Lankhmar

[Belegbeth]

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

I'd be curious to see how this goes!

 

[francisca]

I'd be curious to see how this goes!

Don't hold your breath, I'm a busy guy. But I'm hoping to have enough pasted together by Halloween.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

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

They were going to be 5th level black mages/10th level alienists, at least. May have some archmage levels, to boot. No longer progressing as black wizards, per se, but as alienists--they're also the only ones like this, so they'd be exceptions to the rule (& very rare).

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.

They're described in the story "Stardock," where some ice gnomes were used as servants by the Invisibles of Stardock. The description of them in 1st ed. products isn't accurate, but IIRC, the description in 2nd ed. products is.

BTW, there's a thread in House Rules where I'm trying to hammer out the racial traits for Ghouls & Invisibles for D&D. Anyone interested should feel free to contribute any ideas/comments/observations/etc. to the thread.

 

[Thotas]

It's been a while since I've read 'em, but didn't our heroes meet some Ice Gnomes when they climbed Stardock?

I'd have to be a bit harder on "Swords Against the Shadowlands". As in, "I wish I'd never read that."

 

[sellars]

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.

Coudn't you warn us about the stinkers here? I'm curious which ones were not good in your opinion.

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

I would be interested in that too I'll keep an eye out

 

[DaveStebbins]

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.

I believe pretty much everything in Unearthed Arcana has been released as OGC. Check the declaration in the book itself. The material has not been added to the SRD because the book hasn't been out very long, and adding it to the SRD might hurt sales. However, since it is OGC, you can use the material as you would any other OGC, keeping in mind that it would be somewhat disrespectful to republish the entire contents.

 

[S'mon]

Good Lankhmar products - the 1e Lankhmar: City of Adventure book and the 2 1e adventure sets CA1 & CA2 are great.

Bad Lankhmar products - no 2e stuff seemed any good, though "Thieves of Lankhmar" was ok-ish. "Nehwon" was fairly dire (red dragons?!) but I still used it. However avoid anything by Dale 'Slade' Henson. His name will live in infamy.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Btw...

Here's the thread I started for hammering out stat info for Invisibles of Stardock & Nehwon Ghouls.

Also, while I'm at it, here's the Yahoo! Group focused on all things Nehwon--books, games, etc. Mix of D&D and Chaosium stuff in the Files section (plus 1 Runequest item).

And, here's a page detailing a fair amount of setting info for Nehwon. It's a resource that I've been using for my stuff.

And last but not least, here's a link about the man himself: Fritz Leiber.

 

[harmyn]

I am so happy to see even more fans of Lankhmar. Yipee!!! I am always gratified to know that there are more out there. Been tinkering with my own homebrewed stuff for a Lankhmar 3.5ed. I took a slightly different tack than AFGNCAAP and am using more classes and a slightly different magic-user class system. Also toying with a few other odd and end bits that I like to make the game flow a bit more like the stories and a little less like standard D&D fantasy fare.

Great idea to link all back to the Scrolls of Lankhmar. Can't say enough good stuff about that site.

 

[Krieg]

Not too long ago I stumbled across a copy of the 2e Lankhmar: City of Adventures book, since I have had a copy of the 1e version for years I thought I'd ask over on rpg.net if there were any major differences between the two.

That thread can be found here:
http://rpg.net/showthread.php?t=132271&highlight=lankhmar

Arkaengel also provided me with the following exerpts from a review he did on the various Lankhmar books...

Lankhmar, City of Adventure (TSR #2137) is a 160-page softbound book with a colour cover (by Clyde Caldwell), copious (generally good) interior art, and a pull-out poster map of Lankhmar inside the back cover. There is a (sparse) table of contents, but no index. Layout is clean and legible. Chapter one provides synopses of Leiber's tales of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser; these are very comprehensive, but of course no substitute for reading the stories themselves, as the authors of the sourcebook are at pains to point out. Apart from providing rudimentary background, this chapter is also a good source of adventure ideas; unfortunately, TSR itself seems to have raided inspiration from here for later products in this line. Chapter two details rule changes needed for the setting; in particular, magic is vastly toned down (spells have between eight and ten times their usual casting time, paladins are rare and regarded as lunatics, etc.). This section is useful in and of itself for DMs seeking ways to run a low-fantasy campaign in AD&D. Chapter three provides an overview of the city of Lankhmar, district by district, with one or two paragraphs of description for important buildings such as shops, inns and guilds. While there are additional supplements for each of the city's main districts, there is enough information here to be able to run adventures in the city. Chapter four is devoted to a brief description of the world of Newhon; the material here is sparse, though it's hard to fault the authors for this - even in the canon, the city of Lankhmar is far more detailed than the rest of the world. Chapter five is an absolute gem, listing as it does every single person mentioned by name in Leiber's stories, complete with game stats and often a descriptive quote straight from Lankhmar. Reading this section alone should give an enterprising DM at least twenty adventure ideas. Chapter six lists the deities of Newhon in the same format used in Legends & Lore, while chapter seven includes various suggestions and rules for campaigning in Lankhmar. Chapter eight provides some adventure ideas, most of which are resolutely average; appendices provide monster listings and generic floorplans for various city buildings (I recall these being in a separate booklet in the first edition).

Cutthroats of Lankhmar (TSR #9470) is an expansion providing more details on the districts of lankhmar devoted to semi-legitimate business (the Mercantile, Festival, Park, Cash and southern River districts). The 64-page supplement includes a poster map of the districts it describes. Contents are divided thematically; chapter one describes several criminal gangs active in these districts, chapter two lists inns, chapter three introduces a few river-based organisations such as smugglers' crews and the River Police. Chapter four lists merchants operating (more or less) within the bounds of legality, while chapter five details several fences willing to take stolen merchandise off the PCs' hands. Lastly, chapter six is a listing of various trade guilds based in the areas detailed in this supplement. This book and its companion volume Rogues in Lankhmar share a common format for their entries; each NPC, organisation or location is detailed on at least a full page, with several adventure hooks for each entry. While these district gazeteers are not essential to running a Lankhmar game, I sincerely recommend them as quick sources of both extra details and adventure ideas.

Rogues of Lankhmar (TSR #9461) does for the less reputable Plaza and Tenderloin districts what Cutthroats of Lankhmar did for the craftsman's and merchant's districts. Again, a poster-sized map is included with the 64-page book; chapter one details groups and guilds, chapter two covers NPCs living in the area, and chapter three details other locations such as inns and brothels. Disappointingly, neither the Thieves' Guild nor the Extortioners' Guild are described, even though both are located in the heart of this district.

The third volume in this gazeteer line, Nobles of Lankhmar, apparently covers the upscale parts of the city; this is one of the books I've not been able to find. Since the average Lankhmart PC's interaction with nobility will probably be limited to robbery or burglary, and basic information on these districts are included in the basic book, I've been able to live with this state of affairs thus far.

LNA1 Thieves of Lankhmar is billed as an adventure. In reality it's more like a 96-page sourcebook providing absolutely exhaustive details on the Thieves' Guild, with some adventure ideas tacked on to the end. While I feel that most of the information in this book should have been included in Rogues of Lankhmar, I'm glad it wasn't; there is more than enough information here to warrant its own book. Floor plans of the guild's buildings and descriptions of key guildmembers are provided along with details of prime targets, the politics within the guild and its style of operation are covered, and notes on Lankhmar's legal system are included for thieves unlucky enough to get caught. Beyond its usefulness in the Lankhmar setting, this sourcebook makes an excellent resource for DMs looking for a realistic and effective thieves' guild for use in their own campaigns; thieves don't come much more professional than they do in Lankhmar...

LNA2 Newhon is a 96-page campaign adventure (levels 7-12) set before the background of the Zodac-no-Kara, a sort of wizardly treasure hunt held every 140 years. The adventure itself takes the PCs beneath the sea, to the City of Ghouls, the Shadowland where Death has his abode, the frozen wastes of Cold Corner and the Jungles of Klesh in an attempt to collect various magical artifacts which the Gods believe are being abused. Disappointingly, the adventure includes neither a more detailed map of Newhon, nor are the locations the PCs travel to described in sufficient depth to make this a general sourcebook. The adventure itself is well-written, though overly reliant on riddles for my case; if your party is no good at riddles, prepare to feed them quite a few clues to keep them on track.

LNR1 Wonders of Lankhmar is perhaps the weakest product in this entire line. A 96-page book of mini-adventures and adventure seeds, this supplement violates literary canon in several places (for example, the PCs are hired to find the bones of Fafhrd's father Nalgron atop White Fang Mountain, although the first of Leiber's stories of Fafhrd clearly mention that his father's bones lie beneath his mother's tent at Cold Corner; the thief Pshawri, the Grey Mouser's illegitamate son, suddenly has an entirely different father...to just mention two off the top of my head). Several adventures are simply Leiber stories with the serial numbers filed off (a pale man approaches the players in a bar and geases them to travel to a bleak island, where they are attacked by fierce reptilian warriors...sound familiar?). One to avoid unless you have completist leanings.

Slayers of Lankhmar (TSR #9371) and Avengers in Lankhmar (#9481) are two connected adventures set several years apart. Though I have a niggling suspicion these weren't designed for lankhmar, they are nevertheless very good and unusual scenarios, centered as they are around a manhunt for an expert fighter falsely accused of murdering a guildmaster. While Slayers takes place in Lankhmar itself, and Avengers is forest-based, the theme is in both cases the same: stalking prey that is probably more dangerous than the stalkers. There are many interesting NPCs that can be integrated into your own games, and the new rules introduced (for urban and wilderness booby-traps, plus several examples of same) are a great source of ideas. Lastly, these two are generic enough that they can be used with pretty much any fantasy setting.

Many thanks to Arkaegel and the other posters over at rpg.net for their help!!

Luckily I was able to purchase quite a bit of jgbrowning's Lankhmar stuff shortly thereafter.