Commentary on the various dispatches!
Corner of the Table Vol. 3, No. 4 (April 1971)
Plenty has been said about this passage and what may have been its aftermath. But I'll summarize here for people not aware.
The date is supposed to read
1971, it's just a typo.
We now know from Arneson's correspondence in
Playing at the World 2E that he had begun introducing fantasy factions to his Blackmoor wargames by
mid-March of 1971, prior to the introduction of the
Chainmail Fantasy Supplement. However, it's likely that his desire to hold a
Braunstein - which likely served as a "formal" introduction of mythical elements to the world - was in response to getting a copy of
Chainmail and having a rule system to accommodate personal-scale bottle.
One interesting question is whether this is the first Braunstein (or roleplaying) type game held in Blackmoor. They had done medieval (another spelling mistake) Braunstein games before - for which documents survive - but the wording of this note makes it seem rather
novel for this setting. Some argue those earlier medieval Braunstein games were held in different parts of Blackmoor and thus belong to the same setting.
As far as I know, no Blackmoor player who reportedly showed up for this game has ever mentioned the
poker game unprompted. They do remember the troll though.
On Saturday May 22, 1071 a Brown Stien-type game set in the Middle ages will be held at Dave Arneson's home after the Napoleonic Campaign meeting is completed.All those attending the Napoleonic meeting are invited to stay for this game.
The dating of this game may have been more deliberate than the last - intended as a reference to the timeline of Blackmoor as a medieval game
900 years back from the current date, which he does in the first official report. Arneson may have done this for many dated documents, including those from the mentioned
Napoleonic Campaign.
Another connection with that campaign, this would be the exact same day the Dan Nicholson's Kingdom of Spain
character sheet was created. We don't have any indications whether that was the very first character sheet or if Arneson was keen to introduce it into Blackmoor from the start, but it is a very interesting connection!
BLACKMOOR GAZETTE AND RUMORMONGER
I find the continuing two-word "Black Moor" amusing. Was this a character trait Arneson was instilling in his fictitious editor or was he vacillating on the name?
If we can take the suppositions of Jon Peterson about the dating of this piece to after
Halloween 1971 and this being the very first dispatch, then we arrive at some interesting conclusions. Duane Jenkins' character is said to have arrived "
last fall." This would indicate not only that Blackmoor games have been going on for at least one year before this missive, but also that this is
not the game in which players were transported into Blackmoor through Iceland. That's far from definite - there could have already been characters in Blackmoor prior to the portal fantasy introduction - but if this is from November 1971 or later then it definitely creates some interesting points in the timeline.
It has been noted that the gazette is conspicuous for its lack of allusions to
dungeons. I don't see it as definitive proof but it does push my belief to be later in 1971 or 1972. (I am not a May 1971 dungeon believer myself.)
This again may be a character quirk, but the idea that simply destroying the
slums would get rid of the poor problem is a more fantastical mindset than the dragons!
"INTO THE DEPTHS OF BLACKMOOR DUNGEONS AND BACK"
The dating likely points to
May 1972, though it's not definitive. There is evidence in the text - such as the
technological elements - indicating a continuation of the Iceland story (though I am aware Blackmoor was very much a hodgepodge of "cool stuff"). The fact that this is the very first time this party sees a
slime also indicates an early game.
The text is very clear that this is
not the first dungeon expedition. Whether that means they started exploring
this one recently is difficult to say. Certainly dungeon exploring as a concept had been going on for several months, but even if it was going on for a year, there could have been a
reset to the layout at some point. Lacking any battle reports between this and the prior document is by far one of the most frustrating things about researching Blackmoor.
The framing of this writing is a bit odd. One might at first assume it was written by Wesley, until it suddenly goes
third person. The spelling is typical Arneson so it's not that hard to see, I just don't really get why he uses "we" throughout.
This is pretty fascinating as a blow-by-blow adventure in a dungeon; it's the
earliest surviving example! We get a description of what it was like to play this unusual game with its myriad of possibilities - even those beyond fighting. It gets a bit tedious with Arneson's limited vocabulary, but it seems to be intended for players to read and
map the dungeons themselves given the exact measurements? If Gary had been receiving these reports, it's a bit surprising he never tried to run one himself.
I have no idea if this
layout reflects a Megarry or FFC map. I gave them a cursory glance and didn't see a
torture chamber indicated, though it's alluded to in the FFC rules. It seems like the beginning delve is supposed to be on the first level. Someone more familiar could probably map this out and figure it out pretty quick.
I detect some DM discretion when the players
shoot the door to open it. That's probably not what Arneson had planned, but his players wanted to try it and he let it happen! He strikes me as a pretty prescribed DM (as am I) but clearly willing to let either
randomness or
ingenuity reign.
Are the Eight of the second expedition a
Fellowship reference? The whole sequence definitely echoes
Mines of Moria. There is a
Balrog - somehow on the heroes' side? I want to know that story. Why is he in a chapel?! And he has a backpack, how cute.
I find it interesting both expeditions are in the same dispatch - maybe the other players showed up later? I assume this was all completed in
one session - which seems like a lot.
You can definitely tell this isn't D&D when vigorous
looting of the corpses of former comrades is not discussed.
NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY even for going downstairs!
I find it quite funny that apparently Dave had people roll whether or not they could
unsheathe their weapon. I guess that explains why there's so many
weapon stats on the character sheets.
Our only real reference to the specific game mechanics comes from the
Morale throw and the
nightvision of Belfry. It's quite curious that among the things Gary cut, Morale was among them. It seems to fit very well in what OD&D was; I can't imagine that was not in Arneson's notes. It does also mention that characters can be
knocked out, presumably with an equivalent to a saving throw.
I'm really intrigued by the firebolt thrower. What sort of implications does that have for the Blackmoor
magic system?
General Improvements to BLACKMOOR CASTLE over the last few years.
Where this fits in with the rest of the Gazettes, I'm unsure.
Years could mean real-time or just in-game. It appears to be in the same stapled collection as the rest, but it's just a page with text and no formatting as the other reports. However, it was sent out, so it's not a draft.
The spelling mistakes on this one are particularly egregious - though I'd be throwing stones at glass houses for getting on Arneson for misusing "it's".
The report doesn't seem that particularly important, giving a
rundown of the area much like mapping the dungeon. Perhaps it was intended for other fanzines like Gary's? Other than Mike Carr's place in the world, there's not a lot of story information.
BLACKMOOR (The place where strong men cry 'cause theres a Balrog after them..)
So much has changed in a few months - you
desperately wish there was some context in between! Did the collapse of Blackmoor result from that epic
orc-flooding dungeon adventure or was that unrelated? One of the other reports - which I do not have to transcribe - does warn players about spending
too much time in dungeons.
How did Arneson get
St. Paul mixed up with
St. Thomas? Unless that was a joke.
We have both explicit references to
Chainmail power-relations and to the concept of
levels. I find it very persuasive that levels had to have been introduced between the
mid 1972 to
late 1972 missives. It seems to be something Arneson's quite proud of. (I do believe there was
character advancement before then, but not levels and possibly not experience points.)
The second page of this caused considerable
controversy when discussed on another forum. It goes back to the well of how much of Blackmoor at this time was
derived from
Chainmail versus something entirely new. That concept is probably one of the
most discussed on these forums as it comes to Blackmoor. Part of the confusion is that classes
separate from the Hero roles only show up on the other page.
Wizards and
Sorceresses are both specified without any direct
Chainmail connection.
Does the Sorceress also imply that
12th level was the most powerful at the time? No named player character appeared to have reached it. I know many of the
enemies were also controlled by players, but in this instance it seems like Arneson is taking the reigns.
The amount of ongoing stories in this campaign is truly impressive.
As has been noted about OD&D, the world was meant to be inhabited by myriad factions working to their own ends - the
West Marches of their day! I believe this is something which was taken
directly from the Blackmoor reports into D&D, if not made a huge focus. Players were meant to have adversarial
factions and steal each other's territory. Arneson could keep things in line by pulling orcs out of a hat as needed, but balancing the myriad systems used for battles, exploration, and more... Is it any wonder he never wrote down a
formal system?
I noticed that
Baron Fant and
David Fant are noted separately and I'm not sure if this implies he's playing two different characters, if Arneson has taken over for Baron Fant, or he just decided to not list the character name since he had done so already.
One notable thing about the language here is that Arneson describes there being "roles for everyone," which shows that like in Braunsteins he had
characters prepared. Very necessary for the
meat grinder he put his players through! This is perhaps the best evidence that Blackmoor was
very much like OD&D when it was shown in Wisconsin. However it's noted in the correspondence during the D&D drafting that a difference from Blackmoor is that people get to
choose their starting class. I wonder if players even rolled their starting stats in Blackmoor.
I'm sure some of these questions have been answered by more dedicated Blackmoor scholars than I! My goal was purely to get some thoughts out there for people looking into the subject. There has to be somewhere for people to start, right?
