2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary - Day Fifty-Four

Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of  Role-Playing!

Today I am going to link to a few blogs that IMO are very useful to someone that is interested in Blackmoor and Dave Arneson. These blog are IMO quite old school in their approach, I read them regularly and enjoy them greatly. I think you will too.

First up is Swords & Stitchery - Old Time Sewing & Table Top Rpg Blog which describes itself this way:

A blog about sewing machine repairs,but mainly my hobbies which include old school role playing games, science fiction,  films, horror, and general geekery. Sit down and stay a spell.

It is always a good read and well worth your time.

Next up is Zenopus Archives which is about:

Exploring the Underworld of Holmes Basic

This blog is jam packed with useful stuff, including downloads. Quite a resource.

Then there is Dreams in the Lich House which is: 

A blog about Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, and fantasy and horror gaming

He points out that he is a 5E adopter, but he also is very useful to those of us who stick with OD&D.

His most recent post is titled "Open World Building - Arbitrate Your Sandbox" dated 2/18/2020. I mention it for a reason:

Last year I picked up a kindle book written by Alexander Macris called Arbiter of Worlds, a general collection of essays on how to build and run an old school campaign, and why this is the most satisfying and memorable approach to adventure gaming due to emergent story. 

Both ACKS and Arbiter of Worlds suggest a campaign building approach called "top down, zoom in" that mirrors how I like to approach campaign building, so I'm going to give the methodology a try as I start working on "Erda".  Like it says in the name, you start with the world concept, develop a large area map, establish some broad brushstrokes around the history of the setting, and craft some notes on culture.  Then switch to the local area where adventures will start for the "zoom in" portion, creating a small area hex map, points of interest, settlements, dungeons - the detailed sandbox area.

I mention this because "Top Down, Zoom In" is the only world building method I have ever used. I do the "TopDown"  part pretty much just like he indicates. Where I differ is that I do the "Zoom In" part at the table on the fly. I have always done it that way. Whether I am running a four hour game or a 14 hour game, I do it all on the fly. I create my dungeons on the fly too.

When I create a world I visualize it floating in space. I think about how big it is, what kind of world it is, I see the continents and islands as it rotates, mountains, forests, deserts, plains etc. I write this stuff down and then as I watch the world rotating in space I can mentally "zoom in" anywhere I want and look at it. That is what I do at the table, I "zoom in" and just tell the players what I see. I do the same thing with a dungeon, as the players proceed, I describe to them what I see, what I hear, what I smell, what I touch, and what I taste. 

Right now as I write this I see a dungeon room with four inches of dust on the floor and on top of some broken furniture, some old rugs and other items strewn across the floor, it has a musty smell, the walls are bare except for a large mirror on the back wall, it is floor to ceiling and about 10 feet wide. Oddly it has not a trace of dust on its surface. You and your comrades tell me you will enter the room and check it out. As you look at the mirror you see a clearing in a wooded area with you and your comrades standing just behind a small campfire, looking back at you, a completely accurate reflection of you, but somehow you are in this different place. A large hulking creature comes out of the woods behind you, somewhat in the shadows and therefore indistinct. You interject to tell me that you quickly look behind yourselves in the room, but you only see the wall and door of the room behind you. You look back at the mirror and see the creature raise a large sword that it grasps in both hands as it steps closer. What do you do?

Or

You enter what looks like a throne room, the room is both long and wide, the ceiling is high. Beautiful tapestries decorate the walls, columns are in two rows the length of the room with their surfaces craved with images from top to bottom. Rich colorful carpets adorn the floors. The room is immaculate, looking like it is in constant use. From the door that you entered there is a long continuous carpet that runs all the way to the foot of the throne. Both sides are lined with statues of armored, armed men standing at attention. They look extremely realistic and the workmanship is exquisite. But there is nothing moving anywhere in the room and you see nothing living. The entire room is decorated with gold and silver items, rich purple cloth, gem encrusted items galore. You tell me that you want to check out  the throne and the area around it first. As you approach you smell food that makes your mouths water and when you get closer you see this elevated large throne make of gold, highly decorated and ornate. It is draped with a robes made of bear skins, with cushions that are covered with the skins of many different creatures all with rich dark fur. beside the throne is a table with a large golden pitcher and a large good cup. There are a dozen platters covered with food, all richly prepared and the odors from the food are reminding you of how long it has been since you last ate. As you approach a little closer music begins to play with an eerie sound. Suddenly every statue raises its spear and slams the butt of the spear back down on the floor and it makes a thundering sound, followed by total silence. What do you do?