Dave Arneson SeriesDA1 - DA4

The first three of these four modules were generated from early 1970's D&D source material, and feature many of the locales and characters present in Dave Arneson's original Blackmoor campaign.  All are intended for use with the D&D Expert Set.

An early, abbreviated version of DA2 first appeared in the Blackmoor D&D supplement, as a scenario.  It was the first adventure scenario ever produced for D&D (or for that matter, any role-playing game).

DA4 Duchy of Ten is set in the same locale as the first three modules, but Dave Arneson was not involved with the project (nor were his "official" Blackmoor notes used).

DA5 City of Blackmoor was a Mystara module scheduled for production sometime in the late 1980's, but cancelled.  The only references we have to it are an ad by Esdevium Games in Dragon #131 (page 85), an earmarked TSR stock number (9219), and an advertisement in the 1987 TSR Fall Catalog (depicting this pre-production cover scan, which uses the artwork from the cover of Dragon #97).  Bruce Heard, in charge of the D&D product line at the time, has said that this module was never even designed, let alone produced and shipped.  However, in June 2021, a partially-completed manuscript for DA5 City of Blackmoor was discovered in the possessions of David Ritchie, co-author of the DA module series, who has since passed away.  A digital copy of that manuscript was allegedly given to a Blackmoor fan site for public release, but that effort seems to have stalled.  The IP rights to the Blackmoor campaign passed to Wizards of the Coast after Arneson's death, so a public release of this manuscript in its current format may be legally unwise.  Additionally, since the manuscript was discovered among Ritchie's possessions, it's likely that similar to DA4, the module was being developed without input from Arneson -- further murkying the ownership waters. Thanks to Curt Gould for the pre-production scan, and to John Rateliff for help with this info.

No distinguishable printings between modules.

Thanks to Leonard Riotto for the scan of DA2, and to Adrian Newman for the scan of DA4.

While not particularly rare, these modules typically command higher-than-average prices at auctions.  For a possible explanation on the reason for this, contributor Keith Parker writes:  "There are a lot of people like me who consider Dave Arneson "one of us": a hard-core gamer.  We love his imagination, the world he created, and his attention to detail.  He's revered, much in the same way that the City State of the Invincible Overlord was revered.  There is something quasi-Lovecraftian about his work that just makes you want to collect everything you can (kinda creepy in a way, I guess).  Thus, the psychology here seems to one of sentimentality: we feel that Arneson represents that period of time when we had to use the Men & Magic combat tables, when we studied Creature Feature articles, when we were still allowed to call Balrogs by their real name, when there was no yellow stripe in the upper left corner of rule books, and when the only thing worthwhile about the D&D Basic Set was the cover art."

The following represents The Acaeum's current valuation of these items, dependent upon condition (multiply by 3x-10x if shrinkwrap is present).  Values are updated at the beginning of the month, provided there were new public sales.  Click the titles to view active eBay auctions!

DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor

DA2 Temple of the Frog

DA3 City of the Gods

DA4 Duchy of Ten