Assimilated into the Archontean Empire, though goblins are second-class citizens.
• Elves & Dwarves: Independent, secretive kingdoms outside the Empire.

Languages

• Commonly Spoken Near Arden Vul: Archontean (urban/ruling class) and Thorcin (rural/working class).
• Ancient Archontean: Mithric (dead as a native language, but used for magic, religion, and scholarship). Spellbooks and scrolls are written in Mithric.
• Racial Languages: Elvish, Dwarvish.

Religion

• Archontean Pantheon: Ten major gods and seventeen minor gods.
• Gosterwick Temples (Full Clerics):
  • Demma (goddess of fertility and crops)
  • Heschius Ban (god of power)
  • Lucreon (god of wealth and merchants)
  • Mitra (god of justice and contracts)
• Other Deities: Small shrines to other Archontean major/minor gods and Thorcin gods in Gosterwick. Newmarket has temples to all ten major Archontean gods, several minor ones, most of the Thorcin pantheon, and the Wiskin god Odin.
• Proscribed Gods: Set (illegal worship), Horus (presumed dead, no spells for clerics).
• Dwarves: Monotheists.
• Elves: “Spiritual but not religious,” lack clerics.

Game Mechanics & GM Notes

• Mana: Normal mana area.
• Magic: Well known, studied, and regulated by colleges.
• Logistics: Weekly game (Friday nights, 8 PM-midnight NA Eastern Time). 4-5 players. PCs encouraged to return to safe places weekly; points awarded/spent only in safe places.
• Software: Foundry VTT, GCS, Discord. Voice game requires a microphone.
• Spoilers: Strict “no spoilers” policy for players who have read “The Halls of Arden Vul” or watched actual plays.
• Difficulty: Hard adventure, caution needed. Experience with fantasy RPGs recommended; new GURPS players advised to avoid spellcasters initially.