 The original Blackmoor supplement (TSR, Inc., 1975) | |
| Author | Dave Arneson |
|---|---|
| Genre | Role-playing game |
| Publisher | TSR, Inc. |
Publication date | 1975 |
| Pages | 60 |
Blackmoor is a supplementary rulebook (product designation TSR 2004) of the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game written by Dave Arneson (with a foreword by Gary Gygax).
Blackmoor, the second supplement to the original Dungeons & Dragons rules, is known for its introduction of rules for underwater adventures and hit location, and the addition of the monk and assassin character classes. [1] [2]
Dave Arneson named the booklet after his original role-playing campaign world, Blackmoor. [3] It has additional rules, monsters, treasures, and the first role-playing game adventure ever published, The Temple of the Frog. [1] [4] Despite the name, the supplement includes almost no information on Arneson's version of the world. [5] : 100
Blackmoor added two new character classes to the game: [6] the assassin, a sub-class of the thief; and the monk, a "monastic martial arts" sub-class of the cleric, intended to be a hybrid of the fighter and thief classes. The Sage character was also introduced, but changed to a Non-Player Character type and moved to the back of the booklet by the editor. [7]
The book also introduced a section on diseases and a hit location system, [6] wherein each individual body part of a character or monster was assigned its own hit points. The odds of hitting any specific body part changed depending on the character's height and weapon reach. If any individual body part was brought down to zero hit points, the creature would be crippled or killed.
The supplement introduced rules for underwater adventures, such as rules and guidelines for swimming, equipment weight restrictions when fighting underwater, and the effects of underwater combat on weapons and spells. Blackmoor also includes numerous new water-dwelling monsters and equipment useful for underwater adventures. A number of these underwater monsters and magic items were the creations of Steve Marsh, added to the supplement in order to compensate for material by Arneson left out of the final edit. [8] [9]
Following the release of the original Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson decided to publish expansions of their respective campaigns. For Arneson, this expansion would be based on his Blackmoor campaign, which had originated in the first quarter of 1971. [10] In March 1975, Gygax told a wargaming newsletter that Arneson was working on a final draft, and TSR began accepting preorders for the product and advertised it in The Strategic Review . The booklet was delivered late, in part by having gone through two editors (Brian Blume and Tim Kask) and being temporarily misplaced. The final edit was done hastily in a few weeks. [5] : 111 The Blackmoor expansion was published by TSR, Inc. in 1975 [11] as a sixty-page, digest-sized book. [1] It was the second supplement to the original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set and bears the designation "Supplement II," with Gygax's Greyhawk preceding it in the same year.
The book features illustrations by David C. Sutherland III, Mike Bell, and Tracy Lesch. The supplement was edited by Tim Kask, [12] who also did development on it. [13]
The Temple of the Frog was revised and expanded years later, and published as DA2 Temple of the Frog . [1]
The Blackmoor supplement was reproduced as a premium reprint on November 19, 2013, as part of a deluxe reprint of the original "White Box" which features new packaging in an oaken box. The reprint includes: Volume 1: Men & Magic, Volume 2: Monsters & Treasure, and Volume 3: Underworld & Wilderness Adventures plus four supplements: Supplement I: Greyhawk , Supplement II: Blackmoor, Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry , and Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes . Each booklet comes with new cover art but otherwise reproduces the original content faithfully, including original interior art. [14]
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson.
Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Although not the first campaign world developed for Dungeons & Dragons—Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign predated it by about a year—the world of Greyhawk closely identified with early development of the game beginning in 1972, and after being published it remained associated with Dungeons & Dragons publications until 2008. The world itself started as a simple dungeon under a castle designed by Gary Gygax for the amusement of his children and friends, but it was rapidly expanded to include not only a complex multi-layered dungeon environment, but also the nearby city of Greyhawk, and eventually an entire world. In addition to the campaign world, which was published in several editions over twenty years, Greyhawk was also used as the setting for many adventures published in support of the game, as well as for RPGA's massively shared Living Greyhawk campaign from 2000–2008.
David Lance Arneson was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game (RPG), Dungeons & Dragons, with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s. Arneson's early work was fundamental to the role-playing game (RPG) genre, pioneering devices now considered to be archetypical, such as cooperative play to develop a storyline instead of individual competitive play to "win" and adventuring in dungeon, town, and wilderness settings as presented by a neutral judge who doubles as the voice and consciousness of all characters aside from the player characters.
Blackmoor is a fantasy role-playing game campaign setting generally associated with the game Dungeons & Dragons. It originated in the early 1970s as the personal setting of Dave Arneson, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, as an early testing ground for what would become D&D.
Several different editions of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game have been produced since 1974. The current publisher of D&D, Wizards of the Coast, produces new materials only for the most current edition of the game. However, many D&D fans continue to play older versions of the game and some third-party companies continue to publish materials compatible with these older editions.
The monk is a playable character class in most editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. A D&D monk is a fantasy martial artist, specializing in unarmed combat.
James Michael Ward III was an American game designer and fantasy author who worked for TSR, Inc. for more than 20 years, most notably on the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. He wrote various books relating to Dungeons & Dragons, including guidebooks such as Deities & Demigods, and novels including Pool of Radiance, based on the computer game of the same name.
Robert J. Kuntz is a game designer and author of role-playing game publications. He is best known for his contributions to various Dungeons & Dragons-related materials.
Eldritch Wizardry is a supplementary rulebook by Gary Gygax and Brian Blume, written for the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game, which included a number of significant additions to the core game. Its product designation is TSR 2005.
City of the Gods is a 1987 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Its module code is DA3 and its TSR product code is TSR 9191.
The original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson was published by TSR, Inc. in 1974. It included the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Its product designation was TSR 2002.
Greyhawk is a supplementary rulebook written by Gary Gygax and Robert J. Kuntz for the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. It has been called "the first and most important supplement" to the original D&D rules. Although the name of the book was taken from the home campaign supervised by Gygax and Kuntz based on Gygax's imagined Castle Greyhawk and the lands surrounding it, Greyhawk did not give any details of the castle or the campaign world; instead, it explained the rules that Gygax and Kuntz used in their home campaign, and introduced a number of character classes, spells, concepts and monsters used in all subsequent editions of D&D.
Swords & Spells is a supplementary rulebook by Gary Gygax for the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Its product designation is TSR 2007.
The Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set is a set of rulebooks for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. First published in 1977, it saw a handful of revisions and reprintings. The first edition was written by J. Eric Holmes based on Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson's original work. Later editions were edited by Tom Moldvay, Frank Mentzer, Troy Denning, and Doug Stewart.
Timothy James Kask is an American editor and writer in the role-playing game industry. Kask became interested in board games in his childhood, and later turned to miniatures wargames. While attending university after a stint in the US Navy, he was part of a group that playtested an early version of the new role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) for game co-designer Gary Gygax. Gygax hired him as the first employee of TSR, Inc. in 1975. After editing some of TSR's early D&D publications, Kask became editor of The Strategic Review, which later became The Dragon, and then Dragon Magazine.
The DA module series is a series of four adventures for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, designed to be compatible with the Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set. They were written for character levels 10–14 by Dave Arneson and David J. Ritchie and published from 1986 to 1987.
The Expert Set is an expansion boxed set for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It was first published in 1981 as an expansion to the Basic Set.
The First Fantasy Campaign is a supplement for fantasy role-playing games written by Dave Arneson and published by Judges Guild in 1977.
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, gnomes are one of the core races available for play as player characters. Some speculate that they are closely related to dwarves; however, gnomes are smaller and more tolerant of other races, nature, and magic. Depending on the setting and subrace, they are often skilled with illusion magic or engineering. Gnomes are small humanoids, standing 3–3.5 feet (91–107 cm) tall.