LotFP Sales: $2.50 PDFs, Free Shipping, + Updates

First off, sales...

All LotFP PDFs over at RPGNow have been reduced to $2.50 through Dec 30. Get those here.

The Finnish post office is raising rates AGAIN after the first of the year... so if you didn't grab everything last sale, here is your opportunity... all LotFP store orders 15€ or more get FREE Economy-class shipping if you use coupon code BASTARDS. Sale ends 11:59pm December 29th Finnish time. Buy that stuff here.

Statuses (statii?) of various LotFP projects:

Zzarchov's Scenic Dunnsmouth is dunn. Err, done. Laid out and everything. Waiting for the Ref book to be ready to go to press.

Zak's Red and Pleasant Land is in layout as we speak.

Kelvin Green has turned in everything for Forgive Us (formerly Horror Among Thieves), still needs editing, layout, etc.

Rients' Broodmother has rough layouts completed and the art is starting in.

Art has started on Rafael Chandler's No Salvation For Witches.

Michael Curtis' A Single Small Cut mini-adventure has just finished editing.

Thulian Echoes is still in editing.

Ref book is still top priority on my end, and that just keeps getting bigger and messier. It is not simply a polishing of the previous Ref book, it's a total rewrite, plus adding tons of new tools. I hope this isn't turning into a 400 page book, but... I should have the Tower and DFD reprints off to layout by the end of the year though. And when the Ref book is off to editing, I'll finally finish up Another Shitty Adventure and Tower of the Navelgazer.

There are a couple other things floating around (Conley's ECW sandbox, Brockie's Towers Two) that are having work continue on to make them more than what they currently are.

This backlog will clear sometime this decade. ssshhhiiittttt.

Bad Myrmidon by Rafael Chandler

"You may have heard about Mandy Morbid's fundraiser, but just in case you missed it, here's your chance to help out!

Bad Myrmidon is an old-school adventure to benefit Mandy Morbid. All proceeds will go directly to her so that she can continue her battle against Ehlers–Danlos syndrome. A bad Myrmidon, for a good cause!

DRIVETHRURPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/123324/Bad-Myrmidon

LULU: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/bad-myrmidon/14286243

Cowardly Achilles has hidden his treasures in a temple on the island of Leuke. The undead Sisters of Penthesilea want vengeance, the Myrmidons want to protect the temple, and the Amazons want to kill the Myrmidons.

Outside the temples, forest fires rage in slow-motion; feathered viragos stalk hapless men; madfolk torture and burn each other; and nude cultists preach love, tolerance, and self-mutilation. This island is damned, and those who voyage here are damned as well. But treasure awaits!

Gennifer Bone and Wayne Snyder contributed the kickass artwork, James Raggi wote an unforgettable hex-crawl encounter, and Dyson Logos created the glorious new map.

So purchase this kickass module now!

(Info about Mandy and EDS: http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/get-mandy-physical-therapy-hip-braces/110938 )"

Bundle of Holding - OSR Edition is LIVE!

The Bundle of Holding. Pay What You Want ($3.95 minimum though) for a load of OSR PDFs.

Bonus books if you pay above the current average.

And (am I supposed to reveal this?) more books will be added in the coming days, which will be available to everyone that's already paid for the bundle.

So if you haven't tried any of this stuff out yet... GO GO GO GO. Best chance ever.

Big LotFP Store Sale Through Sunday Nov 3!

From now until 11:59pm Finnish time on Sunday, everything at the LotFP Store is 33% off for orders totalling 19€ or more (before tax or shipping, and the discount does not apply to the shipping cost).

Geoffrey McKinney has also given permission for a special discount on Isle of the Unknown for this campaign. The price has been set at 10€ before the discount is applied!

Use coupon code: VISION33

The code is already live. All orders made from here til Sunday night will ship next week.

Tower of the Stargazer goal ACHIEVED! 3 Days Left!

So that Ref book crowdfunding thing you see the widget for there on the right...

3 days left.

Where we stand:

For the base 30€, you get the Ref book, which includes 54 (and counting) 100+ word commentaries between Frank Mentzer, Zak S, Michael Curtis, and Kenneth Hite, and 13 monsters by Aeron Alfrey and Rafael Chandler.

PLUS you get Death Frost Doom 4th printing AND Tower of the Stargazer 2nd printing, as separate books!

PLUS a PDF of Michael Curtis' new mini-adventure A Single Small Cut (in print if you go in for 100€ or more total).

All of this separately in retail after the campaign will set you back over 60€.

Plus there's tons of extras you can add on.

Serious question: Is there a better deal in gaming?

Next Goal: Tower of the Stargazer

The next stretch goal we're going for in the Ref book campaign is a Tower of the Stargazer reprint.

So if you go in for the Ref book now, you definitely get the Ref book + Death Frost Doom + a Michael Curtis mini-adventure in PDF for the price of just the Ref book.

Enough of you doing that will cause Tower of the Stargazer to be added on at no additional cost. (Well, possibly a couple more bucks for shipping.)

604 people follow this page. Quick check shows 203 unique supporters of the campaign so far.

If you other 400 people signed on at just the PDF level (10€), we'd hit the Stargazer goal and then some. If you all signed on at the regular Ref book level (30€), we'd not only hit the Stargazer goal but there'd be two more adventures and LOADS of book improvements (maybe all the adventures in hardcover?) that you'd get at no extra (except a few bucks for shipping) charge.

LotFP Ref Book Crowdfunding Campaign: What You Get, Where We're At

See the campaign and dump money into it here.

We've accumulated 14190€ so far with 14 days to go. That's pretty damn good.

But there's so much more to do, like more adventure reprints, if we can.

WHAT THE REF BOOK INCLUDES NOW

• A DISCOUNT. While pledges on Ref books (plus stretch goal adventures) do not include shipping (no extra shipping will be charged for purchased extras though), right now we're looking at a retail price of 40€ for the physical Ref book + 12€ for Death Frost Doom, before taxes or shipping after the campaign.
  
  But you don't pay that much to get them if you back the Ref book campaign. You can pledge for a 30€ Standard Ref Book perk and that'll include DFD, plus as a backer you'll get bookmark ribbons in your Ref book. Hell, the limited edition cover version through the campaign is now cheaper (38€) than the normal version will be when it goes on sale after it's printed.
  
• That means that yes, Death Frost Doom, revised 4th printing with a new Yannick Bouchard cover, is included as a separate book with all Ref book pledges. If you go for the PDF level, you get the adventure in PDF, if you go for a print version, you get the print version.
  
• A new short adventure (commissioned for 3000-3500 words) by Michael Curtis, delivered independently of the Ref book. EVERYONE going in for at least 10€ gets this as a PDF; those putting 100€ or more into the campaign gets this as a print edition. It'll be a fully-produced mini-release, available for sale to the public as a PDF-only thing when it's ready, but backers here get it free.
  
• 47 Commentaries have been purchased which means the book - for everyone! - will include over a thousand words written by Frank Mentzer, Zak S, Michael Curtis, and Kenneth Hite - EACH. This amount is sure to increase before the end.
  
• 8 new monsters created by Aeron Alfrey and Rafael Chandler will be included in the Ref book. We'll probably have more of these by campaign's end.
  
• Lots of brand new art, with b/w art by Eric Lofgren, Aeron Alfrey, and Jason Rainville, and new color art by Aeron Alfrey, Jason Rainville, Yannick Bouchard, Olli Hihnala, and more!
  
• Completely revised text from the Grindhouse Ref book (including a new Creature Generator and Adventure Generator sections among others) with a new layout by Mattias Wickström to match the new Rules & Magic layout, and editing by Joshua Yearsley.

And that's all for 10€ in PDF, or 30€ for the standard, 38€ for the limited cover, or 60€ for both versions of the physical Ref book + shipping to be paid later (7,50€ estimated amount, economy class).

AND THAT'S JUST THE BASIC FUCKING PACKAGE. AND WE HAVE TWO MORE WEEKS TO ADD EVEN MORE STUFF.

The more people get involved here, the more EVERYBODY gets. So bug your friends and your family and your pets and people on whatever message board you frequent to go in for at least the basic Ref book and who knows how much more we can add on.

So many cool extras available too:

• Zzarchov Kowolski's THULIAN ECHOES, an adventure where PCs find an old adventure journal, and then players take over the roles of the original adventurers and go through the adventure, with the idea that whatever they do is what ends up in the journal. And when they're done, their original PCs see what happened way back when, and can delve into the dungeon hoping to avoid the errors of the previous group. It's a clever setup. 10,000+ word adventure there, and Yannick Bouchard is working on the cover as we speak.
  
• A 12-piece DICE SET, 1x d4, 1x d6 (numbers), 3x d6 (pips with a Dead Sign in the 1 spot), 1x d8, 1x d10 (0-9), 1x d10 (00-90), 1x d10 (000-900), 1x d12, 1x d20, 1x d30
  
  (All Gardening Society members that back a physical Ref book get a set of dice included at no extra charge.)
  
• CUSTOM ART by Olli Hihnala drawn directly in your book!
  
• A SLIPCASE that will fit both this hardcover Ref book and the recently released hardcover Rules & Magic book. The slipcase features this new art by Olli Hihnala wrapping around the whole thing:
  
  
• A REFEREE SCREEN, three panels, 89cm or so long, with this custom Matthew Ryan art on one side:
  
  
• A T-SHIRT with new Aeron Alfrey art, a detail of a piece appearing in the Ref book:
  
  
• A NOTE PAD! 48 page, A5-sized note pad. The book has graph paper on one side of each page spread and hex paper on the other - perfect for your mini One Page Dungeons and Wilderness or general notetaking needs. Cover art by Satine Phoenix:
  
  

And that's just stuff you can get for you!

• We also have COMMENTARY! where you can sponsor your choice of Michael Curtis, Kenneth Hite, Frank Mentzer, or Zak S to write a minimum of 100 words on a subject of their choice in the book.
• And we also have MONSTERS! where you can sponsor a new monster, including description stats and illustration, to be created by Aeron Alfrey and Rafael Chandler.

Thulian Echoes will be available in PDF after the campaign, but all other physical items here are BACKER EXCLUSIVE. You do NOT have to back the Ref book to get these extras, but you do have to order the extras through the campaign.

LotFP Shirt Sale: 20% off until 8am Finnish Time Tuesday!

LOTFP SHIRT SALE!



We're getting a new pile of shipping supplies in this place on Monday, and we need to clear up some room in the storage space downstairs. So... SHIRT SALE!

Use coupon code SHIRT20 (all caps) to get 20% off the Flame Princess and Alice shirt designs through 8am Finnish time Tuesday the 24th!

ALL NET PROCEEDS (after shipping, tax, Paypal fees) for shirts purchased with this coupon will be credited towards the stretch goals on the Ref Book crowdfunding project! And anyone that takes advantage of this sale that adds on, or has already added, the Aeron Alfrey shirt design there has that purchase count 25% more towards stretch goals (counts as 20€ instead of 16€).

The LotFP Shirt section of the LotFP Webstore is... HERE!

Let's Get This Train Wreck Started: LotFP Ref Book Crowdfund Campaign!

The skinny:

• New greatly expanded hardcover Ref book... and a new 4th printing of Death Frost Doom will be included with all Ref books thanks to pre-campaign sponsors!
• Exclusive stuff like heavy-duty slipcases and Ref screens, a new Zzarchov adventure, T-shirt, special dice sets, note pads...
• Add-ons which will change the book itself -- commentary by Kenneth Hite or Frank Mentzer or Michael Curtis or Zak S, or new monsters by Rafael Chandler and Aeron Alfrey...
• Stretch goals which are voted on by backers, so if you want to influence how the book will be improved (color art? color layout? indexes? added editing services? more reprint adventures), back early!
• Read the details - this campaign is set up much differently than most.

Support this effort here!

(Yannick Bouchard's wraparound cover art for the backer-exclusive version of the Ref book)

Comments can be left here.

What Does Your Hobby Look Like?

That graphic has been passed around by conservative preachy types who want to shame people who use their imagination.

Me? I know what I want my hobby to look like and I make it so:

Hint: It's OK if any of those three images are not to your taste, but there's nothing intrinsically wrong with any of them.

 

(upper left art image by Hyung-Tae Kim, lower art image by Jason Rainville)

Shipping COMPLETE! And... I WANT YOUR PICS!

OK, all 700 or so packages with the Rules & Magic hardcover, Seclusium, Qelong, Fuck For Satan, etc etc have been mailed. FINALLY! So all orders made from now on will be promptly shipped.

OK, getting the next thing going...

For the Ref book, we're doing a fan collage as is found in punk and metal and etc. albums to be near the front of the book. "Join the hordes!" kind of thing, a way to let people browsing through the book in stores know that LotFP has a fanbase and it's not some unknown thing that'll get read and never used.

So... I want pictures of YOU wearing one of your LotFP shirts for inclusion in the collage! Send it to lotfp@lotfp.com (no more than 4mb filesize please) with the subject line COLLAGE. By submitting a pic you agree to the possibility that it will be published. Don't submit pics with people who have NOT given permission to have the pic published...

Deadline Oct 31.

Talking About the New Releases!

Yes, they exist as something more than online store listings and PDFs!

Another Ropecon is History!

Had a great time, more than doubled last year's sales, met Vincent Baker and had fun peoplewatching.

Last reminder: If you received a coupon code for adding items to your crowdfunding loot that'll start shipping soon, you have until I wake up tomorrow (probably 8am Finnish time or so) to use it, because that's when I start putting together mailing labels and packing lists.

Tons of LotFP Releases OUT NOW!

LotFP Store

New releases now in stock and for sale at the LotFP Store:

LotFP Rules & Magic hardcover book
The Seclusium of Orphone of the Three Visions (by D. Vincent Baker)
Qelong (by Kenneth Hite)
Fuck For Satan (by James Edward Raggi IV)
Tales of the Scarecrow
Better Than Any Man

Plus:
Alice T-shirt design
Bookmarks!

Plus:
Flame Princess T-shirt design, all sizes re-stocked!

Note that several of those books were crowdfunded. If you participated in the crowdfunding campaign and are unsure about what you should be receiving, email lotfp@lotfp.com and we'll get that sorted.

Thanks for your support everybody!

LotFP 2013 ENNIE AWARD NOMINATION!

Jason Rainville's cover for The Magnificent Joop van Ooms has been nominated for the Best Cover Art ENnie this year.

All of the nominees.

The art:

(comments here)

LotFP ANNIVERSARY CONTEST #2!

On July 22, 2009, LotFP officially became a business.

In July 2010, LotFP published its own game system, Weird Fantasy Role-Playing. The first printing, the Deluxe Edition box, quickly sold out. Then there was the Grindhouse Edition box, and while there are a couple hundred still knocking around the distribution chain, I've sold out. There will soon be a Rules & Magic hardcover, to be followed by a new hardcover Referee book.

Anyway, I still have two of those old Deluxe Editions knocking about. They have a price tag on them, and they were on a store shelf (I traded the newer Grindhouses for the store's old copies of the Deluxe Edition so they didn't have the older edition rotting on the shelf), so they're not pristine. But they are complete and unopened, with a Rules book, Magic book, Referee book, Tutorial book, Recommended Reading booklet, Tower of the Stargazer, and Weird New World. Plus dice, character sheets, graph paper, and a PENCIL!

You want one?

Send me a writeup of a MONSTER of your creation suitable for LotFP by July 21! And I'll release a free PDF featuring what everyone's submitted sometime thereafter!

What does "suitable for LotFP?" mean? Well you've seen Better Than Any Man, The God that Crawls, Monolith, Tales of the Scarecrow, and Death Love Doom. That sort of thing.

To enter, send an email with the subject line LOTFP MONSTER CONTEST to lotfp@lotfp.com with your monster, the name you'd like in the credits, and any web link you want printed with that. You retain all rights to your creation but you give LotFP permission to distribute your entry in the free PDF. You also should realize that while I won't change your entry's content, I may put my variation of the monster under yours (clearly marked which part is mine and which is yours).

On July 22 I'll choose a winner and contact them by email. You have 48 hours to respond to that with your mailing address or I pick another winner.

Also looking for someone to proofread the thing, and someone to do a color cover for it (can't pay for this sort of thing since it's a non-commercial project).

There is also a Magic Item contest happening.

Oh, and just so you're not getting an old collector's item that's out of date for actual play, I'll throw in a new Rules & Magic hardcover with the Deluxe Edition box... for both contests!

(comments can be left here)

Better Than Any Man out now in PDF!

It's available for free here!

LotFP ANNIVERSARY CONTEST #1

On July 22, 2009, LotFP officially became a business. It's been... interesting. We've gotten some cool books out of it. Honestly I thought I was scamming a way to not have to get a real job for a few more months.

In July 2010, LotFP published its own game system, Weird Fantasy Role-Playing. The Deluxe Edition! This cost so much money to produce that I thought I was sinking the company for the sake of making a cool box set.

Funny how things work out.

Anyway, I still have two of these Deluxe Editions knocking about. They have a price tag on them, and they were on a store shelf (I traded the newer Grindhouses for the store's old copies of the Deluxe Edition so they didn't have the older edition rotting on the shelf), so they're not pristine. But they are complete and unopened, with a Rules book, Magic book, Referee book, Tutorial book, Recommended Reading booklet, Tower of the Stargazer, and Weird New World. Plus dice, character sheets, graph paper, and a PENCIL!

You want one?

Send me a writeup of a MAGIC ITEM of your creation suitable for LotFP by July 21! And I'll release a free PDF featuring what everyone's submitted sometime thereafter!

What does "suitable for LotFP?" mean? Well you've seen The God that Crawls, Monolith, Tales of the Scarecrow, Joop van Ooms, Death Love Doom, and the sample items in the Grindhouse set. That sort of thing.

To enter, send an email with the subject line LOTFP MAGIC ITEM CONTEST to lotfp@lotfp.com with your magic item, the name you'd like in the credits, and any web link you want printed with that. You retain all rights to your creation but you give LotFP permission to distribute your entry in the free PDF. You also should realize that while I won't change your entry's content, I may put my variation of the item under yours (clearly marked which part is mine and which is yours).

On July 22 I'll choose a winner and contact them by email. You have 48 hours to respond to that with your mailing address or I pick another winner.

Also looking for someone to proofread the thing, and someone to do a color cover for it (can't pay for this sort of thing since it's a non-commercial project).

(There will be a monster contest for the other Deluxe box up for grabs that will go live after Better Than Any Man's PDF is posted so everyone gets to see the latest on what "LotFP Monsters" look like.)

(comments/questions here)

Positive Notes

Aside from some dodgy LGS shenanigans detailed last post, I think Free RPG Day was a spectacular success!

Thousands of people got Better Than Any Man in their hands with no hassles, the "state of the art" in terms of the LotFP approach to magic, to monsters, to traps, to strange situations. It's out there in the world and gets to work its magic on peoples' games and imaginations.

It's the #1 hot item at Noble Knight, ahead of even Paizo's adventure (!!), but it looks like it's only #1 because the Star Wars thing sold out already. Still, I'll take the #1 spot no matter what the reason. It signifies interest and that's what the release was supposed to generate.

And the emails and reactions are already starting to come in as people look it over and make first impressions, and then actually read the darn thing. Getting "I haven't gamed in forever, but it looks like LotFP is going to bring me back" emails is a thing, believe it or not.

That the adventure is finally out there being out is a huge relief. It went to the printer months ago, and with everything else I pretty much get to release it immediately when it's finished and start getting the "It's great!/It sucks!" responses right away. This one? I had to wait. How do filmmakers and musicians who need to wait many months or years after wrapping a project up to get public feedback deal with it?

It's also a big relief that the project that began as Insect Shrine of Goblin Hill back in 2008 is finally OUT THE GODDAMN DOOR. I almost cursed Better Than Any Man by putting the Insect Shrine material in there, to the point where I was much later than I needed to be in getting it done. But it got done. argh.

So the next things out will be the new Rules & Magic hardcover, Vincent Baker's Seclusium in hardcover, Kenneth Hite's Qelong in living soft cover, and Adventure Number Ten. All are at the printer now.

Fun times ahead, people. Fun times ahead.

(comments can be left here)

LotFP's Better Than Any Man BANNED!

So yesterday was Free RPG Day, and we've had reports of stores keeping LotFP's offering, Better Than Any Man, behind the counter so you had to ask to get it.

No problem there, I can understand how a store's staff don't want to keep a look out to make sure little Timmy doesn't start looking through the thing explicitly marked (and created...) to not be suitable for children.

Also stores warning people that the adventure was not your usual fare, which is fine as well (make sure nobody who would be offended walks off with one if you can help it...), but some hadn't read the adventure too closely and at least one customer was warned that the adventure was all about killing children. (It isn't.)

There were also reports of stores not carrying it at all, with one quote "This is a family store. We don't carry R-rated games like that." Fair enough, businesses should have 100% control over their stock to maintain whatever image they see fit.

And then there was this.

Anyway, long story short - the owner told me (proudly) that he was boycotting LOTFP and Free RPG Day from now on because of the content of the adventure.

Reasons given were:

1.) "This is the kind of shit that got 'our' hobby boiled alive back in the 80's' and I don't want to support anything that could cause an industry-wide witch hunt."

and

2.) "I don't want to risk parents getting their hands on the adventure and garnering a bunch of bad press for the store."

...

 Oh, and James - FYI. To hear him tell it, he plans on cornering you at the next convention you both attend to personally tell you how you're ruining the industry.

Ah yes, the awful 80s, when this hobby was in a total crisis and in danger of extinction because people who knew nothing about it talked about it lots and lots and lots and lots in newspapers and on TV.

Anyway, I remarked on G+ that I indeed expected this sort of thing, and would be disappointed if they didn't happen.

I say that for two reasons:

First, it's silly. Silly silly silly for people to get truly upset by fictional nonsense, like the world is going to change because an RPG adventure has a picture of a boobie, that the world is going to go crazy because there's a child-sculpting wizard. I'm a fan of silliness.

Yet it isn't so silly, is it? People who want to suppress ideas are the really the dangerous people in this world, and my including content like this in part an effort to expose these Gatekeepers of Imagination as the fools and would-be fascists that they are. I feel like I'm on the side of Truth and Justice and Freedom to have these people against me, and as a creative type I have a duty to fight this fight. Ludicrous as that may sound. Guys like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin were before my time, but I remember the PMRC and Congressional Hearings and D&D getting crucified in the media (SUICIDE! SATANISM!) and in the 90s oh no Mortal Kombat showing blood on home consoles was the worst thing ever... it's no good to appease these people. I may be working in an utterly insignificant field culturally, but still, standing up to this sort of pressure is not only the right thing to do, it feels naughty because the respectable people hate it. And it's fun to be naughty, and that fun would go away if people were all reasonable and shit about this sort of thing.

Second reason: It's great publicity. Thus the sensationalistic post title.

The solution to all this is really very simple. If you don't like what I do, if you really really don't like what I do and you want to see something else to make your hobby a better place, here is the solution:

You do that something else. You make it happen.

I'll keep doing what I want to do.

And then we can leave each other alone, and we'll both be happy. Unless you're an asshole.

(you can comment on this post here)

Free RPG Day is TODAY!

Free RPG Day is Today. LotFP is giving away a 96 page adventure through Free RPG Day.

What does that mean for you as fan of LotFP?

First, check the Free RPG Day Retailer Locator to see if there is a participating location near you. There are locations in Australia (16 of them), Austria (1), Canada (63), Costa Rica (1), the Czech Republic (1), Denmark (1), Germany (6), Ireland (1), Italy (3), Mexico (1), the Netherlands (1), Thailand (1), The UK (19), and the USA (282), so no excuses not to at least check.

Second, go to a participating store on Free RPG Day. During opening hours preferably.

Third, BUY SOMETHING WHILE YOU'RE THERE. Buying something by LotFP would be preferable, but chances are if you're reading this you already have everything available. But it doesn't have to be something big. Some dice, some cheap back issues if it's also a comic book store, something at the very least if you don't like spending big bucks. Remember, it costs stores money to participate, and they do this to get asses in the door. Don't be an asshole and take free stuff without at least a token measure of support.

But if you have more to spend and they have stuff you want, by all means buy it!

When you pick up your copy of Better Than Any Man, talk to the people working at the store about it. "Ah, I came here just to pick this up, because Lamentations rules!" "Man, I can't believe LotFP is giving this massive thing away for free." "Lamentations is my favorite publisher right about now."

Substitute your own small talk of course, but the idea is to let the people at the store know that this LotFP thing is on the minds of their customers AND THE GAMING UNIVERSE AT LARGE! MWAHAHAHAH!

If there isn't a store near you, internet vendors usually have copies of the Free RPG Day stuff, and I'll have some copies up on the webstore for cheap after July 1.

But get to your game store if you can, because actual people getting LotFP stuff from other actual people is going to be better publicity, and that's what Free RPG Day is all about for a publisher.

And don't worry about "Well if I grab a copy that means someone unfamiliar with the game won't get a chance to be introduced to it." Actual expressed interest down at the game store is worth a little bit more than potential interest if (and that's a big if) some new person doesn't piss themselves and go blind after reading the adventure.

(leave and read comments here)

Better Than Any Man Discussion and Reviews

(placeholder to hold links to reviews and discussion about Better Than Any Man)

Interviews
Geeky & Genki
Jennisodes

Other Stuff and Commentary

Blessings of the Dice Gods (updated)
Dark Corners of Role Playing
Diehard GameFAN
Doc Schott's Lab 
Geeky & Genki
Jarreth Esq.
RPG Site Discussion
Save vs Total Party Kill
Under Siege

UK Games Expo Results

OK, I'm home and here are the results from the "Pay What You Want" experiment:

Here are the changes from the 2012 to 2013 LotFP appearances at the UK Games Expo. Results might be a bit skewed because they changed venues this year and everyone I talked to, management of the convention included, reported increased sales and traffic:

Gross income: +65%

Units Sold: +95%

Customers: +123%

Average purchase/customer: -26%

Absolutely nobody gave ridiculous low payments for stuff until the last hours of the convention when I was using the "Come on, don't make me lug all this stuff back to Finland!" line at passersby. So thanks everyone. :D

And big thanks to Dominic McDowall of Cubicle 7 for trading some Doctor Who RPG stuff for some LotFP stuff even though those Who books are expensive and I'd already sold out of all my major items. Made all the flights home go much quicker.

Those human-shaped video screens in the Birmingham airport are creepy.

Next convention for LotFP is Ropecon July 26-28 in Espoo, and I'll be back in England for Dragonmeet on December 7 (my birthday!).

(you can comment here)

LotFP UK Games Expo (May 24-26) Price List

(comments can be left here)

Anarchy in the UK! Plus Interviews!

I will have a table at the UK Games Expo in Birmingham this weekend. Stop by, say hi, spend money.

Over the weekend I did some online media appearance stuff.

I was on a "Making Games Magical" panel with Julia Ellingboe (Steal Away Jordan) and Kyle Simons (Magicians); you can watch that video here.

I was interviewed by Pete Figtree about the LotFP Free RPG Day adventure. You can watch that video here.

Weekend Sale, 25% Off!

I'm off to Sweden for a few days, so until 11:59pm Sunday Finnish time, you can get 25% off of any 10€+ order (pre-tax, pre-shipping) in the LotFP store by using the coupon code SVERIGE.

Just to let you know that the Grindhouse Edition is inching closer to selling out (down to around 10% of it's original print run) and we've just got a couple dozen here. (The next printing's PDFs will be given free to everyone who has the current Grindhouse PDFs.)

This next printing will consist of a hardcover Rules & Magic book and a hardcover Referee book, prices not set in stone but it's looking like 19€ and 27€ (about $25 and $35). The new R&M book will just be a correction/revision of the current Grindhouse Edition, plus gunpowder rules in the appendix. The new Ref book will be an extensive rewriting with tons of new tools and things like that. The new R&M book is almost ready for press, the Ref book will be a couple months down the road at least.

So there's your information to help decide if you want to get the current Grindhouse Edition with this discount or not.

Domains at War: You Want Gunpowder?

So I was talking to Tavis today about that ACKS Domains at War Kickstarter that's going on. "Does it work with low-magic settings?" Because wizards don't join armies fireballing people in LotFP, you know? I try to buy gaming stuff that I have a decent chance of using.

I was told they playtested historical battles. Cool.

Would gunpowder rules/units be included? (Because the forthcoming new LotFP Rules & Magic hardcover will have firearms rules in it, as my home campaign has for a long time.)

No, it doesn't presently have them included. But because I can't shut up, it might happen if you make it happen.

Use the link from that banner there to pledge to the Kickstarter. If pledges linked from this blog reach $4,250, there will be a PDF supplement for Domains at War covering  gunpowder weapons. But you have to leave a comment on the Kickstarter saying that LotFP sent you; the referral system isn't working perfectly for pledges made from the blog here so that's how Autarch is going to track which dollars come from here.

$7,500 gets the gunpowder rules included in the Domains at War books.

We're late in the game here, they've already collected over $20,000 and there's 9 days to go, but there it is.

So if you haven't gotten the ACKS game yet, or their Players Companion, now is the time to do it as you can get them as add-ons to this, boosting the $ amount. (I just gave a $120 head start on this.)

No word on what happens if you've already put money down and leave a comment now saying "I want gunpowder rules!" Try it. What else is LotFP other than a harbinger of chaos?

Geoffrey McKinney's Dungeon of the Unknown Available in PDF!

Up on the DriveThru sites!

(if you backed Better Than Any Man and didn't get the download link, let me know)

Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess Now Available!

The PDF is up at the DriveThru sites, it'll be up on the LotFP store and submitted to the other PDF outlets over the weekend.

(if you backed Better Than Any Man and you haven't already gotten the link for this, let me know)

Better Than Any Man is at the Printer

So another thing checked off the long, long list.

The adventure is 96 pages and will carry the 18+ explicit content age disclaimer. Some will love it, some will hate it, some will be silly and complain about it even though they're getting fair warning about it, plus it has a little trap for knee-jerkers who will make assumptions that aren't supported by the actual text. It's going to be a festive Free RPG Day, that's for sure. (it'll be available in participating game shops for FREE on June 25, and for free PDF download a week or so later)

Here's a Free RPG Day Retailer Locator to see if a store near you is participating.

Now then...

I have a lot of emails to catch up on, some weeks old, and I've been very irresponsible there.

Then it's back to whipping the troops into line so all this late stuff gets done (of course a few art things in that direction relate to the first item).

And then... Grindhouses are disappearing fast. My final supply (save for some I'm holding back for UK Games Expo) are going out the door very soon, and I expect them to be gone entirely by July.

Time to think reprints.

10€ Shipping Days at the LotFP Store!

Through 11:59pm Finnish time Monday the 1st, the LotFP Store has added a 10€ shipping option. Order as much as you want, shipping charges cap at 10€.

10€ shipping items will be sent 1st Class to EU orders, Economy Class outside of the EU.

I'm taking the remaining Ooms and many of the shirts to GothCon this weekend, so I've deactivated those for now. If you want the Ooms book or an LotFP shirt, you need to wait until I reactive them Sunday night/Monday morning. (they are reactivated)

All orders from this point forward will be mailed on Tuesday the 2nd.

LotFP Quick Primer #5

Primer #1
Primer #2
Primer #3
Primer #4

(#5 is on the blog and not G+ because it's got lots of pictures!)

LotFP Quick Primer #5: Men Versus Women

Depictions of women in gaming material (and how gamers treat women in real-life) is a frequent topic of discussion these days, and LotFP Weird Fantasy Role-Playing seems to be frequently brought up as one of those games that gets it wrong.

One of the main sources of this belief is this Something Awful review. I'd sent the Grindhouse box set to them hoping they'd do exactly what they did - make a comedy review of the game (it's what they do) and highlight some of the art. This would give it exposure and thus attract those who like the grindhouse aesthetic and help make sure people who didn't like it knew enough to stay away.

I was extremely happy with the review and still believe it was an important step to selling the thousands of copies (yes, plural) of the Grindhouse Edition in print and PDF.

But people seem to have taken the cherrypicked art (of course they'd use the "worst of the worst" in a comedy review) used there, and looked at the "Alright, I picked this image and the next two images out because I wanted to demonstrate that as violent as this book is in general, it has a definite fascination with the violent deaths of women." line as representative of the art direction of LotFP as a whole.

For the record, men suffering violence outnumbers the women suffering violence even in SA's review by more than 2-to-1 (which goes even more lopsided in the full Grindhouse set art). All of the women suffering such violence are adventuring/competent types suffering the consequences of being adventuring types, and none are tied down/naked/crying as it happens, which is the case with some of the depictions of men suffering violence.

General guidelines for LotFP art direction include:

No "random" cheesecake. People wear the clothes that makes sense for their situation.

Racy material shall not hide or pretend to be anything other than what it is and "racy material" means more than just naked women.

All of my protagonist Player Character stand-in "iconic" characters are women. And they are never cheesecaked up.

 

As far as the writing goes, my own writing uses male pronouns as the singular generic standard. It's just what I'm comfortable with and always understood as "correct." Writing "he and she" and "him and her" everywhere just seems like ugly looking writing to me, and I'm not threatening to overtake Vance in beautiful prose as it is.

But this is not a constant throughout LotFP releases. Zak uses the "he and she" style writing in Vornheim, and Ken Hite assumes a woman as the generic Referee in Qelong. As with many things in LotFP, it's about the individual author's style.

In hiring freelancers, Cynthia Sheppard has done many covers and other art pieces, including the box set (and new reprint covers). Women have been involved in the art from the very beginning (the early releases' art was, cartography aside, done entirely by women), and there's been a long list of women I've worked with for art these past few years. The qualifications needed for an artist: "Is your work awesome? Can I afford you?" That's about it.

We haven't done so well having women writing material. Several women were involved in last year's crowdfunding efforts, but they didn't get funded, and there is one woman-written project in development but the completion of that one is entirely up to the author. I don't accept many product pitches (backlog is bad enough as it is and resources are stretched to the max, this being small publishing), but I'm always up for receiving pitches that fit in with LotFP no matter who it's from.

Bottom line is that LotFP is a horror game and it's going to show you horrific images and present horrific situations and they're going to involve men, women, and children and absolutely nothing is off the table.

Not even vagina monsters mounting corpses while an Englishman dressed up all Asian-like tries to look away but just can't.

(comments can be left here)

The Seven

(comments can go here)

Vornheims Disappearing - Act Now

If you want a physical copy of Vornheim and you see it on a store shelf or in stock at your favorite webstore, GET IT NOW. My distro warehouse person said last night they had 1 left, so all copies have pretty much worked their way through the system.

A number of vendors listed there on the left still have copies in stock.

As you know, LotFP is a bit backlogged at the moment and Zak's next thing is A Red and Pleasant Land so it'll be a bit before we get to Vornheim again.

(Thing is with small press, resources are limited and tying them up with reprinting an older title often seems less interesting and lucrative than doing a new project because sales of the reprint would be considerably slower than a brand new thing, even if in the long run Vornheim has the greater sales power - which we can't know ahead of time...)

About the Cover for Better Than Any Man

This is the cover to the upcoming LotFP Free RPG Day adventure, Better Than Any Man. It is apparently causing some offense.

I would like to state for the record that this Magic-User has no intention of raping this creature she has kidnapped from distant realms and robbed of freedom.

I do apologize for those offended by the frank depiction of subjugated tentacle monsters from Beyond but unfortunately it is too late to commission new suitable artwork for the adventure.

LotFP will strive to promote more empowering depictions of tentacle monsters in the future.

(comments may be made here)

And That's That.

338 backers, $18,738.

Thank you!

Kickstarter. LAST DAY.

We've hit $15,000 so we're at Platinum Free RPG Day participation but Feb 20, 11:59pm EST (LESS THAN ONE DAY LEFT) all the rewards are still up for grabs. Exclusive print versions, custom dice, exclusive T-shirt, all that fun stuff.

Click the widget there on the right to go to the Kickstarter page with the full details.

Related: Olli Hihnala (gallery here) is doing the illustration/map for Tower of the Navelgazer and is also doing the cover for the Kickstarter Sixth Level reward of Tower of the Navelgazer/Dungeon of the Unknown/Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess/Another Shitty Adventure all in one book. Here's the rough of that:

It's going to be a long evening and night of staring at the Kickstarter screen. :P

New Shirt Design for the Kickstarter: We're at $10,000!

The Free RPG Day Kickstarter has hit $10,000! And we're doing some limited edition shirts!

These will be available only through the Kickstarter, and if I don't get a minimum order number gathered through there I'll get some extras and sell them at conventions, but not through the LotFP store.

If you want a shirt without getting any other stuff, just pick the Zero Level option and put in the $20 (or $22.50 if you're a handsomely husky feller like me).

 

Death Love Doom Valentine's Day Special!

The PDF is just 99¢ on DriveThruRPG and RPGNow through Sunday.

Art from the Kickstarter Project (So Far!)

Lots of good stuff getting done for the Kickstarter. We're going to print at least some copies of the Better Than Any Man adventure, but we're still $6000 from doing the 9000 copies to go out free to the game stores.

Just $15 gets you, in PDF:

• PDFs of Geoffrey McKinney's Dungeon of the Unknown
• Zzarchov Kowolski's Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess
• My own Tower of the Navelgazer
• My Another Shitty Adventure
• The Random Esoteric Creature Generator (both my original and Goodman Games' versions!)
• Robert "Thorkhammer" Pinnell's Daughters of the Deep
• A short PDF of monsters and an essay I did for the This Just In From GenCon podcast crowdfunding effort last year.

That's a deal and a frickin' half, if you ask me. Plus there are seven more levels of rewards (the $25 level gets you all that, a couple more PDFs, plus a few print items), plus a ton of extra stuff you can add to any level.

And while a couple of people donated their PDFs to the cause to be nice/drum up awareness for their other efforts, most of the 3rd party publishers involved in the rewards get a royalty so you're putting some money in their pockets as well.

And some of the promised completed art from the Kickstarter projects:

Free RPG Day Kickstarter is Live!

The widget that will have you seeing double while this is the top post:



Anyway, with previous crowdfunding efforts still outstanding there was some considerable hand-wringing about doing this one (and I put it out there here, as previously mentioned on this blog), but the strict deadline for Free RPG Day forced my hand. However, you'll notice the participation of other publishers - this is to make sure there are items that can be delivered immediately after payments are deposited at campaign's end. And previous supporters can get an added doohickey at no extra charge on the current campaign. And nobody working on any of the outstanding material is involved with the new Kickstarter stuff*.

As for the adventure itself, large parts of the innards are reworked portions of Insect Shrine of Goblin Hill, Rainville's doing a ton of new art for it (and the map for Navelgazer), Cynthia Sheppard and Amos Orion Sterns and Dyson Logos and Geoffrey McKinney and Zzarchov Kowolski and more are involved with Better Than Any Man and/or the reward adventures.

As more art and stuff comes in, I'll be updating the Kickstarter page.

* Two exceptions: Jez is in the middle of doing layout for Seclusium but he made two slight adjustments to an existing art piece for Better Than Any Man, that's already done and took negligible time. And since Sheppard can't get started on interiors for Seclusium until that layout is done, she's doing a quick cover for Zzarchov's Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess.

(comments on this post can be made here)

GrognardGames Interviews LotFP! On Video!

Lots of comments (over 100!) before we even finished the interview. Go watch!

Vornheim: Golden Crown Award Winner!

Best Supplement for a Role-Playing Game over the last TEN YEARS!

Read about it here!

There are still print copies of Vornheim available out there in distro-land, and of course PDFs are available from where they've always been available from.

LotFP Crowdfunding Updates

LotFP Hardcover: Layout complete, interior artwork in progress.

Qelong: Interior layouts complete, interior artwork in progress.

Seclusium: In Layout

Broodmother: Text and rough maps submitted, waiting to slot this in to some actual play so it can go into layout as soon as Seclusium's layout is done.

Towers Two: I've seen outlines, no draft yet but Brockie's in almost daily communication with me about his progress.

Horror Among Thieves: Kelvin's played it, showed off a lot of art and maps for it, I'm still awaiting the text.

Rob Conley's Civil War Sandbox (bonus item): Conley and I are in contact, work is progressing, no final draft yet.

Adventure #10 (bonus item): Text is complete and edited. Just needs layout; this will be an art-free project.

Early Modern Supplement: I admit I don't consider this a *front burner* project because the Monolith/God that Crawls backers already received more pages than promised, but they will get this supplement at no cost when it's ready. Rich Longmore is in the middle of a massive art order for this book (on hold until he finishes Qelong) and it will be a 64 page book.

You might want to look at this concerning things happening next month that I mentioned last summer. I'd wait on it if I could, but it is time sensitive. Nobody working on any of the above projects will be involved and plenty of perks will be delivered at the campaign's end.

If you ever have questions, you've got a bunch of contact info for me on the right side there just under the blog banner.

Plug Plug! Sorcerer Kickstarter + Grindhouse PDF Sale!

First up, 8 days left in the Sorcerer Upgrade Kickstarter. $25 + shipping gets you TWO BOOKS (rulebook + supplements book) and it's funded so no guessery about the whole thing.

Bbbuuuutttttt... one of the $50 perk levels is this: "If 20 people pledge for this reward, then Jim Raggi and [Ron Edwards] conduct an unrehearsed, topic-unlimited, candid, and complete conversation to be posted online."

Sound good to you? Go for it.

Second...

The LotFP Grindhouse set is 40% off over at DriveThruRPG as part of their New Year, New Game promotion. Sale lasts until January 14.

Remember if you order the Grindhouse Edition now (in any format), you can re-download the PDF when the art and everything is ready for the new layout.