Lankhmar - any good?

[Karl Green]

I'm actually still sitting on the fence about the whole MRQ line... opinions seem to be quite polarized.

Runequest was the second or third game I ever played (it was back in 1980 I think, we played Traveller or Runequest after a couple of years of OD&D) so it has always had a special place in my heart. I picked up the new OGL version and just ordered the compainon. I am not 100% sold on it yet BUT it is not to bad. I would have liked it to have been a bit more generic in the core rules instead of in the compainon (you have to go there to get non-Glorantha magic which I thought was kind of weird).

I will have to give it a try before I can really say for sure, but it does not look to bad

 

[Klaus]

Being one of the interior artists in Lankhmar, I'm wondering what you guys think of the Cloud of Hate, Gods of Lankhmar, Circle of Sorcerers, Bazzaar of the Bizarre Spider in Cage, Swimming With Sharks, Warrior Maid in Marsh, Marsh Leopard, Simorgyan Cloak Beast and Merchant Vessel Docked pictures, if it's not asking too much.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I'm very impressed with Mongoose's Runequest line. The rules themselves are the best implementation of BRP I've seen - fast, fluid, and lethal without leading to PC-as-mook 'realism.' While trying out the combat rules for the first time, I got through four times as many encounters as I would have with either D&D or OGL Conan, both of which I'm quite familiar with.

It does suffer from the usual Mongoose copyediting problems, so if that's a big turn off, look elsewhere. I personally don't care.

My only other objection is that character creation is highly random, slower than it needs to be and rather fiddly. Once you get past rolling up a character and actually get to the meat of the game, it's an absolute blast. It would have benefited greatly from templates ala Shadowrun or Star Wars d6.

 

[ewilen]

Yes, they are! Very good stuff...

Except for the main novellas in the last two books, which are respectively boring and mildly offensive, and then execrable.

But even those last two books have flashes of greatness, in the short pieces as opposed to the main stories. Come to think of it, if you ignore "Rime Isle" and "The Mouser Goes Below", the last two books are fine.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Have any of the prior or the new Mongoose Lankhmar products been any good?

Sadly, you'll have to ask someone else about this. The old D&D products weren't, IMX, very good either.

Thougths on running a campaign there?

In terms of flavor, Lankhmar's actually about as close to "standard D&D" as you can get. (Mechanics are another story.) Characters quest after riches, encounter insane wizards, flippant demigods, eccentric cults, weird monsters, scheming politicians, thieves' guilds, werecreatures, ghostly beings, and rampaging undead, and meet such things with flashing swords, quick roguery, and wit.

Is it lower-magic (please be)?

As I was saying about mechanics...

IMHO, the best fit for Lankhmar would be Conan or Iron Heroes, which tells you something about the desired PC magic level. (IMHO, IH is a better fit given the power level of both the protagonists and villains in the stories.) While one of the two protagonists of the Lankhmar tales (the Grey Mouser) is a dabbler in magic, the only real sources of magical power are the NPCs, a few of whom (particularly Fafhrd's and the Mouser's "patrons" Ningauble and Sheelba) are immensely powerful spellcasters.

Do the books by Fritz leiber seem any good?

Um, yeah. While I may really dislike Leiber's occasional forays into fantasy-pornography (mostly in the absolute last Lankhmar stories), the stories as a whole are wonderful.

 

[Nikosandros]

I'm very impressed with Mongoose's Runequest line. The rules themselves are the best implementation of BRP I've seen - fast, fluid, and lethal without leading to PC-as-mook 'realism.' While trying out the combat rules for the first time, I got through four times as many encounters as I would have with either D&D or OGL Conan, both of which I'm quite familiar with.

Well, the temptation to get it is quite strong... especially because some of the folks in one of the groups I'm playing with have expressed an interest in playing it...

 

[rgard]

Have any of the prior or the new Mongoose Lankhmar products been any good?

Thougths on running a campaign there?

Is it lower-magic (please be)?

Do the books by Fritz leiber seem any good?

jh

To echo others, I'm bummed they didn't use the Conan OGL. The D20 Thieves' World magic system would have worked well too.

Leiber? These are classics in my humble opinion.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[grodog]

The old D&D products weren't, IMX, very good either.

The original Lankhmar: City of Adventure supplement was quite good, IME: sufficient detail to run with the setting if you'd read the books, sufficient to push you to the books if you weren't familiar with them and liked what you read in the supplement. References: http://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/miscpages/lankhmar.html and http://home.flash.net/~brenfrow/lm/lm-coa1.htm

I'm not familiar with the later versions of this book (the 2e repackaging was basically the same, I think, from a casual flip-through years ago, but I've never picked up the later 2e box set and other books).

 

[howandwhy99]

The original Lankhmar: City of Adventure supplement was quite good

QFT. This is best city supplement I know of. I don't own ptolus, thieves world, or those Citybook books, but for what I've got...

 

[Remus Lupin]

I haven't seen most of the internal art, but I love Klaus's stuff (it's even inspired a character concept or two). But I have to say that I haven't been knocked out by the art I have seen.

Perhaps I'm too influenced by Mike Mignola's take on Lankhmar, but I've got a picture of Fafhrd in my head and the stuff I've seen from the book doesn't fit it. I haven't seen any representations of Mouser, but if he doesn't look as sleazy as Mignola drew him, I'm likely to be disappointed.