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What's LotFP, and why should I check it out.

Started by LoA, January 17, 2017, 11:38:17 PM

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sparkletwist

LotFP is the kind of game that honestly makes me wonder if FATAL's only real problem was that the whole thing read like it was written by Beavis and Butt-Head.

Steerpike

#17
Having talked a lot with you about games, sparkletwist, and even brought up some of its specific mechanics now in debates with you, it's almost a game tailor-made to be antithetical to your sensibilities.  :grin:

A lot of people do like it though, and I've personally had a total ball running it.

Weave

Quote from: Steerpike
Having talked a lot with you about games, sparkletwist, and even brought up some of its specific mechanics now in debates with you, it's almost a game tailor-made to be antithetical to your sensibilities.  :grin:

A lot of people do like it though, and I've personally had a total ball running it.

Sparkle, you should run a game in LotFP. I would play.

That's at least what I think SP just said. Pretty sure.

sparkletwist

Quote from: WeaveSparkle, you should run a game in LotFP.
You do realize what happened the last time someone said something like this.  :huh: :yumm:

Pareidollhouse

D Vincent Baker's The Seclusium of Orphone is pretty sexy. I can't really recommend his games' mechanics, but I can always count on his prose and his imagination.

Steerpike

Quote from: PareidollhouseD Vincent Baker's The Seclusium of Orphone is pretty sexy.

I liked the tools it provided, and thought it was a decent adaptation of Vancian concepts from Lyonesse and Rhialto the Marvelous, but I didn't like that the sample Seclusiums were deliberately half-finished.

Steerpike

#22
A good post on what makes LotFP special: http://dungeonsdonuts.tumblr.com/post/133219718829/you-seem-like-youre-a-pretty-big-booster-of

I particularly think this bit is spot on, for me:

Quote from: Kiel ChenierI want a game that employs those horror movie trappings of monsters, spooky houses, gore, and death, but provides the player abnegation and agency of crafty player characters in D&D.  

This is what LotFP provides that I feel like so many other "horror" games don't.

LotFP is the kind of game where you may end up coming face to face with an eldritch equivalent of Jason Vorhees: a nigh unstoppable monster man in a mask with a machete. Just like Jason in the movies, he's ridiculously tough, and anyone who goes toe to toe with him will probably die horribly.

When you see him, you understand that your death is almost certain.

But...unlike all those idiot teens in the Friday the 13th movies, you're still you. You know how to work together with others. You have weapons, tools, and magic at your disposal. You're genre savvy enough to know what might work against him, and what to avoid doing because it'd be dumb. Again, unlike a lot of horror/slasher movie characters.

You can fight back. You can look down the barrel at all that evil and you can shoot it in the face. You can win.

I mean, the odds still aren't really in your favour, but you can try. And if you die horribly, well, what's a good horror movie without some good deaths?

This is what LotFP provides, and it's a big reason why I love it specifically: It's the rickety thrill-ride of a horror movie complete with all the death and carnage that they so often afford, but you play as old school D&D characters, which gives you that small advantage.

It's critical to what LotFP is trying to do that you'll probably die - the odds suck, and the game is really mean - but this conclusion isn't foregone, anymore than a "good" ending, where the heroes triumph over otherworldly horror, is guaranteed.

LoA

Quote from: Steerpike
It's critical to what LotFP is trying to do that you'll probably die - the odds suck, and the game is really mean - but this conclusion isn't foregone, anymore than a "good" ending, where the heroes triumph over otherworldly horror, is guaranteed.

So in Musical terms, if DnD is the Wizard of Oz, then that makes LotFP Sweeney Todd?