The NWFP Connection

[Havard]

Your view of the DA series could be right of course but for me its seems too radicaly different in tone and substance from the Blackmoor of FCC to see it as being what Arneson had in mind.

I think this is what would happen to any early age product revised for a "Silver Age" audience. In the DA series, Blackmoor was presented as a cohesive setting with a history, clearly presented cultures for each nation and detailed writeups of the NPCs in the region. Most in-jokes were also removed. I agree that this is a significant departure from a "Golden Age" product, but having gotten into gaming in the Silver Age myself, this is the only way I understand the term setting. Earlier books were campaign models or examples of play rather than settings in the modern sense.

Tim Kask said about OD&D that if you opened one of the original D&D booklets and had never been exposed to D&D and also did not have any background in Wargaming, there would be alot in those rulebooks that you would not understand. Similarly, I would argue that the FFC is written for an audience with a Wargaming/OD&D background. The FFC is a gold mine for a Blackmoor fan, but as an introduction to the setting for someone who is used to D&D products from the 80s or later, it will be very confusing.

Ritchie moves the timeline a few decades into the future. He then details the setting based on the premises laid out by Arneson. The Duchy of Ten, Egg of Coot, Skandaharians, Peshwa, Afridhi, Valley of the Ancients etc are all concepts from Arneson's campaign which are now presented for a Silver Age audience. The main bulk of the NPCs in the DA modules are based on PCs from Arneson's campaign.

But all the gonzo/in-joke/war gaming stuff is gone since it will be of very little use for the Silver Age gamers. Yes, it is a departure from how Blackmoor was presented in the FFC, but the departure is mainly in how it is presented and not the spirit of the setting.

Anyway, I would merely point out that Dave Arneson was a remarkably good natured and collegial fellow who considered gaming to be a group project. He posted on ODD74 that basically everything published should be considered canon whether he had much input to it or not, so its no surprise the zgg line builds on that.

At least we can agree on this:

Arneson=Awesome


-Havard