Commentary On Vornheim The Complete City Kit From Zak Smith & The Lamentations Of The Flame Princess Rpg For Your Old School Campaigns

Vornheim came out way back in 2011, I bought or acquired the PDF through legal means at some point in the last couple of years. I made a point of going into the rest of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess product line and avoiding Vornheim on purpose. For years I've avoided this little sixty four page urban planning & city book on purpose, I read up and researched Zak Smith's Vornheim. Each and every review gave it glowing praise and for years its been the darling of the OSR community. That's a pretty intimidating reputation and I didn't want to be disappointed or letdown. Its sort of like the reputation that certain classic car or certain labels or brands have. I needed far more experience with the Lamentations of the Flame Princess system. Well after all of the hype and hoopla has passed Vornheim stands stands as a pretty damn nifty toolbox to allow a Dungeon Master construct their own version of a stand alone fantasy or eccentric science fantasy city. All of the tools that are needed are right under the hood of the book.
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Vornheim is a skeleton of a urban city fantasy setting on Hunter S. Thompson through a dark lens of a Ouija board told through the dark line art of Zak Smith. This is a city of brooding towers over a cityscape where pretty much anything can and will happen with some of the most clever dice tables I've seen.
This book is a loose guide for an urban setting with some truly cool aspects to it, monsters, NPC's, adventure elements and all kinds of tidbits can be generated on the fly with a few dice rolls. And that's exactly what this book does, it gives a vague impression of a brooding, nasty, and dangerous city that this book helps to generate as well as being filled with wall to wall piece of Zak Smith's artwork.

Everything here is part manifesto and part city guide as well as a look into the author's approach to his campaigns. That's not a bad thing at all in my opinion and lends the book both a personal touch and a feeling that the author actually cares about what the hell he's doing with this material. You get a city of brooding towers and some solid work ups of locations within the city with table after table of material that can generate some of the most passion filled encounters this side of Romeo and Juliet.I say that in all seriousness because this is a place of flaring tempers, flashing blades, and some damn weird stuff happening in the alleyways of this city. All of this is generated by you the DM and Zak's work lends the guiding hand. If you want to know where the seeds of 'A Red and Pleasant Land' started artistically and literally then look no further but Vornheim differs by many,many degrees.

You get outlines of locations, encounters, random generation on the fly, incredible artwork and a complete tool kit but there's more to it then that. Vornheim is one part The Seven Faces of Dr.Lo and two parts non traditional sword and sorcery with lots and lots of potential but is it the potential of the author? Umm no not at all. Instead, its really up to the DM to flesh everything out using those tools provided by the author/and designer. He sets the tone in spades to allow the DM to make this setting their own.

So why bring up the Seven Faces of Dr.Lao?  Because the "The Immortal Zoo of Ping Feng" has some of the most original monsters I've seen in a long while. Where the Seven Faces is beign and amazingly wonderful. "The Immortal Zoo of Ping Feng" is deadly, dangerous, and features some of the most amazing monsters all arrayed in a deadly cat and mouse game scaled to the party's own strengths and weakness where the DM controls several cats. Lots of unique creatures.

The "House of the Medusa" mini-adventure is possibly one of the more disturbing things in Vornheim with the adventure's design, NPC, and elements all lending themselves to the feel and elements of the city itself. And that's exactly how the city is done a place that is nasty and unique put together by itself on its own terms within the context of the mind of its author as a gift to the DM. Don't let that sound like this isn't an accessible book at all to a dungeon master, quite the opposite as a true. This is a sixty four page book that can be dipped into time after time to create a unique and very nasty urban experience.


There is a strange, timeless, dangerous and dreamlike quality to the city that's where you get into what system or should I say systems you could use Vornheim with. Sure Vornheim is statted out for an OD&D or Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg campaign setting but that's half of the strengths of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess's products. You can use them for a wide variety of retroclones or old school games doubly so with Vornheim. I can see Vornheim appearing easily in Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea as a side city tucked away in some remote corner of Hyperborea. With the lack of elves, Dwarves,etc. this is easily accomplished and the tone of the city fits some of the races of Hyperborea and given the weirdness and uniqueness of the city this is a pretty solid marriage.
One could simply use it as is and drop it into OD&D or the even tighter version Lamentations of the Flame Princess adhoc and start rolling up characters. I think that Vornheim fits all of the major criteria of Dungeon Crawl Classics as well and with a bit of adjustment it could be the center for a straight up campaign and urban adventure. The weird tone certainly carries it through and with some adjustment this urbane campaign could be used with Basic Fantasy, Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, Fantastic Heroes and Witchery. In point of fact this book is ideally suited for FH&W with little modification.
This is only part one of this review and there will be a part II in a couple of days.

Death Frost Doom Adventure For The Lamentations of The Flame Princess rpg Writing by Zak Smith and James Edward Raggi IV Part II Death By Frost Review

Today on the Dark Corner Blog I take a deeper slice into the meat and guts of  the Death, Frost, Doom adventure by James Raggi IV and Death Frost Doom is the adventure that launched Lamentations of the Flame Princess in 2009, and this anniversary edition has been fully revised by Zak S (Red & Pleasant Land, Vornheim: The Complete City Kit) with all new interior artwork by Jez Gordon. 

You can find the review right over HERE 

Death Frost Doom Adventure For The Lamentations of The Flame Princess rpg Writing by Zak Smith and James Edward Raggi IV Initial Impressions On The Dark Corner Blog

A few days ago I approached James Raggi IV about taking a look at Death Frost Doom. These are only my impressions going over this module and my thoughts about it. This is a complete revamp and update to Jame's first adventure by Zak Smith and you can read some of my thoughts 

Right Over 

HERE 

From the back of the pdf : 

There is a curse laid on everything in that place! Cursed, you hear me? Cursed! 

Up on the mountain is a house by a cemetery, haunted by the memories of atrocities past. The cult on the mountain is long gone, yet the music of weirdling death carries on the wind. 

The mountain is cold. So very cold. 

1d10 Random Finds From Across Space And The Planes Table Inspired By A Red and Pleasant Land

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Adventurers and reprobate heroes are likely to run across random and somewhat dangerous items that seem to be attracted by the floats om and jetsam  of Voivodja. The place is a whirl pool of hoary and dangerously imaginative evocative weirdness that picks up on the collective unconsciousness of the fairy tale like madness of the place and its vampire faction inhabitants. Here then are a chart of 1d10 bits and pieces of strange, unusual, sometimes destructive items that are found along the fairy pathways, roads, and worse as you make your way to the lands of the high weird.

1d10 Random Finds From Across Space And The Planes Table

1. A gossamer shroud of shadow stuff belonging to some noble vampire whose family is worried sick about the missing shadow. The semi living stuff is looking for some male or female vampire's soul to attach to. This treasured stuff can slip into the sbackground of a PC, it allows them to hide in shadows and see the invisible. 
2. An ornate knife that allows its user to cut and stab beings that are seemingly immune to the effects of physical objects and magical weapons. This knife has a secret compartment that holds a dram of demon's blood. The knife can also slice half truths well and was forged in the heart blood of a thousand lawyers. 
3. A short sword made of the remains of  several pairs of glass slippers. The sword is a +2 weapon and will glow in the presence of demons or demon blooded. The thing is named Mystic Willow. 
4. A small ornate box containing several miniature marbles which each contain a scene from a near by farm. The marbles will explode of 2d6 points of damage. The mtarbles were drawn from the fairylands and odd dreamscapes. 
5. A spinning wheel that will spin the owner a new skein from old dreams and nightmares. The owner will be a monster every new moon. The wheel will prick whomever is using it and activate with a drop of blood.  
6. An ancient deck of Tarot cards each deck is unique and has been created by an artist with hand painted cards each one able to bestow a vision of a possible future. The dreams and visions will animate by fairies bound within the cards. 
7. A dagger fashioned from a piece of wrought iron from Hell. The dagger is cold and icy able to cut the heart from a vampire. 
8. A collar for a griffon made from dwarven gold able to resist any escape attempt but able to be removed with a whispered song of old. The collar could be used for a human and it will add +1 to charisma. 
9. A silver pocket watch able to stop time for one minute. The powers itself from the blood of its owner with  giant silver needle that will do two points of damage every new moon.  The needle is a small +1 dagger in its own right. 
10. A small set of silver and gold fangs carefully artistically created to magically fit into a person's mouth. The fangs will add one point of damage each time they are used to draw blood. The fangs will telepathically and magically relate the latest gossip from fairy land and magically make its owner feel awake and alive. The fangs add +2 points during seduction and feeding attempts. 

This is merely a small selection of the objects and treasure floating around planes and byways near Voivodja

These types of treasure will most likely have weird and strange guardians nearby to destroy any interlopers into the realm of Voivodja. The undead hordes will try to stay one step ahead of  adventurers who come into possession of these items. 

A Red And Pleasant Land By Zak S. As Old School Plane & Time War Campaign

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Fairytales are massive parts of the human unconsciousness that we take on as children and realize just how nightmarish and dangerous they are as adults. We look back and we're thankful that we survive the experience.
Which brings us to A Red and Pleasant Land and its use as fodder for expansion into a whole cloth campaign and adventure campaign setting.

I came across Handy Haversack's review of A Red And Pleasant Land on Dragon's foot's forums which had some very interesting and valid points as well as a revelation.  You can read it HERE
Here's the bit of the review that got me right between the eyes: 

"The front endpapers of the print book (or two printable pages in the PDF) show the map of Voivodja, bounded north and east by the Carpathian Mountains, west and south by the Terrible Goblin Woods. These, of course, mean that you can tuck the Place of Unreason pretty much anywhere on your campaign map. The map here is about 300 miles by 400 miles, though the area between the boundary terrain is more like 200 by 300. I think that in practice this could probably be scaled down (e.g., I'm thinking of placing it in the Valley of Mists on the Hyperborea map for Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea). Also, because of the nature of the place, Voivodja does not have to take up as much space on your "real world" campaign map as it does on its own. Voivodja is strange. Time and space and manners and emotions and laws and gravity and loyalty can all be subjective here, sometimes all at once. Don't worry. There are tables for this."

And just like that I hadn't even thought about using A Red and Pleasant Land with Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers. My mind was awash with possibilities of  Voivodja  and its twisted vampire factions. The whole setting is rotten with Vampires. If they could be connected with AS&SH where else might they be connected into? Carcosa perhaps? But how does Lost Carcosa connect with Voivodja ? 

I began to think about the twisted fairy tale setting and its vampires? How were they connected with Old Earth? Are they the remains of some Old Earth colony that became twisted by  Voivodja's essence in the distant past or some dim future? I thought about Clark Aston Smith's Hyperborean Cycle (found HERE) and his other creation of Zothique.

Zothique really holds the answer to my perplexing and vexing question. How to connect Carcosa and Voivodja? According to Clark Aston Smith: 

Zothique, vaguely suggested by Theosophic theories about past and future continents, is the last inhabited continent of earth. The continents of our present cycle have sunken, perhaps several times. Some have remained submerged; others have re-risen, partially, and re-arranged themselves. Zothique, as I conceive it, comprises Asia Minor, Arabia, Persia, India, parts of northern and eastern Africa, and much of the Indonesian archipelago. A new Australia exists somewhere to the south. To the west, there are only a few known islands, such as Naat, in which the black cannibals survive. To the north, are immense unexplored deserts; to the east, an immense unvoyaged sea. The peoples are mainly of Aryan or Semitic descent; but there is a negro kingdom (Ilcar) in the north- west; and scattered blacks are found throughout the other countries, mainly in palace-harems. In the southern islands survive vestiges of Indonesian or Malayan races. The science and machinery of our present civilization have long been forgotten, together with our present religions. But many gods are worshipped; and sorcery and demonism prevail again as in ancient days. Oars and sails alone are used by mariners. There are no fire-arms—only the bows, arrows, swords, javelins, etc. of antiquity. The chief language spoken (of which I have provided examples in an unpublished drama) is based on Indo-European roots and is highly inflected, like Sanskrit, Greek and Latin.

Clark Ashton Smith himself described the Zothique cycle in a letter to L. Sprague de Camp, dated November 3, 1953.

Darrell Schweitzer suggests the idea of writing about a far future land may have come from William Hope Hodgson's novel The Night Land, noting that Smith was an admirer of Hodgson's work.

More right over HERE

This campaign revolves around very old and very strange planes, worlds, timelines, all part of a Plane & Time War fought across alternative worlds and dimensions where time and space intersect. 

Sometime in the future the powers of Quas, Misrule, and Unreason fight a protracted war against the forces of  Law, Order, Reason and the very gods themselves against the backdrop of the ultimate saga of a perishing cosmos.

The very fabric of time its rife with holes and man's kingdoms are strange, old, weird,and the PC's are drawn into the middle of it all. 

Hyperborea, Voivodja, Carcosa, The Unknown Island, The Night Lands, etc are all worlds connected across branches of pseudo European timelines. Time is not an arrow but a river full of eddies and branches fought over by monsters, gods, demons, and more.
More to come folks. 

A Red & Pleasant Land By Zak S. From Lamentations Of The Flame Princess On The Dark Corner Blog

Today on the blog we follow Zak Smith down the rabbit hole with his vicious and dangerously beautiful take on Alice In Wonderland with A Red and Pleasant Land on The Dark Corner Blog. A vampiric and wonderfully wicked setting called Voivodja.
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