Tell me about the Iron Duke

[aldarron]

It seems to me that already before talking to Ritchie, Dave was developing Blackmoor's post FFC timeline. During the FFC Blackmoor is still a part of the Great Kingdom/Thonia and this realm functions as a supporter of "the Good Guys". In the Post-FFC setting on the other hand, Thonia is an adversary. In this context, the Iron Duke, becomes a much more meaningful NPC than he would have been during the FFC era. One question is how closely this post FFC setting is connected to events in Dave's later campaign. Based on Dave's earlier works, it seems likely that this is a combination of actual play experiences, unused ideas etc.

Yeah there are some interesting gaps there. At least a couple DA1 characters come from late Twin Cites gaming (1975+) like Laferie and Veslo, and you get a few more from the Adventure Game days, like Lortz and Fletcher William. Things in Blackmoor may not have develop as quickly or intensely as before, because Blackmoor games were less frequent than other games being playtested at Arnesons company.

Nevetheless I think we get a really good window on to the direction Arenson had taken Blackmoor with the two Garbage Pits of Despair adventures. It seems a sure bet these were originally among the 8 planed "Chronicle" adventures, and may have been the most developed and playtested, which is why Arneson could publish them separately.

So, while the information is limited, comparing what GPoD says about Blackmoor is a useful way to see some of the direction change TSR introduced. GPoD does not present the sort of tension between the Great Kingdom and Blackmoor we see in the DA series. GPoD is based around the idea that Blackmoor regular recruits new settlers from the GK.

It would perhaps be interesting to shed some light on the later-day Blackmoor campaign (post-publication FFC until Arneson's move out of the early 910s until the games simply became fewer, and the different core players started gaming increasingly independently from one another: What had happened until then? Did we see Uther's coronation in-game? Because, if the Afridhi where in Arneson's later games, then that would imply that - Uther was already king, as per DA 1, when they first appeared. - That could give us an idea whether the Iron Duke was part of the original game, or not. (Standard TSR trope character that he seems to be.)

This would absolutely Minnesota, some time in the 1980s), at some point, if you haven't done it yet. So, in-game, the campaign timeline reached aroundbe interesting. We know that Dave kept his annual games going with the original group, but after moving to California (1984?), I don't know who he played with on a more regular basis. In the 1990s he moved to Florida to teach at Full Sail University where he met Dustin Clingman. I am not sure if they played D&D together before they formed Zeitgeist Games in 2004.

Yeah, things are pretty spotty. So there were some games played during the Adventure Games phase, but as I said, most of Dave's gaming was playtesting other games or playing Harchar in Tekumel. There was a series of crossover games where Chirine and company adventured in Blackmoor. I think Uther was a character Arneson made up to represent himself, but I don't know that it was ever more than a paper character. Anyone I've asked about it so far has no memory of the character in games.

It seems like after Arneson went to California his Blackmoor gaming was restricted to convention appearances. He was pretty heavily involved in his church in the '80's and a new father and husband. Of course he did do writing and other work for Tadashi Ehara.

TSR/Ritchie's influence is clear on the first couple of pages of each module where the connection to The Known World/Mystara and how to bring Known World PCs back to Blackmoor, but it is not apparent to me that TSR excerted a strong influence on the main parts of the adventures. It is a shame that we never got to interview Ritchie about this before he passed away. Regarding The Rand and the Iron Duke, we do know that that material was presented in modules DA1 and DA3 which were fully approved by Arneson.

I'm not sure what you are drawing on here. Arneson complained that he wasn't consulted by Ritchie on the final product and gave off pretty mixed signals about the content. I don't recall any information about him giving pre-print approval to any of the adventures, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, I think the adventures were influenced to varying degrees by TSR, but heavily reworked when it came to plot elements.

Temple of the Frog is probably closest to what Arneson sent in, and City of the Gods is possibly not far off either, but it is hard to say how much of the plot was his.