Green Ronin's Chris Pramas on d20 Blackmoor

[Havard]

Came across these tweets from Chris Pramas from a couple of years ago:

Today’s game supplement is Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor (2004) from Zeitgeist Games. If you know your RPG history, Blackmoor needs no introduction. #CuratedQuarantine


Chris Pramas
@Pramas
·
1. mar. 2021
It was the first fantasy roleplaying campaign, and was the spark for the creation of D&D and thus the modern RPG hobby as we know it. #CuratedQuarantine
Chris Pramas
@Pramas
·
1. mar. 2021
For a setting of such historical importance though, it received surprisingly little attention in the publishing world. There was a Blackmoor book for original D&D (Supplement II, 1975) but it was mostly rules and included little info about the setting. #CuratedQuarantine
Chris Pramas
@Pramas
·
1. mar. 2021
After Dave Arneson left TSR, he wrote a book for Judges Guild called First Fantasy Campaign (1977) that at last provided some setting information about Blackmoor. #CuratedQuarantine
Chris Pramas
@Pramas
·
1. mar. 2021
Then in 1986 and 1987, TSR published four modules for Basic D&D (DA1-4) that turned Blackmoor into the pre-history of its Known World (AKA Mystara) setting. The line stopped abruptly and that seemed like the end of Blackmoor. #CuratedQuarantine
Chris Pramas
@Pramas
·
1. mar. 2021
Things changed in the new millennium. After the TSR acquisition, WotC made an effort to make things right with D&D’s creators, concluding deals with both Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax. #CuratedQuarantine
Chris Pramas
@Pramas
·
1. mar. 2021
By that point, Arneson was teaching game design at Full Sail University. He started a new company called Zeitgeist Games with Dustin Clingman in 2002. #CuratedQuarantine
Chris Pramas
@Pramas
·
1. mar. 2021
With a license from WotC in hand, Zeitgeist began work on Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor, a setting book that took advantage of the d20 and Open Game Licenses. It was an unexpected renaissance for a setting that seemed dead and buried. #CuratedQuarantine
Bilde
Chris Pramas
@Pramas
·
1. mar. 2021
Zeitgeist made a real effort to bring Blackmoor up to date with the D&D 3.5 rules, perhaps even going too far in that direction. About half the book was game mechanics and personally I’d rather have seen more setting info than new prestige classes and the like. #CuratedQuarantine
Chris Pramas
@Pramas
·
1. mar. 2021
Zeitgeist did live up to their name though, embracing the current trends of D&D. This book and several supplements were published in partnership with Goodman Games, then Zeitgeist continued on its own. #CuratedQuarantine
Chris Pramas
@Pramas
·
1. mar. 2021
After Dave Arneson’s death in 2009, the license from WotC expired and the line (by then with another company called Code Monkey Publishing) did the same. PDFs of most Blackmoor releases going back to 1975 remain available though. #CuratedQuarantine

https://twitter.com/Pramas/status/1366477465326022659

-Havard