I recently had the opportunity to run the first in what I hope to be a long running game of Lamentations of the Flame Princess: Weird Fantasy Role-Playing (LotFP). My stated hopes to continue the game should be taken as the briefest possible review of the system. To make a short story long, here are my thoughts on the game in no particular order.
(Note: I fully realize that many of these thoughts apply to older editions of D&D, but I got started on 3rd edition with friends in high school and never had an old-school DM to show me these things. I'm coming into OSR-style content from the perspective of a 3.5/D20 player so this is the first game I've run in this style.)
I absolutely love the classes. They match up to the old first edition D&D classes, but that's not what I enjoy. I enjoy that the human classes pick a focus and pretty much just do that thing. The Clerics cast cleric spells and make holy water. That's it. Done. Next class. Fighters hit things. That's a three word class description. They can do some other stuff in combat (Press and Defensive Fighting, +2 To-Hit, -4 AC and the reverse respectively), but they're just other ways to hit things. Magic-Users do wizard things. They cast spells, research spells, write scrolls and brew potions. All are pretty much exactly what you'd expect something called a Magic-User to do. I have heard some complaints about calling them Magic-Users rather than mages or wizards, but I think it's perfect for this game. First, it's a callback to older versions of D&D, from which this game takes most of its inspiration. Second, to me the term Magic-User evokes the image of someone wielding something beyond their ability to fully control, rather than someone who has mastered sorcery like the other terms do. I think it fits way better with the magic rules . Finally (for the human classes), the Specialist is the one who does all of the mundane things. I like the Specialist for two reasons. First, having all the skills on once class makes character creation and level up way more simple than in the later editions of D&D that I'm used to playing. Second, the simple change from Thief/Rogue to Specialist, offloading his secondary combat role unless you spend points on Sneak Attack, firmly sets him as the "do everything else" guy in a well-rounded party.
As for the demi-humans, they're pretty much split-focus classes. The Dwarf and Elf can kinda fight with the extra attack options, but they're not very good at it. The Dwarf gets more hit points than other characters (by a hell of a lot) and can carry stuff and are good at looking at buildings. Elves get to cast spells, though they start with none in their spellbooks. The ability to cast with one hand is interesting. The bonus to search and surprise are nicely flavorful. Halflings being super dodgy and kinda sneaky in the wilderness is cool too. In all, though, I don't think I'd play a demi-human in a game. First because I don't think they fit in quite as well with the Early Modern Age/Weird Fantasy theme that LotFP is going for (very well, I might add). Second because their focus is just too split for them to be particularly good at anything.
Moving on, I love that the book is less than 200 pages. I've spent a lot of time playing and running crunchy, rules-heavy games, and I've got to say that it's refreshing to be able to hold the full text of the rules in one hand. I've also been enjoying the fact that the rules seem to be more of a starting point than an in-depth, "gotta cover everything," multi-book affair. If I don't know a rule off hand, it's not because it's buried on page 345 of the third core rulebook, but because it's meant for you to come up with at the table. Common actions are covered, and uncommon actions can be extrapolated using existing rules. I love that the entry for artillery (no distinction is made between different kinds because that would take pages and pages) notes that structures taking damage take it as ship hit points (SHP). Why do I like this? Because the rules for maritime adventures are already in the book, and ships are enough like buildings and the rules are abstract enough that they might as well be the same.
This post has already taken long enough and it's late so I'll close with what I think is the crown jewel of this game: the theme implied by the mechanics. Now, just flipping through the book, you see a lot of interesting (and often grotesque) artwork. The theme is pretty obvious. But I understood what these rules were going for when I had just the free art-less version. The mechanics imply a world that is not dissimilar from the fantasy RPGs with which most players are familiar, but is far more oppressive and more than a little dark. Take the rules for laboratory use. In 3.5, you didn't need a lab to make potions. In LotFP, not only do you need a lab (which requires owning significant property), they're expensive. And without the ability to purchase healing potions and the incredibly brutal rules for mundane recovery, you'll want one before long. Even once you have the lab, there's still a 5% chance every time you use it that it explodes, destroying all your progress and many of your supplies. It could even kill your Magic-User in the process. The world of LotFP is harsh and unforgiving, and that's before you even get into the "things" that can show up as monsters.
I'll probably have more thoughts once my second game rolls around (some time this weekend, I hope).
In other news, I have a 5e D&D game coming up that I should be streaming on Twitch.tv. More information on that as it becomes available.
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