assault Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 Lands of Mystery was a supplement for Justice Inc published back in the 80s. It was written by Aaron Allston. It deals with the "Lost World" type of adventures written by people like Edgar Rice Burroughs. Once again I've remembered that these are fantasy stories. The only thing that makes "Lost World" stories "pulp" is that they often include protagonists from Earth. Otherwise they are about swords, monsters, princesses, strange nonhumans, strange places (including huge underground labyrinths!) and all the juicy fantasy goodness you could want. For what it's worth, the original edition of DnD contained a fair bit of material derived from Burroughs, while TSR published a set of miniatures rules based on his works at the same time. Burroughs' estate got stuck into them for copyright infringements... but the influence on fantasy RPGs was still there. Anyway, as it happens, way back when, Hero Games produced a wonderful book about how to design fantasy worlds, and mislabelled it as pulp. Lands of Mystery is just chock full of good stuff. It even includes an example world, called Zorandar. This world has: exiled Romans (good and bad), miscellaneous "native" tribes, villainous Lizard Guys, and lots and lots of dinosaurs. And that's just in one area. A lot of it is mapped. There are plenty of quite interesting sample NPCs, and there are sample adventures. (The NPCs are original JI characters, not 5th Ed Hero, but can be grandfathered without any particular drama.) I'm very seriously scrapping my present campaign ideas, and starting again with Lands of Mystery as a primary toolkit. Has anyone else got LoM? Has anyone else used it in a fantasy game? Has anyone used it in a _pulp_ game? Has anyone used it at all? ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 No, but if its as good as you say, Id sure LIKE to have a copy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Desmarais Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 Re: Lands of Mystery Originally posted by assault Has anyone else got LoM? Has anyone else used it in a fantasy game? Has anyone used it in a _pulp_ game? Has anyone used it at all? ... Got it, love it, used it many times (with Justice Inc. as well as 4th and 5th edition Hero). Possibly the single best pulp supplement ever published - one of the best rpg supplements I've ever read. John Desmarais Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xiawarr Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 Yep...got it and I have used it to develop a pulp adventure. Went for my own design, based loosely on AD&D 2nd "Hollow World" It was great for helping my players create the proper archetypes. May have to dig it out again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monolith Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 LoM is the BEST book I ever purchased from Hero Games. I love that book. I can't even express how much I love that book. That's why I'm not that enthused about Pulp Hero; because I know it will be a pale shadow of what Aaron has already written in LoM. Some of the write-ups seem primative by 5E standards but the material in that book is pure gold. I've never run a pulp game (no gamers I know are interested in the genre) but if I were going to run one I would use LoM as is. I love that book! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 Must check eBay........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edsel Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 I keep my copy of LoM in my Justice Inc. box set. Its a wonderful setting. I have used it in at least two different campaigns that I can think of. A very worthy purchase if you can find a copy on eBay. BTW: In addition to Hero System, Lands of Mystery also includes data needed for Call of Cthulhu, the old Daredevils game, and Pacesetter's CHILL. I believe that latter two of those system are now defunct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thag13 Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 I agree with the other posters here. LOM is the standard that all genre books should be held to. I have a beat up copy of it. If there is any book that should get the PDF treatment, this one is surely it. It does show up on ebay, but it goes for some bucks. Ill keep an eye out for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greatwyrm Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 Originally posted by Monolith I love that book. I can't even express how much I love that book. That's why I'm not that enthused about Pulp Hero; because I know it will be a pale shadow of what Aaron has already written in LoM. Well, if Pulp Hero finally makes the product list, maybe we can get a revised LoM as material in the book or even as a standalone book. I'd be the first in line for a pulp book with the size and scope of Fantasy Hero! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 For anyone who's interested, here's a good online retailer who's advertising a couple of copies of Lands of Mystery for sale: http://www.sentrybox.com (in their Roleplaying catalogue under "I" for "Iron Crown"). The price is very reasonable, especially considering that it's in Canadian dollars. They take multiple payment options and ship internationally. I've dealt with them and can vouch for their professionalism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbarron Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 I just order one of them. Better hurry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted February 4, 2004 Report Share Posted February 4, 2004 Thanks for tantalizing us with books that have been out of print for almost 20 YEARS!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeroGM Posted February 4, 2004 Report Share Posted February 4, 2004 I have it Although is for D&D (The Basic, Expert Rules, not the Advanced stuff) I suggest getting a copy of Hollow World by TSR. Alston also write it and it handles the Hidden World scenarios pretty well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted February 4, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2004 Originally posted by Captain Obvious Thanks for tantalizing us with books that have been out of print for almost 20 YEARS!! Yeah. What can I say? It's still one of the most direct and to the point "how to run a campaign" books out there. And as I pointed out, it's multi-genre. It works equally well for pulp and fantasy. You just make your PCs "locals" and away you go. At a pinch you could even use it for supers and science fiction games. Lost worlds have a history in superhero comics, while low tech worlds are common in SF. Obviously, in the latter, you have to remove any excess high tech gear, while in the former you need to beef up the baddies a lot. But that's no big deal. You just crib from the comics. "The Evil Roman Emperor's mistress is a kind of vampirish thingy." "The other bad buy sneaks into the sacred carrot patch and gains the incredible powers of The Black Bunny." "Some other guy gets bitten by a rabid radioactive pterodactyl." Or whatever. And of course there's a big lode of unobtainium buried under the Sacred Midden. But for the moment, I am sketching maps for a Burroughsian "chase the Princess around the map" game. It's actually a pretty standard genre - romances of this sort were around in Ancient Greek and Roman days. My opinion is that you probably don't need particularly detailed mapping for most of the world. Aside from the occasional wilderness encounter, most of the game happens at specific predictable locations. To a large extent, a network map (dots and lines!) would probably do. In other words, the map could look a lot like the ones you find at the beginnings of fantasy novels. That's not how Allston handles things, incidentally. Of course, if the various locations are too far apart, most of the campaign would be about getting from one to the next, rather than what happens when you get there! That's not good. Maybe I should get even more Burroughsian, and stick in some Barsoomian fliers... Well, probably not, but something of the sort would be nice. Too much wildernessing becomes boring, IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThothAmon Posted February 4, 2004 Report Share Posted February 4, 2004 I have an excellent condition copy of 'Lands Of Mystery' which I purchased relatively recently for a mere $10.00 (ish). It has always been on my wants list (not much HERO stuff made it to the UK) but I've only recently discovered online purchasing. It is a wondeful supplement full of good GM advice for pulp / fantasy campaigns in the same fashion that 'Strike Force' provided great advice for superpowered campaigns. I've been GMing a pulp game for 10+ years so the advice isn't that useful to me but I can see how the text would be invaluable to novice GMs or those unfamiliar with the pulp genre conventions. Furthermore 'LoM' is aesthetically very pleasing - the layout is in the same vein as 'Justice Inc' and IMO is as good as any modern HERO product. The Dennis Loubet artwork is fantastically expressive and funny/sly, way better than current HERO products. A thoroughly recommended product. If HERO are going to do a Pulp genre book they should seriously consider reprinting the contents of 'LoM', updated for 5th edition rules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Absolute Hero Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 If only I still had all of the rpg books that I've owned throughout my life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ternaugh Posted February 19, 2004 Report Share Posted February 19, 2004 I was lucky enough to purchase my copy directly from the author, Aaron Alston. Unfortunately, he does appear to be sold out of LOM. However, he does have other pre-5th material for sale on his site, and he is willing to autograph the stuff you buy. You can find him at http://www.aaronallston.com Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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