I note that Tavis goes full on the whole use of Chainmail. I played with Bob Meyer in Castle Blackmoor a few months ago, and he told us a story of actually using Chainmail and why, ultimately, Dave didn't use it much. (To make a long story short, it resolved combats too fast. Bob's Hero got killed by a troll under a bridge in one roll. Bob didn't play Blackmoor for a few months afterwards, put off by the experience, and when he did, Arneson was no longer using the same combat mechanics.)
Yes, that's an important point about CM in Blackmoor. I think though, that Tavis was talking about CM in the context of what Gary Gygax was doing and where he was coming from. Gygax certainly did bring a lot of CM mechanics to his games and to what he incorporated in D&D. Arneson and company did abandon by the book CM combat early on, but the booklet continued to function as a sort of Monster Manual and overall reference book. It was very handy for that and after all, there weren't any other published resources. However, as we will be seeing with some posts I'll be making next year (heh) there was a lot being developed in the Twin Cities in those pre D&D days.
I note that Tavis goes full on the whole use of Chainmail. I played with Bob Meyer in Castle Blackmoor a few months ago, and he told us a story of actually using Chainmail and why, ultimately, Dave didn't use it much. (To make a long story short, it resolved combats too fast. Bob's Hero got killed by a troll under a bridge in one roll. Bob didn't play Blackmoor for a few months afterwards, put off by the experience, and when he did, Arneson was no longer using the same combat mechanics.)
ReplyDeleteYes, that's an important point about CM in Blackmoor. I think though, that Tavis was talking about CM in the context of what Gary Gygax was doing and where he was coming from. Gygax certainly did bring a lot of CM mechanics to his games and to what he incorporated in D&D. Arneson and company did abandon by the book CM combat early on, but the booklet continued to function as a sort of Monster Manual and overall reference book. It was very handy for that and after all, there weren't any other published resources. However, as we will be seeing with some posts I'll be making next year (heh) there was a lot being developed in the Twin Cities in those pre D&D days.
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