Kunimatyu said:
I just started reading the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories (starting with Swords and Death -- I'll grab the first one soon!) and have absolutely fallen in love with the characters, writing, and setting. It has echoes of Robert E. Howard, but with the misogyny dialed down(somewhat) and far better characterization, since the Mouser and Fafhrd get to play off each other.
But I digress. My real question is this -- how does the Wilderlands of High Fantasy setting compare to the world and feel of the Leiber stories? I'm strongly considering getting Wilderlands, and a Leiber-ish flavor would be a huge plus.
Ah, I wish more folks read these stories. I just discovered them a few years ago myself (thank you, SFBC), but I've recommended them to pretty much everyone I know...and yet no one has bothered to give them a try. Their loss, I suppose. I've read all six "Swords" collections!
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are rather special in the realm of fantasy because they're essentially "buddies." You see this in film and television all the time (
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,
Starsky & Hutch, etc.), but it isn't terribly common in fantasy stories. Generally stories about a hero (with or without a sidekick) or perhaps a group of heroes, but rarely two distinct characters who, despite varying strengths and weaknesses, are essentially on even footing.
I, too, digress. On to your question, which I can only answer in part. I have just purchased the
Wilderlands of High Fantasy boxed set myself and I'm very impressed. There is that innate sense of wonder and curiosity that's present in Leiber's tales. Much of the land is, indeed, wild and untamed. There are ruins and crypts and unusual environmental developments both mundane and magical. I could see Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser making their way through the lands detailed in the boxed set quite easily, but there are a couple of significant things I should point out.
First,
Wilderlands has quite a bit of...well, everything. I mean, there are hawkmen, there are lands where dinosaurs roam, there are blue-skinned Avalonian ice wizards...my point is there are a lot of races and creatures and magic that some people might not care for. Some people prefer the less is more approach and while that is possible with the Wilderlands, it doesn't seem designed for it. It
is designed for you to add pretty much anything you like to the mix and have it work fairly seemlessly with what already exists.
Second, there are in-jokes in the design which I'm not sure if were designed to be silly or just happen to appear that way. For instance, there is a river called Rolling Stones River, which in the description is stated to have been discovered by the bard Jagger. Now, I found it rather amusing when I read it, but I imagine when the PCs stumble upon this bit of information it may very well derail the game for a time while chuckles or boos or raised eyebrows take over. These jokes are few and far between and I admit I've occaisionally used a few in my games (Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo from Shakespeare's
The Tempest have appeared in a campaign, for instance), but I thought I should point them out.
Those elements aside (and they don't bother me in the least, but I can see why some people might not care for them),
Wilderlands of High Fantasy gives one an incredible feeling of awe and inspiration. It does remind me of Nehwon or a similar world simply in its vastness and the sense of wonder it conveys. I recommend it highly.
That said there the old TSR books on Nehwon and Lankhmar that might be more to your liking. You can generally find those on eBay. Of cousre, the rules would be fairly useless if your running at 3.0 campaign, but these books are mostly history and geography anyway. Either way, I think you'll come out ahead.
