The Hello Thread!

[Havard]

I was asked to introduce myself here. I was active on Dragonsfoot and some old Grognard boards under a few variants of this name over a decade ago. Havard was already a legend back then! I have been playing D&D and AD&D on and off since 1982 and I have been Dungeon Mastering my own World of Bardsville setting since 1984. I own hard copies of every D&D/AD&D product published by TSR prior to 1989 except Wilderness Geomorphs, Orange B3, ST1, and the set of PC sheets with the rare cover. I have never played any newer edition beyond a few sessions of 2E in the early 1990s

I recently decided to again position the islands where my campaign takes place in the context of a classic campaign world. Which one? Mystara has not aged well in my opinion. Too many of the Gazetteers are overly humorous and even as a child I could not swallow the 15+ ham-fisted allegorical world cultures living side-by-side in a land the size of Kentucky. Forgotten Realms is far too overpowered and magic heavy for my tastes. Greyhawk, even in its folio form, is too overdeveloped. I love Greyhawk, but I don't need Gods and ethnic histories fully plotted out for me. If I stuck my Isles on Oerth I would be playing Greyhawk, not my own campaign. I have also borrowed (directly lifted) liberally from all of these settings over the years, which would cause conflicts.

Great having you here Jacobite! Is there any information about Bardsville anywhere on the web? I would be interested in hearing about how you plan on integrating it with Blackmoor too.

That left me with Blackmoor. I had never seriously looked at Blackmoor, even though I have the DA modules and the FFC. I looked into it late last month and I was VERY IMPRESSED with what I saw. It was perfect for my purposes and fit in well with existing facts of my campaign, which included mention of: 1. A Great Northern Continent 2. A decadent Empire with a break off kingdom in the North 3. A jihadist ethnicity attacking civilization 4. A "pantheon" of largely monotheistic Gods. I saw I could drop my Isles well to the east of Thonia. I am currently reading through FFC and the DA modules and tweaking my home campaign documents to integrate them with Blackmoor around the year 1024. I intend to run the DA series with native Blackmoor PCs this fall/winter.

I took a look at the D20 and the 4e Blackmoor supplements and they do not seem to me to be canon in the same way FFC/DA are. Has this been discussed? I look forward to discussing Blackmoor with you all.

I totally agree with you that the DA modules are excellent. They don't get nearly the love that they deserve. I think canon is a problematic term and usually only causes grief when it comes up, but some are more fans of the older material and some are more fans of the 3E/4E material. I think what to use and what not to use from all of these books deserves a topic of its own. Feel free to start one and I will gladly pitch in!

-Havard