Dave Arneson Game Day 2024 is Tomorrow! (Blackmoor Week Day 7)

 We have been getting messages from fans all week and it has been great! I can't believe tomorrow is October 1st, the birthday of D&D Co-Creator Dave Arneson! 

I hope you are ready to join in the massive celebrations of our hobby that are taking place world wide, like every year. You can sign up for the Facebook Event here. 

Just today, I was told about this post over at the Gnomish Embassy Blog with a brand new character profile for Blackmoor Week, an Aarakocra no less! Yesterday with Dragonborn and today with Aarakocra, I can hear some say. Heresy? But lets remember that there is no right or wrong way to play D&D as long as everyone is having fun around the table. Younger gamers are discovering Blackmoor and that can only be a good thing. I am sure Dave Arneson would enjoy knowing that the game he helped bring into the world will bring joy for decades to come. 

What are you doing for Dave Arneson Game Day? Its a party, so everyone is invited! As long as you love gaming that is.

-Havard

Dragonborn of Blackmoor: Free Fan Sourcebook by Jon Gómez (Blackmoor Week Day 6)

 I love that Blackmoor Week can inspire fans to add their creativity to the world of Blackmoor. Over at The Piazza,  Jon Gómez (aka Zeromaru X) has created a fan sourcebook called Dragonborn of Blackmoor.

Jon has been working on this project for years and he has really put his soul into this fan sourcebook. He has even added his own hand drawn illustrations which is pretty amazing. This is a 27 page document packed with information. 

You can download this document for free here.

What is Blackmoor Week and how can you join in? Glad you asked!

-Havard

Dave Arneson Material in the Catalog of Rebellion Games? (Blackmoor Week Day 3)

 I have thought about not covering copyright or Trademark ownership discussions on this blog anymore. It tends to create a lot of drama every time and it just makes me tired. However, we need to talk about this. 

Last year we learned that Rebellion Games had acquired the entire catalog creatred by Flying Buffalo Games. Flying Buffalo were founded in 1975 by Rick Loomis. When Rick sadly passed away back in August 2019, the company briefly passed to Webbed Sphere (Jason Kingsley OBE)  who sold the Flying Buffalo games catalog to Rebellion. 

Based in their press releases at the time, Rebellion seemed to be most focused on Tunnels and Trolls. However, another part of their press release may be of particular interest to readers of this blog:

"As part of the acquisition Rebellion have taken over Flying Buffalo’s entire line of roleplaying games, including the cult classic Citybook, Grimtooth, and Merchants Spies and Private Eyes series. The entire back-catalogue of Flying Buffalo PDFs will remain available to purchase online, with future releases coming directly from Rebellion Unplugged. "

 Now, we know that Dave Arneson contributed to a couple of gaming books linked to some of these series. In 1984, he contributed to City Book II: Port o' Call. For Merchants Spies and Private Eyes, Dave Arneson wrote the adventure The Case of the Pacific Clipper (1991). 

At one point Dave Arneson told me that he had sold his company Adventure Games to Rick Loomis. Adventure Games also made several games whose current ownership is unknown to me. When I asked Rick about the status of Adventures in Fantasy, which is one of the games Adventure Games produced, he was not able to confirm that story at the time. 

Do you own a copy of City Book II or Case of the Pacific Clipper? Please leave a comment below!

Find out more about Blackmoor Week here?

-Havard

Blackmoor Foundations Arrived (Blackmoor Week Day 2)

 

My copy of Blackmoor Foundations finally arrived. I decided I wanted to get this one from Amazon, but even though I ordered it immediately after it was announced there, it took quite some time for them to get the stock to send out to customers. Once shipped, it got here really fast so that is nice. And guess what, just in time for Blackmoor Week! I will be looking over this one over the next few days. Sadly, the cover got a bit bent as you can see in the photo, but oh well. 

What is Blackmoor Week and Dave Arneson Game Day you say? I'm glad you asked!

What are you doing for Blackmoor Week so far? :) Leave a comment! 

-Havard

Blackmoor Week 2024 - Day 1

 

It is this time of year again! Blackmoor Week is upon us. Fans and gamers worldwide celebrate this week over the 7 days leading up to Dave Arneson Game Day which you can sign up to here. Dave Arneson Game Day is a fan organized non-profit event to celebrate Dungeons & Dragons, Roleplaying Games and the D&D Co-Creator Dave Arneson. 

You can participate in Dave Arneson Game Day simply by running a game, wring about gaming or doing something else related to our hobby and ideally sharing it with us so that we can all join in the fun!  

We are not about holding up one creator of the hobby over the others who helped make this hobby. We are not about edition warring. We are not about whether Old School or New School is better. We are not about one way of gaming being better than other ways of gaming. Gaming is for everyone, regardless of age, skin color, gender, sexual orientation or political persuasion. One of the great things about this hobby is that it can bring people together. The only way to play this wrong is if the people around the table aren't having fun. In this day and age, we need more activities that can bring people together. 

I think Dave Arneson would be very happy knowing that all kinds of being around the world keep getting joy out of the game that he and his friends helped develop. 

That is what Dave Arneson Game Day is about! Enjoy Blackmoor Week 2024! Now is your time to make plans. And please let me know what you are doing in gaming in the days ahead! :)

-Havard