The post apocalyptic wastelands are a dangerous and deadly place rife with all kinds of challenges. The Lamentations of the Flame Princess is a perfect choice to get your PA game off the ground and here's why.
When I take a look at long term campaigning over the years one thing becomes very obvious to me. The campaign world that a DM creates themselves are the ones that last over the long haul. Because a DM and the players invest into the world & setting themselves over the long haul. This is the complete opposite of new school games where the characters are all. Post apocalyptic rpg games are the perfect venue of this sort of gaming. The science fantasy setting is central to the game and the PC's are completely disposable. Worlds and settings matter and when the clock chimes & it all ends. That's when the campaign usual begins, & after running countless post apocalyptic game adventures and rpgs a few things come home to me. The end of the world is fun, the struggle for survive comes at terrible prices & gonzo adventure always sells the game setting. Thus we come to Lamentations of the Flame Princess whose system is perfect for dipping right into the wastes and horrors of the post apocalyptic. Wastelands filled with mutants are ripe for exploitation by the powers that be in Lusus Naturae. I've been going over my notes for my LoFP game involving Lusus Naturae and the atomic war comics from the 1950's. Believe it or not there's a connection between the two styles of entertainment. LoFP is a brutal,violent, and f@#$ up game and precode comics are no different. They didn't sugar coat their violence and insanity. Several of the OSR games that I DM offer similar styles of play but very different approaches to the material. But out of the OSR material LoFP offers some great grim dark options for the post apocalyptic set up.
So why use this sort of system, because the skill system is perfect for a post apocalyptic world. There are several elements that Clint Krause goes into in this video.
When I take a look at long term campaigning over the years one thing becomes very obvious to me. The campaign world that a DM creates themselves are the ones that last over the long haul. Because a DM and the players invest into the world & setting themselves over the long haul. This is the complete opposite of new school games where the characters are all. Post apocalyptic rpg games are the perfect venue of this sort of gaming. The science fantasy setting is central to the game and the PC's are completely disposable. Worlds and settings matter and when the clock chimes & it all ends. That's when the campaign usual begins, & after running countless post apocalyptic game adventures and rpgs a few things come home to me. The end of the world is fun, the struggle for survive comes at terrible prices & gonzo adventure always sells the game setting. Thus we come to Lamentations of the Flame Princess whose system is perfect for dipping right into the wastes and horrors of the post apocalyptic. Wastelands filled with mutants are ripe for exploitation by the powers that be in Lusus Naturae. I've been going over my notes for my LoFP game involving Lusus Naturae and the atomic war comics from the 1950's. Believe it or not there's a connection between the two styles of entertainment. LoFP is a brutal,violent, and f@#$ up game and precode comics are no different. They didn't sugar coat their violence and insanity. Several of the OSR games that I DM offer similar styles of play but very different approaches to the material. But out of the OSR material LoFP offers some great grim dark options for the post apocalyptic set up.
So why use this sort of system, because the skill system is perfect for a post apocalyptic world. There are several elements that Clint Krause goes into in this video.
Now about the mutations, abilities,etc. well there is a 'pay what you'd like' option that works quite well in the form of the Metamorphica or you could use the mutation tables from Carcosa. The real contender for this style of game is probably Mutant Future with a healthy heaping of Realms of Crawling Chaos.
Realms of Crawling Chaos has several systems that can handle everything from arcane Lovecraftian alien technologies and a decent psionic system for the Lovecraft races detailed in the book. This dovetails straight into the alien horrors detailed in Lusus Naturae. There's also the fact that there are numerous free OD&D style resources for retro future style tech right over HERE.
This brings me to Atomic Age Combat #3, an issue with all of the right elements of space style atomic warfare, weird pseudo Jonny Quest style retro-future technologies and the perfect amount of retro-future tech that is ripe for plunder for jump off point for a campaign. This has that pseudo weird pulp vibe that chimes perfectly with the grim dark possibilities of LoFP. But why added in that system? Because it makes a certain amount of sense with the weird science fictional and science fantasy of many of the LoFP adventure source books. Try and imagine an alternative nineteen fifty nine right after the atomic balloon goes up and the entities of Lusus Naturae come calling!
Grab it right over HERE
Or advance the plot ahead by a hundred or two hundred years when the Old Ones come back and you've got a mix of Lovecraftian races, mutants, LoFP freebooters,outlaws,etc.
But I can hear you asking but lately you've been covering DCC and Crawling Under A Broken Moon why not simply use that in place of Lamentations of the Flame Princess or one of the other retro-clone systems. Well its actually one of scale and timing, LoFP while attacking and going over the same ground as DCC does it from a completely different approach. According to Jeff's Gameblog LoFP is '
Assuming you aren't weirded out by the artwork then LotFP shines as pretty much the tightest version of D&D ever.' You can read more about that right over Here
DCC is also meant as an OSR expansionist retroclone system that pulls from the Appendix 'N' pool. It does adventures very well, the PC's are not heroes and the level system generated from the funnel character creation scales completely up from other retroclones like LoFP. A first level DCC character is about an LoFP second or third level PC. LoFP is a level intensive system that emulates and corrects many of the issues of Basic D&D. The retrofuture technology of Atomic Age Combat is perfectly handled by Mutant Future or even some of the material in Carcosa.
Basically because of the nature of DYI post apocalyptic gaming the more successful worlds are created from the ground up and then peppered with the dungeon master's take on the PA setting as they like it. Overtime PA settings are likely to grow and change as the play style and needs of the players evolve with the setting. This is something that is often seen in early editions of Gamma World and its predecessor Metamorphosis Alpha. This is esepecially true of MA whose entire system is built around the Star Ship Warden and its environs. Lamentations of The Flame Princess builds and grows its material through each of its adventures in turn allowing a DM to pick and chose the meta world as the play suits. This is one of the more successful stratagems for continuing play over the long term and one of the ways in which DM can keep having players coming back to their tables over the long haul and long term.
Rafael Chandler, and all art by Gennifer Bone in Lusus Naturae gives the book a hands on created feel and allows the relationships that the monsters have with each other to bleed directly into a campaign. DM's should and need to take note of these and exploit them to the fullest. These sorts of relationships can even be seen in Rafeal's other projects as well. Such as the ViewScream Second edition and other upcoming projects. Gennifer Bone's art continues to impress me and she even has a Patreon, site set up. Give her work a look and become a patron of the arts with her.
In closing there is a balance between the care and feeding of a setting and the uses of a post apocalyptic setting in old school games and OSR games as well.
Next time DCC and the OSR post apocalyptic wastelands where mutants make an impact. Sometimes in a crater!
Grab it right over HERE
Or advance the plot ahead by a hundred or two hundred years when the Old Ones come back and you've got a mix of Lovecraftian races, mutants, LoFP freebooters,outlaws,etc.
But I can hear you asking but lately you've been covering DCC and Crawling Under A Broken Moon why not simply use that in place of Lamentations of the Flame Princess or one of the other retro-clone systems. Well its actually one of scale and timing, LoFP while attacking and going over the same ground as DCC does it from a completely different approach. According to Jeff's Gameblog LoFP is '
Assuming you aren't weirded out by the artwork then LotFP shines as pretty much the tightest version of D&D ever.' You can read more about that right over Here
DCC is also meant as an OSR expansionist retroclone system that pulls from the Appendix 'N' pool. It does adventures very well, the PC's are not heroes and the level system generated from the funnel character creation scales completely up from other retroclones like LoFP. A first level DCC character is about an LoFP second or third level PC. LoFP is a level intensive system that emulates and corrects many of the issues of Basic D&D. The retrofuture technology of Atomic Age Combat is perfectly handled by Mutant Future or even some of the material in Carcosa.
Basically because of the nature of DYI post apocalyptic gaming the more successful worlds are created from the ground up and then peppered with the dungeon master's take on the PA setting as they like it. Overtime PA settings are likely to grow and change as the play style and needs of the players evolve with the setting. This is something that is often seen in early editions of Gamma World and its predecessor Metamorphosis Alpha. This is esepecially true of MA whose entire system is built around the Star Ship Warden and its environs. Lamentations of The Flame Princess builds and grows its material through each of its adventures in turn allowing a DM to pick and chose the meta world as the play suits. This is one of the more successful stratagems for continuing play over the long term and one of the ways in which DM can keep having players coming back to their tables over the long haul and long term.
Rafael Chandler, and all art by Gennifer Bone in Lusus Naturae gives the book a hands on created feel and allows the relationships that the monsters have with each other to bleed directly into a campaign. DM's should and need to take note of these and exploit them to the fullest. These sorts of relationships can even be seen in Rafeal's other projects as well. Such as the ViewScream Second edition and other upcoming projects. Gennifer Bone's art continues to impress me and she even has a Patreon, site set up. Give her work a look and become a patron of the arts with her.
In closing there is a balance between the care and feeding of a setting and the uses of a post apocalyptic setting in old school games and OSR games as well.
Next time DCC and the OSR post apocalyptic wastelands where mutants make an impact. Sometimes in a crater!
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