Celebrating Day Seven of Blackmoor Week - 51st Anniversary of Blackmoor

Today September 30th is the seventh day of Blackmoor Week 2021.

Over at the The Ruins forum one of our European members now has the book Dave Arneson's True Genius and has made his first blog post on it. His field is Continuum Mechanics and I think you will find his approach to the book to be both interesting and enlightening as he is just getting started. As part of that approach he has provided links to some references in the book for our benefit. Go check out his blog which is titled Troglodynasty and he has only made a few posts before this. I am hoping it will be the beginning of a long run.

Dave Arneson's True Genius - First impressions

Here is another review from back in 2019, that you may not have seen.'

Commentaries on Dave Arneson's True Genius

from the blog

Tower of the Red Archprelate

On another topic over at the Tower of the Red Archprelate, is a post about dragons that I think Dave Arneson would have enjoyed and have riffed off of.

The Dragon

Celebrating Day Six of Blackmoor Week - 51st Anniversary of Blackmoor

Today September 29th is the sixth day of Blackmoor Week 2021.

Today we will link to series of posts from all the way back in 2009. A real blast from the past. Over at the Bat in the Attic blog (Rob Conley) a four part series of posts on The First Fantasy Campaign was done back in April of 2009. 

Into the First Fantasy Campaign Part 1

History remembers Statesmen, Philosophers, Kings, and Conquerors. Dave Arneson was none of those. He merely figured out a cool way to have fun that wasn't seen before. Yet in the last quarter of the 20th century and continued into the 21st century his legacy has impacted millions and ignited fires of imagination that still burns today. And it started in a place that only existed in Dave's mind, a place called Blackmoor.

Into the First Fantasy Campaign Part 2

Into the First Fantasy Campaign Part 3

Into the First Fantasy Campaign Part 4

Next he talks about the Original Blackmoor Magic System. He says it was based on the Formula pattern for most magic. That magic-users were limited because they had to prepared the ingredients before entering the dungeons. Some spell had special ingredients that could only be found by adventuring. A magic-user only gained experienced if he casted spells. The magic-user's constitution also played a role in limiting the number of spells cast.

Spell components in AD&D, the whole idea came from Arneson in early Blackmoor. Think about that and let it sink in. 

When it comes to old school gaming Rob and I have about a 30% field of agreement and a 70% field of disagreement. Our view of things does not have a lot of overlap; nevertheless, he writes a lot of good stuff and has contributed greatly to gaming, you should go read his blog. I just stumbled across this series of posts and read them for the first time today. I thought another look by a third blogger at The First Fantasy Campaign would be a good thing for you all to read.

Celebrating Day Five of Blackmoor Week - 51st Anniversary of Blackmoor

Today September 28th is the fifth day of Blackmoor Week 2021.

One of the things that Dave Arneson and Blackmoor contributed to OD&D was the Magic Swords and the process to determine what powers a sword might have. Arneson viewed Magic Swords as creatures.

Magic Swords & Matrix

Dave Arneson said:

Prior to setting up Blackmoor, I spent considerable effort in setting up an entire family of Magical Swords. The Swords, indeed comprise most of the early  magical artifacts. A small table was prepared and the Swords' characteristics set up on cards.

Later on a new Table was formulated and used for generating Swords in other Castles. In The First Fantasy Campaign book,  there is a Magic Swords Personality Matrix 

Values run from "A" to "R" and eleven colors.

Following that is another Matrix and it says The Magic Swords of Mythology are varied creatures that can give great power to their owners, who are sometimes helpless without them. Only Swords have these powerful variations and capabilities. 

Other tables follow this, the entire swords section covers several pages. Much is similar to what ended up in OD&D, but quite a bit is different and it is worth using to spice up your Magic Swords.

Celebrating Day Four of Blackmoor Week - 51st Anniversary of Blackmoor

 Today September 27th is the fourth day of Blackmoor Week 2021.

Today we will link to another series of posts from last year for Blackmoor Week for those who may not have seen it.  The Gnomish Embassy The Personal Blog of B.W. Mathers

This series is about a 5E look at monsters for Blackmoor.

Blackmoor Week 2020 - Dragonborn of Rodhin

Blackmoor Week 2020: Dwarves

Blackmoor Week 2020: Elves

Blackmoor Week 2020: Gnomes & Halflings

Blackmoor 2020: Humans

Blackmoor Week 2020: Orcs & Half-Orcs

Celebrating Day Three of Blackmoor Week - 51st Anniversary of Blackmoor

Today September 26th is the third day of Blackmoor Week 2021.

Yesterday I linked back to when I wrote about The First Fantasy Campaign early in 2020. Today I am going to link to where another blogger wrote about The First Fantasy Campaign starting in early September 2020.

The blog is the OSR Grimoire  and The First Fantasy Campaign posts started with this one: JG 37: The First Fantasy Campaign

He concluded his long series of posts in late December with this post: The First Fantasy Campaign: Remastered.

He says: 

Before his passing, Dave Arneson indicated that he wished to re-edit JG 37 "The First Fantasy Campaign", as reported in First Fantasy Campaign Belongs to Arneson Estate Bledsaw Confirms on Havard's Blackmoor Blog.

Although we can't know exactly what Arneson had in mind, having just completed a review of each section in "The First Fantasy Campaign", I have attempted to reorganize its contents, adopting the OD&D framework:

His suggested organization is pretty interesting, given that this was not a game supplement, but instead a campaign journal. But it begs the question that is the most interesting to me and that is what additional material would have been added? We can only wonder at what might have been added that was probably never committed to paper at any point in time.

Celebrating Day Two of Blackmoor Week - 51st Anniversary of Blackmoor

 Today September 25th is the second day of Blackmoor Week 2021.

Last year I wrote about The First Fantasy Campaign aka Blackmoor and there are many more posts that follow the link below:

2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary - Day One Hundred and Thirty-Six

In response to a question I wrote:

Yes, you are correct. Although it does not happen very often, sometimes the Acaeum does get it wrong and the first print is entirely black and white. On a true first print the black and white image that appears on a title page in the later printings was the cover on the first print.

I provided the following information for the Wikipedia page.

"1st Printing (1977): The Cover and entire booklet are Black and White. The Cover says "The First Fantasy Campaign Playing Aid" with Playing Aid as a subtitle. A large mostly circular picture with Trees in the foreground and a Fire Elemental in the background below which it says "by Dave Arneson" and "Judges Guild". There is no other verbiage on the cover and the price does not appear on the cover. The Back Cover has a product list titled "Booty List" with the highest number being 35 and "New Non-Sub Items" listing product numbers 36-39. It comes with the first printing of the First Fantasy Campaign Maps. This book consists of 92 numbered pages plus the cover, inside cover, back cover and Table of Contents for a total of 96 total pages. The dark red cover was used for the reformatted later printings that used a smaller font and fewer pages."

Since then this correct information has been deleted from the Wikipedia page. However, I have the 1st print from 1977 and the entire book is black and white, it does have a total of 96 pages including the covers and the above image does appear as the cover of the book. If you have any of the dark red covers shown over at the Acaeum, you do not have a 1st print.

 

Celebrating Day One of Blackmoor Week - 51st Anniversary of Blackmoor

Today September 24th is the first day of Blackmoor Week! Remember Christmas break in December is the 51st Anniversary of Blackmoor as it began in December of 1970. As previously noted several places on the Internet several players testify as to this being when they first played in Blackmoor.

Blackmoor Week runs from September 24th through September 30th every year to celebrate gaming and to honor the first campaign (Blackmoor) and the author of that campaign (Dave Arneson). Blackmoor Week is followed on October 1st by Dave Arneson Game Day, celebrated on David "Dave" Lance Arneson's birthday each year. This year as Oct 1st is a Friday, maybe we can all game on Friday night and lift a toast to Dave Arneson. 

We get an early glimpse of Blackmoor in The Temple of the Frog, the first published adventure. Sadly its legacy is not that of instruction, but of what has become THE ONE TRUE WAY, which is to use published modules exclusively. Dave was showing everyone how it is done, the message was ?here is how you DIY and MIY." Sadly that message has been lost over the years.

So this year, celebrate by doing something you make yourself. It will be better than anything you can buy.

Crimson Escalation

 Crimson Escalation

What if you could speed-up DnD combat while making battles more exciting, realistic, and fun? All that with a minimum of bookkeeping!

Let's help Venger Satanis get this Kickstarter to the Stretch Goal. You only need to kick in $1.00 (or more if you are feeling generous. 516 people have already pledged $733 and he only needs $267 to hit the Stretch Goal. I backed it and I encourage you to do it too. It is only a $1.00 and I want to see that bonus mentioned below at the bottom. Have a little fun and throw in $1.00, you spend more than that on anything and everything these days. $1 menus are gone, but this one is still here. Throw $1.00 in and smile, you did a good thing.

This KS is to fund a standalone PDF, allowing gamers who love D20 fantasy RPGs to have Crimson Escalation at their fingertips.  Sure, you could start using it without throwing in a buck; I don't mind.  But if you want to see something like Crimson Escalation proliferate throughout the hobby, like I do, back this sucker for $1 and let's see what happens.

If you want short, brutal combat that ups the tension every single round - without having to keep track of stuff (besides which round it is), this might be for you!  I've found the majority of combats never go beyond the 4th round using this method (7 rounds max).

Feel free to give it a try before backing this project, just to see if it's as good as promised.  You won't be disappointed.  That's the Venger Satanis guarantee! 

This blog post has all the basic information (including an embedded link to Crimson Dragon Slayer D20): https://vengersatanis.blogspot.com/2021/08/crimson-escalation.html

Here's a direct link to the FREE Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 PDF (page 7, if you want to go right to the mechanic itself): https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/303380/Crimson-Dragon-Slayer-D20-Revised

So, let's talk about this PDF... it's going to have a cover page, a page for Rob and I to give some background on Crimson Escalation, a page covering the basics of the mechanic along with extraneous details (What happens if people join the battle a couple rounds in?  What if a character already has a wider crit range than everyone else?), and a page at the end for credits.

The KS funds will be used to pay for layout (bloodstains on parchment don't just come out with a little soap and water, you know) and the already acquired artwork.

The Stretch Goal of $1,000 is a bonus - the Ten Commandments For Immersion. Who doesn't want their game to be more immersive?

The Perilous Dreamers First Dungeon (a look back to winter 75-76)

 Over at The Ruins of Murkhill forum I have started a thread about the first dungeon I ever created.  I based the nine areas on nine quotes and then improved from those quotes.

You can find the thread here. I will be commenting more about it once people have had a chance to comment on the forum.

I think you will find some things about the dungeon rather surprising.