Greg Svenson's Tonisborg to be published as part of Blackmoor Documentary Kickstarter

The City and Dungeon of Tonisborg has long historic ties to Dave Arneson's Blackmoor. Greg Svenson, whom Dave has described as one of his most enthustiastic players, developed this area of map in Dave Arneson's Campain. When Dave added the city of Vestfold, named after a region in Norway, Greg made adjustments so that Tonnisborg became relocated on a small island that is part of the greater City of Vestfold, the largest city in the Kingdom of Blackmoor.

 People who want to learn more about Tonisborg are now in for a treat. As reported by the Secrets of Blackmoor Website, Greg Svenson is working with the producers of the documentary project "Secrets of Blackmoor". The plan seems to be that Tonninsborg will be a published adventure which will be a "thank you gift" to those who invest in the Kickstarter for the Documentary. Also involved with the Tonnisborg module are Dan Boggs (aka Aldarron), publisher of Champions of ZED and Dragons at Dawn and Bob Bledsaw II of Judges Guild.

 The whole "invest in Kickstarter for documentary to get a module" sounds a bit complicated to me and I think I would have preferred to have a separate Kickstarter for the Tonisborg project, but in any case I am really curious to see what this module will be all about. Having Aldarron on board with this project makes me even more optimistic as he is a talented game designer and someone with intimate knowledge of Blackmoor. If you are curious to see more of Greg Svenson's ideas for Blackmoor, make sure you get the free PDF booklets by Greg hosted at The Comeback Inn.





See more discussion of this article at the Comeback Inn here.


 -Havard

Happy Birthday Keith Parkinson

"Today would have been Keith's 60th Birthday! Let's all take a moment today to raise a glass and toast to Keith and wish him a Happy 60th! Thank you all for your continued love and support." (post by-Donna Parkinson) 

Source: https://www.facebook.com/parkinsonart/ 


 Parkinson was one of the great Fantasy artists. Today is a good day to appreciate his art. :)


 -Havard

Dave Arneson Game Day 2018 Highlights!

Painting by Viktor Mukhin 

Dave Arneson Game Day 2018 was a great success! Many people all over the world participated and contributed in various ways. Some simply ran or played games, which is afterall the heart of the hobby. Others shared ideas, material and greetings on the Internet. I cannot cover everything in this blog post and I ask that you please add things in the comments that I have not included. I will edit this post to include more. However, some highlights include:

Original Blackmoor Player and Comeback Inn Alumni

• Greg Svenson's sourcebook: GS3 Newgate Castle Gazetteer, with foreword by Dave Arneson.
• Interview with David Fant, the first baron of Blackmoor, at Dan Bogg's blog

Corporations and Game Designers

• Goodman Games two-part article on Dave Arneson by James Maliszewski
• TSR alumni and Calidar Creator Bruce Heard's tribute to Dave Arneson

Fan Created Game Materials for Blackmoor

• Living Blackmoor - Campaign and Adventure Collection for Advanced Fighting Fantasy by Yaztromo
• Spooky Blackmoor - Gaming material for Savage Worlds by Boddynock at the Gnomish Embassy Blog

And More!

Many people left comments, on the Facebook event group, in the Facebook Group Blackmoor Fans, at The Comeback Inn, on The Piazza, ENWorld, Dragonsfoot, OD&D74 and other forums. 

Remembering Uncle Duke

Duke "Uncle Duke" Seifried passed away ony two days prior to this year's Dave Arneson Day. Not only an important figure in our hobby, but also someone who was important to Dave Arneson and his circle. This left a definite mark on this year's event. Our thoughts go to Duke's family and friends. 

Final words

Thank you so much to everyone for participating. Some of us are doing Blackmoor Week all of this week so more Blackmoor related material will be appearing in the coming days, so stay tuned!

If you want to read more about Dave Arneson Day 2018 or want links to the free downloads and other items mentioned above, visit the Comeback Inn for this link:

Official Dave Arneson Game Day 2018 Thread at The Comeback Inn

See you next year!


-Havard

Duke Seifried (1935-2018) Rest in Peace

Duke "Uncle Duke" Seifried (Aug 19 1935-Sept 29 2018) passed away today. He was the first executive vice president of TSR. He was also an artist, game designer, writer, musician, music composer, and public speaker who is probably best known as the legendary artist who has sculpted over 10,000 miniatures.He has lived in Madison, Wisconsin, where he has is known as a guitar player. His ancestors are from Austria.

 In 1957, he graduated from Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, with a degree in speech/radio-television. Seifried helped bring polyhedral dice and miniatures into the gaming hobby. He claims that his depiction of Helm's Deep was the most accurate as he'd visited with Professor Tolkien and made sketches with him before designing it.

In 2008, he attended Gary Gygax's funeral. A week before Gygax died, Seifried stumbled upon a one-of-a-kind metal miniature he'd made specifically for Gary many years ago. He had set it aside, intending to give it back to Gary. As a result, the miniature wound up in the pocket of Gary's suit, and he was buried with it. The following year also spoke at Dave Arneson's memorial at Full Sail University.


Rest in Peace.

-Havard




Edit: Dates fixed. Thanks Amanda!

Are You Caught Up on Blackmoor The MMRPG?

Blackmoor the MMRPG was a Living Campaign for Blackmoor that offered free PDF adventures in Dave Arneson's setting. These adventures are now gradually becoming available at The Comeback Inn. Check out the latest installment, The Coming Storm. This episode also offers new monsters and a new town. Let me know what you think?

-Havard

93K+ Follower YouTube Show attempts to Erase Dave Arneson from D&D History. Then Censors Comments.

A friend of mine pointed me to a video about the history of RPGs. The video is released by Toy Galaxy, a YouTube channel with more than 93000 subscribers. While the video appeared to be well researched, going into great detail about the life of Gary Gygax and the things he did with gaming before the creation of D&D, the show goes into great lenght to downplay the key role played in the creation of the world's most famous tabletop roleplaying game of the other co-creator; Dave Arneson.

While this is not the first time a wanna-be gaming historian gives Dave Arneson less credit than this blog author believes he deserves, I think this video takes this unjust trend to a new height. According to the video, many people contributed to the creation of D&D, but "ultimately Dungeons & Dragons as published by TSR was credited to Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson." While I think it is admirable that other influential figures of the time get credit for their contributions to the hobby, I don't think that was the intent of the video. Neither David Wesely, Gary Switzer, MAR Barker nor others are mentioned by name. The point of this sentence seems only to be reducing the importance of Dave Arneson who is never mentioned again in the video after that single sentence.

To make matters worse, I have gotten reports that people who have tried to correct this misinformation have had their comments removed from the feed. To confirm this, I added a comment of my own, but this comment does also appear to have been removed except from my own feed. I'm not an expert with how YouTube works, but apparently this sort of censorship is often done manually. If anyone else reading this can see my comments, please let me know. This is pretty disturbing.

Now, gaming historians will disagree about who was most influential in the creation of D&D and who contributed what of Gary and Dave. But I have never seen any even semi-serious gaming historian give Dave as little credit as this video does. You can watch the video here. Let me know if you think I am being unfair.




-Havard

Dave Arneson Game Day 2018 Coming Up!

Dave Arneson was born on October 1st 2018 1947. For many years now, we have been using this day to honor the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and the creator of Blackmoor. The day has been spent playing RPGs and other games, talking about games and gaming history. To read more about previous year's events, go here.

As you can see, several people are already making plans for Dave Arneson Game Day 2018. Do you plan on participating? What would you like to see from the author of this blog, the people of the Comeback Inn and other participants?

Sign up for Dave Arneson Game Day on Facebook here.

Or join us at the Comeback Inn! 

-Havard