... which also relates to the original question. In James's own words LotFP is less a game about "what can my character do" and more "what is my character doing right now?"

I'm with Geoffrey; one of LotFP's great selling points is it's lack of bestiary. Too many RPGs of similar tone (WFRP, Cthulhu, etc) have fallen into the trap of cataloguing and speciation, with the finest of cosmetic details sufficient divergence for new entries. Whilst initially helpful the end results are almost uniformly repetitive and bland, culminating in hill dwarves, night goblins and fluffy Cthulhu. By contrast, an effective game of Lamentations results in players' never being able to anticipate what's lurking round the corner, stuffed up the chimney or swimming in the loo. Prior to running Death Love Doom I made my players explicitly aware of this -- their mounting dread as they made their way through the coach house before encountering Myrna was all the more potent for it.

LotFP is, at heart, a revsion of Basic/Expert D&D, a game I played continuously for ten years without expansion or supplement, so I'd say yes, it has legs.

Sir Wulf, that's amazing. Each idea is a worthy origin, indeed all of them can be used if one is exploiting the infinite shores idea. I particularly like the World of Coins, as a Londoner by birth and inclination the idea of the city bleeding into itself is something I can weirdly relate to. Cottle/Vogel is awesome, too. I'll have to use him if and when I run this myself. Fantastic stuff all round.

Thaumiel_Nerub wrote:

Hey! I like this idea a lot. Plutonian also might connect the seas to the Isle of the Unknown!

Thanks; and yes, that's exactly the sort of crossover intended. I also envisaged one of the decks being of dull and corroded metal, it's port holes revealing alien vistas, squamous vermin skittering to a hunter's tattoo on Ulfire drums...

Well it's compulsory for referees running this to wear a bicorne.

Thanks, mate.

I also envisage possibilities as a collaborative megadungeon, with people connecting their versions of the Plutonian together. Instant expansion and alternate world generation!

Populating the Ship

The Plutonian is a gateway to other versions of itself. As such there will be alternates of the PCs wandering around. If you use house rules include one version of the party that’s by the book LotFP. Mine the threads here for kinky rules that reflect these strangers from other spheres. Think of all those campaign worlds you’ve never followed through on and have alternates originate from them. Stat these NPCs as they would appear under LotFP. Some of them are not yet aware of what they need to do to escape and may be amenable to alliances, at least for now.

The Plutonian has visited a thousand shores, so go nuts with monster types. Remember that there will typically be only one version (individual or group), unless they are recent arrivals who are hunting each other. Include evidence of such hunts, let the PCs join the dots till they realise what needs to be done or are ambushed by themselves. Be sure to describe each monster as it is, a unique and terrible thing from another world. If your setting is 17th century Europe and you decide to include, say, orcs, think about how a 6’, green, pig-headed murderer might actually appear if it walked through your front door. Make it as real as life and the horror will follow.

Mapping the Plutonian

Grab deck plans of a ship. This can be small or large, depending on taste For my own version I used this one:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/25834/0on … -Ship?it=1


Grab your favourite unused dungeon map. Again, small or large. I originally envisioned the adventure as my nod to the megadungeon so went for huge.

Connect the two. Above deck, or anywhere exposed to the sky, the ship's plans work just as intended. Below decks, pick a number of doors; at least two, but enough so the PCs have a high chance of encountering them. Once these doors open in a certain direction they lead to corridors and rooms on your dungeon map. Pay no attention to spatial relationships between the two maps, the Plutonian defies them.

Shipify Your Dungeon! Dress every corridor and room on the dungeon map as the interior of a ship. Decide the areas that are pristine, rotten or flooded.

(An adventure I've been unable to finish writing due to other commitments. May be of use to others here)

England, 1613

The PCs are contacted by a lawyer representing “men of prominence and discretion”. Recently one of their chief agents, the smuggler William Vogel, fell into disfavour. Always a strange man, Vogel had lately been possessed of a mania borne of desperation. More worryingly, his last delivery contained items other than arranged, from fraudulent to outright baffling. Pepper instead of gun powder. Ostrich eggs instead of rosaries. An unsolvable oriental puzzle box where nothing was asked.

Following the delivery Vogel disappeared for precisely one lunar month. Now his ship, the Plutonian, has been spotted off shore at Yarmouth, adrift. The lawyer’s masters have managed to delay an expedition of excise men for now; there will be consequences for them should certain discoveries be made. What they urgently need are agents without connection, rootless and deniable, to ransack the ship, destroying all papers and items of religious value.


The Plutonian is a ship of infinite shores. Across the spheres versions of itself slowly come into being, meld with each other and are destroyed. In dreams shipwrights and captains conceive her. Over decades all ships that bear the name slowly connect to the ur-vessel.

The Plutonian is bigger on the inside. Below decks is a labyrinth of cabins, corridors and galleys. Some areas are waterlogged, others rotten. Some rooms are pristine, evidence of inhabitants taking their absence only moments before.

The Plutonian has many exits, passageways and stairs leading above to other versions of itself, desolate ships under strange stars skirting unknown shores. 

The Plutonian abhors sapient replication. It is the nature of the refelected spheres that events transpire in a similar fashion. Thus multiple versions of thinking creatures find their way below decks simultaneously. The ship imprisons them within its twisting wooden bowels until but one worldly representative (or group of representatives) remains.


(The rest is up to you)

Great idea. I'll pledge at the second level.

And thanks for giving sufficient notice! My wife and I have to budget our finances a few months in advance, so I missed the last couple of campaigns. An early announcement like this pretty much guarantees my partcipation.

Thaumiel_Nerub wrote:
Andrew S wrote:

Firearms: Small (pistol) = d6, Medium (arquebus) = d8, Large = (blunderbuss) = d10. Each takes a full round to reload, any damage suffered by the user disrupts the process. Penetrative, any target with an AC greater than 14 is treated as 14 for the purpose of hit rolls.

Hey I like this a lot. Really simple and that 14 max AC is nice little touch. What are prices for your S, M and L firearms? And encumbering? Normal, normal, large?

Thanks.

For pricing I was thinking 50/100/200 sp (Based on nothing more than available funds at 1st level!). Shot I'm unsure on; say 10% of the value of the weapon?

Encumbrance is exactly as you described. :0)

I'll be running Death Love Doom for a new group in a couple of weeks want to showcase the system mostly as is. The only house rules I'll use are for equipment:

Secondary Weapons: Wield a small or minor weapon in your off hand and gain +1AC vs. melee attacks only.

Armour: Chainmail becomes breastplate and leather (the game is set in 1613, mail would be antiquated)

Firearms: Small (pistol) = d6, Medium (arquebus) = d8, Large = (blunderbuss) = d10. Each takes a full round to reload, any damage suffered by the user disrupts the process. Penetrative, any target with an AC greater than 14 is treated as 14 for the purpose of hit rolls.

Ilvarin wrote:

I played a bit of WFRP 1E when it was new. We loved the way it played, until it came time to change careers. With the way it's written, it seemed quite important to us that our career changes made sense within the game. Anyway, even though I love the career system on paper, I was less impressed with it in play. I know later editions fixed some of that, but that's another topic.

It is. I love WFRP and have done for years, but it's not a blind love.


I like the idea of using the careers as pre-adventuring background, with small bonuses, as you suggest, Andrew. For me, I wouldn't try to take it past that, unless it was as a down-time-find-a-job type thing.

Thanks. It felt like the more sensible option. Under this interpretation class, level and interactions with the game world replace advanced careers. A scout is a specialist who parleys bushcraft, search and stealth into coin. A mercenary captain is a 4th level fighter with a retinue of men-at-arms. A witch hunter is a cleric (or fighter, or specialist) who roots out chaos, real or imagined, and so on.


One of the things about LotFP that fits the mood of the Old World is the alignment system. Especially the line from the Chaotic entry: "Man mortals who are so aligned desperately wish they were not."

Yeah. My favourite is the line about every human who's ever lived in the real world being neutral. It really helps perspectify the amoral, cosmic nature of it all.

And just for fun, a couple of NPCS;

Gotrek Gurnisson, 8th level Dwarf (Troll Slayer)
CHA: 8, CON: 16, DEX: 13, INT: 10, STR: 18, WIS: 8
AC: 17 (chain + dex), HP: 72, AB: +1 (Melee +4, Ranged +2), Weapon: Great Axe: (+4, d10)
Skills: Architecture 5, Open Doors 4

Felix Jaeger, 5th level Specialist (Student)
CHA: 13, CON: 11, DEX: 13, INT: 13, STR: 12, WIS: 10
AC: 15 (Leather + dex), HP: 22, AB: +1 (Melee +2, Ranged +2), Weapon: Sword (+2, d8)
Skills: Bushcraft 3, Climb 2, Languages 4, Open Doors 2, Search 4, Sneak Attack 2, Stealth 4, Tinker 2

It's something I've toyed with over the last couple of years. I agree the setting as presented in 1E is a good fit.

The only kink I'd introduce is careers. Allow classes to pick from the following lists:

Fighter: Warrior

Cleric/Magic-user: Academic

Specialist: Ranger/Rogue

Dwarf: Warrior

Elf: Warrior/Academic

Halfling: Ranger

Careers would be mostly window dressing, a hook for the players. If, however, a career is relevant to an activity that requires a die roll and doesn't encroach on a Specialist skill then assume a rating of 2-4, depending on circumstances.

Gwion wrote:

Thanks Andrew and the others for your insight. After reading your comments, I will go for a alternate history Europe.

You're welcome.


I will start the campaign in France who is painfully recovery from a failed early revolution. 
Most of the noble and conservative guild privilege will come from ancient elven and dwarven given rights.
The revolution was mainly about abolishing those ancient demi-human awarded right and privilege.
The human classic pantheon will be humanized elf deities. And my christian figure will be the son of a smith instead of a carpenter to show the dwarf influence. God will be a human adaptation of the dwarfs monotheist creator smith-god, the Exodus will be a mythological trace of the dwarfs freeing the human from their demi-human masters.
The crusade was about reclaiming ancient demi-human artifact and treasures that the demi-human entrusted to the muslim who have their own interpretation/adaptation of the demi-human mythology.

As for using pagan or heretic cleric scrolls, the solution I like: cleric can use all scrolls, they work but this is a sin, you better be careful that the church don't know about this. Why they work? This is debated, no one really know for sure, it probably come from all human religions having demi-human roots. 

As for the demi-human themselves, they are very very rare as in the assumed setting of the game. smile


You're off to a cracking start already. Seriously cool stuff!

Agreed.

My last campaign took place in a variant of Elizabethan England. I explained to the players that, whilst many of the names might be the same, the geography and tenor of the place was rather different. The ferocious Henry VIII was commonly known as 'the Boar King' -- with appetites and predilections reputed to have manifested physically, possibly explaining the 12' sarcophagus at Westmynster. His daughter; Elizabeth, aka 'the wanton', 'whore-apostate' and 'Flame Princess' (!) was reputed to bed hundreds of men, draining them of their vitality to the point of death. Hampton Court was surrounded by a petrified hedge maze no sane man could navigate without the seal of the crown. Walsingham, Dee, Marley and Shaxbeard rubbed shoulders with Faustus, baby-eating fey and horrors from beyond the stars.

My approach was pretty simple -- I used whatever historical detail I knew (or could easily get hold of); the rest I made up -- and if anything the setting felt more authentic for doing so. Ask yourself: what man of that era had precise geographical knowledge of his homeland? Who knew what promises and appeasements were made by students of Temple Inn in exchange for the power to manipulate the King's law? It's all up for grabs if you as referee decide it to be so.

Here's my first pass (the scaling damage was lifted from Backswords & Bucklers). Let me know what you think:

Pistol – ROF:1/2  -- Accuracy: Treats chain and plate as leather -- Damage: 1d4 + firers level (minimum +1)

Arquebus – normal shot ROF: 1/2 -- Accuracy: Treats chain and plate as leather -- Damage: 1d6 + firers level (minimum +1)

Arquebus – small shot ROF: 1/2 -- Accuracy: No hit roll, victims save to avoid damage -- Damage: 1d4 + level against a small cluster of opponents, save for half

Misfire – on an unadjusted hit roll of 2-5 the firearm jams and will need to be cleared, taking 1d6 turns. On a roll of 1 the firearm explodes, requiring a saving throw vs. (???). Success means the wielder suffers a normal hit (including level adjustment). Failure results in the wielder losing fingers, an eye, their jaw, etc and being reduced to 1 - (1d4) HP

Seriously.

I'm watching Solomon Kane and there's a chase-cum-combat on horseback. Kane's firing his pistols and the baddies are falling left and right.

And it's completely LotFP.

Why? Most NPCs are 0 level with 3-4 HP; outlaws, common mercenaries and the like included. They form the bulk of mundane foes PCs will face and often down with a single hit. And I absoloutely love that.

So; Lamentations of the Flame Princess: the action-adventure horde-slaying RPG in disguise.

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(10 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

Ed Dove wrote:

"Vagabond"!  That's perfect!

Glad you like it.

I also made Dwarves human and called them Highlanders - replacing Architecture with Climb was enough, mechanics-wise.

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(10 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

untimately wrote:

Personally, I think a reskinned halfling actually makes a better ranger than a reskinned elf.

Yep. They're called Vagabonds in my game and, being human, can use full sized weapons. Works pretty well.


Mechanically, the elf class is more like a fighter/mage, whereas most of the halfling abilities have something to do with the wilderness or ranged combat.

Elves I reskinned as changelings - not the sort presented in the sample adventure but faceless creatures swapped with human infants that grow to resemble the person they've replaced. They're biologically human but soulless, prey to inhuman dreams and vulnerable to the usual elven stuff. Part of the challenge of a changeling is figuring out why they were placed where they were and by whom, which will vary from character to character.

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(0 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

Has any thought been given to this? It's something I'd like to see.

I see your point. Dwarves don't really feature in my games so I didn't consider their schtick too carefully. Maybe two hit points per Dwarf level would do it.

Lord Inar wrote:

If it were 1 hp with no bonuses, as you had originally suggested, the combat difference between a 20th level dwarf and a 1st level dwarf can be summed up as 19 hp, that's all.

That's the idea.