Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Now let us continue and complete looking at the Introduction:
So now he continues with how the game is growing, different types of Dragons by Size and other new mythological creatures. He looked at the their hides, scales so forth, how impervious they were according to mythology and so on to determine AC and Hit Points. He talks about the same regarding Giant Insects. Giant Insects and Giant Monsters being a regular trope of the Science Fiction movies that he loved to watch. I remember watching those same movies myself being only a few years younger than Arneson.
To name just a few of the movies that I watched and that Arneson most likely watched over a period of years leading up to Blackmoor:
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
It Came from Outer Space
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Gojira
Them!
It Came from Beneath the Sea
Forbidden Planet
Attack of the Crab Monsters
The Black Scorpion
The Cyclops
The Deadly Mantis
The Blob
Earth vs. the Spider
The Fly
Frankenstein 1970
Attack of the Giant Leeches
Return of the Fly
Mothra
While I cannot prove that Arneson saw all of these films, I regard it as highly unlikely that he did not. These films and many like them were all over TV during the late 1960s and the early 1970s.
It struck me as odd, when I first saw his note about Character Motivation and that he solved it by not granting Experience Points until you spent money on your area(s) of interest. That also apparently introducted all kinds of complications for the players. The thing that struck me as odd was that I and those I gamed with in 1975-1979 never needed any help with Movtivation and I was always surprised to read of those that did need help with that and I was a bit shocked that it was a thing from the very beginning. It is still something that is beyond my comprehension that Character Motivation is not an automatic no-brainer for everyone.
But a lot of people struggle with boredom and I have never been bored in my life. I cannot comprehend boredom, I wonder what that must be like for people. With the self-qurantine of the Corona Virus of 2020, I am here alone in my home and yet I literally do not have time to be bored. I have trouble getting enough sleep, because (as has been the case my entire life) there are just not enough hours in the day. The dialogue in my head runs every waking moment. I accept that all these things apply to most people, I just do not understand it.
He talks about combat - simple then progressively more complicated as players rolled for their stats. As you went up in levels hit points did not increase, but you got harder to hit. I have toyed around with that idea, but have never implemented it, though I may yet do so. But even if you were Hit during combat, you got a Saving Throw and so might not receive damage from the Hit. Hit Location, height differentiation. Only in man to man combat were all the bells and whistles used, this allowed play to move faster, though to the disadvantage of the monsters.
He says here "by the end of the fourth year of continuous play Blackmoor covered hundreds of square miles, had a dozen castles, and three separate judges..." He goes on to say by that time it could run itself and keep more than 100 people and a dozen judges busy. Having over 100 people and co-judges/referees in your campaign, must have been an awesome thing. Now eleven years after Dave Arneson passed away, his players still gather and play Blackmoor.
Tomorrow I will start doing an overview of The First Fantasy Campaign.
Now let us continue and complete looking at the Introduction:
So now he continues with how the game is growing, different types of Dragons by Size and other new mythological creatures. He looked at the their hides, scales so forth, how impervious they were according to mythology and so on to determine AC and Hit Points. He talks about the same regarding Giant Insects. Giant Insects and Giant Monsters being a regular trope of the Science Fiction movies that he loved to watch. I remember watching those same movies myself being only a few years younger than Arneson.
To name just a few of the movies that I watched and that Arneson most likely watched over a period of years leading up to Blackmoor:
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
It Came from Outer Space
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Gojira
Them!
It Came from Beneath the Sea
Forbidden Planet
Attack of the Crab Monsters
The Black Scorpion
The Cyclops
The Deadly Mantis
The Blob
Earth vs. the Spider
The Fly
Frankenstein 1970
Attack of the Giant Leeches
Return of the Fly
Mothra
While I cannot prove that Arneson saw all of these films, I regard it as highly unlikely that he did not. These films and many like them were all over TV during the late 1960s and the early 1970s.
It struck me as odd, when I first saw his note about Character Motivation and that he solved it by not granting Experience Points until you spent money on your area(s) of interest. That also apparently introducted all kinds of complications for the players. The thing that struck me as odd was that I and those I gamed with in 1975-1979 never needed any help with Movtivation and I was always surprised to read of those that did need help with that and I was a bit shocked that it was a thing from the very beginning. It is still something that is beyond my comprehension that Character Motivation is not an automatic no-brainer for everyone.
But a lot of people struggle with boredom and I have never been bored in my life. I cannot comprehend boredom, I wonder what that must be like for people. With the self-qurantine of the Corona Virus of 2020, I am here alone in my home and yet I literally do not have time to be bored. I have trouble getting enough sleep, because (as has been the case my entire life) there are just not enough hours in the day. The dialogue in my head runs every waking moment. I accept that all these things apply to most people, I just do not understand it.
He talks about combat - simple then progressively more complicated as players rolled for their stats. As you went up in levels hit points did not increase, but you got harder to hit. I have toyed around with that idea, but have never implemented it, though I may yet do so. But even if you were Hit during combat, you got a Saving Throw and so might not receive damage from the Hit. Hit Location, height differentiation. Only in man to man combat were all the bells and whistles used, this allowed play to move faster, though to the disadvantage of the monsters.
Tomorrow I will start doing an overview of The First Fantasy Campaign.
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