Tell me about the Iron Duke

[Havard]

Marshal's and Dave Arneson's clash was in the 1970-71 timeframe. Until the clash happened and he was expelled from the group, I had been driving Marshal to Dave Arneson's house for the gaming sessions. The incident with Marshal in the early 1980's happened at a gaming convention and got him thrown out of the convention. I don't really know any of the actual details of either incident, but I heard stories about both at the time they happened...

Thank you. With this, the different stories I've heard over the years gain their proper perspective. - Now, Hoegfeldt himself maintained that he and Arneson eventually patched things up, and that he participated in later stages of the campaign, again. IF I recall things correctly, that is. Hoegfeldt, - or someone claiming to be him, at least - posted on several of the usual message boards in the late 2000s, but his contributions there were generally pretty unassuming: Nothing that not could be found elsewhere, and, given that his identity was never confirmed, nothing he could not have learned elsewhere, as well.

I came across some notes from an email exchange I had with Marshall before his passing. He mentions there that he first met Dave Arneson in 1969 in Mike Carr's basement. I remember the messages you refer to where he called himself Lord Grey. I believe that these were legitimate, but as you say they had very little substantial in them.

Again, the core question seems to be, when in the (relative) in-game timeline do the events related to actual playing sessions stop? - Simple question. Simple answer?

I've always been thinking, 1024, perhaps, because Steve (?) Lortz continued gaming with Arneson into the 1980s, if I remember the details correctly. Also, notably, it's after that point that the in-game timeline begins to recycle events everyone knows to have happened earlier, like the expedition(s) to the Temple of the Frog, and to the City of Gods, until we enter the area that is "pure Ritchie", plotwise.

The DA modules are set in 1025 so that makes sense. The ZGG material was pushed to 1030, but in retrospect that decision seems a bit pointless since in the ZGG timeline, nothing of importance happens between 1025 and 1030. Also, important plotlines that seemed urgent in 1025 ended up being dragged out all the way to 1030 because of this decision.

The Temple of the Frog and the City of the Gods had been explored during the FFC run, but these are locations that are well suited for multiple expeditions.

-Havard