Gold Box D&D - Any advice for making a party to go from Pool of Radiance to Pools of Darkness?

So I've been thinking about getting back into the Gold Box D&D games lately, specifically the Pool of Radiance/Curse of the Azure Bonds/Secret of the Silver Blades/Pools of Darkness series. I've played Pool of Radiance quite a bit, but I haven't beaten it yet. I'd like to take the same party of six characters through all four games, without replacing any along the way. Anyone have any experience with these games? If any readers want to share some advice on how to avoid screwing up this idea from the beginning, I'd really appreciate it.

If it helps, the Gold Box games use AD&D 1E rules, more or less.

By the way, I'm probably just going to avoid Hillsfar altogether.

EDIT: Here's something I wrote over on Google+:
"Unfortunately, there were a few self-restrictions I did want to abide by if possible (and if it's not TOO foolish to do so), which I forgot to mention in my blog post because I had a brain fart. I was hoping to have one person in the group be a race other than human, although I don't really need more than that. I also wanted all of the classes (the six in these games, that is) represented in the party in one way or another, and I was hoping that no two characters would be EXACTLY the same, class-wise, although it's fine if they're close. Other than that, I think I'd be up for about anything, but those are arguably already some major restrictions on my choices. I'm fine with giving the characters all 18s in their abilities, at least, since from what I hear about the hardest fights in the later games it's either that or reload a lot. :P"

 EDIT #2: After some helpful feedback from ckdecember gaming on Google+, I've decided that it might be a good idea to wait until Level 16 or 17 before switching my dual-classed characters to their second classes.

Option #1:

1. CG Elf Fighter/Magic-User (Ditch after Secret of the Silver Blades)
2. CG Human Ranger 15 ---> Magic-User (Add in Pools of Darkness, Dual-Class almost immediately)
3. NG Human Thief 9 ---> Ranger (Dual-Class at the beginning of Curse of the Azure Bonds)
4. LG Human Cleric 9 ---> Paladin (Dual-Class at the beginning of Curse of the Azure Bonds)
5. LG Human Fighter 13 ---> Cleric (Dual-Class during Secret of the Silver Blades)
6. CG Human Cleric 17 ---> Magic-User (Dual-Class shortly into Pools of Darkness)
7. CG Human Magic-User (not dual-class)

By Pools of Darkness, I'd have a Magic-User (part Ranger), a Ranger (part Thief), a Paladin (part Cleric), a Cleric (part Fighter), a second Magic-User (part Cleric), and a third (pure) Magic-User.

BUT...Can a Thief dual-class into a Ranger, and can a Cleric dual-class into a Paladin? If not, I'll go with Option #2:

1. CG Elf Fighter/Magic-User (Ditch after Secret of the Silver Blades)
2. CG Human Ranger 15 ---> Magic-User (Add in Pools of Darkness, Dual-Class almost immediately)*
3. NG Dwarf Fighter/Thief (Ditch after Pool of Radiance)
4. NG Human Ranger (Add in Curse of the Azure Bonds)*
5. LG Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric (Ditch after Pool of Radiance)
6. LG Human Paladin (Add in Curse of the Azure Bonds)
7. LG Human Fighter 13 ---> Cleric (Dual-Class during Secret of the Silver Blades)
8. CG Human Cleric 17 ---> Magic-User (Dual-Class shortly into Pools of Darkness)
9. CG Human Magic-User (not dual-class)

By Pools of Darkness, I'd have a Magic-User (part Ranger), a Ranger, a Paladin, a Cleric (part Fighter), a second Magic-User (part Cleric), and a third (pure) Magic-User.
(The only glaring problem is that I wouldn't have a Thief after Pool of Radiance, but I don't think that class is actually very important in the Gold Box games.)

*Alternatively, Character #2 could start as a Magic-User and immediately Dual-Class into a Ranger. Then, I could Dual-Class Character #4 into a Magic-User (at Ranger Level 15) immediately at the start of Pools of Darkness. That way, I'd have a Magic-User (Ranger 15) and a Ranger (Magic-User 14), plus two other Magic-Users, for a total of 4 party members who can sling fireballs.

Ideas for Starting a Campaign (D&D or LotFP)

You know that old trope in which the party members all meet up in a tavern or an inn at the beginning of the campaign and conveniently join forces, often for very little reason other than getting on with the adventure? I'm not exactly going to bemoan the idea here; it's a cliche because it generally works, and it has arguably become a genre convention by now. However, it sure is nice when things are kicked off in a slightly less predictable way, especially when the players can start out either right in the thick of the action or in the process of making a major, meaningful decision.

Hopefully, I might be starting another campaign soon in addition to my regular one, so I figure it shouldn't hurt to list some ideas for the campaign's beginning in case my potential players want to give me some feedback about what interests them, or in case anyone else might either find some inspiration or share some of their own. Now, by no means do I want to claim that these are original ideas I came up with by myself; many of the things I'm going to list are also pretty common suggestions. Much of this will probably count as "preaching to the choir" for any readers who were playing RPGs before I was born or when I was in diapers. Still, I think these suggestions are less common, and in my opinion more interesting, than the meeting-in-a-tavern trope. If anyone wants to tell me about a time when one of these ideas was used in a campaign, for good or ill, I'd love to hear it.

Starting off with one specific adventure, after which point the players can choose where to go and what to do:

• The game begins with the party all locked up in the same dungeon or prison, and the first adventure is their escape attempt. (I apologize that I do not remember exactly where I read this, but I've seen it suggested more than once that a good way to start a Lamentations of the Flame Princess campaign would be to have the party wake up in the cannibals' lair in Better Than Any Man - possibly with their shackles accidentally loosened and their starting equipment bundled in a nearby room.)
• Some variations on the above: The party consists of people who have been press ganged to work on the same ship, conscripted to fight in the same military unit, abducted by the same god/witch/fairy/UFO, unwittingly teleported to the same alien planet, or kidnapped to serve as The Most Dangerous Game for the same group of bloodthirsty nobles.
• The PCs have all been mutually and mysteriously gifted a mansion or similar piece of property through the will of an eccentric, wealthy individual of some notoriety. Some or all of the PCs might not have even met this benefactor. The party is free to claim the property and use it as they see fit, on the condition that they can make it habitable. Naturally, the place is haunted, cursed, infested with monsters, or otherwise operating as a dungeon-style adventure location, of course.
• The party is a group of pilgrims/travelers who happen to meet on the road en route to the same location, shortly before they run into trouble together on the way there. A Stranger Storm, the sample adventure from the free Referee Book from LotFP, works well with this approach, as does the adventure Tales of the Scarecrow. This was also basically how the game of LotFP I played at Gen Con 2016 started. You could pull a bit of a switcheroo with this idea - the players think they're headed for one adventure (and maybe they are, if they survive the surprise), but they get a different one instead or beforehand.
• The party does meet in a tavern, but not by chance. They were all asked to meet there by someone who wants to hire them for a heist or some other mission. Think Mr. Johnson from Shadowrun. For added fun, consider making the meeting itself a trap.
• The party members are residents of the same town or region who become mutually trapped in the area or otherwise endangered due to a disaster or attack, and the most sensible way for them to survive and escape would be for them to work together. Over at Anxiety Wizard, the Deep Carbon Observatory campaign currently in progress seems to use this approach, at least with some of the PCs. I think it would also be a fun way to start No Salvation for Witches.

Starting off in a "sandbox" right away, presenting the party with a choice of adventures in the very first session:

• The PCs are all members of a Hunting/Safari/Mons Club, and they have found or been presented with several leads as to the locations of various magical creatures/monsters to track down. I think this could work well with Isle of the Unknown.
• The party members are all refugees fleeing persecution, and there are several places to which they could try and escape. Think Sirenswail (which makes good use of this premise as a lead-in to a specific adventure location), but with several possible adventure locations depending on the escape route chosen by the party.
• The party consists of a team of officially-endorsed (but still wet behind the ears) witch hunters, bounty hunters, crusaders, etc., and due to either some unique circumstances or some weirdly unfettered institutional policies, the PCs start off with their choice of assignment. They must pick which menace to hunt down or which group to prosecute/persecute (possibly like a reverse of the suggestion above - the PCs are the ones hunting the refugees). If the DM wanted to start off with a specific adventure instead of a choice of several ones, the party could simply have to earn the right to choose their assignments after the first one.
• Much like in the "gifted a mansion" example above, the PCs all inherit joint custody of a collection of books, maps, and various documents. This collection gives plot hooks for all kinds of different quests: You want to go treasure hunting? This journal says that unfathomable wealth is buried in the lost tomb over here, and unimaginable riches are probably still on board that ship that suck under suspicious circumstances over there. You want arcane knowledge and magical powers? This diary details the methods by which you could summon the Ripened God deep in the Thrice Forbidden Grove and try to ask for some favors, but first you'll need some rare ingredients for the ritual, which can be found here and here, if you believe the rumors. You want to curry favor with the authorities? These letters over here contain tantalizing clues about the unsolved occult murders of Duke de la Poer and his family. I'm personally thinking of something along the lines of Clarke's "Memoirs to Prove the Existence of the Devil" from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen, or Miskatonic University's good ol' Lovecraftian giftschrank, but the collection of documents certainly doesn't have to be horror-themed. It could consist of the research notes of a scholar who secretly discovered the Hollow World, or the treasure maps of a retired pirate captain showing where he buried all his booty, or the library of famous sage and wanna-be alchemist Poindexter von Magicpants.
• You could try the open-ended hexcrawl version of the aforementioned "unwittingly teleported to the same alien planet" idea. The PCs all get plopped down against their will in the middle of the same place on the hexmap, and what happens to them next depends entirely on what direction they decide to go, how thoroughly they want to explore, which dungeons or other plot hooks they wish to stop and investigate, and what gets rolled on the random encounter table.

Really, this post is an attempt to answer two different questions for the players. First, why is my character going on this adventure instead of doing something else? The two answers I find most likely to satisfy the player are "For profit," and "For survival." Second, why is my character pursuing this adventure as a part of a team with these other characters who are probably strangers? The most reasonable answer in many cases will probably be "For better chances of success." If your players want to come up with other motivations, like "Because it's the right thing to do," or "For revenge," that seems perfectly fine by me - I'm not here to inflict the RPG equivalent of kink shaming on anybody - but that probably shouldn't be expected or required of your players just so that they have some kind of reason or excuse to get involved. Likewise, I think it's fine and dandy if players want to come up with a little bit of mutual backstory explaining why the party is together, but I don't want that to be a prerequisite for play. You don't always need a huge amount of backstory or prep for a campaign to start off strong.

Customizing Carcosa's Classes

Carcosa, as presented in the Lamentations of the Flame Princess release of the campaign setting by Geoffrey McKinney, is a pretty over-the-top place. Here are some over-the-top tweaks to the two main character classes in the setting, which I am considering for use in a future campaign.

Fighter:

• Basic Fighter Stuff - The Fighter's Base Attack Bonus increases as in LotFP. The Fighter can also Press, Fight Defensively, and Parry like in LotFP.
• Skills - The Fighter gains skill points like a Specialist in LotFP, and can spend them on any skill except Sneak Attack or Luck (see below).
• Sneak Attack - The Fighter starts with 2 ranks in Sneak Attack. The skill increases to 3 ranks at Level 4, 4 ranks at Level 7, 5 ranks at Level 10, and 6 ranks at Level 13.
• Great Cleave (or "Unstoppable," from Warriors of the Red Planet p. 8) - When the Fighter kills an enemy with a melee attack, the Fighter can make an additional attack against another enemy within melee range.
• "Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?" - Once per day, if the Fighter takes no action for at least three full, consecutive rounds of combat other than getting pumped up about killing an enemy, then the next attack the Fighter makes (in that same combat encounter) will do the maximum amount of damage (based on the Fighter's weapon), stun the target for 1d4-1 rounds, and give anyone who targets that same enemy (in that same combat encounter) a +1 bonus to hit. This ability cannot be used in the same attack as a Sneak Attack.
• Fuck Psychics - The Fighter can no longer start play with psionic powers, no matter how high the Fighter's ability scores are.

Sorcerer:

• Basic Sorcerer Stuff - The Sorcerer is the only class that can perform rituals, as per Carcosa. In addition to the effects listed in Carcosa, the completion of rituals (or the subsequent bargaining with summoned entities) may sometimes lead to additional powers or rewards, at the DM's discretion.
• "I Will Destroy You With My Mind!" - The Sorcerer automatically starts play with psionic powers, and all 8 powers are available to the Sorcerer every day (rather than 1d4 random powers).
• Luck - The Sorcerer starts with 2 ranks in Luck (see LotFP Playtest Document 0.1). The skill increases to 3 ranks at Level 4, 4 ranks at Level 7, 5 ranks at Level 10, and 6 ranks at Level 13.
• Identify - Once per day, the Sorcerer can magically/psionically investigate the function of a magical, high-tech, or otherwise unusual item in a manner similar to the spell Identify in LotFP. This process costs 100 gp in materials and takes 1 full day to complete.
• Recharge (based on the ability from Warriors of the Red Planet p. 14) - Once per day, the Sorcerer can attempt to magically/psionically recharge one special item that carries limited charges (such as a ray gun). Doing so costs 1d10x100 gp in materials. The Sorcerer must roll a d6: on a roll of 6, no charges are restored and the Sorcerer must make a Saving Throw vs. Magic or else be subjected to 1 year of Unnatural Aging (see Carcosa p. 14) and waste 1d4 additional charges of the item. Otherwise, a number of charges are restored to the item as follows: 1 charge at Level 1, d4 charges at Level 4, d6 charges at Level 7, d8 charges at Level 10, and d10 charges at Level 13 and above.
• "I Won't Lift A Finger!" - The Sorcerer starts with a Base Attack Bonus of 1, and this bonus does not increase upon gaining a level, as per most classes in LotFP. Likewise, the Sorcerer cannot Press or Fight Defensively, and can only Parry like a Magic-User/Cleric/Specialist in LotFP.

Both Classes:

• Hit Dice are d8, as per the Fighter in LotFP.
• Experience Points needed per Level are based on the Sorcerer.
• Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Saving Throws use the rules from the LotFP Playtest Document 0.1. Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution still use the rules from LotFP Rules & Magic.

Possible Changes:

• Give "Basic Fighter Stuff" to both classes and remove either "Identify" or "Recharge" from the Sorcerer to put the classes slightly more in line with Carcosa as written.
• Replace "Identify" with "Magic Sense" from Warriors of the Red Planet p. 105.
• Change how Unnatural Aging works for the Sorcerer, since Carcosa doesn't get too specific about it, if I remember correctly. Maybe replace it altogether with some other penalty.
• Change the name of the Luck skill.
• Add some new skills and remove some Old Ones. Ha.
• Give different stats/abilities to the different technicolor peoples of Carcosa.

List of LotFP Classes from Official and Semi-Official Sources (Print and PDF Only)

There are a ton of awesome custom-made classes on various blogs and other websites for Lamentations of the Flame Princess and other OSR games, but I found myself wondering how many different classes have actually appeared in official LotFP releases, and how many have likewise appeared in "third-party" print or PDF publications that are considered to be intentionally compatible with or based on LotFP.

So, I decided to make a list of classes from such publications. This is mostly just meant to be a quick reference for anyone curious as to what's out there so far. If I missed anything, please let me know!

Also, I may do a round-up of links to interesting online character classes at some point.

UPDATED ON FEB. 21, 2017 TO ADD APPENDIX 3.

Official Sources:

Lamentations of the Flame Princess Rules & Magic

• Cleric
• Fighter
• Magic-User
• Specialist
• Dwarf
• Elf
• Halfling

A Red & Pleasant Land

• Alice (or Alistair or Fool)

Carcosa

• Sorcerer

Green Devil Face #4

• Knight of Science

Third-Party Sources (in Print or PDF):

The Chaos Gods Come to Meatlandia

• Raconteur (Bard)
• Chaos DJ (Bard)
• Nexus Bard
• Kaldane
• Carnomancer (or Meat Mage)

Pusher Gnomes (Pay What You Want add-on for The Chaos Gods Come to Meatlandia)

• Pusher Gnome

Saltmouth Issue Zero (playtest document for The Driftwood Verses)

• Blattarian
• Vassal
• Navigator

Saltmouth Issue Negative One (playtest document for The Driftwood Verses)

• Blattarian (updated from Issue Zero)
• Navigator (updated from Issue Zero)
• Vassal (updated from Issue Zero)
• Whaler

The Undercroft #9

• Skinned Moon Daughter
• Doctor
• Detached*
• Partners in Crime*
• Fallen*
• Pariah*

*These classes are from an article called "Dead Inside," and are intended to completely replace the character classes from the Rules & Magic book, rather than simply supplementing the list.

Vacant Ritual Assembly #4

• Barbarian

Vacant Ritual Assembly #5

• Ritualist

Wolf-packs and Winter Snow (Technically a separate game, but partially based on LotFP and compatible with it)

• Expert
• Hunter
• Magician
• Neanderthal
• Aberrant**
• Morlock**
• Mystic**
• Orphan**
• Wendigo**

**These "Alternate Classes" are not intended to be available to players without the explicit permission of the GM.

Appendix 1: Classless Systems and Alternate Character Advancement Systems

• "New Character Creation and Advancement Techniques" from Green Devil Face #5.
• "Classless Lamentations of the Flame Princess" from The Undercroft #4.
• "Everyone is an Adventurer" from The Undercroft #9.

Appendix 2: Honorable Mentions

• The Lotus Monk from Qelong is intended to be a template of abilities for specific NPCs, but if you want to stick it to the man you can probably turn it into a character class pretty easily.
• There are some special rules for religion that can be used with many classes, but especially Clerics, in England Upturn'd.
• If you wanted to make a Psionic class, the psionic rules in Carcosa might not be a bad place to start.
• The Meat Men from The Chaos Gods Come to Meatlandia constitute more of a suite of abilities/mutations for PCs to acquire than a separate class per se, but the text does briefly touch on the possibility of using the Meat Man as a class.
• The Thundercloud Druid from Vacant Ritual Assembly #3 is not a separate class, but rather a background that can be chosen along with a class. Rules-wise, a Thundercloud Druid essentially gets a specific package of starting equipment instead of randomly-rolled starting money. This issue of Vacant Ritual Assembly also introduces two new skills: Falconry and Play Wind. Conceivably, a separate Thundercloud Druid class could be created if one so desired.
• An article in Vacant Ritual Assembly #4 called "The Oolai Cloth-Skins and Dragon Blackhide Bastards" presents a system of magic item creation/character enhancement (depending on how you look at it) which could perhaps be used as the basis for some kind of Magical Weaver class.
• A new skill that is exclusive to Magic-Users, Pipe Arts, is presented in Vacant Ritual Assembly #5. In the same issue, Lycanthropy Rules are introduced, which could possibly be used to make a Werewolf class.

Appendix 3: Some Classes That Technically Count Because They're in PDFs, but Which Are Not "Published" in the Sense of Either Being in Print, Being on a Storefront Like DriveThruRPG, or Being Released as a Playtest Document for a Future Publication

(This is definitely an incomplete list, and this stuff should really go in a separate post about free online character classes, but because I didn't define what I meant by "published" well enough until now, I guess these technically belong in this post somewhere. Besides, they're cool.)

Heliothra: A LotFP Class for G+ (Available here)

• Heliothra
  

Lycan's Bane: A LotFP Class for G+ (Available here)

• Lycan's Bane

Any Suggestions for Reskinning Adventures?

In my current campaign, there are two adventures that the party is likely to want to tackle in the near future. I'm hoping that I can reskin some pre-written adventures to fit what I'm looking for. Basically, I want to save some time and effort in terms of cartography, monster stats, some unique magical effects, etc. while changing and adding a bunch of other stuff to match my particular campaign. Here's what I have in mind:

First, the party wants to use time-travel magic to alter a key event in history. Instead of literally going back in time, I figure the party could use a mystical artifact to travel to a surreal dungeon which serves as an abstract representation of time/history/fate/destiny. By interacting with various features of the metaphysical dungeon (like convincing the Moirai to cut or not cut certain threads, or hacking the Matrix, or whatever), the party could alter the past in precise, almost surgical ways...albeit limited ways, and probably at some hideous cost, of course.

Second, the party will probably want to enter the Sealed City of Duvan'Ku, deep in the Untamed Lands, and try to undo the evil curses placed on the world by that empire of cruelty. This may very well serve as the climax of the whole campaign, so I was thinking about making the city (or some structure within it) a megadungeon chalk full of the kind of hideous magic found in adventures like Death Frost Doom, Death Love Doom, and Fuck for Satan. If they can get to the heart of this labyrinth, the party may be able to find a way to stop a dreaming god from awakening and ending reality as they know it...again, at a hideous cost, because this is the cult of Duvan'Ku we're talking about here. Nothing is painless with them.

Here's a list of pre-written adventures/modules I've already used in the campaign in some capacity, to the extent that I consider them disqualified for use in this reskinning project.

• A Stranger Storm (LotFP Referee Book)
• Tales of the Scarecrow
• Tower of the Stargazer
• The Pale Lady
• The Flayed King
• Oil and Water
• Fuck for Satan
• No Salvation for Witches
• The Tower (Green Devil Face)
• The House of Snails (Green Devil Face)
• Fantasy Fucking Vietnam (Green Devil Face)
• The Monolith from Beyond Space and Time
• A Single, Small Cut
• Death Love Doom
• The Stygian Garden of Abelia Prem
• Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess
• Forgive Us
• Hammers of the God
• The Bloodsoaked Boudoir of Velkis the Vile
• Thulian Echoes
• The Idea from Space
• Beyond Mere Lotophagi (Green Devil Face)
• People of Pembrooktonshire
• The Seclusium of Orphone of the Three Visions
•  Death Frost Doom
• Scenic Dunnsmouth
• The Gem Prison of Zardax
• Towers Two

There are some other books/products I've used which I don't consider disqualified, so they are not listed here.

So, any advice? If anyone has any ideas to share, I would greatly appreciate it.

UPDATE - OCTOBER 1, 2016

I received a lot of great suggestions, so thanks everybody! Here's what I've got so far.

Time Dungeon Ideas

1. Hero Quests (from RuneQuest)
2. Old Planescape adventures
3. World of the Lost

Duvan'Ku Dungeon Ideas

1. The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
2. I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City
3. Deep Temple (from Snake Pipe Hollow, RuneQuest)
4. Maze of the Blue Medusa

Ideas for Either Dungeon

1. Deep Carbon Observatory
2. Monster Island (RuneQuest)
3. Book of Quests (RuneQuest)
4. Bad Myrmidon
5. Vortex (Numenera)
6. The Devil's Spine (Numenera)
7. A Red & Pleasant Land
8. Misty Isles of the Eld

UPDATE - DECEMBER 6, 2016

For the "Time Dungeon" adventure, I ended up using a combination of Deep Carbon Observatory, the underground "wilderness crawl" from Thulian Echoes, and the dungeon from World of the Lost. I think it worked out really well, so thank you again for the suggestions, folks. Now I just have to decide what to do about the "Duvan'Ku Dungeon."

"Sirenswail" Review

Sirenswail is an OSR adventure intended primarily for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess, although it is not officially part of the LotFP product line. It was written by Dave Mitchell, and you can buy it at Lulu. Full disclosure: I'm in the credits for this book because I read an early draft of the adventure and gave Dave some feedback, so I admit that I was predisposed to liking this one before I read the final version. That said, I really do think it's a great little book, and it's well worth picking up.

Sirenswail is a softcover book of 66 or so pages. It's got a classy, somewhat abstract cover by David Paul Hellings which (perhaps not coincidentally?) reminds me of the Mana Cross from Siren. Mr. Hellings also did the map and monster illustrations in the book, which may look a bit amateurish but are appealing to me all the same in their slightly cartoonish and yet somehow woodcut-like style. The map is pretty clear to read and includes a handy hex grid. The rest of the art consists of old public domain material as far as I can tell, but it fits the setting and tone of the book just fine. Sirenswail is "An adventure intended for 5-8 characters of levels 1-3." The book contains "Adult Material," in case you're wondering. A note in the back suggests that this can be used as the first part in a series of upcoming adventures by Dave Mitchell, but it definitely works on its own merits. I see no reason that Sirenswail couldn't work as a one-shot or as something to slot into a larger "non-Mitchell" campaign, and the book seems to be primarily intended for such purposes. I see no signs of any invasive meta-plot.

Sirenswail is what I would call an investigative adventure. The closest thing to a dungeon consists of three rooms, but the real meat of this thing lies in NPC interactions and poking at various mysteries. This is certainly not a bad thing, as evidenced by LotFP adventures like "A Stranger Storm" (from the free Referee Book), "In Heaven, Everything is Fine" (from Forgive Us), and England Upturn'd. Sirenswail offers a lot of interesting NPCs who may either help or hinder the adventurers (and each other) depending on the party's actions. The NPC write-ups are efficient, providing useful motives and traits without taking up a lot of time or space. Many of them could just as easily wind up as friends or foes to the party. Considering that Sirenswail is openly based on the 1973 movie The Wicker Man, the "peaceful" island community is not what it seems, of course. I don't want to spoil too much, but the characters are a big strength of this book.

The book begins with a brief history of the setting - England, 1644. There is more historical information a few pages later, which specifically details the town of Penzance on the coast. This information could have probably been condensed into one or two fewer pages, but it's not a big deal because the book is already a quick read. Most of this isn't strictly necessary, but it's helpful for flavor and for answering a few general questions that might pop up about the setting during play if neither the DM nor the players know much about this time and place, as is the case for me. Between England Upturn'd and Sirenswail, I feel like I should have enough information to start a good campaign in Early Modern England without needing to bury myself in textbooks first. Sirenswail could probably plug into England Upturn'd pretty nicely as a sort of side-quest, now that I think about it, although I'd have to double-check both books to be sure.

The adventure itself is split into three segments, and these can actually be used independently of each other. First, there's Penzance, which depending on the wishes of the DM could serve as either just a jumping-off point for the adventure, a hub from which the party could pursue multiple adventures, or a location for a short urban adventure in its own right. There's a tavern and a weapon shop with unique and detailed price lists, as well as some really good random encounters and rumors. The DM would have to do a little extra work to make the party's time in Penzance an adventure all by itself, but the book provides good inspiration and decent guidance.

The second segment is the voyage from Penzance to the titular island. The book basically says you can either gloss over this journey or make it a bit more eventful. There's a table of random encounters (or perhaps adventure hooks) provided in case the DM would prefer the latter. Again, these ideas might need some slight fleshing-out, but you could use the table, the ship, or the NPCs in other nautical adventures if you don't want to run the rest of the book.

The last segment takes place on Sirenswail, or as the residents call it, The Island. This is the main part of the adventure and includes the bulk of the detail. Again, there is a new and detailed price list for The Island's inn, which is nice. Interestingly, The Island's head honcho insists on giving the party a brief tour when they arrive, which is a good way to present both the geography of the place and several plot hooks to the players. There's a pretty strange set of random encounters that could happen if the adventurers explore at night, which are quite creative and should keep the players on their toes. The adventurers will probably spend most of their time on The Island interacting with the odd residents or examining The Island's landmarks, however. This is definitely a slow burn kind of deal, unless the players decide to try and indiscriminately slaughter everybody, which I'm guessing wouldn't go well for first-level characters. If you want something other than the usual smash-and-grab D&D adventure, this should hit the spot. If you want a slugfest, you should probably look elsewhere, although Sirenswail does have the potential for a few fun and memorable combat encounters. Overall, Sirenswail uses a subtle kind of horror, with good buildup and creepy secrets to stumble upon.

There are a few more odds and ends I should mention. Dave Mitchell's writing style is clear and straightforward, which is good for something that needs to be referenced at the game table, but there's definitely some personality that comes through as well, which is nice. The hit dice for all of the NPCs/monsters are listed as the type of dice used as well as the number of dice (3d8, for example). Maybe this could be helpful if you're using the LotFP Playtest Document, in which hit dice are not directly related to character class. Still, the hit dice almost all seem to be consistent with the current LotFP Rules & Magic book as well. Not a huge detail, but I thought it was interesting and possibly useful. Also, I should mention that this adventure includes the possibility of a huge treasure haul for a group of low-level characters, but considering the difficulty they would most likely face in actually getting it off The Island, I'm not personally worried about it. Still the DM may want to either decrease the value of the main treasure cache or simply be strict about how much treasure the party can carry if this seems like it would be a problem. Honestly, I think it might be a really good idea to put most of the treasure in one gigantic pile and make most of the remaining treasure kind of piddling in this kind of adventure: It should keep the party invested in finding "one big score" before trying to escape, and I bet it would really bring out the problem-solving skills in your players once they find what they're looking for!

Finally, I do have a few criticisms I should mention in the interest of fairness. First, there's a section of the book between the historical overview and the Penzance section which serves to introduce the DM to the premise of the adventure. Unfortunately, it also includes some information that should have probably been moved to other sections of the book in order to reduce page-flipping back and forth at the table. At least this section could have included page numbers for the later sections this information references, and vice versa. Second, there's a slight inconsistency regarding a reward offered to the party for a certain action on page 9; is it 500sp or 1,000sp? Third, the adventure includes some boxed text in the form of sample dialogue for NPCs. I don't actually mind this, since the dialogue is presented as example material that the DM should feel free to change, but some readers might see this as a weakness of the writing, since boxed text seems to be frowned upon by many OSR fans. Fourth, one of the "monsters" can cause a small XP penalty to the person who kills it, which is something of which I'm not too fond. However, it would be easy for the DM to just make the monster worth zero XP instead. Finally, the adventure doesn't have any magic items for the party to find (unless you count a few traps), which is a little disappointing considering the tendency for magic items to be extremely weird, screwed up, and interesting in LotFP. Still, these are minor problems that don't come close to ruining the adventure.

I definitely think Sirenswail is a great addition to my collection, and a strong first adventure for Dave Mitchell. The price is certainly right: I think it cost me about $13 after shipping and handling. If you like the idea of The Wicker Man as an adventure for Lamentations of the Flame Princess, this should do nicely. I think it also works well as a source of ideas for other adventures in Seventeenth Century England, if that's more your thing.

Sirenswail gets a dead French monkey spy hung by nautical pagans out of 10.

LotFP Skill List Tentative Changes

UPDATE: Please see THIS POST for more up-to-date house rules.

This is a continuation of my tentative house rules for Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

The list of skills is subject to change before the campaign begins, and possibly even during the campaign if the players agree, but this is what I'm leaning toward right now:

• Architecture (I would definitely be more liberal with what you can accomplish with this skill than what seems to be included in the original rules, so hopefully this one wouldn't be a wasted skill.)
• Bushcraft
• Climb (I might change this to Atheletics, as per Papers & Pencils.)
• Languages
• Medicine
• Seamanship
• Sleight of Hand
• Sneak Attack
• Stealth
• Tinker

Here is my reasoning behind the skills I am leaving out:

• Leadership - I think I'd rather have this kind of skill rely entirely on Charisma and the actually words and choices of the players. I could probably be convinced to include it, but I'm hesitant to risk decreasing the importance of Charisma and making it live up to the (usually inaccurate) "dump stat"stereotype.
• Luck - I could probably be persuaded to include this one if my players really want it, but for the time being I'm leaving it off the list. It doesn't really seem like a "skill" you can deliberately improve so much as a special ability, possibly supernatural in origin, that one acquires by luck (heh). Like Sneak Attack, and to a lesser extent Languages, it doesn't obey the rules that the majority of skills follow, but unlike Sneak Attack and Languages it was only introduced in the Playtest Document (and it doesn't seem to have an equivalent among Basic D&D Thief abilities, making it unnecessary for players wanting to play a Thief-type character), so I don't feel so bad about leaving it out. Also, I'm a bit concerned that the general-purpose nature of Luck might make it more desirable than most other skills by a great enough degree that few points would even go into other skills for the majority of characters I see, and while that's not necessarily a problem (or necessarily even true - again, I'm open to suggestions here), I do find that kind of boring.
• Open Doors - This skill has been entirely replaced by Strength Checks in my house rules. Besides, if I'm not mistaken, you couldn't put skill points into this skill in the original rules anyway, and could only increase it by increasing your strength (or maybe using Bless or something), and that kind of sucks.
• Search - Over at the blog Papers & Pencils, LS gave some good reasons for removing the Search skill, and I've seen other good arguments on other old-school blogs, but I don't remember the specifics right now. The way I personally see it, if the players are clever or lucky or diligent enough to try and search an area in a way that seems like it should logically turn up something that I (as the DM) know is there, they should probably just automatically succeed. This goes back to the Rule of Reasonableness I mentioned in my last post. If for some reason I really want to introduce a change of failure to a search (like if the players are trying to detect a very stealthy NPC and the surprise rules don't seem to be enough to cover the situation), I would probably just have the searchers roll either an Intelligence Check or a Wisdom Check, whichever is higher. Also, Search just seems like a boring skill for someone to have to put points into for the good of the party even though there are more interesting things to pick instead.

It is unlikely for characters to reach a high enough level in a Lamentations of the Flame Princess campaign for a Specialist to run out of skills in which to invest points (Level 22, if you use my house rules and my math is correct). Still, I'd like to have a contingency plan in case this happens. The obvious solution would be to add more skills, which is what I've done in my Lamentations of the Fallen Lords campaign.

Here's another possible solution. I don't know if it's a good one, but I thought of it while lying in bed and it seemed kind of neat. Once a Specialist has increased every single skill to the maximum number of points, the Specialist can start using any additional skill points in new ways:

• For the cost of 1 skill point, the Specialist may gain a Luck Point. This can be saved and used at any future time. By spending a Luck Point, a Specialist may re-roll any one die roll they make, as with the Luck skill in the Playtest Document. A Luck Point is basically a one-use item, rather than a resource that can be regained through rest up to a maximum number, like HP or Spells per Day.
• For the cost of 1 skill point, the Specialist may increase one ability score by 1 point.
• For the cost of 2 skill points, the Specialist may move one language from their "Not Known" list to their "Known" list.

A third option would be to just have any skills points gained beyond the maximum go to waste, but this doesn't strike me as particularly fun.

Tentative House Rules for My Online LotFP Game

UPDATE: Please see THIS POST for more up-to-date house rules.

Since I'm hoping to start an online campaign of Lamentations of the Flame Princess with some friends in the near future, I figure I might as well explain some house rules I'm considering for use in said campaign. None of this is set in stone, of course, but this is all stuff I've been pondering for a while, and which I'd like to try out. I also can't promise these are good house rules, but one of my goals is to playtest them, so I guess that comes with the territory. I should also note that most of these are lifted from the LotFP Playtest Document, either as-is or in modified form. I may not explicitly mention this in all cases, so please keep in mind that credit for a lot of this material should go to James Raggi.

The Rule of Reasonableness (Paraphrased from the Playtest Document) - If the chance of failure wouldn't be interesting, or if it seems reasonable that something should just work, let the PCs automatically succeed at what they're doing.

The Rule of One (Paraphrased from the Playtest Document) - If the DM just really wants an excuse to screw with the players, they can roll a d6. On a 1, the DM has permission to add a problem or complication to the current situation.

Character Classes - Options are the Specialist, the Magic-User, the Cleric, maybe the Alice (from A Red & Pleasant Land), and possibly other classes upon request (since there are so many great homebrew classes on blogs and in zines and such).
But what about the Fighter, you may ask? All PCs, of all classes, start with the Fighter's combat options and with a Base Attack Bonus of +2, and gain +1 BAB per level after that (maxing out at +10). Unless you stay at home like a good little peasant or wimpy noble, you have to be a killer to survive in this world. Especially if your career revolves around killing folks/monsters and taking their stuff. (You can probably glean some of my justifications for trying this idea in some previous posts, but I'm willing to explain, discuss, and debate the matter in the comments or on the Facebook group or one of the Google+ groups if anyone is interested. At any rate, it's just a fun experiment, and if it breaks the game I can just deal with it.)

XP per Level - All PCs need the same amount of experience points to reach each level:

1. 0
2. 2,500
3. 5,000
4. 10,000
5. 20,000
6. 40,000
7. 80,000
8. 160,000
9. 320,000
10. 480,000
11. 640,000
12. 800,000
13. 960,000
14. 1,120,000
15. 1,280,000
16. 1,440,000
17. 1,600,000
18. 1,760,000
19. 1,920,000
20. +160,000 per level after Level 19.

Ability Scores
CHARISMA - As per Rules & Magic.
CONSTITUTION - Affects Hit Dice (see below) and Wilderness Travel Speed (as per Rules & Magic)

• 3 to 4 CON = d4 HP per level (+1 from level 10 on)
• 5 to 8 CON = d6 HP per level (+1 from level 10 on)
• 9 to 12 CON = d8 HP per level (+d2 from level 10 on)
• 13 to 16 CON = d10 HP per level (+d3 from level 10 on)
• 17 to 18 CON = d12 HP per level (+d3 from level 10 on)

DEXTERITY - As per Rules & Magic.
INTELLIGENCE - Affects Saving Throws vs. Magical Effects (and Saving Throws vs. your Magic-User spells)

• 3 to 4 INT = 2d6 (and targets of your Magic-User spells get a bonus d6 for their saves)
• 5 to 8 INT = 3d6
• 9 to 12 INT = 4d6
• 13 to 16 INT = 5d6
• 17 to 18 INT = 6d6 (and targets of your Magic-User spells get a penalty d6 taken from their saves)

STRENGTH - Affects item slots per Encumbrance Point (see below) and Melee Attack Bonus (as per Rules & Magic)

• 3 to 4 STR = 3 item slots per Encumbrance Point
• 5 to 8 STR = 4 item slots per Encumbrance Point
• 9 to 12 STR = 5 item slots per Encumbrance Point
• 13 to 16 STR = 6 item slots per Encumbrance Point
• 17 to 18 STR = 7 item slots per Encumbrance Point

WISDOM - Affects Saving Throws vs. Non-Magical Effects (and Saving Throws vs. your Cleric spells)

• 3 to 4 WIS = 2d6 (and targets of your Cleric spells get a bonus d6 for their saves)
• 5 to 8 WIS = 3d6
• 9 to 12 WIS = 4d6
• 13 to 16 WIS = 5d6
• 17 to 18 WIS = 6d6 (and targets of your Cleric spells get a penalty d6 taken from their saves)

Ability Score Checks - When a PC attempts to accomplish certain risky actions that are not covered by a Skill, the DM may ask for an Ability Score Check (Strength Check, Charisma Check, etc.) in order to determine success or failure. The player rolls a d20. If the result is equal to or less than their character's relevant ability score, they succeed. If the result is higher, they fail. EDIT: I am considering using 3d6 for Ability Score Checks instead of 1d20.

Increasing HP - Upon leveling up, roll a number of Hit Dice equal to your new level (up to level 9, after which each additional level gives you less, as per the CONSTITUTION house rule above). If you roll an amount higher than your previous maximum, that becomes your new maximum HP. If you roll an amount equal to or lower than your previous maximum, your new maximum is your previous maximum plus 1.

Saving Throws - As per the Playtest Document, except that PCs (not NPCs) count Partial Saves as Full Saves, except in the following cases.

• Saves vs. Death upon reaching 0 HP or less (see below)
• Breath/Area of Effect Saves (Full Save = no damage, Partial Save = half damage)
• Saving Throws against effects that would ordinarily still cause harm if the Save is successful (Full Save = no effect, Partial Save = normal effect of a successful Save as written)
• Saving Throws made to resolve an attempt by a PC to do something unusual not covered by a Skill Check, Ability Score Check, The Rule of One, The Rule of Reasonableness, or any other standard resolution mechanic. For example: Hugh Cain the Specialist is trapped on an alien spaceship. He finds a sealed door operated by a complicated control panel nearby. He happens to have no reasonable way to figure out what each button does just by looking at it (using his Intelligence, for example) because he is completely clueless about both the language and technology of the aliens. He decides to hit buttons on the control panel randomly in an attempt to open the door. The DM calls for a Non-Magic Saving Throw. On a Full Save, the door opens. On a Partial Save, the door opens, but a complication is introduced (maybe the door jams halfway open, or the control panel zaps Hugh). On a Failed Save, the door does not open, and a complication is introduced. EDIT: It occurs to me that since Saving Throws are completely dependent on Intelligence or Wisdom now, using a Saving Throw for this kind of situation still isn't that different from making an Intelligence Check or Wisdom Check. I might just either completely replace these kinds of Saving Throws with INT/WIS Checks, or use Saving Throws instead of INT/WIS Checks only when the possibility of a Partial Save adds something very interesting to the situation.

Bonuses and Penalties to Saving Throws (for purposes of backwards compatibility) - Increase or decrease the number of dice as follows:

• Penalty of -6 or more = Three less d6s
• Penalty of -4 to -5 = Two less d6s
• Penalty of -1 to -3 = One less d6
• Bonus of 1 to 3 = One more d6
• Bonus of 4 to 5 = Two more d6s
• Bonus of 6 or more = Three more d6s

Note that the maximum number of dice in a Saving Throw is 6d6, and the minimum is 2d6, so bonuses and penalties that would normally result in more than 6 dice or less than 2 dice simply result in the maximum or minimum number of dice instead.

Dying - If a PC is reduced to between 0 and -9 HP, the player must roll a Non-Magic Saving Throw and consult the following table:

• 0 HP:  Full Save = Conscious and Active, Partial Save = Unconscious, Failed Save = Unconscious
• -1 to -3 HP: Full Save = Conscious and Active, Partial Save = Unconscious, Failed Save = Unconsciousness and Inevitable Death in d10 minutes.
• -4 to -6 HP: Full Save = Unconscious, Partial Save = Unconsciousness and Inevitable Death in d10 minutes, Failed Save = Instant Death
• -7 to -9 HP: Full Save = Unconsciousness and Inevitable Death in d10 minutes, Partial Save = Instant Death, Failed Save = Instant Death

If a PC reaches a state of Inevitable Death, no amount of healing, magical or otherwise, can save them from dying. At the DM's discretion, they can rouse themselves from unconsciousness long enough to choke out a few final words, but that's about it.

If a PC is reduced to -10 or less HP, they die instantly.

Skills - The list of Skills includes everything listed in the Playtest Document, plus Sneak Attack (see Rules & Magic). More Skills can be added if desired. The Open Doors Skill is simply replaced by a Strength Check if needed. EDIT: Actually, I probably am going to change the Skill list a bit more than this. See this post for details.

Climbing and Traveling use the new rules from the Playtest Document.

Skills work as explained in Rules & Magic (i.e. Roll a d6 and try to get your Skill score or lower, etc.).

At character creation, every PC starts with 4 points in one Skill and 3 points in another, as chosen by the player. Otherwise, every Skill starts at 1. Skills cannot be permanently increased beyond these starting amounts except through class-based features (for example, the Specialist starts with 4 extra skill points and gains 2 more per level) or through special effects, usually magical, which may occur over the course of various adventures in highly specific circumstances.

Gen Con 2016 Debriefing

I've edited this article to add pictures and to replace most instances of "my wife" with "Jessica" or "Jess." Previously, I didn't use her name or pictures of her because I hadn't yet asked if she was okay with such things when I first published this post, but she has since told me she is fine with having an online presence on my blog.

Sorry I haven't posted for so long! I've got a good reason for (part of) my hiatus, though: my wife Jessica and I went to Gen Con! Here are some highlights:

We played The Keep on the Borderlands in a group of about 11 players (not counting the DM) using the B/X rules. It was our first time with the Moldvay rules and with that adventure. The DM had a bunch of really nice copies of the original rulebook printed from Lulu, along with several different homemade equipment lists representing different shops in the Keep, a burlap sack with "Bag of Holding" written on it (which our party eventually won after a hard-fought battle), and some big, high-quality maps. My character (a cleric) took care of much of the healing and held the light source while our group was attacked by 3 slimes from one direction and 3 owlbears from the other - in a cave partially rendered slippery by running water, no less. Thanks to some houserules from the DM, we were a bit harder to kill than normal first-level characters, but we still lost a party member and almost lost a few more. Jessica's plate-wearing fighter survived many blows that might have felled some of the others, and her short bow helped dish out some decent damage - we each started with random histories that gave us certain abilities or items, and she wound up with extra starting money that clearly came in handy. In the end, a dwarf played by a kid who looked to be about 10 or so wound up landing the killing blows on all three owlbears. The damage he rolled was consistently, amazingly high, and he apparently got bonuses against the owlbears because of the weapon he was using. Naturally, I'm looking forward to reading (and hopefully running) B2 when I get the chance.

We also played a game of Lamentations of the Flame Princess. I had to keep ducking out to deal with some bullshit I won't bother going into here, but which was unrelated to Gen Con. Thankfully, Jess said she had a blast the whole time, and I did too while I was in the room. The DM, who was excellent, gave us a choice between Tower of the Stargazer, The God that Crawls, Death Frost Doom, and some one-page dungeons, although he admitted that he wasn't particularly feeling it with the one-page dungeons that day and would have preferred one of the first three options. We all agreed on Stargazer. Long story short, somebody let you-know-who out of the you-know-what, and only 3 of the 5 party members got out alive. I like to think that my magic-user's slime monster (conjured with the Summon spell) and Jess' specialist's time-delayed molotov cocktail (cobbled together with the Tinker skill and some high-proof alcohol) helped delay the enemy long enough for us to make our escape. Our group's fighter went down like a champ after unloading a brace of pistols into the bastard. The dwarf who freed our enemy got disintegrated for his troubles. The cleric was cool, too, but I don't remember what he did off the top of my head. Sorry! On a related note, I wish I could find the particular random starting equipment tables that the DM used to speed up character creation, because they might have been the best I've ever seen for LotFP. The cleric got an acute sense of smell, the fighter got a pet falcon, the specialist got the aforementioned alcohol, and my magic-user got Summon as one of his guaranteed starting spells. It looked like there were many more interesting possibilities, too, and the whole thing was quick and easy to use.

We played some other games that weren't RPGs, and generally enjoyed them. Our group managed to win against Hastur in a game of Elder Sign, which was cool considering that 3 of the 4 players were new to the game, and 2 of those 3 (Jess and I) had never played Arkham Horror, either - I'm told that Elder Sign is essentially just a less-complex, dice-based version of Arkham Horror. I'd be more than glad to get both Elder Sign and Arkham Horror if they weren't so freaking expensive, but that's just the way it is with board games, I guess. Anyway, Elder Sign is fun.

We played Crap or Slap and later wound up buying it, since it was only 4 bucks. It's not that different from Cards Against Humanity, but it's different enough that it kept us interested. How you feel about Crap or Slap will probably depend entirely on how much you like CAH. We played it again with a couple of friends after we came home, and we still enjoyed it. I still have no clue why it's called Crap or Slap, though. Based on the title, I expected it to be some unholy union of Bullshit and Slapjack.

We played two similar games that I believe were from the same company, Ubongo and Dimension. Both were enjoyable, but they did share the same flaw: instead of interacting with each other, they players all work on their own individual puzzles or tasks and ignore each other until the timer runs out, making these less than ideal party games. As fascinating mental challenges, I did like them, though. One is kind of like competitive Tetris, and the other involves stacking balls in an attempt to meet randomly-determined requirements about the composition of said ball stacks. Everyone knows I love a good ball stack.

As for my wish list, I got all the books I wanted and more. Our final haul included England Upturn'd, The Cursed Chateau, the LotFP Rules & Magic book, Carcosa, Vornheim, A Red & Pleasant Land, Maze of the Blue Medusa, an extra copy of Slügs (which I'm probably going to give to someone who doesn't already have it), a Lamentations tee shirt (the one with light blasting out of the Flame Princess' eyes), a Cthulhu Mythos tee shirt from Sigh Co. Graphics, Black Sun Deathcrawl, Warriors of the Red Planet, Mechanized Men of Mars, and a bunch of weird dice for Jessica's collection. I'm sure I'm leaving stuff out. I considered getting one of the LotFP hoodies that said "Because Fuck You, That's Why" but I was running out of cash and I don't think I'd ever get a whole lot of opportunity to wear it.

And of course, I met some famous people I would consider key players in the RPG industry. I love Call of Cthulhu and Quake, while Jess and I both love Doom, so I was embarrassingly awestruck when I met Sandy Petersen near the Chaosium booth. He was wearing a tee shirt with the classic Doom logo on the front and "I wrote it" on the back. He was super cool. I'm looking forward to his next game, which he told me has a very Doom-ish vibe to it.

I met both James Raggi and Aeron Alfrey at the Lamenations booth. Aeron Alfrey signed my Rules & Magic book, which rocks since he made one of my favorite pieces of art in there (and all of the fantastic art in The Monolith from Beyond Space and Time). My conversation with James Raggi went something like this:
RAGGI: (Delivers a general sales pitch, which was a really good sales pitch delivered in a friendly way but which nonetheless kind of confuses me in hindsight because I thought that he made all those flyers so he wouldn't have to do a sales pitch).
JUSTIN: Cool. I'm a huge fan. I've got a shopping list today.
RAGGI: Sure. Which ones do you want?
JUSTIN: Let's see, there's England Upturn'd, and the Cursed Chateau, and the Rules & Magic book, and...
RAGGI: Let me stop you right there. Sorry, I just want to warn you that I can only take cash right now, and I really appreciate you wanting to buy all this but I wanted to give you a fair warning in case you have a card so I don't disappoint you when we're about to finish the transaction.
JUSTIN: Nah, I already knew, but thanks. I specifically brought cash for this.
RAGGI: Oh, cool.
JUSTIN: (Lists more items, shows him a Pembrooktonshire Gardening Society Membership Card.) I don't know if this'll do anything, but I thought I might as well show you just in case.
RAGGI: Yep, that'll do something. (It got me a pretty good discount.)
JUSTIN: How much was that? You got tee shirts? Throw in a tee shirt.
JESSICA: (Having observed, as she put it, James Raggi's eyes getting bigger and bigger with every item I named) Can we get a picture with you two? He really loves what you guys do.
RAGGI AND ALFREY: Sure!
JUSTIN: I can come back when it's less busy...
RAGGI: Are you kidding me? You just gave me a ton of money. If you want a picture, the rest of the crowd can just fuck off for a minute! (To another person browsing the booth) Sorry, no offense.
OTHER PERSON: None taken!

This bystander was kind enough to snap some photos. Instead of "cheese," he had us say "Fuck for Satan!" so whoever he is, he's more than okay in my book. James Raggi did a pretty impressive scream/head bang combo, a touch which I appreciated. I think it's kind of his "thing" when he does pictures with fans. So yeah, James Raggi and Aeron Alfrey are fucking rad.

Later, we went past the LotFP booth again to check out some other booths, and I saw Kiel Chenier from a distance, but I didn't bug him because he was already dealing with a crowd and looked pretty busy. Maybe I should put a Missed Connections ad on Craigslist. That wouldn't be creepy at all. Speaking of Missed Connections, I looked for the Zak/Stoya/Stokely crew, but I couldn't find them during the one chance I had before I needed to get moving for one event or another. I also heard that Zzarchov Kowolski and Jobe Bittman were at the LotFP booth at various points. So to all those I missed: Hi! Thanks for making cool stuff!

Finally, we went to a panel discussion called How to Roll Winning Numbers hosted by none other than industry legend and dice-making extraordinaire Lou Zocchi. I wish I could begin to summarize all of the fascinating and funny history and trivia he shared about those funny little dice RPG players like me take for granted. Being obsessed with dice, Jess took notes. She's expressed interest in writing a guest post for my blog about Lou Zocchi and/or the quirks of dice, so hopefully we can look forward to that. EDIT: Here it is!

We saw many more wonders in the land of the nerds: three good concerts, a hilarious (and informative!) panel on detecting bullshit on the internet, legions of incredible cosplayers, and so much more. I don't know if we can go again next year, but I sure hope so!

As for my friends who let us crash at their place: thank you so much for saving us the cost of a hotel and for showing us around the city and making us feel welcome!

Holmes Basic D&D Rulebook Part 12 - Summaries & Skeletons

PROBABLY NOT SAFE FOR WORK BECAUSE OF HARPY NIPPLES. WHICH IS DUMB.

PART 12 OF 12

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11

Let's start my wrap-up by looking at the art I haven't mentioned yet.

Image from HERE

This is the TSR logo on my copy of the book. He's like the Platonic ideal of a wizard. He's even got the Fantasia hat with all the cute little stars on it. I wonder how this dude would fare in a knife fight.

Image from HERE

Too bad there aren't any stats for lizard men or giant riding lizards in Holmes Basic, because this is a cool image. EDIT: I forgot that there are lizard men in the book. My bad! There are no giant lizards for riding in the book, however. Good thing it's so easy to create new stuff (or borrow it from elsewhere) in the classic versions of D&D. Something about the way the characters are surveying the land gives me a sense that there's this great big fantasy world out there, just waiting to be seen.

Image from HERE

How nice of that fighting man to help that Minotaur with his cardio. Much like yours truly, it looks like he could use it. Also, the weapons and armor on display are pretty stylish. I like the Greek mythology vibe going on here.

Image from HERE

I think these are meant to be Dwarves,. Very Viking/Anglo-Saxon. The silhouetted, cartoony face of the guy in the middle reminds me vaguely of an Adventure Time character, although I'm not sure which one. The variety of equipment is nice. They look like they're holding their weapons awkwardly, though. I think the guy on the left is using his ax to point out some toilet paper stuck to the shoe of a friend out of frame.

Image from HERE

I think this is my favorite piece of art in the book.

Image from HERE

Nipples? In a game for people as young as 12? It's more likely than you think. (It's only because of annoying prudes that this is even worth pointing out.) Also, these harpies are terrifying. Those poor adventurers are doomed.

Image from HERE

Git gud, chump. Hope you brought plenty of Estus.

Image from HERE

I usually think of a manticore as an enraged, flesh-rending murder-beast, but the look on this one's face is more like that of an inquisitive, slightly perturbed who-farted-beast. The tail looks appropriately pokey, though.

Image from HERE

Are those skeletons frowning? I didn't know a skeleton could frown. They must be sad because all the good skeleton music wasn't out yet in the 1970s.

Image from HERE

I think I had a toy sword and scabbard that looked more or less like this when I was a kid. They're probably still in a box in my parents' basement, like the toy shotgun they used in Doom.

Image from HERE

I never understood the candle-on-a-skull thing. Wouldn't a regular candle work way better? I like how the magic wand looks like the plastic toy wand I had as a kid (like the sword above), except with a little knob on one end. This stuff must belong to an EVIL wizard, since there's a bottle of poison just sitting out in the open.

Image from HERE

Open the tomb, face skeletal doom. That's just the way the world works.

I'm very fond of the art in Holmes Basic. It sets the mood fantastically, and I kind of wish there was more of it, although I'm not sure where they could have fit any more art in such a slim volume.

Overall, what else was I especially fond of?

• This book can work as a very good intro to either OD&D or later editions of Basic D&D, it can probably work fairly well as an intro to AD&D (since this is what the book actually claims to be intended for), and with a little work it can even be paired with David Cook's Expert Set (or so I've heard) or simply used on its own (and expanded with house rules if desired).
• The rules don't seem to care too much about really fiddly details like whether or not spells can be cast one-handed or while holding an item. I like this simplicity, since I think it gives players more room for creative solutions to their problems and prevents them from having to constantly second-guess whether or not they can actually do whatever simple action seems appropriate because the DM keeps citing some obscure rule buried in the book.
• The encumbrance rules are similarly fast and loose in a lot of ways, but the few restrictions that are in place seem reasonable. I like the idea of specifying exactly how your character is carrying each piece of gear, provided this doesn't bog the game down too much and completely get in the way of the aforementioned lack of fiddly details.
• While exploring, characters move really quickly, but have to stop and rest every so often. It's an interesting dynamic that might be worth trying.
• The phrase "for adults 12 years and up" sends a good message about who can play and how they should conduct themselves while playing. Don't be a jerk, use your imagination, and play intelligently, and you'll probably be fine and have fun whether you're a kid or a grownup.
• House rules and common sense rulings are encouraged.
• Monsters are presented as often having personalities and motivations, and aren't always mindless killers.
• Mechanically speaking, fighting women seem to be treated the same as fighting men.
• The rules for swapping ability scores at character creation are intriguing, if a bit complicated. I like this approach more than just being stuck with exactly what you roll, and it's nice that you can still have a chance of getting decent ability scores for the class of your choice when things don't turn out as you'd hoped at first.
• Elves are basically multi-class fighting men and magic-users at the same time, and don't have to switch between classes or chose one class or the other for a specific outing (as some have interpreted the rules in OD&D). It seems simpler and less annoying this way, and the advantages of being a multi-class character are presumably offset by the increased XP needed per level.
• Players are encouraged to make up new classes and races, as long as they start out fairly week and get stronger over time by acquiring XP.
• Dr. Holmes is a great writer. He generally keeps things helpful and concise while also adding in some nice little jokes and bits of flavor. The various examples of play are especially nice.
• I don't really like alignment in D&D, but as far as alignment systems go, I like this one more than the AD&D version because it cuts out the alignments that bug me the most.
• Fighting men are not only good at fighting, but carrying heavy loads as well.
• To quote myself, "I like the idea that an Open Door check isn't about whether or not a PC can open a stuck door at all, but rather whether or not they can do it quickly and/or quietly."
• Doors are evil bastards that actively work against the party.
• The tables for wandering monsters and reaction rolls strike me as well-crafted.
• The DM is encouraged to balance encounters to the skill and capabilities of the party.
• If monsters are chasing the party, they can be distracted or deterred by dropped food, treasure, or burning oil.
• The tables are all easy to read and compact. They are also repeated at the end of the book.
• PCs can draw weapons quickly as long as they're not buried in a backpack or something.
• Scrolls are cheap and easy to make. Magic-users don't seem so puny when they're packing arsenals of scrolls.
• There are rules for magic-users to create new spells.
• The spell list includes a ton of cool stuff despite being so small.
• If you hit 0 HP, you're dead. No "bleeding out" rules here. Easy to remember and appropriately brutal.
• The words "Melee is the most exciting part of the game" appear within, giving me plenty of ammo for silly internet debates.
• Flaming oil is awesome.
• Ranged attacks have a +1 bonus to hit at short range and a -1 to hit at long range. I prefer this to the approach I've seen in other D&D-type games, which is to give no bonus at short range and increasing penalties at medium and long ranges. It's easier to remember and it makes medium range feel like the "proper" range for distance-based weapons while short range is more like point-blank range in that it's easier to hit a close target than usual (provided that target isn't right on top of you and swinging a sword).
• While underground, archers can't attack at the long range increment unless the ceiling is high.
• The rules for parrying are neat.
• Withdrawing from melee gives your opponent a free swing at you.
• Skeletons don't take less damage from edged or piercing weapons. It's not like a sword is incapable of inflicting blunt force trauma, you know?
• The monster list is full of awesome creatures.
• There is good advice for scaling down monsters.
• As John Wilson pointed out in the comment section for Part 9, the more powerful monsters that are provided can provide a great challenge for large groups of PCs who cut through lesser enemies with ease.
• You can identify a potion by taking a little sip.
• Protection scrolls can be used by anyone.
• The implication that reading a scroll activates it lends itself to some creative uses for scrolls beyond the usual ones.
• The Ring of Regeneration is super powerful.
• The Ring of Contrariness is hilarious.
• Wands can be used in melee.
• "Wands that have projectiles or rays are considered to do six 6-sided dice of damage and to have 100 charges or projectiles." Wow!
• There's a good variety of magic items in general.
• There are consequences for using your hirelings as guinea pigs to test out magic items.
• The advice for stocking the dungeon is very helpful.
• The sample dungeon is cool, and I want to run it.
• All this and more is packed into 48 pages.

In the interest of fairness, here are a few things I didn't care for in Holmes Basic:

• The default, mechanical uses of the ability scores aren't exactly created equal (then again, when are they?), and I'm not a big fan of the way they seem to be more useful for DM fiat than more predictable advantages and disadvantages.
• Human fighting men seem a bit sucky compared to the other classes.
• The book seems to have some weird prejudice against the thief class. Ditto with poison.
• All monsters can see in the dark. I'm fine with most of them having this ability, but there are some that probably shouldn't have it.
• Less XP is rewarded for defeating enemies below your level, which feels like overkill to me.
• The book seems to waffle on the topic of conflict between players, and I don't like the advice to decrease the XP award for sneaking off with the party's treasure while the others are left to die. I think there are better ways to handle that situation.
• I'm not too fond of limiting the use of thief skills to one try per situation, but I don't hate the idea either.
• I don't like the way the rules determine what spells a magic-user knows and what spells can be learned in the future.
• I think the chance of failure when researching a new spell is too high.
• The need for the "Read Magic" spell is crappy.
• Fighting men don't get a bonus to hit at levels 1 to 3.
• The rules regarding shooting into melee are...confusing.
• Some magic weapons only give you a bonus to hit, while others also give you the same bonus to hit and to damage. I don't see the point in creating this difference.
• That bit about daggers hitting twice per round and large weapons only hitting once every other round should probably be ignored.
• A lot of weapons (especially crossbows) don't seem too useful when all weapons do 1d6 damage.
• I think the game would be better off if it either stuck closely to the idea that almost all attacks and HD are d6-based, or discarded the idea completely and used variable weapon damage. The hybrid approach taken by Holmes Basic seems to me like the worst of both worlds.
• Only being able to level up every 6 to 12 adventures (not counting low-treasure expeditions) might be a bit harsh, especially if the players have busy or unpredictable schedules.

Overall, I enjoyed the heck out of this book, and would definitely recommend at least checking it out if you get the chance and you're interested in old-school D&D. I'd give the Holmes Basic D&D Rulebook an underground domed city accessible via giant stone skull out of 10.

After reading through this book, I'm left with a major question: how do I personally want to use it at the table? Here's the idea I'm leaning toward at the moment. The party starts out on the Dungeon Moon from Papers & Pencils (which I've mentioned before) using the Holmes Basic rules. If they make it past the third level of experience and/or escape the Dungeon Moon, we start to transition into OD&D rules. I figure this is a good fit since Holmes Basic seems in many ways like a simplified and clarified version of the rules from the three Little Brown Books and some bits from Supplement I. Also, I've really been wanting to try out an OD&D game, but as I've mentioned before, the original booklets can be a little intimidating for beginners like me. Anyway, if the party makes it to the planet below, the game becomes a West Marches-style wilderness hexcrawl using the board from Avalon Hill's Outdoor Survival. In short, I think I would mash together my OD&D and Holmes Basic ideas from this post, along with the Dungeon Moon concept, adding in more ideas if they seem appropriate, of course.

I guess that wraps up my overview. If you have any thoughts you'd like to share about Holmes Basic or anything related, please feel free to leave a comment. Until next time, keep your wand of petrifaction close at hand, by Crom!