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
- 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
- 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.
I think you forgot that new Rob Kuntz module that’s set there
ReplyDeleteWhile I am not so certain of the influence, if any, of Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" stories on Arneson as they had on Gygax, the earliest stories had a TON of "ancient and weird technology disguised as magic" scenes and entire story lines. "The Dragon Masters" is also excellent in this regard.
ReplyDeleteOther good inspirational works, that may or may not have influenced Arneson, include:
"Gather Darkness" by Fritz Leiber
"Empire of the East" by Fred Saberhagen (The Broken Lands, The Black Mountains, Changeling Earth)
"The City and the Stars" Arthur C. Clarke
Ralph Bakshi's "Wizards"
And then there are the "Thundarr the Barbarian" cartoons, the "Kamandi" comics by DC, and the "Mighty Samson" comics by Gold Key; all three are more Gamma World like, but there are a ton of ideas on how to present super-science as magic.
There are also TONS of "lost books" in this vein from the 40s to the 70s that you only find now and again at used bookstores or trolling eBay. Hundreds if not thousands of perfectly workman-quality stories that never made it to the popular level of being listed anywhere online.
Lots of them are, honestly, poorly written, but can be very inspirational.