Noble Houses of Ten

[aldarron]

Well this is all speculation, so your theories are as good as mine. However, personally I would not be so quick to dismiss everything in DA4 as exclusively Ritchie's.

A few things to consider.

At one point after leaving TSR, Dave Arneson shopped around for the idea of publishing as many as 12 modules set in Blackmoor. Mayfair Games was considered as a publisher. I'm assuming that copyright issues was the real reason why he ended up publishing them through TSR since so many elements of Blackmoor IP had been tied to them since the publication of Supplement II.

We know that Frank Mentzer auctioned away a huge document called the "Chronicles of Thonia" a few years ago. The author of the document was most likely David Ritchie. I assume this was based on Dave Arneson's draft for the '12 modules' he had shown the people at Mayfair Games earlier. I also think The Chronicles of Thonia were the basis for the 4 DA modules as well as the never published DA5.

I don't think Arneson sent Ritchie drafts for 3 modules. I think he sent him a huge single document that Ritchie reworked into 5 planned modules. Because of this I am fairly certain that some of the material in DA4 is from Dave's notes.

Good thoughts Havard. Well I would agree that there is very likely at least some of Arneson's material in DA4, and regardless, your theory of Arneson sending one mss in that was retyped as the Chronicles of Thonia seems like it could well be the case. I like that idea.

Now, the DA modules share a basic structure:
1) Introduction about how to send characters back in time from the Known World (Mystara) to Blackmoor.
2) Setting info, adventure hooks etc (This is typically scattered around in each booklet)
3) The main adventure
4) NPC Section (I think DA2 omits this one)

Item 1 is likely always by Ritchie possibly with some input from Arneson (Great Rain of Fire could be his?).

In DA4 specifically, I think the majority of the module is from Ritchie, but I still think setting information in the module (item 2) comes from Arneson. The module credits Deborah Ritchie for fleshing out the Afridhi, but we know they were created by Arneson, including the Toska Rusa character. Dave Arneson did probably not intend for the Afridhi to have occupied Ten, but probably other information about the families (Baron Hubal?) and towns (Starmorgan, Port Dacoit, Robinsport) as well as the Barrier Swamp comes from Arneson. The Well of Souls etc could come from either author really.

I'd have to disagree with you on the setting information, adventure hooks etc. Actually, this is the sort of stuff I would expect to come from TSR/Ritchie, especially if they chopped up a master document from Arneson. That certainly is the case with DA1.

Well of Souls? I dunno, but I bet that was from Arneson. Kinda sounds like his "Doomsday Rod".

Again this is speculation, but I think Arneson's disappointment with DA4 has to do with:
1) The fact that TSR did not send him a draft for approval before publishing
2) Afridhi occupying Ten
3) DA4 completely leaving out Ran of Ah' Foo

Actually I'd disagree with #2. It's nothing certain, of course, but Garbage Pits of Despair hints at the Afridi in control of Ten. The leaders there are referred to as Sartraps and they are big time slave dealers.

Honestly, what I think Arneson objected to was the whole unwanted storyline. The "unwanted" story set up this grand and noble narrative for an area that was supposed to be little more than a hotbed of baddies and slavers. It made Ten into a kind of sympathic and tragic democratic society that made Blackmoor seem quite pedantic and backward by comparison. And yes, it did also toss the Ran and his great dragon breeding complex out the window.

Another question is whether this matters. While I like talking about what Dave's vision for Blackmoor was, I am perfectly happy to include all published material for Blackmoor when developing my campaign

-Havard

Okie doke. To me the issue is replacing the authors vision with something else. I'm not really cool with that, when the author objects to the result.