DA3 City of the Gods (TSR, 1987)

 

While it would later be revisited in the d20 version City of the Gods for the Dave Arneson's Blackmoor line, the legendary City of the Gods from Dave Arneson's original campaign had been whispered about since it had been mentioned in the First Fantasy Campaign (1977) or perhaps even earlier as a place where many of the original Blackmoor players would see their characters meeting their doom. Even Rob Kuntz and Gary Gygax had struggled to face the dangers of this place.

But it was DA3 City of the Gods that would first give full details about the City and its surrounding Valley of the Ancients. TSR and Dave Arneson had seeming overcome some of their differences and the DA series allowed fans to finally learn more about the world of Blackmoor. TSR partnered up Dave Arneson with freelancer Dave Ritchie who authored the modules based on manuscrips provided by Dave who also gave his final approval on DA1-3. Both Arneson and Ritchie were credited on these three modules, unlike DA4 Duchy of Ten which is only credited to Ritchie while still clearly based on details from Arneson. 

This adventure also gave the world more details about the Peshwah Horsemen and their lands, including expanding the Blackmoor world map south for the first time. Early on in the adventure, the PCs are introduced to Bosero, the character originally played by Jon Sider, before they are soon attacked by things that can only be linked to the City of the Gods. Although the module's excellent cover by Doug Chaffee does not really reflect the contents of the adventure, the shameless use of science fiction on a fantasy adventure module, told customers that Blackmoor is a very different place than what you can expect from most Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Indeed, combining sci fi and fantasy elements was one of the hallmarks of Dave's original campaign and could be seen as early as in Supplement II's Temple of the Frog. Zeitgeist Games would later double down on sci fi in Blackmoor campaigns with Clock & Steam decades later.

Item Code: #9191 (DA3)
Title: City of the Gods
Type: Adventure
Author: Dave L. Arneson and David J. Ritchie
Published: 1987
Format: 48-page book w/tri-fold cover, fold-out map

"New Magic... That's what the flying egg has. New magic unlike any ever encountered in Blackmoor. New magic of a type that could give the fledgling kingdom an important edge in the wars that are brewing on its borders. There are only a few minor problems. Like the fact that the magician who piloted the metal egg to one of Blackmoor's southern outposts was killed before he could utter a word. And the fact that Blackmoor's sworn enemies, the monks of the evil and eccentric Order of the Frog, are also interested in the magic represented by the egg. And, most important, the fact that the egg came from the distant and dangerous City of the Gods. Set amidst the blistered salt flats of the Valley of the Ancients, the City of the Gods is a strange and deadly metal metropolis whose powerful guardians do not welcome intruders. Yet it is to this place of deadly menace that Blackmoor's leaders now send a daring expedition - to bargain for aid in the coming wars - or to steal the magic of the gods."

• DA3 City of the Gods can be purchased as PDF or POD from DrivethruRPG (not an affilated link)
• Read more about DA3 at the Comeback Inn Forum!

Have you played this adventure or do you own a copy? I would love to hear your thoughts!

-Havard

A Sexier Temple of the Frog by Monte Cook

Aegir over at the Comeback Inn forum pointed me in the direction of this stunningly beautiful painting by artist Matthew Stawicki.

Known as Le Temple De Frogue (I don't know French, so I guess it could mean anything ;) ), this fantastic location is part of Monte Cook's latest endevour of Numenera. According to the Numenerea website Le Temple De Frog is located in the Caecilian Jungle. With its many crosses between fantasy and science ficiton, I could have sworn I had brought up Numenera earlier on this blog, but I guess I never got around to it.

Automaton by Guido Kuip

Ever since Monte Cook walked away from D&D Next, I have been curious to see what this game designer was up to. Running side projects such as the Unbegotten Citadel with James Raggi (LotFP) and lately the news of the Planescape Torment Computer game Sequel set in Numenera with Colin McComb are all things that sound great in my book!

From the start I thought Numenera had a Blackmoor vibe to it with Automatons and other sci fi references tossed into its fantasy(?) setting, but with the Temple included as well, I know I am going to check it out :) By the way, if you like Matthew Stawicki's art you can find more of it in his gallery here.

More discussion of this topic here.

-Havard

First Expedition to the City of the Gods

In 1980 TSR published Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, possibly inspired by Gygax' experiences in the City of the Gods in 1976. Last year I talked about how the two Greyhawk heroes, Robilar and Mordenkainen almost lost their lives in this deadly place. It wasn't until 1987 that the City of the Gods became accessible to the general D&D fans in module DA3.  However, Dave Arneson had been sending his players to the area since 1974. Dave Arneson's company Zeitgeist Games revisited the location in 2008 as part of their D20 line.

The first expedition to the City of the Gods is mentioned in JG's First Fantasy Campaign. Was the City always a space ship? Visitors from futuristic interstellar civilizations had been visiting Blackmoor since John Snider started his Star Empires campaign in early 1973 placing Blackmoor on his star map. This may have been what first brought the science fantasy twist to Arneson's campaign and may have been the direct inspiration for the City of the Gods.

What we do know is that the City of the Gods was a deadly place. Mordenkainen and Robilar were lucky enough to escape the City alive. The first group exploring the area were not so lucky. The Wizard of the Woods (Pete Gaylord) and a Peshwa Nomad Hero (Dale Norman) lost their lives on this expedition.  Those who did return did not look back.



-Havard

Discussion of this article.

The Dwarven Area 51

Reading some of the interesting stuff about the dwarves and gnomes of the Dwimmermount campaign posted on Grognardia a few weeks back made me want to write something similar for Blackmoor. However, I then realized that something has has been bothering me for a while.

While the Dwarves of Blackmoor are mostly standard dwarves with not much to differentiate them from dwarves of any other D&D setting, the one thing that perhaps makes them stand out a little is their creation of huge mechanical devices. Not that this doesnt occur in other settings too of course, but since technology is such an important theme in the Blackmoor setting, the fact that dwarves are building such equipment suggests that it is a more prominent feature for the dwarves too, than in other worlds where it could be just one of many schticks.

But yeah, something has been bothering me about all of this. As I mentioned in the article about the movie Outlander; once you introduce a Space Ship into the campaign, it ought to mean something. In my opinion, the origin of all technology (beyond medieval level) should be the City of the Gods.

I was hoping that ZG would follow this pattern and was a little disappointed when, looking through the Clock & Steam has no mention of City of the Gods, but rather traces Clockwork technology back to Gnome inventors like Galen Lato (inventor of the first telescope) and Artigan (Inventor of the first clockwork construct). A dwarf, Borgrim Stonehammer, was responsible for the first use of  Steam Power.

However, the question that remains unanswered is; what triggered the whole thing? Perhaps Gnome clock makers had been experimenting a little on their own for centuries, but something must have sparked ideas that triggered a sort of Industrial Revolution? It then occurred to me; the dwarves must have had access to a major find from the City of the Gods. Some sort of Area 51. I could see the dwarves, taking in a few selected gnome Alchemists into the deepest of caves under Mount Uberstar. What does this dwarven Area 51 contain? Perhaps an explorer type vessel used by one of of St. Stephen's allies, possibly even a kidnapped alien? Or simply various technological artifacts stolen from the Temple of the Frog, and collected for studies? Whatever it is, it must be something that had a serious impact on Dwarven society. Something that made the Dwarven and Gnomish sages make leaps in their technological advances that they would never have without it.

Recently, the Dwarven alliance between King Uther and Regent Oberstar Kazakhum (played by Walter Oberstar) meant that the clever minds of the Blackmoor University got some insight into dwarven secrets. While the Dwarves undoubtedly still keep some things to themselves, this cooperation holds promises of an even more incredible development for the future.





-Havard

Outlander (2008)

I finally got around to watching this film. The reason why I waited so long before watching it was mostly that I expected it to suck. A guy from a space ship crashes in Norway in the Viking Age? Can this concept produce a high quality movie? Of course not. Then again, it is cheesy, and I do love cheese. And to be honest, the movie was a lot better than expected. What does this have to do with Blackmoor? Look at it! This is exactly what the Blackmoor movie should be like! As my friend Rafael once put it, the story of Blackmoor is at its core the story of fantasy world where a space ship crashes. Although Outlander doesn't have elves or dwarves, it comes fairly close.

One thing that drew me to this movie is that it is set in Norway. Being Norwegian, I am a sucker for any reference to my country in International Media, however bad it might be. Secondly, I love the idea of Viking movies, even though most of the ones actually made arent all that good.

Outlander does a pretty good job of potraying the Vikings, even though there's no sign of the produces actually being interested in exploring the deeper tradtitions and customs of the norsemen. Still, the Viking village looks fairly historically correct. The film makes one mistake, that I believe many Blackmoor campaigns also risk making. If you are going to introduce a sci fi element into all of this, make damn sure you use it! So they have access to a, granted submerged, spaceship. What do they do with it? Forge the metal into better swords! Whatever happened to those laser rifles? Were they ruined by water? What kind of crappy sci fi world is that? How awesome would it not have been to see the entire band of Vikings, armed with laser rifles, going up against the Dragon-like aliens? Cheesy as heck, but once you have Vikings and a Space Ship, there is no way around that. Might as well take it all the way, eh?

I think this is one reason why the science fantasy elements in many Blackmoor campaigns are left alone, and wisely so. If you introduce, then you should be prepared to have them leave a mark on the campaign, rather than just have the space ship be a kind of side trek. David Ritchie made a good decision in this respect. He postulated that the discovery of the FSS Beagle would eventually completely change the face of Blackmoor. This is one of the most interesting themes of the setting in my opinion.

Back to the movie Outlander, I found it quite enjoyable. It has an interesting story and throws in alot of elements that dont usually mash well, but still manages to pull it off. And flaws aside, it is probably the best Hollywood portrayal of my ancestors since Kirk Douglas' The Vikings (1958).






-Havard

There's a Spaceship in my Fantasy?

With all the recent talk about Traveller on Sandbox of Doom , Grognardia and other blogs this month, I return to the topic of Science Fantasy in Blackmoor.

DA3 revealed the secret of the Valley of the Ancients. A crashed space ship right there in Dave Arneson's fantasy setting! By the time that DA3 was published, this was hardly new though. Gary Gygax' S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks had been published in 1980, likely inspired at least in part by Gary Gygax' own experiences as a player exploring the City of the Gods in Arneson's game. Much later the concept of a crashed space ship in a D&D setting would return in Tales of the Comet.

DA3 was not the first appearance of a space ship in Arneson's game however. It is not unlikely that it all began with a board game called Star Empires.  In 2008, Dave Arneson reported:

John [Snider], the author, was another of the original [Blackmoor] group. He had outlined a whole series of books and maps.

Blackmoor was incorporated into John Snider's Science Fiction Campaign. Greg Svenson Explains:

My recollection is that it was a crossover from our parallel "Star Empires" campaign that John Snider was running (from early 1973 to late 1974 or so, when John went into the Army). There was an RPG component to "Star Empires" which we were also playing, but TSR never published it. We had several encounters with scout ships from the neighboring galactic empires before the world Blackmoor is on was quarantined by the local galactic government, I can't remember which empire controlled it.

 The spaceship from DA3 was the FSS Beagle, an exploratory vessel of the Galactic Federation, commanded by Captain Bork Riesling. DA3 revealed that St. Stephen of the Temple of the Frog hailed from this vessel, answering a question that had been asked since the publication of D&D Supplement II, where St. Stephen had first made his appearace to the common D&D fan. In Supplement II, his origins had simply been explained like this:

This fellow is not from the world of Blackmoor at all, but rather he is an intelligent humanoid from another world/dimension.

 However, Captain Riesling and St. Stephen may not have been the first aliens to visit Blackmoor. John Snider's Star Empires game quickly affected the Blackmoor campaign. Greg Svenson has the following information on the alien races involved:

 There were eight major empires. Three were humanoid empires with one each of ursoid (bears), feline (cats), avian(birds), amoboid (amobas) and icthioid (fish). There were also a variety of minor empires with just a couple of worlds inhabited by exotic races (along with the normal ones above) [...] We had encounters in Blackmoor with both human and avian scouts (Scott Belfry ran the avian empire). I remember someone getting a 'magic cape' that allowed the wearer to fly (the avians wings were no longer functional, so they created alternate ways to fly). The Blue Rider's armor was a suit of powered Battledress. I was running a galactic empire controlled by a race of ursoids

 

Unfortunately, Blackmoor proved to be a dangerous place for little aliens. Svenson reports that the Star System from the Star Empire's campaign in which Blackmoor had been placed was considered to be a risky place to visit:

[The Star System]was almost immediately quarrantined due to the loss of several scout ships from two empires, one human and one avian...

-Havard

Necrotech: Power of the Egg of Coot

Necrotech is my take on the manifestation of the powers of the Egg of Coot. This is another example of how sci fi can be added to fantasy. The FFC has a rather humorous description of of the Egg, but one of its main features is the ability to produce magical items. Since I decided to make technology a core aspect of my campaign, I figured the items produced by the Egg could be more technological in nature. Not just regular tech though, or even technomancy. It's the Egg, which I am already potraying as a Cthuluesque entity, so the technology needs a dark twist. The Egg uses Necrotech to produce technologically enhanced undead. Picture a Zombie with metallic tubes sticking out of its head and metallic plates grafted into its skin. Undead servitors of the Egg have the blue glow in their eyes, similar to that of the Thralls of Coot. Necrotech is a term also used in games by White Wolf and Privateer Press.







-Havard

Science Fantasy

Back when Arneson ran his games, notions of the genres of science fiction and fantasy had not become segmented as they are today. In literature spaceships and aliens would often appear in fantasy tales. This made it easier for Arneson to experiment more with the genre in his Blackmoor games, experimentation which is probably one of the things that made Blackmoor different from many later D&D settings. In his latest blog entry, Robert S Conley identifies Science Fantasy as one of the growing trends of the Old School renaissance.

The best known example of Science Fantasy in Blackmoor is of course the City of the Gods, but already in Supplement II, the Temple of the Frog features aliens, laser weapons and other technology. All of this was apparent in Arneson's early games as well. Empire of the Petal Throne creator Professor MAR Barker had connections with Arneson (whether the professor played in Blackmoor is yet to be confirmed) and may have influenced eachothers creations in many ways, including the science fiction element found in both Blackmoor and Tekumel. According to Greg Svenson, the science fiction element of the game dated back to its earliest days:

"...several of the initial players were playing 20th C types who were transplanted into the Blackmoor world (which according to Wesley and Maker was before my first dungeon adventure), so the Sci Fi link was there from the beginning."

 I wonder if the lack of emphasis on science fantasy in the D20 Blackmoor line might not have been an opportunity missed. It would have clearly defined Blackmoor in a yet to be explored niche. On the other hand, many still feel uncomfortable with combining these two genres.






-Havard