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

Blackmoor is back in print!

 Last week two classic Blacmoor adventures once again became available as print on demand releases from Wizards of the Coast. 

The two adventures in question are part of the series of modules published by TSR between 1986-1987. Labelled the DA series or Dave Arneson series, the adventures were written by Dave Arneson and David Ritchie for the BECMI edition of D&D. Four DA modules were published and it is interesting to see that the two first to make it back to Print on Demand format from DrivethruRPG are two that focus on some of the most iconic adventure locations of Dave Arneson's setting.

You can get both modules as PDF or in Print Format from DrivethruRPG by following these links:

DA2 Temple of the Frog

DA3 City of the Gods

I also hope that WotC will release DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor soon. Not only was this the first module in the series, but it also serves as a great introduction to the setting. 

In any case, it is really cool to see these adventures back in print. Are you planning to pick them up, dear readers? 

-Havard

How the Paynim became the Afridhi

I have previously looked at how Dave Arneson picked up the bare bones setting presented by Gary Gygax in the Domesday Book fanzine and turned it into a full roleplaying world for his Blackmoor Campaign. Over at the Comeback Inn we have been discussing whether some of the antagonists of Dave Arneson's Campaign could have had their roots in the C&C Setting as well?

The main enemies of Blackmoor were the Egg of Coot and the Temple of the Frog, creations of Arneson and his players alone. But there was another group that could go back to the Domesday Book. Domesday Book #9 establishes an enemy of the Great Kingdom called the Paynim Kingdom. Few details are given on the Paynim Kingdom except that they have a strength of 150% of any of the other kings of the Great Kingdom. Paynim, apparently is a term used in medieval literature to describe Islamic antagonists during the Crusades.

Originally, I thought that references to the Paynim could also include the Peshwa, but I now suspect this is not the case. Greyhawk still has its Plains of the Paymin, but in Blackmoor I suspect that the Paynim evolved into the Afridhi. The FFC mentions The Treasure of the Paynim Princess*. I now believe that the Paynim Princess could be no other than Toska Rusa.

 *=Actually the text in the FFC says "Treasure of the Payme Princess" which could be either a typo or a pun.

How I imagine Toska Rusa, Queen of Afridhi, Mistress of Zugzul.

I have previously discussed how the Afridhi as they became known were further fleshed out when one of MAR Barker's friends took on the role as the Afridhi Queen. This could have been the time when Dave Arneson invented the God Zugzul, patron of the Afridhi. These nomadic invaders were even further fleshed out in DA4 where they are the main antagonists of the adventure, seeking the mysterious Well of Souls. David Ritchie's wife is attributed to providing more detail on Afridhi culture. So even though alot was changed over the years, the Afridhi could have seen their first little spark in the Domesday Book.



Image Source: Nomad Warrior, by N*Deed
Image Source: Barbarian Chick, by Maciej Kuciara

-Havard

Lorraine Williams killed the DA line?

Still hoping that Wizards of the Coast will get around to releasing more TSR era Blackmoor modules beyond the DA2 PDF I wrote about back in February, I was reading through product descriptons of modules from the dndclassics.com PDF store:

"Following the 1985 departure of Gary Gygax, Lorraine Williams is said to have purposefully cut out Gygax's friends and supporters. Thus Dave Arneson's Blackmoor adventures came to an end, and the third Lendore Isle adventure was never published by TSR."

I generally try to stay away from the feuds and disagreements happening decades ago in TSR, especially since I wasn't there at the time, but this statement struck me as quite odd with regards to the Blackmoor modules.

Now assuming that the description is true and that Lorraine Williams, CEO of TSR since 1985, did let such personal feelings affect business decisions, why would the Blackmoor modules become a target? It is well known that after Dave Arneson took TSR to court in the late 1970s, Arneson and Gygax never again were fully reconciled. On the other hand, Gygax did reach out to Arneson about getting the Blackmoor modules published. Gary would have recognized the historical value of the Blackmoor Campaign within the RPG hobby and probably also saw the business potential in having the modules published.

This seems to have been one of the last things Gary did for TSR, as the DA modules were published the year after Gary had been forced to leave the company. So, while it seems unlikely that Williams saw Dave as one of Gary's "friends and supporters", perhaps she still considered this to be one of Gary's projects? In any case  the last modules in the series; DA5 City of Blackmoor was never published, even though it had reputedly been completed by Arneson's co-author on the series, David Ritchie.






Image source: Masters of Fantasy Documentary, by Sci Fi channel.

-Havard

Rare Blackmoor Manuscript Sold for $787

A rare manuscript from 1985 by Dave Arneson and David J Ritchie was just sold on ebay for 787,77 US$. The manuscript was titled Aventures in Thonia, and was the basis for module DA1 (Adventures in Blackmoor). However, the manuscript is roughly 250 pages and DA1 is only 64 pages. The sold item also included 28 single-page maps, 2 single-page map text inserts, and 2 double-sheet (11x17) maps.

f the lucky buyer is among my readers, please call me! :)

More on this story here.



Image scan by Frank Mentzer.


-Havard

Sad News

Thanks to Piazza super poster and Spelljammer Guru, Big Mac, I have come across information over at boardgamegeek.com stating that David J Ritchie passed away in September, last year:

David James Ritchie, a native of Canton, Ohio, died in his Connecticut home on Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009, at the age of 58. (CantonRep.com | Canton, OH 44702)

 I have yet to have confirmed that this is the same David J Ritchie who co-authored the DA modules with Dave Arneson, but it looks bleak right now. May he Rest in Peace.


-Havard

[Races] Gatormen

Also known as Broadgrin, the Gatormen are, as the name implies a cross between man and aligator. The Gatormen of Blackmoor make their home in the Barrier Swamp. This swamp marks the border between the Duchy of Ten and the Duchy of the Peaks. There have been many speculations to where this horrid race came from. One theory is that they were created by Lord Ran at the time when he controlled the Duchy of Ten. The Egg of Coot has been known to spawn a number of mosterous creatures, and Ran is reported to have stolen many of the Egg's secrets when he betrayed his former master. Although fellow swamp dwellers, Gatormen have no love for Froglin and are clearly not followers of the Frog God. Most likely they are followers of Demogorgon.

Behind the Curtain:
DA4 is the first recorded appearance of Gatormen, who later appeared in the D&D Creature Catalog. This means the race was invented by Dave Arneson or David Ritchie. They were later incorporated into the Red Steel Setting (Mystara) through Bruce Heard's excellent Voyage of the Princess Ark series. Red Steel offered no link to Blackmoor, but instead provided a much later creation date for when the race supposedly was created by a Wizard. It seems likely that this Wizard had discovered some old Blackmoorian scrolls which he used as a basis for his recreated race.


-Havard

Arneson & Ritchie

Recently there have been a lot of speculations to the nature of the Arneson Ritchie working relationship. As most of you will know David J Ritchie was the co-author of DA modules 1-3 and the only author listed for DA4. Over the years, some have questioned to what degree the DA modules could be considered Arneson’s work. Perhaps the credits on the covers were simply a nod to the original creator and nothing else? And why was Arneson’s name omitted from DA4? My attempts to reach David J Ritchie have so far been unsuccessful. Dustin Clingman has earlier stated that Arneson was consulted on the DA modules, but it has been unclear to what extent this consultation.

Greg Svenson clarifies:

“Dave Arneson worked with Dave Richie on DA1-3. His contract with TSR gave him the right to review all Blackmoor material before it was published, but DA4 was published before he was able to review. So, that was most of his problem with that module.”

Not only was Ritchie working based on notes submitted by Arneson over the years, but he was also able to review the modules with the exception of DA4. This confirms my suspicion that Arneson had significant influence over these products. In the case of DA4, there has been a lot of discussion to whether there were specific elements in that module that Arneson directly objected to, but Greg’s comment above does not seem to support this. In addition Greg reveals that:

“I am also sure that he objected to the fact that the Ran of Ah Foo, the leader of one one of Blackmoor's major enemies, was not even mentioned in the module. All the rest of this discussion […] is just speculation.”

The absence of the Ran of Ah Foo was indeed a surprise given the importance of this archvillain in the FFC. David Ross raised the question of Ran's disappearance in the Blackmoor Fan gazetteer and suggested that he might have died, but this explanation seemed less than satisfactory.It makes sense that this is something Arneson would have changed, had he been given time to review the module.




-Havard

The Great Rain of Fire

The Great Rain of Fire. A fiery cataclysm, destroying Blackmoor and Thonia, sinking lands into the sea and turning their shores into broken lands. When David L. Ricthie was asked to write the DA-series of modules for the BECMI/ Classic D&D line, Ritchie incorporated Blackmoor as a realm from Mystara's past. Ricthie detailed how the technology introduced to the Blackmoorians through the Temple of the Frog and City of the Gods would eventually lead to disaster. The combination of magic and technology would lead to a cataclysm.

The Great Rain of Fire was both a device that allowed Ritchie to connect Blackmoor to Mystara, but also the logical conclusion of the revelations from DA2 and DA3, which again were based on the details on St. Stephen in Supplement II. What would happen if a fantasy kingdom got its hand on highly advanced technology? Could this end in any other way than disaster?

What role could the Great Rain of Fire play for a DM who does not assume Blackmoor to be connected to Mystara? In my own campaign, I assume Mystara to be a possible future for Blackmoor, not a predetermined one. Blackmoor could end up destroying itself in a cataclysm, but this is not something that has to happen. What I did was to feed my players with prophecies about a coming Great Rain of Fire. This could be tied to the combination of magic and technology, but there could be a number of other explanations for the world to be destroyed.

What purpose would this story element have? The world is going to be destroyed? Why are we playing in this setting again? My idea was this. The Great Rain of Fire is what happens if the players do nothing. The prophecy has allowed the players to learn of this possible dark future, meaning that they have a key to changing it. While it creates an ominous atmosphere, there should be hope. Also, this means that the player characters matter. The coming Cataclysm can be averted and you are the heroes who can prevent this.






-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

Origin of the DA modules

From the publishing of the OD&D supplements, Blackmoor was a central part of D&D. Unfortunately, the tragic legal dispute between Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax prevented TSR from making use of it in the years that followed after Supplement II. So it wasn't untill the early 80s that discussion at TSR began with regards to what to do with this property. Several options were being discussed as Frank Mentzer recalls:

"Since the World of Greyhawk included Blackmoor, should it go there (AD&D1e)? Or since I was drawing from OD&D & supplements, should Sup2 (Blackmoor) go there? Anyway, it ended up in BECM, as you know."

TSR already had plans for a series of Gazetteers, each detailing one of the Known World countries, featured in the world map in Mentzer's Expert set. But it was decided not to make a Gazetteer for Blackmoor:

"Given the importance and nature of Blackmoor -- the first fantasy campaign, to some -- it got its own line, instead of being a 'mere' gazetteer."

Bruce A. Heard was product manager for the Classic D&D line at the time. As Mentzer was busy with other projects, he had to look to other authors to write the setting material. Aaron Allston, who would later make a significant impact on the Mystara setting, began writing the first Gazetteer. For Blackmoor, Heard got in touch with a man called David J. Ritchie. The result was a series of four adventure modules written for levels 10-14. The legendary fifth module in the series has been discussed earlier. The module series were labelled DA, the Dave Arneson modules.



-Havard

Outlander (2008)

I finally got around to watching this film. The reason why I waited so long before watching it was mostly that I expected it to suck. A guy from a space ship crashes in Norway in the Viking Age? Can this concept produce a high quality movie? Of course not. Then again, it is cheesy, and I do love cheese. And to be honest, the movie was a lot better than expected. What does this have to do with Blackmoor? Look at it! This is exactly what the Blackmoor movie should be like! As my friend Rafael once put it, the story of Blackmoor is at its core the story of fantasy world where a space ship crashes. Although Outlander doesn't have elves or dwarves, it comes fairly close.

One thing that drew me to this movie is that it is set in Norway. Being Norwegian, I am a sucker for any reference to my country in International Media, however bad it might be. Secondly, I love the idea of Viking movies, even though most of the ones actually made arent all that good.

Outlander does a pretty good job of potraying the Vikings, even though there's no sign of the produces actually being interested in exploring the deeper tradtitions and customs of the norsemen. Still, the Viking village looks fairly historically correct. The film makes one mistake, that I believe many Blackmoor campaigns also risk making. If you are going to introduce a sci fi element into all of this, make damn sure you use it! So they have access to a, granted submerged, spaceship. What do they do with it? Forge the metal into better swords! Whatever happened to those laser rifles? Were they ruined by water? What kind of crappy sci fi world is that? How awesome would it not have been to see the entire band of Vikings, armed with laser rifles, going up against the Dragon-like aliens? Cheesy as heck, but once you have Vikings and a Space Ship, there is no way around that. Might as well take it all the way, eh?

I think this is one reason why the science fantasy elements in many Blackmoor campaigns are left alone, and wisely so. If you introduce, then you should be prepared to have them leave a mark on the campaign, rather than just have the space ship be a kind of side trek. David Ritchie made a good decision in this respect. He postulated that the discovery of the FSS Beagle would eventually completely change the face of Blackmoor. This is one of the most interesting themes of the setting in my opinion.

Back to the movie Outlander, I found it quite enjoyable. It has an interesting story and throws in alot of elements that dont usually mash well, but still manages to pull it off. And flaws aside, it is probably the best Hollywood portrayal of my ancestors since Kirk Douglas' The Vikings (1958).






-Havard

DA5 City of Blackmoor

Over at the Comeback Inn, we have been discussing vapourware products for Dave Arneson's Blackmoor. That is, products which were planned, or even written, but never published. Most famous of these is DA5 City of Blackmoor. Supposedly, it was completed, but for various reasons never published back when TSR were doing the DA series. 


Although we will probably never get to see DA5 City of Blackmoor, it can be intersting to speculate to what that product may have contained. We do know that it was written by David Ritchie as part of the DA series and that Ritchie used Arneson's notes as a basis.

The title City of Blackmoor is what tells us the most of what this product is about. This would have been an adventure set in Blackmoor Town itself. Looking at the style of the other DA modules, there may likely have been room for more than just an adventure. The other DA modules have plenty of room for backstory, NPCs and additional setting material.

Since Ritchie was working from Arneson's notes, it would make sense to look at items like the FFC which would have been available to Ritchie. As mentioned elsewhere, it is likely that the map of Blackmoor town from the FFC would have been included. Most likely this would have been expanded upon, with more information about the different buildings than what the FFC provides.

The next part from the FFC which might be useful is the description of Castle Blackmoor. The Castle itself is a wonderful opportunity for adventure and the FFC provides alot of information about the different parts of the castle and its inhabitants.

From the castle, the next step would be the dungeons themselves. Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor and the FFC might both include hints on what DA5 may have contained. Most likely, this would have been the main focus of the adventure.

Finally, there is the metaplot. The entire DA series was written to allow PCs from the Known World to travel back in time and adventure in Blackmoor. It seems very likely that the same would be true for DA5. DA5 would also have to take into account that events of the previous DA modules, with the Afridhi having been defeated in DA4 etc. ZG's Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor has one big problem. The idea of a castle in the middle of Blackmoor, the royal residence, sitting on top of a 20 layered dungeon, home of demons and whatnot just does not make sense, does it? However, this was not so problematic in Arneson's own campaign. In his campaign, the forces of good were repeatedly driven out of Blackmoor town by the forces of the Egg of Coot. In this context, it made perfect sense to run a campaign where you were fighting to reclaim the city and the castle.

It is not unlikely that Ritchie would have deviced a similar storyline for DA5. Perhaps, after the Afridhi invasions, you would have a new invasion of the Egg's forces, lead by King Funk. This would basically repeat events from the original campaign, but allow the PCs to venture into the dungeons and defeat the Orc King once and for all. Leaving room to take the battle to the Realm of the Egg in a later DA module? 

Click here for more discussion of this product.




-Havard

Old School and New School Material

Fans of Blackmoor come in many categories. As with most D&D fans, many preferences are determined by the point in gaming history when you were introduced to the game/setting. Roughly, there are 3 versions of Blackmoor:

1. Original Blackmoor: This version of Blackmoor can be learned about in the First Fantasy Campaign, D&D Supplement II (the original Temple of the Frog, in particular), through stories from Dave Arneson's campaign and to some extent by looking at the other material available to Arneson at that point such as the OD&D rules, Chainmail etc. A few more obscure documents are also available from this era, such as the adventure Garbage Pits of Despair and the Domesday Book articles (issue 13 IIRC).

2. BECMI Blackmoor: This version marks the return of Blackmoor to D&D and is found in the DA1-4 modules. David Rithcie and Dave Arneson are credited for the modules, though only Ritchie is credited for DA4. DA5 was written, but remains unavailable.

3. D20 Blackmoor. I'm inlcuding both the 3E and 4E books in this category for now. It is clear that Dave Arneson was heavily involved in the production of those books, though many other authors also got their chance at describing the world of Blackmoor.

Among those who begain to learn about Blackmoor from the early days, there has been alot of talk about finding out what is the true Arneson content in these sources. The original material, which is exclusively Arneson's is believed to be the most true to Arneson's vision. I have found these discussions extremely enlightening and I love discussing Blackmoor over at the OD&D Forum.

However, I have come to see Blackmoor as if it were a real world. The various types of Blackmoor material are all the sources we have to what that world is like. Finding out about it is like the work of a historian researching the history of a country. He will have to decide which sources are the most credible and which are less so. At the same time, he cannot afford to ignore any of them since some subjects are not even touched upon by the sources most close to the events occurring. This is why I love reading through all Blackmoor books, both old and more recent ones. And I have to admit, I dont only look at how much Arneson was involved in writing a particular book, but also what I think would be most fun for my players. :)






-Havard