01-09-2015, 09:08 AM
Hehe, thanks. I just dawned on me that this *really* is something that I might never have brought up before on the boards. While I think that the original feel of Arneson's BM was purely organic (Braunstein narrative conventions + NapoMini narrative conventions + individual preferences, like Spanish mythology, and Moorcock's Elric series), I don't think the setting is that out of its time as people generally try to make it:
Especially in the 80s, there's a ton of fiction where we meet the Blackmoorian tropes in a very similar pairing. Moorcock is one; Raymond Feist, another; and good Angus Wells, possibly my personal favorite fantasy author OF AAAAALL TIME, or, well, when I was 15 - his "The Kyngdoms", that one is so much Blackmoor, it's like me going to Baltimore, founding an NFL team, giving it a bird logo, and naming it "The Crows".
That's not to say that people ripped off Arneson - he most likely was not that well-known, even then -, but that his style of fantasy was not whatever sorts of unpopular. All too the contrary, I'd say the narrative tropes of Blackmoor-style fantasy have well survived the decline of Sword & Sorcery in the late 80s; so, younger fans (like myself) don't have to dig really deep until you can get your "Blackmoor flav", even if the original series is not seeing any sort of continuation.
Especially in the 80s, there's a ton of fiction where we meet the Blackmoorian tropes in a very similar pairing. Moorcock is one; Raymond Feist, another; and good Angus Wells, possibly my personal favorite fantasy author OF AAAAALL TIME, or, well, when I was 15 - his "The Kyngdoms", that one is so much Blackmoor, it's like me going to Baltimore, founding an NFL team, giving it a bird logo, and naming it "The Crows".
That's not to say that people ripped off Arneson - he most likely was not that well-known, even then -, but that his style of fantasy was not whatever sorts of unpopular. All too the contrary, I'd say the narrative tropes of Blackmoor-style fantasy have well survived the decline of Sword & Sorcery in the late 80s; so, younger fans (like myself) don't have to dig really deep until you can get your "Blackmoor flav", even if the original series is not seeing any sort of continuation.