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Post by Falconer on Feb 28, 2008 23:07:42 GMT -6
Under the Special Interests rules in FFC, there is a table which lists the classes as:
Fighting-Man
Cleric
Magic-User
Ranger
Paladin
Assassin
Merchant
Sage
Anyone have any insight into these classes beyond the obvious first three? It is definitely an interesting mix. I wonder if this is a later addition, in which case I wonder if the Ranger is the TSR Ranger, the Paladin the Greyhawk Paladin, and the Assassin the Blackmoor Assassin. The Blackmoor Monk would be conspicuous by its absence then, as would the Greyhawk Thief, although perhaps the Merchant is another name for that? Tantalizing...
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Post by gsvenson on Feb 29, 2008 16:14:08 GMT -6
I believe that those were additions later and that these classes were from the suppliments. At the same time Dan Nicholson was always the merchant, but I don't know how that was played out in the game. I did use Thievies to generate merchant NPCs in my own games.
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Post by Finarvyn on May 27, 2008 11:37:34 GMT -6
If the “original players in Blackmoor” thread has any merit, we could hypothesize something about the races and classes available in the early campaign.
Classes
Cleric
Mage
Merchant
Monk
Paladin
Ranger
Thief
These are all pretty representative of OD&D and/or Strategic Review with the exception of ”Merchant.” I suspect there is an interesting story there. Looking at Falconer’s post I see that his list includes Assassins, but none are listed as such in the “original players in Blackmoor” thread.
Races
Balrog – as a representative of the bad guys
Dwarf
Elf
Elf, half
Hobbit / Halfling (c’mon; they were all called hobbits back then!)
Orc
Vampire – as a representative of the bad guys
Again, pretty standard races except that some players got to play the roles of the bad guys. I doubt that “balrog” or “vampire” were ever designed to be actual choices that players got to pick from.
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Post by aldarron on Sept 19, 2009 8:45:07 GMT -6
In the "original Players" list Thief only appears as the Thief/Monk of Malia Arnesons who I beleive wasn't born until the late seventies or early eighties. My guess is that Arneson listed his daughter as a kind of Honorary original player. The only other mention of monk is as a nickname for Sniders Cleric "the flying monk". My thinking then is that neither the Monk nor the Thief were classes in the '71 - '74 timeframe of the original campaign.
EDIT: changed my comment to reflect the realization of Malia Arnesons age.
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Post by havard on Sept 21, 2009 10:53:46 GMT -6
I doubt that “balrog” or “vampire” were ever designed to be actual choices that players got to pick from. Although it would be pretty interesting if had been! Havard |
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Post by havard on Sept 23, 2009 13:45:53 GMT -6
Did gnomes ever make an appearance in Dave's campaigns?
Havard
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Post by aldarron on Sept 25, 2009 12:31:54 GMT -6
Been re reading FFC and noticed the mention of two additonal clases on PG 43. Dave Fant's character - the vampire Baron Fant is said to be an anti-cleric/Magic user "studying to be an Illusionist." Anti-cleric is I assume just an evil cleric or perhaps and evil paladin - so not really a different class but worth mentioning. As for the Illusionist, I wouldn't really add it to the original class list because Illusionist first appeard in Strategic Review #4 in the winter of 1975, by a Peter Aronson. Since Arneson says he is only a 3rd level, I suppose that its one of the first uses of the Illusionist character in Blackmoor, in 1977, when FFC was published. So not really an original '71-'74 Blackmoor class aparently. It may be worth noting though that there seemed to be no restrictions on multiclassing.
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Post by aldarron on Nov 26, 2009 12:34:04 GMT -6
Actually now I have found something that gives us a little bit of info about one of the classes in Blackmoor. In the FFC section titled "Richard Sniders Additions" under "Differnces in Creatures from Blackmoor Game" he tells us that Wizards in his campaign "cannot see in dark unless they invoke wizard light one". Apparently then, Wizards in Blackmoor could see in the dark automatically. Handy, that.
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Post by snorri on Nov 26, 2009 13:44:22 GMT -6
"Wizards can become invisible and remain so until they attack, they con see in darkness, they affect friendly and enemy morale as do Super Heroes, they throw deadly missiles, and Wizards cast terrible spells."
.... From Chainmail, 3d ed., p. 30. I kept this as a power for wizards in my Epées & Sorcellery, at level 2 and upper.
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Post by aldarron on Dec 9, 2009 11:59:29 GMT -6
We know that the OD&D thief was fleshed out by Gygax from an idea sent to him by another player. Apparently though a Blackmoor "Thief" was independently developed, and from the sound of it, it's the class we now know of as the Assasin. Here's some interesting info on what seems to be the origin of the Assasin and of the alignment concept from an article Dave wrote and posted to his website jovianclouds.com/blackmoor/Archive_OLD/rpg2.htmlIt's called "A quarter century of role playing" "'You can't stab me in the back. We're on the same side!" Early Blackmoor game Introduction of the Chaotic thief. (Character Class/Alignment)" and "But then came the treasure question. The Thieves question. Finally there were the two new guys. One decided that there was no reason to share the goodies. Since there was no one else around and a +3 for rear attacks . . .. well . . Of course everyone actually KNEW what had happened, especially the target." |
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Post by snorri on Dec 15, 2009 4:31:40 GMT -6
Did gnomes ever make an appearance in Dave's campaigns? Havard I don't see direct refernces, but in Chainmail, they're equal to dwarves, so probably. |
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Post by aldarron on Jan 5, 2010 18:45:18 GMT -6
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Post by snorri on Jan 6, 2010 5:01:57 GMT -6
Interesting list. I suspected there was more or less a Race = Class system as in Moldvay's, because it's more coherent with Chainmail. Maybe the elven princes quoted in FFC are a "level", like "super-hero".
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Post by aldarron on Jan 6, 2010 10:45:07 GMT -6
Interesting list. I suspected there was more or less a Race = Class system as in Moldvay's, because it's more coherent with Chainmail. Maybe the elven princes quoted in FFC are a "level", like "super-hero". I thought the same thing about "elven princes" as you. It certainly reads like its a level of some kind. |
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