Celebrating Blackmoor Week (Day Five)

As you look into Blackmoor and Dungeons & Dragons you may wonder where somethings came from or how early some ideas were around. Again the blog Hidden in Shadows is a great resource for those things.

Consider the topic of HD and Level for instance.

Infamous Characters, and the history of levels in D&D

Levels are at the heart of D&D, from experience to combat to hit points - not to mention how much the term is used for other things, such as dungeon level and magic level.  Knowing when character levels came to be in the form familiar to us from the 1974 rules would go a long way to really understanding the development of the game.

Did HD equal Level in early Blackmoor?

From my previous post, it is apparent that as Arneson developed early Blackmoor, flunky, hero, superhero did not really function as “levels” as we would think of them today, but more like level titles or social ranks – the sort of things we sometimes call tiers – that were nevertheless very important divisions as far as rule differences were concerned.   Characters also had “levels” of ability within these rankings as either “warrior” levels or “magic” levels, and sometimes in both.  It is the meaning of “level” in early Blackmoor and the interplay of level and title that I want to explore here.