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Adventures in Fantasy as a Blackmoor Setting Resource?
#1
Charlie asked the following question in this thread.
Semi-Retired Gamer Wrote:I wonder if the "World of Fantasy" would have been Blackmoor in disguise because the example campaign setup in the AiF core rules has the "Shrine of St. Cuth" instead of Cuthbert iirc. Without taking the time for a quick look I don't know if there were other similarities.

With the renewed interest in Adventures in Fantasy and setting up a separate subforum for that game, I have gotten more interested in the setting elements in this game.

The default setting presented is Bleakwood, which is also described in the First Fantasy Campaign as a region near Bramwald. In my Thonia project, I have Bleakwood as one of the Thonian Provinces.

Adventures in Fantasy is clearly a dive into the minds of Dave Arneson and Richard Snider. Richard Snider's involvement in the original campaign was so extensive that Dave gave him an entire section in the FFC as well. Could AiF then be mined for Blackmoor Setting material?

-Havard
Currently Running: The Blackmoor Vales Saga
Currently Playing: Daniel S. Debelfry in the Throne of Star's Campaign
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#2
Let's put it this way -- when I create campaigns of my own, I often lean on previous ideas I've had instead of coming up with something 100% new. I can see where Dave may have done exactly this.

He knows that TSR has its claws into "Blackmoor" and all things connected to it, but he is still running his own campaign and clearly likes what he is doing with it. When he decides to write a new RPG, why not borrow from the game he's presently running?

Makes sense to me! 8)
Marv / Finarvyn
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"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!"
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#3
Did that once, for an online game in Spanish. Overall, mixed results, for me.

AiF, in many aspects, plays and feels like an Alpha-version of "Dragon Warriors".
Since the later is the better, as in, more developed, game, there was definitely a period when I used DW as a resource for my games.

AiF was not enough for me to keep me lingering on it for more than just a couple of sessions.

- A shame, though. It's a good game, but not very deep, compared to today's standards.
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#4
Just to be clear, I'm not talking about using the system with Blackmoor. I mean raiding setting material from it to add to Blackmoor (for any system) Smile

-Havard
Currently Running: The Blackmoor Vales Saga
Currently Playing: Daniel S. Debelfry in the Throne of Star's Campaign
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#5
I believe -_- I understood you right, there. Smile

Personally, apart from shoehorning the locations into the setting, the game was a tad bit too barren to be a real addition.

Honest answer, here - I don't think ANYTHING I used for that game back then made it into my continuing personal canon.

That doesn't say the game is bad, but it's really like Dragon Warriors Version Zero. Out of my gut, I would even guess that there was a connection, was DW not so connected to WHFRP.

AiF, by all means, not a bad game, but, don't know how you feel about it, a bit barren to really serve as much of an inspiration, if you already have a (couple of) basic treatments of fantasy gaming.
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#6
That said, this is just, like, my opinion. Smile

Not intending to bash the game, at all. To the contrary - I think it was well ahead of its time, and the success of games with similar concepts shows that the team behind it was very much at the pulse of the hobby at the time. - Not, what, some Quixotic endeavor, as some less kind fellows tend to talk it down.
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#7
Raphael Pinthus Wrote:I believe -_- I understood you right, there. Smile

Sorry, it just seemed to me like you were mainly talking about the rules. Don't get me wrong, I also want to talk about that, but that is a topic better suited for the new AiF Forum. Smile

For instance, if you started a thread about your experiences with AiF or comparing AiF to Dragon Warriors over there I would be very interested in hearing about it Smile

Quote:Personally, apart from shoehorning the locations into the setting, the game was a tad bit too barren to be a real addition.

I'm not so sure about that. There are alot of hints to the type of world we are dealing with hidden in various parapgraphs throughout the books....


finarvyn Wrote:Let's put it this way -- when I create campaigns of my own, I often lean on previous ideas I've had instead of coming up with something 100% new. I can see where Dave may have done exactly this.

He knows that TSR has its claws into "Blackmoor" and all things connected to it, but he is still running his own campaign and clearly likes what he is doing with it. When he decides to write a new RPG, why not borrow from the game he's presently running?

Makes sense to me! 8)

Absolutely. And since we as fans dont have to worry about copyrights and laws and whatnot for what we want to include in our own personal games, there is nothing stopping us from raiding "Arnesonian" concepts from AiF and bringing them into our Blackmoor games is there? Smile

-Havard
Currently Running: The Blackmoor Vales Saga
Currently Playing: Daniel S. Debelfry in the Throne of Star's Campaign
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#8
Havard Wrote:I'm not so sure about that. There are alot of hints to the type of world we are dealing with hidden in various paragraphs throughout the books....

Yeah, sure, but... What did YOU use? :twisted: Like, it's surely interesting to read between the lines, but killer ideas, I kind of missed there.
Mind you, the box goes for more than a hundred bucks on ebay, these days. Not a price to pay for a vintage product, unless it's really way above average.

Like, I would not seriously recommend this one to other fellow BM fans, unless they really owned EVERYTHING else that is there to collect, before this one.

Again, just my two coppers.
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#9
I'm going to rearrange your statements before commenting:
Raphael Pinthus Wrote:Like, I would not seriously recommend this one to other fellow BM fans, unless they really owned EVERYTHING else that is there to collect, before this one.

Agreed. The box is too expensive for anyone but the most hard core fans. Still there are a few of those around here so... Smile

Quote:Yeah, sure, but... What did YOU use? :twisted: Like, it's surely interesting to read between the lines, but killer ideas, I kind of missed there.

Well, I havent used much yet. I have just begun to dig into this matter again.

The things I am looking into now are:
1) Bleakwood Mini-setting (this goes without saying).
2) References to Religion and Cosmology
3) Alignments: Alignments seem to be more like Elric-eque forces in AiF than in D&D.
4) Monsters: Monsters sometimes say more about the setting than just that the monsters are there.
5) Artifacts: What are their origins, who used them etc?
6) The Faerry Races

Again, this is still early stage for me. The point is not that any of these are "killer ideas" though. My reason for looking into them is that they are Arneson's ideas (and Richard Snider's), which makes of interest to me. Smile

-Havard
Currently Running: The Blackmoor Vales Saga
Currently Playing: Daniel S. Debelfry in the Throne of Star's Campaign
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#10
This discussion is interesting and really makes me want to pick up First Fantasy Campaign to augment my understanding of those times.
I sporadically blog (mostly) about role-playing topics at The Semi-Retired Gamer.
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