10-25-2023, 11:02 AM
Day 1:
My first game of the event was with Paul Stormberg, who ran DA5: City of Blackmoor. I don't know if he was working from the same manuscript Eric Ritchie found (https://blackmoor.mystara.net/forums/sho...hlight=da5), but Paul is certain the manuscript he used was written by Dave Arneson due to the writing style, spelling mistakes, etc. It's more than 300 pages, detailing not just the city of Blackmoor, but Blackmoor castle and the dungeons as well. After the game he briefly showed us some of the dungeon maps. Only the first level matched the ones from First Fantasy Campaign and the Zeitgeist book. I think Paul said the dungeon was clearly "manually stocked" as opposed to the random stocking done for FFC. Paul said the manuscript contained a full campaign (or maybe campaign framework?), much more than we could play through in a single setting.
It's a real shame this wasn't published, as it appears that it would have been a more fleshed out and gameable version of the Blackmoor setting than was presented in FFC, with the distribution strength of TSR, especially if it had stuck closely to Dave's vision.
Paul said the module appeared to be written for use with Moldvay, but contained references to rules from AD&D and the OD&D Greyhawk supplement as well. I think Paul just stuck with Moldvay. We used pregens that Dave had rolled up a long time ago. I was "Kokra the Touch," a level 10 thief.
We started, of course, at The Comeback Inn. The adventure hook: a servant runs towards the end yelling "They're all frozen." After getting help leaving the inn (the first player to try to leave the inn was unfamiliar with its peculiar exit requirements), we learned that she arrived to Castle Blackmoor for her evening cleaning shift and discovered that Baron Jenkins, Lady Jenkins, and everyone else at the castle were frozen in place. Seeing an opportunity for adventure we set off for the castle.
We spent most of our time exploring the wizard's tower.
One particularly strong encounter: an amphibious creature with piranha-like teeth. When it opened its mouth, swamp water and kelp poured out. Because of that old actual play report (ConQuest San Francisco 2006) where someone described Dave's Blackmoor game as "D&D meets Naked Lunch," I imagined it looking a bit like a mugwomp (you might want to be careful Google Image searching that one). The got stronger when an MU hit it with lightening bolts.
Another interesting thing: At the top of the wizard's tower we found a set of modern weapons including a bomb (with wires initially described as "vines," in a glass casing), a rocket launcher, and rockets (initially described as strange "candles"). One PC fired a rocket out of the window of the tower into the lake, killing many fish but not lifting the curse. Later we found a letter that described "secret weapons out of time."
Somewhere along the way I found a horn. I blew it, and it sent an arc of fire into a cabinet in the wizard's workshop, causing an explosion that nearly killed me and burned up many scrolls and powders (oops!).
Eventually we were able to unfreeze time, and find Lady Jenkins, who had gone missing. We weren't able to uncover who caused this mess in the first place. That presumably would be a part of the ongoing campaign.
Anyway, this session was heaps of fun. My whole trip from Portland to Minneapolis would have been worth it for this session alone.
My first game of the event was with Paul Stormberg, who ran DA5: City of Blackmoor. I don't know if he was working from the same manuscript Eric Ritchie found (https://blackmoor.mystara.net/forums/sho...hlight=da5), but Paul is certain the manuscript he used was written by Dave Arneson due to the writing style, spelling mistakes, etc. It's more than 300 pages, detailing not just the city of Blackmoor, but Blackmoor castle and the dungeons as well. After the game he briefly showed us some of the dungeon maps. Only the first level matched the ones from First Fantasy Campaign and the Zeitgeist book. I think Paul said the dungeon was clearly "manually stocked" as opposed to the random stocking done for FFC. Paul said the manuscript contained a full campaign (or maybe campaign framework?), much more than we could play through in a single setting.
It's a real shame this wasn't published, as it appears that it would have been a more fleshed out and gameable version of the Blackmoor setting than was presented in FFC, with the distribution strength of TSR, especially if it had stuck closely to Dave's vision.
Paul said the module appeared to be written for use with Moldvay, but contained references to rules from AD&D and the OD&D Greyhawk supplement as well. I think Paul just stuck with Moldvay. We used pregens that Dave had rolled up a long time ago. I was "Kokra the Touch," a level 10 thief.
We started, of course, at The Comeback Inn. The adventure hook: a servant runs towards the end yelling "They're all frozen." After getting help leaving the inn (the first player to try to leave the inn was unfamiliar with its peculiar exit requirements), we learned that she arrived to Castle Blackmoor for her evening cleaning shift and discovered that Baron Jenkins, Lady Jenkins, and everyone else at the castle were frozen in place. Seeing an opportunity for adventure we set off for the castle.
We spent most of our time exploring the wizard's tower.
One particularly strong encounter: an amphibious creature with piranha-like teeth. When it opened its mouth, swamp water and kelp poured out. Because of that old actual play report (ConQuest San Francisco 2006) where someone described Dave's Blackmoor game as "D&D meets Naked Lunch," I imagined it looking a bit like a mugwomp (you might want to be careful Google Image searching that one). The got stronger when an MU hit it with lightening bolts.
Another interesting thing: At the top of the wizard's tower we found a set of modern weapons including a bomb (with wires initially described as "vines," in a glass casing), a rocket launcher, and rockets (initially described as strange "candles"). One PC fired a rocket out of the window of the tower into the lake, killing many fish but not lifting the curse. Later we found a letter that described "secret weapons out of time."
Somewhere along the way I found a horn. I blew it, and it sent an arc of fire into a cabinet in the wizard's workshop, causing an explosion that nearly killed me and burned up many scrolls and powders (oops!).
Eventually we were able to unfreeze time, and find Lady Jenkins, who had gone missing. We weren't able to uncover who caused this mess in the first place. That presumably would be a part of the ongoing campaign.
Anyway, this session was heaps of fun. My whole trip from Portland to Minneapolis would have been worth it for this session alone.