09-21-2010, 11:56 AM
Havard Wrote:DungeonDevil Wrote:Thanks, Havard!
No problem
Quote:I (perhaps hastily) assumed that the later-published modules (DA1-4) were later additions by people other than DA himself and therefore of apocryphal quality. Is my assessment overly skeptical?
There are different schools of thought on this. ...
Arneson may have had even more of a background role in the D20 line, but then again he was co-owner of the company (ZGG) which should mean something.
I'd argue the opposite. Havard knows more than anybody regarding the overall corpus of Blackmoor, but there is indeed disagreement on Arnesons role on different parts and the DA series being one of them. David Ritchie was the lead writer there and his role was to intergrate Blackmoor into the TSR line as a standard TSR Mystara product. He consulted with Arneson (a little less on each one, seemingly) and worked from his notes, but it was ultimatly TSR who dictated the nature of the line and Ritchie who crafted it. The ZGG line, on the other hand, while largely an invention of the other writers, was under Daves control, at least to the extent that he hadan executive influence and veto power he lacked earlier and the writers were attempting to at least be consistent with Dave's vision.