Topic: Questions to Raggi about the iconic LotFP characters

I have some questions about the iconic characters in LotFP (the cleric Alice, the specialist flame princess and the unnamed magic user). If it is not too much, I would like to know if James could answer those questions.

About the unnamed magic user:

. What's her name, or at least nickname? The blonde cleric is Alice, and the redhaired is Flame Princess (although we don't know her name, we know her nickname). What about the magic user?

. Is the magic user on the cover of 'Better than Any Man' the same magic user? Is there any story related to it?

Questions in general:

. About the iconic characters, do you intend on doing 'something' with them. By something I mean if you intend to create a saga, story arc?

. Also, why did you choose that name for the rpg? What is the 'Flame Princess'? What about her, for you, inspire 'weird' rpg? Why Lamentations?

. Why the Flame Princess is a specialist? Any reason for it? I ask that because, since she is at the cover of the rpg and in the name of the game, I would like to know what was your train of thought when choosing her class. It could be any one of them: warrior, specialist, mage, cleric. Why specialist? I imagine because that could be your favorite class, but that's only a hypothesis.

.Is there any cool story behind those characters, or any fun fact, easter egg? Are those characters inspired by those of your players?

About all those questions, I'm just a curious guy. I know that you can answer 'just create whatever you like, make your own story' and stuff, but I'm curious on knowing from the author what did he think, the 'whats' and 'whys' of his choices. As a writter (portuguese writter), I like hearing from others and exchanging thoughts.

Well, too many questions. I hope you could answer, if not all of them, at least some.

Cheers,

Re: Questions to Raggi about the iconic LotFP characters

Gaigaia wrote:

. What's her name, or at least nickname? The blonde cleric is Alice, and the redhaired is Flame Princess (although we don't know her name, we know her nickname). What about the magic user?

Melissa.

(Mercyful Fate inspiration. big_smile)

Gaigaia wrote:

. Is the magic user on the cover of 'Better than Any Man' the same magic user? Is there any story related to it?

Same character, yes. When I did the Rules & Magic hardcover crowdfunding thing last year, it got so close to funding the Rules and Magic as separate books that I commissioned new art for both at that time.

But the Magic book didn't fund separately so I needed something to do with the art. I used it as the inspiration for the Free RPG Day adventure tying together several other adventures that I had in various stages of completion.

So the Better Than Any Man cover relates to the adventure not exactly: there's a lot of sorceresses that have "pet" monsters, but none of the sorceresses in the adventure are her and none of the monsters are exactly that one.

Gaigaia wrote:

. About the iconic characters, do you intend on doing 'something' with them. By something I mean if you intend to create a saga, story arc?

I wouldn't mind doing a graphic novel, but I'm shit at pacing, plot, and dialogue. Situations, locations, quirky characters I think I'm decent at.

But the whole thing would just be an exercise in abusing all the characters and the readers. The iconic three here would be the villains, you see, doing the standard adventuring thing and completely screwing up some peoples' efforts to save the world from some horrible outer evil.

Gaigaia wrote:

. Also, why did you choose that name for the rpg? What is the 'Flame Princess'? What about her, for you, inspire 'weird' rpg? Why Lamentations?

It was originally the name of my metal zine I established in 1997, I chose the name because I wanted to associate the zine with bands like Opeth and My Dying Bride and that sort of thing rather than the death metal or black metal popular at the time.

Gaigaia wrote:

. Why the Flame Princess is a specialist? Any reason for it? I ask that because, since she is at the cover of the rpg and in the name of the game, I would like to know what was your train of thought when choosing her class. It could be any one of them: warrior, specialist, mage, cleric. Why specialist? I imagine because that could be your favorite class, but that's only a hypothesis.

Because people wouldn't expect it.

Gaigaia wrote:

.Is there any cool story behind those characters, or any fun fact, easter egg? Are those characters inspired by those of your players?

Not really, no.

Re: Questions to Raggi about the iconic LotFP characters

First, thank you Raggi. The name of the magic user was haunting me, since she was the only one unnamed and I really like her 'non chalant' pose in the picture, while Alice and Flame are in a heated discussion.

Now, if you have the time, I would like to say some fun facts about those names and how I use them in my litterature, and also to ramble about some things on your work that I very much like:

Alice is the name of a character in a short story of mine, 'The Silver Alchemist', from many years ago. She is a calm and recolected girl from a germanic village somewhere during the XIV and XVII century. Her best friend (and maybe lover?), Alric, went to Paris study alchemy and, when he came back, he opperated on Alice's diseased dog. The result was a giant monster zombie dog, who ravaged the village. A mild mistake, I could say.

Melissa is one of my favorite feminine names. It reminds me of iron, steel, blood and metal clashing. Melissa is the name of some of my characters, but the most distinct is from a high fantasy novel, where Melissa is a well known ghost, nicknamed 'Iron Maiden', which is a flying dismembered torso of a woman, claded in steel, pierced by metal and enveloped in blood, whose fate is hunting down those that she deems unworthy. What is 'worthy' for her? Nobody could answer such question, as she seems completely insane, or with desires and intentions beyond the recognition of humanity.

Reading your site and your thoughts about what people say of your depiction of violence against women, not only I agree with your thoughts, but I also find myself amused thinking about it. I always asked people what did they think about 'rpg fights'. When you attack an orc, roll a d20, hit it with d8 damage and it goes down to 1 hp, do you imagine it as World of Warcraft, where the monster just 'grunt' apathically? And then, when you hit it again and it diees, you imagine it falling to the ground and fading away? Battles are bloody, cruel, violent and injust. When you slash an orc, it bleed, it stinks and it cries. When you cut a dragon, it (probably) feels pain and might get desperate, and think about it's family, and maybe pledge to piety. When you gut a man, he will suffer. When women are adventurers, they can also be gutted and can also be killed in combat. And combat, as said before, is ugly. As you saind in one of your video, reality is weird. In your game, I see you depicting the reality of 'weird'. And in reality, people fighting will bleed. Therefore, the weird reality of a weird game is double weird. So weird it is, that people get flabergasted and rage with fiery flames! But now I'm just being silly, forgive me.

I also liked your take about the 'cheesecakes'. In regards of this topic, I like to analyse it as a model, an enaltation of the body, an expression of the purity of the warrior in the 'nakedness' of the body. But, when those imagery are used ad libitum, anywhere and for any reason, I do hate it. One example of such actions are, for me, the super heroines, always dressed in revealing outifts and with amazing bodys (and this is also valid for their male counterparts).

I will end my rumblings before things get out of control!

Thanks once again, Raggi

Victor

Re: Questions to Raggi about the iconic LotFP characters

JimLotFP wrote:

I wouldn't mind doing a graphic novel, but I'm shit at pacing, plot, and dialogue. Situations, locations, quirky characters I think I'm decent at.

Something a bit shorter that doubles up as advertising?:

http://das-ubernerd.blogspot.co.uk/2008 … omics.html


But the whole thing would just be an exercise in abusing all the characters and the readers. The iconic three here would be the villains, you see, doing the standard adventuring thing and completely screwing up some peoples' efforts to save the world from some horrible outer evil.

Yes please.

Re: Questions to Raggi about the iconic LotFP characters

Glad I found this thread. I found the Metal zine on ebay and was thinking James had stolen the title. big_smile

I was also wondering about the name for the magic user. I had taken to thinking of her as Orphone.