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LOTFP PLAY REPORTS

TALES OF THE SCARECROW
BETTER THAN ANY MAN
FUCK FOR SATAN
DEATH FROST DOOM (2ND EDITION)
THE MAGNIFICENT JOOP VAN OOMS
THE MAZE OF THE BLUE MEDUSA

TALES OF THE SCARECROW

The players stay trapped in the house for three full sessions of roleplaying. About 12 hours of real world time. They couldn't find the solution until rigorously testing all of the elements, including smashing the harpsichord multiple times (they had a magic-user with Mending). All of the players got really frustrated.

Once they figured out the harpsichord trick, the first party member that they sent for help left with a stolen share of the treasure. Eventually they hired a musician to play the harpsichord while they walked out, leaving him to his doom.

***CONCLUSIONS:

Some players have the view that the harpsichord trick was not obvious enough. Considering that the only way that they figured it out was through doing every other conceivable action, I'm somewhat inclined to agree.

I liked this game because the players got really frustrated and felt trapped, as I believe their characters felt. The madness of the situation was palpable.

BETTER THAN ANY MAN

Characters come in from west side of the map, immediately get killed by a roving band of mercenaries. It's at this point that I introduce the "rule of time", meaning they can restart the adventure from the start if they wipe.

They wipe a few more times: some characters die to random encounters, others die because they get ganged up on by a bunch of NPCs. They never get inside Karlstadt.

During the last session Carl gets kidnapped by some Milzionaires who take him to their lair and torture him. The other characters embark on a rescue expedition which gets nowhere. Carl gets mad at me because he has to wait out the entire session-- I make fun of him over social media for this and now he and I "are no longer friends".

***CONCLUSIONS:

It's hard to run a game taking over a large couple-square mile area without knowing what countryside scenery is supposed to look like. My players got a sense for how lethal LOTFP was and how basically getting into any fight was a really bad idea. Carl is no longer my friend, and I probably should have let him play a NPC.

FUCK FOR SATAN:

I run the dungeon of this for my twin brother and his girlfriend. They kill the squiggle and get trapped in the endless stairwell. They are unable to solve the puzzle, and both players get really mad at me because they can't escape. Both players are no longer friends with me for unrelated reasons.

CONCLUSIONS:
I really like running the endless staircase as a logic puzzle for my friends. I did this around a campfire later and other people got mad at me.

DEATH FROST DOOM:

I run this for Rob and Dave. They get down to the crypts, then take a break for "ice cream" (honey + snow). When they get back down all the ice skulls have melted and Rob's character gets possessed by a cleric which leads to a TPW.

CONCLUSIONS:
I feel ambivalent about the effect of the ice skulls. I suspect the original edition just had all the dead revive when the skulls melted. Anyway I have no faith in my player's ability to defeat the giant goo monster.

THE MAGNIFICENT JOOP VAN OOMS / THE MAZE OF THE BLUE MEDUSA:

Dave attempts to have False Chanterelle mass-copied by Joop in a forgery scheme. Ignores magical effects of painting that Joop shows him. Joop refuses to cooperate, Dave gets another artist who agrees, and to feed this starving artist Dave steals h'ordeuvres from a Joop party. Eventually Dave is caught burgling artist's supplies, and he goes to jail, and the game ends.

CONCLUSIONS:
Joop van Ooms was surprisingly useful as an out-of-the-box character to drop in my game. A good personality with tricks up his sleeves. Unfortunately I was unable to remember the roles for his poetry so I couldn't bring those to the table.

OVERALL CONCLUSIONS: It may be impossible to play this game without making people mad. Harsh consequences + unfair situations turn off everyone.  Dave seemed bored at end; improv situation of "yes, and" broke down into "no, and you're gonna die if you don't do something else". Dave essentially thinks that he was being railroaded because his decisions didn't matter and he died anyway.

I really liked running this game and have spent a hundred and fifty dollars on a .pdfs and books. I enjoyed the stressful situations the players were trapped in. I liked how the player's stress mirrored the stress of their characters. This game may or may not be tenable depending on whether I can find other players to play with.