Off to play in a D&D game today, set in Blackmoor...

[Havard]

I like the First Fantasy Campaign book a lot more than the d20 Blackmoor stuff. I figure it's as close to "pure Arneson" as we are ever going to get.

I'd agree. The D20 books just don't have that 'Arneson feel' to them; I don't know why. Maybe I'm spoiled, and know too much...

I think that the people working with Dave Arneson at Zeitgeist Games were really torn between trying to appeal to those of us interested in the early days of gaming and those simply looking to expand their D&D 3rd Edition Games. The RPG business being as tough as it is I can understand them wanting to draw in as many d20 fans as possible, but looking back I would have loved it if they had focused more on stories from the original campaign and a little less on new feats, prestigue classes and other things that were linked to that edition of the game. I think it was an opportunity missed not to include the kind of stories shared in this forum by the people who played with Dave as well as more stories from Dave himself. I actually think that most 3E fans would have loved this too.

But hindsight is what it is and it is easy to look back and see how things could have been done differently. Overall, I am glad that I own both the Blackmoor material from the 70s and 80s and the books that came out in the 2000s so I can use all of them in my games. I also love the stories shared here at The Comeback Inn and that really enhances my games too.

-Havard