Lamentations of the Flame Princess The Grinding Gear.pdf

Author’s Notes

Is it OK to have a reasonable expectation for failure in a fantasy role-playing adventure?

I created this adventure in the early days of 2008, and I thought at the time it was just another week’s adventure. After

running The Grinding Gear for two different groups, I see it as something a little unusual, and that is why it is in your

hands now.

Both groups failed to ind the treasure that is the ultimate goal of the adventure. Yes, they escaped with their lives to

adventure another day, but they didn’t succeed in this quest. And there are multiple chances in this thing to really rip a

party to shreds. The very irst location, with the statue, has a real possibility of slaughtering a party. In the irst level of

the dungeon, there is a magic-user with a Sleep spell waiting to use it on the PCs. And there is a possibility that if the

party carries a light load of equipment and buys too much into the fake map, they could starve to death on dungeon level

two. How harsh is that?

None of my players’ characters died in any of those obvious kill-zones. Yes, we had a few PC deaths up in the attic, but

that setup was so obvious that I consider those to be mercy killings.

So I don’t expect this to be a slaughterhouse dungeon, but the possibility is very real that the players will think that the

entire thing is one big cruel waste of their time with no rewards. Are you prepared for that?

This adventure rewards careful observation and attention to detail, and perhaps true resource management, in addition

to the usual battle savviness and puzzle-solving. “Old school” proponents often claim player agency as one of the main

advantages of this style of game, and perhaps this adventure was written to highlight that very thing. It somehow loses

its sting if players are allowed to make die rolls to be reminded of things encountered in the game that they decided were

not important enough to either remember or write down.

I strongly recommend you schedule suficient time with your group to complete this adventure in one session. Spreading

it out over multiple sessions would be almost unfair due to the nature of the inal puzzles, and encouraging the players

to take notes would give it all away.

You probably don’t create adventures and locations like this in your game. Although this adventure is now yours to do

with as you please, I ask that you consider not changing those elements which most clash with your gaming style. This

is one of the very purposes of using published materials, to take on different perspectives and styles than you would have

on your own. And while this adventure may tax your players, the in-game rewards are certainly there, and plentiful, for

those clever enough to ind them. And on a meta-game level, perhaps your players will start paying more attention to

the background scenery in the future.

… and right about now I’m looking at the preceding paragraphs and I realize the adventure isn’t all that cruel. Both my

groups successfully conquered the entire adventure, save for one room (that happened to be the inal room), so it’s not

like this adventure is a master class of player disempowerment or an outrageous display of more-clever-than-thou or

anything of the sort. I guess I just spend too much time online reading people whine about their cruel GMs and worry it

might be those people that will be next to experience The Grinding Gear.

The truth is I’ve had great fun presenting The Grinding Gear to my players, and I do believe that they had fun playing the

adventure. Especially the one guy that, weeks later (in real time!), thought to go back to the dungeon and search the inal

sarcophagus more carefully. Ghostcutter was found! I’d like to hear about your group’s experiences with The Grinding

Gear. Send me an email at lotfp@lotfp.com, or post on the LotFP message board.

James Edward Raggi IV

October 17, 2009

Helsinki, Finland

Referee Introduction

This adventure is designed for a party of three to eight characters of irst to fourth level. Parties should be a

good mix of classes, ready for exploration, combat, and especially problem solving.

This adventure will run a bit different than most. While there is some combat, perhaps more than the PCs

can handle, the primary challenge of the adventure comes from an NPC who speciically wished to challenge

adventurers. Players will have to use their heads in order to ind the treasure.

Referees are encouraged to strictly enforce light source durations and encumbrance from the very start of

the adventure, especially where it concerns carrying great amounts of food. At one point, the PCs will very

likely become trapped in an area from which it may take them some time to escape. If a referee has enforced

these oft-ignored guidelines, it may be seen as bad form or being unfair to the players to suddenly make them

important only when it is to their disadvantage. Follow the rules when they do not seem important, and there

will be no cause for complaint once they are.

This is not to say that the adventure should be used as a hammer to bludgeon players with. Players who come

up with creative solutions to problems should be rewarded with success. If players completely avoid some

obstacle or situation which this adventure seems to assume will happen, then more power to the players! This

module is merely a static location, and it is intended that players will completely wreck it. Let them.

One last note: Obviously “St. McIver” is something of a joke name. It was originally used just to be easily

memorable. If using that name would create a tone incongruous with a referee’s campaign, it should be

changed. If the established pantheon of an individual campaign does not use saints, just change it. McIver can

go by any name, and can be a fully-ledged deity if a referee so chooses without changing the substance of the

adventure at all.

Placing This Adventure in Your Campaign

The Grinding Gear takes place in and under an abandoned inn. It should be someplace close enough to

civilization for an inn to be plausible, but far enough off the beaten track that no one kept the place open when

the last owners left, far enough out that adventurers would have once frequented the place and to be visited at

least fairly often by goblins now. One suggestion is that the inn was on the road to a frontier mining town that

has since depleted its vein, making its existence no longer essential.

Adventure Background

Garvin Richrom was a man that both loathed and respected adventurers. Running an inn in a remote location,

he saw enough of them.

He admired their courage and how it was often they, despite their only motivation often being greed, who

dealt with dangers that the legitimate authorities never could. He was disgusted when his daughter became

enamored with one and ran off with him. Four months later he received news that she had died within some

ancient tomb in some far-off land, a victim of a deadly trap.

Himself a dedicated tinker and engineer, not to mention a master of cruel practical jokes, Richrom went to

work to plan both his revenge on foolish adventurers and a reward for the clever ones. He listened closely to

all the stories traveling adventurers told him, and applied this knowledge in order to make life a living hell for

those exploring his own tomb.

Construction was done in secrecy - Richrom would hire crews to dig out one room, then ire them and hire

another crew for the next room. He even had unnecessary rooms built, and then collapsed, just so crews

couldn’t get together after the fact and come up with a reliable map.

After basic construction was completed, Garvin did most of the intricate interior work himself. Truly the

blessings of his patron saint, Anderson McIver, were with him. He completed the project mere months before

he died. His surviving children placed his remains as per his exact instructions, set the last traps, and destroyed

the remaining evidence.

And some time later, the player characters enter the area…

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: