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[Blog] Arnecon 2023 Reports are in! - Havard - 10-23-2023
ArneCon 2023 Reports are in!
ArneCon 1 took place this weekend and reports are coming in. I have made several posts about ArneCon this fall talking about the announced program and the guests of honor which included many of the original Blackmoor players and other alumni.
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I snatched a bunch of these photos from the ArneCon Facebook page. As announced, it looks like this was a nice and intimate convention which makes sense since it was the first convention organized by the creators of the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary.
It looks like everyone is having a great time and it was especially nice to see Dave Arneson's daughter present along with the original Blackmoor players. These nice people have always been helpful and supportive of my blog and the Comeback Inn website. Also nice to see Paul Stormberg and Dan H Boggs present. In addition to being co-author of Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg, Boggs is also a friend of the Comeback Inn.
Did you attend ArneCon 2023? I would love to hear your war stories and photos you might want to share!
Full version: https://blackmoormystara.blogspot.com/2023/10/arnecon-2023-reports-are-in.html
-Havard
RE: [Blog] Arnecon 2023 Reports are in! - klintron - 10-24-2023
I was there! I played in DH Boggs's Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg game and both of David Wesely's Braunstein sessions. But the highlight for me was playing the unpublished DA5 City of Blackmoor module run by Paul Stormberg on the first night! I'm working on a bit more of a write-up now.
RE: [Blog] Arnecon 2023 Reports are in! - Yaztromo - 10-24-2023
@klintron
I'm looking forward to that
RE: [Blog] Arnecon 2023 Reports are in! - klintron - 10-25-2023
Day 1:
My first game of the event was with Paul Stormberg, who ran DA5: City of Blackmoor. I don't know if he was working from the same manuscript Eric Ritchie found (https://blackmoor.mystara.net/forums/showthread.php?tid=2924&highlight=da5), but Paul is certain the manuscript he used was written by Dave Arneson due to the writing style, spelling mistakes, etc. It's more than 300 pages, detailing not just the city of Blackmoor, but Blackmoor castle and the dungeons as well. After the game he briefly showed us some of the dungeon maps. Only the first level matched the ones from First Fantasy Campaign and the Zeitgeist book. I think Paul said the dungeon was clearly "manually stocked" as opposed to the random stocking done for FFC. Paul said the manuscript contained a full campaign (or maybe campaign framework?), much more than we could play through in a single setting.
It's a real shame this wasn't published, as it appears that it would have been a more fleshed out and gameable version of the Blackmoor setting than was presented in FFC, with the distribution strength of TSR, especially if it had stuck closely to Dave's vision.
Paul said the module appeared to be written for use with Moldvay, but contained references to rules from AD&D and the OD&D Greyhawk supplement as well. I think Paul just stuck with Moldvay. We used pregens that Dave had rolled up a long time ago. I was "Kokra the Touch," a level 10 thief.
We started, of course, at The Comeback Inn. The adventure hook: a servant runs towards the end yelling "They're all frozen." After getting help leaving the inn (the first player to try to leave the inn was unfamiliar with its peculiar exit requirements), we learned that she arrived to Castle Blackmoor for her evening cleaning shift and discovered that Baron Jenkins, Lady Jenkins, and everyone else at the castle were frozen in place. Seeing an opportunity for adventure we set off for the castle.
We spent most of our time exploring the wizard's tower.
One particularly strong encounter: an amphibious creature with piranha-like teeth. When it opened its mouth, swamp water and kelp poured out. Because of that old actual play report (ConQuest San Francisco 2006) where someone described Dave's Blackmoor game as "D&D meets Naked Lunch," I imagined it looking a bit like a mugwomp (you might want to be careful Google Image searching that one). The got stronger when an MU hit it with lightening bolts.
Another interesting thing: At the top of the wizard's tower we found a set of modern weapons including a bomb (with wires initially described as "vines," in a glass casing), a rocket launcher, and rockets (initially described as strange "candles"). One PC fired a rocket out of the window of the tower into the lake, killing many fish but not lifting the curse. Later we found a letter that described "secret weapons out of time."
Somewhere along the way I found a horn. I blew it, and it sent an arc of fire into a cabinet in the wizard's workshop, causing an explosion that nearly killed me and burned up many scrolls and powders (oops!).
Eventually we were able to unfreeze time, and find Lady Jenkins, who had gone missing. We weren't able to uncover who caused this mess in the first place. That presumably would be a part of the ongoing campaign.
Anyway, this session was heaps of fun. My whole trip from Portland to Minneapolis would have been worth it for this session alone.
RE: [Blog] Arnecon 2023 Reports are in! - Yaztromo - 10-25-2023
(10-25-2023, 11:02 AM)klintron Wrote: It's a real shame this wasn't published, as it appears that it would have been a more fleshed out and gameable version of the Blackmoor setting than was presented in FFC, with the distribution strength of TSR, especially if it had stuck closely to Dave's vision.
Never say never
RE: [Blog] Arnecon 2023 Reports are in! - Secrets of Blackmoor - 10-26-2023
All I can say is that I am still tired but the convention was wonderful.
So much last minute work prepping while away from home at AirBnbs and hotels for a week. I talked to Chris today and he said he was still wiped out as well.
I made some posts on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/Blackmoor_Film/status/1717218887761093109
I am slowly posting pictures there which you can grab if you want Havard.
Blackmoor DA5 Module
I saw mentions of the DA5 module draft. There are likely several which may not be the same. I had a chance to look through the manuscript at Arnecon and I cannot recall if it was dot matrix or not. Thus, it may be possible we are seeing two working drafts at this point. My dream is that they are distinct stages in creating a Blackmoor module.
The one I saw is full of Arneson attention to detail. He even notes how much damage each piece of furniture will do if used as a weapon.
Dave Arneson was working on drafts while he owned Adveneture Games. Yet, he likely prepared something to show to TSR as well.
Other Blackmoor Things
Ken Fletcher gave us a folder of Blackmoor material from when Dave was wanting to do a module on his own in the time before Gary talked to him about the DA series. It includes items I have never seen before. One thing of note is the Battle Report about the First Invasion of Blackmoor. It even has maps of the castle with troop locations as the battle was played.
Another item is a report on Ross Maker and David Wesely's first two adventures into Blackmoor dungeons. I showed this write up to Michael Calleia who was at the convention. He noted the presence of records regarding actual combat turns. What I found of interest were the details of how many enemies each player killed each round.
Regarding material created by Dave Arneson:
The Arneson Estate is interested in seeing these items be published with their approval.
Dave's IP belongs to his estate thus it all needs to be catalogued with scans sent to the estate for their records.
We will share some excerpts of these new findings as soon as we can.
MUTANT
Ken also handed me a completed manuscript for a long missing game by Richard Snider. Mutant was created before any other game of it's kind. It was sent to TSR for review, but they never pulbished it. David Megarry has already offered to step in as editor on the poroject as he was the editor who worked on the draft we now have in our possession when AG was planning on publishing the game. Expect to see this in book form in the next year or two.
The Mutant manuscript is huge. It fills an entire basic D&D size box and comes in two volumes.
Lastly: Arnecon 2
We are already negotiating for convention space so we can run the con next year.
My advice is to start saving up some travel money now as we will work to make it even better next year.
Griff
RE: [Blog] Arnecon 2023 Reports are in! - klintron - 10-26-2023
Day 2, morning:
My second game, and the first of Arnecon Day 2, was Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg run by Dan Boggs (known as aldarron on this forum). This is probably well known on this forum, but: Tonisborg was created by Greg Svenson, one of Arneson's original Blackmoor players (His character was "The Great Svenny" and his handle here on the forum is gsvenson [edit: Not Yaztromo as I previously wrote]). The setting is located within the larger Blackmoor setting and includes a 10 level dungeon. Greg created it around 1973, working from a playtest version of D&D (as well as some of Arneson's own notes?). Much of this was lost until just a few years ago. Some of Greg's maps were published online, then reworked into a poster that was included with The Secrets of Blackmoor documentary DVD, and finally published in a more expanded form in the book Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg, written by Greg, Dan, and Griffith Morgan (Griff is also one of the organizers of Arnecon, directors of The Secrets of Blackmoor, and the publisher of the Tonisborg book). It also includes an RPG system inspired by Arneson's initial draft of D&D, including a combat system that differs from the one included in OD&D.
The hook: A large group of adventurers were lunching at an inn in Bramwald called the Wonky Wizard. A servant of the house Kervel (sp?) arrives and asks that we meet with the lady of his House. We are slightly reluctant since the House of Kervel is on the outs with the king, but the pay is good so we take the meeting. We learn that Lady Kervel's husbands, sons, and several retainers departed weeks ago for a quest to Tonisborg, where Lord Tervel hoped to find the Crown of Blackmoor, which he hoped would restore favor to his house. All but one retainer was killed in some tunnels beneath the surface of an island near Tonisborg. The sole survivor returned on the lord's quest to recruit reinforcements. But the lady is paying us to simply bring her husband and sons home.
We didn't get a lot accomplished in this game. We had a big group that deliberated a lot. It took us a good two hours just to get to the dungeon, after much debate and some time hiring and haggling with Skanaharian hirelings. We didn't see a whole lot of the dungeon, focusing on moving down quickly instead of exploring each floor. And of course, there was a lot of debate about which direction to go each time we reached an intersection. Eventually one of the clerics came up with the idea of using Detect Object to find pieces of Tervel livery. That got us moving in the right direction, and we eventually found the lord and his sons. We had to use paralyze to get the lord to come with us, the sons were more willing to abandon their quest and get back to their home.
We didn't have many encounters in the dungeon, and there was no combat. At one point someone triggered a trap door, and three PCs nearly fell in but through wit and magic managed not to fall into what lay below: A Devil Pool (As described by Greg in his recollection of the first-ever dungeon crawl. I believe they're also mentioned in FFC). Other than casting detect evil and seeing that it glowed brightly with darkness, no one interacted with the pool. I didn't engage the mechanics much, so I can't really say anything about them.
I wish our group had been decisive enough to see a bit more of the dungeon. The surviving retainer told of "unspeakable horrors," but we never saw anything like that.
One big highlight: We played the game on Dave Arneson's old gaming table.
RE: [Blog] Arnecon 2023 Reports are in! - Havard - 10-27-2023
(10-26-2023, 09:34 AM)klintron Wrote: Day 2, morning:
Thank you so much for sharing these stories klintron!
-Havard
RE: [Blog] Arnecon 2023 Reports are in! - Yaztromo - 10-30-2023
(10-26-2023, 09:34 AM)klintron Wrote: This is probably well known on this forum, but: Tonisborg was created by Greg Svenson, one of Arneson's original Blackmoor players (His character was "The Great Svenny" and his handle here on the forum is Yaztromo).
I think I have to correct this little mistake: Greg's handle on this forum is actually gsvenson, not Yaztromo
By the way, I'd like to take the chance to thank Greg for being the person he is.
RE: [Blog] Arnecon 2023 Reports are in! - klintron - 10-30-2023
(10-30-2023, 04:49 PM)Yaztromo Wrote:(10-26-2023, 09:34 AM)klintron Wrote: This is probably well known on this forum, but: Tonisborg was created by Greg Svenson, one of Arneson's original Blackmoor players (His character was "The Great Svenny" and his handle here on the forum is Yaztromo).
I think I have to correct this little mistake: Greg's handle on this forum is actually gsvenson, not Yaztromo
By the way, I'd like to take the chance to thank Greg for being the person he is.
Ah! For quite some time i thought you were Greg. Sorry about that!
Day 2: Afternoon: Braunstein I
After playing DA5 and playing Tonisborg on Arneson's table, I could have flown home from Arnecon a happy man. But the reason I booked the trip in the first place was to get a chance to play Braunstein with David Wesely. I'd read about the game before, but really wanted to know how it works procedurally. Fortunately, I got my wish!
As I suspected from reading descriptions, Braunstein I works a lot like a freeform LARP (https://nordiclarp.org/wiki/Freeform https://larpwiki.labcats.org/index.php?title=American_freeform), with the facilitator (in this case Wesely) answering in-game questions and adjudicating anything that can't simply be negotiated between players. The only game mechanic really seemed to be "ask Wesely if it's OK." That lead to him being very busy throughout the game answering questions.
The game began with a two-hour lecture by Wesely, covering the history of Braunsteins, some Prussian history, and some history of the fictional Prussian town of Braunstein. It was a lot to take in, but somehow never boring, I was surprised how much time had passed when I looked at my phone when we started and saw that two hours had passed.
The game began as Wesely started assigning characters. In the original, he knew the players and assigned roles accordingly. At Arnecon, he just asked "Who wants to be a revolutionary?" "Who wants to be a patriot?" "Who wants to be rich?" etc. and handed out characters to the first people who raised their hands.
From there, we just sort of self-organized into different locations throughout the room. If we needed more privacy for a conversation, we'd step out into the hallway and find a quiet nook to talk.
I was one of the "students" who started out in jail. This was frustrating as it limited what we could do, and being broke college students meant we didn't have a lot of leverage. Of course, part of the game is to find ways to create leverage. But the characters who started out with a bit more autonomy to make in-game decisions, such as the mayor, banker, university chancellor, and Landwehr commander, were the most active and seemed to have a better time than most of the students and certain other characters like the bookseller and the banker's nephew.
I think if I were going to run this myself, I'd make some changes, like having most of the PC students NOT in jail but trying to get some NPC students out of jail, and/or give the students more bargaining power by giving additional goals to the other PCs that depend on the students.
The most fun part was the epilogue, where we all revealed what our goals were, told everyone what we did/what happened, revealed secrets, etc. It's where the whole story of what was going on came to light.