About Arvelas

Arvelas began at a table.

I first discovered Advanced Dungeons & Dragons at the age of fourteen, introduced by my close friend, Gaetan. Within months, I was creating a world of my own and learning what it meant to sit behind the screen as a game master. One of the first cities to take shape was King’s Town. I no longer remember where the name came from, but it endured—and remains, to this day, a place of interest in the realm of Istagon.

If Arvelas has a birth year, it would most likely be 1990. Many of its foundations still bear the marks of that time. Since then, the world has changed constantly, shaped by years of play, experimentation, and storytelling.

The Rules Evolve

Between 1998 and 1999, I began working on a new set of rules. The existing system no longer fit the kind of stories my players and I wanted to tell. Although we had already modified many mechanics, it became clear that something more deliberate was needed.

Between 2002 and 2004, I compiled a player’s guide of nearly four hundred pages, gathering the rules into a single document. While functional, it demanded constant maintenance and focused almost entirely on mechanics, leaving the world itself largely undocumented.

That imbalance eventually led to change.

Arvelas on the Web

In 2008, Arvelas moved online. The first version of the site was primarily in French. An English version followed in 2010, though portions of the site remained untranslated as the world continued to grow.

The shift to the web solved several long-standing problems. Rules could be updated without reprinting entire books. Players could track changes over time and access campaign-related information more easily. Character management also became simpler—this section of the site remains password-protected, but is one of the parts I am most proud of.

Overall, the transition marked a turning point. Arvelas became easier to maintain, easier to share, and better suited to continue evolving.