SECRETS of BLACKMOOR: The True History of Dungeons & Dragons

Controversy, Misconceptions, and Why do you Hate Gary Gygax so Much?
over 5 years ago – Mon, Dec 10, 2018 at 03:58:01 AM

Indy films are born out of passion.

It's passion that leads to being able to talk at length about them too, so I apologize for the length of this update. ;)

I was on a forum today reading a post someone had made about this KickStarter. One person said that they were going to wait until the film gets released to get their DVD. It struck me that I needed to clarify some things to you, our Backers.

This is the movie release! We have no idea if this movie will get backed by a distributor after this. Or, if we will be able to afford to do more DVD pressings. This may be your only chance to own a DVD. Of course we will certainly keep selling online copies via our VOD platform. We aren't threatening to kill the film if you don't back us. We are just very pragmatic. 

Consider that around 5000 feature films get made every year. Only a portion of those ever end up being viewed by the public; the rest go bust.

Chris often jokes about movies that end up as a DVD with a home made cover, that then gets stuck on someone's mother's fridge with a note that says: "I am so proud of you honey!"

He's joking about our movie project!

That is the reality of being an indy film maker, and we are willing to take that risk.

There are also other misconceptions about this film and indy film makers in general. We've been hitting a lot of places all over the web to get the word out and let people know we're doing a KickStarter. Often people respond by saying that our project is just a scam, and yet we have all this footage we shot. If this was a scam, why go through all the hassle?

We aren't dumb guys, if we wanted to scam people we could; we're at least as clever as Nigerian Princes!

The release of the GaryCon draft was unplanned, it was after seeing so many negative comments around the web, that we realized we needed to prove that we really have a movie.

And perhaps the greatest misconception of all is that as Indy film makers, we're just sitting around at home rolling around in piles of money. Oh, if only it were true!

It isn't like that. We invested a lot of our own money into this project. We actually do not expect to make back our investment at this point. In order to make back the cash we put into this project, we'd have to sell around 15,000 DVD's. It ain't happening soon.

All the funds we get via our KickStarter will go toward paying the people who will finish this movie. And we are really looking forward to that day. 

We are just glad to have gone on this journey where we got to know some amazing people and heard some really cool stories.

What about Gary Gygax?

We don't hate Gary Gygax. We tend to avoid spending time on controversy. We feel it is a waste of our efforts.

Often you can see people arguing about who did more, or who really made D&D happen. These are circular arguments that have nothing to do with understanding the who, how, and why.

Our approach is different. we like to show things that make you think. And then you can make up your own mind.

We believe that Dave Arnesons's Blackmoor is the prototype for Dungeons & Dragons. Yet, we also believe that everything the Twin Cities gamers did, was in some way, the prototype for Dungeons & Dragons. There are other infusions of ideas as well.

We also believe that Dungeons & Dragons needed the special abilities of a man named Gary Gygax.

We're 1st generation D&D'ers. Our copies of D&D had both, Gygax AND Arneson, on the cover. To us, there is nothing to talk about as to who did what, because It could not have happened without either of them.

Again those circular arguments where people try to remove parts of the true history, deny credit to those who did their part, and dull down the richness of ideas that went into the creation of Dungeons & Dragons.

So lets move on, and celebrate the invention of RPG's.

Here is a video we did a while back with Greg Svenson talking about the Blue Rider and Sci-FI. This is yet another of the Secrets of Blackmoor. :)

The Secret Sauce
over 5 years ago – Sun, Dec 02, 2018 at 10:22:43 AM

Doing a research documentary requires time.

Lots of digging for old artifacts, and lots of digging to find people who can explain those artifacts.

We found a huge number of cool documents. Each interviewing trip we made, would reveal something new. Sometimes it would make us have to re-write what we had already edited into the film, because the new revelation had just turned everything upside down--this happened more than once!

We really wanted to tell everyone about all these cool artifacts, but we had to keep it under wraps because all the new stuff is what makes this film so special.

The super cool objects, and interview comments, came to be known as "Secret Sauce."

Now that we are trying to promote the project we're willing to leak out a bit more of the Secret Sauce to our backers.

We had already revealed a great deal via our Facebook page.

Since we are trying to convince people to step up and join the team, we are doing Backer Only Updates that show off Secret Sauce items. Yesterday we revealed a copy of Dave Arneson's first campaign write up for his "Medevil Project." Dave's spelling was always creative!

This week we will be posting some battle notes that have historians arguing back and forth. We don't have an exact date for the battle notes. We don't know what game system was being used. What we do know, is that the battle is already starting to show signs of Role Playing in a medieval setting, and that it also gives us a deal of insight into how a Braunstein RPG game would have been set up.

Perhaps what is most odd about this set of battle notes is the list of players who were in the game. Not a single one of the Excelsior, or Minnetonka players, show up on this list. This makes us ponder that these notes could be even older than we think!

But of course, you will need to make a tiny donation of $5.00 if you want to see any of this Secret Sauce. This is our way of thanking those of you who have already joined the Secret Team.

Thank You, Chris and Griff

BLACKMOOR FANS TAKE IT TO THE 11th LEVEL!
over 5 years ago – Sat, Dec 01, 2018 at 04:14:46 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

The 35 Minute GaryCon Draft
over 5 years ago – Fri, Nov 30, 2018 at 02:33:40 AM

In march of 2018 we took our show on the road and revealed part of the working draft of Secrets of Blackmoor at GaryCon. A small crowd of enthusiastic viewers got to see a little bit of the movie and gave us a lot of feedback on the project. Since then it has come to be known as "The GaryCon Draft"

Here for you is part of the 2 hour feature. See for yourself if you can discover any of the Secrets of Blackmoor.

... and yes, we know, we say Gygax wrong, sorry Luke and Ernie, but it's just a place holder voice over, we'll fix it. :)

No One Knows Any of My Stories...
over 5 years ago – Wed, Nov 28, 2018 at 07:56:42 PM

For film makers, the saddest times are when you have a beautifully told anecdote, but it's just too long to use in the film. With over 200 hours of footage that needed to get cut down to 2 hours of movie, this was a daily occurrence for us.

Sometimes you can cut out a little bit here, and little bit there, and retain the flavor of what someone said. In the case of Bob Meyer, many of his longer stories kept our entire crew on the edge of their seats. Bob is like many of the Twin Cities gamers--no one knows who he is, or his part in helping create RPG's. No one has ever bothered to ask him about how RPG's got invented, yet he was there.

Because of these kinds of stories, we want to make sure to have a Bonus DVD dedicated entirely to un-cut source video. We'll sweeten it up with a little bit of color work and a little bit of music, but in the end what you'll see, is exactly how the interview unfolded.

Here now is a sample of our interview with Bob Meyer. It begins before the interview actually is supposed to start. Chris is working with Ryan as they do some final adjustments on the lighting and framing. Yet, Chris has the sense to let the camera roll while Bob and I chit chat.

We follow up with some other stories about war gaming, and the origin of RPG's.

Thanks for Watching,

Chris and Griff