GaryCon2024 - Bob Meyer to Run Blackmoor!

Bob Meyer  who played the legendary wizard Robert the Bald in Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign, should be relatively well known to readers of this blog. As one of the original Blackmoor players, Bob has always been supportive of my work here on this blog and at the Comeback Inn Forum and has always been helpful in providing answers when I have been struggling with my research of D&D history. 

I was talking to Bob the other day when he told me that he would be running Blackmoor at this year's Gary Con which will take place on March 21-24. 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the merging of the brilliant minds of Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson produced the revolutionary game of Dungeons & Dragons. The process of developing this game had begun much earlier of course, but 1974 was the year that D&D was published and that is worth celebrating! What better way to commemorate this than having Blackmoor at GaryCon?

Bob Meyer, the legendary wizard
(Screenshot from Secrets of Blackmoor documentary)

Bob told me he will be going to the convention with a crew of two helpers and two GMs who will be "carrying on Blackmoor". Bob and the other two GMs will be running a total of six Blackmoor games over three days. In addition to that, Bob will also be holding seminars on the same days. 

Blackmoor fans who attend GaryCon will also have the chance of running into other Blackmoor players like Ross Maker, Mike Carr, Michael Mornard and David Wesely. Brent Chumley, the artist who made the Blackmoor hex world map for the d20 version of Blackmoor is also listed as a guest at GaryCon. 

Will you be at GaryCon this year? If so, I would love to hear what you are looking the most forward to. Looks like Blackmoor fans who attend this year will have a blast! 

-Havard

Will WotC's Next Book "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" Be a Missed Opportunity to Pay Homage to Dave Arneson, Master of Naval D&D Adventures?

WotC's next release for Dungeons & Dragons now has a cover and a title. Ghosts of Saltmarsh will feature all kinds of nautical and underwater adventures. While based on the U series, it now looks like Greyhawk references in the book will be limited. It also seems like there will be some Mystara material included in the book. Read more about all of this in this thread at The Piazza.

Now there have been many great nautical and undersea adventures in the history of D&D, but there can be no doubt that a pioneer in both these areas of D&D gaming was Dave Arneson. Dave was of course a huge fan of nautical war games. He even co-designed a Napoleonic era naval wargame with Gary Gygax, Don't Give Up The Ship in 1972. Naval adventures played a big part in Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign. The First Fantasy Campaign (1977) references several naval battles, including a battle between ships and sea monsters ("Sea monsters won") and the attack on the Black Castle of the Orcs from a ship sailing along the river. Although Dave was not credited for DA4, it seems likely that the adventure across the Black Sea of Blackmoor in that adventure, where the heroes travel on board "The Blossom" under the command of Captain Castagere, must be a reference to Dave's style of gaming. Several Blackmoor adventures also took place on the waterways of the Dismal Swamp, including the epic adventures of Robert the Bald and Captain Krey, where Greg Svenson took on DMing duties for Dave Arneson.

Sahuagin, from Supplement II: Blackmoor

Underwater Adventures are also an important feature of Dave Arneson's adventures. Supplement II: Blackmoor (1975) included an entire section dedicated to Underwater Adventures and the supplement introduced many races and monsters that would later becoming iconic underwater D&D creatures. It is not surprised that the D20 Blackmoor line dedicated so much material to the Sahuagin-like race of the Sar-Aigu which tied to the origins of the Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor itself.

WotC's return to aquatic adventures presents them with a chance to pay some kind of homage to Dave Arneson, the master of Naval D&D adventures. Will they seize this opportunity?




More discussion of this article: https://blackmoor.mystara.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=8998


 -Havard