12-13-2020, 05:01 PM
Rafael Wrote:I also think that there was a player in the later stages of the original Blackmoor campaign. (The one that I've been referring to as "Phase III", 1978 until Marfeldt's exit from the campaign, some time in 1981 or 1982.)
Not quite sure what you are referring to here Rafe. Marfelt does "disappear" in the story after looting some vaults in Maus according to the DA description, but Marfelt was pretty much always a background character based on the circle of frenemies Arneson had in 1971. Specifically you had Randy Hoffa and Gregg Scott setting up a rival Napoleonics campaign and Bill Hoyt more or less joined them - so Arneson created the Egg of Coot and the Ran of Ah Foo as piss-takes on them along with the waffling lord WhiteHead (Note the initials).
Marshall Hoegfelt and Bill Hoyt were supposed have factions in the Blackmoor Campaign, per the March '71 letter to Kuntz. Hoegfelt however was, um, a difficult person at times and got thrown out bodily from the group, before any of the Blackmoor games really began in the summer/fall of '71. So Marfeldt the Barbarian also got a "bad guy" write up. Hoegfeldt never actually played the character with the other players. Maybe there were a couple of early games of some sort in the spring of '71, possibly wargames that took place without anyone elses knowledge and provided some of the basis or his FFC description, but more likely it was all just made up.
There are actually a number of, let's call them "tribute" characters in Blackmoor like that. Shepro na Peshwah, for example. The first time Ken Shepro sat down and actually played an RPG was for the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary. It makes it tough to know about certain of the more obscure characters.