Review & Commentary On The Lovecraftian Horror Short Film The Harbinger As Adventure Fodder For Your Old School Games

So about three weeks ago  I got sent a link to Harbinger a Lovecraftian short with a bit of a difference, it's entirely shot from the first person perspective. Harbinger has  got some very interesting twists and turns to it. The film is a quick watch and very well done in my humble opinion and remains true to its Lovecraftian roots. Is there a gaming twist to this film as adventure fodder? Yes and not the obvious Lovecraftian goodness. Go watch the film first before continuing this review and article.

As you can see here we've got lots of plot twists and turns that bring home the predicament that our protagonist finds himself in. With the cabin and the rest of it, I was reminded of the cultclassic Army of Darkness films. The cabin the woods, the odd perspective shots, the soundtrack, and even the odd twisted ending of the film. So what does this have to do with old school gaming? Well quite a bit, especially a concept that doesn't get talked about a lot. One on one play with OD&D, and before you go running off hear me out. Some horrors by their very nature are on a personal level and a week a go I did a one on one D&D expert game with a friend. The results were interesting because he's a big Evil Dead fan. But instead of the usual modules I chose Maze of the Riddling Minotaur by Jeff Grubb.  Which I've had this adventure for years and many moons ago had its sections coloured in. I decided to change some of the elements out and add in some of my own Evil Dead style Lovecraftian plot elements to it.
So basically it goes like this a splinter group of Star Wisdom cultists has kidnapped the princess to the island of Vacros and it is feared that a page of the Necronomicon is being kept there. You have been sent to the island to find the princess and rescue her from the clutches of the depravity of the cult. The rest of the module can be kept intact and then it could be used for group play or you could even make your own version with this numbered version of the maze here at the bottom of the thread on Dragon's foot.

The game adventure went very well but now the player wants to bring a party back to the island to rid the world of these mad bastards hell bent on bringing the undead to an unsuspecting world. The play session and intensity was light and fun, I didn't over do the horror. The intensity and energy of play was really something that came from Harbinger. These seem inspired by other horror movies. Harbinger's intensity and situations seem to borrow some its elements from early Eighties horror; this especially reminded me of the first of the Evil Dead films in a good way. This was one of the reasons why I used a one one on one style of play. The elements are very well done and the Lovecraft vibe is pretty damn sweet in what it does.



One of the things that I came away from this film was the fact you can't really over the jump elements and scares in both a horror film and a one on one session of old school horror rpging. I also dialed back the adult themes and gore a bit so as not to act as a trigger for my player. Yes it seems like its a bit of stretch coming from me but the factor here was to have an origin point for a possible campaign opener and that's one of the things that this film brought to the table for me. A slightly different direction and jump off point for a Summer campaign but all in all I really love the exuberance and energy that Harbinger pulls from its audience. I'm really hoping to see more from this folks.

Reveiw & Commentary On The Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess Adventure By Zzarchov Kowolski For the Lamentations of the Flame Princess Rpg and Your Old School Campaigns

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  Its just about six A.M. and I'm not entirely sure what the hell Zzarchov Kowolski's fairy tales were as a kid but Lamentations of the Ginger Bread Princess is an inversion of every single fairy tale trope on the books. This is only about twenty pages long yet it can be spread out over at least three or four days of game play. And the PC's are not going to be happy about it at all.  I went to James Raggi IV and asked for a review copy of this module with the full understanding of what it is. Well, according to the the Drivethrurpg blurb:
Sometimes you want to play an adventure where you can recapture that feeling of childlike innocence. And, sometimes, wishes do come true.
LotFP presents more hard biting horror: Now with unicorns, gumdrops and rainbows! By Zzarchov Kowolski (Gnomes of Levnec, A Thousand Dead Babies)  for character levels 1-4. 
This is an interesting gonzo over the top pink laden fairy tale adventure.
Definitely don't believe Drivethrpg reviewer Troy V  who describes this adventure as and I quote here, ' Interesting tables and encounters, but the results of some choices and punishments depicted for unhappiness are unsettling, gruesome, sick, and wretched, and my players would not stand this adventure in whole as written, and neither do I.' Excuse me whist I take acceptation to this review and Troy V's reviews on the whole are done with a sense of malice for the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg and their product line as a whole on purpose. While, preparing for a Winter Lamentations of the Flame Princess game I came across at least eight reviews of his on Drivethrurpg and found them with all the same opinion verbatim and some of them varied just enough to be vile and on purpose about it. So I'm taking exception to his reviews and I'm going to show you how to run, deal with and use some of the LoFP modules.   Is the Lamentations of the Gingerbeard Princess adventure  twisted and utterly sick? Yup, it certainly is. I had no idea that Zzarchov Kowolski had written this module but I'm not surprised at all. I seem to be drawn to his adventures. So what is Lamentations of the Ginger Bread Princess? Well, its a fairy tale inversion  adventure involving a bunch of factions and hobbits in a mechanically pretty well done style. This adventure revolves around a Dark Woods setting and all is not happy in this fairy tale land. Not because this is a Lamentations adventure but because this adventure touches on the darker, nightmare aspects of a LoFP fairyland. Power gamers are going to be in for a very bad time in this adventure. Because there are lots of pop culture fairy tale high weirdness for the PC's to encounter. This module takes full advantage of that fact;the real reason is that this module is so weird is looking at fairy tales as adults we see the inherit creepiness of them. Yeah, this module takes full advantage of this fact in spades.



This whole adventure centers around the Dark Woods location, the maps fit the adventure, there are at least three or more NPC's that  I can see using and without spoiling the demented fun there's lots that can be done with this adventure. One place that Zzarchov Kowolski excels at is taking existing preconceptions about mythology and pop culture legends and twisting them around like balloon animals. No more so then with this adventure and yes this will be your characters if your not careful. Because in fairyland, PC's are in for a very rough time. These will be your PC's bones which will be play things for the Fey.


Do I love this adventure? Yes, I do because last year I actually got a chance to check it out and almost die in it. There are several interesting wrinkles in this adventure because this is a Kowolski adventure and mechanically its a really wild ride to play in. I suggest several read through though before attempting to play. There are two or three major play areas and some very dangerous encounters straight out of the gate. What's going to keep the PC's right in the middle of the action in this module is simple human greed straight out of the gate because from there on out it get's weird in a majorly twisted way. If your thinking that this is a one trick pony like an episode of Robot Chicken, the Simpsons, etc. in the way that it plays with popculture fairy  icons? Not a chance, this is a LoFP module that takes those and wrecks them in spades. There are some issues with this module its not perfect by any means, the layout, graphic design, and some other elements leave something to be desired. But that doesn't detract from using the adventure. It not on sale at the moment and runs about four dollars over at drivethru. There will be other sales coming up and I do think its worth picking up.

Using Lamentations Of The Ginger Bread Princess
For Your Old School Campaigns
For the love of God, use this adventure as a separate realm from your regular campaign. The elements of Lamentations of the Ginger Bread Princess are weird to say the least. But if you don't mind using it for a one shot over the top bit of fun. Then by all means do so.
Once upon a time I worked in a toy store for an after high school job and as soon as the lights started going off in the stuffed animal or doll  toy section things got creepy kinda weird. That's the same feeling I got reading Lamentations of the Ginger Bread Princess.

We have a tendency to think of fairy tales as fun little romps through fairyland and
Zzarchov Kowolski has shown me time and again that's not the case. Lamentations of the Ginger Bread Princess could be used as a mid level bridge gap trap adventure. The idea here being that your PC's blunder into the situation (God help them if there is a hobbit in the party) and the hi jinks happen from there. But there is another possibility as well, take the fey factions in the adventure & add them into the back story of The Land of Unreason for A Red and Pleasant Land. 

 Does the vampiric meta fiction setting of AR&PL fit the background and tone of Lamentations of The Ginger Bread Princess? Possibly in a real nightmare fuel sort of way and given the way that clever DM's are at using a bit of slight of hand waving to make this fit I'd say yes.
Now that being said there are plenty of other uses for using Ginger bread Princess, for example the adventure could be used with other old school campaigns as a sort of nightmare bridge gap with a game like Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea where the PC's have to think their way out of the dark nightmarish land of Fey.
But wait there's more kids, I've seen time and again folks using LoFP products with the Dungeon Crawl Classics. There are several over the top elements in Gingerbread Princess that could fit right into the DCC zone for spell casters and gasp Patrons with a bit of work on the Dungeon Master's part.



More over then simply the utility of this adventure Gingerbread Princess gives a solid look into the realms of the Fairy in LoFP and a clever Dungeon Master could with a bit of work take these guidelines and create their own Fairyland realm. Something that I'm going to be doing very soon.This adventure also makes a great holiday run through adventure for Halloween coming up or even as a Christmas themed blood letting adventure.

Review & Commentary Tales Of The Scarecrow For The Lamentations Of The Flame Princess rpg System & Other Old School Campaigns

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HERE

One of the things that the latest OSR dust up has reminded me is that there are so many great Lamentations Of The Flame Princess titles and I'm not going to go on and on about how wonderful they are. Instead, I'm going to concentrate how absolutely nasty they are. Tales of the Scarecrow is only ten pages long but its the sort of situation adventure that happens unto itself and your adventurers. I've had the adventure for two days and after tossing and twisting in my mind after reading plus doing a bit of research and reading some of the reviews I can honestly say that its very good at what it does. Its a trap waiting for adventurers to happen upon it and spring it.

  Try and imagine a pseudo American EC Tales From The Crypt comic through the lens of  James Raggi's  Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg. That's how Tales of the Scarcecrow feels to me reading though it. This adventure could be inserted into any old school campaign being run between beginning of the 17th century right up through the the early-to-mid 19th century. Personally, this adventure feels like a love letter to the original Stephen King Children of the Corn  set after all of the kids have vanished and only the demon remains.  Sort of. The similarities end right about with the cornfield though and the monster.
There is something distinctly early America about Tales From The Scarecrow the names, history, etc all have an American flavor to them. The artwork, maps, and set up are very evocative and well done for the product. Basically all of the events within Tales are a one act play sort of an adventure, all of the events taking place within a valley that can easily be inserted anyplace into a campaign. There is a feeling of almost but not quite timeless dread that hangs around the adventure and it almost feels as if it might be inserted between adventures for PC's who are high off of their latest triumphs with gold and glory.  There is a farmhouse in the middle of a field of corn, and then things get interesting. PC's are going to have to deal with Donner party interesting sort of way.

In point of fact I've read through a friend's copy of Tales From The Scarecrow; I have been wanting to do something with the adventure location for a long time now. The abandoned farmhouse could be made timeless and multidimensional to serve as a bridge gap with other times and places why should only regular LoFP parties have all of the fun. This adventure takes the usual Lovecraft tropes uses them and then puts a slightly different spin on them by allowing PC's to make their own mark on the location including their own deaths if necessary. This makes the crossover factor something that can go up by a factor of ten.


For example some of the back history of the farm and the LoFP magic items are steeped readily enough in their own mythology to allow them to have the entire location slip into a timeless other dimensional 'someplace' enabling PC's from a Red and Pleasant Land, No Salvation From Witches, or Scenic Dunnsmouth  

This is especially true of Scenic Dunnsmouth which provides a great random generation tool kit for its location, town, inhabitants, etc. The cornfield, house,etc. of Tales of the Scarecrow could all be set within its own section of the world of Scenic Dunnsmouth given a bit of clever DM slight of hand work. In point of fact this is exactly the sort of a task that Zzarchov Kowolski designed for Scenic Dunnsmouth. This can take a short ten page adventure and roll it out into a memorable campaign of epic proportions.In point of fact the monster from Tales of The Scarecrow can easily be back linked into Scenic Dunnsmouth to create a thread of dread throughout. A technique I've stolen from HP Lovecraft and Stephen King.

But, but what about more monsters and horrors between adventure locations? Fear not my friends, you can easily generate a quick three or four horrors with No Salvation From Witches, or Lusus Naturae to generate your bizarre and weird victims of circumstance. Keep the killing level down and amp up the melted face factor though for encounters and victims. Basically this style of LoFP game campaign is a short, overland weird wilderness adventure with some dangerous and fantastic elements to it ripe for expansion into a full blown campaign. Do I think that Tales From The Scarecrow is worth getting? In a word and for the price? Yes, yes I do.

Using Tales Of The Scarecrow
For Your Old School Campaigns
Personally, I love to make adventures my own deal with them in terms of campaign use and actual play. Tales Of The Scarecrow is just such an adventure. By making the adventure location isolated and easily inserted into a campaign the author has made this a great cross over point for PC's from all kinds of OSR games. Take for instance Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea, the PC's are traveling through a war torn landscape and in the distance of the heat, sweat, and combat worn setting is a farmhouse surrounded by a cornfield.The trap is sprung on another unsuspecting group of fools.


This is a part of the beauty of this adventure its easily transported and backdoored into your old school campaigns. For another example is Rpg Pundit's Dark Albion, here during one of the many conflicts upon this war torn War of the Roses alternative Earths the PC's see the strange farmhouse in the distance and demonic horror of the farm house continues and so forth.