Andy Lingua
Griffon Lore Games offers a new but ancient setting designed for D&D5e and Pathfinder: the highly detailed Kingdom of Lothmar. The authors, however, want to specify that, not containing specific mechanics or statistics, it can be used with any game system. This product is offered through the Kickstarter platform and integrates perfectly with other publications of this American team that we will analyze later in this article.
What is interesting about this realm?
In its more than 200 pages, the manual contains everything you need to set your adventures in a fascinating kingdom. There are no pre-made adventures (we will talk about this later), but every geographical and political aspect is analyzed in detail.
First of all his history is explained: a legendary paladin named Lothmar unified these lands, creating the current kingdom. It is vast and therefore difficult to manage. Still unexplored and hostile places, mysterious ruins and political intrigues; there is no shortage of ideas and they are able to satisfy everyone’s needs.
The division into regions and organizations is then presented, with the relative characteristics. Each one has a different way of living and seems to create a remarkable heterogeneity. To enrich this aspect, Kingdom of Lothmar also promises to describe the main races present and the demographic distribution.
A detail that intrigued me a lot is the name of the person in charge of the maps: Anna Meyer. For those unfamiliar with it, she is the author of the maps of the Flanaess, a region of the Greyhawk setting. The peculiarity of her works is the fact that each map represents a large area of a territory, but if zoomed it contains a very high number of details, so much so that it can also be used as a local map. On her site you can find various examples.
Kingdom of Lothmar and parallel works
The offer on Kickstarter is very varied: around €14 ($15) for the setting OR the maps, €24 ($25) for both; the hardcover physical version costs around €38 ($40). There are also more expensive pledges including personalized and printed maps, interesting possibilities for this kind of products.
Stretch goals are many and interesting: some add further variety to the setting, others bind it more to the most common game systems (D&D5e and Pathfinder) thanks to a Player Guide and an adventure.
Kingdom of Lothmar should not be taken as an isolated product: Griffon Lore Games is a team that has decided to produce these manuals after years of sessions that have helped to create the material. All their work is driven by a strong passion and Kingdom of Lothmar is only the basis. They already have in mind a wider project: to write a mega-campaign with the events they have experienced over the years. And let’s face it, this is the dream of almost every game group. The campaign is called Chronicles of the Celestial Chains and the first module (which is Curse of the Lost Memories) is already available on their website, DriveThruRPG (5e – PF1) and Amazon (5e – PF1).
