Review and Commentary On The Pale Lady Adventure By Zzarchov Kowolski From The Lamentations of the Flame Princess Rpg System

"Deep in the woods, every woods, there seems to be a monstrous child stealing witch.

Every spring more and more children go missing never to return.

Two years ago one returned from his absence and is telling tales of vast riches, monstrous servitors, and the way back to her accursed domain."

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HERE

  So I read through the blurb of 'The Pale Lady' adventure for Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg system. Now I approached James Raggi about a review copy and I didn't know what I was getting into. I'm familiar with the writing of Zzarchov Kowolski from a number of his rpg products over the years but the Pale Lady is very something very weird and a completely different avenue from what I was expecting. The rpg title refers to an incredible goddess or witch of incredibly strange alien power. The module concerns a mini adventure that surrounds her, her followers, her children and much more. Look I don't want to spoil this module but it addresses a prime concern of mine with the Lamentations of the Flame Princess system. What do you do with the Elves and Dwarves in the Lamentations system. Call it a Tolkien hang up but trying to wrap my mind around the concepts put forth for the 'Fey' powers has been problematic in LoFP. Not any more,this module tackles some of the pseudo historical background of the issue and does it with high weirdness and gusto as well as style. 

This module touches upon the classic Hammer horror and pulp trappings of dark sorcery and witchcraft whipped to a seething froth of high weirdness in a European countryside. The backdrop and setting fits in and dovetails very nicely with the rest of the adventure. There is some dark and disturbing goings on,and much of the plot as such reminded me of some of games of Kult from back in the 90's. Yes there is a child snatching witch and horrid murders but there's dark goings on in the name of the old religions of the region and more.
The adventure for all of its mature content is a seething cauldron of dark magick and forces bubbling out as part of the deep countryside and its a very messy adventure waiting to splatter your PC's in whipped gore, odd happenings, and more.
The writing is well done and possibly as well done as anything that I've seen from the pen of Mr.Kowolski. The artwork is evocative and even though the pieces are b/w they set the tone nicely. This adventure is sort of like stumbling upon a gem of dark 80's horror popping it into the VCR and coming away feeling like you've found another favorite horror flick as the screen is drenched in gore, guts, and intelligence. That's the type of quality I see in this adventure. 
On the price,you can think of it like this. As a comic book fan, I've paid through the nose for quality pieces of artwork,graphic novels,etc. Well this isn't simply another thirteen page download of low quality crap.What this is a thirteen page adventure and kit that fills in as nice and horrifically weird adventure for a party. Although this adventure can be run as a one shot for LoFP, this adventure serves better as a build up on an existing European campaign set in historic Europe. Personally wait till there's a frequent sale on Drivethru if your worried about the price. For me it was worth the admission. 
The context here is a nice divider into some of the events of Raggi's 'Better Then Any Man' and other Lamentations adventures. The Pale Lady touches on the powers of magick that came up during the witch trials of the 1600 & 1700's across  Europe spun through a darkly pulptastic aesthetic and set into to weird dark common to Clive Barker novels of the fantastic.The content here is a blood drenched mature rife with murder,mayhem, other elements that you'd come to expect from the Lamentations line.
So what's 'The Pale Lady' about? Its about  encounters with ancient powers beyond the ken of mortal men where tales of this  horror are still told around camp fires across the region of your campaigns. Mothers clutch their children and families look over their shoulders as the sun sets as they watch for the coming of the 'Pale Lady'. 

I really enjoyed the hell out of the 'Pale Lady'. A great addition to the Lamentations of the Flame Princess line. 

Four out of Five for weirdness and packing in the horror as well. 

Deconstructing & Commentary The 'Better Then Any Man' Adventure By James Raggi For The Lamentations Of The Flame Princess Rpg System.

War is Hell

The Swedes are invading!
Sorcerers have taken Karlstadt with the aid of unearthly creatures!
In Würzburg, the Prince-Bishop schemes to retain control of his domain.

… and yet darker forces gather…Better Than Any Man is a deluxe LotFP: Weird Fantasy Role-Playing adventure for character levels 1–4. Dungeoneering, wilderness adventuring, investigation, politics and negotiation, many new spells, magic items, and monsters—this one has it all!

Welcome to a little corner of  the Thirty Year War in the sword and sorcery back drop of  Better Then Any Man adventure for the Lamentations of The Flame Princess Rpg system. This is a deconstructionist horror adventure with witches, cults, and old school downright nastiness set into the world of a sandbox adventure with plots, counter plots, double dealing, adult situations, and the occult in full blossom around your PC's ears!
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HERE 

'As a pay what you want'
You must be 18+  to download this adventure 

This is one of the best adventures to throw the party into the deep end of a horror themed dark survival horror straight out of the 60's or 70's with a dripping helping of dark fantasy via HP Lovecraft spun through the lens of  Dario Argento. This sandbox is set in the ruins and aftermath of  Karlstalt as the Swedish army coming through on its way for conquest against the Roman Catholic forces. Yes this adventure uses actual history as its backdrop using Catholic against Protestant forces.
From the adventure -
Better Than Any Man takes place in October 1631, in and around Karlstadt, a small town outside Würzburg. Situated in the Holy Roman Empire, both the town and the surrounding area have been in turmoil for much of the past 13 years, caught up as they have in the events of the Thirty Years War. Here are the important background details: The Thirty Years War began almost as a civil war within the Holy Roman Empire. The conflict is often simplified by describing it as a religious war between the Catholics and Protestants, but once foreign powers became involved such distinctions become wholly inaccurate as alliances became less ideologically based.
Add into this mix the Seven, gang and council of witches, wizards, and madmen whose occult power has introduced the  Dark Forces into the backdrop of the ruins of the villages and the surrounding countryside. 

They've seized control of the locations involved and declared an end to war and it gets much,much, worse. PC's can wander through the landscape and deal with a variety of dark and dangerous NPC's. The machinations of the Seven are at the heart of the adventure but there is far more going on here. 

What Better Then Any Man does is introduces several key concepts to the DM from the Lamentations Of the Flame Princess rpg system along with rules for black powder weapons which would be later expanded upon in the hardback rule book. The key adventure location and adventure elements are horrific, dangerous and downright PC tearing. PC's looking to tear across the landscape with guns and swords blazing are going to be dead and that's no lie.



The adventure is a romp through the Thirty Year War and the horrors that echo through history brought to vivid life by the echoes and creatures of occult power throughout Better. This is a completely different take on the pseudo historical elements explored in Chandler's No Salvation For Witches adventure romp.
The darkness here is mankind and the occult forces are working side by side taking every advantage but this Better reaches into the back drop of the soul on a much more personal and intimidate level of play on the horror tradition. This is an adventure that is a piece reaching for Howard and instead finding a splatterpunk aesthetic wrapped in a brutal brick of pulp flavored witchcraft laden piece of weird adventure. In fact this is outlined right in the introduction by James Raggi with the adventure details :

• Anachronistic historical truth taken from other times and places from the Thirty Years War and the early-to-mid 17th century in general, • Historical myth, • Historical detail which is thought to be true by the author, but actually isn’t, • and pure fiction… … and it does not distinguish between them. This is a game book, not a tool for learning or teaching history, nor does it seek to encourage or discourage any real world attitudes or actions other than “Buy more Lamentations of the Flame Princess books because they’re gnarly.”

This will give you a good explanation of what's in store for the PC's and also gives a good benchmark for PC generation.
The PC's should be a very nice cross section of classes from across the Lamentations spectrum to get the best chances of not only survival but profiting from the experience laid out in the adventure.

Using The 'Better Then Any Man' Adventure
With Your Old School Adventures
Better Then Any Man takes the dark and nasty bits of a pesudo historical pulp adventure setting and mixes in the essence of an open ended seven day romp through Germany. This is done with some really nasty adventure elements lurking in the backdrop.
You've got covens,things from outside, the machinations of the Seven, time traveling wizards who murder children, and more.
This module makes Ravenloft look like The Swiss Family Robinson adventures. Seriously its twisted,evil,and darkly dangerous. 



Look with everything I've said before this module introduces all of the major elements of horror and depravity set against the events of the thirty year war in the Lamentations of The Flame Princess game line self contained world. 
This is an offensive, dangerous, maliciously wonderful little romp through history seen through the fun house slaughter mode of James Raggi, if this sounds like a basic adventure to introduce all of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg line to your players then check this one out.
A quick read through of the Thirty Year War on Wiki can't hurt when running this one.
Right over
HERE

Get this adventure if you want to get in on the ground floor of a Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg mini campaign with all of the mature and adult supernatural horror trimmings. Not for the faint of heart but well worth the download. 

Commentary On The Lamentations of The Flame Princess Rpg System's Adventure 'No Salvation For Witches' By Rafael Chandler For Your Old School Campaign

Its Friday the Thirteenth and I couldn't have picked a better adventure/source book to take a look at then this one. I'm late to the party on this Lamentations of The Flame Princess adventure. And once again I'm late to the party and asking myself why I didn't get in on the action from the beginning? 

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  No more holding back folks, I haven't devoted nearly enough time to looking into some of the 'E ticket' rides of the OSR. In this case its The Lamentations Of The Flame Princess's Rpg System ' No Salvation For Witches' adventure.

  I've been a bit conflicted about this adventure and not because of the 'Mature Content' but because of the background, and setting research I've done. I read through review after review of it and several interviews of Rafael Chandler and James Raggi's on various rpg outlet sights and various internet what not outlets for marketing the game adventure. And the successful Indie Go Go campaign that the Lamentations line has run for 'No Salvation For Witches' adventure. And no its not the MATURE CONTENT that isn't for little kids or the easily offended or the occult powers that the adventure depicts. No, I want to do the damn adventure justice,because its very,very, well done and one of the best things that Lamentations has done to date.

  'No Salvation For Witches' takes place in the world and setting of Lamentations Of The Flame Princess rpg's pseudo European London of the early 1620's and the middle of the Price Revolution. You can find out more about that right HERE . The whole adventure is a giant back handed sandbox mini campaign of horror and depravity. Your going to need the  right group of players  because their going to come into a situation that reminds me of a X ticket Hammer horror fest and something akin to a punch to the gut via a splatterpunk historic adventure with lots of twists and turns. 

  I've seen this adventure compared with 'Better Then Any Man'; and no this isn't anything like the 'Better Then Any Man' adventure. That's one thing that folks have to understand about the Lamentations line of rpg products. They're all stand alone adventures and have to be taken on their own merits and this was done on purpose. There isn't an over arching meta plot to them except in the fact that Raggi has used his lady adventurers and signature characters as cover connectors for the various products of the line. If you the DM want to connect these products together,well really that's your business. And that brings us right back into the witch coven that centers in London and the deal of the century that they've cut with a really,really alien life form. Rafael Chandler brings his NPC's to life with a flourish and grand gesture or two that gives these poor fools depth but there is an edge of evil here to the situation because once your party is in the middle of this sandbox adventure then all bets are off. 

No Salvation For Witches handles the gore and nastiness with the hand of an 80's Italian horror flick spun through the lens of Lovecraft and poured onto a steaming pile of 1600's European darkness. This is the sort of adventure  that Ravenloft kinda hinted about and never dared do. Look this is the type of adventure that would be directed by Dario Argento and starring your PC's if he was using a Robert Howard Solomon Kane story as the basis. In other words this isn't an adventure to get too attached to your PC's.They may die rather well and truly in a way that you wouldn't want them to be resurrected. Seriously because that alien god thing at the heart of this adventure is polluting everything in the backdrop of it. And its still out there and dangerous, as well as incredibly weirdly dangerous. But it also doesn't quite understand human beings and its powering the heart and soul of this adventure. That's one of the things about Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventures unique in a sense. Yes there's a greater whole to the sandbox but it doesn't touch any other adventure unless you want it too as a part of your campaign. The locations within the adventure were best summed up by the author in a recent interview in Diehard GamFAN - 'Rafael: This is an open world exploration, but there are certain constraints; the players will be able to explore the setting, which includes moors, villages, and a derelict priory. In addition, there’s a bit of a dungeon, but it’s quite small, and really, it’s very safe. Be sure to go there.'

And its all tailored around the twisted heart and soul of the No Salvation For Witches adventure setting!  But wait there's still more. 

Within the adventure is a mini source book of demonology and family fun (kidding unless your family happens to be a demon lord & co.) The “The Tract of Teratology”  is worth the price of admission alone. The thing is a demon and Lovecraftian generator that gives incredibly weird and highly dangerous insane Lovecraftian horrors as prize winning monsters. Once again I reference The Diehard GameFan interview with Rafeal Chandler and James Raggi - 'DHGF: The Tract of Teratology, a key component to the adventure, is supposed to be able to generate roughly 3.6 TRILLION different monsters according to the campaign page. Can you give us any examples of the fiendish thingies that can be born from this thing?

Rafael: Of course!

“Cube-shaped body with transparent skin showing the internal organs; cold to the touch. Appendages: Glistening trench full of delicate bulbs of tissue. Scent of honeysuckle. Neutral: Acts in its own interests; bears the caster no ill will, but is not favorably disposed towards him either. If the caster makes good fodder for satisfying the entity’s Compulsion, so be it. 15 hit points. Armor class 14. 2 attacks for 1d4 damage. Movement 60′. Morale 10. Knows 1 randomly-selected 3rd level Magic-User spell. Attacks at +3. Compulsion: To consume some of the flesh of those who have fornicated recently. After 2 days, the monster vanishes silently.” " 

And you get this sort of thing in spades which is perfect for adding into not only a Lamentations of The Flame Princess campaign but any old school retroclone system that needs that extra demonic kick in the teeth! You can read that interview from Diehard GameFan right HERE 

The rituals and rites for summoning these horrors from beyond the pale is horrid, nasty, and downright murderous in the highest degree! This isn't stuff that you simply add to a game. Reading through this stuff  was like watching Ken Russell's Devils film from 1971. You get uncomfortable and squirm in your seat but you come away feeling that you can actually use this material. This is after all an old school horror adventure and one done in the vein of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess line and venue.

Is it worth the price of admission? Yes and then some the artwork is top notch, the text and flavor of the adventure is up to the caliber that I'd expect from the Lamentations line of product. Grab it and I so want this in print yesterday. 

Using No Salvation For Witches
In Your Old School Campaign 

'No Salvation For Witches' is deadly,nasty, and highly dubious for PC's and that makes it great to use. Playing this adventure is playing a low level, high horror adventure set to 'eleven' and one that hits the high points for an old school OD&D style survival horror adventure. 

I would use the video game rule of three characters each a player at least. Coming into this adventure is like coming into the bad scene of a horror film. The pit here is black and the adventure is survivable but your PC is forever going to be changed by the experience. and marked forever by the experience.
Think of this as a 1620's John Carpenter 'The Thing' adventure in tone and gut churning elements brought home with the style and flourish of a basic OD&D kick to the teeth.
This adventure combines many I think of the best elements of Lamentations of the Flame Princess's rpg system and gives the DM the tools to take it to the players as an introduction into the world of sword and sorcery that this game does so well. 

Marshes & Underground Area d100 Encounter Tables From Tales of Aeril Blog For Your Old School Campaigns

Swamps are a nasty area for adventurers to get caught in, while poking around OSR today I stumbled upon a series of D100 encounter characters that Reece PC has done. I've been looking for resources like this for a very long time. They're culled from a number of old school sources and very well done.

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All of the old favorites are there including swamp gas,giant spiders, undead,and any number of horrors. Very well done stuff. His underground d100 list is pretty damn amazing. The thing draws from a number of sources and creates an underworld of pretty terrifying nastiness for adventurers to encounter. Most of the material is drawn from a number of OD&D and AD&D first edition sources making this one of the most useful encounter charts I've seen in a long while. Special thanks to Tankar over at the OSR today blog for bring these to my attention HERE
And the Tales of Aeril blog for doing this wonderful series of solid series of encounter tables. 

Grab That One Right Over
HERE

Random Tavern Generator For Your Old School Campaigns

    Skirmisher publishing just had their 'Game publisher WTF moments'on their  D-Infinity broadcast on Youtube this evening. Which had some pretty fun stuff in it. You can see that right over HERE. But the reason for the mention is actually the Random Tavern generator that was mentioned at the end of the board cast. This handy dandy little generator gives the perfect watering hole or meeting place for your party. 

This is a perfect random generator from Skirmisher publishing for your old school game campaign. This is a solid done generator. Easily adapted to your urban encounter area or adventure locations within a town, city, or even the countryside wagon trail.

Start Using It Right Over 

HERE

original artist right over Here

Another trick I came up with is to use the generator a couple of times to create various watering holes within a town or city block. This way various watering holes might be owned and operated by a crime family or thieves guild or some other organization.
All of this material is based on the Jester Dragon's Random Tavern Generator. A system neutral product that's only .99 cents and will seamlessly fit into the background of your campaigns,neatly and quite concisely.







Grab It Right HERE 

Free OSR Resource From Dragon's Foot - Footprints Issue #22 For Your Old School Campaigns

Footprints #22 of the venerable pdf magazine is out, and its actually one of my favorite old school resources. The magazine has changed and evolved over the years and it now sports the 'ideas and adventures for advanced fantasy gaming';this is exactly what it is and does. This issue is no exception. First I absolutely love the cover on this issue. And that's really one of the places where the places where a revamp for the look of the magazine has been coming. Believe it or not the contents page has the look of the TSR era Dragon and my heart ached seeing it for a moment. 

Go Right Over
HERE

But then after looking through this issue's contents it became even more apparent that this wasn't simply the graphic layout and content but there's more to it.
The Dragon's foot page reveals more of this new direction

Contents
% In Lair Column  By Ron 'rRedmond' Redmond - This is really a great article about the old school gaming experiences and tackling of the Footprints magazine by Ron. It really gives some personal insight into the who's, what's, why's of his experiences with Dragon foot and the OSR.
It also sets the tone for the rest of the mag as a whole. Some of the tone in this article sets up the backbone for the rest of the articles to come.

Charge It!(article) by Ian Slater is a really solid take on 'correcting' and offering an alternative method for charging magic item from the 1st edition DMG, and it breaks down both math and method to the madness. A really well thought out system with some nice twists that can really be applied in a number of ways. A solid addition to this issue right out of the gate. 

Feelin' Trapped? (article) - Continuing the trend with excellence is this article on random trap generation, Tony Chaplin does an excellent article which again gets back to early Dragon magazine articles. This is stuff that you can add into your own DM tool box and do so with little problems because of its quality. 

Pulling Strings (adventure) - Ahh The depth of this issue is in the adventures as well as the articles and 'Pulling Strings' really is an excellent adventure by Darren Dare  for 2nd edition AD&D but man this is a really solidly done adventure featuring some of my favorite old school monsters. I might have to back engineer this one into something like AD&D 1st or OSRIC. Very well done and love the maps and look of this one. 

Treasure & Tables (article) - Stuart Marshal turns in a really well done article on OSRIC random magic item generation, this one covers all of the bases and its very useful. The article has some very nice applications for adventure generation and provides a quick as well as effective method for magic item creation. 

Systems & Swordplay (article) - Is another Stuart Marshal effort for OSRIC to address the problem of weapon specialization inside the game. This article does a good job of giving the DM the means to deal with this problem that players sometimes make take center stage in combat situations. No more, this one takes the headaches right out of this. 

Many a Quaint and Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore (article) - Michael Haskell does an excellent job of setting up the back drop for wizards and magic users and their time between adventures. This one has it all and its worth the price of admission on the strength of this article alone. Very cool stuff with some horrific applications that reminds me of historical articles I've read about historical characters like John Dee and others. Wizards should often be the catalyst  for adventures and this article gives a DM a nice excuse to slip in plot hooks and twists between adventures. 

Prelude to an Adventure (fiction) - Now this is a good piece of fiction that drops in some ideas for the 'who, what, & where' aspects of old school adventures and their preludes. Nothing happens in a vacuum. And this story highlights that in spades. 

Blacktop Vale (adventure) - This is a solid adventure and Steve McFadden turns in all of the stops with this OSRIC or AD&D 1st edition style adventure. The maps, story, backdrop are all pure sword and sorcery with a pulpy heart that I loved. Again this is worth the price of admission. 

Bottom line this is a solid issue with content that can adapted into any number of old school or retroclone systems. Hell I can see these adventures being adapted for Labryth Lord with the advanced companion, I can see the material being retrofitted into several other systems. Including easily being used for Fantastic Heroes and Witchery, or even OSRIC or AD&D 1st edition. 

Is it worth the download? Hell yes and its very well done issue at that. Grab this issue and get moving to the gaming table. A really nice free download. 

Free OSR Resource - DC1 Tales From the Laughing Dragon A Dragon Claws Adventure For Your Old School Campaigns

There are adventures that require more then mere skill with a weapon and a bit more investigation as well as ideas on the PC's part. Tales From The Laughing Dragon : A Dragon Claw Adventure. 

DC1 is the kind of adventure that while location based all revolve around the back setting of bars. If your expecting the usual hack and slash OD&D bits your in for a bad time with your PC's. 

DC1 is one part dungeon crawl, one part interlinked adventures and one part thinking man's dungeon adventure all in one slick thirty four page package of OSR goodness. 

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HERE

The plot sounds like a typical D&D style basic adventure but there's where the similiarity ends.
According to the basic plot which goes something like this :

Fonkin the beloved gnome sage is missing. The town guard is busy fighting off brigands and doesn't have time to look for him. A group of aspiring adventurers take on the task and follow a clue that leads them to an old ruin and footsteps leading down some stairs to the darkness below...

Tales from The Laughing Dragon: A Dragonclaw Campaign is a short three-part adventure series for the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game. It's designed for a group of beginning player characters, making it a great way to jump in to the Basic Fantasy RPG!

This is a thirty four page mini campaign adventure that is part basic introduction and part mission oriented adventure with some interesting twists on the usual OSR campaign adventure. What you've got here is a thinking man's adventure that is perfectly suited to throw the PC's into the deep end of the pond. Here the characters are recruited by some patrons in a series of interlinked adventures but there's also another interesting twist on the usual themes. This adventure has the sub heading of a Dragon Claw Adventure. The Dragon Claw Barony is the setting backdrop for this adventure and I think we're going to be seeing a lot more campaign material for this back bone of this campaign in future Basic Fantasy rpg edition adventures. From the adventure: 

/Dragonclaw Barony is a provincial yet rough and ready area, reminiscent of ancient England or Wales. The primary terrain of the Barony is rolling fields and gentle hills, though the Dragonclaw Mountains, from which the Barony takes its name, cut a wide swath through the center of the land. The borders of the barony are primarily comprised of natural features: the forests of Norwood, the northern Dragonclaw Mountains, and the Badlands in the north and west; and the Sea of Storms, the southern Dragonclaws, and the Dreadwood to the east and south. The Barony was once a small independent kingdom known as llancrest. Four hundred years ago, armies from the Kingdom of Albion, to the distant north, forcibly annexed the lands to serve as a southern base in their perennial wars with the eastern kingdom of Kar'Tegra. Llancrest was renamed as "Llancrest Barony" and a new ruler from Albion was given control of the land. Over the years, as the Barony grew more and more independent, the court at Albion began to refer to the distant frontier area as "that Dragonclaw barony", referring to the high mountain range that bisected the countryside; "Dragonclaw Barony" was eventually adopted as the official name of the land.'

And this is one of the things that makes DC1 a bit different, there is an element of the sword and sorcery going on in the backdrop. Things are a bit rougher and darker in this adventure then I was expecting and that's a good thing. The adventure is perfect for children but I can really see this being used as a motivator adventure for a beginning party or as a series of side adventures for an experienced party. Everything about DC1 is very nice and concise in what it does. It sets up the adventures and interlinks them with the Dragon Claw campaign world and setting but this is constantly running quietly in the background.  

The maps, ideas, and player handouts are all very nicely done and there's a really nice professional vibe running through DC1. But if your party is high on the combat end of things, expect a few possible TPK's in the works. All in all I think this is a free download worth your time and energy to get to know  Tales From The Laughing Dragon. Grab this one today!