Havards Blackmoor Blog

Blackmoor Week Wednesday: Classic Blackmoor Fan Maps Revisited! -Havard

 Would Dave Arneson Have Liked You To Try New Editions? -Havard

 First post for Blackmoor Week 202 1 is up at the new URL -Havard

 Today, April 17th 2021 marks the 50 year anniversary of the first official Blackmoor Game session. The session was announced in Dave Arneson's fanzine, Corner of the Table Top (Vol. 3 No. 4), where shared gaming updates with other gamers in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.  The announcement for the game read: There will be a medevil "BRAUNSTEIN" April 17, 1971 at the home of David Arneson from 1500 hrs to 2400 hrs with refreshments being available on the usual basis. Players may come at any time and any number are welcome to attend what should prove to be an exciting time. It will feature mythical creatures and a poker game under the Troll's bridge between sunup and sundown. Now I don't know about you, but I would have loved to be part of this game. I have not seen many more details about what this game entailed. Did actual trolls play poker or was it just that the game took place under that bridge where the troll used to hang out? Was this actually the first

Edit: It has since been made clear that this announcement was a bit premature. The Vaults of Pandius are still awaiting the green light from WotC. Fingers crossed! It was just announced that Wizards of the Coast have given their approval for a long lost manuscript written by legendary D&D Game Designer Jeff Grubb to be released for free to the fans at The Vaults of Pandius.  The Mystara Sourcebook was comissioned by TSR in 1990s and was to be part of the companies relaunch of the Classic D&D setting under the AD&D 2nd Edition rules. Mystara first appeared in published form in 1980 with the release of the adventure X1 Isle of Dread and was from that point on the default setting of the B/X and BECMI D&D line which also incorporated Blackmoor.  Sadly, the nearly completed book that Jeff Grubb had written was never published as curious reversals of decisions within TSR's management and sales department at the time suddenly decided that instead of a book presenting all o

  I was sad to hear about the passing of another legend in tabletop gaming today, Len Lakofka. This blog's main focus is the people involved with the gamers from Dave Arneson's group, but today I feel like paying respect to Mr Lakofka.  Perhaps best known as the main whose campaign gave its name to the Lendore Isles of Greyhawk and the Leomund of various spells across all editions of Dungeons & Dragons, Len created the L-series of modules, a project he continued after his departure from TSR releasing L4 for free to fans via Dragonsfoot. Len's involvement with the hobby goes back to the 1960s when he got involved with the International Federation of Wargamers (IFW) at one point becoming President of that organization and helping Gary Gygax organizing GenCon.  I never got to meet Mr Lakofka in person, but we were friends on Facebook and I got to discuss some aspects of the history of D&D with him a few months back. He was always very polite and helpful. I am sad to he