Blackmoor reading list

[finarvyn]

[*]Anderson's "Three Hearts and Three Lions" along with "The Broken Sword"

Is that where the regenrating trolls come from?

Yes. I'm pretty sure that regenerating trolls are in Three Hearts & Thre Lions, but they may also be in THe Broken Sword. I need to re-read both, but I know they're in there somewhere.

[Havard]

[*]Anderson's "Three Hearts and Three Lions" along with "The Broken Sword"

Is that where the regenrating trolls come from?

Yes. I'm pretty sure that regenerating trolls are in Three Hearts & Thre Lions, but they may also be in THe Broken Sword. I need to re-read both, but I know they're in there somewhere.

In his interview with Mortality Radio, Arneson suggested that he was responsible for including Regenerating Trolls. However, since they are already in Chainmail, I think he might have been misremembering that one...

BTW: Voyage of the Space Beagle arrived in the mail today! The Quag Keep Omnibus is also on the way... 8)

-Havard

[Havard]

According to Gary Gygax, Green Slime was based on the 1968 movie of the same name. It is unclear who of the two came up with this monster, but it seems likely that this film would have been watched by Dave.

Also, according to Gygax:

The werewolf in the game was inspired by Lon Chaney playing Lawrence Talbot, the Wolfman.

The D&D vampire is much influenced by those written about by Bram Stoker, depicted by Bela Lugosi.

The flesh golem is based on Frankenstein's Monster, of course.

Plastic Man from the comic book of that name was the mimic.

The wolf in sheep's clothing was inspired by the weird fish in ther ocean depths that use lures to bring their priy close enough to attack.

(And the twerp that was attempting to make fun of fantasy monsters seems to be quite unaware of facts such as those )

Source: http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rp ... ers-4.html

Again, we know that the Hammer Film Dracula was more of an influence on Sir Fang than Bela Lugosi, but the other films listed may also have been on Arneson's viewing list. I wonder if he ever read Plastic Man comics...?

-Havard

[Havard]

I don't think anyone mentioned Midnight at the Well of Souls yet?

-Havard

[Rafael]

I don't think anyone mentioned Midnight at the Well of Souls yet?

-Havard

:twisted: Sorry, to burst your bubble, but of course. :wink:

The Duchy of Ulek in Greyhawk, and I think the Andahar name come from it.

The werewolf in the game was inspired by Lon Chaney playing Lawrence Talbot, the Wolfman.

...And while I'm showboating:

Of course I knew that, too.

Prize question: What's the name of our castle at the Glaemere? :twisted:

[Dave L]

Well, according to the map, it's High Tenlish.

[Rafael]

Hehe, it's the setting for Lon Chaney jr's Wolfman movie, and the connection was very much intentional,
since Glendon shares an etymological connection to another iconic Blackmoor name that I will exploit for the game.

I also took some stuff from Chalke's novel, which is why I didn't mention it so far.
Like, the weird cosmological setup we are working with - not the veil, but all the vision-like moments,
and most prominently, the chessboard scene from I, 2.

[Havard]

I don't think anyone mentioned Midnight at the Well of Souls yet?

:twisted: Sorry, to burst your bubble, but of course. :wink:

I know we have talked about it before, but not in this thread, right?

The Duchy of Ulek in Greyhawk, and I think the Andahar name come from it.

Really? Whoah! Of course, the first book in this series also came out in 1977, so unless there was another Heavy Metal Magazine debut, these are things that would have been added later on. Indeed Uther Andahar and the more detailed version of the Afridhi was something that was expanded on in the later years.

The werewolf in the game was inspired by Lon Chaney playing Lawrence Talbot, the Wolfman.

...And while I'm showboating:

Of course I knew that, too.

Just found the reference so I wanted to have it in this thread, even though we dont know if this had much with Arneson's game to do.

Prize question: What's the name of our castle at the Glaemere? :twisted:

Wasn't it Glaemere Castle?

-Havard

[Rafael]

I know we have talked about it before, but not in this thread, right?

Yeah, I think you mentioned the title, and so I bought it on amazon... :wink:

Really? Whoah! Of course, the first book in this series also came out in 1977, so unless there was another Heavy Metal Magazine debut, these are things that would have been added later on. Indeed Uther Andahar and the more detailed version of the Afridhi was something that was expanded on in the later years.

Yeah, but don't ask me who introduced Ulek in Greyhawk.
When I'm home, I'll reread the book, and do another check...

Wasn't it Glaemere Castle?

It was Glendon Castle, like in the movie - and as to whether it had anything to give to original BM, I highly doubt it.

[Rafael]

BTW, the Jack Chalker wiki entry got an enormous overhaul, as did part of the novels from the Well series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_L._Chalker



The books themselves have little enough to do with Blackmoor (I just reread the first one), but the overall science-fantasy angle,
and the use of two key terms (Markovian civilization, and, of course, "The Well of Souls") might make them worth a look.

Be warned, though, that this is fairly surrealist fantasy. Not very well written, and full of ideas readers today are not used to.