Quote from: Gib;559197It's really simple, you basically just draw a number, like a "4" and use it as a street map, when the players come to the end of the street, roll a die and draw another number, maybe at a partial overlap. Once you have a couple down you can't even really tell they were numbers.

Cool idea.  I may have to steal it...

Quote from: Gib;559197OT: All of sudden, I am no longer unemployed. Even stranger, my MS degree actually got me a job.

Congrats!


-TGA

Vornheim would go awesomely well with the Lankhmar setting.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;559428Vornheim would go awesomely well with the Lankhmar setting.

RPGPundit

Undoubtedly.

The 2nd edition box set was pretty damn good. It was kind of a Basic D&D based upon the 2e ruleset, tweaked for swords and sorcery.  Characters were limited in level, and stuff like brawling and drinking were important. I suspect many here would have liked it.

Quote from: danbuter;559453The 2nd edition box set was pretty damn good. It was kind of a Basic D&D based upon the 2e ruleset, tweaked for swords and sorcery.  Characters were limited in level, and stuff like brawling and drinking were important. I suspect many here would have liked it.

I just broke out my Lankhmar box set and took a closer look.  You are right, it looks like a very stripped down version of AD&D 2 ed.  Some highlights:

- only four classes: Warriors, White Wizards, Black Wizards, and Rogues. Interestingly, you can dual class.
- no non-human races, although there are human variations (Mingols, Kleshites, Lankhmarts, etc) with some small attribute adjustments.
- class kits for specialization
- non-weapon proficiencies (some by class)
- rules for social class, interestingly apparently based on character level
- simplified combat rules based on 2e

The differences in the magic has already been commented on, but I agree with your assessment danbutter.  I was never a fan of 2e AD&D, but ths is a simplified version that I like better.  I still probably would se something else, but better in my view.


-TGA

A further aside.  You are right that level advancement seems to be limited to 10.  However the stats for Fafhrd lists him as a level 18 warrior when "Mature" and The Gray Mouser as level 14 warrior, 7 thief, and 3 black wizard.  Make of that what you will...


-TGA

The unwritten rule across all TSR editions of D&D, first exhibited in the 1e Deities and Demigods write up of Lankmarian stuff is that you can never, ever, be the Gray Mouser. Bitch.

The ridiculous stats/powers TSR assigned to fictional characters is responsible for a lot of crap in AD&D. Ffahrd is completely okay as a 6th level Fighter, and I bet you could model the Mouser similarly (maybe not exactly, but close enough).

Also, congrats on that job, Gib! Getting employed in a depression is always an accompishment.

Quote from: Melan;559503The ridiculous stats/powers TSR assigned to fictional characters is responsible for a lot of crap in AD&D. Ffahrd is completely okay as a 6th level Fighter, and I bet you could model the Mouser similarly (maybe not exactly, but close enough).

Also, congrats on that job, Gib! Getting employed in a depression is always an accompishment.

I think that says more about how inherently flawed class/level/hit point systems are, but hey.

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;559514I think that says more about how inherently flawed class/level/hit point systems are, but hey.

I don't think Gib getting a job says anything in particular about class/level systems.

Quote from: StormBringer;559518I don't think Gib getting a job says anything in particular about class/level systems.

So sue me because I kept the extra part of the quote.  

JG

Quote from: MachFront;558969Hm.
Perhaps Pundit is thinking of the Lankhmar game that was released in about '96 or so and not the City of Adventure supplements for either 1E or 2E.
This was sort of a 'basic' 2E tweaked for Lankhmar gaming (with the white and black wizards of the previous supplements, etc.

http://tsrinfo.net/archive/lm/lm-newad.htm

It was okay. Not much to it and horrendous interior art.

I'd guess that Pundit means this game as all the other releases were not complete games with lots of rules changes (that would warrant a question for a clone).
That box was a single, stand alone game with dice - the AD&D PHB was not needed.

And yes to the horrendous art. I never understood why they didn't go with Mignola art (or art by one of the many Mignola copycats that were popping up around that time). The Epic comic book adaption by Mignola, Chaykin, and Williamson pretty much defined the visuals of Nehwon, and White Wolf had reinforced that by choosing Mignola as the jacket artist for their collected four-volume reprint of the Leiber stories just a year before the Lankhmar game appeared.

A couple of neat things in my Lankhmar collection:

1. Lankhmar board game from the 1970's. The part I like best is the hex-map of Nehwon. (I like hexes; they help me track the progress of a party as they travel)

2. The boxed set for AD&D 2E. As others have commented, this is a slimmed down version of 2E and works pretty well overall.

3. The books. Reading the stories really gets me pumped up to play. If you are trying to decide which book to try, I suggest #2 "Swords Against Death" as it is mostly composed of the stories earliest written by Leiber. I find that Leiber's best stories seem to be his early ones.

That is probably the best. The highlight of it for me is "Bazaar of the Bizarre", perhaps my favorite story of the cycle.

The stories certainly decline in quality toward the end of Leiber's career, and this is most evident in the last two books, which are dominated by the atrocious "Rime Isle" and "The Mouser Goes Below", respectively. But even those have some pretty good short pieces such as "The Curse of the Smalls and the Stars" in the last book.