I started this experience from 2017 Dave Arneson's Day, the 1st of October.
I was thinking about running a quick one-off adventure on RPoL (here you can find it, by the way: http://rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=70496&date=1526170483) and I started with the "obvious" Episode 1 of the MMRPG, co-authored by Dave Arneson and Dustin Clingman: The ComeBack Inn.

I actually decided not to run it with some kind of D&D ruleset (too heavy for me, espacially for a quick, one-off game!) but rather with my favourite Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2e, a quick and simple 2d6 ruleset, with a public, free Quickstart Guide (have a look at it! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/108 ... t_filtered) that is perfect for quick games requiring a 3 minutes character creation. I also limited the character creation options available to make it even quicker.


EDIT: eventually I wrote down the Campaign Guide here:


In game dates: from 24 Dumimia 1030 (Autumn's Equinox) to 03 Eaiwe 1030

Four characters partecipated, but one started a fight in The ComeBack Inn as he wanted to cast some magic and was thrown out, another (a half-orc) was scared by the magic and run away, and two (a Peshwah grown in a non-Peshwah village and a Cumasti Elf) managed to successfully complete the adventure.

I think that the main point of this adventure is to never trust the appearances: not necessarily a Ogre (such as Batts the barkeep) is a mindless monster that needs to be destroyed ASAP, for example. This lesson was a bit reiterated during the various encounters.

The players in general did really well and, surprisingly, I enjoyed running this adventure.
Please note that I stopped running or playing adventures on line (apart from The Throne of Stars...) quite a few years ago, as I didn't like how players played that games (bullying, etc.), so nice players playing well according to their characters were a great surprise.
Even more surprising, for me, was that they asked me if I wanted to run more games for them.

I changed the name of the game from The ComeBack Inn, a Blacmoor adventure to The ComeBack Inn, a Blackmoor campaign and I made massive changes to the game info thread, including much broader information about Blackmoor and much broader character creation options, as in the meanwhile more players joined and were looking for games.
With hindsight, I found that the Special Skill: Magic, Sorcery, Special Skill: Magic, Chaos Magic and the Talent: Focus had pretty perfect mechanics for managing Dave Arneson's Blackmoor Sorcerers and Wizards. It was really surprising!!! 8)
I also "massaged" some Special Skills to allow some more variation between the various races. Just minor tweaks in the spirit of the ruleset.

Thus I run at the same time two adventures: Innuendo and Ties that bind.
In game dates: both from 04 Eaiwe to 13 Eaiwe 1030

Innuendo was run as a solo game and the character involved did fairly well, despite being a solo investigator, but didn't manage to prevent the Sorcerer girl to be taken by the Wizards' Cabal.

Ties that bind is the official adventure from Dave Arneson's Blackmoor and it was played by a fairly big group. They bulldozed through the encounters requiring strength, but they didn't want the help (costing a bribe) of the Thieves Guild in Jackport and couldn't find another way to progress their investigation and find the hidden, underground port, so, eventually, Lady Walcrest sailed to the Egg of Coot. During this adventure I introduced, a bit out of the blue, the trope that Giants don't like noises (http://blackmoor.mystara.net/forums/vie ... =76&t=8784), probably some kind of lost memory resurfacing from Graendel in the Beowulf myth. I think it was overall a nice touch.

Losing Focus is played with in game dates: from 14 Eaiwe to 23 Eaiwe 1030
so it should be added here in the timeline, however, as the timelines cross with each other, it started just recently.
One of the players that partecipated to Ties that bind decided to take this kind of huge personal challenge (mixing up quite a bit of character background threads): a solo Sorcerer heping a freshly graduated Wizard (and Wizards' Cabal member) in distress! :shock:
He is really playing with fire!
Ths game is over, but the character couldn't solve the mystery!
This game is therefore suitable to be re-run for other characters.

Swamp flies is played with in game dates: from 14 Eaiwe to 23 Eaiwe 1030
There were a couple of participants from Ties that bind and a new character.
Two players got themselves in the party atmosphere of Boggy Bottom and preferred having party-kind of adventures, while the other one went through the investigation of the missing person. Eventually he found the right place to go, but didn't get the level of risk of breaking in alone and got enslaved as well. Luckily, the other players were looking for him to go together to a party and found out what was going on, so they raised the alarm and a bit all the village went to the rescue.

A night out under the stars was played by the two characters that successfully played The ComeBack Inn, plus the character that played Innuendo.
In game dates: from 24 Eaiwe to 01 Hotien 1030

The way things played out, it really became difficult to tell who the real villains were (and I think this can be something very Blackmoorian...): were the Goblins the villains, as they wanted a lot of good money for the stones taken by the Halflings in their quarry? Or were the Halflings the villains, as they wanted to take what wasn't theirs for free in order to build their new village before winter? Or were the Elves the villains, as they didn't let the Halflings take their trees, despite the fact that the Halflings needed them to build their homes before winter, to survive the cold season? Or were the characters the villains, refusing to pay taxes?, Or...
Once again, a game where it was difficult telling the heroes from the villains. Pretty Blackmoor ;)


Redwood distractions was played by the four characters: three novices and one from Swamp flies (the one that sorted out the investigation but was eventually captured).
In game dates: from 24 Eaiwe to 01 Hotien 1030
These players bulldozed through the adventure, making all right choices and fighing well.
Please note this is not the only time that I run this adventure, but it is an adventure that allows replaying.

The Unwanted was a tight escape.
One of the character is actually a Blackmoorian Afridhi, coming from an Afridhi lineage that rejected Zugzul long time ago and went refugee always a bit further in the west that the actual Zugzul-worshipping Afridhi conquered. I decided to allow the players picking this option as well, as I also allowed picking Blackmoorian Skandaharians (and Peshwah, but they are allowed in the official campaign as well, so it's not remarkable).
This game in particular had a "crazy" group of characters: an Afridhi, a Skandaharian and a thief! :shock:
The Skandaharian got caught (and enslaved) in Henford, then in Starmorgan the Afridhi character went for the scrolls of the Heart of Zugzul, while the thief went for freeing Rose (and together with her he forund the Skandaharian companion that was enslaved early on in the game).
The ambush on the way out of Ten was particularly difficult and the characters went back to Croc's Nest barely alive.
In game dates: from 02 Hotien to 11 Hotien 1030

Before this game I changed again the name of the game from The ComeBack Inn, a Blackmoor campaign to Blackmoor Living World as so many people told me that this way of running a campaign (many small adventures, sometimes connected in story arches, sometimes not, with characters and players coming and going between an adventure and the other, often happening at the very same time) is actually called "a living World".

Redwood distractions has been successfully completed!
In game dates: from 12 Hotien to 22 Hotien 1030
It was played by characters that already went through two or three adventures, so, under this point of view, it is perhaps the most advanced one, so far.
In theory, I can re-run this adventure for different characters, but the most interesting bit is that the characters that took part to this game are warmly suggested to be part of the follow up adventure: The Redwood Scar.


Innuendo has been abandoned!
In game dates: from 12 Hotien to 22 Hotien 1030
It was played again as a solo adventure from an adventurer that already went through The Unwanted.
It was the second time that I run this adventure (both times as a solo adventure) as investigation is predominant. The character actually made a mistake and killed somebody that was probably in the wrong place at the wrong time and, fearing to be incriminated as an assassin, just run away before solving the mystery!

Next adventures?

Somebody asked for mixing up with the usual, one-off, short adventures, some slightly longer one, so I thought about DA1 as a spearhead for the whole DA series.
This came in useful as I have some player from another Advanced Fighting Fantasy game that I'm running (in another fantasy world) and willing to port the character across to Blackmoor. That would be a perfect small group of "off-worlders" from the future that may be helped by some "local" from Blackmoor times, however, more recently they don't seem so keen on this "transfer" anymore. We'll see what happens... :wink:

Apart from this, I will still carry on with MMRPG games, progressing the various story arches.

During last few months I also wrote some adventure mostly aroung the Temrin story arch, a bit similar to the Hadeen one (Havard knows about it as I'm using him as a kind of consutant) and maybe I will run them.

I am also thinking about running again the On the Edge of the Abyss campaign, that is quite long and is set in the future of my current timeline (i.e. after the death of King Uther... and of his successor as well...) but we know well that Blackmoor is not shy of jumping back and forth in time, especially after dealing with Temrin (see above).... It would be the fourth time I run On the Edge of the Abyss, so perhaps this time I will finally run it right... perhaps... ;)

Anyway, I don't want to plan too much ahead right now, so we'll see what happens! :P

Very nice! Thank you for sharing!

How about some details on the PCs? :)

-Havard

:D

The Inn between the Worlds is now over.
The three characters come in general from other games (all in the same continuity) in another "world" (that is the future of Blackmoor after the Great Rain of Fire and the planet axis shift) and find themselves is a strange inn. It is of course a take on DA1.

In game dates: from 23 Hotien to 02 Jekumal

The players explored at length the Comeback Inn, but somehow they always missed the "portal", despite various indications and eventually they dropped off the game. Happens!