Topic: LotFP Looking for Adventure Writers

Lamentations of the Flame Princess is looking for submissions for its series of fantasy/horror adventure modules for the Weird Fantasy Role-Playing game. Each module will be published as a 32-page, A5-sized book, which averages out to 15,000-20,000 words in length plus maps.

Your first contact with LotFP should be an outline of your proposed adventure. This outline should include:

  • The title of the work

  • A brief synopsis no more than two paragraphs in length

  • A list of the adventure's intended subsections with a brief description of each each subsection which should be no more than one or two lines in length.

Keep in mind that if LotFP is interested in working with you, your submission will undergo a developmental process before it is published. Part of this process involves both editing and, if necessary, making changes to your submission.

Playtesting should be done by you before submitting the final draft. If you do not play your creations you have no business expecting anyone else to do so.

While the core of the system used in the Weird Fantasy Role-Playing game is very familiar and traditional, these adventures are very different in feel and style to that found in scenarios published for other fantasy RPGs!

When writing for Weird Fantasy Role-Playing, your submission should take into account the following elements:

  • Present the adventure as if it takes place during the Early Modern period, roughly between the years 1600 C.E. And 1650 C.E of our own history. You do not need to be a student of geography or history to write a LotFP adventure, but when it comes to cities and nations and cultures, your adventure must be real-world. You are still free to completely invent local areas and should remember that for Weird Fantasy Role-Playing adventures feeling historically accurate is just as good as being accurate.

  • Note that "real-world" in feel means REAL-WORLD in feel. Not "secret history," not "fantasy Earth." For example, when you tell people about A Nightmare on Elm Street, you don't tell people that it takes place on a fantasy version of Earth where a child killer turns into a magical man able to kill through dreams. The setting is our Earth, even though there clearly is a magical dream man in the movie.

  • Yes, I know demi-humans are in the rules. They are there for ease of compatibility for people using LotFP for classic-style gaming. Do not use them for things intended to be "canon" LotFP. They don't exist in the world of your submitted adventure.

  • Every monster in the adventure (other than real-life animals) should be an individual and unique creation. They should be used sparingly. LotFP encourages a "monster of the week" format rather than ecosystems of strange and unusual creatures.

  • Magic items must also be rare and unique, and never part of normal society. Magical items encountered should present the Player Characters complications with the potential for ill rather than as their expected reward or treasure, or as a form of guaranteed power-ups.

  • NPCs with class and levels should be rare. Soldiers and kings and most everyone living in the world are 0-level characters.

  • “Extreme” or “edgy” or “offensive” content is absolutely not required for a LotFP submission, and if used at all it should make sense in the greater context of the adventure.

The "Appendix N" authors for LotFP right now (establishing atmosphere and tone, not stuff to rip off): Clive Barker, Robert W. Chambers, Nicholas Gurewitch's The Perry Bible Fellowship, William Hope Hodgson, RE Howard's Solomon Kane stories, Thomas Ligotti, HP Lovecraft, Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol, Edgar Allan Poe, Clark Ashton Smith (particularly the Averoigne stories). Jules Verne and HG Wells are good as well. "The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories" edited by the VanderMeers is a good and economical one-stop shop for getting the idea.

Also good inspiration are the films of Dario Argento, John Carpenter, Lucio Fulci, Dan O'Bannon, Christopher Smith, and Ti West, Hammer Films, plus things like Blood on Satan's Claw, Cabin Boy, the Creepshow series, I Sell the Dead, The Mist, Witchfinder General, YellowBrickRoad, and others. Also listen to the music of Arcturus, Carnivore, Circulus, Comus, Deceased, Emperor, Mercyful Fate/King Diamond, Reverend Bizarre, and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum to get into the headspace.

(not in LotFP's "Appendix N" right now: Howard's Conan, Moorcock's Eternal Champion stuff, Tolkien)

Be creative, be weird. Only submissions which impress and amaze will be accepted.

All submitted work should be your own original work that you own all rights to, and the work should not have been previously published elsewhere in English.

Your full submission should use the following formatting:

  • .rtf file format

  • Times New Roman 12 point font

  • There should be full line breaks between headers and the following text, and full line breaks between paragraphs with no indentation.

  • All spell names should be capitalized and italicized

  • Saving Throw categories should be capitalized

  • Monetary listings should be without period (5sp and not 5 s.p., for example)

  • NPC and monster statistics should have their own paragraph rather than be integrated into the text.

  • Maps should be submitted in rough form (they will be professionally redone later)

Compensation will be handled this manner:

  • 50% of profits made from the work, paid every quarter. If you have a reputation (or, to be more plain, if your name is likely to sell the project to your existing fanbase), we can discuss an advance payment.

  • LotFP will be simply licensing the work and publication rights from you. Both the work and publication rights will revert back to you when the print run is sold out or after five years, whichever comes first.

Full contracts noting the specifics will be sent to you in either case; these two points are merely summaries.

If you have a longer-form project in mind (or even a full game), different arrangements can be made. Get in touch!

Disclaimer: At no point before the signing of a contract is LotFP obligated to publish your adventure or pay you for it. Submitting a work and getting developmental feedback is in no way a guarantee of payment or publication. At the same time, LotFP has no rights to your work until a contract is signed and you can pull your project from LotFP at any time before that.

Submissions, questions, and comments can be sent here.
Details on Weird Fantasy Role-Playing, including a free PDF of the rules (in art-free format) can be found here.

Re: LotFP Looking for Adventure Writers

This has been reposted here so I can link to somewhere I have a bit of control over. smile

Questions about submissions can go here, but actual submissions or pitches should be sent directly to me.

Re: LotFP Looking for Adventure Writers

Are you still taking submissions this way? Or is this all sort of on hold in light of all the IndieGoGo stuff?

(I know elsewhere you mentioned hoping not to do more crowdfunding after July, assuming that bolsters the catalog, and allows more "traditional" publishing."

Re: LotFP Looking for Adventure Writers

Are you also looking for illustrations?

Re: LotFP Looking for Adventure Writers

Eaterofkittens wrote:

Are you also looking for illustrations?

Always looking for artists. Email me a link to your portfolio.