Now that World of Warcraft has been around for 20 years, check out the co-creator’s D&D setting

Auroboros: Flushing the hoseFirst unveiled here on Polygon in 2021, it’s a gritty little thing that came to life in Metzen’s children’s basement in the 1980s. One of my favorite parts of the setting is the prominent presence of bards, who even get their own Burning Man-style festival to rock out at. But the focus of the game is on the magic system, which is powered by mystical tattoos.

“The Auroboros itself (…) is like a primordial force of creation,” Metzen told me at the time. “The more you use it, the more you step into this power, which is separate from your actual class abilities. It starts to cause madness and death. It’s like the classic rock star thing: that Jim Morrison overdrive.

Although Metzen’s publishing company, Warchief Gaming, appears to have paused activity (the website is down, so we reached out to them to see what’s going on), it appears that the first few items of the product line are still for sale on Amazon. If it sounds interesting, you want to get stuck Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent – World Book: Lawbrandthe huge setting book that explains everything from start to finish. There is also a thematic novel, titled Auroboros: Under the sunwith Metzen himself as one of the narrators.