Go to Part 1 – Go to Special Interest Rules

Carousing: Includes drinking, gambling, lusting, entertainment, drugs, fine dining, and all manner of merriment. A good carousing can last the better part of a week. Characters with high Constitution scores can keep going longer than their comrades. When rolling for the community’s carousing GP limit, add a bonus to the die roll based on the character’s Constitution (13-15: +1, 16-17: +2, 18: +4).

Complication: Carousing requires a save vs. poison. On a failure, roll a complication.

Carnavale: The money expended here goes towards enjoying gladiator duels, races (chariot, griffon, etc.), masques, festivals, parades, triumphs, jousting tournaments, and similar spectacles. Those spending significant amounts of money in this Special Interest are actually sponsoring games and other events (which will, in the grand tradition of bread and circuses, most likely make them quite popular with the populace).

Philanthropy: The creation or support of private initiatives for the public good. Orphanages, libraries, public hospitals, children’s charities, education programs, almshouses, establishing public infrastructure, the Continual Light Streetlight Foundation, the Spectral Society, the Circle for the Succor of Bereft Familiars, or any number of other possibilities exist.

Religion: Generally tithing or, depending on the faith in question, the purchase of actual sacrifices to be offered to the gods (fatted calfs and so forth).

For purely monetary tithing, the normal community GP limit does not apply. (The church will happily take all the money you choose to give to it.) However, unusually large donations risk attracting the attention of the gods. (And not always the god you were looking to appease!) Roll an additional complication check for each multiple of the community GP limit donated. (For example, if the GP limit is 100 GP and you donate 350 GP, you would roll four complication checks – the normal one, but one additional check for exceeding 100, 200, and 300 GPs.)

Song/Fame: Expenditures in this Special Interest represent a character’s efforts to increase their fame or notoriety. Sponsoring bards to compose and perform songs of their deeds, publishing personal memoirs, and so forth.

In addition to the normal community GP limit, expenditures in this category are limited to 100 GP per delve/adventure the character has participated in. (The bards can only do so much with limited material.)

Training: Wealth spent in this Special Interest simply represents paying for expert training and/or training equipment. In order to train most effectively, a character must have access to a sufficiently skilled trainer. (Any character with a higher level in the same class is considered such automatically, but at the GM’s discretion some teachers may be capable of effectively training those better than themselves.) If such a trainer is not available, expenditures in this Special Interest only generate half the normal amount of XP.

Hoarding: When hoarding gold pieces, you simply stash them away. If your hoard is ever lost, stolen, or you’re forced to spend your stash, however, it creates an XP deficit equal to the XP gained from hoarding the gold in the first place. This won’t cause the character to lose levels, but they’ll need to pay off the XP deficit before accruing more.

• Complication: 1 in 20 chance per quiescence that something threatens the hoard.

Hobbies: The Hobby category covers a wide variety of different activities. Most characters will generally focus on one or two hobbies, however, and players should give some thought to what they are. GPs spent in Hobbies can be used for hobby equipment (as long as that equipment does not have an adventuring application), but is more likely to be spent contributing to the completion of projects.

• Sample Hobbies: Creature Husbandry (Growth, Breeding, Control, Increasing Intelligence, Magical Alterations, Frankensteinian Experiments), Robotic Tinkering, Device Creation/Improvement, Languages, Brewing, Hunting, Art, Spell Research, Item Creation
• Defining Projects: When a character proposes a project (breeding a hydra with more heads, creating a series of commemorative sculptures dedicated to dead heroes, writing and printing several hundred copies of a political manifesto) the GM defines that project in terms of a progress clock (a circle divided in 4, 6, or 8 segments, with larger numbers of segments representing more difficult projects), a GP cost per segment, and an appropriate ability score that can be used to work on the project.
• Completing Projects: Once per quiescence, the character can spend GPs equal to the cost of one or more project segments and attempt to advance the project by making an ability score check. Each additional segment they are attempting to complete past the first applies a -1 penalty to this check. If the check is successful, they can fill in the number of segments they were working on. If the check fails, no segments are filled in. In either case, they spend the GPs and gain XP accordingly. If all of the segments in the project’s progress clock are filled in, the project has been completed.
• Special Materials: At the GM’s discretion, some projects (or project segments) may require specific special materials which can only be acquired through questing in order to complete them.
• Arcane Projects: See below.
• Complication: 1 in 6 when attempting to complete a project.

RACIAL SPECIAL INTERESTS

Human – Generalist: Roll 1d8 to determine a second random Special Interest. (If you roll the same result, re-roll until you get a different result.) This Special Interest is also rated at 100%.

Dwarven Clan Hoards: Each dwarven clan maintains a hoard. The size of a clan’s hoard determines its prestige, political power, mining rights, bearding patents, and other cultural cachet. A dwarf can donate money to their clan hoard as a Special Interest. There are no withdrawals from a clan hoard(unless the clan is in a truly precarious state), so any money so donated is “lost” to the character.

• There is no limit to the amount of money that can be donated to the clan hoard, but it must be sent to the hoard via caravan.
• Roll 2d6+3 x 10% to determine the dwarf’s rating in this Special Interest.

Elven Tree Offerings: Throughout their long lives, elves will craft small spirit totems. (Roughly the size of your hand.) Many will carve simple wooden figures, but those who can afford to do so will create elaborate totems made from rare metals, precious gems, unusual alchemicals, and the like. Each of these totems is left at the foot of a tree, and elves believe that these trees will guide them to the afterlife. Some believe that dryads are born from these spirit totems; gestalt spirits formed from the eldritch patchwork of the myriad elven soul shards left within the totems.

• The amount of money which can be spent on an individual spirit totem is limited by the community’s GP limit, but gemstones (and other appropriate substances subject to the GM’s approval) can be “spent” above this limit by incorporating them into the totem’s design. (This money can be spent on a single spirit totem or split across multiple, more modest spirit totems.)
• Elves automatically have a 100% rating in this Special Interest. However, if they place their spirit totem at the base of a particularly sacred or powerful tree (usually requiring a pilgrimage to distant lands or a quest of some sort) the GM can award a bonus of +10% to +50% depending on the potency or significance of the tree in question.
• Elves can only meaningfully place one spirit totem per tree.

Hobbit Gifting: Hobbits build community through gift-giving. They throw gifting parties at which they give away gifts to all of the invited guests. Traditionally each gift must be hand labeled, with the papers and inks selected having various ceremonial and coded meanings.

• Once per year, hobbits can throw a gifting party on their birthday. (Determine the date randomly.) On this special occasion, they gain twice the normal amount of XP per GP spent on gifts.
• 20% of the total value of gifts given at a gifting party can be given to other PCs. (Additional gifts can be given in excess of this, but their cost will not grant XP.)
• Hobbits determine their rating in this Special Interest normally (2d6 x 10%).

ARCANE PROJECTS

XP for Arcane Projects: Generally speaking, any project which actually creates an item (spell egg, magic sword, etc.) will not grant XP. (It’s just like money spent to purchase any other adventuring equipment.) Creating plans, researching spells, and even building workshops, on the other hand, all grant XP.

Prime Requisite Tests: Arcane projects generally use the caster’s prime requisite score.

Spell Formula: These plans allow one to both make spell eggs and copy out derivative rites into a personal spellbook (thus learning how to cast the spell).

• Deciphering Amulets: Amulets are ancient technomantic artifacts and they serve as the template on which most modern magic is based. Studying an amulet with the appropriate effect makes it considerably easier to derive the spell formula. This project uses a special progress clock with a number of segments equal to ½ the spell level (round up) and costs 100 gp per segment.
• Original Spell Research: The precise nature and level of an original spell must be approved by the GM. Performing the research uses a special progress clock with a number of segments equal to the spell level and costs 1,000 x the spell level per segment.

Bespoke Spell Eggs: If you have the appropriate spell formula, you can create one-off, handmade spell eggs as a project. Use a special progress clock with a number of segments equal to the spell level. Each segment costs 100 GP.

Workshops: Workshops are automated facilities which can produce spell eggs. They are imperfect copies of the sophisticated Laboratories of the Ancients. Each workshop is capable of producing one specific type of spell egg.

• Creating Workshop Plans: It is necessary to possess or create plans for a workshop before one can be built. If one has access to an appropriate Laboratory, reverse engineering its mechanisms in order to create workshop plans for one type of spell egg uses a special progress clock with a number of segments equal to 5 + the spell level and costs 100 GP x the spell level per segment. Creating completely original workshop plans can be incredibly difficult, requiring a number of segments equal to 5 + the spell level squared.
• Building a Workshop: Once you have appropriate plans, building a workshop uses a special progress clock with a number of segments equal to 5 + the spell level squared and costs 1,000 GP x the spell level per segment.

Workshop/Laboratory Spell Eggs: A workshop or laboratory will produce one spell egg per week, as long as it is supplied with raw materials equal to 100 GP x the spell level. The machines of the ancients are more efficient, and laboratories only require 80 GP x the spell level to produce a spell egg.

Other Magic Item Plans: In order to create a magic item, one must first either possess or create the plans for it. (A technical manual is sufficient for this purpose.) The difficulty and expense of creating these plans is defined by the GM, as is the difficulty and expense of creating the item itself. Some magic items may require special materials. (For example, capturing a demon’s soul to place within an amulet.)

STRONGHOLDS

Specific rules for establishing and managing strongholds are beyond this present document, but 100% of GP spent on strongholds grant XP. If strongholds are located within the community, 50% of these expenses are also considered community investment.

THINGS THAT WOULD BE NICE TO ADD TO THIS SYSTEM

• A random table for determining Caravan mishaps.
• A more fully-developed Caravan game structure. If players become invested in the caravan process at an open table, you could easily have one section of the campaign become entirely devoted to characters running/guarding caravans.
• A system for managing population growth. As investment in the local community swells, new people will be attracted to the settlement.
• A system for damaging a community’s GP limit (sacking a town, natural disaster, etc.).
• Earning profits from your investments when other PCs spend money on those Special Interests.
• Detailed complication tables for each Special Interest. For Carousing you can check out Jeff Rients’ Party Like It’s 999, Colin Chapman’s Drunken Debauchery!, and Claytonian JP’s DCC Montage Rules.

Next: Blackmoor Village Map

Go to Part 1

In the First Fantasy Campaign, Dave Arneson includes a system of “Special Interests” of which he writes, “Instead of awarding points for money and Jewels acquired in the depths of the Dungeon or hoarding items against the indefinite future, the players will receive NO points until they acquire the items listed below…”

What’s somewhat murky, in my opinion, is exactly what the provenance of this system is. Was it used from the very beginning? Implemented pre-D&D? Implemented as a post-D&D revision? The phrasing seems to suggest that that this system should be used as an alternative to “acquiring” or “hoarding” wealth, which only makes sense as a reaction to such a system already existing. But was that phrasing part of the original notes? Or was it added by Arneson in 1977?

And how was it used in actual practice (if it ever was; although, unlike Gygax, Arneson’s MO doesn’t seem to have included writing up elaborate rules he never used)? The most extreme interpretation is that experience points were ONLY awarded for spending gold pieces on special interests. The less extreme interpretation would be that this system is only meant to “replace” the current wealth-based XP system, while leaving the monster-slaying portion of the XP system intact.

Perhaps Daniel Boggs’ exploration of the Richard Snider Variant can shed some light on this.

For the purposes of running Castle Blackmoor, as you’ll see below, I’ve decided to go with the most extreme interpretation: The only way to gain XP is to pursue your special interests. (This is, again, not a declaration that I believe this to have been what was happening at Arneson’s table circa-1971. It’s just the most interesting choice to make as we explore alternative play dynamics.)

Unfortunately, the system as published in the First Fantasy Campaign is more or less unusable as it appears in print, including tables that are not explained, alternative generation methods which are described as being roughly equivalent but actually produce radically different results (suggesting that their explanation has either been mangled or that the material is actually an inchoate mash-up of several different revisions of the ruleset), multiple “examples” that all contradict each other and any version of the rules, and copious references to other sub-systems that have simply not been included.

As a result, the system below can be described, at best, as being inspired by the best ideas in Arneson’s system, liberally fleshed out with my own ideas. For example, the racial special interests are wholly mine as are all of the caravan guidelines (although not the idea of goods being brought in by caravan) and the hobby project rules, these latter being heavily influenced by Blades in the Dark because Arneson provided no meaningful mechanical insight for this and I didn’t feel like there was value in reinventing the wheel (pun intended).

GENERATING SPECIAL INTERESTS

• Roll 1d8 to determine a random Special Interest. Your character will have a 100% rating in this Special Interest.
• Add your Racial Special Interest (see below).
• For all other Special Interests, roll 2d6 x 10% to determine their rating.

GAINING EXPERIENCE POINTS

• You only gain XP for GP which are taken out of the dungeon and spent on a Special Interest.
• XP is gained on a 1-for-1 basis modified by the character’s rating in the Special Interest. (For example, if you have an 80% rating in Philanthropy and you donate 1,000 GP, you would gain 800 XP. If you have a 120% rating in Carousing and spend 100 GP at the bar, you would gain 120 XP.)

COMPLICATIONS

• Spending GP on a Special Interest may lead to complications. For some Special Interests, these complications will be generated randomly. In other cases, they can be avoided with a saving throw (as indicated in the Special Interest description). Use a 1 in 6 chance unless specified otherwise.
• If a complication is generated, roll on the complications table for that Special Interest. [Note: Until these complication tables are generated, complications will be at the GM’s discretion.]

COMMUNITY LIMITS

• The size of the community that you’re pursuing your Special Interest in will limit the amount of money you can spend on a Special Interest per quiescence.
• This limit is per character (i.e., Lynmae could spend the community’s full GP limit for Carnavale, but that wouldn’t prevent Derk from doing the same).
• The limit is also per Special Interest category. (If Lynmae has spent all the GP she can on Carnavale for this quiescence, she can still spend additional GP on Carousing.)
• The community’s base value is often modified by specific Special Interests, as noted in their descriptions. Some communities might also have higher-than-usual or lower-than-usual limits for specific Special Interest categories or activities, and community investment will also change the values the GP limit of the town for different Special Interest categories (see below).
• Wards: Alternatively, the GM might model large cities and metropolises as a collection of wards. Each individual ward can be given customized GP limits and complication tables, reflecting the differing character of each section of the city. PCs who have “exhausted” one ward can simply continue their spending in another ward.

Quiescence: By default, this term is a synonym for the downtime between sessions played. (In other words, if you go back to the dungeon your spending limits will be reset.) The GM may decide to set the quiescence to a particular time period (a month, for example), or set a particular time period as a minimum (so that if, for example, a player goes many months between sessions played, they may be able to spend many times the normal community limit representing their character’s activities during that time).

BLACKMOOR – BASE LIMITS

• Base GP Limit: 1d6 x 100 GP
• Great Kingdom Caravans: 1d6 x 10000 GP limit. 10 + 2d6 days to arrive.

For the purposes of my open table (at least for the moment), I chose to simply abstract the origin point of all caravans as being the Great Kingdoms to the south. This is not dissimilar from what Arneson describes, with players simply needing to meet the caravans at the “edge of the board” and escorting them in town. (Because they were playing on the map of Avalon Hill’s Outdoor Survival game.)

CARAVANS

Expenditures larger than the community’s GP limit can be made by sending a purchase request to a nearby community. (This purchase is, of course, limited by the other community’s GP limit.)

• Time: The GM should calculate the amount of time it takes for the caravan to arrive (remembering to include the time it takes for the order to arrive and for the requested goods to be assembled). The PC does not gain XP from the GP spent until the caravan arrives.
• Cost: Caravans charge 10% of the GP value of the order. (This expenditure does not grant XP.)
• Collective: Multiple PCs can collectively ship their supplies on a single caravan.
• Community Stimulus: When large amounts of material are shipped into a community, it stimulates the local economy. When a caravan shipment larger than the community’s maximum GP limit in a category arrives, apply 1% of the difference to improve the GP limit of the community (as per a community investment).

Caravans – Jeopardy: Caravans are subject to brigandry, natural disasters, and eldritch fates of an even stranger character. In some cases, characters might also simply be scammed by unethical caravan masters who simply abscond with their funds.

• Basic: To quickly determine the fate of a caravan, simply roll on the Basic Caravan Jeopardy table. If goods have been captured, it may be possible to recover them from the lair of whatever bandits, robber barons, or creatures were responsible. (Generate randomly.)
• Hexcrawl: If the campaign includes a full hexcrawl, the GM can simply track the actual movement of the caravan (generating random encounters as usual and adjudicating the outcomes of those encounters to determine the caravan’s fate).
• Trail/Road: As caravans will usually follow the same trade routes (whether by road or otherwise), similar results can be achieved without generating a full hexcrawl: The GM can develop each route as a trail, with landmarks along the way and appropriate random encounter tables.

Caravans – Protecting: If PCs decide to travel with the caravan in order to protect it, roll on the Basic Caravan Jeopardy table normally. The PCs, of course, will have a chance to directly respond to the dangers encountered by the caravan.

• Mercenaries: PCs can pay additional funds to hire men-at-arms to beef up the caravan’s security. (This expenditure does not grant XP.) In the basic jeopardy system, these forces provide a modifier to the Basic Caravan Jeopardy roll. (There is always at least a 1 in 10 change of the caravan going astray.) Continue rolling and resolving events until “Arrives Safely” result is generated.

COMMUNITY INVESTMENT

PCs may be interested in improving their community. They can do so by spending GP on community investments.

• Community Investments are generally targeted at a specific Special Interest category, but in some cases the GM may rule that a particular investment would have a positive impact across several categories (in which case its value is divided across those categories).
• GP spent on community investments do not grant XP, but the base value of the GP Limit of the targeted category is increased by 5% of the investment. (For example, Blackmoor has a base GP limit of 1d6 x 100 for Carousing. If someone makes a 1000 GP community investment in opening a new tavern, the village’s GP limit for Carousing would increase by 50 to 1d6 x 150.)
• The community investment system is abstract. Players are encouraged to explain where their investment is going and what tangible results it has. (A new wing at the School for Young Wizards? Improvements at the gladiatorial arena?)

Next: Special Interests

Go to Part 1

This is the point where we take all of the procedures we’ve discussed up to this point and put them into practice in order to generate a dungeon key.

In order to make full use of this material, you’ll need copies of the Blackmoor Dungeon maps. The maps from the First Fantasy Campaign are ideal, but those from Zeitgeist Games’ Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor are adequate, despite introducing a number of new errors. (The most notable of which was that the cartographer didn’t understand how Arneson indicated secret doors on his maps, so missed several of them and turned the rest into normal doors.) The Zeitgeist Games release does have the advantage of currently being available on DriveThruRPG.

Even without the Blackmoor maps, however, it should be noted that these procedures can be used with any dungeon (particularly those designed along megadungeon lines), even one of your own! So you could grab Undermountain or the Castle of the Mad Archmage or Rappan Athuk and go to town. Or pull out the graph paper and get to work. You wouldn’t be the first, but you would join the same heady tradition as Greg Svenson’s Tonisborg, Richard Snider’s Baronies, and Gygax’s Greyhawk.

There are four versions of the key available for download as Microsoft Word files:

Blank Template – Glendower Template – Seed 1 – Seed 2

COLLECTED ZIP FILE

THE KEYS

BLANK TEMPLATE: This file is a blank template for stocking the dungeons of Castle Blackmoor. It includes the first seven levels, with a table including spots for Protection Points, Creatures, and Treasure/Notes. When I stocked the dungeon, I did three passes:

1. Check each room for habitation and, if so, generate Protection Points.
2. Go back to each room with a Protection Point budget and generate creatures.
3. Make treasure tests for all of the rooms.

It stops at Level 7 because that’s where Arneson’s guidance for protection point budgets stopped. I’m not certain whether it makes more sense to continue increasing the point values at higher levels or allow them to plateau at 50 x 1d10, and I figured putting the current material into play might help elucidate the matter. (So we’ll see where that leads us the in future.)

GLENDOWER TEMPLATE: I’m referring to this format as a Glendower template because it’s modeled after the presentation of the Glendower Dungeon in the First Fantasy Campaign:

As I described in Reactions OD&D: The Arnesonian Dungeon, I found this particular format fascinating because the combination of treasure + protection point budget creates a specific tactical “shape” for the dungeon, but allows the GM to completely reinvent the dungeon on-the-fly each time they run it: This time you spend the protection point budget on goblins and ogres and the Glendower Dungeons are an outpost of the Goblin King. Next time you spend them on Nazgul and it’s a wraith-infested ruin haunted by the ancient nobles who once ruled its halls. The next time it’s infested with giant spiders. And so forth.

A Glendower template can also allow the GM to more precisely indicate what the inhabited areas of “interest” are in a dungeon while still providing an ample opportunity for random generation to create spontaneity in actual play. (That is not the case here; this Glendower template of the Blackmoor dungeons was randomly generated.)

SEED 1: This was the result of me fully stocking the Blackmoor dungeon levels. This is the version of the dungeon that I’ve been running (and which it looks like I’ll be continuing to run for awhile longer as an open table).

SEED 2: To demonstrate the flexibility of the system, I started over and started a second seed of the entire dungeon. (This took about 45 minutes to do all seven levels.) Perhaps the most notable take-away, in my opinion, is how the same stocking procedure can create radically different versions of the same dungeon.

For example, in the Seed 1 version of the dungeon I generated only one encounter (featuring 23 hobbits) on Level 1 and Level 2 was also sparsely inhabited. In Seed 2, however, the upper level is filled with hostile fey (including an attack force in the very first room!) and Level 2 is crawling with bad guys. In play, entering the Seed 1 version of the dungeon was a slow, tense build as empty corridors rolled out behind the party. The Seed 2 dungeon, on the other hand, would be an immediate meatgrinder.

OBSERVATIONS FROM STOCKING

What have I learned from actually putting these stocking procedures into practice?

Primarily that the system starts breaking down for me around Level 5. There are two interlinked problems.

First, it feels weird for most of the Group III creatures to appear in small hordes. Getting results like 6 Balrogs or 5 Dragons feels weird. I’ve decided to roll with it and see how that develops in actual play, but one option to explore in the future would be tweaking the procedures to favor one “Big Boss” with minions generated from the Group I or Group II tables. However…

Second, regardless, the increased point values at the lower levels fund huge numbers of bad guys. Results like “50 Nazguls” or “Giant, Basilisk, 8 Nazguls, 11 Ogres” or “23 Ents” are quite common.

This is inherent to Arneson’s stocking method, but the maps of Castle Blackmoor don’t adjust to reflect the nature of the encounters being generated: The rooms on the lower levels remain tiny and cramped.

Based on Arneson’s surviving key of the lower levels, this doesn’t seem to have bothered him: For example, he keys 250 dwarves into a 10′ x 40′ long space. Or 60 ogres into a 10′ x 10′ room.

For the moment, I’ve decided to play it as it lies, simply letting the keyed results stand as they were generated. If my players manage to delve down to those lower levels, it’s possible that I will discover (or create) some method of play that makes sense of these sorts of encounters. Given my predilection for complex, multi-room tactical scenarios, for example, it probably wouldn’t be difficult to interpret large hordes in one room as actually spilling out into neighboring chambers. Another option would be to interpret such entries as actually suggesting that the keyed room is merely the entrance to some sub-level of the dungeon. You can find a suggestion of that in my Seed 1 notes:

Level 4, Area 13: 56 Elf/Fairy – crystal ball; they must live beyond a magic portal in this dead end

Perhaps I’ll grab a few random Dyson Logos maps and have them on hand and simply use them as necessary. To fit them into the tight geography of the Blackmoor dungeons may be a trifle difficult, but extradimensional portals and long inter-level passages that locate the sub-level somewhere else or drop down/up at steep angles to connect with the wider tunnel systems around Blackmoor can simplify the difficulties.

Upon reflection, I actually quite like this “outpost entrance” model: Use a handful of the indicated creatures as a “door guard” of sorts and then use the remaining creatures indicated to stock the sub-level / micro-dungeon behind the outpost entrance. In this model, the lower levels of the dungeon would fall naturally into armed enclaves linked to the central dungeon topography. (This also feeds well into my personal vision of the dungeon as a place where materiel both Ancient and Evil wells up from the depths. These outposts become literal wells from which strange and eldritch things emerge into the dungeon core.)

But I digress.

More generally, I would note that the problem here is not necessarily with the strength of the encounters generated, but rather with the fact that the maps weren’t drawn to reflect the results the stocking procedure was generating. If you were using these same procedures to stock your own dungeons, the problem can be trivially resolved by mapping accordingly.

USING MINIMALIST KEYS IN PLAY

Running a dungeon using a minimalist key is, of course, an act of improvisation: You take scraps of information, throw them into the cauldron of your imagination, and you see what comes spilling out. As you do this over time, the details you’re creating will begin interacting with each other and creating new details.

In some cases, a story will come spilling out of the key as you’re rolling it up. For example, look at Level 4 of Seed 1:

The dice got in a rut and filled the entire north side of this level with Fighting-Men. This section of the dungeon also features a number of connections to the wider network of tunnels which surrounds the Castle Blackmoor dungeons. These tunnels, in turn, feature a number of exits to the surface. Putting these facts together, it’s easy to “see” that these fighting-men are actually bandits, staging their raids out of this hideout.

Or look at Level 6 in Seed 2: Here the dice pumped out 70+ Nazgul. I don’t know exactly what those Nazgul are doing down there, but the entire level — let’s call it Wraith Hall — will be heavily influenced in terms of visuals and content by their domination here.

More ideas will come into focus once play begins. For example, as I mentioned before, on Level 1 of the dungeon I had only generated a single encounter featuring 23 hobbits in Area 6:

It became clear to me that this must mean that this entire corner of the first level must actually be a hobbit warren! If the PCs ever go over there, they’ll find round doors and curved tunnels that — if they’re human — are rather too small for comfort. What are the hobbits doing down here? Well, they were first met as the result of a random encounter roll, so I decided that they must be patrolling the upper levels of the dungeon for Baron Fant, keeping them clear of dangers. (Which is, of course, why the upper two levels are, in this version of the dungeon, relatively unpopulated.) Which is why the PCs met Sir Alcestis, a brave hobbit knight dressed in blue livery, and his crew of hobbit wardens.

Later the PCs find the secret doors leading to Area 9:

Checking my key I see that this area contains a magic sword (the N Sword), but not creatures. The odd shape of the rooms and the presence of the sword combine to create a creepy chamber with full-length mirrors on each of the three walls: Those looking into one of the mirrors will see themselves holding the sword in their hand.

What’s the sword look like? Well, I check the Sword Matrix and I see that the N Sword is an anti-lycanthropic blade. So I describe it as have a hilt of gray fur with a kind of “tassel” attached to it. (Why? No particular reason. It’s just the image that occurs to me.)

Finding the N Sword is particularly interesting in this specific context, however, because one of the PCs has been bitten by a lycanthrope earlier in the session. In rolling up its variable stats, I discover that it is only intelligent enough to communicate by “passing on gross emotions”, so when the PCs successfully extricate the sword from the puzzle of the three mirrors, I describe the “tassel” as curling up like the tail of an angry cat and pointing directly at the afflicted character. This ability to detect lycanthropes at a short range isn’t listed in the sword’s stat block, but it follows logically (and, more importantly, awesomely) from the creative chain we’ve been following to get to this point.

Next: Restocking the Dungeon

Go to Part 1

The story goes that Dave Arneson’s Napoleonics players showed up for the game one week and discovered that Arneson had set up the model of a medieval castle on his ping-pong table. That evening they went on the first dungeoncrawl in history and the modern roleplaying game was born!

A great deal of confusion existed for a number of decades because Arneson had misremembered what model he had used. Thanks to Jeff Berry, we now know that the model Arneson had was Kibri model No. 37304, an N-Gauge model of Branzoll Castle. (A model which, not coincidentally, precisely matches the maps of Castle Blackmoor in the First Fantasy Campaign.) So not only do we know exactly what Castle Blackmoor looked like, it turns out that Kibri still manufactures this model kit! You can buy your own copy of Castle Blackmoor for $70-80!

CASTLE BLACKMOOR

• The castle was built during the reign of Robert I, but a fortress has stood at this location throughout recorded history and the castle incorporates many of the underground galleries of the older structures. Moat was created 400 years ago by the wizard Pissaic during the great Ben-Hassock invasions.
• The Coot Invasion began when the former Baron Wesley – now known as the Weasel – betrayed the Great Kingdom, lured the other local noblemen into Castle Blackmoor’s library, and slaughtered them. (“All that is really known is that they entered but never left and no trace of them was ever found.”) The Weasel now serves as loyal lieutenant to the Egg of Coot.
• The current ruler of Blackmoor, Baron Fant, rose to that position by virtue of his actions during the Coot Invasion.
• GM Note: See p. 21-23 of the First Fantasy Campaign for additional background material and maps.

EGG OF COOT

• This all consuming personality lives off the egos of others to support his own ego.
• At one time of humanoid appearance (or so historical records say), but his current appearance is uncertain – a huge mass of jointly operating cells, an undulating jelly, a thickly hided egg, pure energy, a lotus-eating man, a mass of living rock, etc.
• Communications with the Egg are through either direct mental transmission or an Old World artifact in his throne room which allows him to transmit from his City-Palace.
• His realm lies northeast of the castle, beyond the Wolf’s Head Pass (see First Fantasy Campaign, p. 18). [I imagine his City-Palace as a sort of cargo cult edifice of the Old World, with its peoples subjugated into a hive mind consciousness on the edge of the Egg’s vast, domineering mentality.]

FIRST SCENARIO

• Soukup, a treacherous agent of the Egg of Coot, placed Baron Fant into a magical sleep and flees into the dungeons below the castle.
• PCs are sent in pursuit.
• GM Note: Baron Fant has actually been infected with vampirism. (Historically, he becomes the infamous Sir Fang.)

DESIGN NOTES

The scenario here is meant to be evocative of, but not a precise duplicate, of the First Dungeon Adventure as described by Greg Svenson. (The enemy agent Soukup is a transparent homage to Jim Soukup, who played the balrog in the original scenario.)

It should be noted that it has become fairly apparent that the scenario described by Svenson is not, in fact, “the first dungeon adventure in history of Dungeons & Dragons.” (Although it is very possible that he’s unintentionally conflating details from different sessions.) I strongly suspect that the scenario hook that Svenson describes — the Bad Guys have done something to Baron Fant and fled into the dungeons — is, in fact, the event in which Fant was transformed into Sir Fang (the first vampire in the history of Dungeons & Dragons), which is why that’s reflected in my selected scenario hook here.

(In the real world, Dave Fant — Baron Fant’s player — had taken a job and needed to withdraw from playing in the campaign, as described in this interview. Arneson apparently came up with the idea of turning him into a vampire.)

DUNGEON FEATURES – ON THE MAP

Stairs: All stairs are circular (though not drawn that way). 20 to 30 feet between levels.

Secret Doors (Thin Wall): Anywhere there is a “thin wall” between areas.

Devil Fountains (Black Dots): Made of black, glass-like material with ruby eyes, gold horns, silver accoutrements. They spew out sulfuric acid. They are highly magical. Attempts to molest them will cause a great howling of sound and earth tremors, followed by the entire area collapsing into ruin.

Fire Pits (Crosshatch): Deep flue-like chimneys that go into the deepest parts of the dungeon to connect with the great lava pit beneath the castle (level 25). There is always a low railing (2 to 3 feet) around them. Often marked with religious images, etc.

Note: The famed Orcian Way does not yet exist. It’s also likely that the tunnels on Level 1 were not yet collapsed.

DUNGEON FEATURES – OTHER FEATURES

Catacombs: Honeycombing the hill that Blackmoor Castle has always stood upon are a series of tunnels and galleries which have been used for a number of purposes throughout history.

The Tombs: Area used for the final resting places of Blackmoor nobility and distinguished warriors. Haunted.

The Gallery of the Undead: Used during the Plague of the Undead as their headquarters and temple to perform their unholy rites.

Dungeons & Torture Chamber: Used by various sadistic Dukes or Barons of the past. Torture chamber is lost; it was sealed up at some point in the past.

Wizard’s Pit: Former ruler of Blackmoor’s Attendant Wizard practiced his arts here. Workshop was destroyed some 500 years ago due to the nature of his research. Wizard was imprisoned here when it was sealed up.

The Black Pit: An area of noxious fumes and bottomless pools caused by some natural phenomena where it is, of course, rumored that a gate to Hades is located.

Sealed Treasure Vaults: Sections filled with treasure and then sealed up (to hide it from those besieging the castle; or, more recently, by delvers hoping to return for it).

DESIGN NOTES

Although it was not my goal to attempt to “recreate” Arneson’s original dungeon key, I did want to tap into his creative palette. So I sucked the material here out of the First Fantasy Campaign to both understand his conception of the sorts of sub-complexes the dungeon would contain (catacombs, tombs, wizard laboratories, etc.). For my own utility, I’m also planning to print out a copy of 101 Curious Items to supplement my description of the dungeon.

Next: The Dungeon Key

Go to Part 1

Magic Swords are, universally, intelligent creatures. Possible explanations (some, all, or none of which might be true):

• Prisons for higher-dimensional beings.
• The matrix through which higher-dimensional beings communicate with the material world, and enact their will through mortal wielders.
• The personality storage devices which preserve the personalities of the Ancients; or perhaps the crew of some interdimensional / interplanetary vessel.
• Ancient artificial intelligence processing cores.

Arneson describes them as both the “Magic Swords of Mythology” and as “an entire family of magic swords”. The Swords comprised “most of the early magical artifacts,” with Arneson placing the statistics for each on an individual card.

Side: d8: Good 1-4, Neutral 5-6, or Evil 7-8

• Sword will refuse to use its abilities for those on a different side.
• Inflicts 2d6 damage on those serving the opposing side.

Intelligence: 1d12 + double the sword’s Intelligence modifier

• Can be used for intelligence tests.
• Swords will generally respect those with Intelligence equal to or greater than their own, but will tend to consider themselves in charge when wielded by lesser intellects.
• Communication: No Communication 1-3, Pass on Gross Emotions 4-7, Speak 8-10, Telepathy 11+

Egotism: 1d12

• Reflects the sword’s self-interest.
• Make Egotism checks for things like: Leading wielder past better weapons, into greater dangers, demanding a share of the loot, payments made towards its interests (nicer scabbard, etc.), being captured by a character more likely to let it achieve its aims.

Powers:

• Magical Bonus: To attack and damage rolls.
• Damage Multiplier: Versus one or more monster types.
• Ability Bonus: Applies to wielder’s Strength and/or Intelligence scores.
• Special Values: Generally spell-like abilities, except for those listed below.
• Magic Spells: A list of spells the sword can cast. This requires the wielder to use their action. They can cast a number of spells per day as indicated.

Special Values

• Puissance: All enemies must make morale check when sword is drawn.
• Morale: Morale bonus equal to magical bonus to morale checks for those on wielder’s side; twice that to the wielder.

RANDOM SWORD TABLE

DESIGN NOTES

Simply waving away Arneson’s lengthy treatment of magical swords would have certainly been the easiest approach here. But it was also clear to me that magic swords WERE a central element of Blackmoor, particularly in its earliest days. (Where, as Arneson wrote, they were most of the magical artifacts to be found.)

The treatment of magical swords in the First Fantasy Campaign, however, is a confusing one. Much of the material clearly dates to the earliest days of Blackmoor when Arneson was using a system derived from Chainmail and amalgamated with any number of now unknown other mechanics. There are also clear indications that this material has been very lightly revised to make it superficially “compatible” with the published version of D&D. (One location where the terms “Intelligence” and “Brains”, the latter the original Blackmoor character stat, is the most significant giveaway of this incomplete revision.)  There are also any number of typographical errors, most likely introduced when Arneson’s handwritten notes were set to print by Judges Guild.

In order to render this material usable in my Blackmoor game, therefore, I needed to (a) figure out at least roughly how these mechanics had originally been used; (b) interpret the written descriptions of the swords accordingly; and (c) convert the swords to a format that could be used in OD&D. In this work, I have to thank DH Boggs, whose analysis of the swords helped me figure out how the mechanics would have originally worked in Arneson’s game.

In terms of adapting the swords: I chose to halve the original bonuses to Strength, Intelligence, and Combat and to implement “Double Value” as a doubling of damage against certain targets. I also randomly generated OD&D spells where the original sword descriptions simply indicated, for example, “6 spells”. (I first determined the maximum level of spell the sword was capable of casting using a table from the FFC, then simply randomly rolled from there.) I have also reverted the “Law vs. Chaos” elements of the magic swords to “Good vs. Evil”, for reasons that I’ll explain at a later date.

SWORD MATRIX

A +3 sword of detect evil/magic, puissance

x2 Damage: Dragons, Balrogs, Ghosts, Elementals

Ability Bonus: Strength +1, Intelligence +1

B +2 sword of detect invisibility, charm dragons

x2 Damage: Trolls

Ability Bonus: Strength +2, Intelligence +1

C +2 sword of invisibility

x2 Damage: Werewolves

Ability Bonus: Strength +2, Intelligence +1

D +2 sword of detect evil/invisibility, invisibility

x2 Damage: Dragons, Goblins

x3 Damage: Ghosts

Ability Bonus: Strength +1, Intelligence +2

E +2 sword of invisibility

x2 Damage: Giants, Orcs, Werewolves

Ability Bonus: Strength +1, Intelligence +1

F +1 sword of paralysis

x2 Damage: Giants, Werewolves, Wizards, Wraiths

x3 Damage: Dragons

Ability Bonus: Strength +2, Intelligence +2

G +1 sword of detect magic, invisibility, paralysis, see in darkness

x2 Damage: Elementals, Ghosts, Goblins

Ability Bonus: Strength +2, Intelligence +2

H +1 sword of puissance

x2 Damage: Dragons, Ghouls, Wraiths

Ability Bonus: Strength +1, Intelligence +2

I +1 sword of puissance

x2 Damage: Elementals, Humans

x3 Damage: Pudding

Ability Bonus: Strength +2

J +2 sword of invisibility detection

x2 Damage: Goblins, Ogres, Orcs, Pudding

x3 Damage: Balrogs

Ability Bonus: Strength +2, Intelligence +1

K +1 sword of detect magic, paralysis, puissance, see in darkness

x2 Damage: Ents

Ability Bonus: Strength +2, Intelligence +1

L +2 sword of detect magic, paralysis, puissance

x2 Damage: Balrogs, Giants, Ghouls, Mortals, Ogre

x3 Damage: Humans

M +2 sword of detect evil, puissance, see in darkness

x2 Damage: Ghouls, Humans, Orcs

Ability Bonus: Strength +2, Intelligence +1

N +1 sword of detect magic

x2 Damage: Werewolves

Ability Bonus: Strength +1

O +1 sword of detect magic, paralysis, morale (x2)

x2 Damage: Balrogs, Giants, Orcs, Trolls

Ability Bonus: Strength +1, Intelligence +1

P +1 sword of detect invisibility, see in darkness

x2 Damage: Mortals, Orcs, Werewolves

x3 Damage: Humans

Ability Bonus: Strength +2

Q +1 sword of detect magic, paralysis

x2 Damage: Ghosts, Goblins

Ability Bonus: Strength +1, Intelligence +1

R +2 sword of detect evil

x2 Damage: Elemental, Giants, Ogres, Werewolves

Ability Bonus: Strength +1, Intelligence +1

Magic Spells (2/day): charm person, light, read magic

RED +1 sword of detect invisibility/magic, morale, paralysis, puissance

x2 Damage: Elementals, Ghouls, Orcs, Trolls

Ability Bonus: Strength +3, Intelligence +2

Magic Spells (10/day): detect magic, hold portal, read magic, read languages, protection from evil, light, charm person, sleep

Note: Last owner was the Baron Wesley

WHITE (SILVER) +2 sword of detect invisibility/magic, puissance

x2 Damage: Mortals, Ogres, Orcs, Wraiths

x3 Damage: Dragons, Goblins

Ability Bonus: Strength +3, Intelligence +3

Magic Spells (11/day): continual light, detect invisible, detect magic, light, protection from evil, sleep

BLUE +3 sword of detect invisibility, invisibility, paralysis, puissance

x2 Damage: Balrogs, Ents, Ghouls, Giants, Goblins, Orcs

x3 Damage: Elementals, Wizards

Ability Bonus: Strength +2, Intelligence +3

Magic Spells (4/day): continual light, haste, hold portal, locate object, protection from evil, protection from normal missiles

PURPLE +2 sword of detect evil/magic, paralysis, see in darkness

x2 Damage: Balrogs, Ents, Giants

x3 Damage: Werebears

Ability Bonus: Strength +2, Intelligence +3

Magic Spells (5/day): detect evil, invisibility, knock, locate object, protection from evil, read languages

GREEN +3 sword of detect invisibility/magic, puissance

x2 Damage: Balrogs, Elementals, Goblins, Ogres, Orcs, Werebears, Werewolves

x3 Damage: Trolls

Ability Bonus: Strength +2, Intelligence +1

GOLD +1 sword of detect magic

x2 Damage: Elementals, Ents, Ghosts, Orcs

x3 Damage: Goblins

Ability Bonus: Strength +3, Intelligence +3

Magic Spells (6/day): Any 1^st level spell

GREY +4 sword of morale, paralysis, see in darkness

x2 Damage: Balrogs, Ghouls, Giants, Goblins, Mortals, Pudding, Wraiths

Ability Bonus: Strength +3, Intelligence +3

BLACK +2 sword of detect invisibility, paralysis, puissance, see in darkness

x2 Damage: Ghosts, Ghouls, Ogres, Mortals

x3 Damage: Balrogs

Ability Bonus: Strength +5, Intelligence +3

MAROON +1 sword of detect invisibility, see in darkness

x2 Damage: Dragons, Ghosts, Giants, Goblins, Trolls

x3 Damage: Balrogs, Humans

Ability Bonus: Strength +3, Intelligence +3

Magic Spells (9/day): continual light, ESP, infravision, invisibility (10’), protection from evil (10’), read languages

PINK +2 sword of detect magic, morale, puissance, see in darkness

x2 Damage: Elementals, Ents, Ghosts, Giants, Ghouls, Trolls, Werebears, Werewolves, Wraiths

Ability Bonus: Strenght +2, Intelligence +2

Magic Spells (2/day): conjure elemental, hold person, fly, phantasmal forces, protection from normal missiles, teleport

YELLOW +2 sword of detect invisibility

x2 Damage: Elementals, Ogres, Wraiths

x3 Damage: Dragons, Giants

Ability Bonus: Strength +2, Intelligence +2

Magic Spells (8/day): detect evil, ESP, fly, locate object, phantasmal forces, read languages, sleep, slow

Next: Castle Background & Features