GaryCon 16 – Playing Blackmoor

I was at GaryCon a few weeks ago and had an absolute blast. I got to reconvene with friends, play a decent amount of games, and chat will all sorts of people. GaryCon has consistently been one of my favorite conventions to go to.

Probably the highlight of the convention was getting to participate in a “seminar” with Bob Meyer, an old Twin Cities gamer, and the man who had inherited Blackmoor from Dave Arneson, as well as play in a game with him and a co-GM of his.

I put seminar in quotes because it was really a discussion, several people sat at a table and Bob told us stories about how gaming got to where it is today. He encouraged people to ask questions and kept the whole ordeal very warm and casual. Ben Riggs of Slaying the Dragon was there recording the seminar, and I was certainly happy because I wasn’t the only one asking “deep lore” sort of questions of Bob.

I think the biggest concept Bob conveyed was that nothing in the early days of roleplaying was birthed entirely full-formed in any one place, nor can one draw a historical precedent to any singular activity, rather that everything tends to be the sum of many influences, failed attempts, random ideas, and mechanics taken from other games.

I asked him about the Troll game he participated in – the short version of this is that Dave Arneson wanted to run Blackmoor for Bob, and Dave told Bob that he would be a “hero.” Bob then ran into a troll under a bridge, charged the troll, and after a few failed attempts to dispatch the monster, the troll clubbed Bob’s character, killing him immediately. The mythology around this event tends to state two things – that this was run utilizing the Fantasy Supplement in Chainmail, and that Bob’s disapproval of the session (which Dave agreed with) led to the inclusion of hit points (from Don’t Give Up The Ship) into Blackmoor.

Bob did seem hesitant to crown this event as “where hit points came from” in Blackmoor, and in addition – Bob listed numerous implementations of hit and damage structures that were floating around the Twin Cities, that Dave had likely been planning on playing with. Nonetheless, it was very interesting to hear him recall these events.

Bob mentioned that a big part of his continuing to run these events, despite wanting to retire numerous times, is that he has seen more and more people adopt a “Blackmoorian” style of running games. He seemed pleased when I told him there was a whole sub-niche of nerds online who are pretty obsessed with this style, and he got a bit emotional that people would travel far and wide just to hear about his friends and their games.

In terms of the actual game, I cannot go too far into specifics, as Bob did not want any details recorded, as he felt the surprise and novelty was a part of the experience of playing in his versions of Blackmoor, so I will not say what happened in the adventure. For general setup – we had two tables, one run by Bob, and a second run by a co-GM (Bob specifically liked Game Master over Referee, as he felt Referee was “rules oriented”, and Dungeon Master because he said games were more than just dungeons). Each table contained a party, and we each had the same goals – we were essentially splitting up to cover more ground. The two parties could meet up throughout play, or even affect each other.

Bob starts by asking everyone why they, the players, are there. This led to short discussions of how everyone had heard of Blackmoor. For many it was obviously Secrets of Blackmoor, for a few of us it was First Fantasy Campaign or Adventures in Fantasy and just being into the old-school stuff. After this Bob asked us all about our characters and let us pick one unique ability – this could be magical, it could be a special item or expertise, anything really. My character could talk to spirits, and other examples at our table included a shapeshifter, as well as someone who could change the density of any object.

In terms of resolution, most of it was what you’d expect if you’ve followed any details on Bob Meyer – contested 2d6, the highest roll gets their intent. My whole Primeval 2d6 is written to basically explain how I run this style. Bob made lots of calls and had a great way of finding complications to almost any action. He had a very specific way of calling for the character’s action by pointing out when a player had put forth and intention but hadn’t clarified what they wanted to do. I found that interesting, and wondered if he had run into situations of players doing gotchas of “I said I wanted to touch the glowing skull, not that I did touch it.”

It was a very fun game, and one of those experiences that I will cherish for the rest of my life. The rest of the con was fantastic as well – I got to play in many great games. I had a very fun game of Wyvern’s Roost ran by directsun that had some of the top fantasy hijinks I’ve ever been in.

If you’re ever planning on heading to GaryCon, drop me a message and maybe we can meet up and get a game in!

Gamers with Bob Meyer

Late Gary Con 15 Summary & Braunstein

So about a month ago (time does fly), I traveled to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to attend Gary Con 15. GC15 was my first convention since the initial outbreak of Covid, so I was pretty excited. I was initially planning on running an event there, but after a lot of life stuff got in the way, I decided to attend as a player for once. Going to a convention without referee slots is quite a change of pace for me, as I have had whole trips to GenCon, where I have run three sessions daily. I did grab some pick-up play as a referee and player, though, so I guess I can’t keep away from the backside of the screen.

I got to play in about 75% of the games I had wanted to try out. Unfortunately, I missed Daniel Norton‘s Unchained sessions, but I could play several other peoples’ takes on D&D + Chainmail, so that was a fitting consolation.

I met with my pal Directsun and played face-to-face with him as he ran his Seer’s Sanctum adventure. I had played in a playtest version, but I often play in adventures I have read or run, so I have no problem playing support for the other players and maybe goading characters into trying “fun” ideas. Directsun ran the game in a very “FKR” sort of style. When players showed up to the table, he had them roll up three stats, ask for something the character is good at and is poor at, and contribute whatever else they wanted, such as background, motivation, etc. I played a braggart mercenary who was adept with a polearm but very cowardly. We got through the dungeon and were able to unleash some stuff in it that the author hadn’t experienced before, so that was a blast.

Most of the games I played were what I would recognize as what Mike Monard described in his original FKR post on the odd74 forums. I think this is a testament to the toolbox nature of D&D’s original three little brown books (and also how vague and obtuse they are, necessitating hacking, I say lovingly). Not to get too into yelling at a cloud, but I think sometimes people chase some big secret when it comes to these sub-niches of games like they need to find some perfect mechanic or principle when it is – play games with people you trust and talks about the fun you want to have. That’s an aside from the con, though.

The highlight of the convention was getting to play a session of Braunstein I with David Wesley. If you are unaware, Braunstein was a “war game” that Wesley ran for his wargaming group, which included Dave Arneson. In this game, everyone played individual characters in a tense situation. Wesley needed to come up with rulings on the fly for all the unexpected hijinks the players got up to. What he thought was a failure became the spark igniting the tabletop roleplaying hobby.

The session lasted six hours, with an hour and a half of setup and discussion. This length of time might seem like a lot. Still, it was an absolute gem of a session for me – Wesley overviewed how and why he proposed the game, the history of how it happened, and the following Braunsteins he ran to eventually arrive at the notion of what made them fun. He also gave a historical overview of the scenario behind the game – noting that many of his original players were familiar with the political situation given their wargaming, so he wanted to highlight the political and religious underpinnings of the adventure.

Wesley immediately handed out a few characters based on contributions and answers to questions he asked during the history section. For example, a player who could recite a quote from Jefferson was handed the role of a dissident student. I was “Student #3”, imprisoned with other students who had incited violence (or defended against it, per their report). I will not go into deep detail on the scenario as I know David Wesley is running this at many more conventions to come, and I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who does want to play it. My character had a cushy job and a somewhat mysterious past, and my goals related to keeping that position, not being expelled, and discovering the details of my background.

Every character had a collection of different, secret goals. While we were supposed to accomplish them, many of us found additional avenues for fun, messing with other characters, repairing or ruining extraneous situations based on the players, and hijinks.

The game is played much like one might think of as a parlor larp. We had sections of the room to represent different sections of the town – the prison, with tables representing cells, various buildings, the university, and a town square. We didn’t have all the players for every single role, so our Referee would go about the players portraying them. For example, he showed up as a corrupt guard to my cell looking for an easy payout, which my cellmates and I jumped at the chance to contribute to on promise of immediate release.

The experience was one of the best games I have played in. After the game, David Wesley signed a copy of Olde House RulesBarons of Braunstein (a book he contributed the forward and some extra materials to). We also had time to discuss historic details I had questions about with the Major and players from his group. I’ll probably collect them in a future post to get further information after I correspond.

Overall, the convention was a lot of fun, definitely one of the better ones I have been to, and I don’t think that is just because it is the first I’ve attended in about three years!