Finally, a review!

Today, we are taking a look at Obscene Serpent Religion 2 By Jeff Rients for Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

I rate products in these categories:

Writing quality and content.

Usability at the table.

Interior art and layout.

Overall presentation.

This is one the GenCon exclusive modules printed for 2019. The convention exclusive booklets are quick supplements and scenarios meant to add to your game. This little book introduces a village hub for players to get attached to, then it rips that away by having a snake demon corrupt the town and ruin everything they love. The snake demon in question is a quasi-deity capable of rewriting character's genetic history and is a tough customer to deal with. 

The first half describes the village of Nonesbeck. It's a sleepy little Hamlet with the basic needs for entry level characters. The NPCs are all described well as are their connections to one another.

This section alone is quite indispensable. The referee can never have enough villages laid out, described, and fleshed out. There are some quest hooks for the PC's to discover and for the referee to prep. The art here is pleasant and does a good job setting up the pastoral village.

The second part describes how to pull off the con on the players, and how each NPC has been affected by the cult. It's actually kind of heart-rending. How players react to the corruption can set off a new campaign arc. Maybe the eradicate the cultists and chase them out? Or maybe the players choose to cut their losses and flee. This option only leads to more cultists, though! The art in this section perverts the art style of the first. There are more shadows and the tone is more bleak, more menacing.

The third section details the serpent demon and her powers. The art in this final section is what we have come to expect from the publisher. Detailed, well done, visceral and completely NSFW.

Everything is laid out very well and the referee is able to find whatever they require from the book with ease. It's very useful as a premade location, but not everyone's table will let the 2nd part fly. So a good half the book may go unused. The creature is neat and wholly unique, but again, she is a unique flavor that will probably only sit well at a few tables as she can literally unmake and ruin a character on a whim, no saves allowed. The serpent demon would however, make an excellent end of campaign fight.

Overall, I rate this product 4/5 stars. Product quality overall is high. The small A5 booklet fits neatly on a shelf and doesn't add much weight or space to your game bag.

The art is fitting and I like the dual atmosphere it creates.

The only issue really is that the entirety may not be up for everyone's table. 

I give it 4.25/5 stars, it's worth checking out! The PDF can be had at drive-thru rpg and physical copies are still available in the US lotfp store, Amazon, and the usual second hand market book stores for between 10-20 bucks.

let's talk Lamentations of the Flame Princess

Lamentations of the Flame Princess, or LotFP for short was one of the early retro clones that broke away from being a straight B/X clone. 

It takes the Moldvay Basic/Expert rules and makes them accessable for a modern audience. It further sets itself apart from the pack by having it's default setting be Europe in the 17th century sprinkled in with weird horror ala Lovecraft, his circle and modern influences like Clive Barker.

It has a reputation as being the "fuck with your players game". Only some of the modules are like that. It helps if the referee is very upfront about the game and contents of the scenario being played. Because of this, I think of lotfp as being a horror system rather than fantasy.

A lot of the early modules like Death Frost Doom, Death Love Doom and Fuck For Satan are really like dungeon and sandbox crawls with a little (or large) morality test in there some where.

The published modules are excellent in printing quality. Sturdy hardcovers with ribbons and embellishments, bookmarks and top notch art that is not for the faint of heart. Each purchase also comes with a very well laid out pdf. Nobody in the business quite puts out product like this!

 I will be putting out some product reviews shortly and will make a spoiler free tldr as well as an in depth version.

I have ran: better than any man, Blood in the Chocolate, Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess, and Fish Fuckers so far.

In 2018, accusers came out to testify about Zak Smith about cases of Abuse. You can Google that whole episode and make your own informed decision. I refuse to cover that can of worms here and will not respond to comments pertaining to it.

Because of that and a series of unfortunate circumstances the company is very deep underwater need your help!

You can read more about here: http://lotfp.blogspot.com/2020/07/new-releases-tomorrow-monday-july-13.html?m=1

In short, please pick up some stuff from either of the stores if you able to and want to see this company continue putting out excellent, unique material.

If you are short on change, you can pick up PDFs from drive-thru, but the profit margin isn't that high for the publisher.

New GM Advice

I have been gaming off and on now for 16 years. That's a little over half my life and the entirety of my adult life thus far. I have played a lot of different table games over that time and if I tried to list them, I know I would fail and miss some of the games I have thrown dice and had some kind of stake or share in. One of the first questions new or perspective players ask is: "How do I join a game"? the next, "How do I Gm and how do I get better at it, no how to be  the be the best at it"?

This post is going to focus on a part of that second question. Everybody who has ran a session or two has their bits to add to the  soup pot. Here's mine:

Wait, before I tell you, sit down. Relax, still your thoughts and prepare yourself for some paradigm shattering. I do not care what kind of  Referee, or Judge you are, or aim to be. This information is good, it is universal, and the most useful I can possibly give you. In order to give this advice well and make it stick. I am going to use some vulgar, family unfriendly language and metaphors. It might make me consider making my whole blog nsfw. But this is important and I want you, dear readers to take it to heart. It is a bitter pill to swallow, possibly horse sized too. If you've heard this advice before, good. If not, I really need you to focus and prepare: your heart, mind, and body. This one's gonna hurt:

"Your players are gonna do their best to bend your carefully orchestrated adventure/campaign over a table and have their way with it  and you are going to watch it happen". Your best friends, or random folks you roll dice with will do it to you. It doesn't matter if it hasn't happened yet, it will, and it is coming.
 What can I do to so that I don't hate everything when it happens? (This involves Homework)

1. You can not prevent this from happening. What you can do is this: Adapt your style and recognize this fact about the hobby: The storytelling in these games is collaborative. You, the Referee and they, the players react to one another and your (the group's) actions and reactions are what ultimately tell the story.

2. Do not  be "That DM". Never force your players, or their characters into doing anything, ever. Never take things away from them. Never punish them for good rolls, finding good treasure, or for them taking your plot off the rails. By doing these things, you are robbing your players and your game of "Agency". It stops being a living breathing world and becomes an office where the management punish the staff for a sloppy break room and for stealing pens. Visit https://www.reddit.com/r/rpghorrorstories/ for more examples of things to never, ever do and if you have done those things, you should apologize to the people you play with. I have, it was cathartic.

3. This one is the friendly writing advice section. This is not a mandatory thing, it is merely some adventure and storytelling advice that I hope make it harder or more flexible when players make crap hit the fan. These steps assume some things:  That you have a campaign area, story goals, npcs, and monsters chosen, or are using a pre-written/professionally produced adventure.

1. Make a list of events that happen and give them dates in game. Time passes independently of player choices. If they decide to dick around the bar for a week, the big bad cult in the mountains could have summoned their big bad god in the same amount of time. Every action should have consequence (not a punishment), and yes, choosing to not do anything is in fact a choice.
2. Prepare. Read everything once when you get it, again when you intend to run it, again the night before, and possibly right before everyone else shows up. Literally be the "Master" of your campaign and know the ins and outs of the plot so you are able to be flexible. Your players don't always choose the  main road through the mountains, even if they have for the last 20 years.
3. Learn about improvisation and how to do it better. Be spontaneous, but in a controlled way.
4. Know your players. What they want from your game, from you (the dm) and find out how you can meet these needs. Then know their characters, anticipate their actions, or at least attempt to predict them.
5. Read the works listed in a "recommended reading" section for the system you are running. This hobby was founded on the ideas of doing what Conan, Jirel, John Carter, and others could do in the pulps. If you haven't yet, familiarize yourself with "Appendix N". Then move on to the more modern stuff. It's okay to not like stuff much and to have your preferences. If you are playing a system that is heavily lit based, like Dungeon Crawl Classics, Call of Cthulhu, or Lamentations of the Flame Princess, make sure to do this part. Further advice: find out who or what influenced those authors and read that. I mean it! Here's an example: Read Lovecraft? Great! Now read: Blackwood, Chambers, Dunsany, Machen, and Poe! You'll find little things that Lovecraft picked up on and was influenced by. In "the gods of Pegana" Dunsany makes his own pantheon of strange gods. Chambers makes up a book and a group of stories connected by its presence within them.
You get the picture. It's happened for eons, one artist inspiring others. Homer inspired Virgil who then inspired Dante.

That's what advice I can give you at the moment, I could probably write a better organized book about this subject, instead of a blog post, but others have done a better job of it already. Here are two such examples and where to get them:

The "be a better game master" series by absolute table top: https://absolutetabletop.com/be-a-better-game-master 
It is a bit pricey for everything and a bit of a time investment, but it is worth it and given to you in an easy to digest interactive workbook format.

"Lamentations of the Flame Princess Referee book, Grindhouse Edition:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/148012/LotFP-Referee-Book-old-Grindhouse-Edition
This bad boy costs 0 dollars and was one of the best books on the subject I have read. It also has a free, short adventure for the system that is well worth running!