Where did Dungeons & Dragons begin and why does a developer today need to know this history? It's because without this system there would be no games like Planescape: Torment, Neverwinter Nights or the Baldur's Gate series. Many of these games were the inspiration for our project. So where did it all start? You can read the beginning in our previous article.
We've already talked about the role of Gary Gygax and his work with Dave Arneson on Chainmail, but Dave didn't stop on his path as a wargame developer. In 1971, the developer thought about modifying Chainmail - like any game-master in D&D he planned to create his own game world. This is how Blackmoor (literally, "black swamp") came into being. In fact, it was a slight modification of the previous edition of the rules, but as close as possible to D&D first edition. However, Blackmoor was not opened to the general public until 4 years later (more on that below).
So what was inside and what was the innovation? It was all about Dave making the game not a "bathtub" game, but expanding the possibilities of the long game. First of all, he finally assigned each player their "alter ego" in the game world. Although players commanded an entire army, they each had their own protagonist. To make them unique, Arneson gave them characteristics like strength, agility, beauty, and intelligence. By spending gold on their hobbies, the heroes gained experience points and grew in level, pumping up characteristics or, in the case of mages and priests, gaining new spells. Blackmoor was a campaign centred around individual playable characters who could continue to progress, which contributed to the success of co-operative play.
Arneson also popularised dungeons. Underneath Blackmoor was a giant network of tunnels inhabited by monsters who guarded untold riches - heroes went there in search of adventure. The dungeons were conceived as just one of many systems, but the exploration of tunnels with gradual opening of the map won the hearts of players thanks to the gameplay loop. Characters fought monsters, took treasures home, upgraded and set off again - this chain of events was very addictive. Once the local antagonists, servants of the evil Egg of Coot, even took over Blackmoor while its defenders were distracted by another underground expedition.
In 1972, Gygax played Blackmoor and suggested that Arneson work together to improve his edits to Chainmail. And two years later, Dungeons & Dragons books were published and quickly became popular among board game and fantasy fans alike. Some players even began creating their own monsters, classes, magic items and spells, and developing game mechanics for magical races. The first book with the title "Blackmoor" was the second OD&D supplement published by TSR in 1975 (the first was Gary Gygax's Greyhawk). The sixty-page book introduced new rules, monsters and treasure, and the first ever published Temple of the Frog module. Despite the title, there is no information about the setting in the book. After its creation, Blackmoor awaited a two-year journey as an add-on to Original Dungeons & Dragons, but to this day the magical city can still be accessed by players. Go for it!
