Dave Arneson memorial gameday

I think that this is an awesome idea. I dusted off Temple of the Frog for my gaming group in honor of Dave as well.

What we need is someone from the "old guard" (such as Rob Kuntz) to write and market cheaply a special "Memorial Dungeon" every year in honor of Dave and Gary so that fans could run the same basic module across the country on some sort of special day.

The Fane of St. Toad?

Havard

Here's the general post about the event, with a listing of the different games people volunteered to run. I'll post some notes about how it went afterwards!

In honor of the memory of Dave Arneson, the Compleat Strategist is hosting an afternoon of gaming this Saturday, May 9th from noon to 5 pm, at their store on 11 E. 33rd St. in Manhattan.

Dave is best remembered as the co-creator of the original Dungeons and Dragons, but he has as good a claim as anyone to be the inventor of fantasy roleplaying itself. If you're in New York, we hope you'll join us in celebrating his life, or do so in your own neighborhood the next time friends gather for imaginative voyages of exploration, discovery, and adventure!

Here are the games we'll be playing at the Strategist:

From Blackmoor to Loch Gloomen
- Run By: Tavis Allison (Tav_Behemoth)

Journey through the wilderness, equipped with your wits, your skill with swords and spells, and your choice of mysterious magical artifacts! The great lord of Blackmoor is no more, but he left an inheritance for your brave band of adventurers: an abandoned castle near Loch Gloomen. You are destined to rule a kingdom of your own, if you can survive the trip through the gloomy swamps, find the castle, and defend it against hordes invading monsters.

- Recommended For: Kids, parents, and fans of exploration, discovery,
and free-wheeling, rules-light imagination.
- Rules: A Lego-based indie interpretation of Dave Arneson's First Fantasy Campaign.

Tower of Souls
- Run By: Brad Velcoff

A meteor crashes nearby, and adventurers investigate. But the crater is no ordinary crater, and the party finds themselves whisked off to an interplanar adventure where thousands of lives...and souls...are at stake, including their own. The party must not only engage in hellish encounters, but also find a way home. Players may create their own 25th level characters, or characters will be provided.
- Rules: 4E D&D, for 25th level characters.


The Fane of St. Toad
- Run By: Jon Hastings

We're going to try to answer the question of what kind of person would trek across a dismal swamp to loot an abandoned temple that was once dedicated to the worship of a sanity-shattering Toad god from beyond the stars. The Fane of St. Toad is a scenario written by Michael Curtis as a tribute to Dave Arneson's The Temple of the Frog, the first adventure ever published by TSR.
- Recommended For: Brave souls interested in dungeon crawling, problem solving, and traditional, non-nerfed adventure gaming.
- Rules: The "Original Edition" of D&D. We'll be using the three "Little Brown Books" along with Supplement II: Blackmoor ('natch) (but no experience with that or any other particular version of D&D is necessary).

Delver's Requiem
- Run By: Johnny Tek (Captain Commando)

The village of Narn has known peace for many generations, thanks to the protection and vigilance of the village's guardian spirit. The spirit, known as Van Reis, appears in the form of a translucent male human wearing a mask that covers his face. Wandering monsters are driven away from the village by music played by the spirit, and lost village children are led back to safety by the very same music.
Little is known of Van Reis except that he was once a traveling bard that settled in the village in the last days of his life. Whatever keeps the spirit bound to the village is a mystery, for he will always vanish or wander off whenever the subject is brought up in conversation. The villagers have always been content to let a mystery remain a mystery, since no harm has ever come from the bard's presence.
On the night of each full moon, the spirit plays a mournful tune and sings a song of lament. It is a frightening contrast to the bard's ever cheerful disposition at any other time. None of the villagers know what this means. No one dares to approach Van Reis on these nights to find out why...
- Rules: 4E D&D, 5th level characters

EDITED with preamble & more stuff.

One of the best moments of the gameday for me was right at the beginning as we were getting set up; a player in Brad's epic 4E game was telling me that in his gaming history, Arneson had been much more influential than Gygax because his group had stuck with B/E/C/M/I and played in Mystara. I asked whether they'd done a lot of wilderness adventuring and he said yeah, they'd used all the rules that the Compendium had to offer. Building baronies? I asked (enviously) and he said yeah, because a stronghold was always his character's highest priority when he got to the right level. All of this sounded like a ton of fun!

I'd always seen the Arneson -> Basic / Gygax -> Advanced split cynically, simply an artificial result of a sad litigious schism in TSR's history rather than a real stylistic branching. My own experience was dominated by AD&D from pretty early on, so it was interesting for me to realize that Arneson's influence was actually much better preserved on the Basic side of things. I'd known in an abstract way that Blackmoor remained a supported part of the BECMI Mystaran setting, but never made much of it - it's there on the map of Greyhawk too, and in First Fantasy Campaign Arneson redrew his map to let you stick Blackmoor adjacent to the Wilderlands as well. More than that, the elements that stand out in FFC - overland travel, clearing territory for strongholds, overseeing baronies, leading armies - are also strongly prominent in BECMI. (It might well be that Gygax devotes just as much space to these things in AD&D, but does so in a way that I and most people I played with missed it in amongst everything else).

It seemed like a good time was had by all. Here's my own experience:

I had to leave to take my son to a birthday party in the middle of the afternoon, so we played the Blackmoor hex-crawl for the first half of the session. Character creation was simplified to choosing class (warrior, magician, believer), alignment (law, balance, chaos), and species. I made six races available to PCs, one for each type of terrain on the encounter chart - cleared lands/castles (robots), rivers (animals), mountains (fighting men), swamps (fairies), forests (wise women), and deserted lands (elves). The final stages of character creation were for everyone to pick a magic item - coolest might have been my son's Flying Boat, because he made an awesome Lego interpretation of it & was always eager to use it in every situation - and a miracle (believers), spell (magicians), or power (warriors). The Miraculous Blizzard of Fireseeds spell might have gotten the most mileage, being used from everything from freezing a water weird to the contemplated vaporization of a water elemental. I think the stripped-down, tri-color Lego-based system I used for this has promise, although spending more time on the Lego tactical scale with the whole party taking minute-long actions would have been warranted; most of our play time was spent at the strategic scale, where the rotating caller takes two-week-long turns exploring ten-mile-wide Heroscape hexes). And certainly, the First Fantasy Campaign maps, ideas, and outdoor adventuring charts that we were using this system to run were a blast.

After I returned, Jon took over with Fane of the Toad. When I rejoined the group, we had two assassins, a monk, and an ekf adventuring as a magic-user, so I made a cleric of Law to serve as the monk's spiritual advisor and political officer.

Using speak with plants, we learned that a group of feet had walked over the roots leaving the Fane three days ago, and that the last time this happened the feet returned three days later bringing more feet with them. So we decided to set up an ambush at the entrance to the temple, and used speak with animals to feed some birds and convince them to warn us of approaching humans. With these preparations, the elf's sleep spell, and a pair of successful assassin's strikes from hiding, we had no problem putting down the six batrachian spearmen and rescuing their captives. To our chagrin, one of the things we thought was a captive was actually a frog-mummy they were leading on a rope. Fortunately, everyone hit by the mummy made their saving throws, and although we largely lacked the magic weapons we'd need to harm the thing, my Bishop Patmoss was able to make it flee from the sight of the cross.

We ended the session with both the mummy and the cultists tied up and awaiting further disposition. We used ESP and detect evil to extract a fair amount of information, but ran out of time before we could act on any of the plans we came up with.

All of this is by way of saying that another session is being planned to continue our exploration of the Fane. I hadn't realized you were in the tristate area, Mike - if such is indeed the case, that's very cool and it'd be great to have you join our next venture against the frog-men, or a session of my White Sandbox campaign (originally exploring the Caverns of Thracia, but after finally looting some of its riches the party has been devoted to carousing, overland travel, and player-driven quests).

I very glad that people had a good time with the Fane even though time ran short and curtailed further explorations of the site. I mentioned to forager23 that he certainly did what I had hoped people would do and make the Fane their own by adding their own material to the loose framework of the location.

I am indeed in the tri-state area (just a bit out here on LI) and while my Saturdays are currently my regular game day with my local group, I won't rule out the possibility of me making a trip into the city at some point to join in for a session of OD&D someday. Thanks for the invite. I'll certainly keep it in mind.

Here are the descriptions of this year's gameday and the (old-school) games scheduled so far:

When: Saturday, March 27th, noon until 5 pm

Where: Compleat Strategist, 11 E. 33rd St., Manhattan, NY

What: Celebrating Arneson's legacy by playing some of the roleplaying games inspired by his pioneering Blackmoor campaign (a category which includes D&D of every edition!)

Who: Players and GMs of all ages, experience levels, edition preferences, and degrees of old- or new-schoolness

If you're in the tri-state area, I hope to see you there! Drop me a line at arneson.gameday@gmail.com if you'd like to run a game, or just want more info. This thread has a description of the games that folks ran last year and notes about my own experience playing, running, and talking to folks about the parts of Arneson's legacy like wilderness travel, clearing territory for strongholds, overseeing baronies, and leading armies that got largely left out of the branch of D&D that I grew up with (which did preserve things like dungeons, clerics, monks, and monsters, hurrah!)

If you're not able to make it, why not run a tribute game of your own in your local community? It's always a good time to get together with friends and celebrate the fun that's passed down to us from the giants of our hobby, but March 21st-27th is an especially good time: it's the International Traditional Gaming Week. By running an event then, you'll share the collective experience of re-entering whichever classic gateway to adventure you choose, and TARGA's publicity and organization for the ITGW may help you find players - what better way to remember Dave Arneson, after all, than making a new friend who'll stand by your side even when your henchmen flee the oncoming horrors?

- Game Name: Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works

- Run By: joethelawyer

- Maximum Players: 6

- Brief Blurb:
The curse has finally lifted! The most legendary and fabled castle of them all, Castle Zagyg materializes from a dread fog that has long held it enthralled and thus averting its many seekers. As your party emerges from the tangled brush, briers, and vines that fence the Old Castle Track, you observe the sprawling ruins of an enormous castle complex built upon a sloping bluff of rock. Crumbling, battlemented walls join towers square, round, and pentagonal. Gatehouses, courtyards, and craft shops lie in varying states of disrepair. High above the ruins, at the culmination of the bluff, rise two impressive towers: one round, the other hexagonal. The great east towers flank an enormous fortress of stone from which carved spires rise, piercing the very sky. This edifice can be none other than Castle Zagyg, the dwelling of the Mad Archmage.

- Recommended for: Folks who want to revisit (or experience for the first time) the glories of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1E and adventure in Gary Gygax's final contribution to the castle-and-dungeon genre pioneered by Arneson's Blackmoor.

Game Name: Blackmoor Dungeons (0e)

Run By: Tavis Allison

Maximum Players: 12

Scenario: "The Dungeon was first established in the Winter and Spring of 1970-71 and it grew from there. Over the years there have been many changes in the layout and makeup of the Dungeon. These maps comprise the ones used over the first five years... The first six levels of encounters were prepared for the last two years for convention games, and set up along 'Official' D&D lines. The last (7th - 9th & tunnel Cavern system) are the originals used in our game... Each of the regular exit/entrances from the Dungeon are heavily guarded by Elves armed with Holy Water Hoses, and other anti-Evil charms plus an Elven Prince and two Elven lords! So, if you can reach a door and are still good, the pursuit will break off..." - Dave Arneson, The First Fantasy Campaign, 1977

Characters: Characters will be rolled at the table - both at the start of play and whenever existing characters succumb to fate! Like the Dungeon itself, we will use a mix of old and new rules - or, to modern eyes, very old (1974's Dungeons and Dragons, aka OD&D) and unimaginably ancient (a reconstruction of the pre-D&D house rules, soon to be released as Dragons at Dawn by by Southerwood Publishing).

Recommended For: Gamers who want to experience the dungeon that led to actual play reports like this one: "While we battled (and Sweeney worked his way forward) ten of the fifty ran off. Soon after, thirty hit us in the rear as well. The battle was fierce with wounds exchanged rapidly on both sides, but when Sweeney appeared up front, again the orcs ran off. Arneson stated: 'Sweeney, in a whirlwind, has just killed 17 orcs in this melee round'". (Bill Paley, Alarums and Excursions #15, 1976)

(We also have a 4E conversion of Temple of the Frog, run by George Strayton, and the Pathfinder Society scenario The Pallid Plague by Mark Moreland; details available here).

This was great fun! We had upwards of 35 people playing four different games at five tables. My group had a lot of fun exploring Blackmoor Dungeons, using my houseruled version of aldarron's Dragons at Dawn version of Arneson's pre-D&D rules. I had people roll 1d4 for level, and gave them 4 - level draws from decks of "bazaar bargains" or "gypsy sayings." Everyone rolled level 1 or 2 characters, which meant:

a) there was a lot of negotiation with intelligent enemies, and less of the mob "this round, Svenny slays a dozen orcs" combat than I expected

b) a lot of crazy magic items entered play, which had a big effect on how it turned out; the most impactful of these were the battle armor and shield from Temple of the Frog, whose anti-magic field allowed the party to wipe up the magicians and theurgistists they encountered

In the end, most of the party helped a group of valkyries rescue their "babies" - which turned out to be giant carnivorous frogs, as I decided that the group of 11 warriors on the third level next to a bunch of frogs were refugees from the destruction of the Temple, and the 3 frogs elsewhere on the level had been kidnapped. A player from my Red Box group dropped in to take the role of the valkyrie leader, and I suspect it was only the fact that she thus made the valkryies part of the "PC glow" that kept the party from turning on her in horror when they realized she was a batrachian-supremacist fanatic! Meanwhile, another member of the party, Count Ed Vainglor, successfully contacted Sir Fang and convinced that worthy to turn him into a vampire - this apparently having been his ambition ever since he duped his way past the purity test of the elven barricade. Good times!

This is such an awesome event. My gaming group is getting together today, and I might run them through some Blackmoor dungeons in honor of Dave.

Too bad there isn't a DaveCon similar to GaryCon. We need some sort of DA logo for t-shirts and such.

Who what when where?

Fin, you are the man! I'll give you an EXALT for the way you keep us informed. (Now if only you could move Minnesota closer to my house so I could attend this thing.... )

Wow, Google Maps says Crestwood is only 22 minutes away from me, which I think means it's never heard of traffic! Anyway I'll add you to my list of folks I know are in the area and make a point of inviting directly next year. In the meantime I'll be running excursions into Blackmoor Dungeon at Gen Con and likely at Recess, the Brooklyn gameday whose next date will be announced at nerdNYC, and you're always welcome to drop into my weekend OD&D or Eric's awesome weekday Moldvay BD&D campaign at New York Red Box.

1. If there are folks close who missed the thing, why not hold another and get the group together. Never too much Arneson love here!

2. Perhaps some of the participants (players or GMs) can provide some details of the game. I know I'd like enough so that maybe I could run one someday. (Feel free to start a new thread with "spoiler" in the tagline if you don't want potential players seeing too much...)

Did you use the Blackmoor Dungeons from FFC as your guideline? (The images from your link seem to imply this...)

I keep seeing Dragons at Dawn mentioned along with Blackmoor goodness. What is Dragons at Dawn and is it available?

Thanks!

ara