Hello. New to Blackmoor.

[Havard]

Greetings.

I am new to Blackmoor. I just registered here and also requested membership over at the thepiazza.org board.

Hello! And Welcome to the Comeback Inn! I sent you a PM over at the Piazza before I noticed that you had posted here. We are a small family of hard core Blackmoor enthusiasts here, so new blood is very much welcome.

New campaign time:
So that's why I am here. I suggested to the other DM (one of my players as well) that we should run a nostalgia type campaign. Something old school. At first I was thinking of resurrecting first edition and running a Greyhawk campaign set during 576 CY (that's the folio/original boxed set time line). He didn't seem too keen on it. I then suggested that I had never played Basic D&D and maybe we could try that. He had actually played BECMI before and was somewhat interested but still didn't seem too keen on it. He then suggested we play Blackmoor. He knew I had bought a copy of the d20 hardcover Blackmoor book from GenCon 2004. I actually bought it directly from Dave Arneson at the Goodman Games booth and he signed it (mostly why I grabbed it). I looked through it before but had never really read it. I also just this week purchased a copy of the 4E book for five dollars.

So I am considering running a campaign set in Blackmoor with not much knowledge of the game world. I own the d20 hard cover book and the 4E softcover book. I also have access to the DA series ESD modules.

Congratulations! Sounds like you have all the material you need to run a gerat campaign. BECMI is my personal favorite edition of D&D so if you will be using that ruleset, I am almost jealous

Been trying to find information on Blackmoor but all the websites are coming up Error 404 or in Japanese. I see that they had a Living campaign too. I would love to get those modules to use a source materials but searches bring up more 404's.

If you are looking for web resources may I humbly recommend http://blackmoor.mystara.us which this forum is part of, but which also has lots of articles and downloadable goodies for you. This thread also lists several good websites.

Unfortunately most of the official sites have been shut down, but we have preserved as much of that material as we have been able to on these pages.

Any tips, information pointers, and help is appreciated. My investigations so far pretty much tell me that I can choose to run Blackmoor as its own setting, part of the BECMI world, or perhaps even part of Greyhawk. I haven't decided which is the best approach on this.

Basically this is correct. There are also links to the Wilderlands Setting from Judges Guild. Although I am a huge fan of the BECMI world (Mystara) and of connecting settings in general, I would recommend just focusing on Blackmoor itself. The most successful campaigns I have DMed have focused on a small geographical region, allowing the PCs to become very familiar with details, befriending NPCs, gaing allies and enemies etc. Blackmoor has enough challenges and opportunities to keep your campaign going for years. Most importantly this is not a decision you would need to make right away. If the campaign becomes very long lasting and the PCs gain very high levels, it might be worth deciding what would happen if they left the main map, but from the beginning Blackmoor has more than enough to keep them busy.

Do the Blackmoor Living scenarios touch the Known World at all? Is any of that still available?

Not AFAIK. The Living Blackmoor (or MMRPG) was part of the lisenced D20 product line, which did not include a lisence for the Known World. I know that some of the people involved in writing the adventures were Known World fans, so they may have stuck in some teasers, but I havent been able to find any yet.

The scenarios are for the most part currently unavailable, but will be made available again soon. When and where will be announced on this forum.

Hope you like this place. Feel free to ask more questions if you have any. I would also be very interested in hearing about how your campaign develops, so please post and tell us about it here

-Havard