New Releases from the Comeback Inn!

The two first major publications from the Comeback Inn were made available this weekend. They are based on the ongoing PbP game, collectively known as the Last Fantasy Campaign, and incorporate both Blackmoor and Wilderlands lore.

Both have been uploaded to the Blackmoor Archives (my website):

The Maiden's Blackmoor

"A short written companion, containing information on our past games, on the concrete changes we made to our setting,  AND the big "Maiden's Timeline", the backbone of the setting we use, containing about all information about our game that we can spare."

The Grim Winter PbP Backup Files

"The complete transcript of the "campaign that started it all", from December 2005 to April 2009. Docs come in txt and rtf format."

-Havard

The Last Fantasy Campaign

"The skies of the world were always meant to have dragons.
When they are not there, humans miss them.

Some never think of them, of course.

But some children, from the time they are small,
they look up at a blue summer sky and watch for something that never comes.

Because they know.

Something that was supposed to be there faded and vanished.

Something that we must bring back, you and I."

- Robin Hobb, "Golden Fool" 

WHAT BE... "The Last Fantasy Campaign"?

"The Last Fantasy Campaign", dedicated to the memory of Dave Arneson and Richard Snider, and consisting so far of "The Grim Winter", "The War of the Thieves", "The Road", and "The Promised Land" aims at bringing the tale of Blackmoor's struggle against it's many enemy, as begun by Dave Arneson and continued by many others, to a coherent ending. By the end of "The Company of the Maiden's" and their companions' adventures, the Blackmoor we have known for forty years will cease to exist. - At least in our campaign's own continuity...

HOW TO... Join campaign?

An invitation to join "The Last Fantasy Campaign" and "The Company of the Maiden" comes by personal invitation only. This is not because we would be a bunch of arrogant bastards, but because our group was established in 2005/2006, and the players have the same right as the DM to decide if someone new will join us, or who in particular. If there ever are free spots and we don't know whom to offer membership we will make a public rolecall.

HOW TO... Create character?

In 2005, this started as a d20 game, and remains so until today. Base for character creation is, essentially, everything ever published for D&D 3.5, by any company, as long as the character makes sense in our campaign environment. - Though I, as the DM, specifically encourage players to use either the material put out by Zeitgeist Games for Blackmoor, or by Necromancer Games, for Wilderlands of High Fantasy, for the creation and later, advancement of their PCs.

WHAT BE... "The Grim Winter"?

Started in December of 2005, and ended in March of 2009, "The Grim Winter" was the Company of the Maiden's first adventure and told the story of the Third War of Ten.
By the end of the campaign, the forces of Blackmoor had overthrown the evil Afridhi, albeit suffering great losses due to the treachery of the dread Bascom Ungulian. On the climax of the campaign, that later would have been called "The Battle of the Longest Day" by northern historians, King Uther, who had ruled and defended the Kingdom of Blackmoor since the days of the first war with the Egg of Coot, was said to have been severely wounded and to have later been abducted by the infamous lich-wizard Ran. The Company of the Maiden is said to have been among the last ones who saw Uther alive.

WHAT BE... "The War Of The Thieves"?

Starting in summer of 2006, and ending in spring of 2008, this was a side campaign to The Grim Winter, but advancing more slowly than the main game so players who couldn’t post as regularly as the rest didn’t have to quit our game. The War of the Thieves essentially told the further adventures of the thief Rowell and his companions, a group of NPCs the party had met during the first chapters of The Grim Winter, and featured an adventuring party participating in the Coven’s (the Blackmoorian Thieves Guild’s) conquest of the abandoned city of Mondburgh (based on Ernie and Luke Gygax’ lost city of Gaxmoor for Troll Lord Games’ setting of Erde). Though relatively short and admittedly not very coherent, the game had a huge impact on the development of our campaign and touched some of the topics that will alter be detailed in The Promised Land.

WHAT BE... "The Road"?

No relation to the famous book and movie. Running from March 2009 until December of the same year, "The Road", previously called "The Road to the Promised Land", was a collaborative writing effort by the players of "The Company of the Maiden" and chronicled the years after the Third War of Ten, and until six months before the beginning of "The Promised Land". On their quest to rebuild the war-ravaged lands of the Northern Marches, the split-up members of the "Maiden" survived a multitude of adventures, but ultimately could not prevent the second, and successful invasion by the Egg of Coot. By the end of this tale, many Blackmoorian cities had fallen to the enemy, while the Free People, led by Uther's and Risa Aleford's illegitimate son Mordred, had established to bring the front line to halt between Newgate and Vestfold.

WHAT BE... "The Promised Land"?

Our upcoming campaign, starting in February 2010, reuniting the old cast of characters, and set shortly after the events of The Road…, beginning with “the day on which Vestfold felll”… Word is that this will be the final stage, the last battle, and the end of days for the Kingdom of Blackmoor, as we know it…








Posted by Rafael 
(Edited by Havard)

[Rafael]The Lodoss War

Another entry from Official Guest Blogger Rafael on sources of inspiration for his Blackmoor games:

In my (apparently developing?!) series about things of all kind that might make a good inspiration for Blackmoor, I sooo want to take a closer look to a series, or better, a setting I mentioned in the “Northlanders” review:

The World of “The Lodoss War”, where “The Lady of Pharis”, another extraordinary comic book is set: Having long become an all-time classic among anime-fans all over the world, “The Record of Lodoss War” OVA (=direct-to-video-series) is the best product of a franchise that can basically be described as “Japanese D&D”.

Being based on ACTUAL OD&D SESSIONS in which the main author and developer, Ryo Mizuno participated, this is like the closest you can get to classic D&D fiction without relying on ebay, or WotC periodical republications (kudos to Wizbro for rereleasing a lot of the old stuff from time to time, btw).

An entire universe on its own, “Lodoss War” and the RPG it is “officially” based upon, the Japanese “Sword World”, span dozens of gaming books, novels, graphic novels, artbooks, musical CDs and even a few video games. – And, Yours Truly absolutely loves it.

You can perfectly be a friend of fantasy literature today without knowing “A Song of Ice and Fire”, “The Dragonbone Chair”, or “The Name of the Wind”. – However, if you miss “Lodoss War”, especially the first OVA, this is like not having seen Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings”, at least as far as I am concerned.

What connection, you may ask, is there between some Japanese RPG to “my” or “The Maiden’s” Blackmoor? – “Lodoss War” is, more or less, how I visualize D&D for myself! The dragons in my mind look like the Lodoss Dragons, and the Elves look like Lodoss Elves, and the “Evil Island Marmo” is pretty much how thought of the darker places in “The Grim Winter”.

It’s been years since I first suggested the 1990 “Record of Lodoss War” OVA to my players as the kind of introductory material they would want to watch to get into my style of  D&D. For my personal view of roleplaying and fantasy, I think, it’s safe to say that the Lodoss universe was the one that influenced me the most, at least in the last few years.







-Rafael

(Edited by Havard)

Introducing Rafael

I am Rafe, the Judge of the “Grim Winter Winter” and “The Promised Land” campaigns Havard mentions on here from time to time, and since I am pretty jealous of him for having such an extraordinary blog running so successfully, I thought , “if you can’t beat’im, yield”, and sent him a few of my scribblings on Blackmoor and related topics that will probably appear around here in the next few months.


While I probably won’t be able to write too much on the Blackmoor game itself, in order not to give away too much on the games I run, I thought it might be worth sharing some of the impressions and experiences I take from running those games, if for nothing else than to remember them some day.



I hope you readers will like my ramblings, and find them at least somewhat of use.

Yours,

Rafael

The Grim Winter Campaign: Behind the scenes!

Back in 2005 began what would become the longest running Blackmoor PbP Campaign in history. After 5 years of play, the game is still not over. It's sequel, Road to the Promised Land was announce last year.  The players are a group of highly dedicated and creative gamers, including original Blackmoor player Greg Svenson. Blackmoor author Jeff Quinn also took part in the game for a while.Other Blackmoor fans and game designers are avid readers of the game.

Back in 2006, the following add was posted for the campaign:

A Grim Winter has fallen over the lands of the Bitter North, as valiant heroes and vile foes fight for the control over the once so beautiful lands called the Duchy of Ten! While the troops of Blackmoor and Vestfold march on against the cannibal Afridhi, two small bands of rogues and mercenaries travel through the battered lands of the West, following their quests that might come to determine the outcome of this lethal conflict... If you want to come to the rescue of poor Ten's helpless citizens, and join our brave heroes in their perilous attempts to free the lands of men from Toska Russa's iron grip, then read on carefully...

Today. Grim Winter DM, Rafael, revealed some of his secrets over at Dragonsfoot:

What I would suggest new DMs, or DMs unhappy with the course of their games:

1. Keep a slow pace. Daily updates are difficult to manage for most people, but updates two or three times a week are doable. The better you adjust to the gaming rythm to your players,
the more probable is it that you can go playing on the long hand.

2. Don't write a novel. Or, well, do. In any case, keep the measure of the game modest.  This is the most important thing I think many DMs don't understand, IMO. The way I run PbPs, even the standard 32-page adventures by TSR would take more than a year to complete. So, my suggestion would be to have a DM script of, say ten pages, which you can complete in just a few months.

- And then, revaluate if the game has potential for successful continuation. That way, you will get less frustrated, should the group lose interest in the game, than if you go on and prepare a monster project.

 I have been fortunate enough to participate with a small role as the hardened soldier Harwan, who started out as a Sergeant, but has now become promoted to the rank of General. I am looking forward to the sequel and I know the core players are doing the same!





-Havard

A New Year!

Since we are now in 2010, I would like to take a look at the past year and the things that have happened concerning Blackmoor. 2009 has been a year of Great Losses, a year of Hopes and Disappoinments an a year where we need to ask wherein the future of Blackmoor lies.

GREAT LOSSES
Overshadowing everything else, 2009 will no doubt be remembered for the passing of Dave Arneson on the 7th of April after two years of battling cancer. On the 17th of November, Richard Snider also passed away. More than anything else happening last year, the loss of those two gentlemen will be remembered.


HOPES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS

On the publishers' side of  things, 2009 saw the release of Blackmoor: The First Campaign in June, bringing Blackmoor over to the 4th Edition of D&D. This was a pleasant surprise as things had been so quiet around Blackmoor that many of us had given up hope that we'd ever see more Blackmoor Products. Blackmoor had now been placed among very few 3rd party settings to be supported for the new edition.

Blackmoor fans were further excited to learn of the planned launch of the Age of the Wolf setting which was to be released over the months of the fall of 2009. Unfortunately, those hopes were stiffled as it was announced that the Blackmoor lisence from WotC was coming to an end, with the chance of seeing any future Blackmoor products looking slim.

THE FANS MARCH ON

Not all that happened in 2009 was gloomy though. This year also saw the end of the Grim Winter Campaign. Grim Winter is Rafael San Miguel's long lasting Play by Post Campaign, one of the biggest gaming events in recent Blackmoor history. We are pleased to learn that a new chapter in this saga, the Promised Land will begin later this year.

2009 was also the second year of the Piazza. This D&D World forum is staying vibrant and steadily attracting more followers, with Blackmoor having its own top level subforum on those boards. Finarvyn's OD&D Forum has also been a great resource for learning about Blackmoor's early days and Arneson's way of gaming.

Finally, 2009 was the year when this Blog was born. Getting into the blogosphere has been a very interesting experience for me. Along with my website at blackmoor.mystara.us, it has been a good way for me to organize and collect my thoughts on Blackmoor. I have been humbled to see it attract so many great followers, many of whom help out with very interesting comments and feedback. Several people have contacted me, expressing a desire to see more things happen with Blackmoor even if we can no longer get official material. More than anything else, this blog has convinced me that the Blackmoor fans are a force to be reconned with. I belive that Blackmoor is now in the hands of its fans. 2010 will be the year when those of us who love the setting will have to step up and make sure that Arneson's creation does not disappear into oblivion, but instead lives on! 

I wish you a Happy New Year!






-Havard

[Characters] The Great Svenny

Today the Blackmoor Blog celebrates the legendary Blackmoor character known as the Great Svenny. Svenny is the character played by original Blackmoor player Greg Svenson ever since he first joined Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor game perhaps as early as in 1970. He played the character actively in Dave's campaign between 1970-1975 and later for a convention in 1976 and a reunion game in 1991.

The Baron of Newgate has a history of countless adventures in the lands of Blackmoor. In an interview at Sham’s Gameblog earlier this year, Greg Svenson revealed that:

 “I participated in literally hundreds of adventures between early 1971 and 1975… I hardly even remember the famous Temple of the Frog and Valley of the Ancients adventures. I know I was there, but they were not as memorable for me.”

Two adventures do stand out in Greg’s memory though: Surviving the first dungeon adventure and the raid on the lair of Fred Funk’s Orc tribe on the 10th level of Blackmoor dungeon.

Today the Great Svenny is the Lord High Regent of the Regency Council of the Kingdom of Blackmoor.

Svenny is currently the Lord High Regent of the Regency Council of the Kingdom of Blackmoor:

“When I started gaming with Dave again in Orlando in 1999, I played Svenny’s son, Sol, although I called him Svenny Junior at first, until I put together Svenny's family history. I am currently playing Sol in an online play by post game (the Tomb of Rahotep in honor of Gary Gygax on the Wayfarer's Inn website). I have also been playing one of his grandchildren, Sven, in [The Grim Winter Campaign]...”

(Discuss the Great Svenny here)




-Havard

PROMISED LAND PREVIEW

Rafael asked me to post the intro for the upcoming new season of his legendary PbP:

21th day of Asum in the year 1032 of the Northern Calendar. Night.

Four years and two days after the conquest of Starmorgan by the forces of the Free Nations.





The kingdom of Blackmoor stands surrounded by enemies.

To the west, Westryn raiders and demons roam the plains of Hak.
Though they haven't yet dared to attack the rebuilding cities of New Duchy,
it's only a matter of time until Tenlish blood will be spilled again.

To the south,the forces of the tyrannical Great Kingdom have taken advantage
of the Free Nation's sudden weakness and are lying siege to Blackmoor's southern cities.
It might not be long, and even mighty Dragonia will fall.

And to the north, an icy stormwind over the sea, The Egg of Coot lets its armies advance.
The town of Blackmoor, destroyed.
The town of Glendower, burned by a raing of black fire.
The city of Maus, sunken into the sea and its citizens eaten alive by mermen
from the darkest depths of the shallow ocean.

A high prize is paid for the freedom of mankind.
A prize so high in blood that it seems unsure if the brave people
of the Northern Marches will be able to pay it much longer.

Blackmoor is in need of heroes.
Now more than ever.





The "Company of the Maiden" is summoned to the Kingdom of Blackmoor's
ancient capital, the city of Vestfold, by the prince regent himself.
Members of the old Imperial guard, the best of the North's remaining knights,
all cled in red armor, lead you into the great dining hall in the old king's
ancient city house, first erected by the time Vestfold's most perilous enemy
was not the Egg of Coot, but the devil-worshipping followers of the Id.

In the dining hall, lit only by the dim gloom of fresh candles,
three men sit around a big round table, made of the Druj Forest's best wood.

The red knights order you to remain standing and bring big and burning coal pans
to the table, so you can see who awaits you at this late hour.
However, you are surprised to find that none of the men sitting in front of you
is actually Prince Mordred:


Instead, you behold, from left to right:

Dressed in black, leaning backwards with his big boots on the table,
as if this wasn't the very royal throne room, but some wayside inn,
the famous rogue Rowell, called "The Blade".

Next to him, grinning from one ear to the other, Zuki,
your loyal travelling companion, and, so is the word, second one behind Rowell
in the criminal organization known as "The Coven".

On the higher seat usually reserved for the king of the Marches alone,
his face pale, yet his eyes narrow in anger and discomfort, bishop Garamond Bolitho,
highest-ranking cleric among the civilized people north of the Misauga river.

To the bishop's right, his hands weaving an invisible web into the thin air as he watches you
with the same fascination a spider would watch a fly approach its nest,
a figure paler and ghastlier than even Sir Garamond at this nightly hour.



It's seems it takes more to kill me than just the wrath of a bearman and two magic blades...



The figure next to bishop Garamond chuckles maliciously, as it leans forward its horned head,
and for a moment your blood in your very veins seems to freeze:

The fourth man sitting there on your own king's table is none but your old enemy,
the Westryn sorcerer Gorileth!


TO BE CONTINUED ON FEBRUARY 1st, 2010!

Waiting for the Age of the Wolf

I was really excited when the Blackmoor 4E Sourcebook came out this summer. 4E is not my favorite edition of D&D and there wasn't that much new contents in the book (although I do recommend buying it!), but much more than that, it came with the promise that there would be a new era of Blackmoor products. I had feared that the end of 3E would mean the end of Blackmoor as well. Especially with lisences like Ravenloft, Dragonlance and the Paizo mags not being renewed by WotC. Fortunately this was not the case. Code Monkey Publishing announced that they would not only release this sourcebook, but a whole new setting for Blackmoor called Age of the Wolf. I was particularly excited because this term had previously been introduced for the Blackmoor setting in Rafael's legendary Blackmoor Pbem - the Grim Winter. But this is the gaming industry and problems have been known to arise. Currently the sourcebook is on hold. I haven't given up hope though! From what I understand the book has been written and there are only things involving the printers (in China?) which is causing delays. I am hoping we will see the Player's Guide available this fall, with the other products in the line either in december or january. In the mean time, you can download the Blackmoor 4E Character Creation Rules now available at blackmoor.mystara.us. These also give a sneak preview of some of the things that will be found in the Age of the Wolf Player's Guide.




Havard