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Favourite LofTP Release?


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Voros

Doomed Investigator
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So I finished reading Patrick Stuarts epic Veins of the Earth, his unique take on the Underdark and thought that was a good reason as any to start an 'official' Lamentations of the Flame Princess thread here on the Pub. I'm a fan of Stuart's work and really enjoyed Veins, it is up there among the best releases yet from LotFP.

And since everyone enjoys a poll I thought I'd throw up a list of most of their major releases from their front page for us to vote on, you can give your reasons below, or select one not on the list and tell us about it.


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Veins has a huge bestiary of really unusual monsters, an imaginative selection of spells, magic items and even cool lamps. Reasonable, easy to apply rules for climbing, getting lost, fighting with lamps and in darkness. Lots of tables to construct caves and encounters, a hundred sample caves, etc. The strangest section is a detailing of the different major civilizations in the Underdark that is pretty mind-bending and often abstract, probably the least practical but for those looking for flavour and really odd ideas it should get your juices going. Princess Scrap's art is too arty, primitive and abstract for some but I dig it.

Really looking forward to the next project that Raggi announced on G+, Jonathan Tweet doing an Over the Edge-inspired project, Al Amarja 1630.
 
Wut no Cursed Chateau????

That's a tough one when you've worked on the top seven items in your poll...

My personal favourite miiiiight be Death Frost Doom though. Yeah I think that's the one I'm most proud of, even if it sailed under the radar a little.
 
Red and Pleasant Land is the most creative. Broodmother has the best advice and Scenic Dunnsmouth is probably the most game-able.
 
Wut no Cursed Chateau????

That one didn't work for me. It felt like there were a lot of artificial constraints to the point that I'd almost call it a railroad. And I feel like the adventure's solution makes it a little hard to know when enough is enough. But I know I'm probably in the minority.

Some tough calls in the main list. Broodmother has some great GM advice and philosophy. The adventure itself is pretty thin, but I like how open it is to diverse player actions.

Carcosa is such a singularly unique work with such a very specific and dark vision behind it. I nearly picked it, but in the end the weird special dice rules rub me the wrong way. Big time.

Veins of the Earth is another spectacularly imaginative work. Sometimes it gets a bit too "artsy" for me at the expense of playability. It's great inspirational material, but I'd have a hard time rendering Stewart's singular perspective to the players intact.

To be honest, I think these are all strong contenders, as well:
  • Tower of the Stargazer: This might have been my choice. A canonically perfect dungeon.
  • Hammers of the God: Amazing story cleverly rendered through clues from the past.
  • The Idea from Space: I just love the two competing cults, especially the one that is a fully voluntary hive mind.
  • Thulian Echoes: Just such a brilliant structure, I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone else replicate it.
  • Towers Two: Very adult high-density gonzo material in what is practically a sandbox.
 
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The only one I'm familiar with is Carcosa. Which I liked to some extent - mostly the science fantasy / lovecraftian planetary romance feel; the intriguing artwork; the hexcrawl-of-it-all. I wasn't really into the goofy OD&D mechanics nor the virginal-strangulation-rituals and all that.
 
Qelong and Broodmother Skyfortress are the only ones I own, and I dig both — though I was a fan of both authors (Ken Hite and Jeff Rients) for a long time before picking each up.

Though to be honest I'm quite curious about the first three.

I wish I'd find the time to adapt Qelong to ACKS so I could have an excuse to run mass battles involving mercenaries riding undead rocs.

Broodmother Skyfortress sounds like a great way to unleash a cataclysmic threat upon a well-established campaign world, for high-level PCs to engage and neutralize. (There's only so much undead armies and demonic portals you can credibly menace the world with in a given campaign.) It's a bit like Against The Giants only shorter and awesomer.
 
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If you've got any questions about the production of the ones I've worked on I can answer them as best I can.

I love the work on DFD and Scenic Dunnsmouth. Do you prefer cartography, illustrating or graphic design more?
 
LotFP is just B/X D&D. Many of their supplements could be easily ported just not into other D&D editions but other game systems.
So who is the Flame Princess and what is she lamenting?
 
I voted Veins, just because it's the one I'd be most likely to get a lot of use out of... vs. the one-shot adventures.
Qelong is a close second.
Of the adventures I've had a lot of fun with Death Frost Doom and Better Than Any Man.
Of those not on the list, I'm quite fond of The Monolith From Beyond Space And Time, which I was fortunate enough to play through with Mr. Raggi as GM. It's pretty much level neutral, and definitely weird.
 
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I can only click “like” on this once. It’s a cruel world.
 
I love the work on DFD and Scenic Dunnsmouth. Do you prefer cartography, illustrating or graphic design more?

Thanks! I really like what Zzarchov Kowolski did with Dunnsmouth, he has such a fantastic brain and it's a pleasure to work with wonderfull material. Similarly with Death Frost Doom, Zak took Raggi's stuff and really improved on it. DFD took a month from delivery of the manuscript for me to do all the layout and all the illustrations. A freakin' month, which is a dream job compared to say Red and Pleasant Land which took about a year, and Veins of the Earth, which took 15 months. DFD got some of my best work and I think it's my best product to date.

I'm very lucky that I can do all three - maps, illos, design - cause there's some days where the illustrations just flow without me having to wrestle with them, and some days where I suuuuuuck or I'm too brain dead for creativity. Design is more a form of problem solving and taps a different part of the brain, and once a template's been decided on it can be pretty straightforward non-thinky work. I love maps, though, and when I'm in the mood an spend hours and hours doing them. Conversely, it's a nightmare when I have to do them but I'm not in that zone. If they're hand drawn, like the isometric maze in Red and Pleasant Land or the DM's Map of the Underworld for Operation Unfathomable, it adds an extra level of meticulousness and care and stress cause you don't want to fuck them up. Sure you can fix them, but it's a pain in the ass.
 
If you've got any questions about the production of the ones I've worked on I can answer them as best I can.

No questions for the moment; just wanted to say I've really enjoyed your work. I had to look you up just now to see which ones you've done for Lamentations, and I recognize quite a few of them. The art of LotFP has always been a really important part of what makes it stand out.
 
I voted for Qelong (my Ken Hite fannishness is boundless), but I've only read a couple of the choices. There's several more I'd like too, though, and others (The God That Crawls and Weird New World are two that haven't been mentioned) that weren't in the poll but are equally intriguing.
 
I find this very easy to believe. I look forward to the next anything from Mr. Kowolski.

He showed me a sneak peek at GenCon because of what he was trying to achieve with a very complicated but clever approach to a map problem, plus ran a throw down of the dungeon he's got planned (Man Rider got to have a run around in it) both were great. And he's a lovely guy too.
 
He showed me a sneak peek at GenCon because of what he was trying to achieve with a very complicated but clever approach to a map problem, plus ran a throw down of the dungeon he's got planned (Man Rider got to have a run around in it) both were great. And he's a lovely guy too.
You are in Australia, right? I am just imagining combining my post-Gen Con hangover with Australia flight jet lag.

Anyway, I am intrigued to see the map problem he is trying to solve.
 
Thanks! I really like what Zzarchov Kowolski did with Dunnsmouth, he has such a fantastic brain and it's a pleasure to work with wonderfull material. Similarly with Death Frost Doom, Zak took Raggi's stuff and really improved on it. DFD took a month from delivery of the manuscript for me to do all the layout and all the illustrations. A freakin' month, which is a dream job compared to say Red and Pleasant Land which took about a year, and Veins of the Earth, which took 15 months. DFD got some of my best work and I think it's my best product to date.

I'm very lucky that I can do all three - maps, illos, design - cause there's some days where the illustrations just flow without me having to wrestle with them, and some days where I suuuuuuck or I'm too brain dead for creativity. Design is more a form of problem solving and taps a different part of the brain, and once a template's been decided on it can be pretty straightforward non-thinky work. I love maps, though, and when I'm in the mood an spend hours and hours doing them. Conversely, it's a nightmare when I have to do them but I'm not in that zone. If they're hand drawn, like the isometric maze in Red and Pleasant Land or the DM's Map of the Underworld for Operation Unfathomable, it adds an extra level of meticulousness and care and stress cause you don't want to fuck them up. Sure you can fix them, but it's a pain in the ass.

Well it was an incredible effort: these are intimidatingly impressive works. Inspiring too: I'm trying to finish my long overdue projects (doing absolutely everything on my own: writing, art and layout). Learning InDesign and producing competent artwork is taking me longer than I'd hoped. So tired of being in the "weak mediocrity" club of life.
 
Not to turn this into a Zzarchov thread, but I really like two adventures he published independently: A Thousand Dead Babies and The Gnomes of Levnec. I don't know what possessed Raggi to not publish those...I supposed Kowolski forgot to mention 16th century Sweden or something. In any case, I'm looking for an excuse to fit both of those adventures into a more prosaic fairy-tale inspired campaign. I feel like they would go really well with a twisted take on Beyond the Wall.
 
I think Zzarchov is underrated so I think it's fine to big up him here! Thulian Echoes is excellent and A Thousand Dead Babies is very good, The Gnomes of Levnec is on my OBS wishlist.
 
Not to turn this into a Zzarchov thread, but I really like two adventures he published independently: A Thousand Dead Babies and The Gnomes of Levnec. I don't know what possessed Raggi to not publish those.

Two reasons that I'm 90% sure of: Zzarchov has his own publishing house for years, and it was probably just easier to get ti done in house; and I think they were done prior to or in the first stages of Zzarhov and James developing a working relationship.

The gnomes are craaaazy weird good.
 
I think Zzarchov is underrated so I think it's fine to big up him here! Thulian Echoes is excellent and A Thousand Dead Babies is very good, The Gnomes of Levnec is on my OBS wishlist.

Speaking of 1K Dead Babies, the magic item that gives the adventure its title is one of my favorite awful things in the entire world. Gnomes is just as twisted and wonderful, and they could easily be set in the same sandbox.

Coming full circle back to LotFP: Thulian Echoes is one of those ideas that's so good that it seems completely obvious in retrospect...even though nobody thought of it before. For guys like Dumarest who aren't familiar with it: It starts with the party finding a map to a killer dungeon in the tradition of Tomb of Horrors. But it turns that all on its head in two important ways.

First of all, when you find the map, you also find the journal of a party that tried to wins its treasures hundreds of years prior. But instead of reading the journal, you play it. In other words, you run the dungeon first with a bunch of one-offs, and in so doing become forewarned against its many hazards (at least as far as you can survive).

The second way TE fucks with the ToH formula (and its own premise) is that it ends up being thoroughly naturalistic. The dungeon you encounter in the campaign won't be same as the journal you played out because centuries have passed in the interim. If you left certain doors open, the island will be infested with anything from packs of rabid dogs to packs of short-living Viking clones. Other people have come to the island in the meantime, and interacted with whatever you left behind. And it turns out there's a chance that your one-off PCs were unreliable narrators...

And to top it all off, Zzarchov comes up with a formal way of representing the impact of these events and random chance. I haven't brought it out to my table yet, but it looks serviceable, and others have said it works pretty well. Also, the content is full of over-the-top gonzo with campaign-breaking possibilities reminiscent of Death Frost Doom and Broodmother Skyfortress. Lamentations is never afraid to burn it all down.

Two reasons that I'm 90% sure of: Zzarchov has his own publishing house for years, and it was probably just easier to get ti done in house; and I think they were done prior to or in the first stages of Zzarhov and James developing a working relationship.

Oh, I was just talking out of my ass because it's fun to joke about Mr. Raggi. The same uncompromising vision that makes Lamentations so excellent is also an easy target for internet assholes such as myself.
 
Speaking of 1K Dead Babies, the magic item that gives the adventure its title is one of my favorite awful things in the entire world. Gnomes is just as twisted and wonderful, and they could easily be set in the same sandbox.

Coming full circle back to LotFP: Thulian Echoes is one of those ideas that's so good that it seems completely obvious in retrospect...even though nobody thought of it before.

It really is. I keep having the feeling that some adventure did this before. I can't actually think of one, but I just can't believe that an idea like hasn't been done.

Anyway, I went and bought Gnomes and Dead Babies. I'm supposed to be saving up for Operation Unfathomable and the Rules Cyclopedia. You people are bad influences.
 
Anyway, I went and bought Gnomes and Dead Babies. I'm supposed to be saving up for Operation Unfathomable and the Rules Cyclopedia. You people are bad influences.

Let us know what you think of them when you've had a chance to digest them. No pun intended.

And don't feel bad...if those are your four choices, you just can't lose.
 
Let us know what you think of them when you've had a chance to digest them. No pun intended.

And don't feel bad...if those are your four choices, you just can't lose.
I'll report back. I have a game of Hillfolk to run today, and I have a Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate adventure to proofread as well, so it will probably be Monday before I have a proper opinion.
 
Coming full circle back to LotFP: Thulian Echoes is one of those ideas that's so good that it seems completely obvious in retrospect...even though nobody thought of it before. For guys like Dumarest who aren't familiar with it: It starts with the party finding a map to a killer dungeon in the tradition of Tomb of Horrors. But it turns that all on its head in two important ways.

First of all, when you find the map, you also find the journal of a party that tried to wins its treasures hundreds of years prior. But instead of reading the journal, you play it. In other words, you run the dungeon first with a bunch of one-offs, and in so doing become forewarned against its many hazards (at least as far as you can survive).

The second way TE fucks with the ToH formula (and its own premise) is that it ends up being thoroughly naturalistic. The dungeon you encounter in the campaign won't be same as the journal you played out because centuries have passed in the interim. If you left certain doors open, the island will be infested with anything from packs of rabid dogs to packs of short-living Viking clones. Other people have come to the island in the meantime, and interacted with whatever you left behind. And it turns out there's a chance that your one-off PCs were unreliable narrators...

And to top it all off, Zzarchov comes up with a formal way of representing the impact of these events and random chance. I haven't brought it out to my table yet, but it looks serviceable, and others have said it works pretty well. Also, the content is full of over-the-top gonzo with campaign-breaking possibilities reminiscent of Death Frost Doom and Broodmother Skyfortress. Lamentations is never afraid to burn it all down.

Now I need Thulian Echoes. Thanks, Edgewise. :grin:

This is my favorite dungeon crawl gimmick since Castle Drachenfels’ “timer.”
 
Coming full circle back to LotFP: Thulian Echoes is one of those ideas that's so good that it seems completely obvious in retrospect...even though nobody thought of it before. For guys like Dumarest who aren't familiar with it: It starts with the party finding a map to a killer dungeon in the tradition of Tomb of Horrors. But it turns that all on its head in two important ways.

First of all, when you find the map, you also find the journal of a party that tried to wins its treasures hundreds of years prior. But instead of reading the journal, you play it. In other words, you run the dungeon first with a bunch of one-offs, and in so doing become forewarned against its many hazards (at least as far as you can survive).

The second way TE fucks with the ToH formula (and its own premise) is that it ends up being thoroughly naturalistic. The dungeon you encounter in the campaign won't be same as the journal you played out because centuries have passed in the interim. If you left certain doors open, the island will be infested with anything from packs of rabid dogs to packs of short-living Viking clones. Other people have come to the island in the meantime, and interacted with whatever you left behind. And it turns out there's a chance that your one-off PCs were unreliable narrators....

That's pretty cool. Good idea.
 
I think the best LotFP release is the LotFP Player's core book. I'm not really a big D&D guy, or into the OSR, for that matter. But I do like the rules, presentation, and themes present in the core. And if I ever ran something D&D again - not too likely - I think I'd be pretty satisfied using LotFP.

The LotFP adventures don't interest me nearly as much as the core. And if I'm playing D&D-ish, I'm writing my own adventures, and creating my own monsters.
 
I think the best LotFP release is the LotFP Player's core book. I'm not really a big D&D guy, or into the OSR, for that matter. But I do like the rules, presentation, and themes present in the core. And if I ever ran something D&D again - not too likely - I think I'd be pretty satisfied using LotFP.

The LotFP adventures don't interest me nearly as much as the core. And if I'm playing D&D-ish, I'm writing my own adventures, and creating my own monsters.
What is it about Lamentations that distinguishes it from regular D&D and the various "retroclones" thereof and makes you interested in it?
 
Well, it's a retroclone of B/X, which is my favorite form of D&D. Kind of B/X with house-rules that I find worthwhile. I don't really care about retroclones based on OD&D, nor AD&D.
I like the D6-based skill system.
I like the simplified encumbrance system.
I like the lack of weapon restrictions on clerics and magic-users.
I like that Fighter is the only class that really gets any better at combat.
I like the rules for "Early Modern" firearms and armor.
I like the darker tone of the Rpg, and the rather brutal artwork.
 
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