The first three of these four modules were generated from original 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.

DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor by Dave Arneson and David Ritchie
DA2 Temple of the Frog by Dave Arneson and David Ritchie
DA3 City of the Gods by Dave Arneson and David Ritchie
DA4 Duchy of Ten by David Ritchie

An early, abbreviated version of DA2 first appeared in the Blackmoor D&D supplement, as a scenario.  It was the first 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 this are in an ad by Esdevium Games in Dragon #131 (page 85), an earmarked TSR stock # (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, contributor Dave Keyser has told us that the module was actually nearly completed, and the material is now currently with a company (Zeitgeist Games) who plans on releasing a "Blackmoor d20" module, in collusion with Dave Arneson.  (Thanks to Curt Gould for the pre-production scan, and to Dave Keyser and John Rateliff for help with this info).

Printing Information

No distinguishable printings between modules.

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

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."

• DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor
• DA2 Temple of the Frog
• DA3 City of the Gods
• DA4 Duchy of Ten