First Fantasy Campaign

First Fantasy Campaign
Playing Aid
Dave Arneson and Richard Snider

This book can be purchased from Ebay but it will probably set you back a few hundred dollars.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Dave Arneson's First Fantasy Campaign is a 64 page book comprising notes from the original Blackmoor campaign.  It was published in 1980, the year before I started gaming.  The copy I have has a paper khaki-colored cover.  As I go through this, you will see that it is a fun historical document.

The book starts with two introductions, one by Bob Bledsaw and one by Dave Arneson.  Arneson's is more interesting to me.  As you read it, you learn about some rules that were used in the campaign which did not make it into the published Dungeons & Dragons game in 1974.  There is some history of monsters, as well.  One interesting rule that did not copy over into OD&D is that character hit points did not improve after character creation.  Instead, characters got more difficult to hit.  What is even MORE interesting is how this was accomplished.  Apparently, characters made a saving throw when hit, and if successful, no damage was done.  As saving throws improved with level, higher level characters were more difficult to damage.  Fighters gained advantages with this saving throw but magic-users and clerics did not.  Remember folks, these were the only three classes in OD&D prior to the Greyhawk supplement.

The first chapter of the book is strictly army lists and costs for troops.  Since I don't play wargames, I have little interest in this chapter, other than as a curiosity.  I will point out that the original Blackmoor campaign included firearms.  Bombards are a standard weapon, with cannon being optional.  We also learn that Tarns can be purchased.  I'm pretty sure these are the giant birds from the Gor novels but perhaps they also existed in different fantasy, as well.  I am really curious what a "Female (special)" slave is.  The cheapest one costs more than the most expensive "Female (white)" slave.  In my deviant mind, I'm thinking a special female slave is a succubus or naga or something like that.  There are price lists for the Earl of Vestfold, City of Maus (where our special slaves are purchased), Regent of the Mines, the Duchy of Ten, and Egg of Coot.  

There is also included a price list for armor and weapons.  Some interesting notes in this section are that prices for pistols, muskets, and arquesbuses are included.  Or is it arquesbusi?  For how much can your character sell that cart full of weasel pelts?  As it so happens, a weasel pelt goes for 4 silver pieces, so how many pelts are in your cart, hoss?  We also learn here that Arneson was as hot and bothered about shields as Gygax was with polearms.  There are nine different types of shields listed!  Don't worry folks, slave prices are listed and it's cheaper to buy a slave off this list than the original list.

There is a small section following, which describes where the Blackmoor campaign is located on the Outdoor Survival map.  

Speaking of maps, a small map of the campaign setting is included in the book but it is very small and is drawn with very thick lines, making detail difficult to make out.  The book does come with fold-out maps of the setting which are much more useful.  My copy has what I believe are a player map, including outlines of the land, major cities, and geographical details surrounding the cities, and a much more detailed map, which I assume is for referees.

The following chapter details player characters and non-player characters from the original campaign.  Egg of Coot, of course, is the most cool.  How can a character not be cool with this name?!  The Egg enjoys things such as writing dirty words on latrine walls and creeds such as "never give a sucker an even break".  The other characters covered are Ran of Ah Fooh (a dragon breeding fellow), Gin of Salik (powerful wizard who travels the land banging chicks), Marfeldt the Barbarian, Duke of the Peaks, The Blue Rider, Mello, The Great Svenny, and the Bishop of the Church of the Facts of Life (the tv show came out in '79, so this name might just be coincidence).

Facts about the kingdon of Blackmoor follow, including population, history, and points of interest.  Personally, I think the population is way off.  According to this book, 1000 peasants reside in a kingdom of 4,346 square miles.  I'm certainly no medieval population guru but these seems to be an extremely small number.  I believe this is a typo.  An amazing old school graph paper map of the town of Blackmoor is included in this chapter.  There is also a map of Blackmoor castle, as well as a list of its haunted rooms.

Encounter tables for the area are included, as well as yet another equipment list.  Once again, we have slave prices, and once again they don't match what came before.  Fortunately, we have both wholesale and retail prices, so if your party has a huge haul from slaying the latest dragon, buying slaves in bulk will save a lot of coin!  

Specific rules for designing your own campaign come next.  This information would be useful, I believe.  One of the rules is about population density.  This here is why I believe that the preceding population is wrong.  Based on the rules here, there is fully a 40% chance that every hex will have a hamlet of 50-500 people or a 30% change of a village of 100-1000 people.  Taking the median numbers of just these two population results, the entire Kingdom earlier would be filled in 2 or 3 hexes.  Fans of the modern "hex flower" layouts are going to freak when they see the author forcing a square peg into the hex hole on page 27.  Trust me.

The Blackmoor Dungeons is the next chapter.  This is what people mostly know about the Blackmoor campaign.  We have ten fully keyed and mapped dungeon levels as well as an additional minor dungeon.  Fans of modern, thought-out dungeons will have to forego their sense of versimilitude and just enjoy these encounters for what they are - a pioneer of the hobby just writing stuff down, probably as it came to him, for his players to encounter.  Your character might encounter a mummy, or a hydra just wandering around underground, or maybe a pack of giant weasels.  It's all good.  Does your wussy magic lamp ONLY give you there wishes?!  You chump!  This dungeon can grant 20 wishes from one encounter!  I see your silly encounter with 10 goblins and raise you 200 goblins in this room right here!  That pansy Gandalf struggled fighting one balrog?!  Delvers are tripping over them in this dungeon!  It is a heck of fun jaunt reading through the dungeon key.  The maps are pretty good, oozing that OG vibe.  The scale changes based on the map and most of them don't include a scale.  Those of you familiar with the sample dungeon in the OD&D rules will recognize how freaking difficult mapping will be in the Blackmoor dungeon.  Ain't no virtual table top N-S and E-W corridor 5e crap here!  

The next 3 and 1/2 pages are about magic swords and rules for generating unique swords.  Fortunately quite a number of them are really handy when fighting balrogs, you are going to want one of these.  There is a lack of swords which get the bearer a good deal on buying female (special) slaves, however.  Your adventuring party will have to buy them the old-fashioned way!  Joking aside, this chapter is really cool.  Creating unique magical swords is in most versions of D&D.  Arneson kicks it up a notch, here.

Gypsy sayings, legends, and Chance cards follows.  The book does not actually tell us what a "chance card" is.  I assume that Arneson wrote this information on index cards and randomly pulled one when needed.  The "cards" in this book are organized into a d100 table, though, so this is perfectly workable.

Notes on the original Blackmoor magic system comes next.  Something interesting I find here is that magic-users only advanced in level by using spells, whether in the dungeon or just practicing.  Some magic items listed include Tricorder, Borer, Skimmer, and Robots.

The next section is something I wish would have made it into the D&D rules - special interests.  Loot taken from the dungeon does NOT award experience points until it has been spent (unless the character's interest happens to be stockpiling).  If the character's special interest in wine, then he needs to throw some raging parties!  Just a funny nitpick here, the book states that the booze has to "consumed by the player" and not player character.  No mention on whether your character gets extra XP if you ply the referee with fine wines as you, yourself, get hammered.  Clerics will convert GP to XP by donating the gold.  Yes, for those of you who have kept up with our female slave soap opera, spending gold on "room plus extras" will allow you to convert that gold into experience points, as well as allowing your character to release some stress after a high adventure dungeon delve.  In a surprising 1970s twist to "current year" players, your character can convert GP to XP by snuggling up to the slave gender of your choice.  There are % chance rules to determine your character's special interest.  It would be amusing to have a paladin whose special interest is women - not sure how that would play out!  The book mentions the original three classes earlier on but also brings up here, in this section for special interests, the newer classes.  They are:  fighting man, cleric, magic-user, ranger, paladin, assassin, merchant, and sage.  These last two are not from any OD&D supplement but they probably came from The Strategic Review magazine.

There is a quick blurb on page 52 on adjusting monsters so they can advance in levels similar to PCs.  If the referee wants to create a "hero" (i.e. 4th level) monster, this goes over XP requirements for the monster.  Unless the monster is being run as an adventurer by a player, I don't see the point of this.  The ref will just make a monster better without racking up XP.

Four maps of Svenson's Freehold follow.  It is spelled Zvenzen on one map.  I am guessing, but perhaps the player and Arneson each drew maps or wrote down notes and one of the two wasn't corrected.

Richard Snider's Additions is the final chapter.  We see detailed dragons indexed by color and level.  Dragon breath weapons causing damage equal to the dragons maximum hit points is included.  My players in the Dragonlance BX game I ran know all about this.  Breath weapons were the demise of many a PC and NPC.  We learn here, as well, that as dragons get older, their movement rate suffers.  I don't recall reading this anywhere else in D&D lore.  For those who find it amusing that D&D rules cover the characters subduing dragons, we here get rules for dragons subduing characters!  Subdued characters might be taken back to the lair because "junior might want a pet to play with".  The rest of the rules here are not as exciting.  A couple of pages of notes on Loch Gloomen are included, and then the book ends with information on some specific creatures such as orcs and nomads.  Those who have read the Lord of the Rings books will get a kick that Isengard orcs are listed.  Unfortunately, Saruman isn't statted out.  There is a listing for Tarns, where we learn that they are large Rocs.  Oh, and Balrogs yet again make an appearance.  I swear, you can't swing a dead cat in Blackmoor without hitting a freaking balrog!

Before I go into my rating, I must point out that there is an EXCELLENT documentary about this setting, and the pre-history of D&D.  It is called Secrets of Blackmoor: The True History of Dungeons & Dragons.  If you have ANY interest in D&D history, this movie is an absolute must.  I cannot stress this enough.  This movie is two hours long and it ends with D&D being created.  There is all sorts of history in it that would be difficult to find anywhere else.  I bought it on Amazon but I assume it is available for purchase or rental at other places as well.

⇒ GRIT: ★★☆☆☆: I am going to just say this here, this book is a lot of fun but it is only usable by a niche market.  It is more an historical artifact nowadays than a game supplement.  If you are looking for an actual Blackmoor campaign setting, buying one of the WotC era fantasy game books is probably going to be a better value.  This book hints at Blackmoor the Setting-isms but doesn't have a lot of setting meat on its bones.  I really like this book but it is extremely unlikely that I would ever use it in a game.

⇒ VIGOR: ★★★☆☆: Like the above score, this score is sort of arbitrary.  The longevity of this book is primarily in the Blackmoor dungeon.  The dungeon itself is extremely bare-boned and the referee is required to flesh out everything other than the treasure, the monsters, and the massive balrog population.  When fleshed out, the dungeon should provide many sessions worth of gaming.  The additional information on armies will help a high-level campaign, assuming that the players want to move into wargame territory.

⇒ GRACE: ★★☆☆☆:  The First Fantasy Campaign is not a pretty book.  The mountains on the cover look cool but the red on brown is very difficult to read.  The book is US Letter sized, but other than that, it matches the old school layout you would expect from a vintage 1970s D&D book.  What elevates this book from its OG peers is the art.  Ken Simpson did nearly all of the art, with Dave Arneson knocking out some art as well (I assume this is his original Blackmoor map in the book, as well as the dungeons and the pull-out maps).  Mr. Simpson's art is good and there isn't a bad piece.