Recaps & Roundups part 20: Supplement II - Blackmoor

The first D&D supplement was Greyhawk, featuring many game elements that had developed through play in Gary Gygax's home campaign. Naturally, the second supplement came from D&D's other progenitor, Dave Arneson, and was called Blackmoor. The development of this supplement was fraught: apparently Arneson was working on the final draft in March of 1975, but it had to go through two different editors, and was temporarily misplaced. The final edit was done hastily in a few weeks, and Blackmoor was finally published around December of 1975.

The finished product is patchy, and contains almost no detail on Arneson's Blackmoor campaign, but it does introduce a number of lasting elements to the game. I'll quickly run through them below.

New Rules Introduced

• Hit Location during Melee
• Lycanthropy gets more detail
• Underwater adventuring
• Specialised knowledge and expanded rules for Sages
• Disease

New Classes Introduced

• Monks (a sub-class of clerics)
• Assassins (a sub-class of thieves)

Monsters in the game already that get updated or given stats

• Merman
• Giant Crab
• Giant Octopus
• Giant Squid
• Giant Crocodile
• Giant Toad
• Giant Leech

New Monsters Introduced

• Giant Frog
• Giant Beaver
• Giant Otter
• Giant Wasp
• Giant Stag Beetle
• Rhinoceros Beetle
• Bombardier Beetle
• Fire Beetle
• Boring Beetle
• Fire Lizard
• Minotaur Lizard
• Elasmosaurus
• Mosasaurus
• Plesiosaurus
• Giant Shark
• Whale
• Giant Eel
• Lamprey
• Sea Horse
• Portuguese Man-of-War
• Dolphin
• Aquatic Elf (aka Sea Elf)
• Pungi Ray
• Manta Ray
• Giant Sea Spider
• Weed Eel
• Sahuagin (Devil-Men of the Deep)
• Floating Eyes
• Ixitxachitl
• Locathah
• Morkoth (aka Morlock)
• Poisonous Coral
• Masher
• Strangle Weed
• Nymph (as a Dryad variant)
• Mottled Worm (as a Purple Worm variant)
• Sea Hag (as a sort of reverse Dryad)
• Kopoacinth (aquatic gargoyles)
• Koalinth (aquatic hobgoblins)
• Lacedons (aquatic ghouls)

New Magic Items

• Ring of Freedom
• Ring of Movement
• Clearwater Potion
• Manta Ray Cloak
• Necklace of Water Breathing
• Trident of Fish Control
• Net of Snaring
• Black Pearls
• Gold Pearls
• Red Pearls
• Helm of Underwater Vision

New Types of Treasure

• Pearls
• Pink Pearls
• Silver Pearls

Diseases Introduced

• Grippe
• Bubonic Plague
• Dysentery
• Cholera
• Malaria
• Small Pox
• Tuberculosis
• Typhus
• Typhoid Fever
• Yellow Fever
• Crud (heat rash, athlete's foot, jungle rot, ringworm)
• Advanced Leprosy (

New Adventure Location - The Temple of the Frog

• Deep within the misty swamps of Lake Gloomey lies the city of the Brothers of the Swamp, who believe that man is a biological abomination that threatens the existence of all life, and that animals should rule.
• The Brothers of the Swamp began developing a creature that combined amphibians with the killer instincts of larger mammals, creating the giant killer frog. For years they hewed out caverns below their temple as breeding areas, offering human victims as sacrifice to a giant idol they called the Lord of the Swamp.
• A special order, the Keepers of the Frogs, were created to tend the beasts, but eventually grew disdainful of them.
• The temple tried to sustain itself by trading goods and purchasing slaves, disguised as merchants from "far places".
• About 100 years ago, the Brothers gave sanctuary to some bandits in return for obtaining some needed articles. These bandits now reside in the temple, dominating non-religious life within in an unholy fashion. The temple became less a holy order than an outlaw kingdom, and this state of affairs lasted about a generation.
• Stephen the Rock and three followers later appeared and quickly took over. Two of those followers died. Now the temple trades good of high quality, and Stephen has restored much of its original purpose. The location of the temple remains secret, but the place is organised, and the swamps around it teem with killer frogs.
• Stephen comes from another world or dimension. His people discovered a dimensional nexus point in the area of Blackmoor, and he and his followers were sent to police it against incursions from similar beings. His people must have been technologically advanced, as Stephen must report yearly to a hovering satellite station, and possesses a number of powerful devices.

Details and conjecture relevant to the Ultimate Sandbox

• Dread "Blackmoor Castle" is mentioned.
• Monks belong to the Order of Monastic Martial Arts. Under "followers" it's mentioned that monks can't have followers from a different Order, so this is not necessarily one monolithic organisation. After 6th level, there is only one monk of each level thereafter. In order, these levels are: Grand Master of Dragons, Grand Master of the North Wind, Grand Master of the West Wind, Grand Master of the South Wind, Grand Master of the East Wind, Grand Master of Winter, Grand Master of Autumn, Grand Master of Summer, Grand Master of Spring, and Grand Master of Flowers. Monks can only advance above 6th level by challenging and defeating the master directly above them in a fair fight.
• All of the seasons are mentioned, confirming that Oerth has similar seasons to Earth.
• All assassins belong to an Assassin's Guild. There can only be one Guildmaster (13th level), who can be challenged for leadership by another assassin of 12th level.
• There is only one Assassin's Guild in a large city or area of 2,500 square miles.
• For some reason, people react with ferocity to poisoned weapons. Hatred of these may have been drilled into the populace by the Church of Law, perhaps.
• Mermen ride around on the back of seahorses
• Fire Lizards are believed to be the ancestors of dragons, and dragons will avoid fighting them.
• The "Portuguese" Man-of-War should hail from whatever region of Oerth corresponds most closely to Portugal, whether culturally or geographically.
• Dolphins are very intelligent, hate sharks, can communicate with each other telepathically, have magic resistance like dwarves, and can detect magic. Apparently.
• In eons past the land was flooded (this might have happened more than once) when the ice caps melted during a great struggle of the gods to control the planet. Some gods protected their mortal charges, while others changed the nature of life to adapt to the ocean. Sea elves and mermen was thus created by the gods of Neutrality and Law, while the gods of Chaos created the Sahuagin.
• The underwater sahuagin capital city has a population of nearly 100,000.
• There is one Sahuagin King and nine Princes, all subject to challenge for their position by other Sahuagin.
• Sahuagin never stop growing throughout their lives.
• Ixitxachitl are "Chaotic Clerical Philosophers".
• Lycanthropy can affect animals, turning them into men with animal intelligence.
• Some gnomes live underwater in air-enclosed cities connected to the surface by tunnels.
• Some kobolds live underwater in air-enclosed caves connected to the surface by tunnels.
• There are Evil High Priests who live in underwater castles surrounded by a spell that allows those within to breath.
• Giant Leeches, Ochre Jellies, Green Slime, Ropers, and Gelatinous Cubes can all seemingly survive under the sea.
• Mu, Lemuria and Atlantis are mentioned.
• It's possible that Sages are favoured by the Gods of Law, because killing one will change your alignment instantly to Chaotic (unless the Sage was Chaotic).
• Mummy rot is also named advanced leprosy, perhaps by scholars trying to understand it scientifically (they will probably be wrong, because I don't think this sticks).
• Spotted Fever is the name given to the disease carried by Giant Ticks.
• There's a rare type of bark that can cure malaria. It's also relished by Displacer Beasts and Blink Dogs, which I'm considering as the root of their mutual enmity.