An Endzeitgeist.com review

This short roadside-encounter/mini-adventure clocks in at 10 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 7 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

All right, so this pdf comes with a pretty nice layout that presents some creepy shades in the background; in the pdf, which is layered, these may be turned off. The pdf features nice b/w-cartography, which unfortunately does not feature grids. In a slightly puzzling decision, the layered pdf does have an option to turn on/off grids etc., but this does not influence the keys of the map, meaning, alas, that you can’t make the maps player-friendly. My review is based on the pdf-version, and I do not own the print-version of this booklet.

The old-school ruleset employed within would be the LotFP-rules (lamentations of the Flame Princess), but as always, they allow for pretty easy conversion to other old-school rulesets. As far as level-range is concerned, this is probably best used in conjunction with low- to mid-level PCs; I’d recommend at least 2nd level PCs, unless you’re going for an everyone-dies/becomes insane-Cthulhu-purist-style scenario.

This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

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All right, only referees around? So, there is a truly verdant field of corn by the wayside, with a single path leading towards an old and somewhat dilapidated farmstead. If the PCs walk in and investigate (perhaps due to a hook or somesuch), the corn will pretty quickly close ranks; inside the farmstead, a place of horror awaits: Adventurers/relic-hunters have met a truly grisly doom. With the investigation showing even resorting to cannibalism. Among their possessions are three important magical items: The Malleus Deus, a grimoires that allows magic-users to cast cleric spells…and prevent ANY cleric witnessing them doing so from ever casting that spell ever again. Suffice to say, the Vatican has been known to kill pretty much everyone who even knows of the book, much less owns it…

The second artifact would be the sword which is uncertain, which treats all targets as AC 14, but all attack rolls of 16 or 17 strike a random, non-intended target instead for double weapon damage – and if no eligible target is available, the strike is banked for a future attack…this is a devilish angle for a cursed blade. Really cool!

The final item found within would be the grimoires that is known as Tales of the Scarecrow, a horror-anthology, where the PLAYERS get to weave each a brief horror-story of powers pertaining the (otherwise mostly harmless) scarecrow in the fields. Sure, touching it initiates a HP-countdown due to its vile energies, but that’s it. The PC who weaves the best horror story has it come true…and they may not share them or write them to screw over specific characters. Oh, and the PC whose nightmare becomes reality gets an XP-bonus. Cool exercise in fireside-style cooperative narration here!

…but, you know, there are more issues here. You see, in the corn, there are tentacles. There is a Great Old One-class huge monster below the corn, which is responsible for the fecundity of the field. It is limited in how many tentacles it can send forth and how it can consume victims, but it basically represents one horrific mousetrap to escape from (No, flight is not the instant-win-card…) even before the player’s tales are woven into the scenario. Oh, and between dangerous parasites and a thoroughly traumatized survivor, a super-unwieldy harpsichord would make for an amazing treasure that would yield an excellent price…but how to get it out?

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level – I noticed no serious snafus. Layout adheres to an impressive 2-column b/w-standard, and the pdf sports impressive b/w-artworks as well. This is a beautiful booklet. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience, but unfortunately does not make full use of its layered nature.

James Edward Raggi IV’s “Tales of the Scarecrow” makes for a rewarding, deadly and horrific sidetrek thoroughly suitable for Halloween, one that thankfully steers clear of the old and tired “animated scarecrow”-trope in favor of a more interesting set-up where player-ingenuity ultimately depends whether they’ll live or die. (As an aside, recognizing the truth could be an adequate end for a one-shot in the vein of purist Cthulhu modules, where everyone dies or becomes insane…) So yeah, this is a fun supplement, available for a more than fair price. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it doesn’t have to. As written, I consider this to be well worth a final verdict of 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

Tales of the Scarecrow is a mini adventure/site for your Lamentations of the Flame Princess or other OSR games. If you think  you'll ever play it, stop reading now.

Written by James Raggi, Tales of the Scarecrow clocks in at 10 pages (including front cover, table of contents, and the back cover).

The set-up is simple. The party will wonder through a cornfield, investigate a farm house, and then find themselves trapped. Beneath the cornfield is a eldritch grabboid-esque horror. Unfortunately the water and corn the players have access to will kill them, so the scenario becomes a test of creativity and survival.

This scenario has a lot going for it. The writing is fantastic and the premise is interesting. There are three really cool items. The first is a sword that can be a bane or boon. The second is a Book of Vile Darkness-esque blasphemous spellbook. Finally, there's the Tales of the Scarecrow, which is a storybook found on a desk. This is one of my favourite parts because it's the players chance to flex their weird and creative muscles. Players get to come up with the story of the scarecrow. Whoever creates the most interesting and/or dangerous gets an XP bonus and  the scarecrow gets imbued with that power.

While it's short, this is one of my favourite LofFP releases because it really lets the player's creative energies flow. Also, the adventure has one of my favourite pieces of Flame Princess artwork. If you don't want to play in LotFP's early modern era setting, this can be placed in any setting really.

Great short adventure. It was very easy to set up, and my players had a blast. I recommend it strongly.

Interesting location based adventure. I really like the metanarrative twist with the scarecrow. Suitable as a random encounter or one shot.

A classic horror scenario (field of corn, scarecrow, empty farmhouse), some nifty magic items, and a fantastic core concept make this a must buy for any experienced, bloodthirsty gamemaster. Lure your party into the farmhouse, then sit back and enjoy the chaos. I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil it--just buy the darn thing, its well worth the money.

Works particularly well with players who are equally bloodthirsty, though I think even "goody two shoes" parties might find this scenario interesting. And unlike many LotFP modules, this one doesn't encourage / require the players to do anything nasty (unless they want to, of course!)

I have bought and GM'd this product. I would consider this an elaborate encounter/trap/puzzle.

Simply put we enjoyed the hell out of it. LotFP does a great job of embodying the spirit of the OSR. Death is around every corner for those that don't utilize the "old-style of play". If you are a fan of Raggi's mature themed pulp/occult/horror game you will enjoy this. If you are not you should move along.

One of the things that the latest OSR dust up has reminded me is that there are so many great Lamentations Of The Flame Princess titles and I'm not going to go on and on about how wonderful they are. Instead, I'm going to concentrate how absolutely nasty they are. Tales of the Scarecrow is only ten pages long but its the sort of situation adventure that happens unto itself and your adventurers. I've had the adventure for two days and after tossing and twisting in my mind after reading plus doing a bit of research and reading some of the reviews I can honestly say that its very good at what it does. Its a trap waiting for adventurers to happen upon it and spring it. Try and imagine a pseudo American EC Tales From The Crypt comic through the lens of James Raggi's Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg. That's how Tales of the Scarcecrow feels to me reading though it. This adventure could be inserted into any old school campaign being run between beginning of the 17th century right up through the the early-to-mid 19th century. Personally, this adventure feels like a love letter to the original Stephen King Children of the Corn set after all of the kids have vanished and only the demon remains. Sort of. The similarities end right about with the cornfield though and the monster.

There is something distinctly early America about Tales From The Scarecrow the names, history, etc all have an American flavor to them. The artwork, maps, and set up are very evocative and well done for the product. Basically all of the events within Tales are a one act play sort of an adventure, all of the events taking place within a valley that can easily be inserted anyplace into a campaign. There is a feeling of almost but not quite timeless dread that hangs around the adventure and it almost feels as if it might be inserted between adventures for PC's who are high off of their latest triumphs with gold and glory. There is a farmhouse in the middle of a field of corn, and then things get interesting. PC's are going to have to deal with Donner party interesting sort of way. In point of fact I've read through a friend's copy of Tales From The Scarecrow; I have been wanting to do something with the adventure location for a long time now. The abandoned farmhouse could be made timeless and multidimensional to serve as a bridge gap with other times and places why should only regular LoFP parties have all of the fun. This adventure takes the usual Lovecraft tropes uses them and then puts a slightly different spin on them by allowing PC's to make their own mark on the location including their own deaths if necessary. This makes the crossover factor something that can go up by a factor of ten. For example some of the back history of the farm and the LoFP magic items are steeped readily enough in their own mythology to allow them to have the entire location slip into a timeless other dimensional 'someplace' enabling PC's from a Red and Pleasant Land, No Salvation From Witches, or Scenic Dunnsmouth
This is especially true of Scenic Dunnsmouth which provides a great random generation tool kit for its location, town, inhabitants, etc. The cornfield, house,etc. of Tales of the Scarecrow could all be set within its own section of the world of Scenic Dunnsmouth given a bit of clever DM slight of hand work. In point of fact this is exactly the sort of a task that Zzarchov Kowolski designed for Scenic Dunnsmouth. This can take a short ten page adventure and roll it out into a memorable campaign of epic proportions.In point of fact the monster from Tales of The Scarecrow can easily be back linked into Scenic Dunnsmouth to create a thread of dread throughout. A technique I've stolen from HP Lovecraft and Stephen King. But, but what about more monsters and horrors between adventure locations? Fear not my friends, you can easily generate a quick three or four horrors with No Salvation From Witches, or Lusus Naturae to generate your bizarre and weird victims of circumstance. Keep the killing level down and amp up the melted face factor though for encounters and victims. Basically this style of LoFP game campaign is a short, overland weird wilderness adventure with some dangerous and fantastic elements to it ripe for expansion into a full blown campaign. Do I think that Tales From The Scarecrow is worth getting? In a word and for the price? Yes, yes I do. Eric Fabiaschi Sword and Stitchery blog

In the typical LotFP fashion, the "winning" scenario is damn near impossible, the adventure contains numerous devices which screw player characters royally, and is grimdark to a fault, replacing wit and imagination with tragedy and cruel jokes. Your characters might as well just stay in the tavern, tea house, inn, or drug den. Better yet, tell your referee to lighten up or replace your referee, and stop pulling these tasteless, depressing pranks on you and the rest of the players.

First I have to say I really, really like the scenario that Tales of the Scarecrow provides. In essence this 'adventure' is a simple, yet elaborate trap that once sprung will challenge the players to problem solve if they want their characters to survive. Warning, this adventure can easily become a bloodbath for players who approach all situations with an attitude of hack and slash. The adventure/encounter is such that it can be easily dropped into any campaign in which the party finds themselves traveling.

The art is fantastic, especially the cover, conveying an atmosphere of dread and doom that should make players shudder and fear for their characters' lives.

In addition to the actual challenge of escaping the scenario, Raggi has come up with some truly unique items for the players to find and study. Several offer the players clear benefits to their characters but with a sometimes hefty price they may come to regret later. This easily lays the groundwork for further adventures and challenges.

My one criticism and the reason I subtracted a star from my rating is that I felt that Raggi had left some details out that I thought could have been helpful. First I was confused by the presence of the dead horses just outside the house, an area which I thought was safe from attack. At some point that area obviously ceased to be safe, yet it was unclear what caused that to happen. Second, the method by which the DM implements the player's scarecrow tale is ambiguous; does the GM merely apply this to the scarecrow standing in the field or is a whole new scarecrow created as the result of the exercise? Sure, as a GM I can come up with my own explanations to these questions, but it would be nice to know what Raggi actually was thinking. Even so, this is a minor quibble, that only barely detracts from what is otherwise an excellent product.

In summary, this is an excellent addition to the previous works that James Raggi has released. Anyone who enjoys the weird fantasy adventures that Raggi is known for will not be disappointed.