The Ruins of Murkhill™ - OEOEFASRPG™

Hail Fellow and Well Met! This is my Original Dungeons & Dragons blog named for my main campaign The Ruins of Murkhill™. I have been playing and refereeing OD&D since September 13th (Friday) of 1975. I am apt to talk about almost anything game related here. Open Ended Original Edition Old School Fantasy Adventure Sandbox Role Playing Games™ (OEOEFASRPG™) The Open-Ended Sandbox Exploration of Dungeons, Wilderness and Cities. World Building is one of the great pleasures of life.

Thursday, November 29, 2018

Blackmoor Resources

***Blackmoor Resources***
There are a few Ultimate Blackmoor Resources on the Internet and they are
1. The Blackmoor Archives - The Ultimate Blackmoor Fansite
2. The Comeback Inn - The Dave Arneson's Blackmoor Discussion Forum
3. Havard's Blackmoor Blog - Dungeons & Dragons - Dave Arneson - Gaming History

There are a lot of links on the blog to sites with Dave Arneson and Blackmoor information. And of course The Ruins of Murkhill forum is a supporter of Blackmoor and Dave Arneson.

I encourage everyone to join The Comeback Inn and, of course, The Ruins.

Havard made a recent blog post about the difficulty of building a Blackmoor Community. 5 Reasons Why Building a Blackmoor Community is Hard

Please go read his post for full details. The gist is about why The Comeback Inn is not more active and what he thinks those reasons are. The below are partially quotes and partially my comments.

1. Blackmoor is a small niche.

2. People like to read not post. Also comments about people taking his original content and putting it into published material for profit. I agree and while I have no problem with people making stuff for profit, I agree with Havard that it is wrong to take his content and use it to make a profit and not give credit or support the community. ***He notes that he usually gives permission, if they ask and give him credit.*** ( I BTW don't sell anything and never have.)

3. People want to setup their own communities instead of joining. I am (last time I checked) a member at The Comeback Inn and while I have not posted much there I strongly support it and encourage all of you to join.

As an aside I setup up a MeWe group (Blackmoor - the Original First Fantasy Campaign) a week or two before Havard setup up his MeWe group(Dave Arneson's Blackmoor), I assumed he was not coming there since I saw no announcements or indications that he was going to. I have a standing offer on the table for Havard and another Admin from his forum to be Admins for the group I set up which is nearing 500 members. I am certain he could run it better than I could. I wanted to get it going and grow the group and we have done that.

4. Blackmoor fandoom is fragmented. He says,
"We have Old School Blackmoor Fans, Mystara Blackmoor Fans, Greyhawk Blackmoor Fans, D20 Blackmoor fans and many others. My dream was always to get these different groups to get together and talk about our common love."

I strongly agree with this and I hope that all of you do too! I support all the different types of Blackmoor, as does Havard and I too would like to see his dream come true.

So go to The Comeback Inn and let Harvard know you are on board with all Blackmoor Fans being unified.

5. The shadow of controversy. Go read the blog post, I agree with him.

A link to a bonus blog post Do You Blackmoor?

SECRETS of BLACKMOOR: The True History of Dungeons & Dragons

The Secrets of Blackmoor: The True History of Dungeons & Dragons now has a Kickstarter for Volume 1 -The Evolution of Fantasy Role Playing by The Fellowship of the Thing.

Griff known as Secrets of Blackmoor on various forums and on the Secrets of Blackmoor Website had this to say in a forum post.

Most funding pitches have to do primarily with "Give Me All your Money," yet our approach is different. We are very aware that a lot of gamers may be on fixed incomes and can't really do much as far as direct support like that. Our goal is to get our fans sharing our Kick Starter link and talking to other gamer, thus raising awareness of this film project.

We're really far along with the film. We need extra hands and eyes on the project to make it come to completion sooner.

Tell your friends about this project, maybe show them the trailer on your phone at game night. It is the human touch that will help this project along. individual fans talking to their gamer friends.

All we ask is that you pass it forward.

We're really underdogs and outsiders in the world of gaming. We aren't connected to the big game companies and big names in gaming. And the movie is really about people who are outsiders. We're pretty humble about what we can accomplish via this film, and we know that we need help from all of you.

Thanks, Griff

At the Kickstarter link about they also say this (in part)

We are done editing the movie, but it needs a little more work before it can be released. All of our time is now consumed by what can best be described as adding a fine finish to an already wonderful movie. We're really down to adding the last touches -- things like color and sound refinements.

We feel strongly that Secrets of Blackmoor is the seminal documentary on the history of Dungeons & Dragons. Yet we need you to support us in this last stage of post production.
Please take a minute to look over our videos, and gifts (located in the side bar). There's even a special reward level to be delivered this Christmas day.

Get out your dice and roll for initiative, become part of our Secret Team by pledging your support!

The Kickstarter is to do the finish work on the movie as he notes the editing is done and they need to fund the finish work and bring it to market. Please join in making this a reality.

As a bonus take a look at this post Do you Blackmoor?

Saturday, November 3, 2018

The Wilderlands of High Fantasy MeWe Group

With the announcement of Google+ closing and the communities going away, I checked out MeWe. There are some more interesting groups that I thought I would let you know about. Matthew Seibel started a new group for The Wilderlands of High Fantasy. MeWe looks pretty promising and I encourage you to come join the group and check it out, https://mewe.com/join/thewilderlandsofhighfantasy so go check it out and give it a try. He says

I saw that there was no Wilderlands of High Fantasy MeWe group established yet so I figured that I'd do the honors of creating one for the fans of the setting here. We are starting out here with 12 members.

Content should be coming soon and hopefully the group will really take off. The group is an open group with no hoops for membership.

Update: Up to 20 members.

TROLLHALLA - where the Old School never went away. MeWe Group

With the announcement of Google+ closing and the communities going away, I checked out MeWe. There are some more interesting groups that I thought I would let you know about. Grandpa Cox started a new group for the Forgotten Realms. MeWe looks pretty promising and I encourage you to come join the group and check it out, https://mewe.com/join/trollhalla-wheretheoldschoolneverwentaway so go check it out and give it a try. He says

If you haven't discovered our current statement of intent, mainly because MeWe sorta hides it behind a teeny circled letter i, we'll run it here every so often. And here it is.

This will be turned over to either Ken St Andre or one of the other Original Fellowship who brought us the 2nd rpg: Tunnels & Trolls. Didn't want Khenn's trademark hall to go to anyone else. At least during the times in which I'll be hosting this, though hardly on a 24-hour basis, we'll expect courtesy and respect one to another. This includes (i. e. - don't do) bad language, libel, and suppositions of what someone else might have been thinking. Old Tzhett is a cranky grandpa many times over, and doesn't permit abusive folks to come over to poop on the furniture.

Content should be coming soon and hopefully the group will really take off. They are now up to 76 members.

Update: Up to 111 members.

The Original Forgotten Realms MeWe Group

With the announcement of Google+ closing and the communities going away, I checked out MeWe. There are some more interesting groups that I thought I would let you know about. Matthew Seibel started a new group for the Forgotten Realms. MeWe looks pretty promising and I encourage you to come join the group and check it out, https://mewe.com/join/theorigionalforgottenrealms so go check it out and give it a try. He says

I am about to begin work on compiling setting material into a simple document culled from my FR Gray Box PDF into a format easier to print out and read. I'll also be mining Ed Greenwood Presents Elminster's Forgotten Realms for various pre-production nuggets that might influence my version of the setting.

I'll likely go through the pre-release issues of Dragon for gems I might use as well. The only resource beyond these I'll likely use is the Kara-Tur box set I own.

Content should be coming soon and hopefully the group will really take off. We are starting off here with 13 members. The group is an open group with no hoops for membership.

Update: Up to 18 members.

Friday, October 26, 2018

The Ruins of Murkhill MeWe Group (created early October 2018)

With the announcement of Google+ closing and the communities going away, I checked out MeWe. I saw that an Admin over at The Ruins of Murkhill forum had setup a MeWe group for the forum. MeWe looks pretty promising and I encourage you to come join the group and check it out, https://mewe.com/join/the_ruins_of_murkhill_-_odd_and_rpgs and there are 46 members right now if you want to come there and give it a try. It looks promising and they have a feedback option where you can give improvement ideas (1st option), ideas for a new feature, a problem report, general feedback and a compliment. I have made suggestions and since I selected the option for an email reply, I have gotten a reply, 1st to tell me that they got the feedback and then a reply from a team member telling me they submitted my idea to the tech team. That is very encouraging, so we will see.

Content should be coming soon and hopefully the group will continue to grow. If you are a OD&D and old school rpg fan, please come join us. The group is an open group with no hoops for membership.

Original Dungeons & Dragons the Old-School way. We are here to discuss old school table top role-playing games with a focus on OD&D; however, we also discuss Classic D&D and other TSR games, Arduin, Gamma World, Metamorphosis Alpha, Retro Games; Clones, Retro Clones, Emulations and Old School inspired games, Classic Traveller and other Science Fiction games. We include Adventures in Fantasy, Runequest, Tunnels & Trolls and many old school games. You want to talk about how you are running 5E or other newer games in an old school style we want to hear about it. We cover Sword & Sorcery, Sword & Planet, Sword & Sandal, Urban Fantasy, High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Heroic Fantasy, Grimdark Fantasy, Arcanepunk, Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Dieselpunk, Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic, Alternate History, Alternate World and more.

Update: up to 58 Members.
Update: Up to 85 Members
Update: Up to 99 Members.
Update: Up to 161 Members.
Update: Up to 176 Members.
Update: Up to 241 Members.
Update: Up to 548 Members.
Update:Up to 853 Members - come join us!

The Arduin Grimoire MeWe Group (created early October 2018)

With the announcement of Google+ closing and the communities going away, I checked out MeWe. I also set up a MeWe group for The Arduin Grimoire here to give it a try, mewe.com/join/the_arduin_grimoire and there are 11 members right now if you want to come there and give it a try. It looks promising and they have a feedback option where you can give improvement ideas (1st option), ideas for a new feature, a problem report, general feedback and a compliment. I have made suggestions and since I selected the option for an email reply, I have gotten a reply, 1st to tell me that they got the feedback and then a reply from a team member telling me they submitted my idea to the tech team. That is very encouraging, so we will see.

I made a post over at the Google+ Arduin Grimoire Group back on October 12, 2018 a few days after I created the group. In the last two weeks membership at the MeWe group has grown to 24 members from the 11 noted above. Content should be coming soon and hopefully the group will continue to grow. If you are a Arduin and Dave Hargrave fan, please come join us. The group is an open group with no hoops for membership.

A place to hang out and discuss the Arduinian Multiverse, and Arduin where the many worlds of the Multiverse connect. All from the fertile imagination of Dave Hargrave.

Update: We jumped to 27 members overnight!
Update: Up to 42 members.
Update: Up to 76 members.
Update: Up to 82 members.
Update: Up to 96 members.
Update: Up to 144 members.
Update: Up to 158 members.
Update: Up to 191 members.
Update: Up to 381 members.
Update: Up to 274 members - come join us!

The Blackmoor Original First Fantasy Campaign MeWe Group (created early October 2018)

With the announcement of Google+ closing and the communities going away, I checked out MeWe. I also set up a MeWe group for Blackmoor here to give it a try, mewe.com/join/blackmoor and there are 11 members right now if you want to come there and give it a try. It looks promising and they have a feedback option where you can give improvement ideas (1st option), ideas for a new feature, a problem report, general feedback and a compliment. I have made suggestions and since I selected the option for an email reply, I have gotten a reply, 1st to tell me that they got the feedback and then a reply from a team member telling me they submitted my idea to the tech team. That is very encouraging, so we will see.

I made that post over at the Google+ Blackmoor Group back on October 12, 2018 a few days after I created the group. Even though the post on Google+ was somehow deleted, in the last two weeks membership at the MeWe group has grown to 31 members from the 11 noted above. Content should be coming soon and hopefully the group will continue to grow. If you are a Blackmoor and Dave Arneson fan, please come join us. The group is an open group with no hoops for membership.

A place to hang out and discuss Dave Arneson's Blackmoor the Original First Fantasy Campaign. Blackmoor is the campaign, the setting and the rules created by Dave Arneson and the beginning of the original D&D.

Update: we jumped to 38 members overnight!
Update: up to 45 members.
Update: up to 76 members.
Update: up to 82 members.
Update: up to 94 members.
Update: up to 145 members.
Update: up to 153 members.
Update: up to 176 members.
Update: up to 413 members.
Update: up to 594 members - come join us!

Friday, October 5, 2018

Blackmoor Week/Dave Arneson Game Day 2018 Complete List

Reposted with Permission from The Ruins of Murkhill Forum copied from Xizallian's Place.

Compiled Complete List (of everything we can locate)

Pre-Announcement of Dave Arneson Game Day October 1, 2018 posted on 9/22/2018

Dave Arneson Game Day 2018 Coming Up!

(Eight Days a Week)(Google if you don't get the reference

Monday, October 1, 2018

October First 2018 "Dave Arneson Game Day"!

Happy Birthday to Dave Arneson!! You gave so much to so many! I hope you knew how much we enjoyed your games and that a lot of us knew you were the creative force behind what we enjoyed so much!

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Blackmoor Week Day Seven

Back a few years ago Dave Arneson was interviewed for Issue #2 of Fight On! magazine. In it he was asked this:

FO! Did you ever try early role-playing experiments in other kinds of settings, or was it pretty much all Blackmoor?

DA We tried many settings for roleplaying, including Modern, Horse and Musket, Wild West, and some Sci-fi. Some of the material from the latter game slipped into City Of The Gods.

Wouldn't we all of loved to have been there for that, even if only as a fly on the wall watching it.

In that interview which unfortunately was extremely brief we also learn this about Dave Arneson:

My favorite computer games are the world strategy games, like Age of Empires and Civilization.

As a huge Civilization fan, that rather tickles me that in so many things Dave and I have the same taste. I've never tired Age of Empires, but I am sure I would like it.

As I think about it, I think of the three Davids of gaming:

David Wesely
David Arneson
David Hargrave

It is sad that they did not all hook up in a game company together with a silent partner to fund and hire support staff and a good editor. That would have been DIY gaming material for the next century.

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Blackmoor Week Day Six

David "Dave" Lance Arneson, creator of table top role-playing, and Blackmoor, creator and co-author of Dungeons & Dragons, has a birthday anniversary in a few days. Born October 1st, 1947 he revolutionized the gaming work with the creation of the table top role-playing game.

Rob Kuntz wrote the first of several books to come exploring this topic. Here is a review that covers the book titled Dave Arneson's True Genius by Robert J. Kuntz in a review located at Cedgewick's Reviews > Dave Arneson's True Genius. I will post here a quote from the lengthy detailed review that constitutes by far the best review of the book to date.

The first essay deals with the unique system qualities of Arneson’s creation, Blackmoor, which Arneson conceived of and developed more than a year prior to revealing it to Gygax. Here Kuntz’s genuine excitement and respect for what Arneson achieved is readily apparent, as he reveals 26 distinct leaps in game design that he has identified from Arneson’s work. Most notably is Arneson’s genius in merging two seemingly disparate concepts: the open system of play as exemplified by children imagining together, and the closed system of play as exemplified by a typical board game. Kuntz then moves on to demonstrate, through analysis of Gygax’s own shifting statements as well as through recounting several key events, how TSR abandoned a basic tenet of Arneson’s philosophy: that of the gamemaster as the absolute creator of his own highly individualized game. In its place, Gygax instituted a new and far less creative role for the gamemaster as simply the administrator of standardized and structured rules (AD&D and the boxed sets of increasing complexity), premade game worlds (Greyhawk and Mystara) and even premade adventures (modules). Kuntz points out that Gygax instituted this shift at TSR to further monetize Arneson’s concept while privately adhering to Arneson’s original philosophy at his own gaming table.

I highly recommend that you read the entire review and that you buy the book in order to gain a more complete picture of the genius of Dave Arneson.

Or just go play some Dungeons & Dragons, but take off the training wheels and run your own adventure and make the game your own. Arneson won't mind, he'll be happy for you!

Yes, I know I talked about the same review twice and that is because it is that good, go read the whole thing and then buy the book. :)

Friday, September 28, 2018

Blackmoor Week Day Five

If one is really interested in learning more about the creative side of Dave Arneson, one should get the book "Dave Arneson's True Genius, by Robert J Kuntz. While I am not allowed to quote from the book itself, I will refer you to this review Cedgewick's Reviews > Dave Arneson's True Genius on Goodreads by Cedgewick, the researcher Michael Wittig who is known for being honest and forthright.

Quoting portions of Mr. Wittig's excellent review

More subtly on display, however, is Mr. Kuntz’s unarguable bravery in tackling the firmly-entrenched Gygaxian narrative of Dungeons & Dragon’s creation. In fact, to my knowledge this is the first time anyone in the 43 year history of the game has dared to challenge that narrative in a published work, despite the persistent whispers in various corners of the industry of its fallacy. But what better man to do it than Kuntz, who was at the table with Gary Gygax when Arneson first unveiled his revolutionary new game system?

Then he says

The first essay deals with the unique system qualities of Arneson’s creation, Blackmoor, which Arneson conceived of and developed more than a year prior to revealing it to Gygax. Here Kuntz’s genuine excitement and respect for what Arneson achieved is readily apparent, as he reveals 26 distinct leaps in game design that he has identified from Arneson’s work. Most notably is Arneson’s genius in merging two seemingly disparate concepts: the open system of play as exemplified by children imagining together, and the closed system of play as exemplified by a typical board game.

You'll want to follow the link to see what he says next all the way to the end of the review as it goes from solid point to solid point.

He closes with this

If, by now, the reader of this review gets the sense that I have summarized all of the thoughts and topics contained in this 69 page book, I can assure you that I have not. But given the superficial nature of the other reviews that I’ve seen for this book, I thought it necessary to provide you a taste of the thought-provoking richness Kuntz offers should you dare to read his book—if you are brave enough to do so, good luck and enjoy the adventure!