Quote from: Sigmund;459404Just got Vornheim today and HOLY FUCK is it a gorgeous little book. Hardcover to boot, with useful info EVERYWHERE! The jacket and covers inside and out... I am very impressed. With the awesome BRP stuff coming out, SWN, the gorgeous S&W complete book, and now this... the bar is being set very high these days. I'm thinking I really gotta get Grindhouse Edition, really like the vibe it's putting out in this thread Thanks again.

If you listen to one of the podcasts linked on the LotFP blog, you can get a discount code for the LotFP store.  I'm no shill, but if you're thinking about buying it anyway you may as well save yourself some money.

The next section of the Referee book gives advice on NPCs that amounts to standard operating procedure: don't feel the need to stat out every NPC, consider their role in the game and personality, feel free to "break the rules" and give NPC powers not available to the PCs, etc.

The section that follows on monsters is apt to be much more controversial.  LotFP has no standard bestiary.  That's right, no Monster Manual, no stats for orcs, no color-coded dragons.  Instead of the usual fantasy fare, this section leans heavily toward horror movie conventions; the advice given is to use monsters sparingly and to make them the centerpiece of an adventure, as opposed to liberally sprinkling them throughout a dungeon.  

The advice on how to stat up your own monsters is good, but could probably benefit from a few more examples.  Even a couple fully-statted out critters would go a long way toward illustrating this better for a novice referee.

Among the "types" of monsters detailed are animals, constructs, humanoids (the text tells you to use regular humans instead), oozes and slimes, and undead.  What, no demons or "creatures from beyond"?  An odd omission, as they seem well suited to the LotFP ethos.  Rounding out this chapter is a sample treatment of how to do a vampire, though it isn't even close to a fully-statted adversary.  I have to wonder is the vampire was a good choice as an example.  One one hand, vampires are iconic, but on the other, vampires are really complicated because of the various folkloric aspects that need to be emulated by special rules.  Perhaps something simpler would be a better fit here, or at least more functional as an addition.

The next chapter is on magic items.  As with the monster section, there is no standard list of magic items.  Also, the text warns you away from generic magic items like +1 swords.  Each item you introduce in the game should have a specific history or a particular purpose.  There is a list of possible items that could be enchanted to get you thinking, though I shudder at what a magic poncho could possibly entail.  The section ends with three sample magic items (Ouija board, Black Lotus powder, and the Malefic Eye of Putrescence) that show how to balance magical power with terrifying drawbacks.

What follows is a sensible section on how to recruit players, how to handle replacement characters, and how to settle disputes in a mature fashion.  Again, I like that the advice here centers on the social aspects of gaming instead of avoiding the reality that these things can and do happen at the table.

We then get a section on how to convert material for other old-school D&D clones for use with LotFP.  In a very magnamimous move, this chapter is rounded-out by a list of other publishers who are part of the OSR movement.  This is especially cool because it doesn't stake a claim that people should only be looking at stuff published by LotFP; it shows that there is wide world of gaming out there and that cross-pollination could lead to some really cool gaming.

The last thing in the Referee book is an adventure titled "A Stranger Storm."  I'm not going to go into this in any detail for fear of unintentionally spoiling it, but I will say that from my read-through it seems perfectly serviceable as a low-level adventure.

In summation:
- LotFP isn't a clone exactly; there are enough similarities to old-school D&D to make the lineage clear, but there are enough differences (both mechanically and in tone) to set this apart as its own game.  

- the art really presents a strong identity for this game.  Probably more than anything, it sets the "Weird fantasy" atmosphere.

- overall, I think this is a solid product.  I do my own thing with the rules, but that's pretty much encouraged by the game itself.  More than anything, reading this game makes you want to play it--which is the highest compliment you can give a RPG.

...and that concludes my WIR of Lamentations of the Flame Princess.  Any lingering questions or comments are most welcome.  As for me, I should get back to work on my "Weird fantasy flavors" project...

Quote from: misterguignol;459451If you listen to one of the podcasts linked on the LotFP blog, you can get a discount code for the LotFP store.  I'm no shill, but if you're thinking about buying it anyway you may as well save yourself some money.

Thank you for the heads-up

Quote from: misterguignol;459451If you listen to one of the podcasts linked on the LotFP blog, you can get a discount code for the LotFP store.  I'm no shill, but if you're thinking about buying it anyway you may as well save yourself some money.

aw man, that could be the final hurdle gone for me - a good discount code goes a long way, especially when it's for once not shipped from far away. And I'm just as enthusiastic about Vornheim as Sigmund, so this could be my first venture into something OSRish.

And thanx for a cool read-through so far, MG!

Quote from: DKChannelBoredom;459786aw man, that could be the final hurdle gone for me - a good discount code goes a long way, especially when it's for once not shipped from far away. And I'm just as enthusiastic about Vornheim as Sigmund, so this could be my first venture into something OSRish.

And thanx for a cool read-through so far, MG!

The percentage of Vornheim that pertains to any particular set of RPG rules is fairly low; mostly the bare-bones stats of some monsters.

Quote from: Cole;459788The percentage of Vornheim that pertains to any particular set of RPG rules is fairly low; mostly the bare-bones stats of some monsters.

Oh I know and I have considered sliding Vornheim discretely into my WFRP 2nd Edition Enemy Within-campaign, but there's just so many cool/twisted/peculiar things in Vornheim that I would love to use, but they seem to call for a "clean" setting, without to much plot/history of its own.... but yeah, I could of course grab my ol' 3.5 books.