Still Impressed With Labyrinth Lord

Another visit to my local game store revealed the presence of Labyrinth Lord, and I do have to say Goblinoid Games has done a fine job of representing old school. It's my understanding that there has been a group playing the game at the store in the past, but not recently. I've been out of the game for a while and missed that.

Now, this store has the heavy dose of D&D and Pathfinder you'd expect. What makes it cool is he has a good supply of older versions of D&D and is always adding more. Nothing from the Basic line at the moment other than a Mentzer Expert Box. There are other games there and Knights Of The Dinner Table. Had to get a copy of that. It's been a while, and it helps me feel close to the game reading those strips.

Anyway, I was pleased to see Labyrinth Lord and Realms Of Crawling Chaos on the shelf. It was a year or so ago when I saw the LL book and Advanced LL there as well as a copy of Village Of Larm, which I bought. When I was active on the old LL forum, I had a few discussions with the writer of that excellent module. I went on to help edit his Mountain King module.

Now that was an interesting concept. The mountain king was a kobold with Gauntlets of Ogre Power and a nice sword. In one forum post, he related that a play test resulted in a total party kill in that big encounter. That was one kobold you didn't want to mess with. I understand there was a sequel to that one too.

Now when the LL forum was opened it was pretty busy in the early days. There were lots of ideas flying around and a desire that everybody seemed to share that LL be successful. When Daniel put up the map of The Known Lands, I started a thread about filling the lands with stuff. There were lots of ideas, but Mortiz was the one who started making it happen. The Mountain King, The Road to Dolmvay and Village Of Larm were three of them.

What's cool is Daniel put that map out that is totally inspired by a certain other map from a blue book we all remember and said, "Do what you want with it." And people did. I'm sure some of the ideas came from people's old game sessions from way back when too. What a cool thing. I mean, OSRIC and LL made this happen, and suddenly new adventures were added to the old school canon.

When I ask where that Basic game is, I know where it is. It's been here for about five years now as Labyrinth Lord, just not backed by a big company. It's always been my game style of choice. I'd like to see one of the big companies of choice get behind a basic style game, and that seems to be happening now. But old school basic is alive and well with LL.

When Daniel released LL and hinted at Advanced LL being next, nobody said how about Basic LL. Let me qualify that statement. You see, LL is more based on Moldvay's work than Mentzer's, and it does a great job. This is just a new thought that I had while looking at the Starter Set Box with the Elmore Dragon on the shelf at the game store.

You see, Frank did so much in capturing the imagination when he did that Basic Set in 1983. Moldvay's red book probably had the rules in an easier to access format, but Mentzer made it come to life. You don't hear the phrase "Kill Bargle" for nothing. Poor Aleena, why did she have to die? People talk about that too. I recall that solo adventure, wondering what was in that treasure chest I couldn't get to due to a lack of a thief.

In short, the Mentzer Basic Set told a story, while also explaining the rules to play levels 1-3. Heck, you were playing before you knew the rules. I would guess one reason for the lack of such a book for LL is because the rules are already in that book and this wouldn't be cost effective. But, the idea just hit me and I thought it sounded cool.

Imagine a similar, but different where it legally has to be, Basic LL book with a solo adventure. A few NPC's introduced. Somebody dies. The story can be different, but the goal is the same. Engage the imagination of the new gamer. Of course, Frank did that so well, maybe we don't need that now. I don't know. I just thought it was a cool idea.

Anyway, my main point is I'm happy that Labyrinth Lord is still alive and well entering it's fifth year, and even happier I'm hearing NOTHING about a new edition. The cool thing is, if it ever came down to it, you may see some new art or a change in wording here or there, but I doubt you'll ever see the game change. It really doesn't need to.