Tips on a Lankhmar Campaign

[warlock1971]

Anyone have any advice on running a Lankhmar campaign?

I have the RuneQuest Lankhmar books that as well as some of the old AD&D books, but still unsure what to do to make the adventures stand out and not rehash Leiber books. I have two PCs ... a young gambler from a wealthy family and an ex city guardsman.

 

[soltakss]

Make the campaign fast and loose.

Don't get tied down by details, paint everything with a very broad brush. So, don't get into the intricacies of a place, or the politics, or anything, unless the players want to dig deeper.

Have some obvious villains and some subtle ones. The obvious ones are less dangerous than the subtle ones.

They probably need a sponsor, or friend, to help them along a bit.

Have scenarios as linked one-shots, don't let a scenario bleed across multiple sessions unless it is a climactic one.

Have the PCs run from guards, run from sorcerers, run from insane priests. Delve into dark catacombs, ruined towers, strange city cults. The PCs are pawns in someone else's game and make them believe it. have outside influences steer them into situations, then make it as obvious as you need to that's what has happened.

 

[warlock1971]

Sounds like good advice, thanks Simon!

Running this every second Thursday using Roll20, and I have the players starting in a gambling salon. The plan is to get the gambler PC indebted to a thief/mobster in the guild, and have him force them to do jobs for him.

 

[The Wolf]

I bought the Savage Worlds Lankhmar recently, and I can say it's got some excellent background/information and has a great adventure - you could probably adapt it into Legend/any system you choose.

The atmosphere is there and advice about bringing Lank to life.

 

[warlock1971]

Been curious about the new SW Lankhmar ... now I'll have to get it!

 

[The Wolf]

It's very good, and has a couple of sidebars that deal with various issues such as slavery and so forth.

 

[Olaus Petrus]

Generally I agree with soltakss advice, but because you're using a licensed campaign setting there are some additional things which you need to consider.

Even if you don't want your adventures to be rehash of the novels, there's still that one very important question (which applies to any licensed material). That question is: do you want the party to get involved with the plots of powerful people and factions from the books (Overlord Glipkerio and nobles of Lankhmar, Thieves' guild, cults of Gods in Lankhmar, or even Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes) or not? There is no right or wrong answer to this question and you have to think carefully what you and your players want from the campaign setting.

Getting involved with the plots of the familiar characters and factions from the novels is a great way to get the players more involved with the world, but at the same time you'll have to be careful that you don't overuse them. Also PCs should probably never meet Fafhrd and Gray Mouser in person, although they might hear about their deeds occasionally. If you decide to use existing characters or factions you should use them as part of your own stories.

It's also possible to run the game without using any of the familiar characters, factions or locations (City of Lankhmar and Nehwon are big places and there's plenty of room for your own locations and characters), but problem with that approach is that then it's possible to ask why use Lankhmar setting at all instead of generic Sword & Sorcery setting.

I think that best approach is somewhere in the middle. I don't run Lankhmar campaign, but in my Elric campaign there is occasional reference to the events of the books and players have met couple of times with (secondary) characters from the novels. My own approach is that party's adventures run parallel with the established timeline i. e. they exist in the same universe as the heroes of the novels but they don't directly get involved with the events of the novels and have their own unique adventures.