From Kuroth's Quill -
grodog's AD&D blog

"From Kuroth’s Quill" is grodog's regular design column covering the elements of adventure design (and more-specifically dungeon design, given my interest in that topic). I will also wander through the design of spells and magic items; monsters, traps, tricks, and treasures; PC and NPC classes; planes and pantheons; and likely other topics as well. In the blog, I hope to provide practical examples that will be useful in campaign play, to show theory in action.

01 November 2025

Resources Recommendation for Greyhawk's and Dave Arneson's Blackmoor

Over in /r/osr/, user acathiadm asked a question about the Egg of Coot:

I am doing a take on the Egg of Coot, in Blackmore, Northern Greyhawk. If you have ideas for frozen machinery and alien type things in a D&D world, please share. I am trying to be connect where possible to the work of Arneson. Any links and suggestions would be appreciated (including traps/monstrous encounters.) Happy Halloween group.

reddit wouldn't allow me to post my reply (the error message was uninformatively useless, but I suppose it may have been too many characters?), so here's my response, based on some info I shared with Carlos Lising a few years ago, with some quick updates.

grodog's Blackmoor Resources Recommendations

Some other excellent Blackmoor in Greyhawk and -adjacent resources to consider checking out include:

Frederick Weining's "The Archbarony of Blackmoor" in Oerth Journal #5 (January 1997): https://greyhawkonline.com/oerthjournal/
Carlos Lising's adventures DC1 - Across Black Moors and G2 The Witch Queen's Lament (set nearby): https://www.caslentertainment.com/
Wolfgang Baur's adventures "Raiders of the Black Ice" Dungeon #115 (October 2004) and "The Clockwork Fortress" in Dungeon #126 (September 2005)

Modules and Sourcebooks

The rest of these are more Arneson-specific in theme/focus, so more about Blackmoor the setting vs. Blackmoor in Greyhawk, but you can certainly leverage them too.

First Fantasy Campaign @ https://www.acaeum.com/jg/Item0037.html
"Journey to the City of the Gods" by Rob Kuntz and in Oerth Journal #6 (November 1997) and the draft version is published in El Raja Key Archive (see below): https://greyhawkonline.com/oerthjournal/
DA1-4 @ https://www.tsrarchive.com/dd/dd2-da.html and https://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/modpages/da.html
"Garbage Pits of Despair" is a two-part Blackmoor adventure by Arneson in Different Worlds magazine: Part 1 - "The Slave Raiders" in #42 (May/June 1986) and Part 2 - "The Dragon Hills" in #43 (July/August 1986) at https://www.diffworlds.com/dw_37-47.htm
3.x Blackmoor books from Zeitgeist at https://www.tsrarchive.com/d20/cmp/cmp.html and https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/2236/Zeitgeist-Games

History/Articles About DA

Two great sources for additional Arneson and Blackmoor info include both Havard Frosta and Daniel Hugh Boggs; both with blogs at http://blackmoormystara.blogspot.com/ and http://boggswood.blogspot.com/

Blackmoor GHO Wiki entry @ https://www.greyhawkonline.com/greyhawkwiki/Arn
Secrets of Blackmoor @ https://vimeo.com/ondemand/sobfinal
Dave Arneson's "My Life and Roleplaying" in Different Worlds #3 (June/July 1979) @ https://www.diffworlds.com/dw_01-12.htm
Dave Arneson: True Genius by Rob Kuntz (Three Line Studio, 2016), and the El Raja Key Archive too: https://threelinestudiostore.com/DAVE-ARNESONS-TRUE-GENIUS-p546587973 and https://www.tlbgames.com/collections/archive/products/el-raja-key-archive-dvd-standard-edition
RJK blog posts @ https://lakegenevaoriginalrpg.blogspot.com/search?q=arneson and https://lordofthegreendragons.blogspot.com/search?q=arneson
Arneson's "Roots of D&D" from Wargaming #4 (FGU 1978)
Jon Peterson's PatW, The Elusive Shift, Game Wizards

You might also consider the recent Kwalish-themed 5.x releases, which have a similar science-fantasy vibe: Bart Carroll's Lost Laboratory of Kwalish (WotC 2018) and Troy Alleman's The Arm of Kwalish (Cannibaal 2025).

Allan.