Not My OSR! We Are The Old School Revolution

An opportunity surfaced to talk about how our campaign differs from the common notions of old school play, so I figured I'd use it as a springboard to publish some thoughts about our campaign in 2023.

A look into the progression of Parn pt. 2 - The Deities

Parn was initially conceived with Dungeons and Dragons 3.x in mind, so our first ideas for cosmology -- specifically religions -- were to fill in each part of the alignment grid with an appropriate deity. We had a couple of ideas that we felt really strongly about, and a couple more just to kinda fill in the blanks. We've reduced the importance (and size) of alignment in our games from 9 options to 3 (Chaotic, Neutral, or Lawful.) Where did our pantheon start, and where is it now?

A look into the progression of Parn, pt. 1 - The Map

My partner and I started trying to flesh out Parn in 2012. The goal was to have a persistent campaign world shared between all of our OSR games. In the first incarnation, the game was a single PC game run for my partner, who at this point played Camelia, a half-elf Bard. We generated characters, and the town, using the D&D 3.5 ruleset. 

A crudely drawn, MS Paint Parn Township

We wrote up several campaign documents at the time, from our ideas on the cosmology of Parn, to other humanoid playable races, and our goals for the game. We were (and still are) really more focused on the non-combat aspects of the game. First and foremost, interaction between characters, but also exploration, resource management, and a theme of building rather than destruction. Camelia worked quite a bit to put her adventuring money into expanding and enriching the town.

Parn Playtest Packet: Two New Classes For LotFP

Our game world has no 'short races' -- we cut out the Dwarves and Halflings and have replaced them with two of our own classes, which we've been testing out for a little bit now. The first is the Barbarian, inspired by Korgoth of Barbaria, Conan, Fire and Ice, and early 80's heavy metal imagery. In a land similar to Cimmeria (Conan's homeland,) the environment breeds men that can do far more damage with a weapon than most others. Their skill is needed to best the sorcerers, and the giant beasts that roam the land. They are needed to one-hit-kill the many men that would battle in large hectic environments.

The Barbarian gets a damage bonus equal to one plus his level, allowing him to do a lot more "guaranteed" damage against men and beasts alike. How many times have you swung at something in LotFP that had maybe 3-5 HP, only to roll a 1 or 2 on damage? The Barbarian doesn't stand for that nonsense. Expect serious wounds, even dismemberment.

The other class is a caste of near-Elves called the Felaness. These pointy-eared humanoids have small, sometimes indistinguishable cat features -- stripes, spots, eyes, or claws. Feared and hated as impoverished wanderers and/or genetic abnormalities, they live hectic lives which often calls for unusual talents. The inspiration is a little bit Thundercats, a little bit Skyrim, with the need coming from a removal of the Halfling class.

The Felaness gets some of the better saves available, while not being quite as hardy as LotFP's Halfling. The Felaness does not have a weapon restriction, but still has a great bushcraft ability. Those who take up this path also get a great stealth ability where cover is available, as the Felaness are adept at hiding in a pinch. You also get one of the better exp per level rates, better than the Halfling (but not as good as the Specialist.)

The following PDF is a rough idea of our two classes. We'd appreciate any feedback you have on how to make them better!

Click here to download Playtest Packet I, two new races for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying.