Even though it's unlikely I'll be running a Labyrinth Lord campaign any time soon, I just couldn't resist buying the books. And I'm so glad I did! I've read the rules before in the PDF versions, but somehow having them in real physical form, and littered with gorgeous artwork, just takes the whole thing to another level of appealingness.I've had some thoughts on what an LL campaign would look like if I were to run one, which have been further inspired by seeing the amazing Black Death film yesterday. In brief, I'd very much like to emphasise the battle between the alignments - Law, Neutrality and Chaos, and even envisage a plausible justifcation for alignment languages... I'll write more about that idea another time.
It's a cool game, I hope you get a chance to run it some time!
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen Black Death, but as you may already know, the origin of the D&D alignment system is from a 1950s Poul Anderson book called Three Hearts and Three Lions where there is a battle between Law (humans) and Chaos (elves, demons, etc.) The Neutrals are kind of like the supernatural forest creatures living in the borderlands between Law and Chaos.
Yeah Labyrinth Lord certainly satisfies the part of me that seeks RPG nostalgia! :) I'm sure I'll run it at some point, just my curent Savage Worlds fantasy campaign is going so well that I can't imagine wanting to stop it any time soon. (It's in the early stages, but is picking up momentum nicely...)
ReplyDeleteInteresting to hear about the origins of the alignment system, I'd not heard that before.
What I vaguely had in mind sounds pretty similar - a setting where alignment conflict is at the forefront, with a strict monotheistic church (Law) on one side, demons and monsters (Chaos) on the other side, and an "old religion" (Neutrality) in the middle. So pretty much like medieval Europe - the Catholic church vs various forces of darkness vs the old Pagan relgion and culture. (The later two being of course regarded as one and the same by the forces of Law.) I'd even thought that the game could be set in the real world, and have the alignment languages represent Latin, Celtic and some kind of "Black Speech", maybe.