Hello all new here I need some ideas for a new OD&D Blackmoor campaign

[Bard The Bowman]

Hello all!

I am brand new to this site. Thanks for the invite Havard. Hope some people recognize my username from a very popular book?   Anyways, I joined here to get the MMRPG season downloads. I now see it looks like the early season's are no longer available? Is that correct?   Is there no way to access them anymore at all? Anyways, I am currently reading the 3.5 Blackmoor Core rulebook and already read the First Fantasy Book. Going to start an OD&D "Blackmoor" Campaign. I was hoping to use the "adventures" from the MMRPG after B2 (I know thats for Basic, but still great for anything really besides AD&D) after that if I cannot use the MMRPG's, what do you guys use or have in mind for OD&D Blackmoor adventures? Those were never created. Don't tell me B modules. I already have a BECMI campaign going also. I am sure there is other "modules" on here others use maybe? Oh, is the 3.5 adventures any good to start with? I know there is a few small ones in the back of the Core book it seems.   Let me know your thoughts. I am kind of lost since I never played OD&D before. I know conversion from 3.5 to OD&D is going to be a PITA! Just trying to figure out what Gygax meant in the 3 LBB's was confusing for me. Thank God books like Delving Deeper and S&W was created. Matt Finch is a pretty awesome guy. I have sent him about 100 emails.   Anyways, enough rambling let me know your thoughts....

[aldarron]

Interesting question! If I understand this right, you are looking for published material to start an OD&D campaign. I think most of us create custom stuff to begin, so your case is an interesting thought experiment.

I think I might start with a mash up of Supplement II and TSR Temple of the Frog - as your starting setting. Frogtown is very flavorful and you can have all kinds of things happen to players who are there. Have them g on adventure in the swam, for example. MMRPG Episode 7 DAB – AI01 Swamp Flies by Christopher Reed is an option.

You could also tie in Garbage Pits of Despair, but that's tough for first level characters.

As for converting to OD&D, All you need is AC and HP and for 3.0+ material you basically cut the HP in half.

[Bard The Bowman]

Interesting question! If I understand this right, you are looking for published material to start an OD&D campaign. I think most of us create custom stuff to begin, so your case is an interesting thought experiment.

I think I might start with a mash up of Supplement II and TSR Temple of the Frog - as your starting setting. Frogtown is very flavorful and you can have all kinds of things happen to players who are there. Have them g on adventure in the swam, for example. MMRPG Episode 7 DAB – AI01 Swamp Flies by Christopher Reed is an option.

You could also tie in Garbage Pits of Despair, but that's tough for first level characters.

As for converting to OD&D, All you need is AC and HP and for 3.0+ material you basically cut the HP in half.

Aldarron,

I sent you a PM. I see now I can reply here. Sorry this is all new to me. Where is the world is this Swamp Files? I looked in one place I knew of and see a few scattered files but thats it. Everything is out of order. Is there an easier way to find these in order? 

Thx,
Bard the Bowman

[Havard]

Hello all!

I am brand new to this site. Thanks for the invite Havard. Hope some people recognize my username from a very popular book?   Anyways, I joined here to get the MMRPG season downloads. I now see it looks like the early season's are no longer available? Is that correct?   Is there no way to access them anymore at all?

Hi there,
welcome to the Comeback Inn!

All MMRPG episodes should be available. If you have trouble with getting any of them, let me know and I will see what the problem is. There may stll be some issues from a recent software update, but we are working to fix all those as we become aware of them

Anyways, I am currently reading the 3.5 Blackmoor Core rulebook and already read the First Fantasy Book. Going to start an OD&D "Blackmoor" Campaign. I was hoping to use the "adventures" from the MMRPG after B2 (I know thats for Basic, but still great for anything really besides AD&D) after that if I cannot use the MMRPG's, what do you guys use or have in mind for OD&D Blackmoor adventures? Those were never created. Don't tell me B modules. I already have a BECMI campaign going also. I am sure there is other "modules" on here others use maybe?

The MMRPG episodes are easy to adopt to any edition.

Since you are using OD&D, I think the DA modules (for BECMI) would be obvious options?

Oh, is the 3.5 adventures any good to start with? I know there is a few small ones in the back of the Core book it seems.   

Do you mean the Blackmoor 3.5 adventures or 3.5 adventures in general? Sure the ones in the core Blackmoor book are good. The Elven Scar is also pretty nice. And yeah, there are quite a few others to choose from

Let me know your thoughts. I am kind of lost since I never played OD&D before. I know conversion from 3.5 to OD&D is going to be a PITA! Just trying to figure out what Gygax meant in the 3 LBB's was confusing for me.

I have never found converting from a later edition to a TSR era edition too much of a problem. Just replace monsters with their OD&D equivalents.

-Havard

[Vladar]

The DA1–DA4 module series contains a pretty thorough gazetteer of Blackmoor and surrounding territories, even if the adventures within are mostly for the higher-level characters.
Converting the following editions' modules to 0e can be done on the fly by either replacing the monsters with their 0e counterparts or porting them as-is, based on the Hit Dice (don't forget that it is d6 in 0e instead of d8).

When I ran Blackmoor for my BECMI Mystara group, I incorporated the following modules, pretty much seamlessly (albeit, the group was of a pretty high level):
- DA1–DA4 series
- The Garbage Pits of Despair from Different Worlds #42 and #43
- The Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor (Zeitgeist Games)
- The Dungeons of Tonisborg (in Vestfold)
- First Fantasy Campaign for extra info

[Bard The Bowman]

Hello all!

I am brand new to this site. Thanks for the invite Havard. Hope some people recognize my username from a very popular book?   Anyways, I joined here to get the MMRPG season downloads. I now see it looks like the early season's are no longer available? Is that correct?   Is there no way to access them anymore at all?

Hi there,
welcome to the Comeback Inn!

All MMRPG episodes should be available. If you have trouble with getting any of them, let me know and I will see what the problem is. There may stll be some issues from a recent software update, but we are working to fix all those as we become aware of them   Harvard, thanks for finally replying! You're a very hard man to get a hold of btw! I wrote you a very long time ago through email and never heard back. I even asked Pandius website the webmaster Shawn and he said to get a hold of you thru here lol. ANyways, when you find the "listings" sesason 1 MMRPG and click it it gives you an error. I cannot access any of them! Do I need some kind of special access I don't have or what?

Anyways, I am currently reading the 3.5 Blackmoor Core rulebook and already read the First Fantasy Book. Going to start an OD&D "Blackmoor" Campaign. I was hoping to use the "adventures" from the MMRPG after B2 (I know thats for Basic, but still great for anything really besides AD&D) after that if I cannot use the MMRPG's, what do you guys use or have in mind for OD&D Blackmoor adventures? Those were never created. Don't tell me B modules. I already have a BECMI campaign going also. I am sure there is other "modules" on here others use maybe?

The MMRPG episodes are easy to adopt to any edition.

Since you are using OD&D, I think the DA modules (for BECMI) would be obvious options?

Oh, is the 3.5 adventures any good to start with? I know there is a few small ones in the back of the Core book it seems.   

Do you mean the Blackmoor 3.5 adventures or 3.5 adventures in general? Sure the ones in the core Blackmoor book are good. The Elven Scar is also pretty nice. And yeah, there are quite a few others to choose from  The Elven Scar, I will have to check that out. What other one's do you suggest? I don't know of any. It's why I joined this site. Is there actually "modules" made for Blackmoor campaign back in the day? Thats what I am looking for. Not ones made by people and you can just stick it in the campaign, thats stupid. Did you mean the Redwood Scar? Or is there one called The Elven Scar?

Let me know your thoughts. I am kind of lost since I never played OD&D before. I know conversion from 3.5 to OD&D is going to be a PITA! Just trying to figure out what Gygax meant in the 3 LBB's was confusing for me.

I have never found converting from a later edition to a TSR era edition too much of a problem. Just replace monsters with their OD&D equivalents.

-Havard

[aldarron]

Answered your PM, but for the sake of completeness and anyone else who might be interested I'm reposting the meat of it here:

"Temple of the Frog is an excellent setting for first level adventures to start from. What you need to start with is a location in Blackmoor to base your players. The town of Blackmoor never got officially fleshed out so you'd have to homebrew it , BUT Frogtown is pretty well described with a lot of interesting flavor characters and would make a great home base to seed adventures from. No I absolutely was not recommending the high level adventure part of the module for your first level characters!  

One that comes to mind that I've run before from Frogtown is Pyramid of the Dragon, by Peter Spahn for LL, but it is a 5-7 level adventure.
However one that might be ideal for you is The Sunken Fort by Nickolas Z Brown (Five Cataclysms). I haven't run this one yet myself but it looked fun when I picked up the pdf. It is for first level characters and could easily be hinted at from Frogtown.

Now If you don't want to start them in Frogtown, your options are to homebrew additional details for an existing town description in the books or crib something from the MMRPG campaign. That will work, but most of the MMRPG stuff isn't super detailed when it comes to towns. I think Heronport and Kings Crossing get decent treatment, however both of those places were made up for the MMRPG."

Okay  now its Swamp F-l-i-e-s not files. That's one of the MMRPG adventures. These can be freely downloaded from this site (although 
my log in-link has been broken for years - but that's a me problem). Now I will say that the MMRPG adventures all follow a particular somewhat unusual and dialog heavy format that I personally find challenging to run and I spend a lot of time reading them and then winging it at the table (again, probably a me problem).

[Bard The Bowman]

Answered your PM, but for the sake of completeness and anyone else who might be interested I'm reposting the meat of it here:

"Temple of the Frog is an excellent setting for first level adventures to start from. What you need to start with is a location in Blackmoor to base your players. The town of Blackmoor never got officially fleshed out so you'd have to homebrew it , BUT Frogtown is pretty well described with a lot of interesting flavor characters and would make a great home base to seed adventures from. No I absolutely was not recommending the high level adventure part of the module for your first level characters!  Hey Dan thanks for replying back! Finally getting somewhere. You and Harvard have now replied and I am starting to understand a little bit of this campaign more. I am currently reading "3.5" edition of Arneson's Blackmoor campaign book and tweaking it to OD&D. I started B1 since that can be used for anything basically and just filled the rooms with basic easy monsters. =) I had no clue where to start but B1 is awesome for anything. Now for Frogtown, are you referring to the NPC's and such in the DA adventure? Or is this something else? 

One that comes to mind that I've run before from Frogtown is Pyramid of the Dragon, by Peter Spahn for LL, but it is a 5-7 level adventure.
However one that might be ideal for you is The Sunken Fort by Nickolas Z Brown (Five Cataclysms). I haven't run this one yet myself but it looked fun when I picked up the pdf. It is for first level characters and could easily be hinted at from Frogtown. Ahhh, so basically ya'all just pick adventures from Drivethru and put them in the campaign? I was assuming that's what you do but was not sure. Its why I am asking on here. =) Those cost $$$ but look good. Thanks for the tip on those. 

Now If you don't want to start them in Frogtown, your options are to homebrew additional details for an existing town description in the books or crib something from the MMRPG campaign. That will work, but most of the MMRPG stuff isn't super detailed when it comes to towns. I think Heronport and Kings Crossing get decent treatment, however both of those places were made up for the MMRPG."
Okay  now its Swamp F-l-i-e-s not files. That's one of the MMRPG adventures. These can be freely downloaded from this site (although 
my log in-link has been broken for years - but that's a me problem). Now I will say that the MMRPG adventures all follow a particular somewhat unusual and dialog heavy format that I personally find challenging to run and I spend a lot of time reading them and then winging it at the table (again, probably a me problem). I am still not finding these MMRPG files. I found a few but not this one "Swamp Flies." I see a section list of season 1, season 2, etc and when I click ANY of them it says it does not exist. Why? Do I not have access??? I asked Harvard the same. I am so lost about these and I want to download them. I play solo D&D so the fleshing out the reading is not bad playing solo. LOL Yes I have found a way to play solo and its fun! Anyways, let me know about access or where the MMRPG files are. Also, Frogtown is DA? Or a different part of Frogtown.  Lastly, I found an awesome pdf The Weird Enclave of Blackmoor with a map on a site aka Aldarron DH Boggs. Is this you????? Aren't you the same gentleman who wrote The Lost Dungeons of Tonnisburg? DH Boggs iirc. I believe this is you. =) Anyways, if you're the author, whats this pdf about? It looks awesome! D=Dan so yeah I am 99% this is you. I have been meaning to purchase this for future playing. Looks amazing!

[Havard]

Okay  now its Swamp F-l-i-e-s not files. That's one of the MMRPG adventures. These can be freely downloaded from this site (although 
my log in-link has been broken for years - but that's a me problem). Now I will say that the MMRPG adventures all follow a particular somewhat unusual and dialog heavy format that I personally find challenging to run and I spend a lot of time reading them and then winging it at the table (again, probably a me problem). I am still not finding these MMRPG files.

If you are interested in using the swamps around the Temple of the Frog (Great Dismal Swamp) as a backdrop for your campaign, I really recommend getting the d20 Version of Temple of the Frog. That book did a great job of fleshing out all the different islands and villages in the region.

-Havard

[Bard The Bowman]

Okay  now its Swamp F-l-i-e-s not files. That's one of the MMRPG adventures. These can be freely downloaded from this site (although 
my log in-link has been broken for years - but that's a me problem). Now I will say that the MMRPG adventures all follow a particular somewhat unusual and dialog heavy format that I personally find challenging to run and I spend a lot of time reading them and then winging it at the table (again, probably a me problem). I am still not finding these MMRPG files.

If you are interested in using the swamps around the Temple of the Frog (Great Dismal Swamp) as a backdrop for your campaign, I really recommend getting the d20 Version of Temple of the Frog. That book did a great job of fleshing out all the different islands and villages in the region. Hey thanks Harvard! I am not looking to use these yet because I am only level 1 but the info that is provided in the DA series had some good info. This also that you suggested would be great. I just want the setting info on what you all suggest. Thanks for FINALLY getting me access to the MMRPG files! I am assuming there is a lot of good adventures in there to use. =) Thanks again Harvard and Aldarron for your valuable feedback. =)

-Havard