April Fool's: Skyship Admiral Takes Game Desiger Hostage!

April Fools: BREAKING NEWS: Famous Admiral Appears in Washington, Takes Game Designer Hostage RENTON, Washington — A naval officer who was declared dead when his legendary vessel crashed exactly seven years ago today made a sudden and unexpected reappearance in Renton, WA. Witnesses reported a series of strange flashing lights culminating in a group of people in strange clothing appearing in the middle of a car park.

Art by Terry Dykstra, Colorized by Havard

 “It was like they teleported in from some alternate dimension or something, man!” remarked a bystander named Chris. The group made their way to local gaming company, Wizards of the Coast, where they walked into the building and began making demands. The leader, apparently the captain of a “sky-ship”, demanded to see the lead designer of famous role playing game DUNGEONS & DRAGONS (R). “In the name of her Imperial Majesty, I insist that you bring this Mr. Mearls to me this instant!” he was heard to say, brandishing a strange stick in one hand in a strangely hypnotic manner, the feather in his outlandish hat waving about his head. To the shock of everyone present, the receptionist proceeded to summon Mr. Mearls, who appeared in short order wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan, “Unearthed Arcana: The Truth is Out There!”

 From there, the situation escalated quickly. The interloper’s leader announced that he was “an admiral of Her Imperial Fleet”, and began to accuse Mr. Mearls of collaborating in the destruction and looting of his “sky-ship”. “It was your company’s employee, a Mr. Robert J. Schwalb, who reported that my ship was crashed — my crew dead! — was it not?!” When Mr. Mearls informed him that Mr. Schalb no longer worked for the company, and was not there, the group became agitated. A large-looking man wearing a tiger-like mask (which looked amazingly real) stepped forward and grabbed poor Mr. Mearls, and amid shouts of “The Princess will have vengeance!” the whole group disappeared in a cloud of coloured smoke. The current whereabouts of these people and the unfortunate Mr. Mearls is unknown. Police have interviewed witnesses, but many find the whole situation to be inherently unbelievable.

 In other news, scientists today discovered hitherto unknown tunnels leading deep into the interior of the Earth. "We never would have believed these tunnels could go this deep!" the lead scientist told reporters. "Ordinarily the conditions beneath the ground would make such deep tunnels impossible. And yet, here they are."




Edit:
For the record, the text linked above was written by my good friend Thorf. Were were discussing the idea of an April Fool's Joke that was a little retort to the pretty poor taste joke WotC played on Mystara's expense back in 2012 which is linked in the article. Thorf suggested I post the text on my blog.




-Havard

Elves of Blacklore: A New Look

As most of you will know, the majority of the Classic D&D products which featured Mystara, also included Blackmoor references. This is also true for the greatly underrated Hollow World Boxed Set, by Aaron Allston, which featured an entire culture with ties to Dave Arneson's Blackmoor; The Elves of Blacklore.

Mystara is a possible future of Blackmoor, one where Blackmoor first grew into a powerful technomantic Empire, due to discoveries from the City of the Gods, but which then destroyed itself in the Great Rain of Fire, since combining magic and technology is a tad too unpredictable. 

The Elves of Blacklore were elves from the southern continent who had made contact with Blackmoor some time before its destruction and had become fascinated with the technology of the humans. Being a fairly naïve lot, they quickly abandoned their own culture, absorbing as much as they could of the new technologically based way of life.

Unfortunately, the Hollow World Boxed Set treats the entire Blacklore culture as a joke. Having jokes like this within the gaming products was quite common back then, but although it was a fun read, I think there was an opportunity missed here in this otherwise excellent product. In the past I have presented a more serious take on the Hollow World version of the Blacklore Elves.

What struck me the other day was that the Blacklore Elves could be a factor even in the classic Blackmoor age. We do not need to limit them to elves from afar, but any elf who becomes so fascinated with City of the Gods artifacts or steamtech and clockwork devices can become a Blacklore Elf. I predict some critical comments: "Bah, another elven subrace?". But this isnt really about subraces (at least at this point). These are individual elves who go directly against their own nature to pursue technology rather than living in harmony with nature. Which consequences will this have on the elves themselves. I imagine something sinister, almost like a human selling his soul...






(Elf Image from: http://www.designyourway.net/blog/wallpapers/collection-of-over-70-excellent-dark-wallpapers/ )



-Havard