Hello. New to Blackmoor. - Printable Version

Hello. New to Blackmoor. - Printable Version

+- The Comeback Inn (https://blackmoor.mystara.us/forums)
+-- Forum: The Garnet Room - Blackmoor General Forum (https://blackmoor.mystara.us/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=34)
+--- Forum: General Blackmoor Discussions (https://blackmoor.mystara.us/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=5)
+--- Thread: Hello. New to Blackmoor. (/showthread.php?tid=771)

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Hello. New to Blackmoor. - New Blackmoor DM - 06-15-2011

Greetings.

I am new to Blackmoor. I just registered here and also requested membership over at the thepiazza.org board.

A little intro:
I have been playing D&D since high school. I graduated in 1991 but I started a few years before that. I started with the 1st edition rule-set. I believe that 2E was actually brand new at the time but our local hobby store was stocked up on 1E. After playing a year or so we started mixing 2E into the mix but largely played 1E for several years. Player at first but quickly became a Greyhawk DM. I ran a Greyhawk campaign for several years throughout all of high school and some time after as well. I played Forgotten Realms 2E on the convention circuit from about 1993 to the end of second edition while DMing mostly Greyhawk at home. I was an early convert to Third Edition and actually started playing it during the play test phase. Played tons of 3E both at conventions and at home. Continued to mostly DM Greyhawk but also did a small Forgotten Realms campaign and a short lived Aereth campaign (the Goodman Games world). Before 4E came out I quit going to conventions because they were becoming very expensive. My home gamers is a group of about 10 people with six of them being very active and the other four people a lot less active as we get older. Two of us DM. The other DM runs Eberron campaigns or his own self-crafted game world. We continued to play v3.5 when 4E came out. Our play experience was largely Greyhawk, Eberron, and some Forgotten Realms. We eventually tried Fourth Edition after the Player's Handbook II came out and we enjoyed it. I personally was very happy to be rid of all the prestige classes, extraneous rules, and ungodly amount of feats from 3E. Don't get me wrong I do love 3E but was happy to try something with only 5 or 6 books (at the time). We started with a Greyhawk campaign and eventually switched the Eberron game over the 4E as well. So no we are doing 4E exclusively for some time. I decided to try something different so I started a 4E Darksun campaign with the new books and some ESD's from yesteryear. It has turned out OK but it is winding down and was largely a lot of combats. I am ready for something different.

New campaign time:
So that's why I am here. I suggested to the other DM (one of my players as well) that we should run a nostalgia type campaign. Something old school. At first I was thinking of resurrecting first edition and running a Greyhawk campaign set during 576 CY (that's the folio/original boxed set time line). He didn't seem too keen on it. I then suggested that I had never played Basic D&D and maybe we could try that. He had actually played BECMI before and was somewhat interested but still didn't seem too keen on it. He then suggested we play Blackmoor. He knew I had bought a copy of the d20 hardcover Blackmoor book from GenCon 2004. I actually bought it directly from Dave Arneson at the Goodman Games booth and he signed it (mostly why I grabbed it). I looked through it before but had never really read it. I also just this week purchased a copy of the 4E book for five dollars.

So I am considering running a campaign set in Blackmoor with not much knowledge of the game world. I own the d20 hard cover book and the 4E softcover book. I also have access to the DA series ESD modules. Been trying to find information on Blackmoor but all the websites are coming up Error 404 or in Japanese. I see that they had a Living campaign too. I would love to get those modules to use a source materials but searches bring up more 404's.

Any tips, information pointers, and help is appreciated. My investigations so far pretty much tell me that I can choose to run Blackmoor as its own setting, part of the BECMI world, or perhaps even part of Greyhawk. I haven't decided which is the best approach on this. Do the Blackmoor Living scenarios touch the Known World at all? Is any of that still available?

Thanks.

Re: Hello. New to Blackmoor. - Havard - 06-16-2011

New Blackmoor DM Wrote:Greetings.

I am new to Blackmoor. I just registered here and also requested membership over at the thepiazza.org board.

Hello! And Welcome to the Comeback Inn! I sent you a PM over at the Piazza before I noticed that you had posted here. We are a small family of hard core Blackmoor enthusiasts here, so new blood is very much welcome.

Quote:New campaign time:
So that's why I am here. I suggested to the other DM (one of my players as well) that we should run a nostalgia type campaign. Something old school. At first I was thinking of resurrecting first edition and running a Greyhawk campaign set during 576 CY (that's the folio/original boxed set time line). He didn't seem too keen on it. I then suggested that I had never played Basic D&D and maybe we could try that. He had actually played BECMI before and was somewhat interested but still didn't seem too keen on it. He then suggested we play Blackmoor. He knew I had bought a copy of the d20 hardcover Blackmoor book from GenCon 2004. I actually bought it directly from Dave Arneson at the Goodman Games booth and he signed it (mostly why I grabbed it). I looked through it before but had never really read it. I also just this week purchased a copy of the 4E book for five dollars.

So I am considering running a campaign set in Blackmoor with not much knowledge of the game world. I own the d20 hard cover book and the 4E softcover book. I also have access to the DA series ESD modules.

Congratulations! Sounds like you have all the material you need to run a gerat campaign. BECMI is my personal favorite edition of D&D so if you will be using that ruleset, I am almost jealous Smile

Quote:Been trying to find information on Blackmoor but all the websites are coming up Error 404 or in Japanese. I see that they had a Living campaign too. I would love to get those modules to use a source materials but searches bring up more 404's.

If you are looking for web resources may I humbly recommend http://blackmoor.mystara.us which this forum is part of, but which also has lots of articles and downloadable goodies for you. This thread also lists several good websites.

Unfortunately most of the official sites have been shut down, but we have preserved as much of that material as we have been able to on these pages.

Quote:Any tips, information pointers, and help is appreciated. My investigations so far pretty much tell me that I can choose to run Blackmoor as its own setting, part of the BECMI world, or perhaps even part of Greyhawk. I haven't decided which is the best approach on this.

Basically this is correct. There are also links to the Wilderlands Setting from Judges Guild. Although I am a huge fan of the BECMI world (Mystara) and of connecting settings in general, I would recommend just focusing on Blackmoor itself. The most successful campaigns I have DMed have focused on a small geographical region, allowing the PCs to become very familiar with details, befriending NPCs, gaing allies and enemies etc. Blackmoor has enough challenges and opportunities to keep your campaign going for years. Most importantly this is not a decision you would need to make right away. If the campaign becomes very long lasting and the PCs gain very high levels, it might be worth deciding what would happen if they left the main map, but from the beginning Blackmoor has more than enough to keep them busy.

Quote: Do the Blackmoor Living scenarios touch the Known World at all? Is any of that still available?

Not AFAIK. The Living Blackmoor (or MMRPG) was part of the lisenced D20 product line, which did not include a lisence for the Known World. I know that some of the people involved in writing the adventures were Known World fans, so they may have stuck in some teasers, but I havent been able to find any yet.

The scenarios are for the most part currently unavailable, but will be made available again soon. When and where will be announced on this forum. Smile

Hope you like this place. Feel free to ask more questions if you have any. I would also be very interested in hearing about how your campaign develops, so please post and tell us about it here Smile

-Havard

Re: Hello. New to Blackmoor. - Dave L - 06-16-2011

Hello, welcome to the site.

We have a few Blackmoor trivia nutters here, so any questions you have are sure to get answers. Smile

My thing is maps. Feel free to check out the Blackmoor section of my flickr page - you'll find reproductions of the DA module maps as well as Dave Arneson's 1977 FFC map.

If you can use them in your campaign, feel free.

Re: Hello. New to Blackmoor. - New Blackmoor DM - 06-16-2011

Havard Wrote:Congratulations! Sounds like you have all the material you need to run a gerat campaign. BECMI is my personal favorite edition of D&D so if you will be using that ruleset, I am almost jealous

Thanks for the welcome. I strongly considered using BECMI and 1E AD&D as well. I even briefly looked at the new Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. The whole idea for playing in Blackmoor was to play something nostalgic and retrograde for fun. I don't want the game sessions to be about learning a new system so we will probably end up using Fourth Edition D&D rules but I intend on trying to emphasis the "old school" factor. Probably only going to allow traditional 1E races with the Eladrin as a stand in for Gray Elves and I might allow the new race in the 4E Blackmoor book. I found this website from doing various searches on Blackmoor and classic D&D fonts. I always make up a campaign pack booklet to hand out to all the prospective players before we start a campaign. I am going to make this one up in all 1970's and early 1980's D&D style. I plan on using old style character sheets as well but with 4E information. I will probably print them up on golden rod, blue, or green paper.

Havard Wrote:Basically this is correct. There are also links to the Wilderlands Setting from Judges Guild. Although I am a huge fan of the BECMI world (Mystara) and of connecting settings in general, I would recommend just focusing on Blackmoor itself.

I think I am going to focus on the main Blackmoor region. Since this is the first "nostalgia" game on a world I hardly know I want to keep my options open for the future. It may be interesting to be able to visit some BECMI gazetteer locations later on or even the wilderlands. This campaign is probably the best vehicle for that to ever happen in my game group. Seems some hokey time traveling scheme was used in the DA modules to bring people back and forth but I can worry about that later. Does the old DA series and new d20 material use the same in-game calenders?

Dave L Wrote:My thing is maps. Feel free to check out the Blackmoor section of my flickr page - you'll find reproductions of the DA module maps as well as Dave Arneson's 1977 FFC map.
If you can use them in your campaign, feel free.

Thanks! I will check them out. I will be looking around and I am sure I will have a lot more questions.

I need to find some quality D&D character sheets for fourth edition rules that look like first edition or BECMI ones. Otherwise, I will have to make them up.

Thanks and Good Gaming.

Re: Hello. New to Blackmoor. - aldarron - 06-16-2011

First, Its awsome that you are taking an interest in the first fantasy role playing campaign setting. It is a rich and open world.

You will have to consider when in the blackmoor timeline (see the 4e book) you will set your campaign. My own is set around the time of the temple of the ID and you can look thorough the threads here for info on that if you are at all interested. I use a "pure" Blackmoor world meaning not tacked on to some other setting, but its probably more common to play blackmoor as either an extension of the Wilderlands or as an ancient era of the Mystara setting.

New Blackmoor DM Wrote:
Havard Wrote:Congratulations! Sounds like you have all the material you need to run a gerat campaign. BECMI is my personal favorite edition of D&D so if you will be using that ruleset, I am almost jealous

Thanks for the welcome. I strongly considered using BECMI and 1E AD&D as well. I even briefly looked at the new Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. The whole idea for playing in Blackmoor was to play something nostalgic and retrograde for fun. I don't want the game sessions to be about learning a new system so we will probably end up using Fourth Edition D&D rules but I intend on trying to emphasis the "old school" factor. Probably only going to allow traditional 1E races with the Eladrin as a stand in for Gray Elves and I might allow the new race in the 4E Blackmoor book.

To make it Blackmoor in feel, I'd advise you not to import a lot of monsters and race types. There is already a ton of stuff, and elves in particular, with thier Westryn Cumasti split have a certian history. What you are suggesting is kinda like wanting to play a middle earth campaingn but replacing all the hobbits with Kender or all the orcs with slestak or something. Might be interesting, but wouldn't be Middle earth.
Just my 2 cents.

New Blackmoor DM Wrote:I found this website from doing various searches on Blackmoor and classic D&D fonts. I always make up a campaign pack booklet to hand out to all the prospective players before we start a campaign. I am going to make this one up in all 1970's and early 1980's D&D style. I plan on using old style character sheets as well but with 4E information. I will probably print them up on golden rod, blue, or green paper.

Ya know... If you are really after a '70's era nostalgia kind of experience you might look into Dragons at Dawn. I wrote it, so I don't mean to toot my own horn here, but I get the sense that there is a great deal you may not be aware of in regards to the early days of gaming and the Blackmoor setting. You should at least look at the preiview on lulu and read the intro - it might inspire your game. Also, really look through the posts on this forum and on the ODD74 blackmoor board.

New Blackmoor DM Wrote:Seems some hokey time traveling scheme was used in the DA modules to bring people back and forth but I can worry about that later. Does the old DA series and new d20 material use the same in-game calenders?

Yeah very Hokey, one of the first things I ditched back when I bought Temple of the Frog when it was newly released. You can thank TSR for that marketing brainstorm. Calenders, No, Havard may have better info, but to my knowledge there is no calendar in the DA series. Go with what's in DAB d20. Its official anyway, in ways that the DA series is not.

Re: Hello. New to Blackmoor. - New Blackmoor DM - 06-16-2011

Aldarron Wrote:To make it Blackmoor in feel, I'd advise you not to import a lot of monsters and race types.

I probably wasn't very clear. What I basically am intending is to not allow dragonborn, tieflings, warforged, etc. I just want the dwarves, elves, hobbits, and humans. Smile

I mentioned eladrin because they are basically the replacement for the sub-race of high elves/gray elves. They are harder to throw out. Elves have always been great magicians and those elves are now the eladrin. This new Docrae race seems to me to be a militant sub-race of halflings. Are they basically a tribe of halflings?

Aldarron Wrote:Its official anyway, in ways that the DA series is not.

Time to dodge the canon cannon. Smile

Feels almost like Greyhawk all of the sudden! Smile

I found some interesting "old school" 4E character sheets:

The Realm of Quindia Permanent Character Record Sheets

Old School 4E Character Sheet

Re: Hello. New to Blackmoor. - Rafael - 06-17-2011

TLDR :wink:

Welcome to true nerddom, n00bie! Smile

In short, my suggestions for you:

Check out Dave Ross' Blackmoor Gazetteer, and my own "Maiden Timeline":

http://blackmoormystara.blogspot.com/20 ... kmoor.html

http://blackmoormystara.blogspot.com/20 ... k-inn.html

Both should provide readable and easy-to-overview in-edpth information on the setting,
and, more importantly, and written on the background of actual games - so you see where the setting gets tweaked to fit
the meeds of everyday DMs better.

Also, if you're looking for event-based starting adventures (as opposed to site-based adventures, aka dungeon crawls),
I strongly recommend you run "Ties That Bind", from the Blackmoor 2004 Campaign Setting. While the plot itself is probably not as exciting as other stuff, it nicely handles the introduction of the players into a new world.

Alternatively, I recommend you take a look at the non-Blackmoor supplements "Libris Mortis", or "Lords of Madness".
Those feature generic scenarios for all levels that should be very easy to adapt to the very specific BLackmoor setting.

Also of note in that respect is the "Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary", by Atlas Games, if you can still find it.

Hope that helps. Smile

Re: Hello. New to Blackmoor. - Havard - 06-17-2011

Aldarron Wrote:To make it Blackmoor in feel, I'd advise you not to import a lot of monsters and race types. There is already a ton of stuff, and elves in particular, with thier Westryn Cumasti split have a certian history. What you are suggesting is kinda like wanting to play a middle earth campaingn but replacing all the hobbits with Kender or all the orcs with slestak or something. Might be interesting, but wouldn't be Middle earth.
Just my 2 cents.

In general I agree with this. However, I might actually consider allowing Warforged in certain types of Blackmoor campaign.

Quote:Ya know... If you are really after a '70's era nostalgia kind of experience you might look into Dragons at Dawn.

Seconded. Dragons at Dawn is a great game. Even if you decide to use a different ruleset, it is a good resource for ideas and inspiration.

Quote:
New Blackmoor DM Wrote:Seems some hokey time traveling scheme was used in the DA modules to bring people back and forth but I can worry about that later. Does the old DA series and new d20 material use the same in-game calenders?

Yeah very Hokey, one of the first things I ditched back when I bought Temple of the Frog when it was newly released. You can thank TSR for that marketing brainstorm.

Allow me to completely disagree here. While the DA modules can easily be played without the "Time Travelling prelude", I think the idea that Mystara and Blackmoor exist in the same world, but in completely different eras can add alot to certain types of campaign. While I would not recommend it to everyone, players who are fans of both settings will really appreciate it, and there are certain ideas that can be shared between the settings. Also, the fact that the two settings are divided by such an immense period of time means that for the most part you wont really have to worry too much about the kind of problems that usually occur in time travelling campaigns.

Quote:Calenders, No, Havard may have better info, but to my knowledge there is no calendar in the DA series. Go with what's in DAB d20

Not really sure what the question was about. The d20 line is pretty much consistant with what's in the DA modules. However the D20 line doesnt continue the timeline into the future. That is left for the PCs to discover. The main difference between the D20 line and the DA series is that the D20 line advances the timeline by 5 years. This part is a little odd actually, since nothing really happens during those five years, and the DA module events are not assumed to have been resolved either.

Quote: Its official anyway, in ways that the DA series is not.

Lets just say we disagree here. My own take is that I am willing to consider every published source. Contradictions are rare anyway.

-Havard

Re: Hello. New to Blackmoor. - aldarron - 06-17-2011

Havard Wrote:
Quote:Calenders, No, Havard may have better info, but to my knowledge there is no calendar in the DA series. Go with what's in DAB d20

Not really sure what the question was about. The d20 line is pretty much consistant with what's in the DA modules. However the D20 line doesnt continue the timeline into the future. That is left for the PCs to discover. The main difference between the D20 line and the DA series is that the D20 line advances the timeline by 5 years. This part is a little odd actually, since nothing really happens during those five years, and the DA module events are not assumed to have been resolved either.

I understood the question to be about the calendar given on pg 151 of the 4e sourcebook - you know the one listing the montsh of the year. Not the timeline per se.

Havard Wrote:
Quote: Its official anyway, in ways that the DA series is not.

Lets just say we disagree here. My own take is that I am willing to consider every published source. Contradictions are rare anyway.

-Havard

Sure, all the published sources and a fair amount of unpublished and anecdotal stuff too. What I meant is simply that it was the product line promoted, fully endorsed, and controlled by Dave Arneson. None of that is true of the DA series. So, if there were, lets say, a calendar given in each source, it would seem more sensible to follow that in the DAB d20 line than the TSR DA series - all else being equal. I mean, its what the author expected/requested.

Re: Hello. New to Blackmoor. - aldarron - 06-17-2011

Rafael Wrote:TLDR :wink:

Welcome to true nerddom, n00bie!

In short, my suggestions for you:

Check out Dave Ross' Blackmoor Gazetteer, and my own "Maiden Timeline":

http://blackmoormystara.blogspot.com/20 ... kmoor.html

http://blackmoormystara.blogspot.com/20 ... k-inn.html

Both should provide readable and easy-to-overview in-edpth information on the setting,
and, more importantly, and written on the background of actual games - so you see where the setting gets tweaked to fit
the meeds of everyday DMs better.

Rare that I disagree with Rafe... But Ross's timeline, while very interesting, suffers from numerous errors, (as I think I've conclusively demonstrated in my timeline threads, but it requires a massive amount of reading and cross referencing so not surprising nobody's checked.) Its also completely outdated, having none of the d20 material, much of which refines or details bits that were previously vague.

The Timeline on pg 148-149 of the 4e sourcebook, is really pretty good. It reworks a substantial portion of Ross' timeline (unfortunetly continuing two of his errors, but them's tha breaks) and incorporates much of the new material.

The Maiden timeline - well that is cool. Only thing you should know there is that it is specific to The Maidens Blackmoor campaign and so contains a lot of information not found in other visions of Blackmoor, but it's so well integrated you could well use it to flesh out any blackmoor style campaign.