I feel this idealized version of the Renaissance era so common in fantasy these days is becoming a bit overused. You know the trope, this quasi-theme park, everyone dressed in fancy period clothes, sort of happy and clean, everyone gets along sort of Disney Fantasyland fairy tale romanticized reality.
It works for game art, where things need to be this generic, family-friendly, happy reality of adventure and companionship. It also sells well. It is a very safe and manufactured reality designed to cause as little controversy as possible, multicultural and advertiser friendly, much like movies and art made for censorship-laden closed and repressive societies (or Western audiences).
It is "safe" in the best corporate sense, as in, no one is getting fired for shipping art, adventures, and game worlds like this.
But, History...
Contrast this with the real Renaissance? One of the largest wealth transfers in the history of the world as empires were built and other cultures around the world looted, used for slaves, made sub-servant parts of the globe-spanning conquest, natural resources taken, banking started, and the religions of Europe spread through religious conversion and missions? And all this ended in the Industrial Revolution.
Is that your happy, family-friendly fantasy model of reality? I feel it was a lie with happiness, good times, and that "ideal world" created by wealth stolen by world colonization and conquest. This was also a dark time for those under the heels of empires. Modern corporations of course idealize the conquerors and only show the smiling, happy face of the era.
Nothing is challenged, all they as is you accept that façade as reality.
And it sure wasn't a Renaissance to the conquered and subjugated peoples of the world.
The fashionable fantasy clothing you see in the art of these pictures was likely made from stolen textiles, dyes, labor, and resources from less fortunate cultures, often at the barrel of a gun or cannon.
Some fantasy worlds assume "everybody wins" and show every culture as this idealized, ideal place. The truth is having a true Renaissance comes off the backs of the oppressed. Wealth is a zero-sum game and it all comes from somewhere and someone less fortunate. For more there are a lot of courses, but I am reading this one currently:
https://www.amazon.com/Darker-Side-Renaissance-Territoriality-Colonization/dp/0472089315
So where is this going?
Lamentations of the Flame Princess
So I picked the LotFP game without the art and sort of dismissed the entire game. It was "just another" B/X game, and I had plenty of those so it did not catch my interest. It had some changes I felt broke compatibility, so I put it aside.
This was before I knew ACKS and some of the other great focused-design B/X games out there, and my opinion and world did a complete 180. Now, I love these B/X games that are designed to do one thing very well, and the generic ones are my second (but still solid) choices. My tastes are changing towards things that excite my interests, and that is cool.
With the art? The tone and feeling of LotFP changes. This is very much a B/X horror movie game, with a lot of changes made to the game to make the game less safe and a lot more tension filled. Like ACKS, the designers felt free to sacrifice sacred cows of the core B/X design, limit healing, and twist the powers and experience to match the feeling of dark horror. This is like the difference between reading the summary of a horror movie on Wikipedia versus watching it and having the experience yourself.
I feel LotFP does a much better job at horror than games like Warhammer FPRG or Zweihander, which have the grim and gritty rules and art, but don't dive into the darker psychological parts of the game. Many games can be grim and gritty, GURPS and Aftermath come to mind, but they don't communicate that on first look and they can be played in a less-deadly way by omitting a few rules.
LotFP is a unique perspective and look into a dark-horror Renaissance world.
My Interpretations Only
It is worth noting a lot of what I say here are my feelings, and what excites me to play LotFP. You may have a different inspiration, such as Lovecraftian horror or more gonzo strangeness.
For me, the idea of a decadent and self-righteous consumer society with a superiority complex trying to conquer and settle new lands - finding they are but tiny specks of nothing in a horrible universe excites me. It does have some Lovecraftian elements, but there is that Puritanical sense of cosmic retribution and horror present here. The Old World came to loot and subjugate a place they tragically misunderstood and will never, ever be able to survive in.
Yet they keep coming, and they keep trying, to horrible results. The New World is a place no one should have ever step foot upon.
One need only read the story of Roanoke Colony to understand what I am seeing.
The Blood-Spattered Renaissance
You know how in horror movies there is this Puritanical streak running through them, where "those who sin" suffer the most and die in the worst ways possible? Lamentations of the Flame Princess is that type of horror movie but for the colonial powers, their attitudes, their haughty self-important manners, their self-righteousness, their pious slaughter-the-heathen religions, and their beliefs that they are the masters of a world and the conquerors of the same.
In short, they learn quick that the world is not what they think it is, and it takes this horrid, almost death-metal turn and one by one they fall. And in the end, no one believes they are so superior.
And often, there isn't an answer why everyone just died in the worst ways possible. The "New World" just hates you. Or even the Old World is sick of you and the dead walk again. Who knows?
Judgment is coming.
Too often I see this game played up as a "shock value" game for adults only. When you realize the tone, how they keep the basic characters and rules as close as possible to B/X, but with enough tweaks to take away that comfortable safety net of the traditional D&D style experience, and how the basic rules seem tame and lame - and then you dive into some of the classic adventures for the system and you are absolutely shocked?
Then you know, the basic rules set you up, and the adventures are your blood-curdling fall. Just like in the start of a horror movie, everything seems normal here...
And the John Carpenter's The Thing happens and your world turns into a nightmare.
Mork Borg (another great game) goes for more nihilism, the world ends when this adventure does. LotFP goes for puritanical judgement, and nails it squarely like a spike through the forehead of someone who "just stepped out of the room a moment ago."
I can't think of a game that contrasts the modern faux-corporate pre-colonial sensibilities of the romanticized rose-colored Renaissance any better than this one.
B/X Compatible
The game is B/X compatible, so it works with everything. Like ACKS redesigning the base game for conquering and kingdom management, LotFP redesigns the base game to accomplish a specific design goal, to tweak B/X for supernatural and psychological horror.
Other B/X games are more generic, such as Old School Essentials or Labyrinth Lord, though I could say the latter is more redesigned to present a mixed D&D and AD&D experience than OSE's complete rewrite of B/X as a unified game system. All of them, even some unmentioned, are great choices.
But take your LotFP characters through Barrowmaze or The Keep on the Borderlands? Perfectly doable. AC is Basic Fantasy style "roll higher" and pretty easy to convert from descending. Though here Base AC starts at 12 and goes to 18 (plate), instead of OSE base AC being 10 and going to 16 (plate). Fighters at level 1 start with a +2 attack bonus in LotFP, so it evens out for that class (and gives them a considerable buff to start). Other classes get an attack bonus of +1, and that does NOT go up.
Fighting is for fighters.
They probably made the AC changes to make fighters more attractive to play if you fight, and give the other classes another reason to avoid combat unless it is really necessary. Again, the design changes made to the game help reinforce the horror theme. Like a horror movie, there is a certain clarity to the character roles and they are the best at what they do. The doctor is a doctor. The police officer is the police officer. The science teacher is the science teacher. The classes that should not get better at combat as they level don't, but they do improve in other asymmetric ways.
This will throw balance issues into traditional B/X adventures, so hire retainers or take lots of fighters.
The Referee Book
If you are running the game, the older-version currently free referee book is worth reading for LotFP:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/148012/LotFP-Referee-Book-old-Grindhouse-Edition
There are some design notes in here worth keeping in mind, like avoiding the use of standardized monsters or magic items. There are notes on how to create worlds and how to maintain the suspense and horror. There are also suggestions on how to play horror, dealing with player preferences, and how to create mysteries and suspense.
There are also B/X conversion notes in here, and those help a great deal.
After I read this I felt the game seemed more like a generic horror game, like a Call of Cthulhu. I would really like the tone of this book to match the newer material in feeling and design, but that does not take away from the already great advice presented here.
If you have a strong feeling of how the game should be, and that inspires you, don't lose that if a module or the referee's book says otherwise. Or if this article says otherwise, for that matter. It is so easy to read supplemental material and lose that spark of inspiration that honestly makes the game yours and excites you to play and explore.
Also, the base no-art version of the game is free as well, so you can pick them both up and play for zero cost:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/115059/LotFP-Rules--Magic-Free-Version
B/X with a Design Goal
This game is a lot like ACKS, in that is it less a general-purpose B/X clone, but it can be used as one. Where the game really shines is in the design tweaks made to enhance the horror genre. Healing is limited. The roles are clarified. The base game is simple and B/X compatible.
Not all B/X games are made the same. Some are more generic systems (OSE). Others specialize in certain areas they want to focus more on (ACKS and LotFP). Some are built to emulate a feeling of a certain point in the hobby (Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardry). Some start with B/X and build a new experience (Dungeon Crawl Classics and Castles & Crusades).
All of them are B/X-like systems. You may prefer one to the other, but all of them are cool.
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