raniE
Big Bearded Guy
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2019
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So, I mentioned over in my thread about poison needle traps that I'm planning a new Lamentations of the Flame Princess campaign. My last one ended I think four years ago now, after a good number of sessions and a few completed adventures, but unfortunately not on a high note. Well, lessons learned, since then I've played (but not GMed) a bunch with new people, including a fairly regular D&D 5e campaign that was running weekly until Covid-19 really hit, the temporary digital replacement for that run by a player in the former campaign, a couple of Kutulu (Swedish Cthulu game) sessions, several attempts to get a Mutant: Year Zero game going that never lasted more than a few sessions at a time due to scheduling issues, a Monster of the Week campaign that fell apart due to GM/player conflicts (finally officially died after the GM and one of the players broke up and stopped living together) and a bunch of one shots.
Point is, I haven't GMed, not even at cons (I volunteer at my local con, so never have time to step in and GM there anymore) in a few years now, and I feel the itch to run again. I looked at a bunch of games in my shelf, started reading through Zweihander and then my eyes sort of glazed over and I opened one of my copies of LotFP instead. For those who don't know Lamentations of the Flame Princess is an OSR game based on BECMI but with an interesting skill system. It also has some new variant rules published on the inside cover of a book of new spells that really revamp the magic system (like doing away with clerics and divine magic entirely) and change up a few other bits like saving throws. Since I have access to a wider pool of players this time and can pick players who a) I actually want to play with and b) are interested in playing OSR type stuff, I figured why not try again.
I really like the idea that came up a bit into the publication of LotFP of setting the game in the real world early modern era. Instead of pseudo-France and erzats-Italy, why not just have France and Italy? And if so many of the things that show up in D&D, like plate armor and inns and big cities and walking around armed in those big cities, are more renaissance and early modern than medieval, well why not just set the game in that time period? Still, Lamentations of the Flame Princess should feature some monsters and supernatural things, and probably some D&D-ish things. Plus, one of the advantages of using an OSR ruleset is the wealth of material available as material for any older edition of D&D or any OSR game can be easily converted to any other OSR game. The base is simple and most of the rules are pretty much the same anyway. Some things would need to be adapted to a real world settings (various humanoids and demi-humans will just be humans, maybe from a different culture) and at least partly to the era (firearms are going to be more common for military people than bows or crossbows at that point, but swords and plate armor are fine). But the less I need to adapt the better.
So, when and where in early modern Europe can I start this campaign off? The answer is simple. Rome, 1560. Why Rome? Easy. It's a city that once housed at least a million inhabitants, down to maybe 30,000 by the mid 16th century. It's got tons of ruins around it and inside it. And it has an enormous underground network, including a sewer (the Cloaca Maxima) and hundreds of kilometers of catacombs in the regions around it. Plus there's access to most terrain types very close by (mountains, marshes, plains, hills, rivers and the sea) and even deserts are just a hop skip and a jump across the Mediterranean. Arctic terrain and jungles would require a bit more travel, but nothing impossible in the age of sail.
So, why 1560? Because the Italian wars have just ended, which is going to leave lots of mercenary groups high and dry. So lots of brigands but also probably lots of room for adventurers. The political situation will probably still be fraught, and there's also neat events in the near future to look forward to as adventure opportunities (like the great siege of Malta for instance). It's also pretty early in the early modern and so plate armor is still pretty common, as are a lot of of weapons more often associated with the 15th century.
So, with all that laid out, does anyone have any neat ideas or events or locations that could be fun to throw in there? Any other comments?
Point is, I haven't GMed, not even at cons (I volunteer at my local con, so never have time to step in and GM there anymore) in a few years now, and I feel the itch to run again. I looked at a bunch of games in my shelf, started reading through Zweihander and then my eyes sort of glazed over and I opened one of my copies of LotFP instead. For those who don't know Lamentations of the Flame Princess is an OSR game based on BECMI but with an interesting skill system. It also has some new variant rules published on the inside cover of a book of new spells that really revamp the magic system (like doing away with clerics and divine magic entirely) and change up a few other bits like saving throws. Since I have access to a wider pool of players this time and can pick players who a) I actually want to play with and b) are interested in playing OSR type stuff, I figured why not try again.
I really like the idea that came up a bit into the publication of LotFP of setting the game in the real world early modern era. Instead of pseudo-France and erzats-Italy, why not just have France and Italy? And if so many of the things that show up in D&D, like plate armor and inns and big cities and walking around armed in those big cities, are more renaissance and early modern than medieval, well why not just set the game in that time period? Still, Lamentations of the Flame Princess should feature some monsters and supernatural things, and probably some D&D-ish things. Plus, one of the advantages of using an OSR ruleset is the wealth of material available as material for any older edition of D&D or any OSR game can be easily converted to any other OSR game. The base is simple and most of the rules are pretty much the same anyway. Some things would need to be adapted to a real world settings (various humanoids and demi-humans will just be humans, maybe from a different culture) and at least partly to the era (firearms are going to be more common for military people than bows or crossbows at that point, but swords and plate armor are fine). But the less I need to adapt the better.
So, when and where in early modern Europe can I start this campaign off? The answer is simple. Rome, 1560. Why Rome? Easy. It's a city that once housed at least a million inhabitants, down to maybe 30,000 by the mid 16th century. It's got tons of ruins around it and inside it. And it has an enormous underground network, including a sewer (the Cloaca Maxima) and hundreds of kilometers of catacombs in the regions around it. Plus there's access to most terrain types very close by (mountains, marshes, plains, hills, rivers and the sea) and even deserts are just a hop skip and a jump across the Mediterranean. Arctic terrain and jungles would require a bit more travel, but nothing impossible in the age of sail.
So, why 1560? Because the Italian wars have just ended, which is going to leave lots of mercenary groups high and dry. So lots of brigands but also probably lots of room for adventurers. The political situation will probably still be fraught, and there's also neat events in the near future to look forward to as adventure opportunities (like the great siege of Malta for instance). It's also pretty early in the early modern and so plate armor is still pretty common, as are a lot of of weapons more often associated with the 15th century.
So, with all that laid out, does anyone have any neat ideas or events or locations that could be fun to throw in there? Any other comments?