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 Foundation Book Temporarily Out of Stock

 Secrets of Blackmoor on Twitter/X reported the following:

Blackmoor Foundations Update
 Trying to keep up on shipping - yes, we do all our own fulfillment with Chris and I packing book orders ourselves. We filled nearly all the orders thus far, but we ran out of stock on Blackmoor Foundations again, still plenty of Tonisborg. Looks like we need to do a double re-order to keep up. The reception on this book has surprised us. It seems gamers do want to know about Dave Arneson's original campaign along with the origin of RPGs. Thank you all of you who purchased a book.

 

Tonisborg is The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg by Greg Svenson."Chris and I" would refer to Griffith Morgan and Chris Graves who created the documentary Secrets of Blackmoor.  

It is great to see there being such a huge demand for this book that promises to include many unpublished notes, documents and maps by Dave Arneson. I ordered by copy through Amazon and I am still waiting for my copy :)

-Havard

Blackmoor Foundations Book Now on Amazon

 

The new book Blackmoor Foundations is now available on Amazon. That is, it is currently listed as out of stock, but I assume that is just because they are awaiting the shipment of books. I have previously talked about this book here on this blog. Published by The Fellowship of the Thing, the company behind the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary, this book includes a number of historic documents and maps from the Blackmoor campaign that has never before seen the light of day. 

The paperback edition is currently listed at 39.95 USD, and can be ordered from Amazon here. 

-Havard

New Maps and More details on Blackmoor Foundations Book

More is being revealed about the Blackmoor Foundations book coming from the Secrets of Blackmoor crew. I mentioned the other day that the book will contain several maps. Included is also the original Dutch Map that was often mentioned as a source for the Blackmoor coastline. Among the other maps included is apparently also the map from AVH's Outdoor Survival Game which was used to detail the inland geography. 

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The texts included here are also interesting as they show part of the connection between a Dutch Historical campaign that may have gradually transitioned into the Blackmoor game. Master Fant mentioned here is the character of David Fant who later also played the Baron of Blackmoor. 

Also of interest are references to the Great Kingdom, the Tower of Sorrows (Tower of Salt?) and the Capital of the Picts. The Picts were later replaced by Orcs as enemies, though I have also used them in my development for the people of the Vales as an older human culture before the Thonians moved into the lands of Blackmoor. 

It is going to be interesting to see what else comes to light when this book becomes widely available. 

-Havard

Blackmoor Foundation Arneson Manuscripts Content

 Blackmoor Foundations is a book to be published towards the end of this month. I talked about the book a few weeks ago and how it is going to include many unpublished documents and maps that can be linked back to Dave Arneson's campaign, including material written by Dave Arneson himself. Much of the content is still unknown, but some is starting to get leaked. 

Fellow Blackmoor scholar DH Boggs wrote on his blog that much of this material comes from illustratior Ken Fletcher's collection. Ken was employed by Dave Arneson's company and was tasked to prepare Blackmoor material for possible publication in the early 1980s.

More details comes from YouTuber DaddyRolledA1 who has been given a first draft copy of Blackmoor Foundations. In his video D&D History: Foundations, Product Lines, Art, & Creators, he covers many sources for gaming history, but I want to direct your attention to the section where he is talking about this specific book and reveals some of the content. 

The explains how the book discusses dates that are often uncertain and how it contrasts some documented dates with sometimes contradictory information from what people who were there rememeber. Given the type of "documentation" that is available from someone's personal games, I 

Some of these maps or variants of them have been shared among fans already, but it will be nice to see everything collected. 

Ken Flether apparently had lots of pages of documents that he shared with The Fellowship of the Thing (DaddyRolledA1 does not seem to appreciate the name of that company) that produced this book. 

This illustration made be curions. According to the youtube video this illustration was made by Dave Arneson.

The firearms of Blackmoor are shown in the illustration below. I am not sure if this refers to artifacts origination from the aliens, or if these are supposed to be regular firearms that the men of Blackmoor were able to produce. Both types are referenced in the FFC. 

Credits for this book are given to Griffith M. Morgan III of Fellowship of the Thing, but others have also contributed as shown on the intro page. 

So the final version of this book should be available soon. If you already own a copy, let me know what else might be found there!

More discussion of this article at The Comeback Inn.

-Havard

Blackmoor Foundation Book Announced for June 2024

 

Fellowship of the Thing have just announced that they are releasing a new book. Titled Blackmoor Foundations, this book promises to present early documents and RPG creations by Dave Arneson. The book is to include History, Maps and Lore from 1971 to 1985. 

The official description has the following:

Within the pages of this book, you will find maps and writings by David Arneson as he recounts the events and people in his Blackmoor, a living game environment that gamers are still experiencing over 50 years later. With the emergence of more historical documents, it's undeniable that Dave Arneson pioneered the play methods used in every role-playing game since the birth of Blackmoor in 1971. This collection, much of which has only recently been discovered, is an astounding glimpse into the historical writings that remain from Arneson's life. Yet, it can also be a guide to creating your own version of Blackmoor for you and your friends to play in.

This is going to be very interesting. A lot of documents from the early D&D creators is becoming available to a wide audience this year so it is is great that coverage from the Dave Arneson side of things is also going to be presented.

-Havard