Blackmoor Memories: The 16 Ton Weight

I’ve got a number of longer posts to make about conversations I had at Gen Con with David Wesely and Ross Maker about the early history of the Blackmoor campaign, but here’s a quick one from Ross:

At conventions, Dave [Arneson] would have a room where there was a rope hanging from the ceiling with a sign saying: “Do Not Pull This Rope or a 16 Ton Weight Will Smash You.” You can probably guess where that came from! And even though the sign told you exactly what would happen when you pulled the rope, someone always would. Usually it was the most annoying munchkin in the group, and everyone would breathe a sigh of relief and keep going.

Nice to know that gamers making Monty Python jokes are participating in the oldest of old-school traditions! (See also the wizard named Tim in Jaquays’ “Borshak’s Lair”.)