Return to the Temple of the Frog, WotC 2007

 In 2007, Wizards of the Coast decided to revisit one of the most iconic locations in Blackmoor. Return to the Temple of the Frog was published and released as a free PDF on the Wizards of the Coast Website. This was quite surprising since Dave Arneson's company Zeitgeist Games were publishing Blackmoor at the time as well. Dave Arneson is surprisingly not credited for the adventure even though it is clearly based on his original designs and concepts. The PDF does credit Dave Arneson as one of the creators of D&D however. The Temple of the Frog has gone through many iterations and I detailed a history of the adventure over at my website. 

Return to the Temple of the Frog takes place more than twenty years after the original adventure and the defeat of the Temple. Known to his followers only as Saint Stephen, D&D's first arch villain has somehow managed to rebuilt the temple with newly gained abilities. New adventurer's are needed and will be put up against mutated apes, cyborgs and an enormous mutated frog before they finally can confront Saint Stephen and his nefarious allies. 

The adventure provides updated maps of the original Temple of the Frog and presents players with 3E rules for sci fi weaponry and equipment as well as stats for some of the classic opponents found in the Temple. In many ways this adventure is a replay of the 1987 version (DA2) of the adventure, although with much of the surrounding framework removed or changed. 

The introduction provided on the website at the time was as follows: 

"The Order of the Frog was led by a man of resource and ambition. High Priest Saint Stephen and four companions appeared out of nowhere and took over the order twenty five years ago. Though Stephen and his companions seemed normal enough (except for the slight greenish cast of their skin), they were quite literally not of this world. They were aliens, members of a scientific expedition that crash landed on this planet some years ago. Temple of the Frog was first published in the 1975 D&D Supplement II Blackmoor. It was later republished in 1986 as module DA2, Temple of the Frog. In the original adventure, the PCs were hired to find a missing person (Rissa Aleford, Baroness of the Lakes) and investigate a strange cult based on the worship of frogs. Return to the Temple of the Frog picks up the adventure decades later. During an adventuring party's assault on the temple over twenty years ago, Saint Stephen escaped the conflict and hid in the swamp until the adventurers departed. Having completed their raid, rescued the prisoner they had come for, and hurriedly looted the temple, the heroes left the area and never looked back. Saint Stephen entered the temple hoping to salvage anything that he could. The Order of the Frog was done for, all his fellow aliens were slain, and his frog cultists had fled or were put to the sword. He only wanted enough to allow him to flee the swamp and find a new hiding place. He found more than he had counted on...."

Title: Return to the Temple of the Frog

Year Published (2007, Wizards of the Coast)

Format: PDF

Pages: 36

Author: Ted Albert

Have you played Return to the Temple of the Frog? What did you think about it? What is your favorite version of this adventure location?

• More discussion of this adventure at The Comeback Inn. 

-Havard

Age of the Wolf not Sanctioned by Estate Morgan Says

Edit: I just talked to a source within Ink Bat Studios. They have clarified that the Age of the Wolf Sourcebook was not written by Dave Arneson: "like all but one of the Blackmoor supplements during the 3e and 4e eras, Dave did not write any of the book. He simply oversaw and approved it. We're just trying to honor Dave's own wishes and make sure he's not forgotten." They also says that from their perspective, Ink Bat's contact with Fellowship of the Thing (Griffith Morgan and Chris Graves) was just established and that they were still trying to make a deal. They were surprised that Fellowship contacted myself and other bloggers before negtotiations were finalized. Lets hope this is all just a misunderstanding and that things can be cleared up!

Yesterday we were excited to report that the legendary sourcebook Blackmoor Age of the Wolf will be released by Ink Bat Studio this August. The Age of the Wolf sourcebook was a project started during the 3E and 4E eras when Dave Arneson's company Zeitgeist Games and later their partners Code Monkey Press wanted to develop a new subsetting for Blackmoor. The manuscript along with a lot of illustrations were completed when Dave passed away and WotC announced that the Blackmoor lisence had been rewoked. This marked the end of Zeitgeist Games venturing into RPG publishing. 

What happened to the Age of the Wolf manuscript since then is not yet known, but I have confirmation that some of those working on Age of the Wolf are currently involved with Ink Bat Studios. Some of the designers involved have a long list of credits working in the industry and the final Blackmoor sourcebook, dubbed Blackmoor: The First Campaign was highly acclaimed by fans of newer and older editions. It is possible that they have spent all these years seeking to find a way to get the manuscript published. 

According to Griffith Morgan from the company Fellowship of the Thing (Secrets of Blackmoor Documentary, Tonisborg Sourcebook), Ink Bat Studios will not be allowed to publish Blackmoor: Age of the Wolf. "It is not sanctioned by the Estate", Morgan says. "If this is Arneson material it belongs to [Arneson's daughter]. They cannot use the Blackmoor Trade [Mark]. Wthout the family's permission, they cannot put Dave Arneson's name on it." I have not yet been able to get confirmation from the family, but Morgan says his company are operating under a lisence from the Estate.

Griffith Morgan as he appeared on Wandering DM's Youtube Channel three years ago. 

Morgan says Ink Bat Studios have been in contact with both the Estate and Fellowship of the Thing. Morgan says his company would love to publish the manuscript, but according to Morgan, no agreement was reached. 

Legalities about Blackmoor have always been complicated. Although I am no expert on these matters It is important to realize that Trade Marks and IP are two separate issues. An entity called the Arneson Estate LLC has made claim to the Blackmoor Trademark, but the Trademark registry status is still listed as pending, although an extension was granted on Feb 1. 2024. WotC also claim to own the Blackmoor Trademark through continued publication of PDF and Print material. 

When it comes to Blackmoor IP, things are even more complicated as multiple parties have supported Blackmoor across the years. 

For the sake of fans, many of us have been waiting for this source book since we first heard about the concept in the early 2000s, let us hope that some solution can be found so that we can finally see what this book was about. Before we know more, it is dangerous to speculate too much.

-Havard

TSR vs. Arduin

Yesterday, Andy Markham shared the above document on Facebook titled "David A Hargrave - The Arduin Chronicles #2, from Alarums & Excursions #26 (Aug. 1977)" As you can see above, David Hargrave, creator of Arduin, had recieved a letter from TSR objecting to some things in his game and apparently threatening to sue.

 Tim Kask who was at TSR at the time offered the following explanation:

 In 1977, TSR began aggressively pursuing folks and companies that we thought were infringing on our IP or trademarks and copyrights. We reached out to several and advised them of the legal shit-storm that might befall them if they didn’t knock it off. They were legion, and Arduin Grimoire was just one of many that fell afoul of Brian and Gary’s watchful eye. The bit about the spell is easy enough to deduce-they lifted ours verbatim. Their foreword may have been one of the anarchist genre prevalent in California then; they mostly said make copies, make your own books, screw the publisher’s rights, and so on.

 It is interesting in this time when IP discussions are all over the internet in this day of self-publishing and arguments on what can be shared and not etc. This is a good reminder that these discussions have been tied to the hobby since the beginning. TSR themselves were sued by Dave Arneson, the Tolkien Estate and others, but they were also fierce in defending their IP against others. Hargrave being more well known example.

Kask also went into some detail on how times have changed:

By the great stench-laden hairy armpits of Groo, man, it has been 39 years! While it may have been a big deal to them, it was just one of many we fought off. Also consider this, all of you younger folks. We wrote letters and used snail mail: 3 days to get about anywhere in the US; if they wrote back that day and mailed it the next, a week is gone when you get your answer. Long Distance telephone calls on land lines cost big money during the day, lesser money at night. We sent the mag to the printer with a week of advance time; that meant what we wrote in it was a month old when it came off of the presses. A&E had an erratic publishing schedule, anywhere from 3 to 7 weeks. It is most likely that a settlement was reached after something else had gone to press.

So while some things are very different today, it is also interesting to see how some things are indeed the same.



-Havard

Shaerdraeth: The New Lands

On June 20th, I discovered that Code Monkey Publishing wasn't dead afterall. Finally having re-registered on their forums, I learned that they are still planning on releasing their New Lands Setting. To recap, the New Lands was an idea announced last year when CMP realized WotC weren't likely to renew the Blackmoor lisence. Rather than scrap all the ideas for what they were planning to do with Blackmoor, the idea was to use that in a new setting called the New Lands. Now the project has been named Shaedraeth. From the CMP forum, I was able to learn the following:

"Blackmoor: We've shifted from the lands of Blackmoor itself to the 'New Lands': Shaedraeth. To avoid licensing issues down the road, we're making this move now rather than later. Integrating those items that are NOT WotC IP from Blackmoor to Shaedraeth requires a bit of care to make sure things mesh smoothly and aren't shoehorned in.

Shaedraeth: Related to the above, the first product is "Dungeons of the Lost Moorlands". It is a massive dungeon crawl, give some hints to what happened to Blackmoor, and set part of the stage of the New Lands. It will be a PDF only product, simply because of the massive size of it. We're talking an outside area leading to the dungeons and then 21 levels with 81 maps of dungeon-y, deadly, tastiness!"

The quote above suggests it would only be a pdf product, but recently the relevant forum has been renamed Print Products.Thanks to Dave L at the Comeback Inn forum, I was able to learn a few more details:

Maps for the WelComeback Inn and the first 4 levels of the dungeons themselves are drawn and ready for computerization

And

Also coming real soon; the Calendar of Shaedraeth - This will include plantary information, moons (yes I meant that to be plural) and their cycles, the seasons, and of course the actual hours, days, weeks, months of each year and their 'common' naming conventions (most normal folk don't call it year 2012, they call it the year of the monkey - education!)

Suggested release date for the product has been rumoured to be around GenCon this year. Only time will tell how this will develop!

(Image: Columbus discovering the New World, used for illustration purposes only)








-Havard

Code Monkey Press Forum is back up

But the Monkeys weren't dead. Code Monkey Publishing suffered some hard blows at the end of 2009, with both the Blackmoor lisence expiring, and the announcement that their cooperation with Zeitgeist Games was coming to an end in early 2010.

At this time, the CMP forum had been down even longer, since being attacked by hackers, apparently.

However, now the forum is back up and it looks like they have plans to get back to business as usual. It is unclear whether this will have any relevance for fans of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, now that the lisence from WotC is ancient history, but it seems like CMP executive Robert Reed has not given up his plans for a New Lands Setting.

We are discussing this development in greater detail over at the Comeback Inn.







-Havard

ZEITGEIST STRIKES BACK?

Seems like the final word has not been said concerning the Blackmoor lisence. Today, Zeitgeist Games made the following announcement:

Given the ruckus this original mail triggered, I think a bit of clarification is in order.

At this point, Zeitgeist has been in negotiations for a renewal for quite some time. It's been radio silence for a while and it's not prudent from a business standpoint for anyone to wait around for the chance that a renewal will come through. In the end, if Zeitgeist is able to secure a renewal, we'll determine how to proceed from there.

So, from the factual department we have the following:

1. Blackmoor still has the best fans of any campaign setting
2. The Co-publishing agreement between CMP and ZG is expiring in early 2010
3. The future of Blackmoor RPG publication remains uncertain, but ZG is still pursuing and interested in renewing the license with WotC.
4. Blackmoor is a trademark of WoTC and the majority of the proper references within the 3rd and 4th Edition are the property of Wizards of the Coast.

Beyond that Zeitgeist Games would like to express it's thanks to CMP, the writers of books and episodes and of course, the fans for helping to keep Dave Arneson's world and legacy alive.

Sincerely,
Zeitgeist Games,Inc,
Dustin Clingman, President

What does this mean for the future of Blackmoor? WotC has not shown much interest in continuing any of their lisenced properties over the last few years. I wish Zeitgeist Games the best of luck in their efforts, but I would think that they would need a pretty big ace up their sleave to be able to get anything out of WotC. Still, if any part of the settlement between WotC and Arneson has been transferred to ZG or the Arneson Estate, anything is possible.

I also wonder if the statement regarding the future cooperation between ZG and Code Monkey Publishing will affect CMP's recently announced plans about the New Lands setting...


Stay tuned for more!



Havard

WHO OWNS BLACKMOOR?

Yesterday's announcement that WotC will not renew their contract with Zeitgeist Games over the Blackmoor lisence, preventing any future Blackmoor products from Zeitgeist Games/Code Monkey Press has created quite a buzz on various gaming forums.

One question many have asked is the question of who really owns the Blackmoor lisence. I might not be the final authority on this subject, but this is what I have found out so far:

Dave Arneson's Estate:
Dave stated that he owned the First Fantasy Campaign (FCC). This booklet was published by The Judges Guild, but Bob Bledsaw later transferred the rights back to Arneson. The FFC contain the early documentation of the setting, including early maps etc. Arneson has also for many years distributed D&D Supplement II on his website and has apparently been allowed to do so by WotC, though it is hard to tell whether this was a friendly gesture, ignorance on the behalf of WotC, or if it was part of some agreement between the two parties.

Wizards of the Coast:
WotC own the rights to the Blackmoor Trademark. I believe they also own the contents of the DA Modules, although what the ruling is on the material which exists in both the DA series and the FFC is anyones guess.

Zeitgeist Games/Dustin Clingman:
According to CMP's Robert Reed (Mynex), Clingman owns the rights to various elements that were added to Blackmoor during the 3E/4E era (2003-2009). This includes the halfing subrace called Docrae, the mysterious wizard Skelfer Aard, the 3E classes and probably other rules specific items. Code Monkey Press announced that they intend to make use of this in a future project labeled The New Lands. It is perhaps surprising that none of these additions were not retained by the Arneson estate.

Whether this division of ownership will be a disadvantage for Blackmoor in the future is hard to say. The biggest factor in such a future will most likely be WotC. It is possible that they could be interested in publishing modules based on the classic Blackmoor locations, though their disinclination to renew the lisence can also be seen as a continuation of a similar treatment of the Dragon, Dungeon, Ravenloft and Dragonlance lisences.






-Havard