Blackmoor Trademark Now Registered to Estate of Dave Arneson LLC

 

As of March 4th, 2025, the Blackmoor Trademark is listed as Registered to the The Estate of David Arneson LLC. The estate first applied to register the Trademark of Blackmoor back in July 2021, but it seems there is a long and complicated process to move a Trademark from Pending Status to Live. 

It has been listed under the following categories for statement of use:

Toys and Sporting Goods Products Dice games; Role playing games; Tabletop hobby battle games in the nature of battle, war and skirmish games, and fantasy games, and playing equipment sold as a unit therewith.

Paper Goods and Printed Material Role playing game equipment in the nature of printed game book manuals

According to a press release from last year, the Estate of David Arneson LLC is Dave's Daughter Malia Arneson-Weinhagen, her husband Luke and their grandchildren. The same press release made it clear that Chris Graves, producer of the documentary "Secrets of Blackmoor", has been made 

"Authorized Representative and Bridge Troll for the Estate of David Arneson, LLC". 

Note that Mr Graves' associate Griff Morgan who runs the Secrets of Blackmoor account on X/Twitter and elsewhere has made it clear that he is not a spokesperson for the Estate".

At this point, no official statement has been made from the Estate about what this confirmation of the Trademark Registration would mean for the future of Blackmoor.

-Havard

Ernie Gygax Passes Away

 

I was saddened to learn the news that Ernie Gygax, the eldest son of Gary Gygax passed away yesterday. Ernie had been in and out of hospitals for the last few years. Growing up in the Gygax household as his father was developing D&D, he became one of the games' first Play testers. His legacy was memorialised in the game as Tenser. 

My thoughts go to his wife Donna, the Gygax family and friends. 

Rest in Peace.

-Havard

Chaosium 50 Year Anniversary (1975-2025)

 This is not just the 50 year anniversary of the Blackmoor Supplement and with that, Blackmoor in its published form. This also marks the 50th Anniversary of Chaosium. Founded by Greg Stafford in 1975, the company has brought the world a number of games, including legendary RPGs like Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest. 

I have always been an advocate of playing a wide variety of tabletop RPGs. I have played and enjoyed almost every edition of D&D. I have also been lucky enough to play a number of non D&D RPGs. I have to thank my friends for exposing me to many of these games. After discovering D&D, we wanted to try everything we could get our hands on. I still love early edition D&D, but I am happy that I got to try so many other RPGs early on and am still able to play in many of them. I am currently a player in a RuneQuest 5 Campaign in an amazing homebrew setting. My first exposure to RuneQuest was RuneQuest 3 which we had a lot of fun with. One of my early non D&D experiences as a Game Master was running an early ElfQuest campaign. I am not sure I did a very good job, but my friends kept coming back for new games, so I guess I was doing something right. I put some money into the last year's ElfQuest RPG Kickstarter, so I can't wait to get that version in the mail.

I am happy to see Chaosium still going strong. I hope to see lots of fun stuff from this company in the future as well!

-Havard

Happy 2025 - 50 Years of Published Blackmoor!

 

I hope everyone has had nice celebrations for the New Year and are ready for 2025 to begin. 50 years ago, TSR published the second supplement for D&D. This booklet bore the title Blackmoor and was written by D&D Co-Creator Dave Arneson, edited by Tim Kask and included additional material by Steve Marsh, Brian Blume and others. It was based on the campaign Dave Arneson and his friends had been running for many years prior. 

This will be as good a year as any to celebrate our favorite D&D campaign world! I hope the year will be a good one for all readers of this blog.

-Havard

Merry Christmas from Blackmoor!

 

Its this time of year again! I wish all the readers of this blog a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

-Havard 

World of Greyhawk Gazetteer Revised on DMsGuild is Amazing and Free!

This excellent sourcebook was recently released on the DMsGuild from Cannibaal Press. The PDF can be bought for 0 USD or more if you like the book. Also, we just learned that the DMsGuild has promised that they will allow for a Print on Demand version of this book just based on the quality of the product. It is a very professionally presented book that gives a great overview of the setting. 

I came across news of this sourcebook in a discussion over at The Piazza. From what I understand, this book is aimed at new fans who want to learn about Greyhawk, though it is definitely also a very useful reference for older fans. I personally love that both Arn and Blackmoor are used to reference the region so that people who have learned about Arn from the DMG will be able to find their way to the works of Dave Arneson. 

It is also great seeing so many people across the fandom having helped contribute to the book. I am not a hard core Greyhawk fan, but it is always wonderful to see the amazing maps of Anna Meyer along with many familiar names on the list of contributors for art, writing and other aspects. Seeing my good friend David "Big Mac" Shepheard (From The Piazza!) having written a Spelljammer related section for Greyspace was also very nice. 

This is not a sponsored review. The PDF is free from the DM's Guild. My blog has always been and will remain a non-commercial, non profit fan undertaking. I do appreciate feedback and comments though. Have you downloaded this sourcebook yet? If not, I recommend you check it out. And let me know what you think! :)

Click Here to Download the World of Greyhawk Gazetteer Revised

More discussion of this article at The Comeback Inn,

-Havard

Larry Elmore Red Box Cover 3D Rendition at Lucca Games & Comics 2024

 

The Italian Gaming Convention, Lucca Games & Comics has been steadily growing in popularity over the years. During this year's convention, a few weeks ago, a 3D sculpture based on Larry Elmore's Red Box Basic Set cover from the BECMI D&D edition was brought to life. The piece was painted live in front of Lucca attendees by artist Silvia Corso. 

The BECMI edition of D&D, created by Frank Mentzer (editor) and its associated setting, Mystara, is unusually popular in Italy and many other parts of Europe, so it is not surprising that this piece was selected to be presented at the Lucca Convention. 

This piece does not appear to be available for sale, but more details on how to commission work from the artist can be found at the BECMI Italia group on Facebook.

Photos by Elisabetta Giulivi 

-Havard