Lankhmar

The King said:
mthomason said:
Non-RPG sourcebooks would work, but the RPG ones are easier to locate, usually better done, and I can get them cheaper ;)
You're wrong. You can read the whole of Lakhmar for less than £15.
- http://www.amazon.co.uk/-First-Book-Lankhmar-Millennium-Fantasy-Masterworks-S-/dp/1857983270/ref=sr_11_1/026-4191249-1812455?ie=UTF8
- http://www.amazon.co.uk/-Second-Book-Lankhmar-Fantasy-Masterworks-S-/dp/0575073586/ref=sr_11_1/026-4191249-1812455?ie=UTF8

Well I was talking sourcebooks, not complations of stories. If there is a big hardback "Lankhmar Companion" somewhere, I'm pretty certain it'll cost me more than a copy of Mongoose's Lankhmar sourcebook.
 
Is there a adventure included in the lankmar book? Or some adventure hooks? I hope so. I would love to start a game directly after reading it.
 
Enpeze said:
Is there a adventure included in the lankmar book? Or some adventure hooks? I hope so. I would love to start a game directly after reading it.

A lot of the time when I was detailing what's in the city, I made a point of saying "You can use this in such-and-such storylines."

Here's a random example - a sidebar in the discussion of the Thieves' Guild and what foulness lurks in their basement:

- - -

The Dead Master Thieves
For campaigns centred around or involving the Thieves’ Guild, it can be almost irresistible to use the Dead Master Thieves. They embody the corruption under Lankhmar’s surface as well as the archaic, eerie nobility of the Imperishable City, and they have just the right touch of the supernatural to make them frightening and unnatural, yet still acceptable on some level by Lankhmarts.

Games Masters will probably need to use the Dead Master Thieves sparingly to preserve the macabre element of fantastical horror that they bring to the setting. This can be remedied by remembering just what will stir these undead souls to action. Ultimately, the only thing that matters to these revenants is the Thieves’ Guild. This allows Games Masters to use the Dead Master Thieves in some interesting ways. An intruder that finds his way into the network of passageways through either the sewers or an adjoining cellar is in for a serious shock if he stumbles into the tomb-basement. The Dead Master Thieves have no reason to harm any intruders unless the character either threatens the corpses directly or has intentions of destroying the Thieves’ Guild. On the contrary, the Dead Master Thieves are likely to either ignore the interloper or converse with him, albeit in breathy, sinister voices and on macabre subjects that few still-living people would ever want to talk about.

The real promise for the Dead Master Thieves to feature in any thief-orientated campaign is for the ancient founders of the guild to take an active interest in what goes on above their heads. This can take the form of a ‘walk’ up top to slay any thief that is grievously harming the guild or has offended the founders in some way. This is more of a one-shot deal, though. A Games Master cannot spring that more than once without there being a risk of such a momentous and fearsome event becoming trite and mundane, at least not in a short space of time.

Something to consider is that perhaps not every thief had forgotten the presence of these undead founders standing restless in the cellar. The Dead Master Thieves might have contact with a select few guild members, the few thieves that come to offer their respects and maybe even seek the wisdom of these mummified elders. In this case, it would be appropriate for the Dead Master Thieves to speak cryptically of guild politics and member behaviour, even setting the occasional task for their loyal mortal followers; tasks which are designed to reduce any negative influences or actions within the guild. The undead founders might want certain thieves with dangerous or disloyal tendencies removed or killed, or the guild master replaced, or some icon of importance brought to their tomb-cellar.

For the game mechanics of the Dead Master Thieves, see Chapter XX.

- - -

I wanted to do an adventure, but every single word counted in that book and I had to be very, very careful. There is, however, an adventure in the Guide to Nehwon (the Lankhmar book right after Lankhmar itself) which can be directly linked into the future scenario releases.
 
Dead Blue Clown said:
...in this case, it would be appropriate for the Dead Master Thieves to speak cryptically of guild politics and member behaviour, even setting the occasional task for their loyal mortal followers; tasks which are designed to reduce any negative influences or actions within the guild. The undead founders might want certain thieves with dangerous or disloyal tendencies removed or killed, or the guild master replaced, or some icon of importance brought to their tomb-cellar.


Good idea. Sounds very "Leibery" to me :)


Dead Blue Clown said:
I wanted to do an adventure, but every single word counted in that book and I had to be very, very careful. There is, however, an adventure in the Guide to Nehwon (the Lankhmar book right after Lankhmar itself) which can be directly linked into the future scenario releases.

This means there are coming 2 books out? The Lankhmar core book and a little bit later the Guide to Lankhmar?
 
I love it when Aaron posts. Especially about Lankhmar. It's like the tastiest tidbits ever tasted.

I STILL want to know more about the sprawling swamp bears, though. ;)

- Q
 
Sorry, my internet was down for a few days. Glorantha sounds ok but I prefer religion not be such a major part of my fantasy campaign worlds. I also like more "high" fantasy with the traditional fantasy races as player characters. Glorantha sounds a little too "weird" for my tastes.
 
Dead Blue Clown said:
Enpeze said:
This means there are coming 2 books out? The Lankhmar core book and a little bit later the Guide to Lankhmar?

Lankhmar.
Guide to Nehwon.
A scenario supplement.


...that's the immediate future.
When are these books due for release?
 
I can't wait to get my hands on Lankhmar!
I ra a short RQ dungeon crawl last night with my group to go over character chreation and get the basic MRQ combat rules down. We made a few rules slip-ups but genarally had a very good time.

When I told them about Lankmar comming out, they got really interested in MRQ!
 
Hey DBC, can you give us an idea of how the magic from the MRQ core rules and companion are interpreted for the Lhankmar setting? Seems like maybe runes would not be as prevalent.
 
haargald said:
Hey DBC, can you give us an idea of how the magic from the MRQ core rules and companion are interpreted for the Lhankmar setting? Seems like maybe runes would not be as prevalent.

I talked a little about this very thing in another thread, though it was a thread that was about something else entirely. I'll go look for it and repost it.
 
haargald said:
Hey DBC, can you give us an idea of how the magic from the MRQ core rules and companion are interpreted for the Lhankmar setting? Seems like maybe runes would not be as prevalent.

Found it.

- - - - - - - - -

Actually, a note on this while I still remember. There's minor hedge magic, which is basically prophecy and fortune-telling on Lankhmar's street corners.

Then there's Black Magic (Sorcery) as practised by the evildoers out there who need their heads cracked. Characters can learn a little bit of this and not get too crazy, but it's clearly Very Bad Juju. Even the Mouser only does it once, when he's a kid, basically. Every other time he does stuff like this, it's on loan from Sheelba.

However, there are artefacts like wands and one-use scrolls that can be used without the caster degenerating. They still have to be made by accomplished (and therefore probably evil or at least morally grey) black magicians, but if Sheelba or Ningauble hand out a 'rune' like the spell the Grey Mouser used to zap the Quarmallian magicians, the character can read the spell, do the zapping, and not worry about his knuckles going all gross and his hair falling out. They're mainly limited-use deals, though.

These 'foci' are pretty rare. Short of Sheelba and Ningauble (or similar patrons with occasional generosity) the characters are unlikely to come across them that much, unless it's the business (and therefore bad) end of such artefacts.

Beyond that, you can dabble in Sorcery. But it's bad news. Getting the atmosphere of magic right was one of the parts I paid most attention to, despite the fact it was a much smaller subject and chapter than most of the others.
 
As for Lankhmar suiting RuneQuest - for years I ran a campaign set in Nehwon using the RQ3 rules (it was actually a sort of mash-up of pure Lanhkmar with some Gloranthan elements mixed in).

I can tell you that it works very, *very* well. Far better than the hash-job that they had to do for 1st Ed. D&D.
 
As for Lankhmar suiting RuneQuest - for years I ran a campaign set in Nehwon using the RQ3 rules (it was actually a sort of mash-up of pure Lanhkmar with some Gloranthan elements mixed in).

Did a similar thing, used RQ3 with Sorcery as the only magic, worked really well, so I'm looking forward to Lankhmar almost as much as the next Glorantha book.

Should be cool...
 
I got the RQ main book and the Companion this week because I want to have the rules so I can make sense of any crunchy stuff in the Lankhmar book.

I'll probably end up using a different set of rules or heavily house-rule the MRQ system but I wanted to have the "default rules" so I understand the system I'm converting from. I don't really think MRQ as written is well suited to the Lankhmar setting.
 
DBC:
Hey, January is way too long. I'm dying here! How much info can we expect for areas outside Lankhmar in the first book? Can I reasonably have characters from other lands? Any chance of you persuading Mongoose to throw up some previews?
 
haargald said:
DBC:
Hey, January is way too long. I'm dying here! How much info can we expect for areas outside Lankhmar in the first book? Can I reasonably have characters from other lands? Any chance of you persuading Mongoose to throw up some previews?

There's not a pile of lore about other places even in the source material, but yes, characters from elsewhere are accounted for in basic character creation, and yeah, there's info on the world outside Lankhmar.

You want to climb mountains in the Cold Waste and fight frost worms? Good luck with that. You want to wade through the Great Salt Marsh and have hand-sized white spiders leaping at your face? Go to it. You want to go into Shadowland and find the pavillion where the ghost of your dead lover lives? Have fun, yo. It's all in there.

Nehwon (the companion book) fills out Ilthmar, The Land of the Eight Cities and Quarmall, mainly. It mostly deals with different ways of running adventures in those places. Half the book is a pretty big scenario taking you on an epic trek from Lankhmar to the Great Salt Marsh, to Ilthmar, Ning's caves, Quarmall, the Land of the Eight Cities and then the Cold Waste. I'm immensely proud of that, and I turned in the book a few days late so I could finish playing all the way through it with one of my groups. It was, to coin a phrase, ****ing awesome fun.

In regards to previews, I don't know how '.pdf ready' the book is. I've got my Word.docs, though. What would you like to see?
 
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