5 Reasons Why Building a Blackmoor Community is Hard

[Havard]

I wrote a 5 THINGS article on my blog:

5 Reasons Why Building a Blackmoor Community is Hard

Its been more than 16 years since I first set up a website dedicated to Blackmoor. Later I also started this blog and with the help of several friends we started the Comeback Inn Forum. It has been an amazing journey, but not without some frustration along the way. It is impressive to see how forums like Canonfire, The Piazza, Dragonsfoot or OD&D74 have grown into such vibrant communties. Sometimes it makes me a little disappointed that there is so little activity in the community we have tried to build for Blackmoor.

Building any fan community online can be very difficult. The Golden Days of Forums may (or may not) be over and even D&D fandom might not be in the same position we were during the 3E/OSR heydays of the early 2000s. However, I want to look at some things that present unique challenges for building a Blackmoor community

1. BLACMOOR IS A SMALL NICHE
Blackmoor is an extremely important phenomenon and its ties to D&D history is unique. However, very few people ever used Blackmoor in their games or if they did it was just for a brief period of time. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is that Blackmoor never had that many products linked to it before Zeitgeist Games started publishing the D20 Blackmoor line. This means that even though Blackmoor predates most other D&D Worlds, it lacks the long history of fandom that worlds like Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms or even Mystara possess.


2. PEOPLE LIKE TO READ, NOT POST
I am super happy when people take the time to comment on this blog or post on our forums. That is really something that keeps giving me inspiration and also helps me know if I am moving in the right direction or if I'm posting things people aren't interested in. But even when people don't comment, I notice that alot of people are reading my stuff. So even though you have to take into account that there are bots and other things that might inflate statistics, there are apparently people who find these things interesting without ever letting me know about it. That is okay too. But if you have the time to leave a comment ever once in a while, know that it will put a smile on my face.


I have also been made aware of the fact that some people are mainly out there to steal research and ideas and put them into their own published material for profit. For a while this almost made me stop posting. It is extremely frustrating knowing that people will do something like that, especially when I am usually willing to allow people to use most of my material just as long as they give me credit. That's not alot to ask is it?

Ultimately though, I realized that I can't have this annoyance at content thieves prevent me from writing about the things I love. I love doing the research, coming up with ideas and sharing these things with others who love the same thing. Lets just hope Karma comes along and kicks those thief butts.




3. PEOPLE WANT TO SET UP THEIR OWN COMMUNITIES INSTEAD OF JOINING
I don't own Blackmoor, or the history of Dave Arneson's Legacy. But we have been working our butts off for this for a long time. If people want to set up their own forums, groups, blogs etc for Blackmoor, that is great too. I will usually join those places and see if anyone wants to talk to me there. However, when people invite me to their places to talk about Blackmoor, I do think to myself: Hey, sure I can join YOUR place, but maybe you do me the courtesy of joining MY place too? And for more than a single post with a link to YOUR place?

So, please create your own places and show your dedication to our shared fandom, but if we all sit in our own houses, that's not much of a community. If you join us, we will join you too!




4. BLACKMOOR FANDOM IS FRAGMENTED
We have Old School Blackmoor Fans, Mystara Blackmoor Fans, Greyhawk Blackmoor Fans, D20 Blackmoor fans and many others. My dream was always to get these different groups to get together and talk about our common love. But this proved to be incredibly difficult from the start. Many old school fans didn't even want to look at the D20 line due to it being associated with that specific ruleset. Many D20 Blackmoor fans, the ones who learned about Blackmoor during the d20 Era, ended up being a less loyal fanbase, being more fans of the system than the world itself.

This isn't true about al of them though, and we do have fans from all corners of Blackmoor interracting now at The Comeback Inn and other places.




5. THE SHADOW OF CONTROVERSY
To some people the main interest in Blackmoor and Dave Arneson is to dig up dirt from the old Gary vs. Dave debate. Some support one or the other. Others again are just looking for a fight. We need to move away from that. Both men have passed away. The truth of what really happened is complicated. It requires careful examiniation, not people shouting at eachother. It also makes some people so uncomfortable they rather stay away or stay silent. That's not what we need!

But more importantly, Blackmoor fandom has so much more to offer! Our examinations of what Dave Arneson did in his campaign should not always be about what he did before or after Gary. Let us look at Dave Arneson's world out of its own wealth of ideas for the sake of getting inspiration from those ideas. Not everything needs to be a competition. What can Blackmoor offer your games today? THAT is what we should get together and build our community on.


FINAL WORDS
Building a community is always hard. That doesn't mean we stop doing it. We are here because we have a common passion. Come and join us! We have some amazing people with us already. Some who have played with and known Dave Arneson. Others are just fans like you. Speak up. Ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask stupid ones. Share your ideas. We can only build this together!




Full version on my blog: https://blackmoormystara.blogspot.com/2 ... kmoor.html



-Havard

[Rafael]

Even though my GIF on FB might have been a bit misplaced in retrospect, I want to say: I'm proud of you writing this, brother. Good work!

[Dormouse]

Thank you, Havard, for supporting the Secrets of Blackmoor filming effort. If we can get this film out the door, it may be a help in getting the Blackmoor Community to become more robust! The original Blackmoor Community meets once a year in May to continue the adventures. It is quite an experience to have a continuous adventure with a whole year in between! But, we find great satisfaction in exploring the old haunts, as we help Queen Malia reclaim her Father's Kingdom. The same but different: there is still life and interest in the ordinary of our lives.

Megarry, out.

[Rafael]

I think this topic has two layers: The general one, and the one specific to Havard and his efforts.

Generally, factioneering and tinfoil hat craziness is what you get in D&D; as I observe it, this has mainly to do with the kind of people that look for beer money. Opinions, to many, have become brands or opportunities to sell, the same way that homemade adventures, maps, and art have become "micro-publications". And so, what should be a form of constructive exchange has, in large parts of the oldschool community, morphed into a fairly mean-spirited competition for breadcrumbs. "Breadcrumbs", as, in the words of my favorite poet, Croaker the Annalist: "Take people's bread away, and they will fight you to the death. Take people's bread away, and leave them some breadcrumbs, as you do it, and they will fight themselves to the death." - Because why should everyone have nice things if one dude believes he can sell five bucks worth of PDFs, or add another new follower to the three other people that read his blog? - I don't think this overbearing mentality will change any time soon; so, what we have been experiencing with Blackmoor is simply part of the zeitgeist. (Not intended as a pun.) But I DO believe that the silent majority of people that visit even the darker corners of the web - like our little community here admittedly is - come here simply because they enjoy the game. And it's that silent majority that counts, in this case.


Specifically, concerning Havard's efforts, I am now going to do what people really only rarely have seen me do: To praise my old colleague for the hero he is. (Now, now, contain your tears of love-filled emotion, everyone.)

So, I have worked with Havard in the past, and, in the backhanded way that I shall now go on to write this, what I can say is that his most distinguishing feature is the absence of some features: Namely, hysteria, greed, and malice. - As in, do any of you see a goddamn PayPal button on the bottom of this page? Or, on the Archives?! Or, has anybody (but me, in Admin, while we were fighting the good fight ) ever gotten anything else from Havard, but a friendly, and low-fi answer to any question or plea? NO. And even so, that's not something most people tend to think of as a quality. Yet, it is the very highest kind of quality.

- I've known Havard for roughly 15 years now, and the one thing I can say from practical experience, and without reservation, is that he is and remains a true "knight of the realm". He serves the community. Other people come and go - hell, *I* came and went :wink: - but Havard stays with Blackmoor. Without any aspirations to monetize, without any of his operations centering on his person, or selling himself as sort of a character. That's why we all have stuck with him, through good times and through bad. Because we've not come here "just" because of we enjoy the game, any more, in a long time. We come here because Havard has managed tp create a community that transcends the game. He has done so selflessly; yet without him, this wouldn't possibly work. - And that, again, is the worst, and the best thing to say about a community such as ours.

*Tips his hat.*

[Yaztromo]

in the words of my favorite poet, Croaker the Annalist: "Take people's bread away, and they will fight you to the death. Take people's bread away, and leave them some breadcrumbs, as you do it, and they will fight themselves to the death."

hock: Wow! This is great!!! 8) :!:

[Havard]

Thank you, Havard, for supporting the Secrets of Blackmoor filming effort. If we can get this film out the door, it may be a help in getting the Blackmoor Community to become more robust! The original Blackmoor Community meets once a year in May to continue the adventures. It is quite an experience to have a continuous adventure with a whole year in between! But, we find great satisfaction in exploring the old haunts, as we help Queen Malia reclaim her Father's Kingdom. The same but different: there is still life and interest in the ordinary of our lives.

Megarry, out.

Thank you so much Mr Megarry!

Having the support of the orginal Gaming Group really warms my heart. I can't wait to watch the complete documentary. It is really great that you guys are still doing your annual Blackmoor meeting. I hope my old gaming group can keep it going as long as you

-Havard

[Saracenus]

Long time reader, first time poster...

Havard, as someone who is attempting to help organize the fragmented Greyhawk fandom we face many of the same problems you are (and the scales between Blackmoor and Greyhawk are not that vast in comparison to some of the larger fandoms out there).

Why is Greyhawk suddenly ascending right now in the fan community? Really it is a combination of things. We are not bound by one platform, in fact we are spreading out where ever we can. Some highlights:

* Facebook Groups. There are a lot of them dedicated to them. We range in size from less then a 100 members all the way to 2,000+ member beomouths. The one I run for Canonfire! is about 900 members right now and growing and the other I assist Anna Meyer with, The Flanaess Geographical Society, is one of the bigger ones. Sages of Greyhawk is another very large group.

* Twitch streams. The Greyhawk Channel is massive. They are usually running live play 5e Greyhawk games once a day and now host a 1-2 hour talk show called Legends & Lore every Thursday. There are two other streams, LordGosumba's Knights of Ulek campaign (30 years old, a hybrid 1e/2e campaign) and Return to the Bandit Kingdoms by wickedstudiosllc. I believe there is a spinoff live play group from TGHC based out of Mexico by Winged Horizon.

* Discord chat servers. This has replaced iRC chat as the main focal point of real time text chat (with modern conveniences and voice chat too). This has been invaluable to organize fans, patreons, and the actual organizers. Slack has some limits and has not caught fire except where it already being used by tech-heads.

* Greyhawk Online is being resurrected. This used to host my Greyhawk Heraldry site and many other Greyhawk content producers. Hopefully we will see some great things from this site again soon.

I cannot say enough about Anna Meyer's maps. Having Greyhawk maps that are available to everyone to use under a non-commercial use license. The work of Joseph Block, Mike Bridges, Allan, Maldin, etc. on their websites and blogs are anchor points for this modern push.

The main thing we are doing is finding folks that want to move forward (whatever WotC decides to do with Greyhawk or not) and we support one another. There is a growing community of creators that are trying help each other succeed because we see everyone being raised up by the tide right now.

Keep plugging away at it. Hopefully some folks will be inspired by your work and start making their own... The other thing that would help, is if Arnesons' Estate will make his work available again in a modern format and/or some sort of retro clone.

You do good work and hopefully it will catch fire like Greyhawk has.

[Greg]

You'll notice that Twitch and live play videos are a huge part of Greyhawk's resurgence. If you're not on Twitch or YouTube and not using video to reach your audience, you're missing out on today's most important and effective online marketing medium.

It's also important to be on newer social media platforms such as Reddit.

Unfortunately, this is probably limiting Blackmoor. If you search for videos on YouTube, there are no Blackmoor live play videos and there is almost no related content other than clips from forthcoming documentaries, a couple of reviews of adventures such as Temple of the Frog, and one person's review of the Blackmoor D20 campaign setting books.

If you can do interviews or work with some video content creators such as WebDM, Nerdarchy, Matt Colville, The Mighty Gluestick or other Twitch and YouTube streamers, that could help build exposure and share links to the Blackmoor community.

Beyond this, until someone steps forward to create Blackmoor videos on the setting, its history, available adventures, live play, and how DMs and players can use it in their games, it's going to remain relatively obscure.

Hopefully the documentaries will help the cause, but it will take much more than they can provide on their own.

Personally, I've been wanting to start a D&D-related YouTube channel for the past 18 months, but I haven't invested in the hardware and software yet. I don't know if I will ever have the time to launch a full effort. I'm also not as qualified as many other players and DMs. I only played a little bit of D&D in the mid-1980s and early 90s, although I had quite a few rulebooks and adventures and read many of the early novels.

But then I was away from the hobby for all of 3E and 4E. I've played regularly since the release of 5E in 2014, but my experience is still rather limited. In fact, I have never played or run a session in Blackmoor. I intend to change that soon, but I've been quite busy playing in a Greyhawk campaign for more than two years now.

However, if I end up launching a channel, I will certainly cover some Blackmoor-related content to share the original Blackmoor group's role in the history of the game and encourage people to consider the setting for their home campaigns.

[Havard]

Long time reader, first time poster...

Havard, as someone who is attempting to help organize the fragmented Greyhawk fandom we face many of the same problems you are (and the scales between Blackmoor and Greyhawk are not that vast in comparison to some of the larger fandoms out there).

Hello Saracenus! Welcome to The Comeback Inn!

If you have the time later, feel free to introduce yourself to the rest of the group in our hello thread. You might also want to sign up for the Bailif's group (hello thread post required) afterwards so you get to access some of the hidden treasures of this place.

Why is Greyhawk suddenly ascending right now in the fan community? Really it is a combination of things. We are not bound by one platform, in fact we are spreading out where ever we can. Some highlights:

Thanks for the great suggestions! There is only so much I can do myself, but will keep all of these ideas in mind. If others want to help out, that is even better. Although if people want to set up their own Blackmoor stuff, it would be nice if they come here and talk to us so we can work together instead of everyone just doing their own thing.

You do good work and hopefully it will catch fire like Greyhawk has.

Thanks for the words of encouragement! And thank you for signing up! We will keep fighting the good fight on our end!

I would also like to see more development on the Greyhawk Archbarony of Blackmoor too so it should be possible to have more cooperation between GH and BM fandom

-Havard

[Havard]

You'll notice that Twitch and live play videos are a huge part of Greyhawk's resurgence. If you're not on Twitch or YouTube and not using video to reach your audience, you're missing out on today's most important and effective online marketing medium.

It's also important to be on newer social media platforms such as Reddit.

Hi Greg! Great input!

My own time, know-how and resources is too limited to cover every platform, but we certainly need to look at all the options. This discussion has been very helpful in that regard.

Right now Blackmoor is present on several discussion forums, my blog, MeWe, Facebook, Gplus etc.

We will certainly look into expanding and others are welcome to help!

However, if I end up launching a channel, I will certainly cover some Blackmoor-related content to share the original Blackmoor group's role in the history of the game and encourage people to consider the setting for their home campaigns.

If you (or anyone else) do, please make sure to let us know so that we can help spread the word and support you in any way we can.

-Havard