The Fellowship of the Thing

08/29/2024

Special Guest: Ronin Wong

Embark on a journey with Ronin, whose RPG adventures began in 1980 with the discovery of the Holmes Basic D&D set. Despite initially playing solo, he went on to become a DM for a group of AD&D players, using his unique DMing style to bring NPCs to life with voices and mannerisms, creating an unforgettable experience for his players. In the 90s, Ronin co-wrote "Paradise Lost" for Shadowrun 2nd edition and contributed to the Denver Boxed Set for Shadowrun.

Ronin's passion led him to pursue a diverse career in music, film, and television, allowing him to showcase his talents as an actor, musician, composer, writer, and director. Noteworthy appearances include roles in "Kung Fu," "Man in the High Castle," "Outer Limits," and "DC’s Legends of Tomorrow." His compelling performance in season 4 of "The Sinner" is now playing on Netflix.

Join Ronin at ArneCon 2 and immerse yourself in his unique DMing style. Secure your badges and sign up for his Shadowrun game "Paradise Lost" to ensure you don't miss out on this extraordinary experience!

https://tabletop.events/conventions/arnecon-2

08/26/2024

❤️WE HUMBLY ASK FOR HELP❤️
As we draw closer to ArneCon 2, we still need a bit of help from those of you who plan to attend, especially local gamers.
Our projections for having the convention be successful rely on a fair amount of badge sales. Yet, ArneCon is also a fairly small gathering and this means we are getting very close to our benchmark on badge sales.
⭐THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO ALREADY PURCHASED BADGES!⭐
One thing we have always relied on for promotions of our movie, and our books, is Gamer 2 Gamer word of mouth endorsements aka grass roots support.
Who better to tell you something is worth checking out than one of your friends?
Are you part of a local gamer group which meets regularly?
Are you in a local gaming club?
Please help by telling your gamer friends about ArneCon.
We can't do it without you.
Thank you so much for your support, we look forward to gaming with all of you.
Chris, Griff, and the rest of the ArneCon Crew
https://arnecon.net

08/24/2024

We had a great interview with Garry Snow of Dieku Games. If you want to know more about our history and what were up to please take a listen, but avert your eyes!😆

Chris makes his first appearance on a podcast ever, so be gentle!

I welcome the Griffith Morgan and Chris Graves who collectively make uo The Fellowship of the Thing which are the folks behind the Secrets of Blackmoor docum...

08/22/2024

Griff is working on a draft of his map for his upcoming "The Terror of Spiral Keep" book. A preview gaming session is happening at ArneCon and there's still room for you to join in. Get your badges now!

http://ArneCon.net

And, yes, we will send these drafts to a pro artist, just in case you were wondering 🧐

The best part of playing old school RPGs is being the Referee/DM/GM.

You are the one who spends all week conspiring to challenge and confound your players.

Drawing maps is a hobby within a hobby and I've been working on a draft for Spiral Keep.

I'm doing all five levels overlapping on two sheets of 11 x 17 T-shirt cardboard - no flipping between pages.

No grids either.

I have found that grids limit my creativity because I want to follow the lines. All my maps in the past decade are grid free.

Although I play tested some of my ideas for this dungeon with the house group, no one has played this version yet.

I will be running this dungeon at Arnecon. It's pretty big and I do not expect the players to explore more than about a 5th of it in a 4 hour session.

Then again, it's a late night session and with enough coffee... 😆

I still have 6 seats available for this game at Arnecon. I also always take walk ups.

https://tfott.com/arnecon

08/21/2024

Special Guest: Robert K***z
Rob K***z is the last designer standing from the Golden Age of D&D’s inception. Co-author of the Greyhawk supplement (1975) & Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (1976), and Dragon Magazine columnist. Friends with both Gygax and Arneson, he participated in the Blackmoor demo game wherein Arneson revealed to Gygax and the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA) that he had created a new category of games: the RPG paper and pencil adventure game.

Rob will be refereeing sessions of “Into the Wild Blue Yonder”, an adventure written by him specially for ArneCon 2, using AD&D 1E rules. Also, join him for an autograph session on Saturday afternoon - so bring your old D&D books! This is his first appearance in the US in about 10 years!

Get your badge now!

ArneCon.net

08/20/2024

Arnecon™ is a gaming convention honoring the creative genius of Dave Arneson and his game group, The Blackmoor Bunch. It is a panoply of game experiences - featuring miniatures war-games, board games, and role playing games. Come game with the people who were there when Role Playing was invented. ...

08/18/2024

Ticketing for events is now live for everybody. Get your badge now and pick your events. 3-Day and Single day passes available!
ArneCon is a convention which celebrates Dave Arneson and his Blackmoor Bunch, who invented Role Playing Games right in the Twin Cities.
It features Old School D&D: Rob K***z co-author of the Greyhawk Supplement is flying from France and will be running game sessions - some of them are open to walk up players!

Original Pre-D&D RPGs: David Wesely will be on hand to run two Braunstein games. Lots of open slots still available.

You can play Board Games: David Megarry running his Dungeon! family board game.

Table Top War Games like Dawn Patrol with Mike Carr.

Miniature War Games from Naval Battles to Napoleonic era simulations with Ross Maker.

The Retro Computer Room will have 1970's era Dungeons Crawls and multi player Star Trek games, and is open the entire length of the convention for walk in players.

This is just a small sampling of what you can play at ArneCon 2.

Check out the website and get your badge before it's too late!
https://www.tfott.com/arnecon

07/26/2024

Blackmoor Foundations is now available on Amazon!
https://www.amazon.com/Blackmoor.../dp/B0DB1P62QS
and Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.com/Blackmoor.../dp/B0DB1P62QS
Expect it to show up worldwide on other retailer sites soon.

Thanks!

Expect it to show up worldwide on other retailer sites soon.

About the book: Blackmoor Foundations is the most comprehensive collection of ephemera from the early years of Arneson's Blackmoor ever published. It's a treasure trove of gaming history.

Covering a period from 1971 to 1985, these documents reveal how Arneson's Blackmoor campaign arose from a few simple referee notes and maps to evolve into an extensive imaginary world with multiple referees and over a hundred active player personas.

This collection, much of which has only recently been discovered, is an astounding glimpse into the historical writings that remain from Arneson's life. Yet, it can also be a guide to creating your own version of Blackmoor for you and your friends to play in.

07/19/2024

Yet another shipment of Blackmoor Foundations (plus other sundries) going out to the four corners of the Earth (and other dimensions).
We hope you all enjoy it!
Get the book at tfott.com!
Thank you!

07/19/2024

🎲All hands on deck!🎲

It's time to ship some books.

Almost all the Blackmoor Foundations books are packed up and ready to head to the post office.

You do not want to miss out on all the Dave Arneson, Blackmoor material in this one volume.

Order yours here:
https://www.tfott.com/blackmoor-foundations

07/11/2024

You're gonna wanna read this.Get your own: https://www.tfott.com/blackmoor-foundations

07/11/2024

Working on the convention schedule. Almost done with all the special game events. Announcement soon!

06/29/2024

Rob K***z has finished writing his module he will use at ArneCon 2! Hope to see you there!

06/18/2024

Charles S. Roberts started the board wargame industry and the highest award for design within it is named after him. Be at Arnecon Gaming Convention 2 to meet three designers who have won it: Myself, David Wesely and Ross Maker (Kings & Things; Source of the Nile, respectively).
https://x.com/threelinestudio/status/1800453461802422689/photo/1

06/09/2024

🎲Time to Score Deals on Blackmoor Items🎲
Just a few simple steps:
- Get on the Mailing List: https://tfott.com/maillist
- We'll soon send a Coupon Code in a few days for 25% Off Anything in Our Store
- Go here to use your coupon code: https://www.tfott.com/category/featured-items
We've got everything from Game Books and DVDs to T-Shirts and Original Art and Prints.

05/31/2024

Rob K***z drops a preview of the campaign he's running at ArneCon 2:

04/18/2024

Special Guest announcement for Arnecon 2 -
Rob K***z ( Co-author of the Greyhawk supplement (1975) & Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (1976), and Dragon Magazine columnist. Friends with both Gygax and Arneson) will be refereeing sessions of “Into the Wild Blue Yonder”, an adventure written by him specially for ArneCon 2, using AD&D 1E rules. Also, join him for an autograph session on Saturday afternoon - so bring your old D&D books! This is his first appearance in the US in about 10 years!

Big Announcement! We are excited to present our first special guest for ArneCon 2:

Rob K***z!

Rob K***z is the last designer standing from the Golden Age of D&D’s inception. Co-author of the Greyhawk supplement (1975) & Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (1976), and Dragon Magazine columnist. Friends with both Gygax and Arneson, he participated in the Blackmoor demo game wherein Arneson revealed to Gygax and the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA) that he had created a new category of games: the RPG paper and pencil adventure game.

Rob will be refereeing three sessions of “Into the Wild Blue Yonder”, an adventure written by him specially for ArneCon 2, using AD&D 1E rules. Also, join him for an autograph session on Saturday afternoon - so bring your old D&D books! This is his first appearance in the US in about 10 years!

More information at https://arnecon.net

03/23/2024

Griffith Morgan DM's a session of The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg at Gary Con XVI. Celebrating 50 years of D&D with a 51-year old dungeon. Livestream starts a...

03/23/2024

Saturday at 6pm Central Time!

Griffith Morgan DM's a session of The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg at Gary Con XVI. Celebrating 50 years of D&D with a 51-year old dungeon. Livestream starts a...

03/21/2024

Livestream Saturday! Griffith Morgan DM's Tonisborg at Gary Con XVI. Celebrating 50 years of D&D with a 51-year-old dungeon!

Griffith Morgan DM's a session of The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg at Gary Con XVI. Celebrating 50 years of D&D with a 51-year old dungeon. Livestream starts a...

02/03/2024

Mark your Calendar🎲

October 4-6, 2024 are the dates to lock out.

ArneCon 2 is coming and you do not want to miss out on the fun of RPGs, War Games, Board Games, Computer Games, and a lot more!

We have a 20% off early bird special on badges until March 1.

You can see last years events in the posted images.

Check back for info on Special Guests - not yet announced.



https://tfott.com/arnecon

01/25/2024

Are you tired of having to do everything for your players?

In our group, Chris is the party manager and he helps me run my games smoothly.

Maybe this is obvious to some of you, but I've played with some really chaotic groups and I can't stand it, even as a player.

Combat Diagrams here:
https://secretsofblackmoor.com/blog/combat-diagrams-for-dungeons-dragons…

Well, it’s a been a while. Was just peering at some spurious content about the need for Chainmail to understand original D&D, along with comments about a letter Arneson wrote to WOTC being another...

12/15/2023

The first half of "Secrets of Blackmoor: The True History of Dungeons & Dragons" is now on YouTube:

What if everything you knew about the history of Dungeons & Dragons was wrong? 6 Years, 12 Cities, 200 Hours of Interviews, 20,000 Documents and Photos: An u...

12/05/2023

🎲 We Need a Favor 🎲

Our new YouTube channel, The Informal Game, needs to exceed a certain critical mass before it will start to appear higher in people's searches - that's just how the algorithm works on YouTube - you need subscribers.

Until people begin to semi-organically find our show, it's never really organic at all - you gotta game the system.

Please go to the channel, watch the 90 second trailer, then LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to our channel. You can also watch the first 40 minutes Secrets of Blackmoor there.

In a month you can go back and unsubscribe, thus going back to your normal life.

I promise it will be painless, but it will really help us develop more movie sales - Who knows, if we get enough sales we might be able to do the second film too.

Thanks so much, Griff (and Chris)

The Informal Game Presents "Secrets of Blackmoor" Please subscribe to get notified of when we post new chapters. Watch the entire film in the US/UK on Amazon...

12/03/2023

Secrets of Blackmoor - The True History of Dungeons & Dragons - Chapter 5 & 6

Learn how War Games get merged with Role Playing to create a new kind of game.

The Informal Game Presents "Secrets of Blackmoor" Chapter 5. The War Game RPG Chapter 6. Change of CommandWatch the entire film in the US/UK on Amazon at: ht...

11/24/2023

🎲A Game Referees Guide to Old School Play Methods🎲

We only have 20 red hard cover 2nd printing Tonisborg books left in the store.

It is also available in paperback versions, either the archival grade paper stock with color map reproductions, or print on demand with black and white map reproductions.

Get it while you can.

Get your Old-School On! A guide to how Dungeons & Dragons was played before Dungeons & Dragons! Last Chance to get the Second Printing, First Edition (a.k.a. Red Cover). They are "remainders", meaning they did not pass our strict quality inspection to use them to fulfill the Kickstarter. The...