So you want to run Blackmoor?
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Dave Arneson Day special |
About a year ago, one of the adventuring parties in my ongoing Mystara campaign went thousands of years back in time to the legendary Blackmoor. Here's a brief guide on how to set up a Blackmoor campaign on your own, be it in Mystara's past or as a standalone affair.
Contents
DA Series ↩
These four adventure modules by Dave Arneson and David Ritchie are written for BECMI D&D, but will be an invaluable resource regardless of the edition due to the vast amount of information on the setting contained therein. Naturally, all four will serve as a foundation for the campaign.
📝 NOTE: Needless to say, the text below contains spoilers regarding the setting and its adventures.
Adventures in Blackmoor ↩
DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor1 serves as an introduction and a gateway to the ancient Blackmoor for the contemporary Mystaran adventurers. Through the magical Comeback Inn, they will traverse the depths of time and space, emerging four thousand years ago in the same inn, where it was still standing on the streets of the city of Blackmoor.
The Adventure
The adventure starts with travel to and exploration of the abandoned Comeback Inn, eventually using its magical nature to travel in time to various periods of its existence, finally arriving to the Blackmoor city. Here, the characters will meet some important personas and gain an understanding of the current political situation in the kingdom. Finally, the heroes must explore yet another "version" of the Comeback Inn to rescue King Uther from the clutches of Thonian agents working for the Iron Duke.
The Setting
The book starts with a lengthy introduction to Blackmoor and its backstory, covering the third decline of Thonia, the invasion of Afridhi, and the Great Rebellion leading to Blackmoor's independence from the empire. After the adventure, a four-page overview of the Kingdom of Blackmoor and surrounding lands is provided, including geography, garrison numbers, political disposition, and even ten secret missions suggested as the follow-up to this module. Finally, the list of 38 important NPCs, many of whom the characters will meet in the course of this or following adventures. The map of the kingdom and the lands to the west and north of it is also included.
Temple of the Frog ↩
DA2 Temple of the Frog2 is a direct successor to the module of the same name included in Supplement II: Blackmoor.3
The Adventure
The characters are tasked with rescuing Rissa Aleford, Baroness of the Lakes, from the ominous Order of the Frog. A lengthy introduction, sprinkled with copious "read aloud" boxes, is followed by the sandbox-style description of the City of the Frog and its Temple, containing over a hundred keyed locations between them. From here, the fate of the baroness (and their own) completely lies in the hands of the heroes.
The Setting
Not much space is left for additional information about the setting, except for a brief overview of the lands through which the journey to the Great Dismal Swamp takes the characters, including some custom random encounters along the way.
City of Gods ↩
DA3 City of Gods4 continues the events started during the expedition to the Temple of the Frog, now sending the heroes to the south in search of the mysterious city of steel and glass in the middle of the Valley of the Ancients.
The Adventure
Starting as an investigation of a strange "flying egg" crushed on the kingdom's southern borders, the adventure quickly becomes a search-and-rescue operation when a squad of flying metal men kidnap wizard Bosero the Drunkard and destroy the egg. After travelling through inhospitable desert, encountering the nomadic sand folk of the Valley, and surviving the City's outer defenses, the heroes must enter the alien city and explore its mind-bending interior and strange inhabitants.
The Setting
This module expands the scope of the campaign, covering the lands to the south of Blackmoor (including a map expansion) in a three-page overview, with an additional four pages listing custom random encounter tables for its regions. The rest of the module is filled with a list of alien devices the characters might find while exploring the City, detailed descriptions of new monsters and foes, as well as a list of 10 important NPCs — some new, but most of them were already described in DA1.
The Duchy of Ten ↩
DA4 The Duchy of Ten5 finishes the series with a covert mission to the west, in an attempt to destroy the Well of Souls — a dangerous artifact in the possession of the Afridhi Empire.
The Adventure
Once more, the mission to the west starts with lengthy background information (some of it repeating the lore presented in DA1) and an introduction for the player characters, be they still in Blackmoor or back in their own time. After a seafaring journey to the Duchy of Ten, the characters must sneak through the streets of Robinsport and venture deep into the enemy territory to complete their quest by destroying the Well of Souls under Tor Kurram.
The Setting
The book presents more information about the central and western regions of the land, including a four-page geographic overview, new encounter tables for a dozen regions, statistics for the new monsters and foes, and 12 NPCs important to the adventure.
Additional Materials ↩
Together, the four modules provide a solid foundation from which you can build a campaign in Blackmoor, but there's even more content that can be studied and used for additional details and modules for the setting.
Garbage Pits of Despair
Published in Different Worlds #426 and #43,7 this module by Dave Arneson describes a rescue mission taking place in the territory between Vestfold and Dragon Hills. If used with the DA series, it can serve as a nice lead-in for the DA2, revealing the slave trade operations of the Order of the Frog.
The Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor
Published by Zeitgeist Games8 as part of the 3.5e Blackmoor materials, The Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor9 can be easily converted to BECMI or another edition of your choice. Make sure to download the fixed 1st-level map from The Blackmoor Archives!10
The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg
The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg11 by The Fellowship of the Thing12 provides a good ten-level dungeon to place under Vestfold, including a free 5e adaptation13 and VTT maps.14
Setting Gazetteers
JG37 The First Fantasy Campaign15 by Dave Arneson is another valuable resource from which information about the setting could be gathered. A more coherent document, however, would be the Gazetteer of Blackmoor10 by David Ross, which combines and condenses information presented in the DA series, FFC, Supplement II, and GPoD, making it a must-have document for any DM planning to run a Blackmoor campaign.
Maps
Out of all official and fan-made maps, I liked the "Blackmoor, DA combined, 12 miles per hex" by Dave L., hosted on Pandius16, the most.
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https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/17125/da1-adventures-in-blackmoor-basic?affiliate_id=850783↩
https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/17128/da2-the-temple-of-the-frog-basic?affiliate_id=850783↩
https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/17172/od-d-supplement-ii-blackmoor-0e?affiliate_id=850783↩
https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/17132/da3-city-of-the-gods-basic?affiliate_id=850783↩
https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/17135/da4-the-duchy-of-ten-basic?affiliate_id=850783↩
https://archive.org/details/different-worlds-42/page/24/mode/2up↩
https://archive.org/details/different-worlds-43/page/24/mode/2up↩
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/2236/zeitgeist-games?affiliate_id=850783↩
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/51492/the-dungeons-of-castle-blackmoor?affiliate_id=850783↩
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/492565/the-lost-dungeons-of-tonisborg↩
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/518884/the-lost-dungeons-of-tonisborg-for-d-d-5th-edition?affiliate_id=850783↩
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/518889/the-lost-dungeons-of-tonisborg-maps-for-vtts?affiliate_id=850783↩