Friday Fantasy: Acting Up In Lankhmar

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #3: Acting Up In Lankhmar is a scenario for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the third scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. Scenarios for Dungeon Crawl Classics tend be darker, grimmer, and even pulpier than traditional Dungeons & Dragons scenarios, even veering close to the Swords & Sorcery subgenre. Scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set are set in and around the City of the Black Toga, Lankhmar, the home to the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, the creation of author Fritz Leiber. The city is described as an urban jungle, rife with cutpurses and corruption, guilds and graft, temples and trouble, whores and wonders, and more. Under the cover the frequent fogs and smogs, the streets of the city are home to thieves, pickpockets, burglars, cutpurses, muggers, and anyone else who would skulk in the night! Which includes the Player Characters. And it is these roles which the Player Characters get to be in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #3: Acting Up In Lankhmar, small time crooks trying to make a living and a name for themselves, but without attracting the attention of either the city constabulary or worse, the Thieves’ Guild! The job in this scenario is a night spent proving protection to a theatre performance.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #3: Acting Up In Lankhmar is a short, one-session scenario which takes place over the course of a single evening. Designed for four Player Characters of Second Level, it opens with them being approached by Jallo, the lead actor and head of a troupe of actors, mummers, dancers, and street performers, known as the Dungsweep Players. Performing at the run down Marshlight Theatre, Jallo has a hit on his hands, ‘The Fiascos of Duke Hogfat’, a satire about the personal habits of one Duke Borvat, a relatively important noble in Lankhmar. Unfortunately, the success of the play means that word of the play and its scurrilous subject matter, has reached the ear of the subject and he is not happy. He has already despatched the head of his house guard, Captain Dimman, and several of his men to threaten the theatre and the troupe with closure, and if they fail to comply, the inference that the troupe will end up dead. Thus, Jallo and the Dungsweep Players want protection and Jallo is prepared to pay for it. For one night’s work, this pay is perfectly reasonable.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #3: Acting Up In Lankhmar is all about the Marshlight Theatre. Apart from being located down an alleyway in an old warehouse, the theatre can be placed anywhere in the city and could easily be placed near the slums between the Old Slave Barracks on Chapel Street, Rookery Way, the Shrine of the Rat God on Squalor Row, and Pimp Street, the setting for Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #1: Gang Lords of Lankhmar. In fact, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #3: Acting Up In Lankhmar can easily be run as a sequel to Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #1: Gang Lords of Lankhmar, and it can be the events of that scenario which led to Jallo learning of their exploits and their reputation and thus hiring them. The scenario describes the theatre in some detail, and there is a large map of the building which can be placed in front of the players as their characters attempt to stop any attacks by Captain Dimman and his agents.

Bar an initial scene, all of the action of the scenario takes place in and around the theatre. At its core, it plays out as a theatrical ‘tower defence’ style scenario as the Duke’s men and his agents—plus other forces, make their play in striking at the theatre and the performers. There are also scenes unconnected with this main plot thread, which add colour and flavour to the activities in and around the theatre. In addition, the scenario adds an ‘Audience Mood’ tracker as an adventure specific to keep a gauge of the audience and its reaction to the play. Depending upon the actions of the Player Characters, this ranges from the performance being heralded as a triumph to the audience breaking out into a riot! Further, there is a big event in the scenario which potentially, literally puts a Player Character centre stage...

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #3: Acting Up In Lankhmar is as decently presented as you would expect from Goodman Games. The scenario’s ‘Audience Mood’ tracker and its use is clearly explained and should be easy to use.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #3: Acting Up In Lankhmar is huge fun—for both the players and the Judge. The Judge gets some juicy NPCs to portray and verily roleplay, whilst the players and their characters get a fun, exciting adventure with lots going on and a desperate situation to deal with which gets ever more fraught as the night goes on. Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #3: Acting Up In Lankhmar is a short adventure, but it inventively shows another type of story and scenario that can be played out and run in a specific setting such as Lankhmar. Clever, witty, and engaging, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #3: Acting Up In Lankhmar is a great addition to campaign run using the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set.