Where does the MMRPG fit in the Timeline?

[Havard]

So I've been doing a lot of reading over all the Blackmoor material. Hopping from thing to thing as I have just finished the script for the lore series first episode (now just gathering art). 

and I kind of found something odd. 

There is an adventure path that leads up to another episode called "Temple of the Frog". While I've not had the time to read this side by side of DA2. Are these meant to be the same adventure but updated for that edition of DnD? Or is this meant to be further down the TL? 

From my understanding if we are to try and fit the DA series into the ZTG timeline the DA series would happen around 1024-25. Meaning this adventure path would be before The Blackmoor Campaign setting adventure Ties That Bind which is in 1030.

So where would this all place? How does the WoTC adventure of Return to The Temple of the Frog fit into all of this?

Yes, I can see this being confusing.

This is more or less as close to the official timeline that I have been able to work out

995-1000 First Fantasy Campaign Season
1025 - DA modules
1030 - ZG/D20 Blackmoor
ca 1045 - Return to the Temple of the Frog (a few decades after the Temple was destroyed).
1299 - Age of the Wolf
ca 2000 - Great Rain of Fire. Destruction of Blackmoor. Rafiel becomes a divine being.
Ca 5000 - The Comeback Inn discovered by adventurers who are sent back in time.

When Dave Arneson and Dustin Clingman decided to launch the d20 Blackmoor line through their company Zeitgeist Games, they announced to things that might have made more sense back then than they ended up doing:

1) the d20 Blackmoor line would take place 5 years after the DA modules
2) The DA modules were assumed not to have been played out yet, because ZG wanted to make their own versions.

This leaves us with an odd situation where all this tension has been built up in Blackmoor in 1025 and then virtually nothing happens in the following 5 years(!). Thre Afridhi and still occupying the Duchy of Ten and making ready to invade Blackmoor. St. Stephen is still luring around the Temple of the Frog. Etc etc.

Just trying to make sense of everything as I'm a lore junky and want to have things right. I know that the Temple of the Frog has been done many times over the years. from Supplement 2 to DA2 to MMRPG and to/from WoTC. So I'm just trying to understand if each adventure is supposed to be a different point in the timeline of Blackmoor or what.

I think the best way around this is to say that the events of the DA modules was played out, but that those situations were not fully played out. Perhaps Blackmoor did send agents to the Duchy of Ten which halted an Afridhi invasion, but Toska Rusa was not killed. Similarly, heroes may have rescued Lady Rissa Aleford from the Temple of the Frog (she is not in the d20 Temple of the Frog), but St. Stephen survived and the temple was not destroyed.


The MMRPG was considered non-canonical, but those authors did such an amazing job with that line that I think it is worth recognising their contributions. The MMRPG basically incorporated the d20 Modules into their season storylines. As you say, the MMPRG starts in 1030.

There were four seasons of the 3E MMRPG. I am not sure if we could have one season per year, or if it makes more sense to stretch things out a bit?

The last few modules of the MMRPG dealt with building up to the dramatic events that dealt with the Age of the Wolf. The main 4E Blackmoor book is set in 1030, but the plan was to release a series of 4E Blackmoor books in the Age of the Wolf setting.

-Havard