Lankhmar

[JoeGKushner]

White Wolf republished the fiction in a series of hardcovers and even had a paperback of a new novel out there by a different author based on Fritz's works. Don't know if they're still available on-line, but I've seen them at my Borders.

 

[Wraith Form]

Thanks AFGNCAAP! that is an insightful post

Yes, I own all of the Lankhmar-related books, modules, etc and I totally agree with AFGNCAAP's suggestions--AD&D 2nd Ed didn't get the feel/flavor quite right, but d20 3.x can better accomodate the Lieber style.

If you can find old, out of print Lankhmar stuff I recommend "Uncle" Wes Nicholson's work for TSR/WotC. He had a decent grasp of rogue-only campaigns.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

There's 1 other book set in Lankhmar, though it was written by another author & published after Leiber's death.

[snip]

Ill Met in Lankhmar (Paperback & hardcover).
Lean Times in Lankhmar (paperback & HC)
Return to Lankhmar (Paperback & HC)
Farewell to Lankhmar (I only got the HC, not sure if it ever got released in paperback).

[/snip]

Swords Against the Shadowlands, by Robin Wayne Bailey. It was a decent read, though I'm not sure if you'll want to stick with strictly-Leiber stuff for a Lankhmar game.

On a somewhat related note, does anyone know if any of the stuff in Unearthed Arcana is OGC or in the SRD? UA is a good book (I'd recommend grabbing it anyways just for the stuff in there), but I don't know if any of the material was already available online in SRD form. Heck, the core thing I use for Lankhmar--the Generic Classes--takes up only 3 pages in the entire book.

 

[Remus Lupin]

Another option for a Lankhmar-based campaign is to use Mongoose's CONAN rules. It's grim and gritty in a way that really captures Leiber's style. If I can ever find time, I'm hoping to put together a Lankhmar campaign myself using those rules.

 

[Klaus]

An additional way to do the magic thing is with the system I wrote for Counter Pack 4: Eldritch Horrors and Occult Investigators. Basically, all magic ability comes from spending feats, and spellcasting requires skill checks.

 

[Krieg]

There is still some Lankhmar stuff available if jgbrowning's Gargantuan.. no Colossal sized D&D sale!

*whistles innocently*

 

[JoeBlank]

*whistles innocently*

[Homer Simpson voice]Why you little . . . !! [/Homer Simpson voice]

 

[Belegbeth]

Nice post AFNCAAP, but two quick questions regarding:

... Black Wizards use Int, must be non-Good aligned (and then switch to Evil-aligned by 5th level if they want to progress up to 6th level & beyond), & learns sorcerer/wizard spells ...

... there are ice gnomes & Nehwon ghouls, but those are new creations that you'll need to create on your own--the original books should give you a good idea of what these races should be like) ...

That means that Sheelba and Ningauble are evil? That seems a bit off to me. I would have pegged them as neutral/inscrutible.

Also, though ice gnomes are often mentioned in the books, I don't recall ever encountering an actual description of them, or their culture (or abilities, etc.). They do seem to be pretty vile, though.

Finally, as for the books, you can get ALL of Leiber's Nehwon stories in two volumes: "The First Book of Lankhmar," and "The Second Book of Lankhmar," published as part of the "Fantasy Masterworks" series by Gollancz. They may be hard to get outside of the UK (though I found mine in a small fantasy and science fiction bookshop in San Francisco).

 

[Wombat]

I always loved Lankhmar.

Far more than either Moorcock's or Howard's writings, it was Leiber's that really swashed my buckle and got me excited about fantasy. Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser were my friends in junior high when the books were being (re)issued -- ah, the 70s, the smell of a new cheap DAW paperback...

I never really checked out the D&D versions of Lankhmar; I have read a couple of non-Leiber descriptors, but they never felt as real as a trip to the Silver Eel. In the end, however, every city adventure I ever craft has a tip of Scalpel to the City of Tenfold Thousand Smokes

 

[francisca]

I got everything TSR ever published about Lankhmar. If you have any specific questions, let me know via a PM. Some of the products are really awful.

Following the options up above, after GenCon, I will be resuming work on tweaking Mongoose's Conan RPG for Lankhmar.