The MN Gathering 2025

 

The MN Gathering 2025 is the annual meetup of Minnesota Gamers, including several of the original Blackmoor Bunch.This year the event took place last night. 

Looks like people were having fun! :)

Did you attend the event last night? I would love to hear from you!

Photo: Castle Blackmoor

-Havard

MN Gathering 2024 for Friends and Fans of Blackmoor to Take Place on August 29

 

The Minnesota Gathering is one of the smaller get togethers involving the original Blackmoor players and friends. I mentioned this event last week, but now we know a little bit more. They are referring to the event as a Micro Convetnion taking place on August 29th:

 The following was announced today on their Facebook page:

August 29th. Perkins in Roseville MN at 6 pm. Next event. This year we reflect a bit on the 1969 GenCon pre event where Hoyt, Arneson, & Gygax met to discuss doing a Fictional Napoleonic like Arneson was doing But set in a medieval time. A suggestion posed By Gary. Arneson already wanting to do his version of a Braunstein pulled a lot from this as well. This is why those in MN say it started with Role-Playing, not Wargaming… the seed was already planted. But a lot more had to happen. The game started in 1970 Spring being as accurate to the tech and time as was logical. And Dwayne Jenkins would push for the Fantasy additions for those playing in MN when Hoyt took a job and had to move in the fall (August). Williams fort name changed to Blackmoor. Still more coming.

Date: August 29 

Venue: Perkins Restaurant, Roseville MN. 

Dave Wesely and David Megarry are among the attendees. David Fant, Ken Fletcher and others may also show up. 

If you are in the area and decide to drop by, please let me know if you had a good time! :)

-Havard

The MN Gathering 2024 - Arneson's Legacy Honored by Friends and Minnesota Gamers in August

 

Friends and fans of Dave Arneson have a number of chances to meet up this year. The MN Gathering is organized by The people behind the Castle Blackmoor website and other gamers from the Twin Cities. This year, the gathering will take place towards the end of August. 

In the past the MN Gathering has been organized in October for Dave Arneson Game Day, but this year the convention has been moved to August. The reason given for this is that it will honor the meeting of Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson and Bill Hoyt in 1969. 

It is always great to see the Blackmoor Bunch getting together with other gamers and fans honoring the legacy they helped create with Arneson. 

This blog celebrates all such events and all activities commemorating he early roots leading to the creation of Dungeons  &  Dragons. I wish the attendees of The MN Gathering a great time!

-Havard

ArneCon 2023 Announced for last Weekend of September

DaveCon has just ended and I hope to post more details about that weekend here as more reports come in. However, DaveCon is one of two conventions in Minnesota created in the honor of D&D Co-Creator Dave Arneson. 

The following was posted at the Arne Con website:

Convention update: Event if planned last weekend of September/October 

What is being planned: Document Museum. See some of the original documents either in direct reproductions or the items themselves. Original Minnesota gamers. This is the crew that was there in the beginning Gaming & Program events: Original games as they were played. And some discussion of the variants. Some items we will make available that you can not find anywhere else Artists corner: Showcasing its inspiration and creative side of gaming. 

Dealers: Dealers welcome

The  main organizer of this convention, Kevin McColl of Castle Blackmoor also added:

 

Greg Svenson * William J Hoyt * David Wesely * And many other contributors of importance and their work or effort showcased. just in case anyone’s curious we are not just dealing with Minnesota. This year we are celebrating the formation of TSR as of October it will be 50 years since it’s formed. It went into production by January which I believe GaryCon is celebrating. it’s interesting to learn that it’s incorporated on Dave Arneson’s birthday! this is why we chose October. Celebration of creation of not only the origin of the game but also so many dates align with it.

Two conventions is better than one and this blog remains supportive of all efforts to honor Dave Arneson's legacy and that of the original Twin Cities Gamers group. 

-Havard

ArneCon 0.2 Announced for October 15 2022

 

As October approaches, new developments are seen in the ongoing saga of various Dave Arneson gaming conventions! 

I previously mentioned  how the team behind the excellent documentary Secrets of Blackmoor were teasing a convention for October. Now, however it looks like documentary creators Chris Graves and Griffith Mon Morgan III will not be involved in the convention. Instead, local Minnesota Blackmoor enthusiasts are taking matters into their own hands. The event will be organized by Kevin McColl, a friend of Dave Arneson and owner of the Castle Blackmoor Website and the group called United Geeks of Gaming. 

The gaming event that now has been given the official name of ArneCon 0.2 was announced at the Castle Blackmoor Facebook Page.

Mark October 15th. ArneCon 0.2 Returning since 2017 We are planning a gaming convention in October, to tie in with the Birthday of Dave Arneson celebrating Minnesota's history of the origin of Role-Playing Games. And cheer all who were involved in the early years! Emphasis on old school style gaming, its history, and how it's history evolved. More to come location: Geek Partnership Society https://www.meetup.com/geekgaming/events/288131139

According to Kevin McColl, this will be a continuation of similar events run by the group before a hiatus during Covid.  

Several of the original Blackmoor Players are announced to attend:

• Bob Meyer, doing a Blackmoor game, which will be a continuation of the original Blackmoor Campaign. 
• David Wesely, doing a Braunstein. 
• Bill Hoyt (yet to be confirmed)

In addition, Kevin McColl will be running games, possibly including a beta test of an upcoming RPG he is working on. Kevin stressed that this will be a smaller event with the possibility of expanding it next year. 

-Havard

New Map of Castle Blackmoor!

This map appeared today on the new Dave Arneson Facebook Page. The map was recently discovered by Dave's daughter. It appears to be a photocopy of of the map from the First Fantasy Campaign book (JG). However, a quick comparison reveals never before seen hand written notes identifying the purpose of several of the rooms.

Given where this map was discovered, it seems likely that these notes are from Arneson himself.

Pre-production cover for Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor (2006) 

It would also be interesting to compare this map in greater detail to the floor plans of Castle Branzol which formed the inspiration for the original castle. In 2006 ZGG published Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor, but the book contained little information on the Castle itself. It has been speculated that both the Castle and the Dungeon could have been part of the never published DA5, of which there still may be a yet unrevealed manuscript out there.

In any case, this new map adds another piece to the puzzle that is Castle Blackmoor!

-Havard

Castle Blackmoor Project

Castle Blackmoor, site of the first RPG Dungeon in history. But the Castle is more than just the dungeon. What adventures can be found above ground level? Aldarron has started a project to flesh out the rooms of the Castle itself over at Dragonsfoot.You can participate by clicking on this link.

I was a little disappointed when the actual Castle was left out of the Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor Sourcebook. Maybe this project can help fill in the missing details?



-Havard

I'm Back!

Return of the Prodigal Son, by Rembrandt

Okay, I am back from my little break! Those of you who know me from various forums will have seen that I havent been completely missing from the Internet Scene, but my access to computers have been too limited to contribute much here or elsewhere.

A few things have happened since my last post. Aldarron has started a project to develop the Outer Works of Castle Blackmoor. This looks like it is going to be really interesting.

Over at the Mule Abides, Tavis posted an interesting tale about Dungeon Mapping in the Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor.

Finally, game designer Jeff Quinn has returned to the Comeback Inn Forum.

What else did I miss? :)



-Havard

The Original Castle Blackmoor

While I had heard rumours of this in the past, Jeff Berry was kind enough to confirm the origins of Castle Blackmoor:

Seriously; let's never lose sight of the fact that the original 'rust monster' was a plastic toy that Dave got in a set of equally cheap plastic dinosaurs, and it's lasted for how long? You can still buy a copy of Dave's original Blackmoor Castle, too; it's an N scale model kit made by Kibri in Germany, their "Branzoll Castle" catalog number 7304. He used it for years to show people what the place looked like. 

The real Branzoll Castle is located near the town of Chiusa (Klausen) in a formerly Austrian part of Northern Italy. The Castle was built around 1250. In 1671 it was left in ruins after a fire, but was rebuilt in 1895 by a castle-enthusiast by the name of Dr. Otto Piper. You can read more about the Castle here.

Below is a picture of the model from Kibri. Guess what I want for Christmas this year?

More discussion of this article here.









-Havard