OSR Commentary - Why I Still Love The Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg

 There are some OSR games that always seem to leap back into my hands as Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg. Why?! Not only is the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg one of the most iconic OSR role playing games. LoFP is also a suitable reimagining & editing of Mentzer Dungeons & Dragons. According a review by John Q Public; " What you get is a clear and focused restatement of the Basic D&D rules focused on what those rules do best: survival horror. But unlike the high fantasy safari of Dungeons & Dragons, LotFP Weird Fantasy concentrates on desperate treasure hunters hailing from a grimy replica of our own planet in the Renaissance/early modern period, where magic is a dreadful aberration and ne'er-do-wells who rob tombs and chance brushes with unknown horrors are shunned."

"The "D&D" you get is a finely-crafted rendition of the classic game: 7 classes include the Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User, Specialist, Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling. Saving Throws are divided into 5 categories, and magic involves spellbooks, memorization, casting, and forgetting. Attacks are resolved with a d20 roll compared with a range of Armor Classes, modified by Dexterity. XP is earned almost entirely by recovering treasure from dangerous adventure sites"
LoFP is a lean & very mean set of OSR rules. This is a good thing because it means that Lamentations handles two aspects of OSR gaming very well. One of these is survival horror & the second is horror based historical gaming. 
What many modern gamers fail to grasp is the fact that centeral to LoFP the adventures are actually the sourcebooks for the Dark Historical Europe campaign  setting. This setting goes far beyond the normal D&D style adventure module. The adventure module is taken up by a totally different style or direction. Instead in LoFP we get expansions of the world of LoFP that the DM can take or leave as needed. 

There have been many a time when over the years I've thrown aside the artwork of LoFP. Instead over the years the rules have really speaks to me as a DM. The world of LoFP is our Earth with the supernatural not only real but exceedingly dangerous. 
And the amount of sourcebooks & addition materials allows the DM to truly customize the game in the direction that they want. And it's this customization aspect truly makes LoFP a different animal then many other OSR games on the rpg market.