Post by tavis on Aug 18, 2009 9:17:49 GMT -6
The folks at Code Monkey Games were kind enough to give me a review copy of the 4E Blackmoor book, which I plan to write about for the EN World review archive (and will gladly link or cross-post here). I want to do them a good turn in exchange, but sadly my initial impression is that the book is for fans only*.
What I'd like to do with the review is to make it a mini-primer on how and why you should be the kind of Blackmoor fan who buys everything in the line, even lesser works like this - or at least uses their gaming dollars to celebrate & support the fact that the first fantasy campaign lives, despite all the changes in the game it's inspired.
Here's an outline that I'd love feedback on, and especially help with links for the various web resources mentioned:
- If you're not a Blackmoor fan, here's why you should be.
* This is the original campaign that inspired Gygax to publish D&D
* The core elements of FRPGs - referees/Dungeon Masters, player-vs.-monster cooperative play, dungeons, clerics, monks, ancient relics, etc. - all evolved from years of play in the Blackmoor setting before any of it was written down
* B/E/C/M/I carried on Arnesonian D&D, so if you explored the wilderness hex-by-hex, established strongholds, and saw your deeds lead to the sacking of cities and the rise of kingdoms - or if that sounds awesome to you - getting into Blackmoor takes you right to the source
- Here's how to become a Blackmoor fan:
* Read the tributes to Arneson (I'm thinking of Mearls', Grognardia's, the KotD and OotS strips, others?)
* Read descriptions of what it was like to play in his games (Spinachcat's con game report, Mike Mornard's web page, others?)
* Stop reading and start playing!
* Get your hands on the FFC map, lay hexes over the one in 4E Blackmoor, or redraw a section of it onto hex paper.
* Create a small town, and a nearby dungeon a few day's journey away.
* Populate the town with henchmen for the PCs to hire (using the minion rules if you're playing 4E), and give them out-of-combat usefulness to the party like being scouts that know the way to the dungeon.
* Create a wandering monster table for the dungeon - including humanoid adventurers and monstrous invaders from nearby areas who'll come in the same way the PCs did - and an overland encounter table, including people going from one civilized region to another with news and missions that will hook the players into more distant and high-level events.
* At the point where the players outgrow the dungeon and start getting interested in what lies further afield, mine the Blackmoor setting for ideas; by now, you'll know what you need and what you don't.
Thanks for reading this, and posting links to the stuff I mentioned & ones I didn't!
* Expanding on "for fans only" above: It doesn't have much utility for those who are 4E players first and secondarily interested in the setting - the class design shows a very primitive understanding of what the roles need to have in order to perform their game-function (e.g. the arcane warrior's mark is much less useful than that of any of the PHBI defenders). I remember what it was like to try to reverse-engineer the 4E rules to do new classes in the very early stages, and this design definitely feels familiar from the mistakes I also made - but since it's been a year since 4E came out, one expects better.
Typos and/or careless design are prevalent enough that you can't use stuff out of the book without double-checking it. For example, the attack bonus for balebourne orcs at different levels is identical, which shouldn't be the case by the monster design guidelines, and cut-and-paste/find-and-replace errors are obvious enough elsewhere that I see no reason to believe that giving the lower-level orc a higher-level bonus is intentional.
The book isn't organized well for actual play. The feats don't have an index, the map doesn't have hexes, and a section of the setting description mentions random encounter tables but none exist in the book. These last two are especially heart-breaking to me because they're what I love about FFC. The 4E book comes across like any other setting bible, with all the things that make it awesome either obscured (since they're wholly incorporated into the default D&D assumptions) or omitted (like the tools that would make this an organic, player-driven campaign instead of a lot of words pinning down the world so that it can't breathe).
What I'd like to do with the review is to make it a mini-primer on how and why you should be the kind of Blackmoor fan who buys everything in the line, even lesser works like this - or at least uses their gaming dollars to celebrate & support the fact that the first fantasy campaign lives, despite all the changes in the game it's inspired.
Here's an outline that I'd love feedback on, and especially help with links for the various web resources mentioned:
- If you're not a Blackmoor fan, here's why you should be.
* This is the original campaign that inspired Gygax to publish D&D
* The core elements of FRPGs - referees/Dungeon Masters, player-vs.-monster cooperative play, dungeons, clerics, monks, ancient relics, etc. - all evolved from years of play in the Blackmoor setting before any of it was written down
* B/E/C/M/I carried on Arnesonian D&D, so if you explored the wilderness hex-by-hex, established strongholds, and saw your deeds lead to the sacking of cities and the rise of kingdoms - or if that sounds awesome to you - getting into Blackmoor takes you right to the source
- Here's how to become a Blackmoor fan:
* Read the tributes to Arneson (I'm thinking of Mearls', Grognardia's, the KotD and OotS strips, others?)
* Read descriptions of what it was like to play in his games (Spinachcat's con game report, Mike Mornard's web page, others?)
* Stop reading and start playing!
* Get your hands on the FFC map, lay hexes over the one in 4E Blackmoor, or redraw a section of it onto hex paper.
* Create a small town, and a nearby dungeon a few day's journey away.
* Populate the town with henchmen for the PCs to hire (using the minion rules if you're playing 4E), and give them out-of-combat usefulness to the party like being scouts that know the way to the dungeon.
* Create a wandering monster table for the dungeon - including humanoid adventurers and monstrous invaders from nearby areas who'll come in the same way the PCs did - and an overland encounter table, including people going from one civilized region to another with news and missions that will hook the players into more distant and high-level events.
* At the point where the players outgrow the dungeon and start getting interested in what lies further afield, mine the Blackmoor setting for ideas; by now, you'll know what you need and what you don't.
Thanks for reading this, and posting links to the stuff I mentioned & ones I didn't!
* Expanding on "for fans only" above: It doesn't have much utility for those who are 4E players first and secondarily interested in the setting - the class design shows a very primitive understanding of what the roles need to have in order to perform their game-function (e.g. the arcane warrior's mark is much less useful than that of any of the PHBI defenders). I remember what it was like to try to reverse-engineer the 4E rules to do new classes in the very early stages, and this design definitely feels familiar from the mistakes I also made - but since it's been a year since 4E came out, one expects better.
Typos and/or careless design are prevalent enough that you can't use stuff out of the book without double-checking it. For example, the attack bonus for balebourne orcs at different levels is identical, which shouldn't be the case by the monster design guidelines, and cut-and-paste/find-and-replace errors are obvious enough elsewhere that I see no reason to believe that giving the lower-level orc a higher-level bonus is intentional.
The book isn't organized well for actual play. The feats don't have an index, the map doesn't have hexes, and a section of the setting description mentions random encounter tables but none exist in the book. These last two are especially heart-breaking to me because they're what I love about FFC. The 4E book comes across like any other setting bible, with all the things that make it awesome either obscured (since they're wholly incorporated into the default D&D assumptions) or omitted (like the tools that would make this an organic, player-driven campaign instead of a lot of words pinning down the world so that it can't breathe).
