Q&A with Jeffery Quinn

[Rafael]

Moved and stickied this.

[aldarron]

Dave had a master idea. No, it was more like a master philosophy and vision. Something greater than any major campaign arc. He and Bob Bledsaw said it to me at the GenCon booth, "in the end, did you have fun?" We had carte blanche (within limits), and the darker, grittier, wartorn, and bloodstained Blackmoor was forged from this.

Much as I suspected and the cool thing is that means we have carte blanche for alternate Blackmoor worlds. Cool beans.

Do you make royalties from your Blackmoor work Jeff? Seems like nobody can make a living in RPG writing.

[JPQuinn]

Well, RPG writing is a labor of love for most of us. There are a few of us out there that can make a great deal of money from it, but that's rare. Kinda like being an actor or a singer, you can be the best actor in your local performance of Jesus Christ: Superstar, but that doesn't mean Paramount will give you millions for it.

And by the way Rafael, I found it!

[JPQuinn]

Another thing that was new in the D20 Sourcebook was the additional information about the elves (Cumasti/Westryn split for instance). Who came up with those ideas?

That would be me. I have always seen elves and vampires as illuminated by the same spotlight. The wild, secretive, xenophobic, and deadly side of the elven personality are the Westryn. The civilized, hyper-intelligent, snobbish, and seductive elves are the Cumasti. View them as the noble rake/primal beast vampiric dichotomy.

I wanted to see lofty, flowing, artistically-twisted spires set in pristine wooded glades. But I also wanted to see a bleak, grey wasteland of death and ruin. I kept two pictures locked in my mind when designing these guys: Cumasti, New York City and Rivendell; Westryn, the scene in Lord of the Rings where Arwen (in her vision) is standing vigil over her husband, a dead King Aragorn, and the world rots around her.

So, the elves of Blackmoor are sensual, deliberate, deadly, beautiful, horrific, and wise. In the 4e version, I was a little unhappy to see that the 4e PHB races were given an opportunity to appear in Blackmoor. I understand why they were given that chance, I just wasn't pleased. If I really wanted to include the 4e PHB races in Blackmoor, I would make the eladrin into the Cumasti and the elves into the Westryn.

Matter of fact, I would do the following with all the PHB/PGB2 races:
(4e PHB) ----> (Blackmoor)
Dragonborn ---> Dragonborn from the Dragon Hills
Dwarf ---> Dwarf
Eladrin ---> Cumasti elves
Elf ---> Westryn elves
Half-elf ---> Half-elf
Halfling ---> Docrae
Human ---> Depending on the stat bonus, any human race
Tiefling ---> Afridhi half-demon or Coot-spawn humans

(4e PHB2) ----> (Blackmoor)
Deva ---> City of the Gods human (awoken from a sleep chamber)
Gnome ---> Gnome
Goliath ---> Half-giant or half-ogre
Half-orc ---> Half-orc
Shifter ---> Beastmen

(4e Others) ----> (Blackmoor)
Bladeling ---> Bladeling (from the City of the Gods or the Ash Hills)
Drow ---> Scarrythe Elf (descendants of Cumasti and Westryn clans that were tainted by a Scar)
Duergar ---> Dark Dwarf
Shadar-kai ---> Afridhi
Warforged ---> Liberated/Rogue Automaton


Classes:
(4e) ----> (Blackmoor)
Ardent ---> Ardent (Coot-spawn only)
Artificer ---> Artificer (Cabal only)
Assassin ---> No change
Avenger ---> Spy (Afridhi or Inquisition only)
Barbarian ---> No change
Bard ---> No change
Battlemind ---> Battlemind (Coot-spawn only)
Cleric ---> No change
Druid ---> No change
Fighter ---> No change
Invoker ---> Priest (Afridhi and Inquisition only)
Monk ---> No change
Paladin ---> No change
Psion ---> No change
Ranger ---> No change
Rogue ---> No change
Seeker ---> Archer (Cumasti or Westryn only)
Shaman ---> Wokan
Sorcerer ---> No change
Swordmage ---> Arcane Warrior
Warden ---> Regent Knight
Warlock ---> Afridhi Arcanist (pact with Zugzul--fire or evil)
Warlord ---> Noble
Wizard ---> No change

These are only things I would do.

[aldarron]

How did you meet Dave Arneson and /or become recruited to work on the Blackmoor in the first place?

[JPQuinn]

How did you meet Dave Arneson and /or become recruited to work on the Blackmoor in the first place?

I had heard rumblings through the RPG community about The First Fantasy Campaign being adapted to 3e. At the time I was working on the Dungeon Crawl Classics series for Goodman Games and I was a pretty avid Mystara fan. Dustin and I just kinda "clicked" as we bounced posts in forums back and forth. He asked me if I wanted to be a part of Blackmoor, I said sure and he set me to task at writing a 2 page sample about the peshwah. I turned in a 13 page paper detailing the Riders of the Hak (much of which was used in the 3e book). First, I got an email from Dustin telling me I was hired. Then, I got an email from Dave explaining some other aspects of the peshwah that I only briefly touched on that he liked and others he had only written in his own notes.From there it was 2 long years of writing and rewriting, testing and retesting, and lots of online meetings with the whole development crew.

We all got to finally meet at GenCon '04. Rich Pocklington and his girlfriend roomed with my wife and I. We had late night bouts of Settlers of Catan (I will cream you one of these days Dustin, Lord of Catan). Dave and I sat next to each other in the Goodman Games booth and signed the campaign book, DCC 3.5: The Haunted Lighthouse, and other items fans came by with. And even though many of us had never met face-to-face before then, it felt like old friends sitting around the gaming table and having fun on Saturday nite.

[Havard]

Jeff, the post I am quoting below was just brilliant. Thanks!

Another thing that was new in the D20 Sourcebook was the additional information about the elves (Cumasti/Westryn split for instance). Who came up with those ideas?

That would be me. I have always seen elves and vampires as illuminated by the same spotlight. The wild, secretive, xenophobic, and deadly side of the elven personality are the Westryn. The civilized, hyper-intelligent, snobbish, and seductive elves are the Cumasti. View them as the noble rake/primal beast vampiric dichotomy.

Pretty interesting perspective!

I wanted to see lofty, flowing, artistically-twisted spires set in pristine wooded glades. But I also wanted to see a bleak, grey wasteland of death and ruin. I kept two pictures locked in my mind when designing these guys: Cumasti, New York City and Rivendell; Westryn, the scene in Lord of the Rings where Arwen (in her vision) is standing vigil over her husband, a dead King Aragorn, and the world rots around her.

New York City? Rivendell was really my association with Redwood as well. I love the imagery you describe for the Westryn here!

So, the elves of Blackmoor are sensual, deliberate, deadly, beautiful, horrific, and wise.

Hearing these descriptions of the thoughts behind the elves really adds to my understanding of how this race was intended.

In the 4e version, I was a little unhappy to see that the 4e PHB races were given an opportunity to appear in Blackmoor. I understand why they were given that chance, I just wasn't pleased. If I really wanted to include the 4e PHB races in Blackmoor, I would make the eladrin into the Cumasti and the elves into the Westryn.

That makes sense. It seems like much less of a break with previous material than what has been done with other settings.

Tiefling ---> Afridhi half-demon or Coot-spawn humans

Looks like we are having similar ideas here.

Deva ---> City of the Gods human (awoken from a sleep chamber)

This is a pretty interesting idea. I have a blog post planned for the near future which might incorporate this....

Gnome ---> Gnome

I have to say I like the Fey connection to the Gnomes in 4E. They really seem to have been a bit misplaced in older editions, especially in a setting like Blackmoor where the invention element is distributed among many races...

Goliath ---> Half-giant or half-ogre

Works. One of the more interesting legacies from 3E.

Shifter ---> Beastmen

A bit different than how I am seeing the Beastmen, but I have toyed with the idea of Beastmen with Shifter-like abilities.

Bladeling ---> Bladeling (from the City of the Gods or the Ash Hills)

A strange creature. Related to Ash Goblins?

Drow ---> Scarrythe Elf (descendants of Cumasti and Westryn clans that were tainted by a Scar)

I love this idea! Maybe with some modified visuals?

Shadar-kai ---> Afridhi

Really? I guess I dont know enough about the Shadar-Kai...

Warforged ---> Liberated/Rogue Automaton

Yeah, I had alot of different theories on Warforged, but I agree that this is probably the best option. I have toyed with the idea that Blackmoor Unviersity mages may have been able to duplicate such automatons, but maybe that is too early still?

Thanks again!


-Havard

[Big Mac]

Hmm. I'm a 3e man personally. Would that include my kind of grognard?

Maybe not "your type" (though I wouldn't consider 3e old enough to be grog-worthy yet). But if you like Blackmoor, Wilderlands, the 3e Dungeon Crawl Classics series, and anything from 3e that was "retro-styled," then you'll love Destiny.

Well, third edition fans got the rug pulled under them, just like 2nd edition AD&D fans did (and just like OD&D fans did before them). The big 4dventure countdown was supposed to be a countdown to me putting a bunch of books into the recycling bin and going out to buy new versions of the same thing.

I certainly find both Blackmoor and Wilderlands interesting. I especially like the way that there are three versions of Wilderlands. I find that kind-of weird. But in a nice way. I know less about Wilderlands than I do about Blackmoor, but did recently buy the Majestic Wilderlands book.

I will certainly give Destiny a look. (Even if it isn't for me, I'll repost any previews over at The Piazza.)

How much of what Dave Arneson showed you has gone into printed products? (Or to put it another way, if I buy all the books, how much Blackmoor ideas are missing?) Can I get away with just buying the 3e products, or are there any pre-3e things that got missed out from the 3e line?

I would say Dave had ideas and enough written information for a least another 500 to 1000 pages. And the development teams scrambled to keep up with him. So, I don't think there would have ever been an "end" to the information that he had. I'm sure Greg and Robert (both on this board and played in his first campaign) can attest to that.

You know, every time I talk to someone about this stuff, I wish more and more that the legal stuff that was holding back Blackmoor had been put aside a lot longer ago.

It would have been really great to have had an AD&D Blackmoor and for the ZGG version to have been a refinement of that.

BTW: Do you know if any of the "lost eras" had (unpublished) Blackmoor conversions? Or did Dave Arneson always stick to classic D&D?

I'm guessing there were no conversions, although I know that Majestic Wilderlands has existed in multiple (unpublished) versions.

And as for the 3e books. A great deal of info is in there, but there is a bunch missing that we weren't allowed to touch (due to licensing agreements). Be sure to check out Basic Dungeons & Dragons, 1e D&D, and pretty much anything with Mystara and Greyhawk in it. You are bound to pick up some information in all those (plus sources like the WotC website, this site, Havard's dark and dusty mind, etc.). And brushing up on the older editions will aid you in becoming "grog-versed" (I believe there is an age prerequisite to become a grognard, check with your FLGS for what the prerequisites are in your area).

Hmm. This sounds like a job for the fan community and the ESD Conversion Agreement! :lol:

[Havard]

Jeff, did you have anything more planned out for the Black Queen? At what time in history would you suggest that the curse of the Westryn was cast?

Havard

[Havard]

Been reading about Quinke's Brigade in the Wizards Cabal. I assume they are named after you? Is there more to this story?

Havard