$110 for the hardcover is a chunk of change (and pdfs suck). Tell me about this book. What is the setting like? Quality of the book? I take it is in the lineage of Wilderlands and Greyhawk?

Quote from: Mercurius;1140765$110 for the hardcover is a chunk of change (and pdfs suck). Tell me about this book. What is the setting like? Quality of the book? I take it is in the lineage of Wilderlands and Greyhawk?

Basically. But more Greyhawk than Wilderlands.  It's very old school, but not really in a Gonzo way.  To me it's a bit bland.  I haven't gone that far into it, but it seems to be fairly grounded with less overt over the top fantasy than other settings.  It's a solid grounding for games where you go out and find adventure if that's what you're after (as opposed to a setting that's about big conflicts - at least from what I've seen of it so far.)

I am running a Lost Lands campaign now. The World of the Lost Lands has not been very useful. It's quite bland. There are no adventures or even adventure seeds; it's pure reference material, mostly of a mundane nature, like this village has this many people, they trade this and this, blah blah.

Bard's Gate is similarly bland, but has least has a few good adventures included, and some interesting NPCs and faction conflicts.

The Lost Lands adventures, at least the ones that are essentially reprints of 3e Necromancer Games modules, are excellent. Tomb of Abysthor rocks.

That's too bad: two out of two say "bland." I do like their adventures, so was hoping it would be good. Oh well, it saves me $110.

It a massive reference tome. It's intended to give a semi-detailed overview of everything single area in their world which covers more then two continents. Hell the timeline covers 466 - 486, and the list of gods in the world covers pages 487 - 516. Just to give you an idea. It really goes into too much detail on things that you don't really need.

Quote from: TJS;1140777Basically. But more Greyhawk than Wilderlands.  It's very old school, but not really in a Gonzo way.  To me it's a bit bland.  I haven't gone that far into it, but it seems to be fairly grounded with less overt over the top fantasy than other settings.  It's a solid grounding for games where you go out and find adventure if that's what you're after (as opposed to a setting that's about big conflicts - at least from what I've seen of it so far.)

I agree, everything I've seen of the Lost Lands has been down-to-earth, bit bland, slightly dark, no gonzo - ie very Greyhawk and not at all Wilderlands.

Another vote for bland.  I find (TSR era, Pre WARS or FTA) GH far more interesting.

Perhaps "uninspired" is a better term for Lost Lands.

I have the book (backed the kickstarter). It does exactly what I wanted it to do, it lays out what is in each region of the huge world and how they relate to the other close by locations. Binding and paper quality is excellent, and the large map included is quite detailed. The world itself is not gonzo and I was not expecting it to be gonzo. It does easily give me enough material for characters to wander around and me to describe what the find at least at a top level. It also lets me take any of the very many Necromancer Games/ Frog God Games adventures and deal with the logistics of what happens next and how far the next planned adventure is.

The adventures themselves tend to be pretty good and add all the colour that the world book does not. There also is a 5e rules addendum that adds cleric domains and some races for the world that is useful.

So I am fine with the cost and what it has. I like their adventures and the book lets me run them where they were written for. It is not Hubris or Unamerica gonzo. Certainly more Greyhawk like than Forgotten Realms is.

Quote from: Myrdin Potter;1141430I like their adventures and the book lets me run them where they were written for.

Well the famous Necromancer Games adventures all pre-date the Lost Lands world, of course.

Quote from: Libramarian;1141272Tomb of Abysthor rocks.

I ran Tomb of Abysthor back in my 3e days. I liked it but I remember having to rewrite a bunch of encounters because they didn't make sense in the context of 3e. Necromancer was never very good with third edition rules.

As to this book, I'd only pay $110 if it was Land of the Lost.

Quote from: Myrdin Potter;1141430the large map included is quite detailed.

The world map is pretty, but the distances between adventure sites are absurdly huge. My players picked up a "map to Rappan Athuk" in Crucible of Freya, which they probably will never use since its apparently ~700 miles away. Like finding a map of Roman catacombs in the English countryside...uh, okay?

Quote from: hedgehobbit;1141442I ran Tomb of Abysthor back in my 3e days. I liked it but I remember having to rewrite a bunch of encounters because they didn't make sense in the context of 3e. Necromancer was never very good with third edition rules.

The encounters in the Swords & Wizardry version seem natural.

Also, really glad to be running it in Roll20 -- VTT is great for exploring twisty corridors and big caverns.

Quote from: Libramarian;1141547The encounters in the Swords & Wizardry version seem natural.

Also, really glad to be running it in Roll20 -- VTT is great for exploring twisty corridors and big caverns.

Agree on both points - I'm loving running Halls of Tizun Thane on Roll20 and revealing parts of the complex map as the PCs explore. I have a book of Lost Lands adventures statted for S&W and it seems a much more natural fit than 3e.