Return to the Temple of the Frog, WotC 2007

 In 2007, Wizards of the Coast decided to revisit one of the most iconic locations in Blackmoor. Return to the Temple of the Frog was published and released as a free PDF on the Wizards of the Coast Website. This was quite surprising since Dave Arneson's company Zeitgeist Games were publishing Blackmoor at the time as well. Dave Arneson is surprisingly not credited for the adventure even though it is clearly based on his original designs and concepts. The PDF does credit Dave Arneson as one of the creators of D&D however. The Temple of the Frog has gone through many iterations and I detailed a history of the adventure over at my website. 

Return to the Temple of the Frog takes place more than twenty years after the original adventure and the defeat of the Temple. Known to his followers only as Saint Stephen, D&D's first arch villain has somehow managed to rebuilt the temple with newly gained abilities. New adventurer's are needed and will be put up against mutated apes, cyborgs and an enormous mutated frog before they finally can confront Saint Stephen and his nefarious allies. 

The adventure provides updated maps of the original Temple of the Frog and presents players with 3E rules for sci fi weaponry and equipment as well as stats for some of the classic opponents found in the Temple. In many ways this adventure is a replay of the 1987 version (DA2) of the adventure, although with much of the surrounding framework removed or changed. 

The introduction provided on the website at the time was as follows: 

"The Order of the Frog was led by a man of resource and ambition. High Priest Saint Stephen and four companions appeared out of nowhere and took over the order twenty five years ago. Though Stephen and his companions seemed normal enough (except for the slight greenish cast of their skin), they were quite literally not of this world. They were aliens, members of a scientific expedition that crash landed on this planet some years ago. Temple of the Frog was first published in the 1975 D&D Supplement II Blackmoor. It was later republished in 1986 as module DA2, Temple of the Frog. In the original adventure, the PCs were hired to find a missing person (Rissa Aleford, Baroness of the Lakes) and investigate a strange cult based on the worship of frogs. Return to the Temple of the Frog picks up the adventure decades later. During an adventuring party's assault on the temple over twenty years ago, Saint Stephen escaped the conflict and hid in the swamp until the adventurers departed. Having completed their raid, rescued the prisoner they had come for, and hurriedly looted the temple, the heroes left the area and never looked back. Saint Stephen entered the temple hoping to salvage anything that he could. The Order of the Frog was done for, all his fellow aliens were slain, and his frog cultists had fled or were put to the sword. He only wanted enough to allow him to flee the swamp and find a new hiding place. He found more than he had counted on...."

Title: Return to the Temple of the Frog

Year Published (2007, Wizards of the Coast)

Format: PDF

Pages: 36

Author: Ted Albert

Have you played Return to the Temple of the Frog? What did you think about it? What is your favorite version of this adventure location?

• More discussion of this adventure at The Comeback Inn. 

-Havard

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 Trademark and Greyhawk Speculation by Semora Verreault and Tenkar

The situation of the Blackmoor Trademark came up in a recent episode on the Vlog of Many Things Youtube Channel. The episode was hosted by Don Semora (Wizard Tower Games), Thomas Verreault and Erik Tenkar and was hosted on the channels of each of the participants. While the video includes discussion about a wide range of topics of less relevance to this blog, but the subject of Blackmoor comes up when  Tenkar brings up the removal of the name Blackmoor from the Greyhawk map of the upcoming Dungeon Master's Guide. The part of the video that is relevant here starts around the 52 minute mark.)

Back in June, I talked about how WotC are now using the name Arn for this part of Greyhawk.Tenkar says he suspects the change was made due to some concern for the Arneson Estate, but the video also brings up possible non-legal reasons for the change. Verrault, however says the recent history of the Blackmoor Trademark is more complicated than that, explaining that the reason the Blackmoor Trademark was not returned to WotC during the recent nuTSR lawsuit where WotC as the defending party apparently won back most of their Trademarks and Icons. He says the reason why the Blackmoor Trademark was not part of this deal is because prior to this lawsuit, nuTSR had somehow "gifted" the Trademark to the Arneson Estate. 

Verrault then goes on to tell a story in which he talked to one of the producers of the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary (presumably Griff Morgan) about the rights to Blackmoor products like Supplement II: Blackmoor in which the producer had given the mysterious answer "we'll see". This lead Verreault to suspect that the Estate (for which the Secrets of Blackmoor producers acts as spokepersons) were planning on awaiting the results of the nuTSR lawsuit and possibly suing WotC themselves (note: this is Verreault speculating). The youtubers then goes on to explain why suing WotC is a bad idea especially over IP that they are keeping in print and selling the items on DrivethruRPG (which includes multiple Blackmoor products). 

When towards the end of the video Griff Morgan actually shows up in the chat section and is asked about the Trademark situation, Morgan says the  and when the youtubers ask him about why WotC have changed the name on the Greyhawk Map, Morgan simply states that the Blackmoor Trademark is owned by the Arneson Estate (it is in fact still listed as pending). 

While some of the content in this video is speculation, but it is nonetheless interesting to follow the discussion.  Blackmoor continues to be a topic of interest to fans, that is for sure. 

-Havard

Will WotC Rename Blackmoor in Mystara Too?

 

It was quite a surprise to fans that Mystara would be brought back to print by Wizards of the Coast in 2024. 

Of course, saying that WotC would bring it back is a bit of an overstatement as the upcoming book Dungeons & Dragons: Worlds & Realms - Adventures from Greyhawk to Faerun and Beyond is a licensed product from Ten Speed Press and more a coffee table book than an actual game supplement. Still, seeing an entire chapter  of this book being dedicated to Mystara when several popular D&D settings are not included (notably Dark Sun, Birthright and more). 

With the recent discussions of Blackmoor being renamed Arn in the 2024 DMG has lead to much speculation. Yesterday I explored the name Arn as it is not new to the world of D&D. As the DMG is not yet available, we don't know if the change was made due to setting specific ideas, rights issues or a number of other reasons. 

However, given this change for Greyhawk it will be interesting to see if Blackmoor will be renamed in the descriptions of Mystara as well. Mystara's connection to Blackmoor began before Mystara had even gotten its own name. Mystara is of course the world of the old BX and  BECMI D&D Games (Some call then Basic D&D, a term I feel is misleading) and back then it was just called the D&D Game World as opposed to AD&D which had many settings tied to it. 

As TSR had found themselves in the situation of having to publish two parallell game lines called D&D and AD&D, due to agreements with Dave Arneson. Since Arneson's rights were tied to the D&D line, it made sense that Blackmoor would end up there, even though the name Blackmoor was still kept on the Greyhawk map. The advantage of placing Blackmoor in Mystara's past was that players of the D&D game could use the same characters and simply visit Blackmoor through Time Travel. some people say Blackmoor was put into Mystara's past, but another way of looking at it is that Mystara would end up being a possible distant future for Blackmoor. For Mystara, this had the advantage of adding a layer of mysteries buried in the settings past that made it so much more interesting and almost every Mystara product referenced Blackmoor after this. The products that laid the groundwork for this connection were the DA modules, starting with DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor. 

So, will Blackmoor be renamed in the presentation of Mystara? It is very difficult to say at this point. As mentioned we have no idea why they changed the name for Greyhawk and those reasons could easily have no impact on how WotC presents Mystara. On the other hand, if they do make the change that will support the uncomfirmed theory that WotC are distancing themselves from Blackmoor. If they call Mystara's Blackmoor Arn, that would be the craziest scenario of them all. Of course, it would be perfectly possible to present Mystara and not mention Blackmoor at all. 

Whatever happens we will known more when this book comes out. 

Dungeons & Dragons: Worlds & Realms - Adventures from Greyhawk to Faerun and Beyond is to be published on October 29th 2024. The book will be 368 pages and the current price tag is 50$

-Havard

WotC removes Blackmoor from Greyhawk in 2024

Wizards of the Coast has produced a new map of Greyhawk where Blackmoor has been removed. I first learned about this when I saw a post by my friend Big Mac at the Piazza the Piazza D&D Worlds forum where he discusses the lastest youtube video from Greyhawk Grognard video from Greyhawk Grognard going through the new WotC produced map. 

The map in question is the Greyhawk map that is going to appear in WotC's upcoming 2024 D&D Dungeon Master's Guide. Greyhawk is from what I understand going to be used as a default setting in the new D&D core rulebooks. The new map looks somewhat reminiscent of the beloved map made by Darlene back in the days, but there are some interesting changes. Greyhawk Grognard's excellent video goes through these changes and speculates to reasons why these changes have been made and what might be possible consequences of the large and small changes. 

The change that will likely be of most interest to the readers of this blog is probably the removal of Blackmoor. Removal may be a strong term. Rather, Blackmoor has been renamed Arn. Now Arn is a name that could be familiar to hard core Blackmoor fans as it also appears in several of Dave Arneson's writings. 

Why has this change been made? Could it be linked to rights issues? Could it be to reduce confusion with the other Blackmoor product lines available that are less compatible with Greyhawk? Could it be linked to this map detailing a different part of Greyhawk's timeline?  Or is there another reason? 

In any case, the original intent of paying homage to Dave Arneson is retained in the new name.

What do you think of this new Greyhawk map and the changes made?

-Havard

Blackmoor T-Shirt from 80sTees

I got a tip from my friend Cory that  80sTees are selling these awesome looking Blackmoor T-Shirts with the image from the cover of D&D Supplement II. The website offers this description of Blackmoor: 

Blackmoor is a campaign setting for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. It originally evolved in 1975 as the personal setting of Dave Arneson, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, first as a setting for Arneson's miniature wargames, then as an early testing ground for what would become D&D. Blackmoor is the longest continuously played fantasy role-playing campaign in existence. It is a mysterious land of sword and sorcery mixed with relics of highly advanced technology. Everyone will immediately know you are a fan of the classic role-playing game when you wear this 80sTees.com exclusive Blackmoor Dungeons & Dragons T-Shirt!

These T-shirts come in black or natural color and are officially lisenced Dungeons & Dragons T-shirts from Wizards of the Coast. 

I previously wrote about a cool looking Blackmoor long sleeve product which as I was looking more into it only claimed to be lisenced when it was in fact not. 

Do you have any Blackmoor branded clothing yet? :)

-Havard

New Blackmoor T shirt from WotC on Amazon (Fake Story

This story has been debunked. The WotC store did not link to this clothes store on Amazon. Hopefully someone takes care of this.  

A friend sent me a link to this long sleeve t shirt sold on Amazon. The store says the clothes are officially lisenced from Wizards of the Coast.

Officially Licensed Dungeons & Dragons Apparel for Women - Men - Boys - Girls - Toddler; D&D 50th Anniversary T-Shirts; Hasbro T-Shirts; Wizards of the Coast; RPG; Role Playing Game; Fantasy; Adventure; Monsters; Magic; 20 Sided Dice; Blackmoor; Vintage;

This is interesting given the discussion of ownership of the Blackmoor name and logo. 

I have to say I love the text on the shirt saying "It started with Blackmoor". 

For some reason, I am unable to  to click buy on this product. Does it mean the shirt is not available yet?

-Havard

Second Dave Arneson Letter - Context Matters

 

Gaming historian ben Riggs recently revealed the second letter that Dave Arneson sent to WotC in 1997. Although Riggs' work is generally excellent, the context in which these two letters are revealed serve little more than to confirm old biases. I already talked about the first letter where Dave Asked to be made manager of TSR after WotC's acquisition of the D&D publisher. 

This letter, which clearly was not intended for public consumption, may easily be seen as clumsy. Dave's cavalier style may easily bring out laughs, especially knowing how Dave's dream of running TSR was never achieved. Those hoping that Dave would provide an impressive analysis of the state of TSR or provide grand visions for the future of the company are understandably disappointed.

While some would say that the letters speak for themselves, context is everything. Even the best gaming historians are easily caught up in an existing narrative. Riggs certainly does seem to have a great deal of sympathy for Dave. But the preexisting narrative is one that was defined largely by TSR's propaganda machine of the early days. The image of Dave as largely incompetent would ideally serve to support the claim that Dave in fact had no claims to his credits as co-author of D&D and thus having no basis for his legal actions against the company. These old falsehoods have largely been disproved, but the narrative still exists especially among those who for various reasons have decided to vocally express disdain towards the game designer even long after his passing. 

Dave Arneson was clearly not a perfect genius. His frequent spelling mistakes are well known. Although he had many good friends, he also made enemies and some describe him as socially awkward. Some of these flaws are demonstrated in his letters to WotC. Those of us who have an interest in Dave Arneson however, are also well aware of his good qualities. The games he organised for gamers in Minnesota, including Napoleonic Wargames, the Proto-D&D Blackmoor and others were cherished and he was described as an incredibly enthusiastic and innovative player. Before they worked together on D&D, Dave was a regular contributor to Gary's fanzines and together they had already published a set of naval wargaming rules, Don't Give Up The Ship. Later in his career, Dave helped form two RPG companies among his other endeavours. 

Context is everything. Riggs article asks the question of whether Dave would have been the right person to run TSR. His conclusion is not surprisingly "no". I don't disagree with this conclusion. The point of this blog was never to present Dave Arneson as a flawless demigod. The point of this blog was to examine the actual qualities Dave did possess. Qualities that did bring him the admiration of fellow gamers and made Gary Gygax want to create D&D with him in the first place. In my opinion, these qualities had more to do with creativity and innovation than administration or writing sales pitches. Dave clearly possessed these qualities in 1974. Had he lost these qualities by 1997? While I understand that many readers were hoping for more impressive ideas for the future of D&D than the ones presented in the second letter, I am not sure we can make such a conclusion from these letters alone. The main conclusion I think we can reach from the letters is that Dave was still in love with D&D and that he still longed for involvement with the game, so many years after he had left TSR. Instead of mocking, we could take this moment to contemplate the human being of Dave at this time in his life. 

I maintain that the real tragedy for the gaming world is that Dave and Gary were both ultimately prevented from pouring as much of their creative energy into our hobby as they could have given the right circumstances. It was a tragedy for them personally, but also for us fans who were never able to enjoy what might have been. In Dave's case, he remained friends with Peter Adkison, even though Peter did not grant him the position he had asked for. He was allowed to be involved with D&D under WotC even if in a limited capacity and he was given a chance to introduce Blackmoor to fans of two editions of D&D published by WotC. So even if this story has a lot of tragedy, I think there was at least some happiness towards the end.

More discussion of this article 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

New WotC Survey Has Questions About Dave Arneson

 Wizards of the Coast keep sending me these surveys and I am not sure if there is much point to me answering any of them since, even though I play 5th Edition (I play and enjoy all editions of D&D), I don't think they particularly care about my answers. 

Many of the questions this time around were, not surprisingly related to the Covid-19 situation and to virtual platforms/tools for gaming. However, I was surprised to see two questions related to famous D&D Game designers and see Dave Arneson's name listed as one of the possible answers!

The first questions was about what Game Designers you recognize and the second one was about what names would make you more likely to buy a product. 

Could this mean WotC are considering returning to Dave Arneson's Blackmoor? 

Wishful thinking for sure, but I made sure to click on Dave's name. 

The other names were a combination of current WotC designers and former WotC and TSR era designers. There were several names missing from the list than I would have liked to see on there, but I did like seeing Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, Jeff Grubb and David Zeb Cook on the list. Again, it would be cool if this could mean something for Dragonlance, Spelljammer or even Taladas. 

Anyway, I am probably putting too much thought into this, but since I took the time completing the survey, I do think I should be getting something out of this! :D

Take the survey here (vote for Dave!)

-Havard 

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

Will WotC's Next Book "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" Be a Missed Opportunity to Pay Homage to Dave Arneson, Master of Naval D&D Adventures?

WotC's next release for Dungeons & Dragons now has a cover and a title. Ghosts of Saltmarsh will feature all kinds of nautical and underwater adventures. While based on the U series, it now looks like Greyhawk references in the book will be limited. It also seems like there will be some Mystara material included in the book. Read more about all of this in this thread at The Piazza.

Now there have been many great nautical and undersea adventures in the history of D&D, but there can be no doubt that a pioneer in both these areas of D&D gaming was Dave Arneson. Dave was of course a huge fan of nautical war games. He even co-designed a Napoleonic era naval wargame with Gary Gygax, Don't Give Up The Ship in 1972. Naval adventures played a big part in Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign. The First Fantasy Campaign (1977) references several naval battles, including a battle between ships and sea monsters ("Sea monsters won") and the attack on the Black Castle of the Orcs from a ship sailing along the river. Although Dave was not credited for DA4, it seems likely that the adventure across the Black Sea of Blackmoor in that adventure, where the heroes travel on board "The Blossom" under the command of Captain Castagere, must be a reference to Dave's style of gaming. Several Blackmoor adventures also took place on the waterways of the Dismal Swamp, including the epic adventures of Robert the Bald and Captain Krey, where Greg Svenson took on DMing duties for Dave Arneson.

Sahuagin, from Supplement II: Blackmoor

Underwater Adventures are also an important feature of Dave Arneson's adventures. Supplement II: Blackmoor (1975) included an entire section dedicated to Underwater Adventures and the supplement introduced many races and monsters that would later becoming iconic underwater D&D creatures. It is not surprised that the D20 Blackmoor line dedicated so much material to the Sahuagin-like race of the Sar-Aigu which tied to the origins of the Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor itself.

WotC's return to aquatic adventures presents them with a chance to pay some kind of homage to Dave Arneson, the master of Naval D&D adventures. Will they seize this opportunity?




More discussion of this article: https://blackmoor.mystara.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=8998


 -Havard

WotC Spokesperson Apologizes to Mystara fans

The following was posted at The Piazza on May 13th:

If you have missed the drama today, it started when a Mystara fan discovered a WotC produced video from january this year where the hosts answer a question about what happened to Mystara. A link to the video was posted on the Mystara Reborn group on Facebook. The response given in the interview angered many Mystara and Spelljammer fans, as well as Mystara Godfather, Bruce Heard, who wrote an article about it on his blog pointing out the problems with the video with regards to Mystara.

 Anyway, Matt Sernett of WotC did appologize both to Bruce Heard and Mystara fans out there. We all make mistakes and it does show character to admit it and appologize. Did Mystara fans overreact to comments made in the video? I think it would have been easier to accept this type of comments if Mystara had not been mostly overlooked for more than 20 years. Many Mystara fans still remember when bringing back the Hollow World was presented as an April's Fool's Joke on WotC's website many years ago.

Most of us dream of Mystara being brought back to life. While that might never happen, it would be nice if the reason for it being ignored for another 20 years is that the people at WotC really haven't bothered to understand what Mystara was about beyond not liking the CDs and the art in the 2nd Ed Mystara Monstrous Manual. Let's hope that at least one person at WotC now sits down and reads some gazetteers! :)

 -Havard

D&D Next Covers Revealed!

Over at WotC's website the covers for D&D Next have been revealed. As XStarkillerX notes at The Piazza, the announcement also includes release dates for the three core books, the starter set and new adventures. It is surprising that so little bravado accompanies this announcement. Perhaps they are assuming that bloggers and forum posters will do the job for them? :D

Although the images are fairly small, I dont see any mention of "5th Edition" or "Next" on the covers. The new style should ensure that these books are not confused with previous edition products however.


ENWorld also reveals this logo:

And this one:

What do you think of the art?


-Havard

OD&D Book V: Blackmoor back in Print!

OD&D Book V, is what used to be called OD&D Supplement II, now available with the new deluxe reprint version of Original Dungeons & Dragons releases, which includes seven booklets (the first three rules booklets and four supplements) and dice within an engraved and illustrated wooden storage case. This also means, we once again get to see a book with the Blackmoor logo and Dave Arneson's name on the covers.

Speaking of Covers, included above is the revised cover, which has this odd sort of not quite old school look to it. A new artist's impression of Blackmoor Castle however, can never be a bad thing! Here is WotC's Preview for Book V. 

WotC's preview page is also keen to note the fact that this book includes the first iteration of the Temple of the Frog. Temple of the Frog was also the first published D&D adventure ever, and it was revisited in several versions. The second version, DA2, is also available for sale through DndClassics. A third version was released for D&D3E by Zeitgeist Games. Finally, WotC also released a Return to the Temple of the Frog module which can be downloaded for free here. How much Froggie goodness do you want?

 It is interesting to read the high praise TSR gives Dave Arneson in the introduction to this book. There is no trace there of the ugly statements from TSR following the lawsuits after Arneson left the company. This book is clearly a leap back into the good old days of innocence!


See also:
More discussion of this news
Discussion of Supplement II






 -Havard

D&D at GenCon 2013

Unlike previous years, I havent heard much exciting news from this year's GenCon. At least not for D&D. Since I wasn't able to go there myself, I started a thread at The Piazza, which provided me with some details and links at least. All the new Pathfinder material, Shadowrun 5th Edition, Monte Cook's Numenera and 13th Age are all things I want to check out eventually, but what about D&D?

Obviously the main reason why D&D got such small exposure on GenCon this year is because they are holding off D&DNext for next year. My friend Adrian (aka True Atlantean) pointed me to this GenCon video of a presentation with Mike Mearls where he is talking about D&DNext, The Sundering, iOS Waterdeep, Kree-O D&D and more.

My favorite bit from the video was where he talks about Chronicles of Mystara. "This is actually a personal favorite of mine" says Mearls. "The Chronicles of Mystara from Capcom. These are two games, Tower of Doom and Shadow over Mystara. This is a classic 90s 2d beat-em-up. [...] I am personally very excited about that."

I also came across this GenCon2013 Interview with Will Wheaton, where he again mentions getting into gaming with the Mentzer Red Box. I wrote about Wheaton's adventures in Mystara back in May. The Red Box is 30 years this year, so it was nice of Wheaton to mention it, even if WotC seem to have missed the opportunity of making an event out of this on GenCon.

Was there anything coming out of GenCon that made you guys excited?



-Havard

RedBox30: WotC are reading my blog!

So last month, I started posting about how the Red Box, the best selling product in the history was published 30 years ago.  Yesterday I reported that the Frank Mentzer Basic Set (Red Box) was finally available as a PDF.

Today, WotC responds: The now have a 30 year anniversary offer at dndclassics.com for various classic era products along with the basic set.

Have they been reading my blog, or what? :D

Some more discussion about this special anniversary offer over at The Piazza.

Also, check out this 1984 vintage TV commercial for the Red Box and other TSR Games at the time.

-Havard

Blackmoor Frog Monsters in the DDI?

Since they went electronic, I have stopped following the Dragon and Dungeon magazines. As I never got into 4E much, I don't subscribe to the DDI. However, I occationally browse those parts of the Wizards of the Coast Website that are accessible to everyone.

The cover of Dungeon #212 caught my attention! Could there be a Blackmoor article in an issue with a huge cool looking frog monster on the cover? Sadly we're not that lucky this time around. Undoubtedly the frog on the cover is a reference to the article The Village of Hommlet and the deadly Giant Frog encounter from Gary Gygax and Frank Mentzer's module Temple of Elemental Evil.

This got me wondering if Gary got the idea of this particular encounter from Dave Arneson's Temple of the Frog. It seems very likely that this was a nod to Dave from Gygax. I was lucky enough to chat with Frank Mentzer about this module a couple of years ago, and he even brought up the Moathouse and the Frog Encounter, but for some reason I forgot to ask him about a connection between the two classic modules. In any case, the Dungeon #212 cover has a sweet Blackmoor wibe!




More discussion of this article at The Comeback Inn.


-Havard

Mystara Chronicles for X-Box/PC/PS3

And just the other day I was writing about how 2013 was looking like it was going to be a great year for Mystara fans. Now it gets even better! Remember the classic arcade games Tower of Doom and Shadow over Mystara? Well they are back! Or will be in June, that is! Both games were set in the Known World of Mystara, focusing on a plotline to defeat Deimos the Lich and his master Synn. Synn should be familiar as she was also the nemesis of Prince Haldemar and his crew in Bruce Heard's Voyage of the Princess Ark series.

This is especially exciting since this is the first mention of Mystara from Wizards of the Coast in a very long time. I also really like the new logo, although it is not as nice as Thorf's logo found on The Piazza. Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara will be available for Xbox Live Arcade, PS3, Wii U and PC in June for $14.99.

I am wondering if this will be the end of it or if this could spawn more products? A comic book adaptation would be great, or perhaps even a third installment in the game series? Based on the Poor Wizards Almanac Series? Yes, as you can see I am already dreaming. I have posted some more thoughts in this thread at The Piazza. Here is the video teaser for the game:




-Havard

Supplement II Blackmoor Coming Back in Print!

Its been all over the social media and forums today. I think the first place I noticed it was TAD's post on The Piazza where he writes that Wizards of the Coast will release a printed premium, deluxe edition of the Original D&D "White Box".

The price is a little steep, 150 USD, but based on the pictures it looks gorgeous. For Dave Arneson fans like myself it is also worth noting that the box includes Supplement II: Blackmoor! That is right. I only yesterday wrote about the DA2 Temple of the Frog returning as a PDF, but now you can get your hands on a real physical copy of the original Temple of the Frog as well!

Those who said Blackmoor was gone forever are sorely mistaken! :)



More discussion of this article.

-Havard