James Maliszewski joins Zeitgiest Games

[zg_riorio]

Zeitgeist Games announced today that James Maliszewski is joining the Zeitgeist Games staff.

James is now the Blackmoor Line Developer, and is taking over the development of Blackmoor. In addition to his duties as line developer, James will be working on a number of projects currently in development.

Before joining Zeitgeist Games, James has designed and written for Atlas Games, Green Ronin Publishing, Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf and among many others. In addition James wrote the Hard Science column on RPG.net.

Zeitgeist Games Director of Traditional Games Richard Iorio commented, "James brings a wealth of experience as a writer and designer, but more importantly his passion for Blackmoor is contagious. With James at the helm of the industry's oldest setting, only good things will come. He will be a great asset to the Zeitgeist Games team."

About Zeitgeist Games, Inc.

Zeitgeist Games, Inc. was founded in 2002 by Dave Arneson and Dustin Clingman and is a producer of hybrid interactive entertainment delivering quality electronic and classical adventure games. For more information, visit the Zeitgeist Games website at zeitgeistgames.com

Blackmoor is a registered trademark of Wizards of the Coast.

 

[Ranger REG]

So what are you planning to offer from the Blackmoor line for the next 12 months?

 

[Ghostwind]

Congratulations are in order. James is a real class act and has a wealth of experience. Blackmoor is in good hands.

 

[trancejeremy]

Hmmmm, you go to their website and you don't even seen any mention of Blackmoor. Just things like "Soap Opera Puzzle Challenge".

Did Castle Blackmoor come out? (I must have missed it if it has)

Anyway, yeah, he's a top notch RPG writer.

 

[JamesM]

I'm still "settling in" to the position and getting up to speed on everything, but I can answer your questions.

First, the Zeitgeist Games website is currently under going significant renovation. The Traditional Games division (under whose banner Dave Arneson's Blackmoor is published) doesn't yet have its own site. However, you can go to www.dablackmoor.com, the site of the MMRPG, for the time being. It has regular updates and forums and nicely fills the gap till the other site is up and running. I don't have an ETA on when that will be, so don't ask

Second, The Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor was released at GenCon, along with the Player's Guide to Blackmoor. Copies of both should have filtered through distribution to game stores by now.

Third, the release schedule for 2007 is full of lots of goodness for fans of Blackmoor. The New Year will bring Temple of the Frog, an expanded and updated version of the classic adventure. In February, there's a sourcebook devoted to the Peshwah. City of the Gods, another classic brought into the 21st century, comes out in April. The Duchy of Ten makes it debut in June. For GenCon 2007, we have Clock & Steam, a sourcebook detailing the wondrous, confounding, and sometimes dangerous mechanical devices produced in the North. Shortly after that, there is the Game Master's Guide to Blackmoor.

As you can see, 2007 will be a good year for Dave Arneson's Blackmoor. There will be both revisions and expansions of old favorites, as well as plenty of books dedicated to topics barely touched upon previously. I'm a huge fan of Blackmoor from way back and I can assure you that, beginning in 2007, other fans of the First Fantasy Campaign won't be disappointed with what we have in store.

If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

 

[qstor]

As you can see, 2007 will be a good year for Dave Arneson's Blackmoor. There will be both revisions and expansions of old favorites, as well as plenty of books dedicated to topics barely touched upon previously. I'm a huge fan of Blackmoor from way back and I can assure you that, beginning in 2007, other fans of the First Fantasy Campaign won't be disappointed with what we have in store.

If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

I'm a *big* fan of Blackmoor and got the book signed by Dave at GenCon 2005. I play the MMRPG here in Michigan.

I know its REALLY early but will the steamwork book have new Presitge classes in it?

thanks!

Mike

 

[jaerdaph]

I was always impressed with James' work with Ronin Arts, especially the Modern Occult/Conspiracy products he worked on.

Good luck, James!

 

[Le Noir Faineant]

Congratulations! James, you've got the job of my dreams!

Will there be a book on the Duchy of Ten next year, then?

(Just read such a rumour elsewhere.)

Rafael aka "Desdichado" from dablackmoor

 

[JamesM]

A few quick responses to the various questions posed here:

1. Clock & Steam will indeed have new prestige classes. It's going to be a very good book and one that finally takes Blackmoor down a path that has only been hinted at in the past. I don't want to say too much just yet, but I think fans of Blackmoor and fantasy gaming in general will be very pleased, as it's a different take on the material than the "steampunk" approach most commonly used.

2. Duchy of Ten comes out next summer. It's an adventure/sourcebook that deals extensively with what life is like under the thumb of the Afridhi.

 

[Treebore]

As for Castle Blackmoor, here is a quick and dirty "opinion" I gave on another board (Note: Do not take this "opinion" as being negative, it isn't.)

"One of you asked my opinion about the Blackmoor Castle book. Well, I did some reading through it. The biggest dissappointment to me was the size of each level. They are only about 22 to 25 encounter areas in the early levels getting down to 10 to 12 encounter areas in the lowest levels.
i can see the reason for this, though. Space. For them to do this Castle the way I would have liked it they probably would have had to triple the size of the book.
I would like to have seen this Castle given the same scope as is being done with Castles Zagyg, which will have tons of maps, etc...

Other than that I like the approach taken to how this castle was laid out. Each of the twenty levels corresponds to level of the characters. It may have been better to go by CR, but still, I think it is a smart game plan. They also have some randomization where monsters from the lower (higher level) will come up and surprise unwary players. So if the players get too comfortable with each level of the dungeon being "their level" these random monsters can definitely throw a wrench in their expectations.

So over all I think this is a good book/adventure module, but it isn't anything like I was expecting, but admittedly my expectations have been jaded by what I have read being done by Gygax and TLG on the Castle Zagyg (Castle Greyhawk) project, which is much more in depth than this treatment. For example they are doing 3 books, or maybe a huge boxed set, because there are so friggin many maps.

To be honest, if I wasn't at GenCon when I bought this, and basically in the mindset to blow money, I wouldn't have paid the $35.00 for this. I would have waited until I found it at the steepest discount I could find on the internet, then bought it.

I mean, this isn't really the "Castle Blackmoor" this is the "20 Dungeon Levels of Castle Blackmoor". Really not what I was hoping to see, but good for what was designed. So I was dissappointed in that this isn't what I was hoping, but for a 20 level Dungeon crawl it is pretty good."

There ends my opinion. I am also not a "Balckmoor fan", I just play in it and bought the books at GenCon, and as usual, opinions vary. So don't judge this book solely by my opinion, take the time to look at it yourself.

I have to say even though I am not a Blackmoor fan I am looking forward to the Duchy of Ten. I have used that material in the past. I am also looking forward the the "Frog" module. Is Melan (Gabor Lux) writing that one?