Arneson's works, like his life, is largely obscure to the D&D community. His best known writing credit is no doubt the TSR DA series starting with Adventures in Blackmoor a series so heavily re-worked from the Blackmoor Chronicles adventures Arneson wrote that his voice is largely lost and replaced by that of Ritchie. No shade on Ritchie, of course, as TSR had their plans and Ritchie's job was to conform the Blackmoor setting to that vision.
I imagine that folks who know a little about Arneson or are familiar with the DA series might expect any other adventures he released to be weird dungeon crawls or perhaps an epic MacGuffin quest.
The Garbage Pits of Despair is neither of these things. It represents a sort of side quest, written during approximately the same period as Blackmoor Chronicles before the Chronicles drafts (or at least the first 3/4 adventures) was reworked by TSR into the DA series. Thus GPoD is a fascinating and unvarnished but all too brief look at Blackmoor as Arneson intended it to be.
The adventure was published in Different Worlds magazine in 2 installments in 1985. Arneson wrote a semi-regular column for DW under the pen name Gigi D'Arn, and served as an editor. GPoD likely was intended as a teaser for Blackmoor Chronicles.
I wont spoil all the details, but the adventure breaks as follows, The PC's randomly come across a caravan under attack by slavers, which leads to a request from a Blackmoor official to chase down the raiders. The PCs end up in a dragon den in the Dragon Hills, and agents of the Temple of the Frog are involved.
It is a bit railroady although allowances are made for differing outcomes of encounters and more than half takes place out-of-doors (or out-of-dungeons, if you prefer).
There is a lot more to say about the content of the adventure, but for this post I want to concentrate on some of its quirks.
Monsters
Arneson introduces three (or more?) new monsters in this adventure.
Watchwings: basically spy birds
Maggotmen: think the Michelin tire guy as an ant colony. It gets weirder though since there is also a zombie form!
Carcass Critter: this is Arneson's version of the Carrion Crawler, basically. That makes me wonder if the carrion crawler was a monster he invented and didn't care for how TSR presented it, or if he just thought it needed some changes. Who knows?
More: so there are known monsters that have some different qualities (more on that below), but the most outstanding to me was the Black Pudding, because it occupies a huge space and gives off a toxic gas.
Unknown Place Names
Walworth (Gary Gygax played the Earl of Walworth in the Castles and Crusades Society)
Stone Brook
Dinsbury
Fenstien
Weapons
Although Arneson seems to have been following the BECMI rules, some of the magic weapons have non-standard effects.
War Hammer +1 against all opponents, additional plus one against undead; permanent spell effect: Deceive.
Pole Axe +3 strength against all non-magical opponents; permanent spell effect: Defend.
2-handed flaming sword (sword of legend) 25% bonus, 8 Ego, 9 Intelligence. Primary powers – Detect Metal, Find Secret Doors, and Find Traps; Extraordinary power – Teleportation.
Magic Weapons seem to come in three stripes
1) Common with only a normal bonus
2) Rare with a bonus to strength in one case and an extra bonus against specific creatures and one “permanent spell effect” These seem to come from the Marsh/Cook Expert rules.
3) Extraordinary swords – these swords are the standard swords generated with the D&D sword creation rules except the terminology is a little different. The one listed is also interesting and unorthodox because it gives an unspecified (?) 25% bonus.
Magic Items
These have custom effects not in the BECMI or B/X rules, including an interesting failure rule I've long used now in my own games.
Staff of Lightning Bolts – effects an area 60 feet long, starting at 0 to 300 feet from user. Victims must make a saving throw or take 6d6 points of damage. There is a 5% chance per use of malfunction. User must roll successfully against intelligence to repair.
Wand of Fireballs – Contains 6 charges. Recharges in three minutes provided the owner is at rest. The wand will recharge 5 times total. The fireballs range 0-100 feet and do 2d6 damage. Victims who make their saving throws take no damage. There is a 15% chance per use the wand will malfunction. The user must forsake all other activity and must roll successfully against intelligence to repair.
Rules
Peppered throughout GPoD are what one might call general house rules.
Arrow counts for Archers are always noted (10-30), same with slingers (20 stones), and crossbowmen (40 bolts).
Percentile based tracking skill noted for one of the fighters (Long Bill Jordan).
NPC’s always have their ability scores listed.
Armor is described and helmets are noted, including whether or not they have cowls.
The Dragon, like AiF Dragons, has a mixture of animal like features.
Fatigue rule: movement reduced by 1/3, -1 on Strength and Dexterity.
The lead Orc isn’t given stats. Instead he is described as a level 2 fighter.
Its interesting that Arneson seems to be tracking ammo for shooters, using percentile based skills, rolling against ability scores, and making variant magic items, based on his old standby’s of fireball and lightning bolts.
Setting Details
Lastly, and perhaps most intriguing of all, are the hints regarding the Blackmoor setting as Arneson saw it. I mentioned placenames above, and we have hardly a clue about them since they are associated with a person, such as Monica of Dinsbury.
There are some other interesting place clues however, such as the reference to the rulers of Ten as "Sartraps" and the fact that the leadership of Blackmoor is under a King and a council of Co-regents. The wild west of the north vibe also comes through in the prominent role of marshals, appointed by the council to provide some measure of law and protection across Blackmoor. The people from the Temple of the Frog too, reveal something of their organization, from Fins of the Frog to Teeth of the Frog.
Further fascinating details can be gleaned from the random encounter tables and the potential wilderness encounters. Garbage Pits of Despair gives us a glimpse of the Arnesonian Blackmoor we almost had, before TSR put their stamp on the setting in the DA series.
