sham
Level 6 Magician
Posts: 385
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Post by sham on May 31, 2009 6:46:43 GMT -6
Per Doc's suggestion I am linking a recent Q&A I was able to put together with Greg Svenson (one of the original Blackmoor players and DMs). I think this is of interest to all fans of OD&D, so I'm dropping the link here instead of the Blackmoor subforum. Fin, feel free to move it if you feel this is the wrong place. shamsgrog.blogspot.com/2009/05/q-with-greg-svenson.html |
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Post by Finarvyn on May 31, 2009 8:46:21 GMT -6
Moving it to the Blackmoor section. I think the boards are small enough (and there aren't that many posts per day) that most OD&D players will find it, and it has the most interest to players of the Blackmoor campaign.
Thanks for the link, Sham/Dave!
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Post by havard on May 31, 2009 10:12:08 GMT -6
Wow, that is very interesting. Greg is a great guy. Thanks Sham!  Havard |
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sham
Level 6 Magician
Posts: 385
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Post by sham on May 31, 2009 13:05:40 GMT -6
I'm glad you liked the Q&A, Finarvyn and Havard.
Greg really is a great guy from all accounts. Very personable and down to earth. It's no wonder he and Dave Arneson had such a long friendship.
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Post by garish on May 31, 2009 18:01:04 GMT -6
What a great resource! Good set of questions, Dave, and wonderful answers, Greg. Thanks for taking the time to share with us.
If I ever have a PC "go evil" I'd love to have "the Great Svenny" show up and smite them!
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Post by aldarron on May 31, 2009 20:50:18 GMT -6
Wow. Thanks for that Sham and have an exalt. You should get a dozens more. Too bad we could never seem to get Dave Arneson to write out such detailed answers, but this goes a long way to clearing away the fog that seems to surround the creation of the game and reminds us that Dave deserved a lot more credit than he often got.
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Post by aldarron on Sept 24, 2009 5:07:02 GMT -6
Hi Greg,
I suppose this is as good a place as any to ask you about Blackmoor. Reading First Fantasy Campaign I am really struck with the difference in emphasis from the classic D&D campaign sourcebook. It seems that the players were spending at least as much time outside the dungeons and castles on largely individual missions - protecting caravans, completing "Special Interest" projects, building strongholds, armies, towns and Inns - as they were adventuring together in dungeons. It reminds me a bit of what I have read of how Dave Wesleys Brownstown was played but I'm wondering what exactly was going on. Normally, D&D is just a bunch of guys sitting around a table acting cooperatively, but is that what was going on in Blackmoor or were you often playing sort of one on one? I mean, I get the impression that Mr. Arneson (or a deputy referee such as yourself) would have to referee each individuals actions as they and they alone were off engaged in some activity. A second but related question comes from my impression that a lot of the goal of adventuring was to build up enough fame and money to be able to field your own army to fight for or against the forces of the Egg of Coot. Did you see building an army to be an important goal when you were playing and roughly what percentage of the game was spent waging miniature battles/wars? Conversly, about how much time did you spend adventuring together as a group in dungeons and similar settings?
P.S. Robert the Bald or any other Blackmoor players who might be out there please feel free to answer as well.
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Post by gsvenson on Sept 24, 2009 12:11:15 GMT -6
Interesting questions. I don't remember more than one or two times where I did kind of a one on one with Dave and that was because I was going to be out of town for a couple of months and I wanted to explain what I would be doing while the other guys were out adventuring. Of course, Dave and I spent hours on the phone every week, but we weren't actually playing, just talking. The gaming sessions were pretty much always a group effort. Even Zvenzen's Freehold, was a group effort by four or five of us. It ended up with my name because I drew the floor plan and the other guys eventually moved on to other things. When we got our own fiefs/towns to run, which was probably in 1974 or so, we generally took turns working in each others fiefs as a group, sometimes we would be at more than one fief in a single gaming session. For those fiefs we did have our own armies, but their purpose was to guard the town.
There were times when I was the DM and there were only one or two players present. At those times we focused on random adventures, to gain experience for a lower level character, so he/they could survive in a party with the more experienced player characters and the enemies they drew...
I didn't think about army building as something to do, but after the Freehold and the town were burned down while we were off adventuring elsewhere, we always made sure that we had hired some troops to protect our bases when we were not there. The Egg of Coot was just one of a half dozen or so major enemies (with the Ran of An Foo in the Duchy of Ten, the Skandaharians, the Afridhi, the Great Kingdom and probably others that I have forgotten) that invaded Blackmoor at various times in the campaign.
As for big miniatures battles, these were really rare. I don't recall them happening more than a couple of times a year.
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Post by havard on Sept 24, 2009 13:31:55 GMT -6
The Egg of Coot was just one of a half dozen or so major enemies (with the Ran of An Foo in the Duchy of Ten, the Skandaharians, the Afridhi, the Great Kingdom and probably others that I have forgotten) that invaded Blackmoor at various times in the campaign. Greg, do you remember any encounters with the Afridhi? I'd be interested in hearing what impression you may have had of them, or if Dave might have revealed any ideas behind them... Havard |
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Post by aldarron on Sept 24, 2009 19:08:25 GMT -6
Thanks Greg. That was very enlightening. From reading FFC, with the long lists of taxes and costs in various provinces I had imagined a great deal of emphasis on political maneuverings, empire building and so on. So it's really interesting to know that in practice you guys were playing cooperatively, going on adventures most of the time, pretty much like any D&D group.
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Post by aldarron on Sept 26, 2009 6:54:23 GMT -6
Now that has me wondering something else. Was the Merchant player also a normal part of the dungeon adventuring group? If so, do you remember if the merchant fought more or less like a fighter or had other ways of helping out the group?
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Post by gsvenson on Oct 13, 2009 10:43:14 GMT -6
Greg, do you remember any encounters with the Afridhi? I'd be interested in hearing what impression you may have had of them, or if Dave might have revealed any ideas behind them... One of the guy's girlfriend played Tosca Rusa, but I don't remember her name or who her boyfriend was. I thought of the Afridhi as devil worshippers. At this point, I don't remember going into ther territory on any adventures. That doesn't mean we didn't adventure there, just that the adventures didn't stand out in a way that I would remember them more than 35 years later, as some other adventures have remained in my memory... |
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Post by havard on Oct 13, 2009 14:10:42 GMT -6
Greg, do you remember any encounters with the Afridhi? I'd be interested in hearing what impression you may have had of them, or if Dave might have revealed any ideas behind them... One of the guy's girlfriend played Tosca Rusa, but I don't remember her name or who her boyfriend was. I thought of the Afridhi as devil worshippers. At this point, I don't remember going into ther territory on any adventures. That doesn't mean we didn't adventure there, just that the adventures didn't stand out in a way that I would remember them more than 35 years later, as some other adventures have remained in my memory... Ah, that is very interesting! I had no idea Tosca Rusa was a character run by a player. This is something I really like about reading about Blackmoor. Every single NPC has an intricate backstory dating back to an actual game. It really creates a sense of autheticity to the setting! Another question for you Greg. Did you ever plot out the future of Svenny's family? I am advancing my own campaign to the year 1040. Will Svenny still be the Baron of Newgate? I have no desire to get rid of him, just wondering when his son will take over... Havard |
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