Affiliate Link – Vornheim, The Complete City Kit
When I stopped at the Compleat Strategist a few days ago (absolutely fantastic game store in NYC) I took some time to poke through the shelves. After about twenty minutes of digging through their games, I ran across a book that it turns out I should have encountered four or five years ago: Vornheim, The Complete City Kit*. How have I not seen this book before now?
A supplement for Lamentations of the Flame Princess (website), this compact and incredible hardcover book is designed to work with basically any edition of Dungeons & Dragons, though as you start reading you’ll quickly learn that it is best suited to their earlier editions of the game (preferably something from the seventies or, at latest, eighties).
What made Vornheim* pop for me was it’s nostalgia-inducing text and the way in which every page is a work of art all its own. Small type. Sideways writing. Cramped margins. Tables spread across the book.
Even the cover behind the dustjacket turns out to be a game tool! A 2013 post at Gnome Stew offers a close look at how the covers of Vornheim* are used, but basically what’s happening is the front and back covers are two separate “die drop” tables. I’d not seen this trick before, but I am totally stealing this one of these days! Such a simple and fabulous idea!!!
I love that life keeps me so busy that cool surprises like this are still out in the world waiting to inspire me.
For more on Lamentations of the Flame Princess check the game website. Warning, it is twisted and NSFW at times.
Related articles
- 1980 Dungeons & Dragons Newspaper Advertisement (battlegrip.com)
- “Hardcover Editions of a Dark-Ages Drama” (battlegrip.com)
- 1981 “Dungeons & Dragons Adventure” Ad from Boys’ Life (battlegrip.com)