10-08-2019, 06:15 PM
Havard Wrote:Overall, I am a huge fan of the DA series and I think that this is where Blackmoor truly went from being a campaign and being turned into a setting where people outside of Dave's circle could really start their own campaigns. I also think Dave Arneson's vision shines through even not everyone is a fan of the Mystara connection (which I also love of course).
I am also a fan of the ZGG line. As you can see it adds tons of new material and I also like the way these books are organized, making the information much more accessible than in previous entries.
I'm an unusual case when it comes to Blackmoor. My first introduction to the setting was in 2014, when I returned to D&D for the first time in 20 years. I started learning more about Blackmoor from this site, the forum and your blog. But soon I bought a copy of the D20 campaign setting. I started getting copies of the original FFC and DA materials as well, but the D20 setting and map really kindled my interest in Blackmoor.
But here's where it gets strange.
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I don't like the science fantasy aspects of Blackmoor, so that makes me pretty rare among Blackmoor fans. I don't care for genre mixing, and I prefer the aspects of Blackmoor that are more pulp fantasy, sword and sorcery, and high fantasy.I remember seeing the Temple of the Frog module in the mid-1980s, and I thought the cover art and core concept were absurd. :lol: The same goes for the City of the Gods.
As I've learned more about Blackmoor, I don't like the retrofit into the Mystara setting either. I like Mystara, but I wish Blackmoor had simply been treated and developed as a separate setting. But that's mostly harmless since Blackmoor can be run as a standalone setting anyway. And you can ignore the adventures in the DA modules and just use those books for setting info.
In general, I prefer the D20 version of Blackmoor, but as I've been learning more about the FFC, I also like the idea of staying closer to Dave Arneson's original vision and the elements that came out of his home campaign. The problem is that it's so hard to discern his innovations in the DA modules and the D20 content from the work of other designers. That's partly what led me to create this topic, but it's also for historical and general understanding among Blackmoor fans.
In the end, when it comes to running Blackmoor with recent versions of D&D, I think the D20 version is by far the easiest and post practical choice.