I'm currently reading through the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories for the first time (sacrilege, I know; I'm not sure why I never read them before), and I'm really enjoying them. Which leads me to wonder if the TSR-branded Lankhmar products would be worth pursuing?

I know less than zero about the entire product line. It was all 2e stuff, right? Would there be a good place to begin? One thing I wouldn't mind having is a map of either Lankhmar or Nehwon (or both) — is there a product with a good map(s)?

Any thoughts would be appreciated; thanks in advance.

MShipley88 wrote:Stop reading when you finish with the older set of novels.  Don't read the last one he wrote.

I dont feel like looking it up.  Which book are you referring to?  

I think there are only about 6 Lankhmar items and they are all second edition. But they have that first ed feel to them. From what I have seen they are far and away the best second edition items, as a whole.

NetRodent wrote:There are about a dozen Lankhmar products.  Most were produced for 2nd edition, but three of them are 1st edition.

Lankhmar, City of Adventure
CA1 Swords of the Undercity
CA2 Swords of Deceit

Okay, I like that. Maybe I'll start there. Anything with any maps?

Thanks for the answers so far.

(My Heroic Worlds has gone missing, BTW ... but I'm looking)

I have most of the Lankhmar stuff. It is one of the last things I played before leaving Uni - we enjoyed it immensely. The first real urban adventuring with Thieves and Guilds etc.

I must echo MShipley above. Don't bother with the last book. Fritz Lieber devolved into a dirty old man and the book is full of his weird fantasies. I hated the last book so much, I gave all my Fritz Leiber books away.

I know that this is the Acaeum and all - so that it is really meant to be about D&D, but if you are thinking of playing in the Lankhmar setting I would recommend using Rolemaster rules (or MERP if you aren't that in love with tables).  Or possibly a bastard variant (e.g. using Rolemaster combat and converted AD&D spells).  The AD&D settings are worth getting for detail and atmosphere but...

...while our beloved combat system* is great for all-round Giant-thwacking, Dragon slaying and Orc-Horde decimating it is less effective in giving you that city street cutthroat, one on one, dicing with death with only a dagger to save you combat excitement.  







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* NOTE: this is not intended to be a comment about the relative verisimilitude of any rpg combat systems.  We all know that no rpg combat system comes close to representing real-life combat...  except perhaps Chivalry and Sorcery in that the system was so awful, byzantine and convoluted that it induced true horror in players and DMs - perhaps revealing to us just how awful war really can be (OK, the metaphor kind of breaks down at this point, but I was having fun...   )

Simply some of the best urban modules ever produced by TSR.  Easy to collect and to obtain a full collection.

Martin

Sliding into the land of off-topic:

I bought a CD last night and was surprised to see the following in the liner notes:

"and a special dedication to Fritz Leiber for my composition of CURSED - may Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser sail frozen seas, roam exotic lands and despoil not so frozen yet thrice as exotic women forever...!"

The CD is the latest album from the thrash-metal band Sadus, and the above thanks is from Steve DiGiorgio, who has played fretless bass for Autopsy, Death, Sadus, Vintersorg, and others.

I don't have access to my Lankhmar books, but I remember bits and pieces of the story upon which the Steve's song is based.

Lankhmar is a peculiar setting. Not excessively fantasy, it is more like a slum setting, dark and very much stealth-oriented. Much like playing in Westgate or Ravens Bluff in the Forgotten Realms, if you ever played those cities. Myself, I never played it, but I don't think it's bad.

Collecting it is a piece of cake. There are a total of 14 items, the only one which fetches slightly high prices is the boxed set, but you can find it in any store which has some OOP stuff (it is one of the most common unsold items) for 20 dollars or less. Everything else is easy and cheap and generally goes below 10 dollars.