Hidden in Shadows

We’ve discussed character levels in early Blackmoor before here: http://boggswood.blogspot.com/2012/02/infamous-characters-and-history-of.html

So building on that discussion, Lets consider some statements from original player Greg Svenson.

“There were only three levels at the time: flunky, hero and super hero. We were all flunkies at the start. He became a hero when he mastered the magic sword we found during the adventure. I don't remember when the level advancement became one level per new hit dice….”

http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/683/twin-cities-blackmoor-1973-1976

From my previous post, it is apparent that as Arneson developed early Blackmoor, flunky, hero, superhero did not really function as “levels” as we would think of them today, but more like level titles or social ranks – the sort of things we sometimes call tiers – that were nevertheless very important divisions as far as rule differences were concerned.   Characters may have had varying “levels” of ability within these rankings as perhaps hinted at in the Ran of Ah Foo paragraph where he has both  “warrior” and “magic” levels.  It is the meaning of “level” in early Blackmoor and the interplay of level and title that I want to explore here. 

Lets look at one of the earliest documents in the FFC we have for Blackmoor, dating to before Kurt Krey’s character became a Bad Guy, and so apparently from 1971.  That is the Blackmoor Military Manpower Distribution (initial).  I’m reordering the list in terms of HD and leaving off the manpower figure for clarity:

Keep in mind that Hit Dice are not dice for Hit Points.  That is a change made during the process of writing D&D.  Hit dice here mean damage dice.

Notice that hit dice are only given for “warrior” player characters. Elves, Dwarves, peasants, “men” and the “wizard of the wood” have nothing.  It is a safe bet that where nothing is indicated, 1 Hit die can be understood.  Greg Svenson tells us, “My recollection is that a flunky or man-at-arms rolled 1d6, a hero rolled 4d6 and a superhero rolled 8d6 for damage.”  http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/4186/layer-od-archaeology?page=2

Damage apparently could be shared across multiple opponents as in EPT, as Greg says: “For what it's worth, I remember Svenny killing over 200 orcs in one battle and 112 orcs in another.”

http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/2740/blackmoor-combat-arnesons-system

Okay, note however that 4 of the 8 characters in the list have HD that don’t fit the pattern – the Earl has 9 and the Bandit, the Inspector General, and a baron have 6 HD.  Now, going back to Svensons opening statement, notice what he says in the second half – “. I don't remember when the level advancement became one level per new hit dice….”

That statement always nagged at me because in D&D it is not accurate to say you get one new HD per level.  Fighters kind of do up to level 10, but not really since there are several instances where it is a HD + a bonus number, not a simple 1 HD per level progression.  Now maybe Greg was actually remembering something, consciously or not, from early Blackmoor, or maybe it is just coincidence, but I think he was really on to something with the idea.

One hit die per level is exactly the sort of simple progression we might expect in early Blackmoor, and explains the 6’s and 9 in the Military Manpower table.  We can recast the table this way:

There's something curious to note about this list; and that is the 4, 6, 8, pattern.  It may simply be coincidence that there are no 5's or 7's, no odd numbers until the lord of Vestfold.  There's another possibility. and that is that fighters were advancing not by one HD per level, but two.  Interestingly, Arneson seems to suggest this very thing in his endlessly fascinating but altogether too brief "How too become a Bad Guy section in the FFC,  Here he says "To progress to the next level, (which in Blackmoor meant getting 50% more HD per level, although aour combat system did not really use HD).

There is a lot too unpack in that non-sentence.  It was obviously written for the FFC in the mid '70's post D&D, and is subject to the fallacy of memory and Arneson's habitual reductionist brevity, however, Arneson does seem to be confirming our hypothesis in saying that "in Blackmoor" acquiring more "Hit Dice" equated to gaining a "level".  He explains that they didn't really use HD, which we can take to mean HD in the D&D sense of dice for Hit points, because there is no doubt that Hit Dice as damage dice were indeed used.  What's more that note of "50%" more HD per level is somewhat nonsensical.  Assuming a hero has 4 HD, by this math, a 10th level fighter would have 27 HD, or if you start at level 1 and 1 HD, then a hero has only 3 HD and a superhero 11+ HD.

However, and in typical Arneson fashion, since in this "Bad Guy" section he specifically says he is talking about "Hero Type" monsters, it may be that he meant a single HD amount that was 50% of the hero level value - which for humans would be 2 HD.  Who knows?  But it does fit the pattern observed in the Manpower table.

So what about all those +1’s +2’s etc.?  They clearly don’t progress in any consistent pattern, varying from player to player.  So it is not like the 7+1  HD, for example that each seventh level D&D fighter has.

There may be a clue from the Wizard of The Wood.  The wizard was played by Pete Gaylord, and we have his character sheet.  This is the sheet published in Peterson’s PatW that I discussed in a series of post beginning in September of 2012.  It was probably not the character’s first sheet, but nevertheless dates from 1972 or no later than very early 1973 since its contents predate the D&D playtest period.  According to the sheet, the wizard is level 7 (initially), a fact which seems to confirm that level is separate from title in Blackmoor, given that "wizard" in D&D is considered the ultimate rank or following the titles in first edition CHAINMAIL™, where the 4 titles are sorcerers, warlocks, magicians, wizards.

As we’ve discussed, the character sheet has a list of weapons and a target number for each weapon.  One of the wizards weapons (the battle axe) however, has a +5 noted after the target number. 

Given that Hit Dice in Blackmoor are damage dice, a possibility is that the +x numbers in the Military Manpower list  reflect a bonus each character may have with their principle weapon, perhaps due to the weapons magical properties, or perhaps just their personal proficiency.

In any case, I do think we are seeing "levels" in the Blackmoor manpower list.  However I place it in quotes because terminology at this stage of the game was very loose.  In other words, a 6HD Hero might advance to a 7 HD Hero, without the actual term "level" being used at all, and at the same time they might still be casually referred to as a Hero "level" character.    

Rooms with monsters and treasure together indicate a lair and should be filled with full numbers of monster and treasure. (p116)

Special indicates unusual things which in and of themselves are harmless, if left alone.  Examples given include alarms, shifting walls, magical pools, sound effects and so forth.

Create a wandering monster list for each level consisting of 1-10 monsters of no more than 2 levels (HD) above or below the dungeon level.

Discussion: It is curious that the general approach to stocking the dungeon is the same, but hard to know if that's because TSR inc., didn't utilize the process much or because they though Gygax got it mostly right the first time.  My guess is on the former.  

What has changed is quite interesting, however.

First, unlike in D&D74, there is no  random table for treasure by dungeon level as there is on page 7 of         The Underworld and Wilderness Adventure booklet.  Treasures in D&D94 are either determined by the treasure type tables or hand picked by the Dungeon Master.  If it is a treasure and monster together then the treasure is a lair treasure chosen by the treasure type table.  While I'm happy to see it clarified in D&D94 that lair treasures are indeed expected in dungeon lairs, not also having a random treasure by level table leaves off the interesting possibility of monsters not knowing that there is a hidden treasure in their domicile. More problematic however is D&D94's encouragment of sometimes hand picking the treasure, because few DM's understand the frequencies at which treasure, and especially magic items should appear in a campaign.

Second, as mentioned above, D&D94 has no equivalent to the "Monster Determination and Monster Level Matrix".  This D&D74 table's results lead to subtables of specific monsters of varying strengths, each subtable getting tougher than the previous (discussed at length in my "Setting up a Proper Dungeon" article).  Frankly, the method offered by D&D94  (level = HD +/- 2) is much more practical and flexible than the D&D74 tables, with the caveat that it does not leave a method for the occasional wildcard monster.  
Third, the room table contents table shown above is quite different from anything in D&D74, particularly in percentage chances.  Note there is an equal chance (16.7%) of a room being empty, trapped, or having a "special".  Traps and specials are given no particular chance in D&D74, being things a DM is expected to add or not based on the nature of the level.  Some levels might have lots of traps and/or specials and others none, and that is how it should be.  Such things should not be predictable in some fixed percentage.

This section ends the D&D94 booklet.  Next post I will give a brief conclusion and a document of  D&D94 house rules for D&D74 players.