DRAGONS AT DAWN - THE ARNESON EXPERIENCE COMPILED

DRAGONS AT DAWN - THE ARNESON EXPERIENCE COMPILED

(from Lulu.com)

Welcome to Dave Arneson’s Basement! It’s 1971 and you’ve been invited to play this cool new game… Experience the thrill of the very first fantasy RPG adventures with Dragons at Dawn, the rule set that harkens back to the early days of adventure gaming when everything was new and the possibilities endless. Dragons at Dawn is a retro tribute to the very first fantasy gaming system pioneered by Dave Arneson, the man who later went on to co-author the worlds most popular roleplaying game. The result of years of careful historical research, Dragons at Dawn is entirely consistent with Arneson’s original, largely forgotten methods of play developed roughly in the period 1970-1973. Dragons at Dawn approaches gaming with none of the assumptions and habits developed from later rules, allowing a return to a kind of free form and open style of interaction between players and referees to develop and play whatever aspects of fantasy adventure gaming the players like best.
I had hoped to have digested this morsel before I ran this issue but time is tight and I don’t want to hold up the piece, being that it might make a perfect gift for a gamer for the holidays. The reviews have been generally favorable with RPGnet stating:

The Final Word: (Note: This is my opinion, not yours. YMMV) I think this is a fantastic rpg, and I would probably play it over D&D if given a choice. A few reasons:
Open-ended skills allow a customization usually unseen in old-school gaming. And the more popular modern games lack this as well (I'm aware that Risus and PDQ have systems entirely based on this).
The Combat Matrix pits combat skill against combat skill, making battles seem more vibrant.
The Magic and spell point system are superior to Vancian systems, and are at least a nice start, and seem compatible with D&D at least on the surface. The flavor seems more true to what I'm familiar with.
The Hit Dice mechanic has a great philosophy behind it -- it's the hero (not his stuff) that makes him great. It helps make a more cinematic game, one that doesn't saddle a character with lousy damage because of weapon choice. Weapons can be selected with aesthetics in mind rather than "because this does more damage."
There is not a rule for everything. This hails back to the days when you had to be clever, not a rules lawyer.

(read entire review at http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/14/14768.phtml )

So if you know someone who is into retro gaming and doesn’t have this on their shelf yet it’s a fairly inexpensive item that might get you a big hug and smile.

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/dragons-at-dawn/16163330