Lankhmar Unleashed and RQ II

[Wolfe1759]

Just picked up RQ II and Lankhmar Unleashed yesterday. Very impressed with the new RQ II book and system, my previous exposure to the system being with Elric/Hawkmoon rather than MRQ I. LU is a really good book as well but it doesn't actually seem to have been designed for use with the RQ II rules as published.

In character creation in LU using the Cultural Background and Professions tables labled as RQ II the Common Skills of Brawn and Culture (own) no longer exist, Lore (Regional) is now an Advanced Skill, Lore (World), Lore (Animal), Lore (Plant) and Throwing are Common Skills, there are no Combat Styles and Shield is a separate skill.

LU characters also receive 100 free skill points as opposed to the 250 given to RQ II characters, is this correct for RQ II or is it a throwback to the MRQ I rules ?

Sorcery uses what I'm assuming is the MRQ I system with four Manipulation Skills instead of the RQ II single Manipulation Skill and individual Spells rather than Grimoires.

There also seem to be a number of errors in the NPC Statistics with incorrect HPs, Skills with %s less than base.

Also looking at the Stats for The Grey Mouser I was rather surprised by the lack of any magical/sorcerous abilities/spells particularaly as on page 156 it states "What Games Masters looking for campaign flavour are sure to find most interesting is the Mouser's use of Agony and Sympathy in manipulating a Black Magic spell ..."

Everything that isn't system/stat related in LU is excellent and I'm still very glad I bought it however as is stands at present it is actually easier for me to use LU with for instance my Barbarians of Lemuria game than my RQ II game for which it was designed.

I appreciate that LU was released before RQ II but it appears that it was released as an RQ II supplement before the RQ II system was fully designed.

Is there going to be an Errata or update PDF relesed to make LU work with RQ II and if so when ?

 

[Mikko Leho]

Sorcery uses what I'm assuming is the MRQ I system with four Manipulation Skills instead of the RQ II single Manipulation Skill and individual Spells rather than Grimoires.

I think this is intentional as Black Magic is described to resemble Sorcery except individual spells are Advanced skills and there are four Manipulate skills etc. I haven't really taken time to digest the rules but so far Black Magic in MRQ2 appears to be entirely different beast than Sorcery rather than the extension to Sorcery what it was with MRQ1.

 

[Slurm]

I'd like clarification from Mongoose on this one, too. Is the Lankhmar Unleash book actually compatible with RQII (as in, the RQII rules/stats are included)? Or is everything in the book MRQ I rules, and we use the Conversion & Errata document to update things?

 

[Wolfe1759]

Not certain if we are going to get an official reply on this as it is now almost a month since I asked the question.

LU as written isn't directly useable with the RQ2 rules in terms of character creation or NPC stats and intentionally or not uses a similar but different sorcery system.

That said with a bit of work and a few tweeks to the standard RQ2 character generation rules you can get a suitable Lankhmar player character. A bit of a rewrite on the NPC stats as you need them isn't too much work and defining the Black Magic spells as one or more Grimores makes it work fairly well with the RQ2 sorcery system.

Also given that it is now only £10 (half what I paid for it) even as a systemless sourcebook I would recommend it.

Do hope we do get an official update though.

 

[Slurm]

Hmm, well I think hopefully someone will be along shortly to clarify once and for all. At least that is what I was told via pm...

 

[Loz]

LU was, indeed, written whilst RQII was still being out together. We knew that some things may turn out differently as playtesting of RQII started and it became necessary to tweak and frame things differently, and this is why there is a disparity between the skill lists generally.

What we'll do is this: compile an Errata for LU, once time permits. It will clarify the differences between RQII and the way LU interprets those rules and just add a bit of clarity around the magic rules (which did undergo some major alterations as LU went to press, unfortunately).

Hope this helps you Leiber fans. I can't give you a precise date for the errata unfortunately as I'm up to my eyeballs in other projects, but it will happen.

 

[hanszurcher]

Any news on the Lankhmar Unleashed Errata?

 

[Loz]

At the moment, its 'see my previous answer'.

I can't tell you when I'll be able to get to 'LU' I'm afraid...

 

[djd]

Glad I saw this thread as I had been thinking of buying LU. I won't bother now

 

[TheShadowSpawn]

LU was, indeed, written whilst RQII was still being out together. We knew that some things may turn out differently as playtesting of RQII started and it became necessary to tweak and frame things differently, and this is why there is a disparity between the skill lists generally.

I fail to see how this is an excuse for releasing a book to the public when it even has the slightest chance of being incompatible with the rules set that you wrote it for. Do you guys have any sort of quality control in place, or do you just publish books without checking for things like this?

What we'll do is this: compile an Errata for LU, once time permits. It will clarify the differences between RQII and the way LU interprets those rules and just add a bit of clarity around the magic rules (which did undergo some major alterations as LU went to press, unfortunately).

Yeah, you could say that is unfortunate. Unfortunate for the person that shelled out money for both the PDF and the hardback.

Hope this helps you Leiber fans. I can't give you a precise date for the errata unfortunately as I'm up to my eyeballs in other projects, but it will happen

.

Obviously it doesn't help, because nothing has been done yet to rectify this situation. Your work schedule does not and should not concern me. The only thing that does concern me is that you released a book, that I spent my hard earned money on, that is incompatible with the rules set that I bought specifically for the purpose of running a Lankhmar game.



Between this and the Arms and Equipment Guide, Mongoose you have lost someone that has been a loyal customer for many years. I've spent literally thousands of dollars on your products and I always tell myself, next time will be different, they've fixed things, things are better this time around.

Well I'm sorry to say that you had your last chance with me.

TheShadowSpawn

(formerely RabidAntiShemite, but my old email account was deactivated and I can't find my password)

 

[TrippyHippy]

My understanding was that Lankhmar was released before RQ2 was released, and was technically still part of the original RQ line. My understanding was also that it remains mostly compatible with RQ2 anyway.

 

[djd]

I don't think 'mostly compatible' is really good enough - especially for those of us who already had the previous Lankhmar books by Mongoose. It's a poor show.

 

[hanszurcher]

According to the product details "This is a completely updated volume covering Lankhmar and the world of Nehwon, compatible with both RuneQuest and RuneQuest II".

From what I've gathered from Loz's earlier post Lankhmar Unleashed contains an early pre-playtest version of the RuneQuest II rules. A sort of RuneQuest II Alpha release.

Because this source book is light on "crunch" I would probably still recommend this book on the quality of the setting information alone. But I would not recommend Lankhmar Unleashed to new role players or those unfamiliar with RuneQuest.

 

[djd]

As a big fan of the setting I have most of the TSR AD&D Lankhmar stuff too- I have say that in many respects the TSR stuff is better if you want it purely for the setting. They have loads of decent maps for a start.

Maps and proof-reading.... How great would Mongoose be if they could get these two (rather important) aspects of their products right?

 

[hanszurcher]

They have loads of decent maps for a start.

I still have the big color fold out map of Lankhmar from TSR's Swords Of Deceit(CA2) framed on my living room wall!

 

[djd]

LOL! I think that would be a step too far for my wife - and besides I have no wall space left with all the other stuff.... :lol:

 

[Wolfe1759]

What we'll do is this: compile an Errata for LU, once time permits. It will clarify the differences between RQII and the way LU interprets those rules and just add a bit of clarity around the magic rules (which did undergo some major alterations as LU went to press, unfortunately).

4 months later and still no sign of the promised update/errata.

Also it probably needs a bit more than just "clarification". A re-write of the character generation rules and tables, the sorcery system and almost all of the stat blocks is what is needed to make it a RQII supplement as advertised.

Is anybody actually working on this ?

 

[hanszurcher]

Is anybody working on this?

 

[Wolfe1759]

Just about to celebrate the anniversary of the release of the RQII supplement Lankhmar Unleashed and (given the new sale announcement) rather than finally getting the much anticipated errata it is now going out of print.

Does this mean there will soon be a new Lankhmar Unleashed that is actually usable with RQII - will those of us who paid full price for the original LU be getting this one for free as I'm definitely not paying for it again !

One very irritated and rather disappointed customer

 

[rabindranath72]

And I was thinking of getting the book...I saved some money it seems. Very poor attention to customers, it seems.