A Red and Pleasant Land: RPG Review

Welcome to a review of A Red and Pleasant Land, a bizarre and beautiful setting book for Lamentations of the Flame Princess or just about any earlier edition (best for Basic or 1st Edition), or clone of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) you might be playing. This review concerns the portable document format (PDF). For reference, I have a first edition in print as well. A Red & Pleasant Land was released in 2014. In 2015 it was awarded four ENnie awards; two gold: Best Writing and Best Setting, and two silver: Product of the Year and Best Adventure. The PDF is available at drivethrurpg.com and rpgnow.com. The print version is available on the Lamentations of the Flame Princess site (lotfp.com), among other places. The company is based in Helsinki, Finland.



A Red & Pleasant Land

Disclosure: This review includes affiliate links to DriveThruRPG.com. I receive a token % if you make a purchase through the landing page. Thank you for your support.   

“Some women and some men and most children know that dreams leak. A lifetime of thinking it that way in your sleep can make drawer on a drafting table three or four inches wider on a side.”
“But there are lives longer than ours. And longer dreams.” (PG 7)

A Red and Pleasant Land is a difficult book to review, but thankfully not for the usual reasons. First, it is unique. Second, the maps and the illustration style are more impressionistic and almost abstract in spots rather than clean. Third and arguably most important, the book doesn’t endorse, nor does it resemble your Grandfather’s or your Dad’s D&D setting. It is a mash of strangeness, inspired by Lewis Carrol’s Through the Looking-Glass, with vampires replacing the principle ruling class, for reasons of which I’m uncertain (other than, why not). In case you are thinking it, the book is not of your favorite D&D setting (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms etc.) meets Ravenloft, by any sense of comparison. Honestly, it doesn’t even try to do this. As a product, it is a very specific and very strange sort of thing. It is thoroughly, an interesting book cover to cover.

A Red and Pleasant Land is a setting and adventure book. If Lewis Carrol, Bram Stoker and John Eric Holmes decided to take a road trip in a Cooper Mini, because what else would these fine time-traveling gentlemen have to do on a random Tuesday… A Red & Pleasant Land would be the title of the made for TV movie, about such an adventure.

The setting is the war torn Place of Unreason, formerly known as the Land of Voivodja. In the north is the Card Castle, the rule of the Heart Queen Elizabeth Bathyscape. To the south, The Looking Glass Castle; the red house of the Red King, Vlad Vortigen. A war between these two vampire houses has gone on an indefinable amount years, months, or days upon the player characters arrival. The cause of the war is unknown. And to the last two points, and like so many other features of this book, these elements are left open for the Referee (Ref) to determine as they choose.

Wherever The Place of Unreason fits in the Ref’s campaign world, it is hidden and difficult to access. To the north and east it is shadowed by the Carpathian Mountains, while to the south and west forested by the Terrible Goblin Wood. The human population has been severely decreased by the vampire presence. The setting is a strange caricature (of an already strange land) of Wonderland, the world as its best represented in Lewis Carrol’s novels, Through the Looking-Glass and less so, Alice and Wonderland.

The terrain is divided by square-like a chessboard, though unlike Through the Looking-Glass the means of division are more to do with the altitude or height (or lack thereof) of each square, rather than by division of hedge. The terrain is left to the Referee to decide how these varied altitudes connect or even if they connect be it by portal, bridge, stair, ladder or earthly passage. The squares are unique unto themselves, the characteristics of which will be mostly left for the Referee to fill in via useful series of tables.

Through a looking glass is the Quiet Side (the above mentioned is the War Side), which is a mirrored reality. It is a place the gods can’t see (so clerics can’t cast spells) and where vampires don’t exist (lack of reflection). Only the Red King and his Red Brides can cross to the Quiet Side willingly, for but a moment. The Red King uses this ability, and falls to immediate to sleep there, and so that his rest is safe and undisturbed. Lesser vampires use mirrors to call out and lure humans from the Quiet Side for a meal. The Heart Queen can make an appearance if her name is called three times. The Player characters are very limited by the amount of time (mere seconds) they can inhabit the Quiet Side; the silence drives them mad, but like the Red King they too can keep their sanity if they can will themselves to sleep… Rest, keep their sanity, and hopefully be rescued. Almost every being who exists on the War Side has a Quiet Side equivalent and still does even after they are slain.

The Land of Unreason is a rich with unique character and monsters encounters. Most of the outlandish interactions, which are natural choices to those familiar with the fictional works of Lewis Carrol are therein, and have a chapter (and stats) dedicated to them. Admittedly, while it had been sometime since I’d read Alice and Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, (which, I did blow the dust off both) the author has left few stones, if any, unrecycled. There is even an opportunity for player characters to make an Alice, the settings only offer of a character class, but one that is more than worthy and a perfectly quirky fit for the setting.


Review Featured in KoDT #247

Adventure and nonsensical randomness, is generated through a respectable amount of tables. While use of these tables is enticing, but not required, their utility is indisputable; and entirely built to strengthen the setting. Many of these can be stripped of their nonsensical elements and re-utilized for any system, but the most impressive thing about them is the way the author has reversed engineered Carrol’s work for use as an RPG supplement.

While a good deal of the land, and basic plot points of the interior locations are left open for the Ref, both the Card Castle and The Looking Glass Castle are thoroughly detailed. Each space or room is described with a bullet point of three or four features on average, and if relevant the purpose of each space. In design, both castles are meticulously laid out and are very much like a dungeon. Some of the strangeness within these castles is occasionally anticipated, but great deal is unique. Some of my favorite elements are the little things:

One instance of this is that items are occasionally referenced with the following descriptor, I’m paraphrasing: “Items or furniture of this room are worth two or three times their weight in gold.” While this descriptor might be an affront to old school sense or game ability (coin = experience), its use made me put my put my Dungeon Master hat on (don’t you have one of those?) and ask why? After that, I found myself imagining the Red Kings favorite arm chair (the one worth three times its weight in gold) recently gone missing and the player characters hired to find it. Or reading the line straight to my player group, just to see what they would make of such a simple, yet odd concept. Was this what the author intended? Am I a reading a bit too much into this simple turn of phrase? That’s likely. But still, and like Carrol’s work, a weird and well placed phrase (or unsolvable riddle) is a perfect fit for this strange and dark world. And better than this, it gets the reader or in this case the DM thinking.

There are two print errors of note: the handouts for Fragment 6 and Chess Puzzle are missing. If you pick up the second printing I have no idea if these were amended. With the PDF these errors are nonexistent.

In conclusion, A Red & Pleasant Land is certainly strange and has some awesome features that with a little, “do it yourself,” you can plug and play with most RPG systems. The stranger elements don’t really journey to far from the inspired source material. The specific way these elements were engineered for the purpose of an RPG supplement is very well done. At the same time, if you’re in the market for a product with a more standard old school approach, the niche and strangeness of the Through the Looking-Glass setting, with vampires added in for flavor, might not appeal. Apart from all the above, while the review style for this column doesn’t usually point out the finer and more subjective aspects of composition, this book is literally one of the most unique and interesting RPG products that has graced my table… And (I cannot help myself, but) unlike D&D 4th Edition, the awards are well deserved.

RPG Review: Lamentations of the Flame Princess & Death Frost Doom

LotFP

Welcome to a review of Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP), by James Edward Raggi IV, and a brief look at the revised adventure supplement Death Frost Doom (DFD), by author Zak S. 

LotFP is published by, Lamentations of the Flame Princess. This review concerns the PDF versions of these products, which were supplied free of cost for the purpose of this review. I purchased the slim, sleek physical copy of LotFP and Zak S. A Red & Pleasant Land (link to that review) shortly after I wrote this review for Knights of the Dinner Table (KoDT #230).

Disclosure: This review includes affiliate links. I receive a token % if you purchase something from the landing page. Thank you for the support.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess: Player Core Book: Rules & Magic & Death Frost Doom (DFD) can be purchased in the usual places, as well as DriveThruRPG.com in PDF. If at conclusion of this review if you prefer an actual book, you can order it direct at the LotFP store here as well. The company is based in Helsinki, Finland.

When I first contacted James Raggi about reviewing LotFP, he requested, that I review the recently revised DFD adventure supplement as well. The hope being that I would be able to better understand the “feel” of LotFP, as an RPG. Or that which is beyond its own subtitle, “Weird Fantasy Role-Playing.” Besides the fact that had no reason to refuse such a generous offer, I agreed and for the most part Mr. Raggi was right.

In regards to system, LotFP doesn’t necessitate a game play dynamic or seem much different from any other Old School Renaissance (OSR) retro clone that uses an Open Game License (OGL). The Tolkien inspired setting has many of the familiar elements with its hand in the proverbial Dungeons & Dragons cookie jar. Yet-there are defiantly features which distinguish it as a system and LotFP accomplishes something I’ve found rare among retro clones, it really does stand out. How it stands out is one focus of this review.

Review Featured in KoDT #230

Fans of D&D and/or OSR works in general, will defiantly appreciate the author’s efforts. If you consider yourself in either of these categories, it’s safe to say that you should have this RPG. “Lamentations,” is worth your CASH.

Some of the features that I appreciate about LotFP are in my view, subtle improvements to D&D, but it also has to do with how “Lamentations,” applies the old school game in concept. As I’ve noted in other reviews I’m not a sage of D&D, so forgive me if I miss something vital. And while you’re doing that, also forgive my chosen format for this review-as it is more of a highlight piece of what I found most interesting-and what I found unique, rather than my typical format.

The first thing that struck my eye with LotFP is how alignment is presented and so following how magic is viewed within game context. LotFP; Alignment, PG 8:

“Alignment is a character’s orientation on a cosmic scale. It has nothing to do with a character’s allegiances, personality, morality, or actions. Alignments will mostly be used to determine how a character is affected by certain magical elements in the game. The three alignments are Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic.”

Alignment for LotFP breaks the typical handcuff of character morality. To paraphrase a later passage, morality is something that a player has to role-play in regards to character. If I had a gold piece for every time I heard a Referee (Ref), question a player: “Yeah, but does that action follow your character alignment?” I’d have a dragon’s hoard. I’ll bet most of us would.

I’ve never been in favor of how alignment has come to work in most games, or I should say, how it is applied. You may not be in favor of it, but at the very least, LotFP presents something different.

Character classes for the most part follow with the tradition of D&D, but LotFP does a bit of hammering and a little beveling. The classic demi-human races such as the dwarf, elf, and halfling are presented as a class; with human classes being the cleric, fighter, magic-user and specialist.

The traditional thief class has been replaced with the specialist class. Specialists have a few more options available to them than the traditional thief and receive points upon character creation and at each new level, which they can spend towards nine (thief like) skills. LotFP does away with a percentage as a base and in turn skill progression determined by character level. A specialist gets to choose how they allocate these points and all skill checks utilize a D6, with a point increasing a skill by one point out of a maximum of six.

Optional: Black Powder

The fighter class is the only class which is awarded attack bonus upon creation and as they progress levels. For the human classes this is design gold, though it leaves my beloved dwarf a bit out in the cold in regards to combat. While most of us are accustomed to the idea, “Yeah-we’ll give every class a bonus to hit and kill stuff-but the fighter will have even more…” From a design standpoint I thought this was an innovative approach to what essentially can become a number crunching dilemma. LotFP strips this away and says, “fighters, fight-and are good at it.”   

Clerics are required to be of lawful alignment, while magic-users and elves must be of chaotic alignment. Though with the understood changes, this is not such a restriction, as it is in other games; but a cosmic philosophy if you will.

Magic-user and cleric spells offer both the familiar and the not so familiar. If anything captures the essence of LotFP it is this section. One interesting choice is to make Turn Dead a spell rather than an automatic divine privilege for clerics. Magic-user and cleric spells are weighted more as tools rather than offensive firepower (which more is typical in old school games). Magic descriptions are quite good, feeling a bit fast, while anything but loose. Again some of these will be familiar, but most if not all have been tweaked (some to the weird) to a few degrees.

Let’s talk, Death Frost Doom. 


Death Frost Doom 2014

According to the PDF, the original Death Frost Doom was released by LotFP in 2009. The one I have is a 2014 revision of James Raggi’s original. Tweaked and made creepier by author Zak S. The cover art is the work of Yannick Bouchard. The black and white illustrations, cartography and interior images are the work of Jez Gordon. The art for this supplement is excellent, many of which are full page black & white illustrations and perfectly serviceable as game aids.

While I’m perfectly comfortable comparing LotFP to its origins, I hesitate to compare Death Frost Doom to any other adventure module or supplement. Certainly, it has the classic elements of a dungeon crawl, but it also offers such a dark and foreboding environment, it is more akin to a Call of Cthulhu scenario. I’ll leave it there and let’s take a brief and muddy crawl down the rabbit hole:

“There is a mountain that no-one climbs. It dominates the landscape like fear and the memories of what once lived there. But memory recedes and rumor breeds-and the rumor is a rumor of gold.”

“Someone will be the first to scale the white mountain: it will be someone who is greedy, stupid or fanatical— but also, perhaps, lucky…” (DFD: Pg. 8)

Through to a graveyard, which rests at the top of a snow and ice covered mountain, there is a cabin. Below the cabin, within the bowels of the mountain is a cursed tomb, one with unique enchantments and evil. However, it’s actually much-much worse than that.

If the player character’s survive, they will likely turn out to be the catalyst of this adventure, releasing the evil of the tomb upon the world. Death Frost Doom is not only an adventure supplement, but offers the potential of a campaign. Assuming the player characters will want put right the evils they have unwittingly release upon the world. If they survive...

Traps in DFD are of the magic variety though they are very unique in their application. They might not even qualify as traps in the classical sense. They are not the typical, step here and enact a poison arrow trap. The traps require more interaction such as moving the hands on the clock creates a time warp (forward or backward in time) while playing notes on the organ creates a random effect none of which are particularly beneficial-outside of the fact of making the player characters aware that indeed this place is magically cursed.

Encounters don’t begin until near the end of the tomb delve. DFD doesn’t provide a table to roll for random encounters. And this makes sense because nothing random would inhabit such a place. The tomb itself is what is at play here, each room being an encounter unto itself; the discovery of how deep and dark the rabbit hole goes. The tomb is one hell of a creepy place. The writing is really excellent with ideas and options for the Ref to play with and consider.

Disclosure: This review is property of Kenzer and Company, published here with permission. The writing may have been slightly tweaked from the original.

Overall, I found Death Frost Doom refreshing and unique in its approach to the “Dungeon Crawl.” If you wouldn’t use it in full you could use many of its elements to create your own ideas-and run with them. Though it’s obviously designed with LotFP in mind, this adventure supplement and it's ideas are serviceable towards any OSR system.

Added Post: I've read some recent commentary that DFD is known as a negadungeon. Or that the best thing the characters could do would be to ignore the place entirely. While I certainly see the point, what makes this product a true gem in my mind is the content of ideas being presented. I myself rarely run straight from the script, so when I get a product like this, what I'm really buying it for, is ideas. And which, this product has plenty of.   

Lamentations of the Flame Princess encapsulates old school, yet it doesn’t do it idly or rest on the laurels of D&D. The art is spectacular, though I would recommend it towards mature viewership; featuring old school black and white goodness as well as an inlay of color art. Did I mention the art is spectacular? The book offers a concise layout of game rules and tables. The writing is succinct and to the point.

No RPG clone I’ve read yet, does it better.