Preface

 

-	-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	Unearthed Arcana

Now that you have this tome in your hands, you are about
to discover a new and exciting dimension in the
AD&D@ game world.
 

You have unearthed the hidden mysteries of this work, so
although they are no longer arcana, the contents are treasure.
The AD&D@ game system is dynamic. It grows and
changes and expands. Our universe does all this, and so
too the multiverse of this game system. The description
and definition of an infinite multiverse must necessarily
be done piecemeal - adding new discoveries as they
come to light, expanding horizons as the sum total of our
past knowledge allows.

As the original volumes of the game system (Monster
Manual, Players Handbook, and Dungeon Masters
Guide) have altered from their first editions, so the game
has changed in form and substance. This new material
grew from my own campaign, articles published in
DRAGON@ Magazine, and input from many Dungeon
Masters and players also. The book has a single purpose:
Unearthed Arcana brings new dimensions to the AD&D
game system. The compiled material which lies herein offers
fresh new approaches to play without materially affecting
any ongoing campaign adversely. This work does
not alter former “laws of the multiverse,” but it does open
insights and vistas beyond those previously understood
and seen.

All the participants of a campaign will find this material of
greatest interest and benefit to them. Dungeon Masters
will discover new sub-races and their inter-relationships,
new deity models for non-humans, and much in the way
of magic - a trove of spells and items indeed! Players, of
course, benefit from all of that and more. There are new
horizons for demi-human characters, new professional
callings, new weapons, new approaches to just about
everything. Yes, some of this material has appeared previously,
but here it is carefully revised, edited, and compiled
so as to change it from a possible insertion to an
integral part of a vital campaign. There are new choices,
new possibilities, new opportunities, and new ideas laid
out before you. Best of all, these rest upon the solid foundation
of the AD&D game system - the most widely accepted
and played role-playing game in the world.

This effort was by no means mine alone. Len Lakofka, as
usual, contributed his part. Roger Moore is a name which
all devotees of the game know, and he also added to this
work. Luke Gygax was invaluable as a sounding-board
and playtester. Frank Mentzer was on hand from the beginning
to test and try my thoughts and ideas, to bring his
own creativity to the whole, and to assist in making this a
far better effort than originally conceived. Once the ideas
were compiled, Jeff Grubb and Kim Mohan went to work
on the manuscript. These two insisted on clarifying, codifying,
expanding, and defining, and generally demanded
that the whole text become better and better. Despite the
extra work demanded from me, I thank them for this -
and still more for their own creativity which they freely
.contributed in order to insure that what you now hold is
the best possible text, a literally up-to-the-minute description
of the “state of the art” as that term applies to the
AD&D game system.

Every Dungeon Master who has created a campaign milieu
out of whole cloth, so to speak, can certainly understand
that the more one learns, the more one comes to
understand how little he knows. So too the multiverse of
this game system. The farther afield one goes in exploration
and discovery, the greater the realization of how vast
is the realm of unknown knowledge which awaits discovery,
as it were. However, such as with our actual world,
the expanses of the game multiverse will always have
frontiers and unexplored territories. This fact, indeed, is
what makes the AD&D game system so wonderful and
appealing.

Thus, Good Reader, here is the “last word” - by far not
the last word ever, but the latest so far. It is, after all, high
time that those who enjoy the challenge and excitement
of the AD&D game be presented with a tome such as this,
a package which gathers all of the new discoveries, plus
a wealth of just uncovered secrets, between one pair of
covers. Preliminaries aside, here is Unearthed Arcana. It
is now the moment you have waited for. Read on, and
may you have as much fun with your creation as we are
having with ours.

Gary Gygax
May 1,1985