Blackmoor for Dummies?

[RobJN]

Don't throw us any softies there, TAD

Let me see which of these I can tackle.....

Here is a list of ideas/questions that I think might be applicable;
01) What is the history behind Blackmoor?

Blackmoor was an outgrowth of the wargaming/Braunstein games of the mid-to-late 60s. Rather than have the figures represent entire companies or brigades (or whatever they call 'em), Arneson went for the 1:1 ratio. Rather than an army assaulting the castle, what about a group of units, infiltrating from the dungeons below? This was simulated using Gygax's Chainmail rules along with Arneson's own home-brewed systems, a proto version of the game that would become Dungeons & Dragons. Gygax played it, loved it, saw the potential, and we pretty much know what came of that.

02) Why does Blackmoor exist in multiple campaign worlds? What separates the Blackmoor world apart from other worlds that have a Blackmoor?

Blackmoor was (quite literally) the First Fantasy Campaign, just like it says on the Judge's Guild cover. Back in the day, before there were huge licensing deals or lawyers upon lawyers, guys sat down and said "Hey, I like your stuff, I'm going to incorporate it into my own campaign right..... here." Gygax did this with his world of Greyhawk, and the Judges Guild folks did it with their Wilderlands of High Fantasy. Eventually, Bruce Heard would do it with the Known World. Why should you care? Each iteration of Blackmoor has its own quirks and flavors. Each was developed to greater or lesser extents, and each has kernels and nuggets to pick and swap between them. For example, Gygax's Blackmoor in Greyhawk has a throwaway reference to the Queen's Regalia of Blackmoor, and belonged to the mad queen Maragaine. That doesn't appear in Dave Arneson's version, and quite frankly, I think it's so cool, I'm scribbling adventure notes.

03) Why should I care about all these Blackmoors? Why should I not just focus on the Blackmoor setting and disregard all other Blackmoors?

See above.

04) If I choose to accept all Blackmoors, how can I look at all of them on the whole and understand their place in all the D&D cosmologies?

Different Primes? I'm not too up on my AD&D cosmology.

05) What is the why for putting SciFi in a fantasy D&D game? Why does Blackmoor embrace Technomagic? Why is technomagic better than magic?

This is entirely the Rule of Cool. There wasn't a whole lot of refinement in the science-fiction/fantasy genre back in the day, and anything was game for your game. Arneson wanted his players to find a crashed spaceship (and all the goodies therein), thus was born the City of the Gods. Is the technomagic better than regular magic? Maybe, maybe not. Sure, you can blast your enemies with the equivalent of fireballs and magic missiles... until you run out of ammo.