In Sword & Sorcery literature the
heroes are seldom do-gooding boy scouts. In fact, they are often several slim shades of grey away from being the 'bad guys'.
Fritz Leiber, one of the early
luminaries of heroic fantasy, wove many yarns that explored and glorified this roguish aspect of heroism.
Through the many adventures and misadventures
of Fafhrd, a barbarian bard from the Cold Wastes and the Grey Mouser, a diminutive and fast-talking mage-thief, we come
to know Lankhmar, the corrupt City of Splendours, and beyond it Nehwon, a wonderfully written world of gallows humor,
brooding darkness and light-hearted whimsy.
Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar Unleashed, a world-book expansion to Mongoose
Publishing's successful RuneQuest RPG system, contains everything you need to bring Nehwon to life for your players.
Beginning with Themes of Lankhmar, the tome introduces - in broad
and bold strokes - what adventuring in Nehwon is all about. The setting is unique and based on a body of treasured literature.
This section starts you out with the distinct flavor of Leiber's universe and the themes he enjoyed exploring in his writings.
Creating Nehwon Characters comes next, stating with Cultural Background,
proceeding to Professions and Themed Adventuring Groups, and concluding with the allocation of Hero Points. This process pays
equal homage to the distinct richness of the game world and the RuneQuest rule-set.
A hefty ninety five page Gazetteer of Lankhmar, City of Thieves, and the
wide world beyond follows. This is filled with remarkable details: history, maps, pantheons and their religions, monetary
systems, notable personages, landmarks, power structures, customs, legends... more than enough to inspire and flesh
out several years worth of tabletop adventuring.
Guilds and Cults introduces the vying Powers - divine, mundane and infernal
- that control the world and are always seeking ways to expand their influence. Creatures of Nehwon contains
information about their avatars, minions and miscellaneous monsters.
Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes (the mentor-mages
Fafhrd and the Mouser serve) are granted their own section. In addition to detailed data on this distinguished duo, their
chapter contains useful information on the terms of service to mages, mythical quests and the passage into other
worlds.
The Magic in Nehwon is mostly of the Black variety, though Hedge Magic,
Faith Magic and Ice Magic are available to those who seek less perilous paths to power. As in many other Sword & Sorcery
games Black Magicians suffer from Corruption and its unpleasant effects such as Teeth Rot, Vile Corpulence and Bleeding
Eyes.
My favorite section of this tome, Chronicles of Lankhmar, is an overview
and summary of Lieber's tales with many helpful hints on how to better integrate your campaign into the official canon, or
the official canon into your campaign. For GMs with bold ambitions and limited time this section will allow for the incorporation
of on-target detail and flavor without having to read (or re-read) the books.
The tome concludes with Swords Against Blood, an adventure for newbies,
stats for NPCs (including Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser), and a handy Index.
Though I am a vocal fan of Mongoose Publishing's Conan RPG
and have run countless hours of campaigns in that setting (with countless more in the works), I must confess that in all my
years of running and reviewing games I have never come across a gaming product that introduces a world as thoroughly,
lovingly and comprehensively as Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar Unleashed. Not only do I now want to re-read all the original
works and introduce this material into my Hyborian Campaigns, I'm also keen on giving RuneQuest a test-run as well.
I salute you Mongoose Publishing! I salute you Richard Ford and your
talented team!
Onwards!
A Musing by Thor
the Barbarian
