Tell me about the Iron Duke

[Havard]

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.

Yes, very true!

BTW, do we know who Veslo was based on? Don't have my notes right now, but not sure if I ever pinned that one down.

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.

Absolutely true. Garbage Pits is interesting since it was released in 1986, the same year DA1 and DA1 were published. Good point abut this adventure (does it count as two?) was part of the 8 adventure Chronicle. Discrepancies between GPoD and the DA series could account for differing visions between Arneson and Ritchie/TSR, but could it not also be a result of them being written at different times with Dave sending Different Worlds Magazine an older manuscript that for some reason was not considered for TSR publication? It might be worth checking with Tadashi Ehara about the full story of GPoD's publication. My assumption was that it was an attempt to boost the sales of the TSR modules and raise awareness of Blackmoor in general.

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.

I think this makes sense. I always thought the story of Uther vs the Great Kingdom echoed the story of Dave himself "rebelling" against TSR so in that sense it is interesting that this story made it in a publication by TSR. The close friendship between the heroes of Blackmoor, especially Svenny, and Uther supports the idea that Uther is meant to represent Dave.

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.

True.

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.

The basis of my theory is exactly this. Arneson complained that he wasn't consulted by Ritchie on DA4. I don't have the exact quote, but this lead me to believe that he did give final approval of DA1-3 or that he was at least happy with how these turned out.

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

If we read the DA modules (including DA4) next to the ZGG books, the similarities in terms of background content are stunning. ZGG added material, but with a few explicit exceptions generally kept things very close to what we learn in the DA modules.

But you are right about the plot elements. It is possible that these were, added or at least reworked by TSR as you say. Characters could definitely have been added to serve such plot changes. It is possible that the Iron Duke is an example of this, but I would not put it above Dave to have created additional NPCs that were not based on real life people.

1970s adventures seem to have been structured more like Keep on the Borderlands or the original Temple of the Frog with much fewer story/plot elements than what became the norm in later decades. The DA modules are closer to the 1980s style of adventures, but I think the decision to make them into Companion Set adventures was clever. If you look at the other Companion Set adventures, many of those are also toolkit-type adventures ala KotB with only a handful of story elements. This is also true for the DA modules which offer tons of additional adventure options beyond the plot. DA1 is more railroady in that respect in that the Inn Between Worlds section is significant, but the overview of Blackmoor and NPC sections offers tons of more adventure potential.

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.

I think that is probably correct. Note that DA3 does cover quite a bit about the lands of the Iron Duke. It could be interesting to compare the depiction of DA3 with Dave's earlier notes about adventures to the City of the Gods (FFC and Oerth Journal), but that is perhaps worthy of a separate topic?

-Havard