New Map of Castle Blackmoor!

This map appeared today on the new Dave Arneson Facebook Page. The map was recently discovered by Dave's daughter. It appears to be a photocopy of of the map from the First Fantasy Campaign book (JG). However, a quick comparison reveals never before seen hand written notes identifying the purpose of several of the rooms.

Given where this map was discovered, it seems likely that these notes are from Arneson himself.

Pre-production cover for Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor (2006) 

It would also be interesting to compare this map in greater detail to the floor plans of Castle Branzol which formed the inspiration for the original castle. In 2006 ZGG published Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor, but the book contained little information on the Castle itself. It has been speculated that both the Castle and the Dungeon could have been part of the never published DA5, of which there still may be a yet unrevealed manuscript out there.

In any case, this new map adds another piece to the puzzle that is Castle Blackmoor!

-Havard

Tomb of Abysthor (Necromancer Games 2002)

This 2002 module from Necromancer Games was brought to my attention recently. Apparently, Necromancer Games' President at the time Clark Peterson, had inserted references to Dave Arneson's most famous modules:

"Anyone catch the homage to Arneson's Temple of the Frog, which just happens to be the first published adventure for D&D (I say first published adventure because it was published in the original Blackmoor supplement. The first actual module--meaning all the product contained was an adventure--was Palace of the Vampire Queen by Wee Warriors)."-Clark

Writing under the pseudonym Orcus, Peterson goes on to express his satisfaction with the module, and also reveals his high opinion of the Temple of the Frog:

"...it has a cool homage to several really cool modules in it (Lost caverns of Tsojcanth and Temple of the Frog), it has links to Rappan Athuk for those who want them, it links to Crucible in that Tavik is there (if he survived), the new monsters are cool as are the new magic items.Can you tell I am proud of this one?"

Yes Clark, we agree with you on this at least. Temple of the Frog is a really cool module! I don't have a copy of Tomb of Abysthor, but looking at some of the preview from DrivethruRPG, I came across the following excerpt from page 2 of the module, which may be the reference Peterson was talking about:

"The physical ruin of the shrines and burial halls in the Valley of the Shrines is by far the least of the corruption ofthe once-holy sanctuaries. In the great caves beneath the burial halls, the tsathar, inhuman priests of the foul god Tsathogga, long ago raised a temple to their hideous demon-frog god. The tsathar as a race are detailed in the Monster Appendix. More vile still, a contingent of priests of Orcus—the evil demon-god of the undead—recently came some ten years ago from the legendary dungeon of Rappan Athuk to corrupt the burial halls and exploit the location as a base of operations for further expansion of their evil cult. The followers of the two evil gods have reached an uneasy truce. Both, however, seek a power even darker still—the power of a legendary Black Monolithrumored to be hidden somewhere in these caverns, sealed away long ago by an ancient power"

So the Tomb of Abysthor was built by the followers of the Frog and the followers of Orcus. This would make the module ideal to place somewhere in the world of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, right?

If any of my readers owns this module and have additional information from within the pages of the book, please let me know!

More discussion of this topic here.


Image Sources:
Clark Peterson Photo



-Havard

OD&D Book V: Blackmoor back in Print!

OD&D Book V, is what used to be called OD&D Supplement II, now available with the new deluxe reprint version of Original Dungeons & Dragons releases, which includes seven booklets (the first three rules booklets and four supplements) and dice within an engraved and illustrated wooden storage case. This also means, we once again get to see a book with the Blackmoor logo and Dave Arneson's name on the covers.

Speaking of Covers, included above is the revised cover, which has this odd sort of not quite old school look to it. A new artist's impression of Blackmoor Castle however, can never be a bad thing! Here is WotC's Preview for Book V. 

WotC's preview page is also keen to note the fact that this book includes the first iteration of the Temple of the Frog. Temple of the Frog was also the first published D&D adventure ever, and it was revisited in several versions. The second version, DA2, is also available for sale through DndClassics. A third version was released for D&D3E by Zeitgeist Games. Finally, WotC also released a Return to the Temple of the Frog module which can be downloaded for free here. How much Froggie goodness do you want?

 It is interesting to read the high praise TSR gives Dave Arneson in the introduction to this book. There is no trace there of the ugly statements from TSR following the lawsuits after Arneson left the company. This book is clearly a leap back into the good old days of innocence!


See also:
More discussion of this news
Discussion of Supplement II






 -Havard

Eastern Marshes of Thonia Revealed!

A new region in the world of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor is being explored in detail for the very first time. The Empire of Thonia, also known as the Great Kingdom, consists of ten provinces. The Eastern Marshes is one of the more traditional of the Thonian Provinces.

Get your free fan-created PDF booklet today!

Also, read more about Thonia here.

-Havard

Bruce Heard's New Fantasy Setting Revealed!

Back in April, I mentioned on this blog that former TSR designer, Mystara Guru and author of the Voyage of the Princess Ark, Bruce Heard had decided to create his own fantasy world for publishing. Bruce Heard has often been described as to Mystara what Ed Greenwood is to the Forgotten Realms. He originally intended to return to writing new stories for the ever popular Voyage of the Princess Ark series which were published in Dragon Magazine from #153-188, with a final installment in #344. However, since this option was not something WotC were interested in at this time, Bruce instead decided he would move towards creating a brand new world via kickstarter:

"Time has come for me to set sail across stranger skies. I think there's plenty of room out there for another ship, another crew, and new adventures unbound by darkness. Although stories would take place in another world, in spirit one might think this is the Princess Ark reborn. "

Although not much of this project remains a mystery, new clues appeared in the new Mystara fanzine, Threshold, discussed on this blog earlier this week. In the exclusive interview in Threshold #1 Bruce Heard revealed the name of the setting the first time: Calidar.

Threshold #1 reveals exclusive news on the new fantasy setting.

Fans of Mystara, BECMI D&D and the Voyage of the Princess Ark are already getting excited about this. A recent discussion at The Piazza seems to be the place to go for whatever other information on the World of Calidar may exist so far.

Stay tuned for more updates!

-Havard

Arneson Gameday: "Threshold": New Mystara Fan Magazine!

Arneson Gameday appears to be full of game related news this year!

Earlier today, the following was reported on The Piazza by my good friend Agathokles:

Dear all, I'm glad to announce the release of the first issue of Threshold, the new magazine for Mystara! I must say it has been a great time editing this issue, and I hope you'll enjoy our magazine, and I look forward to see your comments, as well as to Issue 2, Vaults of Pandius special, which will be shepherded by Cthulhudrew. Thanks to everybody who participated in this effort, which led to 180 pages of pure Mystara goodness! So, without further ado, here is the first issue of Threshold!

Within you will find a large collection of Mystara related articles as well as an exclusive interview with Bruce Heard. I will have to admit that I have also contributed to a couple of the articles. Blackmoor fans, keep an eye out for future issues of Threshold. I will not be surprised if Blackmoor related articles will appear in future installments!



-Havard

Arneson Gameday: LFC Blackmoor Campaign Returns!

Today is Arneson Game Day, commemorating the birthday of Dave Arneson and we have some exciting news: The Last Fantasy Campaign, or LFC, is the longest running online Pen & Paper RPG Campaign set in Blackmoor. Today, the following announcement was posted in the LFC section of the Comeback Inn:

 The year 359 of the Reunited Kingdom, or Year 1398 of the Northern Calendar. 

Theodore Zvenzen, last descendant of both the Ithamis and the Andahar bloodlines, is banned from the royal court for a crime he did not commit. Together with his friends and allies, among them Sumerset, the latest Black Prince of Naelax, and Oliver Pren, the twenty-third Blue Rider, he turns his sight northwards: To the home of his ancestors, to the ruins of old, abandoned Castle Blackmoor… The Ruins of Castle Blackmoor,

Part One: Reprise While I will have to explain this to a greater degree later on, these are the basic ramifications under which the first chapter of The Ruins of Castle Blackmoor will take place.

 DATE: (Tentatively) December 25th, or, depending on agreements between The Company of the Maiden, one of the other dates between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

FORM: Open chat, likely at the Last Fantasy Campaign’s gaming room at http://www.dragonsfoot.org. Details on the adventuring scenario in question will follow.

 DURATION: Because this will likely happen on the same day I do my yearly database backup, I will stay logged in from 1200 to 2400 GMT+1. Since it’s the holiday season, I don’t expect everybody to stay for ALL the time. But whoever drops in will immediately get the chance to play in a new adventure that should get a smirk on the face of even the grimmest grognard… ;) Hide all the pies, and all the pipeweed, and that’s all I am going to say.

 SYSTEM: Still up for discussion, but most likely d20, as per the Blackmoor gaming books by Zeitgeist Games, and Code Monkey Publishing. Rules contained in those books supersede all variant rules of d20, unless explicitly allowed.

 REQUIREMENTS: As a principle, all those who send a full character sheet to daysofrain@email.de as late as one week before the start of the game (approx. December 17th) are allowed to join. The duration and the form of the game are specifically designed to give as many people as possible the opportunity to play, even for a little while only.

***



-Havard