Tales of the Scarecrow

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Image from LotFP Blog

The most recent mini-release (8 pages long) from Lamentations of the Flame Princess is Tales of the Scarecrow. It is not really a module, even in the old site-based module sense. Instead, it is a collection of several loosely connected game elements which can be used as a small scenario (perhaps a random encounter) or as a grab bag of game elements. It consists of:

  • A monster/hazard
  • A location associated with the monster
  • Some NPCs for the location
  • 3 magic items
In this way, it is similar to The Magnificent Joop van Ooms. Discussion and some potential spoilers follow the period tower. Overall, my verdict is that some of the specifics could have been stronger from a game design perspective, but the atmosphere was good and I got some ideas from it.

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The ambiance of the location is wonderful: a perfect circle of surprisingly verdant corn no matter the season, with a mysterious farmhouse in the center. The whole thing is, as you might suspect, a trap. It is a rather difficult trap to escape once caught, but not impossible. The creature that underlies the whole thing is suitably creepy and creative; I particularly like the side view diagram. The NPCs (2 of which are already dead and 1 of which is dying) are not particularly interesting; they are adventurers that have been previously trapped, and function more as a way to explain the presence of treasure (and treasure is certainly necessary to justify the danger of the scenario).

As a referee, I greatly enjoy the interplay between clues and traps, and would have liked to see more clues included in the scenario part of the module. As is, it is not bad, but it does require somewhat arbitrary experimentation to figure out the trick to escape (of course, players may be able to devise their own solution as well). If I ran this, I would slightly modify Richard Fox so that he fits into the solution to the hazard. Without such a modification, I think this scenario might be a bit too difficult for low level characters and a bit to easy for high level characters (flight, for example, would totally defeat the trap).

What about the 3 magic items? The sword is cool in conception, but I don’t care for the mechanics because they require the referee to potentially keep track certain results between sessions (too much bookkeeping). The dynamics of the thing are interesting though; it has a fixed chance of harming anything that is rather higher than would normally be the case, but it has an even greater chance of not actually attacking the right target.

In addition to the sword, there are two magic books. The first one is a grimoire (“Malleus Deus”) that contains magic-user versions of cleric spells in addition to the ability to rob clerics of the ability to cast the cleric versions of those same spells. I dig the diabolist description. Some replacement names for the cleric spells from LotFP would have been appreciated though so that players wouldn’t know that they were about to cast a re-skinned version of cure light wounds (or whatever) without some thought though.

The second book is weirder, in a game mechanics sense. It is a bit of collaborative storytelling masquerading as a magic item. Basically, players are incentivized with XP to come up with the weirdest and most dangerous explanation for the titular scarecrow, and then that is the way it is. This seems to contradict the previous explanation of the scarecrow earlier in the scenario, so I can only assume that the book is magical and characters are somehow using it to change reality, but this is not spelled out. Really, this is just an extradiegetic excuse to engage in some storygaming. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I know it won’t be to many people’s tastes. I like the random XP bonus chart though, and that might be fun to use (say, after every adventure) as a sort of “survival bonus” totally independent of this particular scarecrow book. Too many games don’t last into the mid or high levels, but just jacking up XP rewards is also unsatisfying.

(I got a PDF copy of this because I supported the crowd-funding campaign for the hardcover LotFP Rules & Magic book. I’m not sure when it will be available for general purchase.)

2 thoughts on “Tales of the Scarecrow”

  1. DrBargle

    It was a nice little surprise. I’m glad I opened the e-mail rather than just assuming it was just some advertising/apologies for the delay.

    LoTFP do put out some really nice stuff, and they have a sale on for the next few days!

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