Thoughts about Terminal City Con

There were a hundred and three games at Terminal City. Three of those were Lamentations of the Flame Princess. 

Why? LotFP is fun. The rules are free. There's a lot - a whole lot - of quality content. Almost everything, even that one adventure about the dogs, can be bought as PDFs. Some of the stuff, especially that one adventure about the dogs, is pay-what-you-want (so you can get it for free, and no one will judge you, you greedy tight-fisted miser). And there's even more stuff that's LotFP-compatible. 

Is it because LotFP has no warehouse in Canada, and there are no physical books at local game stores? Printed books are something that sets Lamentations aside from many others, they look absolutely gorgeous. 

There were a hundred and three games at Terminal City, and the three Lamentations games that were barely advertised were all full. (One person had to cancel but there was one extra at the next game, so it evened out). 

Some were players with LotFP-related experience, and it was a pleasure watching them use every skill and trick in their arsenal. Some were people who never played an LotFP game before, or never played a tabletop RPG, period. 

Everyone contributed, everyone did something cool. 

Maybe we should play more LotFP games at cons and show more people how great it can be and make James Raggi rich and famous so that he publishes more games that we will play at cons, you know what I'm saying? 

Anyways, it was fun. I want to thank everyone who came, or wanted to come but couldn't, or didn't plan to come but something came up so they just sat at my table and played. And Becami, Jeff and Zak, who gave some very sound advice on being a Referee at a con game. And James for making Lamentations and publishing the two adventures that I used, and once again Zak for writing the two adventures that I used. And Austin, because it was nice to see a familiar face and know that someone at the table is resourceful enough to deal with anything that will go weird and pear-shaped. And the organizers and moderators of Terminal City, because it was a really cool and friendly event. 

It was a pleasure.

Terminal City is fun, wish you were here...

 How I use the Random Encounter table... 

Roll. 

No, can't use this, this looks more interesting than the rest of the adventure. 

Roll. 

Meh, that's kind of too tough. 

Roll. 

2d4 Orc Knights on horses, okay, that sounds good. 

"So, from behind the trees, you see eight goblin scouts riding baboons..." 

They also killed the xortoise. They sure rolled a lot of natural 19's. Maybe the dice were loaded. I brought the dice. Why did I give them loaded dice? 

"So you brought me... an old bald man, two birds, a monkey, and a - to be frank - seriously impressive giant half-goat, half-scorpion. That is supposed to be the superweapon that will save my kingdom?" 

"Ah, your majesty, let me explain how this bird is actually a weapon of mass destruction". 

Goat-demon is invulnerable to normal weapons. But not to the cunning of the magic-user who promised him a whole lot of killing and violence. 

Note: always bring a pencil sharpener AND a knife to a game. Luckily, I did. 

"So... these girls in the pool were not the octopus's handpuppets?" 

"No, they were real girls who just liked to hang out with a giant octopus". 

"I know girls like that". 

Step 1. Forbid to bring food/drinks to the building. 

Step 2. Charge $4.50 for a can of Pepsi. 

Step 3, obviously, world domination. 

I cannot see how this plot could possibly fail.

Well, this is new.

Last time on Lamentations of the Qualinesti Princess, the brave heroes (Qualinesti elf red mage, hill dwarf priest, and kender bardess) decided to lure Dragon Highlady Kitiara into a trap. This went... relatively well, meaning that now the heroes and Kitiara work together. The warrior woman with a crooked smile sent the heroes south from Tarsis to find a Dragon Orb. 

I keep trying to make the original Dragonlance modules more interesting. In Tarsis, I used Vornheim to make the city more like a city. In the Plains of Dust, I used the Book of Jerks for random encounters. I do love how the whole fight against animated statues was resolved by the mage shrugging and casting Turn Rock to Mud. Creative casting is the proper way to do it. 

Now, in the frozen wastes of Ice Wall, the heroes (who are now four - a kender druidess joined the company) have met a Dragon Highlord (a half-elf who hates his elven relatives because they treated him like dirt), defeated an army of minotaurs using the hacked Pendragon mass combat mechanic, and enjoyed the spoils of victory. Namely, they found a flask with a potion that the bardess immediately drank. 

It turned out to be a love potion that made the drinker fall in love madly with whoever harmed her last. Thing is, in the end of the battle, the bardess sang a song that was so horrible, so painful that it hurt everyone in the battlefield, herself included. 

Now the kender bardess is deeply narcissistic. 

Then, following the original module, the company found a dragon and a knight frozen in a dungeon. The druidess used her Speak With Dead Animals spell (we used the Quick LotFP Druid), and asked the dead dragon several questions about the Orb, and also if dragons are good to eat. 

"Yeah, little one, dragons are delicious". 

"Have you eaten a dragon?" 

"Oh, many times". 

"Do you mind if we eat your body?" 

"Hey, I'm dead, I don't care". 

So, after burying the knight, for the first time in the history of Krynn, a dwarf, two kenderesses, and three dogs ate a dragon. 

The elf refused to partake. 

***

This weekend, I'm hosting some LotFP games at Terminal City Tabletop Convention. It'll probably be crazy. I cannot promise that we'll eat a dragon, but you never know. 

See you there.

Temple of Naga Malicinda

The latest adventure in Zak's Cube World series is simple and elegant like a snake. It's about snake people. 

No stepping on the snake, please, thank you. 

It has cool monsters; interesting treasure that's both valuable and useful; secrets and traps and puzzles; a map that has all the information you need right on it; an explanation of how all the snakes are books and what kind of books and how they can be read and who knows about it; and with it, you also get the latest edition of Cube World Bestiary and Random Treasure Table.  

Like the rest of the Cube World, it's compatible with LotFP rules, or you can hack it and use with the game you're playing. After all, system doesn't matter.

You can buy it from Zak at The Store.

LotFP Printed Books Sale

 James Edward Raggi IV had published this State of the LotFP Union Address. He looks very blue. 

Long story short, Lamentations of the Flame Princess needs to clear out the US warehouse, and this is why you can now buy a book and get another book free from the LotFP US Webstore. A great opportunity to get some excellent stuff. The books can be shipped internationally, and the sale goes on till 20th of February. They've got Broodmother Skyfortress and Black Chamber and Bee-Ware! and other cool stuff. Just a reminder - one thing that separates James Raggi from a lot of RPG indie publishers is that he pays the authors fairly. 

Also, buying something from the LotFP PDF store will help James deal with all the shit that happens, and bring the release date of the Referee book closer. 

I'm not saying that everyone should buy All Dogs Go To Hell, although it's quite obvious that if you don't have All Dogs Go To Hell, you should buy it - it gives James a little money and it also makes me happier.

Come play with us

I'll be at Terminal City Tabletop Convention on 16th and 17th of March. 

If you'll be there, come say hi. Or better yet, come and play. I'll be hosting some Lamentations of the Flame Princess games. 

Saturday morning - Expedition to the Immortal Zoo

Saturday afternoon - Adventure at the Lin-Cataldus Monastery 

Sunday morning - Inquisitors' Road 

Ви вилл хав фун.

The year was interesting.

I don't really like those lists of "the things of the year". They're stupid and pretentious, and more often than not people who write them don't mention anything really cool. So screw that. 

Still, the year was interesting. I wrote an adventure for Lamentations of the Flame Princess, which as of now had been downloaded 847 times. If you haven't read it, you are in a unique position to get the 848th PDF of "All Dogs Go To Hell", and give us some money or not, it's pay-what-you-want. 

I played some games with some cool people, half a dozen of my characters died horribly (rest in peace, Miyamoto Unagi and his Raccoon Dog. You did what you were sent to do, and more - you destroyed the bridge, and you sent a single paper lantern down the stream for the poor spirit of the bridge that stood in your way). 

There are some ideas and projects for the next year. We'll see how it goes. 

Meanwhile, James Raggi uploaded another video, the message of which I'd summarize as "Guys, you're doing satanism wrong". Don't know if he's right, I try to stay as far away from religion of any kind as possible; but the thing that the compilers of the Bible went "Guys, guys, let's keep this story about Job, this is something that makes our god look good!" really is hilarious.

Zak wrote this idea of a book. He says it should be published, and I think he's right. Personally, I now want The Stars My Lamentation, which should be like Spelljammer only better and with pictures of cool space pirates. Probably at least one with a tiger-like tattoo.