Dave Arneson Material in the Catalog of Rebellion Games? (Blackmoor Week Day 3)

 I have thought about not covering copyright or Trademark ownership discussions on this blog anymore. It tends to create a lot of drama every time and it just makes me tired. However, we need to talk about this. 

Last year we learned that Rebellion Games had acquired the entire catalog creatred by Flying Buffalo Games. Flying Buffalo were founded in 1975 by Rick Loomis. When Rick sadly passed away back in August 2019, the company briefly passed to Webbed Sphere (Jason Kingsley OBE)  who sold the Flying Buffalo games catalog to Rebellion. 

Based in their press releases at the time, Rebellion seemed to be most focused on Tunnels and Trolls. However, another part of their press release may be of particular interest to readers of this blog:

"As part of the acquisition Rebellion have taken over Flying Buffalo’s entire line of roleplaying games, including the cult classic Citybook, Grimtooth, and Merchants Spies and Private Eyes series. The entire back-catalogue of Flying Buffalo PDFs will remain available to purchase online, with future releases coming directly from Rebellion Unplugged. "

 Now, we know that Dave Arneson contributed to a couple of gaming books linked to some of these series. In 1984, he contributed to City Book II: Port o' Call. For Merchants Spies and Private Eyes, Dave Arneson wrote the adventure The Case of the Pacific Clipper (1991). 

At one point Dave Arneson told me that he had sold his company Adventure Games to Rick Loomis. Adventure Games also made several games whose current ownership is unknown to me. When I asked Rick about the status of Adventures in Fantasy, which is one of the games Adventure Games produced, he was not able to confirm that story at the time. 

Do you own a copy of City Book II or Case of the Pacific Clipper? Please leave a comment below!

Find out more about Blackmoor Week here?

-Havard

Blackmoor Foundations Arrived (Blackmoor Week Day 2)

 

My copy of Blackmoor Foundations finally arrived. I decided I wanted to get this one from Amazon, but even though I ordered it immediately after it was announced there, it took quite some time for them to get the stock to send out to customers. Once shipped, it got here really fast so that is nice. And guess what, just in time for Blackmoor Week! I will be looking over this one over the next few days. Sadly, the cover got a bit bent as you can see in the photo, but oh well. 

What is Blackmoor Week and Dave Arneson Game Day you say? I'm glad you asked!

What are you doing for Blackmoor Week so far? :) Leave a comment! 

-Havard

Blackmoor Week 2024 - Day 1

 

It is this time of year again! Blackmoor Week is upon us. Fans and gamers worldwide celebrate this week over the 7 days leading up to Dave Arneson Game Day which you can sign up to here. Dave Arneson Game Day is a fan organized non-profit event to celebrate Dungeons & Dragons, Roleplaying Games and the D&D Co-Creator Dave Arneson. 

You can participate in Dave Arneson Game Day simply by running a game, wring about gaming or doing something else related to our hobby and ideally sharing it with us so that we can all join in the fun!  

We are not about holding up one creator of the hobby over the others who helped make this hobby. We are not about edition warring. We are not about whether Old School or New School is better. We are not about one way of gaming being better than other ways of gaming. Gaming is for everyone, regardless of age, skin color, gender, sexual orientation or political persuasion. One of the great things about this hobby is that it can bring people together. The only way to play this wrong is if the people around the table aren't having fun. In this day and age, we need more activities that can bring people together. 

I think Dave Arneson would be very happy knowing that all kinds of being around the world keep getting joy out of the game that he and his friends helped develop. 

That is what Dave Arneson Game Day is about! Enjoy Blackmoor Week 2024! Now is your time to make plans. And please let me know what you are doing in gaming in the days ahead! :)

-Havard

Morley the Wizard - Should This Early TSR Mascot Make a Comeback?

 

Back in the 1970s TSR created an iconic character that we don't see around much these days. Morley the Wizard was an early Mascot of D&D. He appeared in commercials aimed at children and younger gamers. He also appeared on the cover of the Fantasy Forest Board Game (1st printing). According to Screen Rant, the character may have been created in order to shift perceptions away from all the negative press given to D&D during the "Satanic Panic". 

Frank Mentzer told me that the character was created by Dave Dimery. Dimery was Vice President of Marketing at TSR at the time. "[Dimery was an]  old friend of Gary's (since childhood Chicago)" Frank told me. The image of Morley even appeared on some RPGA material during the time when Mentzer was in charge of that project. 

With WotC bringing back the cartoon characters as well as LJN toy characters like Warduke and Strongheart, will Morley be next?

Huge thanks to Frank Mentzer for providing additional information, images and documents for this article. 

-Havard

DaveCon 2025 Special Guests

Next year's DaveCon is still many months away, but we are already learning more details about the event. 

Vic Dorso seems to have clarified that the convention is not just about Dave Arneson, but that "Davecon isn't just about one Dave, its about all the Daves that made RPG gaming great !" 

The 2025 convention will include the following:

Original Blackmoor Players: 

David Megarry , David Wesely, Mike Carr,  Bill Hoyt, Ross Maker

Arneson Alumni: 

Ken Fletcher, Kevin McColl, 

Other Guests of Honor: 

Justin Alexander and Mark Rein-Hagen, Bob World Builder, Baron De Rupp, Grace the World Destroyer,  Heidi Gygax, Eric Garland, Greg Gillespie, Andy Thomas, David Yaeger, David "DJ" Johnson.

Furthermore, DaveCon, via their Facebook page, has offered a discount code for tickets: 

 20% Discount code is good till September 15th only is DiceBreaker.

You can buy the tickets at this site. 

Read more about DaveCon at the official website. 

If you feel like DaveCon is too far into the future, there is always ArneCon happening next month.

Are you going to DaveCon? What are your thoughts about this news? Let me know!

More about DaveCon 2025 at The Comeback Inn Forum

Disclaimers: This blog is not associated with DaveCon or any other commercial endeavour. This is a non-commercial fan site promoting and discussing anything we feel our readers might be interested in learning more about.

-Havard