ArneCon 2025 is a success organiseres say

 ArneCon 3 is a big success say organizers! The convention honoring the legacy of Dave Arneson took place this weekend in St. Paul Minnesota. 

Special Guests at this weekend's convention included:

Dave Arneson Alumni:

• David Megarry
• Malia Arneson Weinhagen
• David Wesely
• David Ross

Other special guests inlcude, but not limited to:

• Sandy Petersen (Call of Cthulhu, Civilization, Doom, Quake), 
• Ken St. Andre (Tunnels & Trolls, Monsters! Monsters!), 
• Alexander Macris (Adventurer Conqueror King, Adventurer Conqueror King II, Ascendant, and Modern Spearhead)
• Ronin Wong
• Greg Gillespie
• Paul Stormberg

Will try to share some more photos if people send them to me. In addition to the Arneson Alumni, I think it is awesome to see Sandy Peterson attend as he is a real legend in gaming. 

I don't know how many people made it there this year, but the organisers said they wanted to keep this a small and personal convention. 

Did you attend to ArneCon 3? I would love to hear about your experiences there!

More discussion of this topic and other Blackmoor News in this Comeback Inn Forum topic.

-Havard

How was Your Dave Arneson Game Day?

 Yesterday was Dave Arneson Game Day! At this blog we recognise the fact that there were two co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons, the game that launched the hobby ot tabletop gaming into the mainstream and brought joy to millions of gamers all around the globe. Many other wonderful people contributed to the hobby over the years, including Dave Arneson's friends in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, the group gathering around Gary Gygax and TSR as well as countless of other professionals and fans. 

Dave Arneson Game Day is about celebrating every aspect of gaming and the great things it has given this wonderful fandom.

We celebrate this day at The Comeback Inn, the Blackmoor Fans Facebook Group, On Discord, The Piazza and many other corners of the Internet. 

Did you do anything in gaming this week? Please share!

-Havar

The MN Gathering 2025

 

The MN Gathering 2025 is the annual meetup of Minnesota Gamers, including several of the original Blackmoor Bunch.This year the event took place last night. 

Looks like people were having fun! :)

Did you attend the event last night? I would love to hear from you!

Photo: Castle Blackmoor

-Havard

Frank Mentzer Announces New Company Temporal Studios

Just the other day, the Youtube Channel of Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo Organizer Ron Meischker had TSR game designer legend Frank Mentzer on their show. Frank made the announcement that he was setting up a new company that would be called Temporal Studios (link to website). The project sounds ambitious as there are plans to delve into gaming history, conducting interviews with other RPG legends (Frank name dropped a few in the interview) and print and PDF publication. 

Frank has previously worked for TSR, Gary Gygax' New Infinities and Eldritch Enterprises. In 2017 he unsuccessfully launched a Kickstarter for his D&D campaign Empyrea (also known as Aquaria).

In recent years, Frank has had some health problems, but in the youtube interview he seemed optimistic, saying that modern medicine had helped him avoid the fate of some of his good friends like Jim Ward. 

-Havard

Scott Haring, Game Designer, has passed at 67

Scott Haring, a veteran game designer passed away on July 1 from pneumonia.  I just learned via my friend Ciro Sacco and Dungeonmaster Magazine.

Scott Haring, a veteran game designer and editor that started working in the game industry in 1982 has passed away, wrote Steve Jackson in his Daily Illuminator newsletter. Steve Jackson worked many years at Steve Jackson Games as Car Wars line editor, Autoduel Quarterly editor, Pyramid editor and Internat Sales manager. Here is the announcement: "Scott Haring, for many years a member of our staff (most notably as the Car Wars line editor in its most glorious days), passed away on July 1 from complications of pneumonia. He was 67. Scott was always fun to be around. His desk was covered with toys and baseball paraphernalia (as Andrew was to football, so Scott was to baseball). He also had a great singing voice, a talent which rarely crossed over with game design. Too bad office karaoke was not a thing back then! But when he put on the editor hat, he was one of the few people I would trust, without checking, to write or edit good copy. He was a pro". He worked at TSR too where he designed products for Classic D&D (The Republic of Darokin was a fine product), AD&D and Marvel Super Heroes. For the last twenty years he vas a freelance. The magazines he edited were always very interesting to read and he tried, along other brave people, to produce an independent gaming magazine - The Gamer - that lasted very little but it as a fine read.

My favorite work by Haring was Gaz 11 the Republic of Darokin, which was one of the first of the gazetteer series that I owned. It is always sad to learn about the passing of so many of the creative people who helped shape our hobby. 

Rest in peace.

-Havard

 

François Marcela-Froideval ( 1958 – 2025)

I was saddened to hear about the passing of François Marcela-Froideval (10 December 1958 – 17 June 2025). I learned about this news via Frank Mentzer who wrote:

Francois Marcela-Froideval has moved on. RIP
He was known for his hobby work in France and came to Gary's attention. He came to Lake Geneva for more than a year, and Gary & he & I got together often for design work and socializing. He proved he could handle a sailboat on the lake, for one thing... Francois produced two trial adventures for AD&D but they were never published by TSR. I still have the manuscripts in my archives. He contributed to Oriental Adventures, and (of greater note in Europe) was founder of Casus Belli magazine. As creator and screenwriter of Black Moon Chronicles series, he began with this preface: "This series is dedicated to E. Gary Gygax, the first dreamer, inventor of the role-playing game, without whom the heroic fantasy and science-fiction genre would only be today a minor, almost forgotten genre. To this quiet giant who made millions of players dream, to my master and friend. May he live forever in the universe he so patiently built." (tnx to Ciro Sacco for the news)

 Froideval also made the global map of Mystara which first appeared in a complete form in the D&D Master Set Rules. This was also the product where the name Thonia first appeared. 

My condolences to his friends and family. 

-Havard

ArneCon 3 Special Events for Oct 2025

 

ArneCon 3 just made an announcement  regarding their special events.The  number of people with real connections to Dave Arneson seems to be fewer than in previous years, but it is especially nice to see David Megarry and David Wesely appearing.

I am sure people attending the convention will have a lot of fun. Are you going to this year's ArneCon?