Product Summery:
Name: LotFP Weird Fantasy Role-Playing
Publisher: Lamentations of the Flame Princess
Author: James Edward Raggi IV
Line: OD&D Retro clone
Cost: $65.00 ($12.50 for the PDF)
Pages: 328 Pages across the 3 main books
Webpage: http://lotfp.blogspot.com/
This product is another attempt to re-envision the Original Dungeons and Dragons (OD&D) box set. The appearance of the book is better than other attempts at redoing OD&D, the cover art is great, the internal art runs from pretty okay to really really good. The layout is well organized and easy to read. There are three primary books, Rule Set, Referee Book and the Magic Book. There is also a tutorial book that walks you through the basics of the game. The print product includes dice, pencil, character sheets and two adventures. I have to say though, I am not a big fan of box sets. Boxes do not do well over the long run, of course the PDF version does not have this problem, unless you want it to.
The game itself suffers from what all the OD&D retro clones suffer from, which is staying too close to the source material. The ridiculous notion of Race as Class is present, this by itself knocks a point off the score. Personally I would prefer it if he had went more along the line of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) instead. Those rules were better written and well thought out. It does not make sense to me that so many retro clone writers cling to OD&D in such an odious fashion. I can see taking the simplicity and ease of play, but would it have kill even one of them to separate race from class. It was a bad idea in 1974 and it is a bad idea today.
The setting is where this product really shines. Raggi is really a good writer, I like his blog, I have enjoyed the modules he has written and the Random Esoteric Creature Generator stands as one of the best game supplements published in the last 10 years. Raggi likes dark fantasy and he does it very well.
Besides the OD&D oddities in the game system, my only other complaint with this game is the price, $65 is way too much money. I bought the PDF and am very pleased with the $12.50 price, but the printed version, UGH!. I realize the cost of putting together a package like this is going to be pricey, no doubt, but $65 is too much, especially when I can get Labyrinth Lord, Basic Fantasy RPG and White Box Swords & Wizardry for free and they are essentially the same game. Unless you REALLY like OD&D and unless you are REALLY planning on playing this game, I can not recommend the print version of this product at all.
Summery (Scale of 1-5):
Appearance and Layout: 3
Game Mechanic: 2
Setting: 4
Overall: 2.666666667 (PDF version is a solid 3)
I agree, Raggi’s writing style makes reading his blog, and the Weird RPG a pleasure.
We’ll have to disagree on three points: boxed sets, the price, and race as class.
I think boxed sets are both attractive and functional, as they permit the splitting up of various resource books, and also provide a convenient way of carrying all of them in one package. There may be other ways to do this (clear plastic rather than cardboard boxes) but I appreciate the utility.
I think the box was priced just right. Had it been more expensive, I would have passed on purchasing it. Had it been cheaper, Raggi surely would have been subsidizing my purchase. This game is not for everyone, but for those who appreciate weird tales, and like to play OD&D, I think the price is just right. For those who do not like OD&D or weird fantasy, yes, the price may seem high … but the game was likely not written for them.
As for race as class, this is a feature of OD&D, not a bug. But if someone doesn’t like race as class, it is easy enough to house-rule it away. That’s the beauty of OD&D, there’s very little to break. I don’t allow players to run demi-humans in my campaigns, so Raggi’s inclusion of race as class neither bothers me nor changes the way I roll. It’s not fatal to my appreciation of this rule set.
Enjoyed the review.
Wow, first an outside blog links to me and now I have someone who is not a High School friend or a blood relation commenting on one of my posts. This is a big day here at Carnifex.org.
The original edition of D&D, published in 1974 and generally what is meant by “OD&D”, did not use race as class.
Quite so. Dwarves could only be fighting men, and had their own special advantages that humans did not get (balanced against level limits). Hobbits were also limited to fighting men, also with their own special advantages and even more onerous level limits. Elfs were limited to fighting men and magic user classes, and could switch between them from session to session, and also had level limits imposed.
It suppose it is poor shorthand to simplify this OD&D feature as ‘race-as-class’.
Keep on keepin on.
violetwasp is correct, I looked in my copy and found no specific reference to race as class in the original white box D&D. However, this does not really change much other than to modify my original statement to read, “It was a bad idea in 1977 and it is a bad idea today.”.