What is the "feel" of Blackmoor?

[boddynock]

I think I asked this once of Havard before and I'd be eager to read what he and others have in mind. But in this thread I'd like to get an idea of what people think Blackmoor should "feel" like. What are some of its themes, what kind of mood do you think the setting is trying to evoke?

To give an example let's look at something like Dragonlance. Now according to 2nd edition Arcane Spell Compendium, Dragonlance is billed as a "Fantasy Romance". To an extent I agree, it is a world of sweeping epics and at least one (I would say no great, not terrible, but not great) love story between Tanis Half-Elven and the cat fight between an elf princess and a dragon warlord to be with him. Okay, joking aside I do get the feel that Dragonlance is, for good or ill trying to be a sweeping epic.

Greyhawk, to me, is trying to be something of a pulp fiction story. A land of ner'do'wells adventuring and occasionally going to war against each other. This might be old hat, or I might be wrong, but Greyhawk does have the feeling and themes of pulp fantasy.

Mystara has that too, but it's a got a lighter tone, a little more swashbuckling and derring-do over the sandal shod conquerers of Oerth. While Oerth is a little more consistent of being grasslands with only the occasionally desert- Mystara embraces the idea that you can cross a mountain from knightly Karameikos and end up in the Persian-esque Emirates of Ylaruam.

So what is the feel of Blackmoor to you? And a follow-up question, what kind of feel do you like to bring when being GM of a Blackmoor game?

For me, and me as a neophyte into Blackmoor (the d20 book is on order and I've only read FFC): Blackmoor to me comes off as a good middle between the serious Greyhawk and the swashbuckling Mystara. It has a pretty consistent land of swamps, grasslands, and mountains and doesn't try to establish too many distinct cultures right across the border from each other. There is a little bit of that, but it's not like Viking-land and Mongol-nation are a hop, skip, and jump in hexes.

Yet there is also a steamtank, a crashed space ship, and a bunch of space origin coots cooking up frogs to eat people.

And I love it, I'm firmly in embracing what some might consider the "sillier" stuff and don't mind playing it straight or playing it with subversive winks and nods that this is silly stuff. I embrace it maybe because I like to feel a little kiddish and don't mind the wacky.

So, forum reader who has been patient in reading this long missive, what do you feel is Blackmoor's feeling and theme? And what do you like to emphasize when you are GMing Blackmoor?

[Rafael]

My own "adaptations" of Blackmoor always were pretty liberal and, quite honetly, pretty distant from the original sources.

That said, I think my portrayal was pretty consistent, at least in the online games I ran.



Usually, I name as my three main exterior sources for the LFC:

"The First King of Shannara", by Terry Brooks. The "Osten Ard" series by Tad Williams, perhaps the decisive inspiration for the entire game. And, even though I don't necessarily like the author all too much, Moorcock's Elric and Hawkmoon stories.

In personal retrospect, I think the Runestaff series might well be the closest to what the original FFC might have been like.

[finarvyn]

For me, Blackmoor has always been a "traditional fantasy" type of campaign with a hint of technology sprinkled in. Basic classes, basic races, basic monsters, but then occasionally a light saber or a medical tricorder. In some ways perhaps a hint of Empire of the Petal Throne, which I discovered slightly before the FFC book came out.

In personal retrospect, I think the Runestaff series might well be the closest to what the original FFC might have been like.

That's a great observation. I hadn't made that particular connection, but now that you mention it... 8)

[Rafael]

Hehe, thanks. I just dawned on me that this *really* is something that I might never have brought up before on the boards. While I think that the original feel of Arneson's BM was purely organic (Braunstein narrative conventions + NapoMini narrative conventions + individual preferences, like Spanish mythology, and Moorcock's Elric series), I don't think the setting is that out of its time as people generally try to make it:

Especially in the 80s, there's a ton of fiction where we meet the Blackmoorian tropes in a very similar pairing. Moorcock is one; Raymond Feist, another; and good Angus Wells, possibly my personal favorite fantasy author OF AAAAALL TIME, or, well, when I was 15 - his "The Kyngdoms", that one is so much Blackmoor, it's like me going to Baltimore, founding an NFL team, giving it a bird logo, and naming it "The Crows".

That's not to say that people ripped off Arneson - he most likely was not that well-known, even then -, but that his style of fantasy was not whatever sorts of unpopular. All too the contrary, I'd say the narrative tropes of Blackmoor-style fantasy have well survived the decline of Sword & Sorcery in the late 80s; so, younger fans (like myself) don't have to dig really deep until you can get your "Blackmoor flav", even if the original series is not seeing any sort of continuation.

[Havard]

Good question.

This is all going to be subjective.

Standard Fantasy, I agree, but what is that these days? My impression is that Blackmoor is more Dark Ages/Arthurian in its atmosphere. Perhaps also closer to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings in style than how much of D&D developed into its own branch of the genre later on.


Some other important themes:

Civilization vs. Decadence
Whether it is the drug abusing, pleasure seeking cowards of the Peaks, the Hedonistic Afridhi or the decaying Thonian Empire; they all contrast against King Uther and Blackmoor being a beacon of justice and enlightenment.


Wilderness
Greyhawk has its Lankhmar-ish City of Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms has Waterdeep. There are cities (Maus comes to mind) in Blackmoor too, but they are in the background while small towns surrounded by wilderness is the core of the setting. Blackmoor is a remote province in the North. Arneson never even gave us a map of the world beyond that region. This makes the Wilderness aspect even more imposing than in many other settings.

Ancient Evils
This is more of a sword & sorcery theme actually. The Egg of Coot, the Temple of the Frog, the demons from the lower levels of the Blackmoor Dungeon. All point to the idea that the human world is built on the ruins of a more ancient and sinister one that still has not completely let go.

Gonzo
If you go by the later material, you would say lasers, robots and space ships. This is really one of the major issues when it comes to how Blackmoor appears different from other settings. But if you look at Dave Arneson's DMing style, I think it is better to explain these things as examples of his Gonzo attitude. To me this is basically the same as the "why not" attitude. If the DM or players think it might be fun, throw it in there. That's where the Space Ship, Nazis, Frogmen and everything came from, I think.



-Havard

[finarvyn]

Standard Fantasy, I agree, but what is that these days?

A great point. For me, "standard fantasy" is mostly the stuff from Appendix N.

Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser. Conan. Elric. Stories of heroes who fight big bad things, yet hang out in cities to carouse and make trouble. Heroes who may not be paladins, but who have a clear code of ethics and tend to fight for the little guy. That kind of thing (to me) makes up "standard fantasy" and are the bedrock of my concept of OD&D and Blackmoor.

Tolkien is different than the three examples I mentioned, yet still fits my "standard fantasy" definition. His elves and dwarves are all so iconic. The notion of the epic quest -- slaying dragons for treasure, sneaking through the dungeons of Moria -- all fit into the style of play that I associate with OD&D and with Blackmoor.

Beyond this, I toss in Burroughs' Barsoom. Saving the princess, strange technology that can do cool things, those things bring out the wonder of OD&D and Blackmoor.

Actually, I find it hard to seperate my notion of "what is OD&D" from "what is Blackmoor" because both have been so blended together in my mind for too many decades. The two are really one in my mind.

Just my two coppers.

[RobJN]

Blackmoor, to me, has always been mysterious. The Evil in Id, the Alien Coot, the radiance- drenched City of the Gods, which fell from the skies.

Blackmoor has always been about the little guy, fighting the good fight despite the odds, doing what is right, rather than what is easy.

It has been about confronting evils, both at your doorstep as well as under the bed.

It has always had a bit of a story-time appeal, a legendary place ripped out of time...I suppose I can thank the DA series and the distant-past placement in Mystara for much of this, for that has shaped the majority of my exposure to the setting.

[chirine ba kal]

All very good answers! When I played with Dave, his view of his world was very internally consistent, but you had to stay awake and on your toes at all times. He was fast, he was good, and he was deadly; Dave was a fun GM and player, but he played for keeps. From my own point of view, look hardest at the earlier materials; the 'real Dave' tends to get a little lost in the later D20 material, as Dave did a lot less writing as he got older.

As an example of classic 'Arnesonian' Blackmoor game play, may I suggest:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcSWsdTdYGI

I've sat through this kind of thing all the time with Dave - he was a master of convoluted plots and complicated situations! You had to think twice about everything, and really stay with the flow of the game.

[finarvyn]

From my own point of view, look hardest at the earlier materials; the 'real Dave' tends to get a little lost in the later D20 material, as Dave did a lot less writing as he got older.

Thanks for this. I think I always felt this intuitively and got that impression from conversations with Dave, but it's nice to have confirmation from one who played with him a lot.

[Yaztromo]

I read somewhere that if a character died in a dungeon in Greyhawk, his/her companions put the corpse over a shield and marched out of the dungeon and to tribute a hero's funeral, while in Blackmoor they all jumped to plunder the corpse...
One aspect that I think can't really be found in "modern" campaigns/worlds is the mentioned "gonzo", which personally I find quite amusing (in healthy doses...)