This amazing Blackmoor map details Blackmoor as it appears in the World of Greyhawk. It was by a Blackmoor fan named Steven Quigley who allowed me to share it on my website. Sven made this for his campaign which takes place in Greyhawk.
You can download the full version of the map with a higher resolution from the Comeback Inn here.
-Havard
The oldest published reference to the City of the Gods is in the First Fantasy Campaign. This adventure proved deadly to many of the player characters from Dave Arneson's campaign and was probably played out shortly after the publication of Dungeons & Dragons. Another group of players who realised the dangers of this fabled location were none other than Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz, as chronicled by Rob Kuntz in Oerth Journal #6. It was clear at the time that Gary wanted to explore the idea of combining fantasy and science fiction. In 1980, TSR published the adventure Expedition to Barrier Peaks. Written by Gary Gygax, it was a different, but similar concept. It was the 1987 TSR module DA3 City of the Gods (Dave Arneson & David Ritchie) that would finally make the adventure available to D&D players worldwide.
In 2008, Dave Arneson's company Zeitgeit Games decided to revisit the adventure. Written by Harley Stroh, the d20 version is not a mere rehash of the 1987 module, but explores other parts of the crashed spaceship that is at the heart of the adventure. It also expands the lands surrounding the City of the Gods greatly. To me this will remain one of the highlights of the d20 Blackmoor line.
The back cover reads:
Deep in the heart of the harsh landscape of the Valley of the Ancients lies Blackmoors greatest mystery an accursed place the local desert tribes know only as the City of the Gods. One royal expedition to the site has already failed to return and now the heroes must traverse unforgiving wilds and dangers untold in search of truth and if they can survive the journey the glory of a lifetime. Whet your blades and ready your spells heroes for the greatest of trials awaits! Welcome to City of the Gods one of the most infamous and enduring mysteries in the long and storied history of Dave Arnesons Blackmoor. Designed for four to six characters of 9th to 10th level this epic adventure is sure to challenge even the bravest heroes be they peasants or nobles warriors or wizards. Will you succeed where so many others have failed or will you too fall victim to the unearthly perils that lie in wait in the forgotten City of the Gods?
Title: City of the Gods
Author: Harley Stroh
Executive Producers: Dave Arneson & Dustin Clingman
Editor: C.A. Suleiman
ISBN: N/A
Pages: 108
Publishers: Zeitgeist Games & Code Monkey Press (2008)
Purchase a copy at DrivethruRPG (currently for 3$) - This blog does not use affiliate links.
Do you have a copy of this adventure? Have you adventured near the City of the Gods?
Read more about City of the Gods at The Comeback Inn,
-Havard
In the past the MN Gathering has been organized in October for Dave Arneson Game Day, but this year the convention has been moved to August. The reason given for this is that it will honor the meeting of Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson and Bill Hoyt in 1969.
It is always great to see the Blackmoor Bunch getting together with other gamers and fans honoring the legacy they helped create with Arneson.
This blog celebrates all such events and all activities commemorating he early roots leading to the creation of Dungeons & Dragons. I wish the attendees of The MN Gathering a great time!
-Havard
Children of the horsegod Hak, the Peshwah believe they are a chosen people. Birthed to protect Hak's sacred lands and guide Hak's sacred horses, they are brothers and sisters of his divine spirit, and feel they hold a particular destiny and a special place in this, their land. From the rocky peaks of the High Hak to the dusty floor of the Valley of the Ancients, the tribes of the Peshwah roam. Horseman, nomad, prophet, merchant, warrior... each is a face of the Peshwah. Welcome to Riders of Hak, the definitive sourcebook on the Peshwah for Dave Arneson
DaveCon 2025 has been announced and tickets are already available. Organised by Victor Dorso, this will be the fourth DaveCon. Read more about the previous DaveCon here on my blog. As last year, the convention will take place in Bloomington MN in the Crowne Plaza Suites Msp Airport - Mall of America.
Dates given for the convention are:
As a friend of mine pointed out, much of this material has already been circulating on the web in addition to the books that many hard core fans will have, but it is still nice to have everything in one place. The commentaries by Jon Peterson are insightful as and useful as always.
D.H Boggs has good review on his blog where he points out that some documents that are mentioned in the book but not included could have been very useful, especially if one wants to explore the often overlooked Dave Arneson side of the story.
-Havard
We are now learning more about the people behind the upcoming Dave Arneson's Blackmoor Age of the Wolf. As I reported back in March, this 15 years in the making project is finally being released at GenCon 2024 and will become available in a free digital format. An exclusive interview with the lead designer was posted on this blog last month, but we now have more information:
It has been something of an epic journey since 2012. Playing at the World returns shortly in its new MIT Press edition - or at least, the first volume does. Volume 1 contains the material that was in Chapters 1 and 5 of the 2012 edition; Volume 2 has the deep dives on setting, system, and character that occupied Chapters 2 through 4 of the 2012 edition. V2 is thicker and should appear in 2025. There's a lot of new material throughout, but, to me it's still the same book. Thanks to Erol Otus, there has been a substantial improvement in the cover(s).
I found the original edition a very comprehensive and detailed look at the history of our hobby and I look forward to seeing the new material he mentions. And having a cover by Erol Otus is an excellent choice!
-Havard
The situation of the Blackmoor Trademark came up in a recent episode on the Vlog of Many Things Youtube Channel. The episode was hosted by Don Semora (Wizard Tower Games), Thomas Verreault and Erik Tenkar and was hosted on the channels of each of the participants. While the video includes discussion about a wide range of topics of less relevance to this blog, but the subject of Blackmoor comes up when Tenkar brings up the removal of the name Blackmoor from the Greyhawk map of the upcoming Dungeon Master's Guide. The part of the video that is relevant here starts around the 52 minute mark.)
Back in June, I talked about how WotC are now using the name Arn for this part of Greyhawk.Tenkar says he suspects the change was made due to some concern for the Arneson Estate, but the video also brings up possible non-legal reasons for the change. Verrault, however says the recent history of the Blackmoor Trademark is more complicated than that, explaining that the reason the Blackmoor Trademark was not returned to WotC during the recent nuTSR lawsuit where WotC as the defending party apparently won back most of their Trademarks and Icons. He says the reason why the Blackmoor Trademark was not part of this deal is because prior to this lawsuit, nuTSR had somehow "gifted" the Trademark to the Arneson Estate.
Verrault then goes on to tell a story in which he talked to one of the producers of the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary (presumably Griff Morgan) about the rights to Blackmoor products like Supplement II: Blackmoor in which the producer had given the mysterious answer "we'll see". This lead Verreault to suspect that the Estate (for which the Secrets of Blackmoor producers acts as spokepersons) were planning on awaiting the results of the nuTSR lawsuit and possibly suing WotC themselves (note: this is Verreault speculating). The youtubers then goes on to explain why suing WotC is a bad idea especially over IP that they are keeping in print and selling the items on DrivethruRPG (which includes multiple Blackmoor products).
When towards the end of the video Griff Morgan actually shows up in the chat section and is asked about the Trademark situation, Morgan says the and when the youtubers ask him about why WotC have changed the name on the Greyhawk Map, Morgan simply states that the Blackmoor Trademark is owned by the Arneson Estate (it is in fact still listed as pending).
While some of the content in this video is speculation, but it is nonetheless interesting to follow the discussion. Blackmoor continues to be a topic of interest to fans, that is for sure.
-Havard
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
Of course, saying that WotC would bring it back is a bit of an overstatement as the upcoming book Dungeons & Dragons: Worlds & Realms - Adventures from Greyhawk to Faerun and Beyond is a licensed product from Ten Speed Press and more a coffee table book than an actual game supplement. Still, seeing an entire chapter of this book being dedicated to Mystara when several popular D&D settings are not included (notably Dark Sun, Birthright and more).
With the recent discussions of Blackmoor being renamed Arn in the 2024 DMG has lead to much speculation. Yesterday I explored the name Arn as it is not new to the world of D&D. As the DMG is not yet available, we don't know if the change was made due to setting specific ideas, rights issues or a number of other reasons.
However, given this change for Greyhawk it will be interesting to see if Blackmoor will be renamed in the descriptions of Mystara as well. Mystara's connection to Blackmoor began before Mystara had even gotten its own name. Mystara is of course the world of the old BX and BECMI D&D Games (Some call then Basic D&D, a term I feel is misleading) and back then it was just called the D&D Game World as opposed to AD&D which had many settings tied to it.
As TSR had found themselves in the situation of having to publish two parallell game lines called D&D and AD&D, due to agreements with Dave Arneson. Since Arneson's rights were tied to the D&D line, it made sense that Blackmoor would end up there, even though the name Blackmoor was still kept on the Greyhawk map. The advantage of placing Blackmoor in Mystara's past was that players of the D&D game could use the same characters and simply visit Blackmoor through Time Travel. some people say Blackmoor was put into Mystara's past, but another way of looking at it is that Mystara would end up being a possible distant future for Blackmoor. For Mystara, this had the advantage of adding a layer of mysteries buried in the settings past that made it so much more interesting and almost every Mystara product referenced Blackmoor after this. The products that laid the groundwork for this connection were the DA modules, starting with DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor.
So, will Blackmoor be renamed in the presentation of Mystara? It is very difficult to say at this point. As mentioned we have no idea why they changed the name for Greyhawk and those reasons could easily have no impact on how WotC presents Mystara. On the other hand, if they do make the change that will support the uncomfirmed theory that WotC are distancing themselves from Blackmoor. If they call Mystara's Blackmoor Arn, that would be the craziest scenario of them all. Of course, it would be perfectly possible to present Mystara and not mention Blackmoor at all.
Whatever happens we will known more when this book comes out.
Dungeons & Dragons: Worlds & Realms - Adventures from Greyhawk to Faerun and Beyond is to be published on October 29th 2024. The book will be 368 pages and the current price tag is 50$
-Havard
The name Arn has actually been used on a number of occasions. In the adventure DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor (p46), we meet Arn Yonson, a 10th level Fighter who is an obvious stand in for Dave Arneson. Arn Yonson's name does suggest a Skandaharian origin, but the description only says that he wears an outlandish helmet with large horns that some people of Blackmoor find a bit funny.
In OD&D Supplement 3: Eldritch Wizardry (by Gary Gygax and Brian Blume), we find the artifact known as the Invulnerable Coat of Arn, a chainmail +5 with a number of magical resistances and powers linked to it. The same book also has a Ring of Gax so both D&D Co-creators got their names referenced in this book. It is unclear where the Coat of Arn got its name, but it is said to be a relic of a bygone age.
The oldest known reference to Arn that I was able to dig up on short notice however, is an illustration from the D&D draft document known as Beyond This Point Be Dragons or the Dalluhn document. The document contains an illustration showing a sign leading to "Lord of Arn". Now, I am not sure if there was ever a conclusion to who actually wrote that document, there have been suggestions that this illustration was drawn by Dave Arneson. Likely the signpost was just a joke, but Lord of Arn does suggest that this is the name of a realm. Perhaps the realm whose ruler once wore a magical chainmail?
Have you found other references to Arn in any D&D products or Arneson material? Please let me know about it.
Could any of these factoids help explain why Arn has now become the name of a realm in Greyhawk? Could this support Greyhawk Grognard's theory that the new WotC Greyhawk is set at an earlier point in the timeline? Or was it just a big coincidence?
Discuss this article at The Comeback Inn
-Havard
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.
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.
Here's the description:
About the adventure At the very origin of Dungeons & Dragons lies Castle Blackmoor, the dungeon Dave Arneson started running in 1970. In 1980, Dave published a large portion of his campaign notes as The First Fantasy Campaign. I will be using that to take you on a short tour of the City, the Castle, and the Dungeon of Blackmoor. Although Castle Blackmoor predates D&D, I will be using the original D&D rules (1974 ed) to run it. Play careful, because your fighters, magic-users, and clerics are dead at 0 hit points!
Frank Mentzer, editor of the TSR top selling D&D Red Box Basic Set and the rest of the BECMI line revealed the charcter sheet used for Aleena back in 2020 and shared it again now for the 50th anniversary of the D&D Gamenull. According to Frank, this character was rolled up in 1977 and the character sheet shows the character as she appeared in ca 1979. Aleena was played by Aileen Shea in Frank's campaign. As presented this character sheet presents Aleena as an 8th level Cleric wielding a +2 Mace of Disruption and a +1 Shield. She is dressed in plate armor.
The character sheet also reveals some fantasic adventures that this character has lived through. She has retrieved a magical ring from a Type II Demon. These Frog-like demons were lated renamed Hezrou and also provided the inspiration for the Croaking Demons from the BECMI Immortal Set. What happened to this ring, I wonder?
Sadly, the character sheet also states that Aleena has been killed by the hands of a Mummy. Does this mean Bargle was an undead all along?
With WotC revisiting all kinds of obscure characters for their new 2024 Core Rulebooks, why aren't they using Bargle and Aleena?
Discuss this topic further on The Piazzaon The Piazza.
-Havard
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.
ArneCon 2024 takes place on October 4-6 2024. This Dave Arneson themed convention is hosted by Fellowship of the Thing; the producers of the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary and The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg.
One of my favourite places to talk about D&D is The Piazza. I can't belive its been 16 years since fans created that forum. People keep saying discussion forums are going away, but here we are still very much alive and kicking. Since its inception, The Piazza has been known for its friendly atmosphere and immense creativity.
Piazza Birthday Event on Facebook
-Havard
I got a tip from my friend Cory that 80sTees are selling these awesome looking Blackmoor T-Shirts with the image from the cover of D&D Supplement II. The website offers this description of Blackmoor:
Blackmoor is a campaign setting for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. It originally evolved in 1975 as the personal setting of Dave Arneson, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, first as a setting for Arneson's miniature wargames, then as an early testing ground for what would become D&D. Blackmoor is the longest continuously played fantasy role-playing campaign in existence. It is a mysterious land of sword and sorcery mixed with relics of highly advanced technology. Everyone will immediately know you are a fan of the classic role-playing game when you wear this 80sTees.com exclusive Blackmoor Dungeons & Dragons T-Shirt!
Do you have any Blackmoor branded clothing yet? :)
-Havard
As summer approches, Ink Bat has made a new announcement:
Last of the ZahCome and play in the first-ever adventure set in the new edition of Blackmoor, Age of the Wolf, and do it in style in one of the luxury boxes at Lucas Oil Stadium! In this scenario, you play a member of a bold company tasked with escorting an important young woman into the very heart of darkness. Should you fail, she fails, and if she fails, all hope for life in the North may be lost!Every ticketed player in this event receives a limited edition print copy of Age of the Wolf absolutely free!In addition, everyone who plays a session receives a free miniature, courtesy of Paizo Publishing. Length: 3.5 hoursWhere: Event Suite at Lucas Oil StadiumWhen: Every 4 hours until midnight, starting at 8am
Blackmoor: Age of the Wolf PanelThe last tabletop project of D&D co-creator Dave Arneson is finally released! Join Ink Bat’s team of creatives for a discussion of the new book, Age of the Wolf, the 50th anniversary of the great game, and all things Dave.
Length: 1 hourWhere: JW Marriott — Room 203When: Thursday at 8pmSee you at GenCon
Are you excited about this news? Are you going to GenCon?
Read more at the Comeback Inn!
-Havard
Reports are coming in from DaveCon, one of the conventions arranged to commemorate the legacy of Dungeons & Dragons Co-Creator Dave Arneson. This is the third time, Victor Dorso organizes this convention, which is taking place this weekend in Minnesota. I wrote about DaveCon3 and its wide range of honored guests a few days ago.
Are you at DaveCon right now? I would love to hear from you!
-Havard
This story has been debunked. The WotC store did not link to this clothes store on Amazon. Hopefully someone takes care of this.
Officially Licensed Dungeons & Dragons Apparel for Women - Men - Boys - Girls - Toddler; D&D 50th Anniversary T-Shirts; Hasbro T-Shirts; Wizards of the Coast; RPG; Role Playing Game; Fantasy; Adventure; Monsters; Magic; 20 Sided Dice; Blackmoor; Vintage;
This is interesting given the discussion of ownership of the Blackmoor name and logo.
I have to say I love the text on the shirt saying "It started with Blackmoor".
For some reason, I am unable to to click buy on this product. Does it mean the shirt is not available yet?
-Havard
I can't believe we are already going to see the third DaveCon and it is coming up in less than a week! For those who felt the first DaveCon was more about D&D in general and less about Dave Arneson and the original Twin City Gaming legacy, dismiss those concerns right away. With its third instalment, DaveCon is living up to its name like never before with a foundation is that is stronger than ever. This is the year of the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, the game co-created by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax and coming up next weekend (April 26-28, 2024) in, Bloomington, MN, USA, DaveCon 3 organizer Victor Dorso promises Three-days of Gaming, Vendors and Art, plus The Auction.
The special guests lineup looks incredible. First of all, there are guests who were there at the beginning with Dave Arneson:
But also, a list of people who will be known to many of you:
D&D 50 is definitely going to be a year of celebration for Dave Arneson fans. We already had amazing Blackmoor and Arneson Alumni presence at GaryCon and more events are coming later this year!
Are you going to DaveCon this year? I would love to hear about your plans and your experiences!
-Havard
(map excerpt only) This amazing Blackmoor map details Blackmoor as it appears in the World of Greyhawk. It was by a Blackmoor fan named Stev...
