Swords, politics, warfare, and strife all against the occult clash of history mark the England Upturn'd adventure campaign book from the twisted pen of Barry Blatt. Now Barry reached out to me on G+ and shared some of the additional material on his blog that supports the adventure. After reading through ninety percent of it, I feel like its a great asside to add to the over all feel of weirdness and warfare of the product.
I already did a complete review of England Upturn'd right over here and I think its a damn bloody good piece of thunderously nasty book for the Lamentations of the Flame Princess system.
How is it different then other alternative historical setting books such as Dark Albion? Well besides being set in a completely different era of English history, it also impacts much more squarely into the blood and thunder pulp era material of writers such as Robert Howard's Solomon Kane series. The occult and magickal elements are taking a center stage with the various factions working and scheming against the backdrop of politics of the first half of the English Civil War. Its not an era in English history to take lightly at all and its echoes are still felt today on the ground in England in everything religion to the impact of the blood that was split on the ground there. How does this impact the PC's in England Upturn'd? Its at the very center point of their lives and the events happening around them.
Some other free resources that I ran across today on the Public Domain Review website also fit some of the themes, ideas, settings, and elements explored in England Upturn'd and with a bit of work could be used to blow open entire campaign venues into past or future histories for Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Let's start with some of the more obvious ones :
I already did a complete review of England Upturn'd right over here and I think its a damn bloody good piece of thunderously nasty book for the Lamentations of the Flame Princess system.
How is it different then other alternative historical setting books such as Dark Albion? Well besides being set in a completely different era of English history, it also impacts much more squarely into the blood and thunder pulp era material of writers such as Robert Howard's Solomon Kane series. The occult and magickal elements are taking a center stage with the various factions working and scheming against the backdrop of politics of the first half of the English Civil War. Its not an era in English history to take lightly at all and its echoes are still felt today on the ground in England in everything religion to the impact of the blood that was split on the ground there. How does this impact the PC's in England Upturn'd? Its at the very center point of their lives and the events happening around them.
Some other free resources that I ran across today on the Public Domain Review website also fit some of the themes, ideas, settings, and elements explored in England Upturn'd and with a bit of work could be used to blow open entire campaign venues into past or future histories for Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Let's start with some of the more obvious ones :
- Rainbow-coloured Beasts from 15th-Century Book of Hours - wonderfully weird multi colored beasts from a weird mystical past that never existed fits right into the elements of the weird world of the past that has been lost from England Upturn'd
- Topsell’s History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents (1658) - This is a biological and mythic tour de force with lots of fodder for Lamentations
"Published in 1658, more than thirty years after his death, this book brings together Edward Topsell’s The History of Four-footed Beasts (1607) and The History of Serpents (1608). Totalling more than 1000 pages, this epic treatise on zoology explores ancient and fantastic legends about existing animals, as well as those at the more mythic end of the spectrum, including the “Hydra” (with two claws, a curled serpent’s tail, and seven small mammalian heads), the “Lamia” (with a cat-like body and woman’s face and hair), and the “Mantichora” (with lion’s body and mane, a man’s face and hair, and a grotesquely smiling mouth)." - Is there a unique occult artist of England whose largely unknown today and yet fits many of the themes of England Upturn'd? Yes in the form of The Strange Case of Mr William T. Horton
- Need a bit of side expansion into some of the Alchemy that England Upturn'd brings to the table? Francis van Helmont and the Alphabet of Nature could help out in that regard
- Hyperspace, ghosts, and colourful cubes – Jon Crabb on the work of Charles Howard Hinton and the cultural history of higher dimensions is a perfect addition for DM's and players who want to understand some of the bizzare mathematics and occult theory behind the history in both Lamentations and England Upturn'd
England Upturn'd is a complex and wonderfully weird addition to the Lamentations of the Flame Princess line and its impact with regards to history should not be underestimated. With a bit of work and expansion this book could be used as a stepping stone into a whole range of history and extended campaign weirdness for the dungeon master who wants to make the effort.
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