06-16-2011, 08:37 PM
First, Its awsome that you are taking an interest in the first fantasy role playing campaign setting. It is a rich and open world.
You will have to consider when in the blackmoor timeline (see the 4e book) you will set your campaign. My own is set around the time of the temple of the ID and you can look thorough the threads here for info on that if you are at all interested. I use a "pure" Blackmoor world meaning not tacked on to some other setting, but its probably more common to play blackmoor as either an extension of the Wilderlands or as an ancient era of the Mystara setting.
To make it Blackmoor in feel, I'd advise you not to import a lot of monsters and race types. There is already a ton of stuff, and elves in particular, with thier Westryn Cumasti split have a certian history. What you are suggesting is kinda like wanting to play a middle earth campaingn but replacing all the hobbits with Kender or all the orcs with slestak or something. Might be interesting, but wouldn't be Middle earth.
Just my 2 cents.
Ya know... If you are really after a '70's era nostalgia kind of experience you might look into Dragons at Dawn. I wrote it, so I don't mean to toot my own horn here, but I get the sense that there is a great deal you may not be aware of in regards to the early days of gaming and the Blackmoor setting. You should at least look at the preiview on lulu and read the intro - it might inspire your game. Also, really look through the posts on this forum and on the ODD74 blackmoor board.
Yeah very Hokey, one of the first things I ditched back when I bought Temple of the Frog when it was newly released. You can thank TSR for that marketing brainstorm. Calenders, No, Havard may have better info, but to my knowledge there is no calendar in the DA series. Go with what's in DAB d20. Its official anyway, in ways that the DA series is not.
You will have to consider when in the blackmoor timeline (see the 4e book) you will set your campaign. My own is set around the time of the temple of the ID and you can look thorough the threads here for info on that if you are at all interested. I use a "pure" Blackmoor world meaning not tacked on to some other setting, but its probably more common to play blackmoor as either an extension of the Wilderlands or as an ancient era of the Mystara setting.
New Blackmoor DM Wrote:Havard Wrote: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
Thanks for the welcome. I strongly considered using BECMI and 1E AD&D as well. I even briefly looked at the new Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. The whole idea for playing in Blackmoor was to play something nostalgic and retrograde for fun. I don't want the game sessions to be about learning a new system so we will probably end up using Fourth Edition D&D rules but I intend on trying to emphasis the "old school" factor. Probably only going to allow traditional 1E races with the Eladrin as a stand in for Gray Elves and I might allow the new race in the 4E Blackmoor book.
To make it Blackmoor in feel, I'd advise you not to import a lot of monsters and race types. There is already a ton of stuff, and elves in particular, with thier Westryn Cumasti split have a certian history. What you are suggesting is kinda like wanting to play a middle earth campaingn but replacing all the hobbits with Kender or all the orcs with slestak or something. Might be interesting, but wouldn't be Middle earth.
Just my 2 cents.
New Blackmoor DM Wrote:I found this website from doing various searches on Blackmoor and classic D&D fonts. I always make up a campaign pack booklet to hand out to all the prospective players before we start a campaign. I am going to make this one up in all 1970's and early 1980's D&D style. I plan on using old style character sheets as well but with 4E information. I will probably print them up on golden rod, blue, or green paper.
Ya know... If you are really after a '70's era nostalgia kind of experience you might look into Dragons at Dawn. I wrote it, so I don't mean to toot my own horn here, but I get the sense that there is a great deal you may not be aware of in regards to the early days of gaming and the Blackmoor setting. You should at least look at the preiview on lulu and read the intro - it might inspire your game. Also, really look through the posts on this forum and on the ODD74 blackmoor board.
New Blackmoor DM Wrote:Seems some hokey time traveling scheme was used in the DA modules to bring people back and forth but I can worry about that later. Does the old DA series and new d20 material use the same in-game calenders?
Yeah very Hokey, one of the first things I ditched back when I bought Temple of the Frog when it was newly released. You can thank TSR for that marketing brainstorm. Calenders, No, Havard may have better info, but to my knowledge there is no calendar in the DA series. Go with what's in DAB d20. Its official anyway, in ways that the DA series is not.