I remember being so excited when the Lankhmar: City of Adventure supplement came out for AD&D back in 1985. I took that home and read it and couldn't wait to subject my players to it. lol It was a hit and is still one of my favorite D&D experiences to this day.
It's a brilliant thing. My players over the years have also not quite grasped how many times they've travelled over the Lankhmar map in different guises... It's stood in, wearing the disguise of street name changes and some alterations, for nearly every major metropolis in my campaign. Wonderful resource. Was overjoyed when they did a 2nd Ed. version - simply because I was running out of places to put tape to hold my overused and abused 1st Ed copy together :)
My first brush with Lankhmar was the "Swords Against Death" anthology. Still a favourite. I've only run a short a campaign in Nehwon using modified 5e rules. It worked well enough but the real problem was that two of the players really didn't get it. One point I'd make is that if someone wants to run a Lankhmar campaign, they need to consider Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face. Superb quest givers because one dare not cross those two! Speaking of Ning, his labyrinthine caves would be a fine way to send the party into other lands and worlds. Perhaps even into Nehwon's past.
There are a fair few adventures over the course of Lankhmar's history in gaming that have drawn in Sheelba and Ningauble. Of course, that's a lift from the books - I'd like to think those two have more champions that they manipulate than just Fafhrd and the Mouser! (Sheelba was always my favourite. I could never look Ningauble in his eyes...)
Reading them in book order, I'm in the middle of Swords in the Mist. Swords Against Death is a completely brilliant book of short stories. I'm a huge fan of Dungeon Crawl Classics and recently picked the Lankhmar boxed set. Wonderful product.
Strangely, I'm not so much a fan of the DCC game rules, but as a company - Goodman really are the best of the best of their particular niche. One reason why I believe Lankhmar as a gaming setting is spiritually at home there.
@@WillyMuffinUK I can understand not liking the system. I really enjoy it though, I spent a long time playing 3rd edition D&D. It's a very refreshing change for me. The settings they put out and the obvious respect they hold for the source material, both are really impressive.
@@midnightgreen8319 Not everyone can like every system :) For me, when I go "old school", I dust off my old 1st Ed or Basic books; or if "new old school" is the order of the day, The Black Hack or Swords & Wizardry usually cuts it. DCC occupies some strange middle ground that I can't quite throw myself into. As for the remainder of your reply - wholeheartedly agree. The OAR series, the Lankhmar setting, the DCC adventures from the 3E/D20 era and ongoing - they're just great, with very few misses among them.
@@WillyMuffinUK I absolutely agree on not liking all systems. I started playing BECMI and I just don't like AD&D as much as that. Just a personal preference.
Currently reading Swords against Wizardry and love it. was not aware that Leiber had collaborator and origins of Lankhmar. +1 and sub for outstanding review and research.
A group was running a Lankhmar setting @ Funk's Bookstore. Murders @ Great Gate district were traced to a tunnel where a gelatinous cube 🧊 was lured and destroyed.
Got Lankhmar Unleashed from ebay and waiting on my copy of Mythras to come in from lulu to arrive, excited to play this one of these days. look forward to your other Milieu videos.
Ooh, you'll have fun converting Unleashed to Mythras! It's not too difficult to go from Mongoose RQ2 to Mythras (which is a refinement of RQ6, which is itself born from Mon. RQ2), but it takes a bit of juggling. In my opinion, Mythras is the better game, so it will be worth it. Good luck :)
@@WillyMuffinUK I think they were the first and second books of Lankmar. Ill have to check into the stories. Fafhrd becoming Istus of the Jug, I clearly remember.
yah lankhmar first got expost to it early 1980s after seeing an advert for it at the back of Conan ace book, the covers by Jeff Jones were evocative just like the Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo covers were a good sell for me for those books back then. Loved the Fafhrd mouser stuff and got impressed further with its inclusion in Deities and Demigods. and in the mid 80s bought the Lankhmar book by TSR, WOW was I even more impressed. Yep highly agree with you on this. that the TSR lankhmar was probably the best treatment of the source material though Mongoose Pinnacle and Goodman games did good work.
@@WillyMuffinUK In the elric books I particularly loved the panther book editions with art by Michael Whelan. bought them from Hong Kong english book shops in the 90s., Later the Moorcock Omnibuses also had excellent art by the Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano(same guy who does the Vampire Hunter D book covers. ).
@@johnwalsh4857 I am currently in the closing stages of Stormbringer, and about 3/4 through the collected Von Bek. Citadel of Fogotten Myths awaits as a treat once I've finished both.
I obviously have the Realms on the list, but not specifically Raven's Bluff. However, from what I recall, if you have the following published works, you'll only be missing materials only made available via the RPGA's Living City packets and the pages of Polyhedron (Note that the LC works did compile a lot of Polyhedron material): LC1 Gateway to Raven's Bluff LC2 Inside Raven's Bluff LC3 Nightwatch in the Living City LC4 Port of Raven's Bluff The City of Raven's Bluff Kidnapped!
@@WillyMuffinUK thanks diffently missing kidnapped and maybe the city will have to check Polyhedron was a fun resorcre shame it's doesn't have a collection like the good era of dragon and dungeon magazine did with the CD collection.
@@alanrickett2537 I agree. Similarly Dungeon, White Dwarf, and Imagine. All, along with Dragon, were fantastic resources back in the day. "New Dragon" dropped the ball by being an online-only WotC professional company vehicle. Such a shame.
@@WillyMuffinUK loved the early white drawf with the mult system surport believe we have talked about the great small city collected in best of white drawf 3 before still my go to quick I need a city in pick up games.
I remember being so excited when the Lankhmar: City of Adventure supplement came out for AD&D back in 1985. I took that home and read it and couldn't wait to subject my players to it. lol It was a hit and is still one of my favorite D&D experiences to this day.
It's a brilliant thing. My players over the years have also not quite grasped how many times they've travelled over the Lankhmar map in different guises... It's stood in, wearing the disguise of street name changes and some alterations, for nearly every major metropolis in my campaign.
Wonderful resource. Was overjoyed when they did a 2nd Ed. version - simply because I was running out of places to put tape to hold my overused and abused 1st Ed copy together :)
@@WillyMuffinUK I never got the 2nd edition. I should seek a copy out.
@@KabukiKid Definitely. There's obviously an overlap, but they fleshed out a fair bit from 1st.
Thoroughly researched, as ever. Thanks for the history Ian. You’ve inspired me to revisit Leiber’s books.
They are well worth revisiting - enjoy!
This video has inspired me to read the Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories. 😀
You won't regret it. They aren't complicated, but you'll recognise a lot of where bits and pieces of D&D came from in them.
My first brush with Lankhmar was the "Swords Against Death" anthology. Still a favourite. I've only run a short a campaign in Nehwon using modified 5e rules. It worked well enough but the real problem was that two of the players really didn't get it.
One point I'd make is that if someone wants to run a Lankhmar campaign, they need to consider Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face. Superb quest givers because one dare not cross those two! Speaking of Ning, his labyrinthine caves would be a fine way to send the party into other lands and worlds. Perhaps even into Nehwon's past.
There are a fair few adventures over the course of Lankhmar's history in gaming that have drawn in Sheelba and Ningauble. Of course, that's a lift from the books - I'd like to think those two have more champions that they manipulate than just Fafhrd and the Mouser!
(Sheelba was always my favourite. I could never look Ningauble in his eyes...)
Reading them in book order, I'm in the middle of Swords in the Mist. Swords Against Death is a completely brilliant book of short stories. I'm a huge fan of Dungeon Crawl Classics and recently picked the Lankhmar boxed set. Wonderful product.
Strangely, I'm not so much a fan of the DCC game rules, but as a company - Goodman really are the best of the best of their particular niche. One reason why I believe Lankhmar as a gaming setting is spiritually at home there.
@@WillyMuffinUK I can understand not liking the system. I really enjoy it though, I spent a long time playing 3rd edition D&D. It's a very refreshing change for me. The settings they put out and the obvious respect they hold for the source material, both are really impressive.
@@midnightgreen8319 Not everyone can like every system :) For me, when I go "old school", I dust off my old 1st Ed or Basic books; or if "new old school" is the order of the day, The Black Hack or Swords & Wizardry usually cuts it. DCC occupies some strange middle ground that I can't quite throw myself into.
As for the remainder of your reply - wholeheartedly agree. The OAR series, the Lankhmar setting, the DCC adventures from the 3E/D20 era and ongoing - they're just great, with very few misses among them.
@@WillyMuffinUK I absolutely agree on not liking all systems. I started playing BECMI and I just don't like AD&D as much as that. Just a personal preference.
Currently reading Swords against Wizardry and love it. was not aware that Leiber had collaborator and origins of Lankhmar.
+1 and sub for outstanding review and research.
Thank-you, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the read!
Thanks for the info. Now I will have to look into getting the books and the 1st and second edition settings for lankhmar.
If you only find the 2nd Ed. one, you'll be set. Both - even better. Happy hunting!
...and Bob is your uncle. Thanks for the share!!
He must be somebody's uncle!
A group was running a Lankhmar setting @ Funk's Bookstore. Murders @ Great Gate district were traced to a tunnel where a gelatinous cube 🧊 was lured and destroyed.
Those cubes can be evil things when they want to be!
Got Lankhmar Unleashed from ebay and waiting on my copy of Mythras to come in from lulu to arrive, excited to play this one of these days. look forward to your other Milieu videos.
Ooh, you'll have fun converting Unleashed to Mythras! It's not too difficult to go from Mongoose RQ2 to Mythras (which is a refinement of RQ6, which is itself born from Mon. RQ2), but it takes a bit of juggling. In my opinion, Mythras is the better game, so it will be worth it. Good luck :)
Aw nice some of my earliest fantasy reading was Dragonlance as it was released and a couple of Collections of Fritz Leiber from a scifi book club.
Only a couple?! Read more of them! 😉
@@WillyMuffinUK I think they were the first and second books of Lankmar. Ill have to check into the stories. Fafhrd becoming Istus of the Jug, I clearly remember.
@@jamesrickel3814 That's from Lean Times in Lankhmar, which is in Swords in the Mist - book 3 🙂
nice ... really nice
Thank-you!
also highly recomended are the Epic comic adaptations of the books by Mike Mignola , love em.
It's just a shame he didn't cover all of it...
@@WillyMuffinUK True.
yah lankhmar first got expost to it early 1980s after seeing an advert for it at the back of Conan ace book, the covers by Jeff Jones were evocative just like the Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo covers were a good sell for me for those books back then. Loved the Fafhrd mouser stuff and got impressed further with its inclusion in Deities and Demigods. and in the mid 80s bought the Lankhmar book by TSR, WOW was I even more impressed. Yep highly agree with you on this. that the TSR lankhmar was probably the best treatment of the source material though Mongoose Pinnacle and Goodman games did good work.
Ah, those Ace and Mayflower covers for fantasy and SF were just fantastic.
@@WillyMuffinUK In the elric books I particularly loved the panther book editions with art by Michael Whelan. bought them from Hong Kong english book shops in the 90s., Later the Moorcock Omnibuses also had excellent art by the Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano(same guy who does the Vampire Hunter D book covers. ).
@@johnwalsh4857 As coincidence goes, I'm currently in the midst of re-reading those compilations. Excellent covers.
@@WillyMuffinUK Moorcock always an excellent read, currently listening to an audio book of Nomad of the Time Streams,
@@johnwalsh4857 I am currently in the closing stages of Stormbringer, and about 3/4 through the collected Von Bek. Citadel of Fogotten Myths awaits as a treat once I've finished both.
Excellent overview!
Thank you!
Hope you will do a history of ravens buff as I think I have most bit it's very hard to find out what I may be missing.
I obviously have the Realms on the list, but not specifically Raven's Bluff. However, from what I recall, if you have the following published works, you'll only be missing materials only made available via the RPGA's Living City packets and the pages of Polyhedron (Note that the LC works did compile a lot of Polyhedron material):
LC1 Gateway to Raven's Bluff
LC2 Inside Raven's Bluff
LC3 Nightwatch in the Living City
LC4 Port of Raven's Bluff
The City of Raven's Bluff
Kidnapped!
@@WillyMuffinUK thanks diffently missing kidnapped and maybe the city will have to check
Polyhedron was a fun resorcre shame it's doesn't have a collection like the good era of dragon and dungeon magazine did with the CD collection.
@@alanrickett2537 I agree. Similarly Dungeon, White Dwarf, and Imagine. All, along with Dragon, were fantastic resources back in the day. "New Dragon" dropped the ball by being an online-only WotC professional company vehicle. Such a shame.
@@WillyMuffinUK loved the early white drawf with the mult system surport believe we have talked about the great small city collected in best of white drawf 3 before still my go to quick I need a city in pick up games.
@@alanrickett2537 Yes - Irilian. Fantastic piece of work 🙂
Just wondering why, in this series, you didn't cover Thieves world and Sanctuary?
Haven't, yet, rather than didn't. I'm only on episode 8 of a current plan of 60 episodes.
Excellent 😏👍