d20 Blackmoor - Worth buying?

[BOZ]

i'm definitely at least curious enough to have a look at it now.

 

[reveal]

i'm definitely at least curious enough to have a look at it now.

Agreed. If a setting can get people this passionate, maybe it's at least worth looking at.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Well, I hear from one of my fellow reviewers that he has a copy and that a review should be posted shortly!

 

[DClingman]

If Blackmoor is the FIRST EVAR campaign setting, how come it is "Supplement II" while Greyhawk is "Supplement I"?

Wouldn't have Supp 1 been released before Supp 2???

If Blackmoor is, indeed, the first campaign setting, then it is not only the first fantasy setting evar, but the first sci-fi setting, and the first fantasy/sci-fi setting evar. Quite an achievement!

dead, Those supplements were originally released together. Blackmoor was started as a role playing campaign well before Arneson ever met Gygax. It predates D&D by at least 4 years. Since then, it has been running constantly to current times. Before we started working on the core book, I had been a player in Blackmoor for about 3 years myself.

As for it being a sci-fi setting, that's not how I see it, but I understand why you would think that. Dave and the players were not bound by anything when they started, as there weren't any rules to hold them. As mentioned in earlier posts, they went through portals (ala The ComeBack Inn) and came out in any number of settings. The future, past, present and non-existent were ripe with options. A collage was bound to occur.

Now that we are back on track, I would be happy to answer any other questions people might have about the world/the book/whatever.

Dustin

p.s. JoeGKushner, if you read this, will you drop me a line at dustin@zeitgeistgames.com? Thanks.

 

[JoeGKushner]

D20 Filtered, the first free issue, has a review of Blackmoor in there. Pretty detailed too. I think it's over at Silven.

 

[Estlor]

I've been excited about Blackmoor for months now. My only real experience with it has been looking backward at it through Mystara-colored shades where it was this super-advanced society that blew itself up. I got DA3 off of eBay a few years back and loved it, mainly because it put the world in a slightly better perspective.

I know this Blackmoor and that Blackmoor aren't exactly the same, but they're close enough for me to appreciate the setting. This book is definitely on my list of books to buy.

 

[dead]

dead, Those supplements were originally released together. Blackmoor was started as a role playing campaign well before Arneson ever met Gygax. It predates D&D by at least 4 years.

So which is the first *published* RPG setting?

Is the answer "Both" because they were released, as you say, together?

Or, is it Greyhawk because it in nominatively Supplement 1 as opposed to Supp. 2?

Have you journeyed into the City of the Gods with Mr. Arneson GMing?

Is the City of the Gods and the Egg of Coot related in any way? Perhaps they both come from the same high-tech universe?

Does the space ship from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks come from the same place the City of the Gods came from?

How many years has the City of the Gods been sitting in the plains of Blackmoor? Why did it set itself down? Why doesn't it leave? Are there only automatons living there?

Thanks.

 

[DClingman]

So which is the first *published* RPG setting?

Is the answer "Both" because they were released, as you say, together?

Or, is it Greyhawk because it in nominatively Supplement 1 as opposed to Supp. 2?

I don't know where the line is or should be officially drawn. All I can say specifically is that Blackmoor predates Greyhawk as an RPG setting. I remember reading somewhere that EGG had thought up Greyhawk a long time ago and just threw things in there. It could turn out actually the Tekumel predates both in terms of publishing. Let me dig further and I will come up with a neutral answer

Have you journeyed into the City of the Gods with Mr. Arneson GMing?

Actually, no. I have been to the Temple of the Frog, but never to the City of the Gods.

Is the City of the Gods and the Egg of Coot related in any way? Perhaps they both come from the same high-tech universe?

This is possible, of course, but my personal (not official) feeling on this is that they are not related. I am giving my personal answers to things that I haven't specifically asked Dave.

Does the space ship from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks come from the same place the City of the Gods came from?

In the DA module series, yes. I believe so.

How many years has the City of the Gods been sitting in the plains of Blackmoor? Why did it set itself down? Why doesn't it leave? Are there only automatons living there?

Well the original setup in the DA modules was that a ship crashed to the planet. The folks in the ship who survived believed in something close to the Prime Directive and decided to stay out of the affairs of the locals. Some of them broke the rules and fled the crash. One of these was St. Stephen who worked his way into forming the Temple of the Frog, bent on having Frogs rule the world. Those people in the crash are responsible for both new, mutated creatures being released into Blackmoor as well as some of the technology elements. It is currently believed that the High Thonians in Blackmoor trace lineage back to some of these survivors.

Dustin

 

[DMScott]

If Blackmoor is the FIRST EVAR campaign setting, how come it is "Supplement II" while Greyhawk is "Supplement I"?

Wouldn't have Supp 1 been released before Supp 2???

Neither of those supplements was the sort of thing you could call a published campaign setting. While each included rules from their parent campaigns, and Blackmoor had an adventure from that setting, neither of the books was primarily, nor even tangentially, a campaign setting as we think of them today.

Blackmoor is the earliest setting to be associated with what eventually became D&D, but beyond that distinction things get fuzzy. Some current settings may be older (though they were turned into RPG products later in their life than Blackmoor) - for example, I believe Ed Greenwood started the Forgotten Realms when he was a kid, long before anything like D&D existed. Best just to appreciate all of them on their own merits.

 

[DClingman]

Blackmoor is the earliest setting to be associated with what eventually became D&D, but beyond that distinction things get fuzzy. Some current settings may be older (though they were turned into RPG products later in their life than Blackmoor) - for example, I believe Ed Greenwood started the Forgotten Realms when he was a kid, long before anything like D&D existed. Best just to appreciate all of them on their own merits.

Hear Hear!!!

Well said DMScott.

Dustin