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Post subject: The original Blackmoor game
 Posted: Apr 08, 2007 - 04:31 PM
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Baron of Newgate
Joined: Feb 06, 2005
Posts: 967
Location: Clearwater, Florida, USA
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This is a thread where members of the original Blackmoor campaign can post their recollections. This idea originated from my encountering Bob Meyers, who is also known as Robert the Bald in Blackmoor's "history", on Rafael's Wayfarer's Inn web site and starting to discuss what we remember via e-mails. I am hoping that Bob will have a chance to post some of his recollections and that we will both invite some of the other former players to participate, too.
I was a member of a gaming group in Excelsior, Minnesota back in the late '60s. The group consisted of Scott and Dave Belfry, Bob and Mike Meyer, Fred Funk, Tim Seamans, Steve Randenberg, my brother Fred and myself. Initially, we played historical board games every week, mostly produced by Avalon Hill. We also tried some aincient miniatures games, as I recall.
We joined a national gaming group. I can't remember the name, Agressor's Homeland or something like that. That brought us in contact with Richard and John Snyder, Marshall Hegfelt and Mike Carr (he had a WWI air combat group - the Fight in the Skies Society). Marshall Hegfelt took me to a meeting of the Midwest Military History Association, which was based at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis at the time (1969). I met Dave Arneson there. I pulled the rest of our little group into the Napoleonic miniatures campaign Dave was running at the time and then into Blackmoor when that got going.
I have written details of two of those early Blackmoor adventures at my website http://web.tampabay.rr.com/gsvenson/svenny Unfortuantely, while I participated in literally hundreds of adventures those two are the only ones I could remember clearly enough to feel it was worth writing up the details I can still remember from them.
[I edited this to correct the spelling of Bob's last name and to add my brother to the list of players in our original group.] |
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Last edited by gsvenson on Apr 09, 2007 - 08:29 PM; edited 2 times in total
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Post subject: RE: The original Blackmoor game
Posted: Apr 08, 2007 - 08:45 PM
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DAB Staff
Joined: Mar 05, 2005
Posts: 370
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| Thank you for that! |
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Tad L. J. Kilgore
Executive Producer
~We have art so as not to die of truth~
Nietchze
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Post subject:
Posted: Apr 09, 2007 - 10:18 AM
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King's Companion
Moderator
Joined: Feb 15, 2005
Posts: 431
Location: Norway, Europe
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Thanks for sharing Greg! I love hearing tales of old Blackmoor campaigns, especially those with Dave himself in the DM's chair.
I have heard that Dave's DMing style is quite unusual. Do you remember any examples that could illustrate this? Does he like producing unique NPCs for roleplaying situations? Is he mostly down to business, getting you into the Dungeon right away for some serious hack and slash, or did you like hanging out in towns and starting Bar Brawls with Marfeldt? What about the humourous elements that fill the Blackmoor books. Do these make their way into the games beyond place names etc?
Havard |
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Visit my Blackmoor fansite:
http://blackmoor.mystara.us
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Post subject:
Posted: Apr 09, 2007 - 12:25 PM
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Baron of Newgate
Joined: Feb 06, 2005
Posts: 967
Location: Clearwater, Florida, USA
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| I updated my original post to explain why I created this thread. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Apr 09, 2007 - 07:41 PM
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Blackmoorian Newbie
Joined: Mar 24, 2007
Posts: 9
Location: Twin Cities
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Havard,
The answer to your question about David is rather complicated. The nature of the original Blackmoor changed over the years. I was not involved in the original good vs. evil phase for reasons I will explain later. Greg would be able to talk about that period of time. By the time I became heavily involved, there was a lot of adventuring generated by the players. David still generated events himself, and some adventures were responses to other adventures. David was definitely in control of any adventure or event where he was DM. He had plenty of ways to give hints, clues, or impart information (a passing villager, a visit to the elves, a messenger that delivered the news that started it all). But he gave a lot of latitude to adventurers (within the rules) as to how they wanted to do anything. Yes, he did give us all the rope we needed to hang ourselves with. As you can see, adventures varied widely, depending on the circumstances. I will provide some examples later of adventures I was on.
Something that has to be kept in mind, we are talking about a period of time that covers many years, and had many different players joining and leaving over that time. Adventures usually consisted of whomever happened to be available at the time. Like any game, Blackmoor expanded and evolved. David is probably the only person who knows everything that has happened there. This brings up another point. Greg and I have already discovered that we remember events differently. If I can have more of the old players posting here, there will inevitably be discrepances cropping up. You will have to make allowances for time and memories. This is not in any way an official history, and do not expect David to post here (though it is always a possibility). We will sort it out the best we can.
Bob |
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Post subject:
Posted: Apr 10, 2007 - 08:56 AM
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Baron of Newgate
Joined: Feb 06, 2005
Posts: 967
Location: Clearwater, Florida, USA
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The humor was always in the game. We were playing to have fun. The rules were not codified yet so things couldn't be locked into the "rules" either. Still in the early games Dave pretty much let us do what we wanted and go where we wanted, as long as he had already detailed the area.
To Bob's point, Dave and I have compared our memories on some of the events in the original game, too, and we found that we disagreed on some of the details, as well. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Apr 10, 2007 - 09:00 AM
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Baron of Newgate
Joined: Feb 06, 2005
Posts: 967
Location: Clearwater, Florida, USA
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Here is another brief tale, I am sorry that I don't remember more of the details...
The Blue Rider
During the Fall of 1972, I had an adventure with Bill Heaton (William of the Heath), Mel Johnson (Mello) and, I think, Steve Rocheford, but I am not sure. I place it at that time because it was shortly after Dave Arneson had introduced Blackmoor to Gary Gygax and the group in Lake Geneva, leading to the creation of Greyhawk. I don't remember a lot of the details, we probably played from 1 PM to 4 AM that Saturday.
It was a dungeon dive deep into the dungeons of Castle Blackmoor. This trip was the deepest that we ever went. I had pretty much memorized the upper levels at this point and was able to lead us quickly and safely down to the nineth level.
As we wandered we stumbled across a staircase that led to a secret door which came out behind the throne of the king of the Orcs of the Blackhand, King Frederick the First. We decided that we were not a strong enough party to take on the Orcs at that time, but I marked the location in my memory for a later adventure (see the Orcs Bane story).
We found another stairs that led to the tenth level and went down. I don't remember much of what we found here. But soon we found a stairs to an eleventh level (to my knowledge this area was never published) and we went down.
The walls here were rougher and there was a dim red light through out the corridors. Soon we found ourselves on a ledge over looking a hugh cavern with a lake of lava at the bottom. In the center was an island covered with treasure. On top of the mound of treasure was a dragon (I think that it was golden, but the colors meant less at that time).
William wanted to jump down to the island. Svenny was opposed, mostly ss self preservation thing. I couldn't see how we would ever get off the island if we managed to get there. William jumped anyway and managed to land on the island. The rest of us stayed on the ledge and watched. Mello took some chalk and wrote "Kilroy was here" along with the famous sketch of the head peering over a wall on the wall of the ledge. The dragon posed a puzzle for William. I don't recall the details, but he solved it and was was rewarded with a blue suit of magic armor and mechanical horse. I have always thought of the armor as a dark metalic blue, but the description was just blue. The armor was more like powered battledress then a suit of plate armor, for Sic-Fi fans. William doned the armor and somehow was back with us on the ledge. We all traveled back out of the dungeon.
At this point Dave got busy with something else and asked me to take over as the DM, quickly briefing me on the armor. William and Mello then tried to figure out what the buttons on the left arm of the armor did. It was quite funny for those that were watching and quite frustrating for William as it led to the stories of him charging into battle screaming "No! No! Stop!" later. This is how William of the Heath became known as the Blue Rider.
[I edited this post to remove my discussion of DMing and to make a correction] |
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Post subject:
Posted: Apr 11, 2007 - 12:47 PM
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King's Companion
Moderator
Joined: Feb 15, 2005
Posts: 431
Location: Norway, Europe
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Keep these coming!
About differing memories: Something I learned when I was doing my MA in History is that people will always remember things differently, sometimes amazingly so. The historian's sollution is usually to let all "witnesses" speak, compare to facts etc etc. Since a big part of gaming is what goes on in each player's imagination, this must be doubly true for memories of games.
Still, I would love to hear all the different versions. They can in many ways account for equally true impressions of the Blackmoor games and can all provide inspiration for new generations of Blackmoorians 
Greg: I loved hearing about the Blue Rider! I read about this character in the FFC, but it is quite cool to hear it from another perspective
Havard |
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Visit my Blackmoor fansite:
http://blackmoor.mystara.us
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Post subject:
Posted: Apr 11, 2007 - 01:40 PM
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Blackmoorian Newbie
Joined: Mar 24, 2007
Posts: 9
Location: Twin Cities
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I did not like Blackmoor when David first introduced it. The idea of going toe to toe with creatures much stronger than myself sounded insane to me, especially when you are out of the adventure when your one and only character was killed. Also,I had a very aggresive style of playing. Attacking a Troll with a first level character was a quick way to commit suicide, even when you had surprised the Troll. I soon decided that I would rather play other games. I re-entered Blackmoor because virtually all of the other guys were in it and kept encouraging me to try it again. By this time, they were starting to figure out how to handle magic and the various creatures encountered. Unfortunately for me, they were all advancing in levels, and were starting to accumulate some pretty cool equipment. My first level characters just couldn't survive the places they were going. David finally sat down with just me, and ran through several adventures more on my level, until I finally was surviving to the next levels and was able to start adventuring with the others.
The adventure that was my big breakthrough was with a fighting man for whom I rolled a decent set of characteristics. There were some woods east of Blackmoor that were unknown. Anyone who adventured into them just disappeared. Like David, I am a big fan of anything naval, and I knew that if I went through the woods I would reach the coast and could run into the Skandiharrians. David thougt I was crazy, but he could not talk me out of trying. My dice rolling was fantastically lucky, and I made it through the woods to the coast. I joined the Skandiharrians and went on several voyages with them. I became the captain of a ship by challenging the captain to a duel and defeating him with the help of a mysterious stranger ( I believe he was Kurt Krey). He was a magic user who wanted to go back to Blackmoor. This was possible by ship, and I agreed to take him. What he did not tell me was that he had been a central figure in an invasion and burning of Blackmoor in the past. In any event, the journey up the river back to Blackmoor was so hazardous that I lost most of the crew before reaching Blackmoor bay, and Gertie (the dragon in the bay) soon took care of the ship. The wizard managed to drag me to shore, along with a couple of the men. He then disappeared to where he really wanted to go. All of this adventuring was over a period of time of a couple of months, and Greg was actually the Gamemaster for the trip up the river. Once in Blackmoor town, and once again penniless, I then went to the only place guarantied to have treasure, the dungeon. Unfortunately, I don't remember much about what happened in the dungeon (it was relatively tame compared to my life as a Captain). I do remember that for some reason the other sailors did not want to follow me anywhere, and at least one became a NPC in the town.
Players were constantly wandering off to other places in the map, and David usually had something waitng for us wherever we went. Identifying Blackmoor as the game with the dungeon does not do it justice. A great deal of adventuring happened outside of blackmoor town, let alone the dungeon. I will talk about the big move to the border with the Great Kingdom another time. |
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Bob Meyer
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Post subject:
Posted: Apr 11, 2007 - 03:20 PM
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Baron of Newgate
Joined: Feb 06, 2005
Posts: 967
Location: Clearwater, Florida, USA
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That's cool, Bob. I vaguely remember my DMing and that it was primarily for you, Dave Megary and John and Richard Snider. That was probably because we were all roommates for a while. The funny thing is that I have absolutely no recollection of your adventure up the river!
I am sure that Bill Heaton would tell the story of how he became the Blue Rider totally differently, too. I suspect that he would remember many more of the details.
You are right about Blackmoor being much more than dungeon trips. That was where it started, but we quickly found many new places to explore... |
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Post subject:
Posted: Apr 13, 2007 - 01:47 PM
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Blackmoorian Newbie
Joined: Mar 24, 2007
Posts: 9
Location: Twin Cities
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| Any feedback on the little we have said so far? Are you bored yet? What would you like for me to post next?I am contacting some of the others to see if they will also share with you. This could take a while. |
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Bob Meyer
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Post subject:
Posted: Apr 13, 2007 - 02:29 PM
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Baron of Newgate
Joined: Feb 06, 2005
Posts: 967
Location: Clearwater, Florida, USA
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| I have been trying to remember any details I could of the original "Temple of the Frog" adventure, but so far all I have come up with was the endless sloshing through the swamps searching for the temple and Dave's using a large ceramic frog for the actual temple (a planter from his mother's garden, I think) when we setup the miniatures after we finally found it... |
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Post subject:
Posted: Apr 13, 2007 - 11:33 PM
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Adventurer
Joined: Feb 12, 2006
Posts: 533
Location: New York
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robertthebald wrote:
Any feedback on the little we have said so far?
I love it!
robertthebald wrote:
Are you bored yet?
Not at all!
robertthebald wrote:
What would you like for me to post next?
City of the Gods, Egg Of Coot, Dungeons of Glendower
robertthebald wrote:
I am contacting some of the others to see if they will also share with you.
Awesome!
robertthebald wrote:
This could take a while.
I will attempt to wait patiently!
As a Blackmoor-related side note, I am posting this message from UBCon, as I just finished running four new players through Episode 1: The Comeback Inn - they all enjoyed it! |
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Web Site: http://tinyurl.com/53odu
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Post subject:
Posted: Apr 14, 2007 - 04:37 AM
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Adventurer
Joined: Jun 15, 2005
Posts: 2124
Location: Würzburg, Germany
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| As Scott has said. I really enjoy this and would like to hear more of it! |
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Post subject:
Posted: Apr 14, 2007 - 01:34 PM
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Blackmoorian Newbie
Joined: Mar 24, 2007
Posts: 9
Location: Twin Cities
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| Thanks for the encouragement guys. I wish I could be more helpful with some of the specific requests (Glendower had a dungeon?). Blackmoor had so many things going on through its history, not to mention all of the different areas available.If you talked to two different people from the old campaign, you might wonder if they were talking about the same game. I have contacted some of the other players with rather mixed results so far. A couple of them did seem to be interested. I will keep trying. |
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Bob Meyer
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