2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary - January 01

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Here are the Blog posts for the 1st.

January is International Original Dungeons & Dragons Month (30 day Challenge starts tomorrow on the 2nd) The 30 Day OD&D posting Challenge is begins today the 2nd!

2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Darkworm Colt posted a game hack saying:

In a way, that's what Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax, Prof. MAR Barker and all the other early (war)gamers did: use literature as fuel for their imaginary adventures.

Apocalypse World, powered by ancient rules

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Today begins a year of celebration of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor as we kick off 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary. I will be posting now and then throughout the year talking about Blackmoor and Dave Arneson. If you saw my heads up post a few days ago, then you already know what this is about. If you did not I will wait while you check it out here.

You are back, great so you have read the disclaimer and we are on the same page and you know where I am coming from.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Dave Arneson played a multitude of games including wargames and one of his friends David Wesely decided to do an experiment and created a scenario set in the fictional German town of Braunstein. Mr. Wesely (due to the chaos and the way his scenario was turned upside down) considered it a failure and was greatly surprised when his players kept asking when he would do it again. While I will talk about this more in the future, the short story is that he did run more of them and one player - Dave Arneson - in one particular scenario about a fictional Central American country pushed the experiment way further than Mr. Wesely was initially prepared to go, but he decided to say "Yes" to what Arneson proposed to do in a pre-game meeting and that as they say "has made all the difference."

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Dave Arneson always credited David Wesely as the creator of the roleplaying game, but I would point out that it really appears to me that it was the synergy between Dave Arneson and David Wesely that created roleplaying games. IMO Dave Arneson gave credit because without that "Yes" who knows when or how or by whom roleplaying games would have been created. The imaginative scenarios were named Braunstein after the town in the first one and they provided the soil. The additional imagination and wanting to run with the possibilities came from Dave Arneson, this was the water. The "Yes" from David Wesely was the sunshine, that made it all grow. All the other players were important, I do not mean to slight them at all, so please do not misunderstand.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

When David Wesely left Minnesota in 1970 for military duty, Dave Arneson took over running the Braunstein games and this was the beginning and genesis of Blackmoor. That is why the 50th anniversary is this year 2020.