hope it is of some interest :)

Very cool post Dan! Analytical and detailed as always! :)

I totally agree with you that the NPC section of DA1 is without a doubt derived from Dave's material and the original campaign.

Clerics are interesting because they are one of the classes that clearly originated in the Blackmoor campaign with as the first Cleric character.

One thing that you do not bring up is the idea of being brought back to life. Dave Arneson mentions on multiple instances characters that have been killed, but who were returned to the living. I can't find any example saying that it was the Cleric who brought the character back to life, but it would make sense.


Another thing that could be mentioned is the FFC's references to Crusaders. Crusaders seem to be a Chainmail type(?) character that could be a proto Paladin, though this is obviously another example of a religiously motivated character type even if he most likely did not possess divine magic. I always found it interesting that Crusaders would be travelling across the North from the Great Kingdom. Probably they were off to fight against Balrogs and the like and perhaps try to convert Afridhi or other pagans?


-Havard

Did Dave's Blackmoor campaign have a cleric prior to when they started playing D&D?

Im a little fuzzy on what classes were around pre-D&D. I was told that the original Dungeon! was a snapshot of Dave's campaign in Oct 72, before Dave and David M. met Gygax in November 72. In Dungeon!, I believe there was an elf, hero, superhero, and wizard-- although maybe those were the common classes and only once in a while a cleric was played (for example by the occasional appearance of Mike Carr). Anyone know if the Blackmoor cleric preceded D&D?

From what I understand the Blackmoor Cleric Class preceded the creation of D&D. It was created around the time when David Fant became the Vampire Sir Fang.

Gygax made some changes to that class when he prepared it for D&D including the blunt weapons restriction.

From what I understand the D&D Thief class came from another gaming group and did not exist in Blackmoor even though one character was referred to as The Bandit.

Richard Sniders The Flying Monk could be a proto Cleric or Monk charcter.

-Havard

I dont have my books or notes with me this week, but my impression was that this happened quite a bit earlier. The 1974-1975 parts of the campaign mostly dealt with more experimental adventures like City of the Gods and the WW2 crossovers. I think the timeline can help us get an idea though.

-Havard