Blackmoor 50 years

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

What is generally considered to be the world's first campaign setting, Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, had its first official session 50 years ago today.

Celebrate in whatever manner you see fit, but at least spare a thought to a setting that predates even Greyhawk.

[ShadowcatX]

Blackmoor always struck me as a wildly imaginative, if somewhat cobbled together campaign setting.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

ShadowcatX wrote:

Blackmoor always struck me as a wildly imaginative, if somewhat cobbled together campaign setting.

Qualities that shared by a number of the oldest settings.

Must be why I like them so much.

[Mark Hoover 330]

Wanna know something? I've been gaming for 40 years of my life now and I know OF Blackmoor, but I literally know nothing about it. I started in Greyhawk, made several of my own, and have played at least one campaign in most of the D&D settings but I've never actually researched the one that started them all.

The only bit of lore from the setting I know of is that the first adventures revolved around Castle Blackmoor itself, or rather the dungeons below the castle. Since Mr Arneson and his contemporaries were into historical wargaming and extremely smart, I'm guessing there was a whole feudal government and real world correlations to the castle and its ruler. I think it was a barony right?

Anyway, what's the larger setting like. Did anyone ever play in it? Does anyone know if Greyhawk or Mystara contained Blackmoor, or vice versa?

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

The Wikipedia article is a good place to start.

(note, I'm no expert but I think this is mostly accurate)
The short version is that Arneson started a game that soon grew into Blackmoor, and Gygax soon after started his own game, and they kinda said Blackmoor and Greyhawk were in different parts of the same world. When Arneson left TSR the Judges Guild started The First Fantasy Campaign which decoupled BM from GH. BM was later grandfathered into Mystara's history. Zeitgeist Games released a d20 version of the setting with some nods to Mystara but otherwise independent (I'm unsure how it relates to TFFC).

Blackmoor was definitely played in - the first PC death ever happened there (hats off to Bob) and I believe Arneson ran BM in one form or another until he died. There is a small but active BM community, both at The Piazza and [urkl=https://blackmoor.mystara.net/forums/index.php]the Comeback Inn[/url], as well as info at Arneson's website. there's even a documentary

I think BM also was the first setting to have high-tech items like ray-guns and spaceships in it (Temple of the Frog).

As for what the setting is like, by modern standards it can easily seem pretty unremarkable, with its kingdoms and mages and monsters and politics and whatnot. But I gather it really changed and developed over the years.

[Mark Hoover 330]

I think a setting with politics and kingdoms is pretty cool. Grew up on Greyhawk and I've basically been remaking it in my homebrew settings, in one version or another, for decades. I wish I could've played in Blackmoor with Mr Arneson.