The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977

 

Dungeons & Dragons: The  Making of  Original Dungeons & Dragons came out in 2024 and was written by Jon Peterson. It is a massive tome with high quality production. I finally picked up a copy. 

The book contains the following:

• The complete original version of OD&D including Tolkien's terms such as Hobbit and Balrog
• The complete text from OD&D supplement 1, 2 and 3.
• Parts of Chainmail and Strategic Review
• Extracts from Corner of the Table (Dave Arneson's newsletter
• Extracts from the Domesday Book (the C&C Society newsletter)
• Letters exchanged between Dave and Gary
• The complete text of an early draft of the OD&D rules
• Commentaries by Jon Peterson

 

As a friend of mine pointed out, much of this material has already been circulating on the web in addition to the books that many hard core fans will have, but it is still nice to have everything in one place. The commentaries by Jon Peterson are insightful as and useful as always. 

D.H Boggs has good review on his blog where he points out that some documents that are mentioned in the book but not included could have been very useful, especially if one wants to explore the often overlooked Dave Arneson side of the story.

-Havard

Blackmoor Foundation Arneson Manuscripts Content

 Blackmoor Foundations is a book to be published towards the end of this month. I talked about the book a few weeks ago and how it is going to include many unpublished documents and maps that can be linked back to Dave Arneson's campaign, including material written by Dave Arneson himself. Much of the content is still unknown, but some is starting to get leaked. 

Fellow Blackmoor scholar DH Boggs wrote on his blog that much of this material comes from illustratior Ken Fletcher's collection. Ken was employed by Dave Arneson's company and was tasked to prepare Blackmoor material for possible publication in the early 1980s.

More details comes from YouTuber DaddyRolledA1 who has been given a first draft copy of Blackmoor Foundations. In his video D&D History: Foundations, Product Lines, Art, & Creators, he covers many sources for gaming history, but I want to direct your attention to the section where he is talking about this specific book and reveals some of the content. 

The explains how the book discusses dates that are often uncertain and how it contrasts some documented dates with sometimes contradictory information from what people who were there rememeber. Given the type of "documentation" that is available from someone's personal games, I 

Some of these maps or variants of them have been shared among fans already, but it will be nice to see everything collected. 

Ken Flether apparently had lots of pages of documents that he shared with The Fellowship of the Thing (DaddyRolledA1 does not seem to appreciate the name of that company) that produced this book. 

This illustration made be curions. According to the youtube video this illustration was made by Dave Arneson.

The firearms of Blackmoor are shown in the illustration below. I am not sure if this refers to artifacts origination from the aliens, or if these are supposed to be regular firearms that the men of Blackmoor were able to produce. Both types are referenced in the FFC. 

Credits for this book are given to Griffith M. Morgan III of Fellowship of the Thing, but others have also contributed as shown on the intro page. 

So the final version of this book should be available soon. If you already own a copy, let me know what else might be found there!

More discussion of this article at The Comeback Inn.

-Havard

ArneCon 2023 Reports are in!

 ArneCon 1 took place this weekend and reports are coming in. I have made several posts about ArneCon this fall talking about the announced program and the guests of honor which included many of the original Blackmoor players and other alumni. 

I snatched a bunch of these photos from the ArneCon Facebook page. As announced, it looks like this was a nice and intimate convention which makes sense since it was the first convention organized by the creators of the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary. 

It looks like everyone is having a great time and it was especially nice to see Dave Arneson's daughter present along with the original Blackmoor players. These nice people have always been helpful and supportive of my blog and the Comeback Inn website. Also nice to see Paul Stormberg and Dan H Boggs present. In addition to being co-author of  Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg, Boggs is also a friend of the Comeback Inn. 

Did you attend ArneCon 2023? I would love to hear your war stories and photos you might want to share!

-Havard

Tonisborg Softcover Official Blackmoor Setting Now Available from Barnes And Noble

 

The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg Softcover Edition is now available from Barnes and Nobles for 30 USD.

Written by Greg Svenson, Griffith Morgan and D.H. Boggs and published by Fellowship of the Thing, Tonisborg is based on the dungeons original Blackmoor player Greg Svenson created with the approval of Dave Arneson back in the early days of the hobby:

" A guide to how Dungeons & Dragons was played before Dungeons & Dragons! Greg Svenson's, The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg. An Official BLACKMOOR™ Setting The Most Unique RPG Module ever published. In 1971, Greg Svenson and his friends took part in the very first dungeon adventure game, Blackmoor, created by their friend, Dave Arneson (D&D Co-Creator).

 

The large group of players descended into Blackmoor Dungeon in search of a wizard and his cohort, an evil Balrog. Greg was the only player to survive this momentous first game session, earning the title: The Great Svenni. As his game persona, Greg would go on to become the most celebrated character in the history of Blackmoor and RPGs. Then, in the summer of 1973, as Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax worked to complete the manuscript for Dungeons & Dragons, Greg was given a play-test copy of this novel new game. He used these rules to create his own adventure dungeon, The Dungeons of Tonisborg. One day, Greg loaned his maps to a friend to make copies. An unexpected disaster struck: the maps, stowed in an old magazine, were thrown away. All ten original map levels of Greg's epic mega-dungeon were thought lost forever. This lost map set came to be known as The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg among the "Blackmoor Bunch."

Thirty-five years later, during the making of the documentary film, Secrets of Blackmoor, a mysterious set of photocopied dungeon maps was unearthed. D. H. Boggs emailed copies to Greg Svenson, who instantly recognized his own handwriting, declaring that these old photocopies were indeed copies of his original Tonisborg Dungeon. Now published with extensive background information, The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg is not like any RPG Game Module you've ever encountered before. Step back into time with this stand-alone book, presenting the second oldest mega-dungeon created in the Twin Cities during the early development of RPGs. It's a history of RPG dungeons. It's a guide to the secret art of the Dungeon Master - from the people who invented it. It's a rediscovered ten-level mega-dungeon filled with monsters and hidden treasures. It is an entire RPG, complete with old-school rules for creating player personas, outfitting equipment, adventuring, extensive charts for generating treasures, a spellbook, and a compendium of mythical creatures. (Or you can use your own favorite rules)

Everything you need to play is in this one volume! Guide your players through a deep dive into the dungeon as you learn RPG History, Philosophy, and Traditional Game Methods to improve your gaming sessions. Immerse yourself and your friends into a fantastic world of adventure with this historic mega-dungeon using original game rules derived from rare manuscripts from times past The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg - The Seminal Guidebook to Traditional Role Playing! 

Includes: 

• Reproductions of the original drawings of all ten levels of Tonisborg Dungeon, complete with the original dungeon keys and stocking lists. 
• Updated maps and keys have been beautifully reconstructed from the originals for ease of play.
• Greg Svenson reveals how the dungeon came about and why it's a bridge between past and present.
• Extensive play guidelines teach you how to make Tonisborg rise again as a real-life experience for you and your players. 
• A set of historically accurate game rules are included that are ideal for developing an original style adventure campaign - or use your own preferred rules. 

 

 Product Details 

• ISBN-13: 9781736572108 
• Publisher: The Fellowship of the Thing LTD
• Publication date: 01/13/2023
• Pages: 164
• Sales rank: 241,197
• Product dimensions: 8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.35(d)"

By the Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg Softcover from Barnes & Noble (Not a paid advertisement)

The Softcover Edition first became available directly from the publisher back in July this year. It is also noteworthy that the book is now marketed as an Official Blackmoor Setting. I reported on the status of the Blackmoor Trademark here. The wording is a bit unusual. I would have thought that Blackmoor was the name of the setting, while Tonisborg could have been said to be a supplement for Blackmoor. But that is not how it is phrased. I am not sure if this signifies something important about how the publisher views Blackmoor, but it will be interesting to see. 

NOTE: This blog, like all of my Blackmoor related websites are non-profit fan materials. I am not associated with any publisher. This blog is not monetised. 

More discussion of this article

Visit Greg Svenson's Tonisborg Fan Forum

-Havard

 

"Across Black Moors" is a Blackmoor inspired adventure by Carlos Lising of CASL entertainment

I recently recieved news of this new adventure inspired by Dave Arneson's Blackmoor. It is written by Carlos Lising of CASL entertainment. The module is announced as the official module of DaveCon, a convention to commemorate Dave Arneson's legacy next month and will presumably be sold or given out to attendees of the convention. The convention has drawn some criticism for not involving Dave Arneson's family, but has been described as a passion project of its founder Victor Dorso.

 

"DC1 Compliant with OSRIC. 

Dungeon Module DC1 Across Black Moors. By carlos a.lising. An adventure for characters levels 3-5

Long has the bizarre and potent entity known as Orrg of Oot held sway over the Black Moors, controlling the common folk of the land beneath the weighty chains of thralldom and a silent, pervasive terror. Despite its fearsome power, however, an opportunity to fight back against this alien foe has made itself known. Will your heroes strike a blow for freedom on behalf of the Black Moors - or will the Oorg of Oot continue its reign of tyranny over the land forevermore?

This module was the official adventure from DaveCon 2022. It contains a challenging scenario and eight pre-rolled, playtested tournament characters. DC1 is a complete adventure in and of itself and may thus be used for competition among players (pr groups of players) or as a non-scored adventure included in the cnotext of an ongoing game. Also included are referees's maps, notes, encounter descriptions for players, and a background scenario allowing the module to be easily placed withing a pre-existing campaign."

The cover blurb quoted above is of great interest to me. The villain's name is spelled Orrg of Oot and Oorg of Ooot in the same paragraph, but it is obvious that it is a nod to the alternate names given to the Egg of Coot in Dave Arneson's First Fantasy Campaign, where the names  Ogg of Ot and Orrg er Druig were presented as two aliases of this legendary Blackmoor villain. The description of the Black Moors as being ruled by this being suggests that the adventure takes place before Blackmoor was liberated by the elves and long before the DA modules or the ZGG D20 version of Blackmoor. My immediate thought is that the module will be harder to reconcile with the Greyhawk version of Blackmoor, but the blurb does say it can be easily integrated into any pre-existing campaign.

Across the Black Moors is not the first gaming product to be created as a tribute to the legacy of Dave Arneson of course. We also have Dragons at Dawn and Champions of Zed both by DH Boggs, Rob S Conley's Blackmarsh well as the excellent campaigns and sourcebooks organized at the Comeback Inn Forum. Greg Svenson The Lost Dungeons of Tonnisborg feels like its  more than a tribute, but I wanted to mention it anyway. More on that later. 

What other Dave Arneson inspired games may we see in the future?

Did I forget anything? Please let me know in the comments!

-Havard

Chainmail Co-Creator Jeff Perren 70 years today!

Today is a good time to honor another important figure in the history of our hobby. Jeff Perren turns 70 years old today. He was a member of the Lake Geneva Tactical Association (LGTSA) which was the group who used to meet regularly in Gary Gygax' basement for gaming. Among gamers today, Jeff Perren is best known as the Co-Creator of Chainmail. The original version of the ruleset was distributed in the Domesday Book, which many of my readers will know was the fanzine for the Castles & Crusades Society.

Edit: Frank Mentzer revealed the following on the origins on the original edition of Chainmail:

"I believe that Jeff was the sole Compiler/Author of Chainmail (the version for the club, gathering various good ideas and massaging them into coherence). For publication, Gary had to give it more work. I also believe this fact is vastly overlooked."

The original version of the ruleset was distributed in 1970, while Guidon Games published their 1st edition in 1971. TSR published their first version (3rd edition) in 1975 (Acaeum).

For a while, many incorrectly assumed that Blackmoor was simply a variant of the Chainmail game, but although I think that most people these days accept that that is just a myth, gaming historians and fans still debate to what extent Chainmail did influence the two creators of Dungeons & Dragons. My friend DHBoggs has written som excellent articles about this on his blog here.

No matter where you land on those debates, I think we should all be able to recognize that Chainmail was an important milestone in the development of our hobby and we can be thankful for Jeff Perren's contributions. In this short interview, Perren humbly admits that he recieved no royalties for Chainmail, but that he is happy that some of the things he created are still loved. The World of Greyhawk also has a region, Perrenland, that is named after him.

Happy birthday Jeff!



***





Note: Image taken from this blog
Note: Thanks to author Matt Forbeck for making me aware of the date of Mr Perren's Birthday.

More discussion of this topic at The Comeback Inn


-Havard

Clerics of Blackmoor

My good friend and fellow Blackmoor aficionado DH Boggs just wrote an excellent article on the Clerics of Blackmoor over at his blog. Well worth a read. Clerics were the one class that originated in the Blackmoor Campaign. You can also read some more comments by myself and others on this topic over here.

Back in 2011 I wrote a piece on Mike Carr's character in Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign, Bishop Carr, who might well have been the first Cleric in the history of D&D.


Would you be interested in playing a Cleric in a Blackmoor Campaign?



Image source: http://thesignmaker.deviantart.com/art/Sean-Connery-179541605



-Havard

Fight On! to End?

I just noticed via the Akratic Wizardry Blog that the Fight On! magazine is approaching its final issue. Fight On! Fight On holds a special place for me, not the least because of the 2nd issue being dedicated to Dave Arneson. It included the last known interview with Dave and also contained Robert Lionheart's report from his game with Dave at Gen Con as well as Greg Svenson's essay on the First Dungeon Adventure.
 

Fight On! #2 dedicated to Dave Arneson

Later issues also contained high quality material relevant for Blackmoor fans such as Rob S. Conely's Wilderlands Map expansion (#3), Dan Bogg's article on Champions of ZED (#13) and much more. You can read more about Fight On! at their website here.

Hopefully the end of the magazine will not be the end of the fight! :)



-Havard

3rd Annual NYC Arneson Memorial Gameday: October 1

A little over a month to go to the 3rd Annual NYC Arneson Memorial Gameday! Previously this New York City based event was held in March, but has now been moved to October 1st which is Dave Arneson's birthday. Although I have yet to get it confirmed, it is believed that it will be held at the Brooklyn Strategist. This year's events include:

• Michael Curtis will be running games of Stonehell Dungeon
• Joseph Bloch will be running games of Adventures Dark & Deep, and will have a new version of the Bestiary
• Luke Crane will be running games of DNA/DOA using a hack of Burning Wheel Gold
• Darren Watts will be running games of Lucha Libre for the HERO System
• Tavis Allison and others will be running games of the soon to be published Adventurer Conqueror King
• Paul Hughes will be running 4E using his poster of the OD&D random monster charts
• Daniel Boggs can't make it, but will be writing a piece for the program book and sending a single-volume collection of Dragons at Dawn & its first sequel
• Panel discussion about Arneson's legacy and how it's shaped modern culture; panelists will include journalists Ethan Gilsdorf (Wired, Salon) and David Ewalt (Forbes) .

More information can be found here. If you are going, make sure to send me the reports, pictures, videos or sound recordings. I want them :)



Image Source


-Havard

Dragons at Dawn Supplement I is out!

DHBogg's just announced the release of the first supplement for his Dave Arneson inspired game Dragons at Dawn. Named Supplement I: Twighlight, the description at Lulu reads:

Supplement 1 is a broad ranging expansion of the Dragons at Dawn retro-tribute fantasy role playing game honoring the first years of adventure role playing as envisioned by gaming pioneer Dave Arneson. The contents include character class variations, alternate combat tables, new spells and rules for governing magic, expanded information on skills, morale, wilderness adventuring and a whole lot more!

 Click here to order a hard copy or buy the pdf. You can talk about supplement I with other fans as well as the author at the Dragons at Dawn section of the OD&D74 forum, or at the new Arnesonian Rules Section of the Comeback Inn.



-Havard

[Races] Maggot Men

When we were discussing Gator Men the other day, reader Dan Boggs mentioned Maggot Men as another typical Arnesonian invention. This strange race appeared in Garbage Pits of Despair, a Blackmoor adventure written by Dave Arneson and published in Different Worlds Magazine #42 and 43 (1986).

Maggot Men men are described as having "the bodies of maggots and the appendages of a man". They have sickly pale skin and sinister looking eyes. Maggot Men live in deep holes where garbage and other organic refuse can be found. They live off this garbage and will eat just about anything, including zombies; a particular deicacy among these creatures. Maggot Men are usually found in fairly large groups (1-20) and even bigger groups in their main underground lairs. They keep a race of spider-like creatures, known as Carcus Critters as pets. They feed these toothlesss critters with slimes, jellies and puddings. Maggot Men are known to be cowardly and not very bright creatures.

alternate design

The origins of this race in the setting are unknown. Did some evil god create this race, perhaps through cursing another race into becoming "like maggots", or are they the creation of some wizard looking for a way to dispose of his garbage?


Source: Image 1
Source Image 2



-Havard

Dave Arneson's XP system

I just read Paladin's interesting article on the XP system in Dragons at Dawn. According to the article, Dave Arneson did not award any experience points for killing monsters or taking their treasure. Instead they were awarded for roleplaying only.

In my opinion XPs are a useful tool in encouraging the players to behave in certain ways. I can think of few players who really need encouraging to go out and kill things and take their stuff. Arneson found a way around that. Worth thinking about for any campaign.

 Image Source



 -Havard

[Characters] Stephen the Rock – First D&D Arch Villain

In 1975, TSR published D&D Supplement II: Blackmoor. Unlike Supplement I, Blackmoor was not just a mere collection of additional rules and monsters, but also featured a unique look into the actual Campaign World of the author through the world’s first adventure module Temple of the Frog.


The Temple of the Frog featured not only a dungeon, frog people, cultist-like monks and other critters.  It also featured the first Arch villain in D&D history. The villain was known as Stephen the Rock, or simply St. Stephen. I have previously discussed Dave Arneson’s tradition of letting players control the bad guys. St. Stephen was no exception. The player who had come up with this character was Stephen Rocheford, known as “Rocky” or “the Rock” among his friends. He remembers how he and Dave first came up with the character back in 1973:

“Dave approached me to invent an 'evil' character that would be 'different from the norm' in this world. Ergo, I thought and settled on a character that was 'not of this world' of Blackmoor. My inspiration eventually was from an old episode of the original Star Trek television series. In it, Captain Kirk found a planet of Nazi's and found the earthling, an historian, who founded it in the hope eliminating it's excesses and organizing this society for the betterment of all in the name of efficiency. I told Dave Arneson and he was delighted. He asked that I ‘flesh out’ the character. “

As we know this was not the last time that Star Trek would be a source of inspiration for the Blackmoor Campaign. The line between fantasy and science fiction was more blurry back then and elements of science fiction had been present from the beginning of the campaign. However, Rocheford’s ideas took things one step further:

“My character was a soldier( I was an Army Officer) who crash landed in Blackmoor with several others from a 'spaceship'. He found a village organized around a group of monks. They and the villagers thought the stranger was a very powerful wizard; in fact he was a man who used a 'phaser' and so overawed the indigenous people that he was proclaimed the ‘High Priest of the Monks of the Swamp’. “

Not only do we see the early seeds to the fabled adventure of the Temple of the Frog here, but also what would become the City of the Gods. Two of the most famous adventures of the Blackmoor line thus sprung from the discussions between Arneson and Rocheford. Rocheford had further ideas for the religious order his character established.

“I set about to organize a theocracy based on the worship of frogs, which were in great supply in the swamp. These frogs were bred and genetically improved over time until some special breeds grew to enormous size. A Temple was erected and an Order of Monks reorganized around this hall of worship. The High Priest had his secret chambers in which no one was allowed except his companions who filled various roles: security chief, treasurer, medical staff (for the genetics ) and so forth. In the High Priests most secret room only the security chief was allowed in as it possessed the generators to 'charge' the weapons and maintain the remnants of the computers from the crash. This allowed this small group to take over the immediate environs of the swamp and the villages. The High Priest wore robes similar to a Roman Catholic Archbishop( I grew up Catholic), complete with staff and mitre. In the temple at the far end was a large pipe organ that ran to the roof and which the openings allowed the countryside to hear the strain of the High Priest playing THE music of this cult: Toccata and Fugue in d minor, by Bach. He played this piece at the time of weekly feedings of the frogs. Those who failed to convert were fed to the frogs, and their possessions were donated to the church. The Temple expanded to transform the original social structure found into a complete theocracy that was evil in nature and which preyed on it neighbors in raids for loot and captives but which always retreated to the swamps in which to hide. Outsiders who ventured into the swamps did not return. The myths and legends which grew were terrible as to what evil lurked in the swamp.”

The basics of the Order of the Frog were given in Supplement II, but it is impressive to see the level of detailed planned for the actual campaign, even down to the music St. Stephen played on his pipe organ. In Supplement II, Stephen was not the one who set up the cult originally, but an unsurper, who had taken over the Order. The DA series saw further developments to the character as Dave Ritchie explained St. Stephen’s relationship with the City of the Gods, making him a traitor to Captain Bork Riesling, seeking power instead of obeying Riesling’s orders to follow the “Prime Directive”.
Rocheford explains that the character was developed in several stages in discussions between him and Dave Arneson. The original concept was formulated in 1973, but the two gamers kept working on the character until 1977. However, already when the first ideas had been sketched out, the character was to be introduced into the campaign:

 Eventually 'The Great Svenny' and his friends heard of this and were intrigued sufficiently enough to launch an expedition. Dave made sure we had worked out several details about this prior to him, as referee, passing on the rumors of this society in the swamps to the players. I kept my role as High Priest, per Arneson's request, secret from the others until the first actual expedition. One of the characters was killed and his loss was a warning to the others and so set the stage for future endeavors by the group who wished revenge and to find out what happened. It was a great "what happened" set up when they finally found the the weird guy in the robes who shot an immensely powerful lightning bolt at them. Awaking later in the swamp, all that could be remembered evoked a 'riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma'. The game was on!!!

Thanks to Dan H Boggs for providing the information from Stephen Rocheford.

Image Source: Brainiac 5.





-Havard

Dave Arneson's Adventures in Fantasy (1979)

In 1979, Dave Arneson and Richard Snider created an RPG called Adventures in Fantasy. Two versions of the game were published that year, one by Excalibur Games and the second by Arneson's company, Adventure Games. The game consists of three books -- Book of Adventure, Book of Faerry and Magic, and Book of Creatures and Treasure. A good review of the game appeared on Grognardia earlier this year. DH Bogg's "arnesonian" RPG , Dragons at Dawn, is said to have drawn heavily on Adventures in Fantasy.

Jeff Berry worked for Dave Arneson in 1979 and could reveal the following about the life at Adventure Games (AGI):

I was working for Dave at the time at Adventure Games, as the chief 'Tekumel Boat Person' (as he described us); the staff at AGI was made up of Dave's friends from the First Minnesota ACW reenactment group, and none of them were fantasy gamers of any type. Ken Fletcher and I were the only people there with any fantasy gaming experience; Richard was a free-lance author, and rarely in the shop.

Why didn't the game do better? At this time, D&D was still a young game and it would seem that the market was hungry for fantasy RPGs. If RuneQuest could coexist with D&D, why not AiF? Was it simply not good enough? Jeff Berry has the following explanation:

The problem with AiF wasn't that is was a bad game or anything, it was simply one of no marketing. Dave had bought it back from Excalibur with the money that the first of his settlements with TSR, and like many other of the AGI product line was more or less just there because Dave or one of his friends had done the game. There was no real 'in-house' support for this game like there was for, say, "Compleat Brigadier", and it has to be said that there wasn't much support for fantasy gaming of any kind in house. AGI's Tekumel line existed because of Dave's personal friendship with Phil, and my presence at AGI was a direct consequence of that. It always amazed the AGI staff that we 'boat people', so-called because we lived on pallets in AGI's basement under tarps (it was a very wet basement!) could sell our rather recondite products and the main AGI line never seemed to sell at all; I kept pointing out that one needed to run games at conventions and advertise the heck out of a game, otherwise it'd never sell to anyone.

Recently there has been speculations to whether it would be possible to get ahold of the lisence to the game so it could be published again. Unfortunately, Rafael just shared the following on Dragonsfoot today:

The news back then were, as the admin staff over at the CI discussed in various threads, that with Dave Arneson's death, apparently all of his rpg-related IP reverted to WotC. INCLUDING AiF. - This was apparently part of the agreement that allowed the licensing of the BM d20 line through several companies associated with Arneson. A dead end, it seems.Though IANAL, as to the Comeback Inn crew, things so far look far more like we will go on an produce our own setting some day instead of continuing DA's work.

So, the chances of seeing Adventures in Fantasy back in print seem very low indeed. Thankfully there are other things happening in the Old School community and many out there who are interested in honoring Dave's legacy in any way they can.









-Havard