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

Minnesota Team Plan Dave Arneson Convention in October 2022

 As a response to the post I made yesterday about DaveCon 2023, one of the members of the Minnesota Team of gamers reached out to me and told me a bit more about their plans for a separate convention in October this year. 

The Minnesota Team told me they do not wish to be seen as working against DaveCon. The original Blackmoor players have been meeting for gaming each year for as long as Dave Arneson was alive. When Dave passed away, Bob Meyer took over responsibilities as the Dungeon Master of the group starting with the memorial game in 2010 that Dave's daughter also mentions in Secrets of Blackmoor. The planned convention in October is to be a continuation of these annual conventions. While no official announcement has yet been made, I was told that David Wesely will be present running Braunstein Games as will Bill Hoyt. Most likely other members of the original group and their friends will also attend. 

What this means to me is that fans of Blackmoor, Dave Arneson and gaming in general get two conventions instead of one. And there seems to be enough of an interest to support both conventions. That is a very good thing. I hope as many as possible support all of these projects to commemorate the legacy of Dave Arneson and celebrate gaming in all its forms.

-Havard

35 Minute Preview of the Blackmoor Documentary - My thoughts

The Blackmoor Documentary Kickstarter just released a 35 minute preview of what will be the final product called Secrets of Blackmoor. I talked about the Kickstarter last week. This 35 minute segment was shown last year at GaryCon. The Kickstarter also has a feature with Bob Meyert, talking about how he got involved with Dave Arneson's group and how that group transitioned from Napoleonic Era War Games (Napoleonics) into Fantasy Roleplaying games. Bob Meyer was one of the early players in Dave Arneon's Blackmoor campaign where Bob played Robert The Bald

The video has a clasiscal violin piece playing in the background while Bob explains what it was like to be one of the younger members of this gaming community. For hard core fans, we have heard some of these things before, such as how Dave Arneson got fed up of the endless quarreling of war gamers over historical facts etc which was one of the reasons why Dave decided to switch to the fantasy genre. However, I think the real value of the video in this footage is hearing it from someone who was there at the time of the birth of Dungeons & Dragons. The Twin City Gamers have an important story to tell, and it is incredibly interesting to hear them talk about how they experienced those years as our hobby grew into what it is today. You can also read more discussion by original Blackmoor players at The Comeback Inn.



Edit: In the original version of this article, I mistakenly said that Bob Meyer played the Wizard of the Woods.That character was of course played by Pete Gaylord. Bob Meyer played Robert the Bald. I appologize for this mistake and any confusion it may have caused!



More discussion of the Blackmoor Documentary here.




-Havard

The Gods Welcome You: Immortality in the Game

I was just reading Dennis Laffey's blog the other day where he adresses the subject of questing for Immortality. The backround for this is Grognardia's review of the new B/X Companion, where Maliszewski expresses his dislike for the concept of questing for Immortality. Immortality in D&D was conceived by Frank Mentzer in the excellent BECMI line. Questing for Immortality was an option for heroes using the Master Rules, while the final set, the Immortal Rules took the game to a whole new level once that quest was completed. AD&D also had similar conceps of becoming a Demi-God, but only in Frank Mentzer's BECMI could you go all the way.

Dennis Laffey presents various examples of how such adventures have a presedence in mythology. Critics who claim that this should not be handled as part of the standard level progression should take another look at the Master Rules. Reaching Immortality is in no way a direct result of having reached 36th level, but rather a unique undertaking separate from the general level progression and reserved for unique heroes whose adventures will become legends retold for centuries to come.

I think a common pit fall in Internet discussions about D&D is that we end up talking about what a D&D game should be about and what it should not. One things I love about D&D is that it can be anything you want. This is one of the reasons why I prefer RPGs to Boardgames. One of the great things about the BECMI expansions was that it introduced new possibilities to what D&D could be about.

Similarly, we know that Dave Arneson would be open to pretty much any idea that came up in his games, giving rise to the description of his gaming style as "Gonzo". While the subject of ascending to Godhood was not a common theme in Arneson's campaign, Bob Meyer who played the powerful wizard Robert the Bald shared this story:

Personally, I not only survived these adventures, but I acquired enough interesting things to study that I ended up locked away in my tower studying them. This all proved to be my undoing, as I was the first of the original players (and one of only two I am aware of) to reach the highest possible level in David's rules. When I asked David what happened now, he told me that"The Gods welcome me". I lost Robert the Bald to David's control and had to start a new character.

-Havard

[Characters] Captain Krey – First Dark Wizard

I have earlied brushed upon the subject of evil player characters in Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign. The first evil wizard in the Blackmoor game and this the first evil wizard in roleplaying history was played by one of the original Blackmoor players, a young man named Kurt Krey. His character was known as Captain Krey.Captain Krey started out as one of The Fant’s allies, helping his friends take back Blackmoor after Baron Wesely ("The Weasel") had sold them out to the Egg’s forces. However, as most Wizards, Krey sought magical power. One person could offer him this: Soukup the Balrog. Soukup was none other than the Egg’s lieutenant and Krey betrayed Fant for the magic offered by Soukup.

Unfortunately, Soukup’s plan to overtake Blackmoor failed and Krey had to flee the realm. At first he sought refuge in the Realm of the Egg, but found that he was not welcome there. He wandered into the cold realm of the Skandaharians. On the Skandaharian Coast, he boarded a ship and recognized a southerner travelling with the norsemen. He was one of the Fant’s allies, Robert the Bald:

“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 Skandaharians. 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 Skandaharians and went on several voyages with them.”-Bob Meyer

On the ship, Krey kept his identity secret from Robert, but the two gradually became friends. As they journeyed the two were also united by their common dislike of the brutal Skandaharian captain. Robert challenged the captain to a duel and defeated him, with Krey keeping the crew at bay. Robert now assumed command of the vessel. Together they travelled through the Firefrost Canal and into the Black Swamps, making their way to Blackmoor:

“…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. “-Bob Meyer

What happened to Captain Krey after this remains a mystery…


More about Captain Krey at the Comeback Inn Forum


Image source:http://media.photobucket.com/image/Dark%20Robed%20fighter/BlueKokiri/DarkWarrior.jpg










-Havard

Memorial Game for Dave Arneson, by Bob Meyer

After Dave Arneson passed away last year, Bob Meyer, also known as Robert the Bald, ran a game with many of the original Blackmoor players. Bill Hoyt, Dave Wesely, Ross Maker, Pete Gaylord, Alan Musielewicz and others of the Original Blackmoor Players were present.

Bob set the game in an historical period of Blackmoor, shortly after the death of King Robert of Geneva. Those interested in learning more about this session can read about it here.





Havard