Lankhmar, City of Adventure (discussion)
Aug 14, 2019 14:52:27 GMT -6
scalydemon and tkdco2 like this
Post by talysman on Aug 14, 2019 14:52:27 GMT -6
A couple months ago, I found my copy of TSR's Lankhmar, City of Adventure (1985). This week, I wrote a review, which got good views, but surprisingly no discussion of the issues I raised. I probably should have started a discussion here as well.
The main point I made was that cities were either fully mapped and keyed, like a dungeon, or unmapped and unkeyed, more like downtime than an actual adventure. This isn't based on hard data, but I tended to run city adventures more like downtime while fully mapping and keying small towns and villages. As far as I know, the only published city materials were fully mapped, with the exception of supplemental tables (like in the Judges Guild Ready Reference Sheets.) I don't think I've heard of any published materials explaining how to run unmapped or improvised city encounters. That makes Lankhmar unique, to me, in that it doesn't quite fit either approach... the city is almost fully mapped, but there's some leeway because of the geomorphs, and only 99 areas are keyed; the vast majority are meant to be hand-keyed by each GM or rolled randomly.
But like I said, I didn't do a survey or extensive research on this, so I'd like to know what others think of this. Anyone remember a product like Lankhmar before 1985? I haven't actually seen City-State of the Invincible Overlord, just Carse and Tulan of the Isles, so I have no idea if JG city products were fully statted out like the Midkemia Press products, or if there were other publishers who did something closer to Lankhmar.
A related question is whether any random city table products included instructions or suggestions on how to run cities with little or no mapping (the freeform/unmapped approach mentioned in the post.) I remember the JG Ready Ref sheets as being mostly about random city encounters, a social status system, and extended rules for locating items to purchase or NPCs to hire. I don't remember there being any tables for random city streets or buildings, for example. The closest thing I can think of was a random ruined city generator in either The Dragon or The Strategic Review, but maybe I just never encountered something like that. I'm not familiar with most D&D/RPG products from the '70s and '80s, only a handful.
There's more I'd like to discuss, but those are some good starter topics. What does everyone else remember about city adventures in the old days?
The main point I made was that cities were either fully mapped and keyed, like a dungeon, or unmapped and unkeyed, more like downtime than an actual adventure. This isn't based on hard data, but I tended to run city adventures more like downtime while fully mapping and keying small towns and villages. As far as I know, the only published city materials were fully mapped, with the exception of supplemental tables (like in the Judges Guild Ready Reference Sheets.) I don't think I've heard of any published materials explaining how to run unmapped or improvised city encounters. That makes Lankhmar unique, to me, in that it doesn't quite fit either approach... the city is almost fully mapped, but there's some leeway because of the geomorphs, and only 99 areas are keyed; the vast majority are meant to be hand-keyed by each GM or rolled randomly.
But like I said, I didn't do a survey or extensive research on this, so I'd like to know what others think of this. Anyone remember a product like Lankhmar before 1985? I haven't actually seen City-State of the Invincible Overlord, just Carse and Tulan of the Isles, so I have no idea if JG city products were fully statted out like the Midkemia Press products, or if there were other publishers who did something closer to Lankhmar.
A related question is whether any random city table products included instructions or suggestions on how to run cities with little or no mapping (the freeform/unmapped approach mentioned in the post.) I remember the JG Ready Ref sheets as being mostly about random city encounters, a social status system, and extended rules for locating items to purchase or NPCs to hire. I don't remember there being any tables for random city streets or buildings, for example. The closest thing I can think of was a random ruined city generator in either The Dragon or The Strategic Review, but maybe I just never encountered something like that. I'm not familiar with most D&D/RPG products from the '70s and '80s, only a handful.
There's more I'd like to discuss, but those are some good starter topics. What does everyone else remember about city adventures in the old days?