Tapiolan Pelikauppa RPG Night

“That man is no spoon salesman, but a lowly thief! I’d advice you fine gentlemen to keep a watchful eye on your purses.”

We’ve now played RPG’s at Tapiolan Pelikauppa bi-weekly for the past two months or so. Our game of choice has so far been Jim Raggi’s Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Attendance has been slowly on the rise, with first two people, then four, and a week ago on Monday, a total of six people showing up to play. I’m quite satisfied with the event, as it has managed to generate interest in traditional table-top role-playing amongst our customers.

It has also been useful in promoting the idea that role-playing isn’t something obscure, only suitable for social recluses. Sure, table-top role-playing is a marginal hobby if you compare it to miniatures wargaming, console gaming, or even board gaming, but it is by no means dead. People still play RPG’s, and getting involved with role-playing isn’t really that hard. All you need to do is show up, roll up a character, and start playing!

We’re playing again the day after tomorrow, and as no other game masters have volunteered their services, we’re continuing with Jim at the helm. Not that I’m complaining, as I think Jim is one of the most creative and imaginative game masters around, not to mention him being not just your average run of the mill game master, but also the Insane Mastermind behind LotFP: Weird Fantasy Role-Playing, which I consider the best old school game out there, bar none. Don’t get me wrong, I also love Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry, and OSRIC, but Jim’s game really stands out as the only simulacrum game with a definite (and very powerful) voice of its own. LotFP isn’t just a re-imagining of the Mentzer Basic version of D&D; Its heavy metal weird fantasy cranked to eleven!

As much as I love LotFP, I think its time to add something a bit different to the mix, so starting next week, I’m starting an in-store campaign of my own. It is going to be Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play 2nd Edition, run in Finnish. I’m planning on running games bi-weekly, so from now on every other week will be LotFP, and every other will be WFRP. We’ll continue with this rotation (of course barring other store events, which might take precedence), until we come up with something different. So… if you’re into fantasy role-playing, live in, or in the the vicinity of Espoo in Finland, and have Monday evenings off, there will be a game for you to join, whether you’re fluent in English, or would rather game in Finnish.

“Feeling the assailment of a black panic, he tottered in darkness and sought to secure his footing on the dangerous incline. But, ere he could relume the blown-out torch, he saw that the night around him was not complete, but was tempered by a wan, golden glimmering from the depths below. Forgetting his alarm in a new wonder, he descended toward the mysterious light.” (from Xeethra by Clark Ashton Smith)

Weird Fantasy at Tapiolan Pelikauppa, part 3

Today was our third session of Lamentations of the Flame Princess at Tapiolan Pelikauppa, refereed by Jim Raggi. We had six people show up to play, the most so far. The adventure started out quite inconspicuously with a rainy night at a backwoods inn full of spoon salesmen and Morris dancers. Things went from almost normal to weird quite fast after that, as the innkeeper turned out to be two identical innkeepers, the second innkeeper got his brain bashed out by the first innkeeper, and the Morris dancers’ and spoon salesmens’ horses doubled overnight. Deviltry was definitely afoot!

When the player characters returned with the village priest in tow, all that was left were dead men and butchered horses. The surviving innkeeper, and the extra horses were all missing. Following the trail north, we soon came upon murdered farmers, then a wrecked carriage, and finally, a duel. A troupe of questing knights had been set upon by unknown assailants, and now all that was left was the last of the knights, and his duplicate, both of who claimed to be the original. The elf cast Sleep, putting the knight down for the count, at which point the doppleganger hissed, and attacked the player characters. In the midst of the melee it assumed the form of PC specialist, after which one of the specialists was run through with a scimitar, and the other bound and gagged, just to be on the safe side.

Retreating to a nearby orphanage, a closer study of two of the corpses was conducted. My character performed autopsies, and after a night of cutting and measuring body parts, I had discovered a ruby-like gem inside the heart of one of the corpses. Meanwhile the party cleric had managed to find a method of routing out the rest of the doppelgangers, which didn’t require the cutting out of hearts. The last of the doppelgangers was masquerading as one of the orphans. With the assistance of the nuns of the orphanage, we captured the doppelganger in a casket, and proceeded to boil it to death. Problem solved. Well, almost, anyway, as there was still the matter of at least one more doppelganger loose in the village, probably in the guise of the inn’s serving wench. At about this time we had to call it a night.

In all, a rather entertaining little horror story reminiscent of John Carpenter’s The Thing. We plan on continuing play next Monday. Lets see how many of the players return for another go.