As we continue to celebrate 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary, we turn of course to the Blackmoor campaign itself.
It is interesting that Original Dungeons and Dragons billed the "domain game" as something that PCs did when they reached name level and settled down. It gives some rules for Fighting-Men to build castles and become Barons and for Clerics to build castles as Patriarchs similar to Barons, but with some perks in building the castle. Magic-Users on the other hand are for the most part left to the imagination as to what happens in their later years.
But in Blackmoor as you can read about in the Dave Arneson publication "The First Fantasy Campaign" all facets of the "individual" parts of the game were all present simultaneously. Wilderness, City/Town, ruling a Domain and the Dungeon Crawl.
We also get to see in these campaign notes, what happens when you have all at the same time and neglect one in favor of the others. Part of that reflects the growth and learning curve of the 1st campaign and also perhaps unintentionally reflects some real life issues. After all if you had a barony and did not leave it well defended and taken care of when you went off to the dungeon what would happen.
Ruling is a responsibility and IMO a fun part of the game. Protecting your home base is a vital goal if you are not a vagabond. If your base is a frontier town and you leave for a long time and come back to find it burnt to the ground you might find it hard to resupply or to replace lost party members. Spending some time with others keeping the area around a wild frontier outpost is sometime you might want to do from time to time. IMO the monster free area around a castle is not an automatic, it presupposes regular patrols to keep the monsters away from the area and protect your tax base (the villages and residents in your barony)and your investments. Yes, the domain game involves investments and a return on your money.
I have heard people moan about this or that getting boring. Now IMO there is no excuse for being bored, that is not a problem of the game, it is problem of the referee and the players. But if you flesh out your game in full as in Blackmoor there is no reason to be bored.
As the year goes by I will post more about these things, in January I am introducing topics for everyone (including me) to think about and write about throughout this year celebration.
It is interesting that Original Dungeons and Dragons billed the "domain game" as something that PCs did when they reached name level and settled down. It gives some rules for Fighting-Men to build castles and become Barons and for Clerics to build castles as Patriarchs similar to Barons, but with some perks in building the castle. Magic-Users on the other hand are for the most part left to the imagination as to what happens in their later years.
But in Blackmoor as you can read about in the Dave Arneson publication "The First Fantasy Campaign" all facets of the "individual" parts of the game were all present simultaneously. Wilderness, City/Town, ruling a Domain and the Dungeon Crawl.
We also get to see in these campaign notes, what happens when you have all at the same time and neglect one in favor of the others. Part of that reflects the growth and learning curve of the 1st campaign and also perhaps unintentionally reflects some real life issues. After all if you had a barony and did not leave it well defended and taken care of when you went off to the dungeon what would happen.
Ruling is a responsibility and IMO a fun part of the game. Protecting your home base is a vital goal if you are not a vagabond. If your base is a frontier town and you leave for a long time and come back to find it burnt to the ground you might find it hard to resupply or to replace lost party members. Spending some time with others keeping the area around a wild frontier outpost is sometime you might want to do from time to time. IMO the monster free area around a castle is not an automatic, it presupposes regular patrols to keep the monsters away from the area and protect your tax base (the villages and residents in your barony)and your investments. Yes, the domain game involves investments and a return on your money.
I have heard people moan about this or that getting boring. Now IMO there is no excuse for being bored, that is not a problem of the game, it is problem of the referee and the players. But if you flesh out your game in full as in Blackmoor there is no reason to be bored.
As the year goes by I will post more about these things, in January I am introducing topics for everyone (including me) to think about and write about throughout this year celebration.
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