Summarizing Blackmoor 2010

With Dave Arneson's passing the year before, things did not look good for Blackmoor as we entered 2010. The year began with Wizards of the Coast, not renewing their lisence with Zeitgeist Games, making the chances of seeing any official Blackmoor product in print in any forseeable future unlikely.

In spite of this, fandom were intent to carry the flame on. The readers of this blog one year ago, numbered 50. Now we are 99! Last february we launched the new Blackmoor Fan Forum; the Comeback Inn. I renamed my website, now called the Blackmoor Archives, to reflect its more defined role, with the forum and blog complementing eachother.

In March and April, I was happy to report, several gaming events dedicated to the memory of Dave Arneson and Blackmoor. On March 27th, the second Dave Arneson memorial game day was celebrated in New York City. On April 10, The second annual David L. Arneson Memorial Maritime Mayhem Miniatures Event was held at The Source Comics. I hope these events will return this year and go on for many years to come. 2010 was also the year when the Arnesonian RPG, Dragons at Dawn was published. In October, Full Sail University honored their former colleague. Last year, a new season of the legendary Blackmoor Play by Post game, the Last Fantasy Campaign was launched at the Comeback Inn with players including former Blackmoor players, former ZGG affiliates and die-hard fans.

The Original Blackmoor Players have also been kind to share their memories of gaming with Dave Arneson. Greg Svenson is a founding member of the Comeback Inn Forum and continues to contribute there. Stephen Rocheford told us about the first D&D archvillain. Bob Meyer told me about his Blackmoor memorial Game.  David Wesely ran Braunstein and gave  a podcast Interview. Thanks to Jeff Berry, we also learned about Deborah Naffziger who played Toska Rusa. Mike Carr also spoke about his memories of playing the first D&D Cleric in history in Arneson's Game. I am also in contact with other players who continue to be supportive of our work. More to be revealed on this later!

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who have been following this blog and responding to my forum posts at the Comeback Inn and the Piazza. You are the reason why I am doing this.

Those are but a few memories of 2010, all in all a great year in Blackmoor's history. All of these events make me optimistic about 2011. Let's make it even better than 2010!

-Havard