Lankhmar is a fantasy board wargame published by TSR in 1976 that is based on both the Swords and Sorcery short stories of Fritz Leiber set in the fictional city of Lankhmar, and on a board game designed by Lieber and Harry Otto Fischer while they were in college.
Lankhmar is a 2–4 player game in which each player takes on the role of a different hero from Fritz Leiber's "Lankhmar" short stories: Fafhrd, the Gray Mouser, Pulgh, or Movarl. [1]
The game box contains: [2]
Each player is given one of the four heroes at random, as well as eight warriors, several weapons counters, and horses, boats and/or camels. Each player is assigned one of the four citadels at random. Each player then draws a Geas card to start the game. If the Geas card contains a quest, the player must immediately carry it out but can assign the quest to either the hero or one of the eight warriors. [3]
On a player's turn the player has the following phases:
Optional rules can add complexity to combat, add healing to the game, allow resurrection of a dead hero in their home citadel, or introduce the Sinking Lands — a piece of land that sinks beneath the waves and then rises again. Any counters caught on the land when it sinks are removed from the game. [3]
The first player to take all of their opponents' citadels is the winner.
In 1937, while Fritz Leiber and Harry Otto Fischer were attending University of Louisville, [4] they created the fictional world of Nehwon, and within it the city of Lahkmar (spelled slightly differently than "Lankhmar" in later years.) [4] Leiber and Fischer then created a very large (5 ft x 2½ ft) three-dimensional square-grid diorama of Nehwon, using of layers of corrugated colored paper representing various terrains, and designed a wargame titled Lahkmar to be used with this map. [1] Games were very long, often taking an entire weekend to complete. The game was only played by Leiber, Fischer, and a handful of friends during their time at University of Louisville, and was never published. [4]
In the early 1970s, David Megarry demonstrated the prototype of a board game that he'd developed called The Dungeons of Pasha Cada to Gary Gygax. Gygax, who at the time was freelancing as a game designer for Guidon Games, tried to convince Guidon owner Don Lowry to publish the game. [5] Gygax wrote to Fritz Leiber on Guidon letterhead, seeking permission to use the world of Nehwon for a game that would be a companion to Megarry's game. As Gygax envisioned it, players would have overland adventures in the Lieber-inspired game and underground adventures in Megarry's Dungeon game. [5] Ultimately Lowry turned down the opportunity to publish Megarry's game — he thought the board would be too expensive to print [6] — but Gygax and Lieber continued to correspond about using Lankhmar material in a game. After Gygax co-founded TSR and published Megarry's game as Dungeon! in 1974, Lieber agreed to let TSR use the old Lakhmar game from Lieber's college days as the basis of a new board game. [5]
Gygax, Robert J. Kuntz, and Brad Stock revised the old game, changing the square grid of the original map to the hex grid that had become an industry standard for wargames. The original geography of Lieber's map was retained, but the size of the new map was considerably reduced to 22" x 28". Rules for combat were modernized as well. The new game Lankhmar was published by TSR in 1976 with front cover art by David C. Sutherland III and a blank rear box cover. [7] Second and third printings were released the same year with an image of the box contents and a description of the game on the rear cover. Although Dungeon! was a bestseller for TSR, with several new editions released over the next 40 years, in contrast Lankhmar did not sell well, and was dropped from the TSR catalogue after the third printing. [8]
In Issue 2 of White Dwarf , Fred Hemmings complained that the game had little to do with Leiber's stories, given that Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were enemies in this game. He also did not like the use of weapon and transportation counters, which led to teetering stacks of counters for a hero or warrior that was mounted and carrying three weapons. And he found the combat system too reliant on random luck. But he liked the weapon variety, the atmosphere of the game, and the clarity of the rules. He concluded by giving the game a below-average rating of 6 out of 10, saying "The game has its faults [...] despite these and other minor flaws, Lankhmar is a game well worth playing." [3]
In the inaugural issue of Ares (March 1980), Eric Goldberg called this a "simple, lifeless game [that] manages to strip the Leiber stories of interest." He concluded by giving the game a very poor rating of only 3 out of 9, commenting, "The basic mistake committed in Lankhmar is the design approach: the stories depend on a great degree of uncertainty (or mystery), which is absent in the game." [2]
John O'Neill, writing for Black Gate , noted that Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are partners in Leiber's stories, so "The objective — to capture your opponents’ citadels — makes little sense in the context of the fiction, but was a comfortable fit with 70s board game logic." O'Neill also noted that "Most of the components, including the playing cards and counters, are printed on very flimsy stock. But the map is gorgeous." [8]
Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theater and films, playwright, and chess expert. With writers such as Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock, Leiber is one of the fathers of sword and sorcery and coined the term.
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are two sword-and-sorcery heroes appearing in stories written by American author Fritz Leiber. They are the protagonists of what are probably Leiber's best-known stories. One of his motives in writing them was to have a couple of fantasy heroes closer to true human nature than the likes of Howard's Conan the Barbarian or Burroughs's Tarzan.
Lankhmar is a fictional city in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber. It is situated on the world of Nehwon, just west of the Great Salt Marsh and east of the River Hlal, and serves as the home of Leiber's two antiheroes.
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James M. Ward is an American game designer and fantasy author who worked for TSR, Inc. for more than 20 years.
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Swords and Deviltry is a fantasy short story collection, first published 1970, by Fritz Leiber, featuring his sword and sorcery heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. It is chronologically the first volume of the complete seven volume edition of the collected stories devoted to the characters. The book was first published in paperback form during 1970 by Ace Books company, which reprinted the title numerous times through November 1985; later paperback editions were issued by ibooks (2003) and Dark Horse (2006). It has been published in the United Kingdom by New English Library (1971), Mayflower Books (1979) and Grafton. The first hardcover edition was issued by Gregg Press during December 1977. The book has also been gathered together with others in the series into various omnibus editions; The Three of Swords (1989), Ill Met in Lankhmar (1995), The First Book of Lankhmar (2001), and Lankhmar (2008).
Harry Otto Fischer (1910–1986) was an American science fiction writer and fan best known for helping his college friend Fritz Leiber create the sword and sorcery heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and their imaginary world of Nehwon.
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Swords in the Mist is a fantasy short story collection, first published in 1968, by American writer Fritz Leiber, featuring his sword and sorcery heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. It is chronologically the third volume of the complete seven volume edition of the collected stories devoted to the characters. It was first published in paperback format during 1968 by Ace Books company, which reprinted the title numerous times through September 1990; later paperback editions were issued by ibooks (2003) and Dark Horse (2007). It has been published in the United Kingdom by Mayflower Books (1979) and Grafton. The first hardcover edition was issued by Gregg Press during December 1977. The book has also been gathered together with others in the series into various omnibus editions; The Three of Swords (1989), Lean Times in Lankhmar (1996), The First Book of Lankhmar (2001), and Lankhmar (2008).
Swords Against Wizardry is a fantasy short story collection, first published 1968, by Fritz Leiber and Harry Fischer, featuring their sword and sorcery heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Fischer's contribution was limited to ten thousand words of The Lords of Quarmall. The book is chronologically the fourth volume of the complete seven-volume edition of the collected stories devoted to the characters. It was first published in paperback format during 1968 by Ace Books company, which reprinted the title numerous times up to October 1990; later paperback editions were issued by ibooks (2003) and Dark Horse (2007). It has been published in the United Kingdom by Grafton (1986). The first hardcover edition was issued by Gregg Press during December 1977.
The Swords of Lankhmar is a fantasy novel, first published 1968, by Fritz Leiber, featuring his sword and sorcery heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. It is chronologically the fifth volume of the complete seven volume edition of the collected stories devoted to the characters. The book is an expansion of Leiber's earlier novella "Scylla's Daughter", which was published originally in the magazine Fantastic Stories of Imagination for May 1961. The full novel first published in paperback format during 1968 by Ace Books company, which reprinted the title numerous times through 1986; a later paperback edition was issued by Dark Horse (2008). It has been published in the United Kingdom by Mayflower Books (1970) and Grafton. The first hardcover edition was issued by Rupert Hart-Davis during June 1969; a later hardcover edition was issued by Gregg Press during December 1977. The book has also been gathered together with others in the series into various omnibus editions; Swords' Masters (1990), Return to Lankhmar (1997), and The Second Book of Lankhmar (2001).
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