City of the Gods (2008) for the Dave Arneson's Blackmoor d20 Line

 

The oldest published reference to the City of the Gods is in the First Fantasy Campaign. This adventure proved deadly to many of the player characters from Dave Arneson's campaign and was probably played out shortly after the publication of Dungeons & Dragons. Another group of players who realised the dangers of this fabled location were none other than Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz, as chronicled by Rob Kuntz in Oerth Journal #6. It was clear at the time that Gary wanted to explore the idea of combining fantasy and science fiction. In 1980, TSR published the adventure Expedition to Barrier Peaks. Written by Gary Gygax, it was a different, but similar concept. It was the 1987 TSR module DA3 City of the Gods (Dave Arneson & David Ritchie) that would finally make the adventure available to D&D players worldwide. 

In 2008, Dave Arneson's company Zeitgeit Games decided to revisit the adventure. Written by Harley Stroh, the d20 version is not a mere rehash of the 1987 module, but explores other parts of the crashed spaceship that is at the heart of the adventure. It also expands the lands surrounding the City of the Gods greatly. To me this will remain one of the highlights of the d20 Blackmoor line. 

The back cover reads:

Deep in the heart of the harsh landscape of the Valley of the Ancients lies Blackmoors greatest mystery an accursed place the local desert tribes know only as the City of the Gods. One royal expedition to the site has already failed to return and now the heroes must traverse unforgiving wilds and dangers untold in search of truth and if they can survive the journey the glory of a lifetime. Whet your blades and ready your spells heroes for the greatest of trials awaits! Welcome to City of the Gods one of the most infamous and enduring mysteries in the long and storied history of Dave Arnesons Blackmoor. Designed for four to six characters of 9th to 10th level this epic adventure is sure to challenge even the bravest heroes be they peasants or nobles warriors or wizards. Will you succeed where so many others have failed or will you too fall victim to the unearthly perils that lie in wait in the forgotten City of the Gods?

Title: City of the Gods

Author: Harley Stroh 

Executive Producers: Dave Arneson & Dustin Clingman

Editor: C.A. Suleiman

ISBN: N/A

Pages: 108

Publishers: Zeitgeist Games & Code Monkey Press (2008)

Purchase a copy at DrivethruRPG (currently for 3$) - This blog does not use affiliate links.

Do you have a copy of this adventure? Have you adventured near the City of the Gods?

Read more about City of the Gods at The Comeback Inn,

-Havard

Riders of Hak (2007) for Dave Arneson's Blackmoor

 

Riders of Hak 

A sourcebook for Dave Arneson's Blackmoor 

Riders of Hak details the human culture known as the Peshwah. The Peshwah are an important nation living near the Kingdom of Blackmoor in Dave Arneson's campaign setting. I have always been fascinated with the Peshwah. In the First Fantasy Campaign, this group of horsemen were referred to simply as nomads, while the DA modules used the name Peshwah and DA3 The City of the Gods gave much additional detail on these tribes.  I also wrote about the Peshwah tribes in this article. 

Looking back at this book now in 2024, my favorite parts of the book are definitely the expansions on Peshwah culture and their history in Dave Arneson's Blackmoor setting. Like many of the books in this series and other D&D products at the time, I feel that they suffer a bit from the idea that every 3rd Edition sourcebook needed to include a number of new feats, prestigue classes and the like. While having such rules definitely can be useful for fans running a 3E game in Blackmoor, it does some times come at the expense of other things that I would have liked to see more of in the book. 

Here is a review at The Comeback Inn that I wrote some years ago. 

The Back Cover reads: 

Children of the horsegod Hak, the Peshwah believe they are a chosen people. Birthed to protect Hak's sacred lands and guide Hak's sacred horses, they are brothers and sisters of his divine spirit, and feel they hold a particular destiny and a special place in this, their land. From the rocky peaks of the High Hak to the dusty floor of the Valley of the Ancients, the tribes of the Peshwah roam. Horseman, nomad, prophet, merchant, warrior... each is a face of the Peshwah. Welcome to Riders of Hak, the definitive sourcebook on the Peshwah for Dave Arneson

Written By: David Brainard and Tad Kilgore. With additional material by C.A.Suleiman. 

Format: Softcover, PDF 

Publisher: Code Monkey Publishing / Zeitgeist Games 

Year: 2008 (interior says 2007) 

Product Code: CMP4508 ISBN-10: 0978576160 ISBN-13: 9780978576165 

83 pages 

Size: Letter 

Riders of Hak can be purchased from DrivethruRPG for only 5$ (US) in PDF format. 

More details about Riders of Hak at the Comeback Inn, including input from the book's author.

-Havard

The Design Team Behind Blackmoor Age of the Wolf

We are now learning more about the people behind the upcoming Dave Arneson's Blackmoor Age of the Wolf.  As I reported back in March, this 15 years in the making project is finally being released at GenCon 2024 and will become available in a free digital format. An exclusive interview with the lead designer was posted on this blog last month, but we now have more information:

(Illustration taken from lead designer C.A.Suleiman's website)

The credits presented for the book will be the following:

Dave Arneson's Blackmoor: Age of the Wolf

Publisher: Studio Ink Bat

Developer and Project Lead: C.A. Suleiman 

Writers: Jamie Chambers, George Holland, Rhiannon Louve, Ari Marmell, Harley Stroh, and C.A. Suleiman 

Art Director: Denise Robinson

That is a pretty talent specked list of people. I am not familiar with all of them, but Jamie Chambers is perhaps best known as former vice president of Sovereign Press and Margaret Weis Press, having done considerable game design on Dragonlance, The Serenity RPG and much more. 

Ari Marmell is a well known fantasy author and game designer and he has worked on multiple projects with C.A. Suleiman. Most notably the two worked on Blackmoor in the time before Zeigtgeist Games (ZGG) lost the license to publish Blackmoor from WotC, right before Age of the Wolf was to be published 15 years ago. 

Harley Stroh is another name that should be familiar to Blackmoor fans, making several contribitions to the d20 Blackmoor line including the ZGG version of City of the Gods. He later went on to become a widely published by companies like Wizards of the Coast and Goodman Games. 

Rhiannon Louve has multiple credits for design and translation work for White Wolf, including the Scarred Lands Setting. 

George Holland is a game desgner who has done game design work for  RPGs such as Overlight, Mothership and Cy_Borg. 

C.A Suleiman, the project lead, is  another well known name in the industry, having done considerable game design work for Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf and many other publishers. He is credited for six d20 Blackmoor books, including the upcoming Age of the Wolf sourcebook. See full credits here.

With this team, I have great hopes for the Age of the Wolf sourcebook finally seeing the light of day after all this time. It is such a shame when completed manuscripts end up never being shared with the fans, like Jeff Grubb's Mystara sourcebook for AD&D 2nd Edition. I am very happy that Age of the Wolf will become available to fans this August. 

Dave Arneson's Blackmoor: Age of the Wolf will be published under a lisence from Wizards of the Coast. 

Note: I have written this article, not based on a press release, but on my own research, so I apologise that the information is incomplete. No disrespected intended towards anyone mentioned. I will expand on the article as I learn more about each designer!

Discuss this article on The Comeback Inn

-Havard

Blackmoor - Age of the Wolf goes to GenCon 2024!

 

Dave Arneson's Blackmoor - Age of the Wolf is to be presented at GenCon 2024 with gaming events and panel presentations. Age of the Wolf was the last Blackmoor project Dave Arneson was involved with before his passing and fans have been asking for it ever since. It was a surprise to most when I reported with much excitement back in March that the publisher Ink Bat announced that they were to bring back the project that was completed in 2008 but never released. 

As summer approches, Ink Bat has made a new announcement:

Last of the Zah 

Come and play in the first-ever adventure set in the new edition of Blackmoor, Age of the Wolf, and do it in style in one of the luxury boxes at Lucas Oil Stadium! In this scenario, you play a member of a bold company tasked with escorting an important young woman into the very heart of darkness. Should you fail, she fails, and if she fails, all hope for life in the North may be lost! 

 Every ticketed player in this event receives a limited edition print copy of Age of the Wolf absolutely free! 

In addition, everyone who plays a session receives a free miniature, courtesy of Paizo Publishing. Length: 3.5 hours 

Where: Event Suite at Lucas Oil Stadium 

When: Every 4 hours until midnight, starting at 8am 

 

 Blackmoor: Age of the Wolf Panel 

 The last tabletop project of D&D co-creator Dave Arneson is finally released! Join Ink Bat’s team of creatives for a discussion of the new book, Age of the Wolf, the 50th anniversary of the great game, and all things Dave.
Length: 1 hour 

 Where: JW Marriott — Room 203 

 When: Thursday at 8pm

See you at GenCon

See original announcement.

Are you excited about this news? Are you going to GenCon? 

Read more at the Comeback Inn!

-Havard

Age of the Wolf not Sanctioned by Estate Morgan Says

Edit: I just talked to a source within Ink Bat Studios. They have clarified that the Age of the Wolf Sourcebook was not written by Dave Arneson: "like all but one of the Blackmoor supplements during the 3e and 4e eras, Dave did not write any of the book. He simply oversaw and approved it. We're just trying to honor Dave's own wishes and make sure he's not forgotten." They also says that from their perspective, Ink Bat's contact with Fellowship of the Thing (Griffith Morgan and Chris Graves) was just established and that they were still trying to make a deal. They were surprised that Fellowship contacted myself and other bloggers before negtotiations were finalized. Lets hope this is all just a misunderstanding and that things can be cleared up!

Yesterday we were excited to report that the legendary sourcebook Blackmoor Age of the Wolf will be released by Ink Bat Studio this August. The Age of the Wolf sourcebook was a project started during the 3E and 4E eras when Dave Arneson's company Zeitgeist Games and later their partners Code Monkey Press wanted to develop a new subsetting for Blackmoor. The manuscript along with a lot of illustrations were completed when Dave passed away and WotC announced that the Blackmoor lisence had been rewoked. This marked the end of Zeitgeist Games venturing into RPG publishing. 

What happened to the Age of the Wolf manuscript since then is not yet known, but I have confirmation that some of those working on Age of the Wolf are currently involved with Ink Bat Studios. Some of the designers involved have a long list of credits working in the industry and the final Blackmoor sourcebook, dubbed Blackmoor: The First Campaign was highly acclaimed by fans of newer and older editions. It is possible that they have spent all these years seeking to find a way to get the manuscript published. 

According to Griffith Morgan from the company Fellowship of the Thing (Secrets of Blackmoor Documentary, Tonisborg Sourcebook), Ink Bat Studios will not be allowed to publish Blackmoor: Age of the Wolf. "It is not sanctioned by the Estate", Morgan says. "If this is Arneson material it belongs to [Arneson's daughter]. They cannot use the Blackmoor Trade [Mark]. Wthout the family's permission, they cannot put Dave Arneson's name on it." I have not yet been able to get confirmation from the family, but Morgan says his company are operating under a lisence from the Estate.

Griffith Morgan as he appeared on Wandering DM's Youtube Channel three years ago. 

Morgan says Ink Bat Studios have been in contact with both the Estate and Fellowship of the Thing. Morgan says his company would love to publish the manuscript, but according to Morgan, no agreement was reached. 

Legalities about Blackmoor have always been complicated. Although I am no expert on these matters It is important to realize that Trade Marks and IP are two separate issues. An entity called the Arneson Estate LLC has made claim to the Blackmoor Trademark, but the Trademark registry status is still listed as pending, although an extension was granted on Feb 1. 2024. WotC also claim to own the Blackmoor Trademark through continued publication of PDF and Print material. 

When it comes to Blackmoor IP, things are even more complicated as multiple parties have supported Blackmoor across the years. 

For the sake of fans, many of us have been waiting for this source book since we first heard about the concept in the early 2000s, let us hope that some solution can be found so that we can finally see what this book was about. Before we know more, it is dangerous to speculate too much.

-Havard

Blackmoor Age of the Wolf to be Published by Studio Ink Bat

Looks like 2024 and the 50th Anniversary of D&D will have a lot of great things in store for fans of the creations of Dave Arneson. Loyal followers of this blog will be familiar with the Age of the Wolf which was supposed to be released just before Dave Arneson passed away. Now it seems like the original designers of that book have joined up with Studio Ink Bat to make sure the fans finally get to see what this was all about. 

INK BAT TO PUBLISH D&D CO-CREATOR DAVE ARNESON’S FINAL RPG PROJECT

STUDIO TO RELEASE THE LONG-AWAITED NEW EDITION OF BLACKMOOR, THE FIRST FANTASY CAMPAIGN SETTING

WASHINGTON, DC (03/12/24): Studio Ink Bat announced today that it will release the final tabletop roleplaying game sourcebook directly overseen by the late Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and the creator of Blackmoor, the fantasy setting in which the game was first incubated. Entitled Blackmoor: Age of the Wolf, the book is a fiction of ideas, taking the classic setting’s timeline and sending it centuries into the future.

The announcement was made by Denise Robinson, Art Director for Studio Ink Bat. “I had the chance to meet Dave Arneson,” said Robinson. “And as so many others did, I liked him immediately. When the opportunity arose to help release the last RPG project created by Dave’s own team, I knew we had to jump. The content is fantastic, too. If you aren’t a Blackmoor fan, yet, Age of the Wolf is sure to make a believer out of you.”

“After a fifteen-year wait, I could not be happier to see this project finally come to fruition,” added C.A. Suleiman, developer of Dave Arneson’s tabletop projects at the time of his passing in 2009. “With the 50th anniversary of D&D; the 20th anniversary of the launch of an independent Blackmoor line overseen by Dave, himself; and the 15th anniversary of the legend’s passing, the timing could scarcely be any more appropriate than it is right now.”

Back in 2009, the project was nearly complete and ready to be sent to the printer when Dave Arneson passed away suddenly. After that tragic turn of events, it didn’t seem right to release the book as planned originally, and so the project went into indefinite hibernation. “With the big anniversary year upon us,” Robinson concluded, “We feel the time is right to finally get this book into the hands of fans.”

Blackmoor: Age of the Wolf is scheduled for release this August, 2024. As a supplemental edition for the setting, the book will be released system-neutral,  allowing players of any edition or expression of the world’s greatest roleplaying game to make immediate use of it.

About Studio Ink Bat

Ink Bat is a content development studio dedicated to the art of making excellent games. Blackmoor: Age of the Wolf is Ink Bat’s first major release, but will surely not be its last. Ink Bat can be found online at http://ink-bat.com

About Dave Arneson

Dave Arneson is the late co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons. He is regarded the creator of the roleplaying game and innovator of the ‘dungeon adventure’ concept in tabletop gaming. Blackmoor is his original fantasy setting and the environment in which he and Gary Gygax incubated their legendary game. He passed away in 2009, but his profound legacy endures.

Are you excited about this news? What do you think this book will contain? 

More details at the Comeback Inn

Ink Bat Studios Press Release

-Havard

Blackmoor to be Revived by Vampire: The Masquerade Creator

Totally manipulated photo. :D

It has been fairly quiet on the Blackmoor front for a while, and then last night, May 11 2015, the following was announced via the Dave Arneson's Blackmoor Facebook Page:

" BREAKING NEWS: Gaming icon Mark Rein-Hagen (creator of the World of Darkness, Ars Magica) is returning to roleplaying games, and has expressed interest in putting out the first new Blackmoor material in years! "

Mark Rein-Hagen should be a well known name to anyone who is interested in the gaming industry. He started out co-designing the classic RPG Ars Magica and later went on to create Vampire the Masquerade at the World of Darkness Setting. His influence reached way beyond the  world or RPG design, with the World of Darkness influencing Tru Blood, the Underworld movies and beyond.

Ever since Dave Arneson passed away 2008, there has been alot of speculation on the possibilities of seeing Blackmoor back in print. Many have suggested that it would be legally difficult to make this happen. However, Rein-Hagen is certainly serious about his intent to get Blackmoor back into published form as he made this comment for the Blackmoor Blog:

"I am a huge fan [of Blackmoor] and always have been. Was fortunate enough to meet him when I was a kid. We are going to do everything we can to bring his world back into publication."

Also involved in the project is CA Suleiman and the rest of the team at Mark Rein-Hagen's company Make-Believe Games. In addition to being a well-known game designer for White Wolf's World of Darkness games and the Scarred Lands (Sword & Sorcery Imprint), Suleiman was also heavily involved in the design of the previous iteration of Blackmoor, including the never released Age of the Wolf subsetting.



More details here.



-Havard