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| The MN Gathering 2024 |
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Posted by: Havard - 07-24-2024, 04:42 PM - Forum: Zvenzen's Freehold - General Chat
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Quote:Friends and fans of Dave Arneson have a number of chances to meet up this year. The MN Gathering is organized by The people behind the Castle Blackmoor website and other gamers from the Twin Cities. This year, the gathering will take place towards the end of August.
In the past the MN Gathering has been organized in October for Dave Arneson Game Day, but this year the convention has been moved to August. The reason given for this is that it will honor the meeting of Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson and Bill Hoyt in 1969.
It is always great to see the Blackmoor Bunch getting together with other gamers and fans honoring the legacy they helped create with Arneson.
This blog celebrates all such events and all activities commemorating he early roots leading to the creation of Dungeons & Dragons. I wish the attendees of The MN Gathering a great time!
Source:
https://blackmoormystara.blogspot.com/20...egacy.html
-Havard
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| The Team Behind Age of the Wolf |
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Posted by: Havard - 07-21-2024, 08:43 AM - Forum: General Blackmoor Discussions
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Crossposted from my blog:
Quote:The Design Team Behind Blackmoor Age of the Wolf
We are now learning more about the people behind the upcoming Dave Arneson's Blackmoor Age of the Wolf. As I reported back in March, this 15 years in the making project is finally being released at GenCon 2024 and will become available in a free digital format. An exclusive interview with the lead designer was posted on this blog last month, but we now have more information:
(Illustration taken from lead designer C.A.Suleiman's website)
The credits presented for the book will be the following:
Dave Arneson's Blackmoor: Age of the Wolf
Publisher: Studio Ink Bat
Developer and Project Lead: C.A. Suleiman
Writers: Jamie Chambers, George Holland, Rhiannon Louve, Ari Marmell, Harley Stroh, and C.A. Suleiman
Art Director: Denise Robinson
That is a pretty talent specked list of people. I am not familiar with all of them, but Jamie Chambers is perhaps best known as former vice president of Sovereign Press and Margaret Weis Press, having done considerable game design on Dragonlance, The Serenity RPG and much more.
Ari Marmell is a well known fantasy author and game designer and he has worked on multiple projects with C.A. Suleiman. Most notably the two worked on Blackmoor in the time before Zeigtgeist Games (ZGG) lost the license to publish Blackmoor from WotC, right before Age of the Wolf was to be published 15 years ago.
Harley Stroh is another name that should be familiar to Blackmoor fans, making several contribitions to the d20 Blackmoor line including the ZGG version of City of the Gods. He later went on to become a widely published by companies like Wizards of the Coast and Goodman Games.
Rhiannon Louve has multiple credits for design and translation work for White Wolf, including the Scarred Lands Setting.
George Holland is a game desgner who has done game design work for RPGs such as Overlight, Mothership and Cy_Borg.
C.A Suleiman, the project lead, is another well known name in the industry, having done considerable game design work for Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf and many other publishers. He is credited for six d20 Blackmoor books, including the upcoming Age of the Wolf sourcebook. See full credits here.
With this team, I have great hopes for the Age of the Wolf sourcebook finally seeing the light of day after all this time. It is such a shame when completed manuscripts end up never being shared with the fans, like Jeff Grubb's Mystara sourcebook for AD&D 2nd Edition. I am very happy that Age of the Wolf will become available to fans this August.
Dave Arneson's Blackmoor: Age of the Wolf will be published under a lisence from Wizards of the Coast.
Note: I have written this article, not based on a press release, but on my own research, so I apologise that the information is incomplete. No disrespected intended towards anyone mentioned. I will expand on the article as I learn more about each designer!
Full version here:
https://blackmoormystara.blogspot.com/20...ge-of.html
-Havard
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| The Battle of the Neck |
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Posted by: Havard - 07-18-2024, 02:03 PM - Forum: General Blackmoor Discussions
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The Neck is a small stretch of land in southwestern corner of Blackmoor, in the Barony of the Lakes. It borders on the southern part of the Duchy of Ten. It contains the following locations:
- Tower of Midges (with garrison of 400 soldiers)
- Gar's Hold (with garrison of 200 soldiers)
- Ran's Hold (with garrison of 300 soldiers)
Each of these locations contains a small castle-like fortification with knights under the control of the Baron of Lakes (Han Aleford).
The Battle of the Neck took place in 1013. The Duchy of Ten was attacked by the Afridhi 10 years earlier and the Afridhi army now wanted to use the Neck to gain access to Blackmoor territory. All the barons of Blackmoor joined in to support the Baron of the Lakes. The battle halted the Afridhi advance and 10.000 Afridhi were killed in the battle.
This information comes from DA1 (p45) and DA4 (p27).
I am not sure if this battle was actually played out in Arneson's campaign, but I do recall talking to Greg Svenson about fighting the Afridhi. He described them as remincent of devil worshippers IIRC. I believe the Afridhi were originally referred to as Paynims and there are several references to those in the FFC. The FFC also mentions the Paynim Princess, which I believe was the character who became Toska Rusa, the Afridhi Queen as per the DA modules.
I wonder what this battle would have been like and how it might have been played out?
-Havard
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| Bartertown |
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Posted by: Havard - 07-18-2024, 07:38 AM - Forum: General Blackmoor Discussions
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One rarely discussed settlement in the world of Blackmoor is Bartertown:
Bartertown
Population: Ca 900
This trading base is located on the Northern Edge of the Shallows. It was constructed by the Skandaharians as a market place for the fruits of piracy and raids. It is a place to randsom caprives, purchase slaves and looted goods. Merchants from Maus are sometimes seen here, not caring that what they are buying comes from the ships of their competitors.
In some fan material, this settlement has been linked to the Frisians, another group that is mentioned in the DA modules.
Bartertown is located need Buccaneer Bay and we can see four dirt roads leading to it from the north.
How would you use Bartertown in your games?
-Havard
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| Official Skandaharian Characters? |
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Posted by: Havard - 07-18-2024, 05:33 AM - Forum: General Blackmoor Discussions
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How many named Skandaharians are there?
Thorsen One-Tumb (DA1), known as the First Jarl
Arn Yonson (DA1) - Not officially a Skandaharian, but his name and helmet do suggest this origin
Moorkok the Slayer (DA1) - Prince of the Egg
Sigurd Gustafson (DA4 p 18), captain of the Ghost Maker
Marfeldt (DA1, FFC) - not officially a Skandaharian, but being a barbarian, he could be related to them?
Iver Zvenzen - a Skandaharian who settled in Blackmoor and became a farmer. Father of the Great Svenny. (From the Great Svenny's backstory)
The Great Svenny - Son of the Skandaharian Iver Zvenzen. (FFC, DA1, Greg's notes)
-Havard
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