The Bad Book...

Thanks to the generosity of fellow LotFP fan Mattplaysgames(discord), I am now the proud owner of the infamous RopeCon Bad Book, a busted up copy of a Red & Pleasant Land. Since the vid has been taken down for some reason I'm not aware of(probably drama-bomb related) this copy of a R&PL was stomped on by the Raggi and sold for charity at GenCon. I just wanted to write this up for memories and thank Matt again. Also the LotFP community is the best, it's probably the only OSR place I really feel a part of. 

Also that promo condom!

Giulia Tofana, Our Lady of Poison, Saint of Widows.

"Husband problems eh, I got just the thing.."

Giulia Tofana a.k.a Tofania was a prolific poisoner who lived during the early to mid 17th century in southern Italy. It's estimated she killed 600 people with her signature poison the "Manna di San Nicola" or Mana of St.Nicholas. This "mana' was a mixture of arsenic, lead, and belladonna. The finished product was odorless, tasteless and easily slipped into the victim's drinks and meals. The poison was also undetectable in the bloodstream during post mortem investigation. Tofanna sold her poison by hiding them in various cosmetic items(make-up powder) and selling them to unhappy wives looking to become happy widows. Unsurprisingly with the way women were treated then, business was good. Eventually Tofana, her daughter Girolama Spera and her followers would be apprehended, tortured and executed for their crimes in 1659. Giulia Tofana's name would live on in infamy and her poison would become known today as Aqua Tofana, named after it's creator.

Tofana screams Lamentations NPC so I stated up her, her daughter, followers and the poison. I took some artistic liberties with their characters since other than the mass killings, not a lot is known,

Giulia Tofana, Armor 13, Move 120′, 2nd Level Specialist, 8 hp, Dagger 1d4 damage , Morale 10. Fancy clothes, case of aqua tofana(12 vials), gold pendant with onyx jewel worth 150sp, 2 silver rings worth 50sp each, 3gp. Charisma 17(+2), Intelligence 14(+1) 4-in-6 Sleight of Hand, 4-in-6 Tinkering, speaks Italian, Sicilian, & Latin.

Goals: 

Help women elevate themselves, live independently, help daughter.

Persona: 

Highly charismatic, quick witted, loves to sell her wares. Will try and bring downtrodden women into her employment.

Appearance:

  Fancy period clothes, tied light brunette hair, olive skin, emerald green eyes. Average height & build.

Secret(s):

Her daughter Girolama was adopted after Giulia killed her real mother. Giulia is sterile.

Girolama Spera, Armor 12, Move 120′, 1st level Specialist, 5 hp, Dagger 1d4 , Morale 9. Fancy clothes, vial of aqua tofana, diamond necklace worth 200sp, 1 gold ring worth 75sp, 1gp. Intelligence 16(+2), 5-in-6 Tinkering, speaks Italian, Sicilian & English.

Goals: 

Perfect the family poison, have children to pass recipe to.

Persona: 

Very intelligent and well spoken would rather focus on her work than socialise. Loves gallows humor though.

Appearance:

  Fancy period clothes, short brown hair, olive skin, earth brown eyes. Short, thicc.

Secret(s):

Knows she's adopted. Doesn't know Giulia killed her real mother though.

Tofana's Followers, Armor 12, Move 120′, 0-level Fighters, 2 hp, Pistol 1d8, Dagger 1d4 damage, Morale 9. Vial of aqua tofana, 1d10sp. Speaks Italian, Sicilian & English

Most of Tofana's Followers are young women who have been lifted out of poverty, unhappy marriages or worse. They are fiercely loyal to both Giulia and her daughter Girolama but at the end of the day are just people, and people make mistakes.

Giulia can be found traveling from town to town in southern Italy selling her "cosmetics" with 1d4+1 followers. Her daughter Girolama stays back at their apothecary in Milan with two assistants brewing the poison and selling various medicines & remedies as a front.

Aqua Tofana, 1 vial costs 25sp and contains 4 doses.

Aqua Tofana is an undetectable poison. The poison kills after 4 doses and is usually administered slowly to mask the poison as a sickness. NPCs do not get saving throws. PCs who pass their saving throws will begin fighting off the poison after 3 days of bed rest. Unless another does is given before then. 4 doses at once is lethal and character must make a Saving Throw vs Poison or die. The cause of death will be obvious.

1st dose Symptoms- Appears as a nasty cold, -1 to all dice rolls.

2nd dose Symptoms- Health decline, cold worsens. -3 to future Poison Saving throws.

3rd dose Symptoms- Bedridden, verge of death. Will fail the next poison saving throw for Aqua Tofana.

4th dose- Death

Conclusion

My sources were this & this. I wrote this up because LotFP needs more mundane stuff to amplify the weirdness. People can be monsters too and some are born from circumstance. Also one my players asked where he could buy some poison.

Kids on Spikes, some words

This is PG-13 LotFP

The whole outrage culture on the internet is getting pretty stale at this point. Some guy posted that the OSR SCENE IS DEAD because of the above art(said guy has since taken down his post for some reason). I just have to ask; If you don't like something why take the time out of your busy life to shit on it? I know it's hard but maybe just move on and make something or if your creatively bankrupt, support those that make something you DO like. There are alot of games out there and not alot of time, enjoy life and kids on spikes.

BTW I like the Kids on Spikes art, I also like Stranger Things. Satire is a thing people.

Death by Bees & Chocolate

I played in a great Blood in the Chocolate one-shot today run by the always cool Getrealroleplaying. The pics above are the character sheets for my boi Medley O'Hare(R.I.P). Medley died deliciously after drowning in a scalding chocolate river running from some bees. Good times, and yes I ate the first weird candy I came across. Gots to.

Draugr & Draculas, BUY IT!

I’m a sucker for DIY stuff, especially zines and especially zines made for LotFP, and guess what I picked up recently? Say hello to Draugr & Draculas, a one-shot zine written by Joshua LH Burnett(BernietheFlumph).

If you want the TL;DR review its good, damn good and you should go out and buy it cause everything in this zine oozes awesomeness.

The Longer, still short review.

I’m not the best at reviews, I prefer to just tell people what I like about things rather than spew a bunch of pointless negatives. SO, I wrote a list of reasons why you should buy this zine instead of a traditional review.

• As the title implies, Draugr & Draculas is vampire themed. Which means if you need a big bad vampire like Dracula this is the zine for you. Burnett even gives us different possible Dracula origin stories, very cool.
• Lore & stats for the undead Draugr as well as a playable Draugr class.
• We get stats, art and a write-up for one of the most prolific female serial killers in history, Elisabeth Bathory. Also a new spell point magic system using blood.
• Dracula’s Castle, complete with a sweet map and loaded with flavor like his three brides and Burnett’s own take on horror icons like the Invisible Man, The Wolfman and more! It's also stacked full of encounters & treasure.
• A new class called the Vampire Hunter who are very reminiscent of the Belmonts from Castlevania series.
• Vampire rules and stats of course.
• The layout is simple and clean and the text is bigger for easy reading. 
• Cool new magic items.
• Want to sell your soul to the devil for power? Draugr & Draculas has you covered.
• A brand new deadly dungeon called the Pagan’s Well. I remember reading Burnett’s recaps regarding the well earlier in the year and I can’t wait to run this one.
• The art, the written material is pretty dark so I like the lighter tone the art gives. Also I grew up watching Cartoon Network during the 90’s. Toons for life.
• It was written with LotFP in mind. As you all know I’m a Lamentations fanboy and I gobble up any homebrew stuff anyone makes. An automatic buy for me.(Also come back to us Joshua, we have milk and cookies.)

Draugr & Draculas is a hell of a fun read, pick a physical copy up before their gone!

You can pick up the PDF here.

&

The physical copy here.