Play worlds, not rules - 51 years of Blackmoor

It's May! Finally!

In this month, Dave Arneson would run another session of Blackmoor. 51 years ago today, Dave Arneson invented Blackmoor. He is one of the grandfathers of FKR. Us, nerds, roleplayers, must thank this man. Blackmoor was original, nothing like it existed before. It was made to be different from any other game. The game was freeform. It was fantasy adventure, or fantasy roleplaying, whatever we call it. It was a "game with no rules". Back in the day, Dave used a very freeform set of rules that didn’t care about the typical hit points and stats or saves, but he just ruled them on the fly. Also, here is a thing: Dave Arneson didn’t have a single “true system”, but he changed and switched and tried and created on the fly, before and after his sessions. David, not burdening the players with rules and tables, freed the imagination of the player to just do whatever we wanted to do. Dave didn't knew what he would do before Blackmoor. Until he watched a movie marathon on television of science fiction and fantasy movies. It was at this moment he had his idea. No one was going to look up what a Dragon can do, what a Troll can do or what an Ent can do. That's what the referee say they can do. And thus Blackmoor started.

Remember, when we play our favorite worlds, rules don't have to be consistent. When Dave Arneson refereed his games, rules changed almost weekly, but Dave kept up the ‘feel’ of his creation, Blackmoor. Dave and his players were not playing “D&D” or anything else, they were playing Blackmoor. There is something you need to notice. The emphasis seems to be on discussions of rules systems, and not much of anything on how the principles of FK can be applied to actual games. This must change. Once and for all. We need to be more simulationists and less gamists. We need to talk and write more about ideas instead of rules. FKR is about playing worlds, not rules. It’s about literature literacy and genre competence way more than any rules. Back in the day, Dave Arneson and his players didn’t play rules sets. They played a world, they played a game scenario set in a fantasy world. The setting was the important thing. And must continue to be. Us, Referees have to understand their literature. And ‘literature’ includes movies, comic books and audio plays.

If anyone is interested in the ancient times of roleplaying, in the roots of our beautiful hobby, then getting to know the work and legacy of Dave Arneson and Blackmoor is a good start. And more than theory, must have practice. Play like Dave and the Twin City gamers did. This is recommended to every roleplayer. Even and especially to folks that are new to the hobby who only know the modern incarnation of the game. Surely rookies will have a lot of fun on Arnesonian gaming. Give it a chance to play your favorite game setting with minimalistic rulings and without giving players character sheets or any indications of levels. This gives them more of a sense of reality. This is part of the Arnesonian experience.

How you can have a good FKR session:

1. Read books instead of roleplaying rulebooks. Just read the book, not the system.
2. Pick any setting you like and write down stuff for it. If one knows how the world works, it gets pretty easy and fun to play.
3. Pick a free and simple rules set, or come up with your own.
4. Grab your favorite dice, establish simple ground rules for conflict resolution (“low is good, high is bad” or "high is good, low is bad"). Use tools, not rules.
5. Create characters based on the setting you want to play.
6. Just start playing. Use natrual language. Wing it, and you’ll see rulings emerging. If you’re so inclined, you can write them down and use them as rules.
7. You don’t need professional modules, adventures and stuff. Come up with an interesting situation, introduce a twist or two, get players, a trutworthy dice, snacks and alcohol. Have a very good time.
8. Again, because it’s so important: Play the world. Fuck the rules.

Here is a quick example of Arneson gaming using the incredible and simple Sword and Backpack (Twin Cities Edition)

My character is Peter, the Fighter. He went to explore a dangerous dungeon named "Black Worm Hideout". He reached the first room of the dungeon by going down the staircase of stone. He fought a lobster-like creature and won. A few rooms later, he met a weird magician. The magician lost was not too friendly and cast a spell on Peter. Even though Peter won, he got a bit injured. After some tumbling and bumbling through other rooms, Peter meets a beautiful woman called Sarah. He discovered she was the king's daughter who was kidnapped by the mysterious magician from the previous fight. Peter managed to escape with the princess after defeating the terrible Black Worm and when far enough from the dungeon and in a quiet place, Peter and Sarah had some sexy-time. The adventure ended with Peter and Sarah coming back home, Sarah's father giving the title of "Hero" for Peter. Peter ended up being happy with the beautiful Sarah and 1000 silver richer.
All combats were made using only 2d6 and a condition parameter instead of "hit points". Simple enough.

David Lance Arneson passed away in April of 2009, but his legacy still lives and his play style still lives within us from the FKR.