New Map of Castle Blackmoor!

This map appeared today on the new Dave Arneson Facebook Page. The map was recently discovered by Dave's daughter. It appears to be a photocopy of of the map from the First Fantasy Campaign book (JG). However, a quick comparison reveals never before seen hand written notes identifying the purpose of several of the rooms.

Given where this map was discovered, it seems likely that these notes are from Arneson himself.

Pre-production cover for Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor (2006) 

It would also be interesting to compare this map in greater detail to the floor plans of Castle Branzol which formed the inspiration for the original castle. In 2006 ZGG published Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor, but the book contained little information on the Castle itself. It has been speculated that both the Castle and the Dungeon could have been part of the never published DA5, of which there still may be a yet unrevealed manuscript out there.

In any case, this new map adds another piece to the puzzle that is Castle Blackmoor!

-Havard

The Original Castle Blackmoor

While I had heard rumours of this in the past, Jeff Berry was kind enough to confirm the origins of Castle Blackmoor:

Seriously; let's never lose sight of the fact that the original 'rust monster' was a plastic toy that Dave got in a set of equally cheap plastic dinosaurs, and it's lasted for how long? You can still buy a copy of Dave's original Blackmoor Castle, too; it's an N scale model kit made by Kibri in Germany, their "Branzoll Castle" catalog number 7304. He used it for years to show people what the place looked like. 

The real Branzoll Castle is located near the town of Chiusa (Klausen) in a formerly Austrian part of Northern Italy. The Castle was built around 1250. In 1671 it was left in ruins after a fire, but was rebuilt in 1895 by a castle-enthusiast by the name of Dr. Otto Piper. You can read more about the Castle here.

Below is a picture of the model from Kibri. Guess what I want for Christmas this year?

More discussion of this article here.









-Havard