While it would later be revisited in the d20 version City of the Gods for the Dave Arneson's Blackmoor line, the legendary City of the Gods from Dave Arneson's original campaign had been whispered about since it had been mentioned in the First Fantasy Campaign (1977) or perhaps even earlier as a place where many of the original Blackmoor players would see their characters meeting their doom. Even Rob Kuntz and Gary Gygax had struggled to face the dangers of this place.

But it was DA3 City of the Gods that would first give full details about the City and its surrounding Valley of the Ancients. TSR and Dave Arneson had seeming overcome some of their differences and the DA series allowed fans to finally learn more about the world of Blackmoor. TSR partnered up Dave Arneson with freelancer Dave Ritchie who authored the modules based on manuscrips provided by Dave who also gave his final approval on DA1-3. Both Arneson and Ritchie were credited on these three modules, unlike DA4 Duchy of Ten which is only credited to Ritchie while still clearly based on details from Arneson. 

This adventure also gave the world more details about the Peshwah Horsemen and their lands, including expanding the Blackmoor world map south for the first time. Early on in the adventure, the PCs are introduced to Bosero, the character originally played by Jon Sider, before they are soon attacked by things that can only be linked to the City of the Gods. Although the module's excellent cover by Doug Chaffee does not really reflect the contents of the adventure, the shameless use of science fiction on a fantasy adventure module, told customers that Blackmoor is a very different place than what you can expect from most Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Indeed, combining sci fi and fantasy elements was one of the hallmarks of Dave's original campaign and could be seen as early as in Supplement II's Temple of the Frog. Zeitgeist Games would later double down on sci fi in Blackmoor campaigns with Clock & Steam decades later.

Item Code: #9191 (DA3)
Title: City of the Gods
Type: Adventure
Author: Dave L. Arneson and David J. Ritchie
Published: 1987
Format: 48-page book w/tri-fold cover, fold-out map

"New Magic... That's what the flying egg has. New magic unlike any ever encountered in Blackmoor. New magic of a type that could give the fledgling kingdom an important edge in the wars that are brewing on its borders. There are only a few minor problems. Like the fact that the magician who piloted the metal egg to one of Blackmoor's southern outposts was killed before he could utter a word. And the fact that Blackmoor's sworn enemies, the monks of the evil and eccentric Order of the Frog, are also interested in the magic represented by the egg. And, most important, the fact that the egg came from the distant and dangerous City of the Gods. Set amidst the blistered salt flats of the Valley of the Ancients, the City of the Gods is a strange and deadly metal metropolis whose powerful guardians do not welcome intruders. Yet it is to this place of deadly menace that Blackmoor's leaders now send a daring expedition - to bargain for aid in the coming wars - or to steal the magic of the gods."

 I talked a bit about DA4 back in 2016 when it was first released on PDF at the DMsGuild. Back then I mentioned how Dave Arneson's name does not appear on the cover of this adventure and that Dave had expressed some dissatisfaction about the adventure as he had not been given a chance to give it his approval which he presumably had done with the previous modules in the series.

Duchy of Ten is the final instalment of TSR's DA module series. Although the name Duchy of Tehn also appeared in Gary Gygax' Greyhawk, its origins are likely from Dave Arneson's campaign. In the original campaign, these lands may have been home to the villain The Ran of Ah'Foo and it may at one point have been controlled by a player named Chuck Munson.  DA4 The Duchy of Ten 

 

It was quite a surprise to fans that Mystara would be brought back to print by Wizards of the Coast in 2024. 

Of course, saying that WotC would bring it back is a bit of an overstatement as the upcoming book Dungeons & Dragons: Worlds & Realms - Adventures from Greyhawk to Faerun and Beyond is a licensed product from Ten Speed Press and more a coffee table book than an actual game supplement. Still, seeing an entire chapter  of this book being dedicated to Mystara when several popular D&D settings are not included (notably Dark Sun, Birthright and more). 

With the recent discussions of Blackmoor being renamed Arn in the 2024 DMG has lead to much speculation. Yesterday I explored the name Arn as it is not new to the world of D&D. As the DMG is not yet available, we don't know if the change was made due to setting specific ideas, rights issues or a number of other reasons. 

However, given this change for Greyhawk it will be interesting to see if Blackmoor will be renamed in the descriptions of Mystara as well. Mystara's connection to Blackmoor began before Mystara had even gotten its own name. Mystara is of course the world of the old BX and  BECMI D&D Games (Some call then Basic D&D, a term I feel is misleading) and back then it was just called the D&D Game World as opposed to AD&D which had many settings tied to it. 

As TSR had found themselves in the situation of having to publish two parallell game lines called D&D and AD&D, due to agreements with Dave Arneson. Since Arneson's rights were tied to the D&D line, it made sense that Blackmoor would end up there, even though the name Blackmoor was still kept on the Greyhawk map. The advantage of placing Blackmoor in Mystara's past was that players of the D&D game could use the same characters and simply visit Blackmoor through Time Travel. some people say Blackmoor was put into Mystara's past, but another way of looking at it is that Mystara would end up being a possible distant future for Blackmoor. For Mystara, this had the advantage of adding a layer of mysteries buried in the settings past that made it so much more interesting and almost every Mystara product referenced Blackmoor after this. The products that laid the groundwork for this connection were the DA modules, starting with DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor. 

So, will Blackmoor be renamed in the presentation of Mystara? It is very difficult to say at this point. As mentioned we have no idea why they changed the name for Greyhawk and those reasons could easily have no impact on how WotC presents Mystara. On the other hand, if they do make the change that will support the uncomfirmed theory that WotC are distancing themselves from Blackmoor. If they call Mystara's Blackmoor Arn, that would be the craziest scenario of them all. Of course, it would be perfectly possible to present Mystara and not mention Blackmoor at all. 

Whatever happens we will known more when this book comes out. 

Dungeons & Dragons: Worlds & Realms - Adventures from Greyhawk to Faerun and Beyond is to be published on October 29th 2024. The book will be 368 pages and the current price tag is 50$

-Havard