First impressions: solidly written, and a great lively town with several included adventures to get a fresh group of characters off to a fun start. Seems like it should be plenty of material to work with for several sessions. The included maps are useful and well done, but it would have been nice to have the dungeon maps drawn with a grid of 1 square = 5' instead of the 1 square = 10' that is used. Since I'll probably use tiles for the dungeons it's not a real problem for me, but it might make it more work for someone who is looking to just directly enlarge the existing maps.

Remember the Village of Homlet? Do look back fondly on having a pint at the Inn of the Welcome Wench? I know I do, and with Brave Halfling's Larm you get that feeling all over again. Larm is more than just an adventure, it's a campaign starting point that's fully fleshed out and ready to go. With two small dungeons and one wilderness encounter along with several "side quests", your players can easily spend their early levels here in (relative) safety while they get a feel for old-school gaming.

Well worth it.

Great old school fun! A simple sandbox style starting area with head nods to all the old classics like the Village of Homlet and Keep on the Borderlands. I used Labyrinth Lord to introduce my children to roleplaying games back when LL first came out, and this really helped immerse them into the game.

It is written in a non-linear away, allowing the characters to simply explore the area and take on whatever challenges they feel they want to tackle. Excellent work.

Larm is an accessory for Labyrinth Lord, easily convertible, of course, published by Brave Halfling Publishing. It is written by Moritz Mehlem, with art by Andy “Atom” Taylor. The PDF, which I bought a couple of weeks ago at RPGNow, runs 27 pages in all, and details a village of 112 inhabitants, providing several small adventures which, are designed to introduce beginning players to the basic concepts of adventuring in a D&D world and the mechanics of game-play. Two mini-dungeons, a wilderness encounter, and a couple of investigatory “city” pieces are provided. The village is well detailed, with 33 keyed locations, associated NPC’s, a rumour table, historical information and a map of the village. We get a quick overview of daily life in Larm, providing us with information on the sort of commonplace events that the villagers engage in throughout the week. There are lists of goods, with prices, for the various stores. All 112 NPC’s living in Larm are listed in their associated key entries. Many are provided with an economical, yet effective presentation of their personality, background and motivations. Some are just mentioned, as in the case of children, acolytes, etc. Larm also features three maps of the adventure sites and a Mayor’s Proclamation player’s handout. Aside from the cover piece, which is reproduced on the title page, there are 12 other illustrations, two of those being very small equipment type pieces.

There are nice little touches throughout Larm. The rumor table entries, also list, when applicable, the location key number associated with the person, place or thing being gossiped about. A table near the beginning of the book, lists all the places which appear in the key entries, along with the number of NPC’s which are associated with the location. There’s some great role-playing opportunities in Larm and player’s may find themselves involved with some more light-hearted interactions, as well as with more serious dealings.

While more experienced groups will find the two dungeons to be rather rudimentary in and of themselves, the role-playing aspects can make these worthwhile, even for seasoned players. They also serve to provide further details of life in Larm, as well as the history of the village. They’re great for introducing new players to the basics. The wilderness adventure, while simple, will require some thought and tactical planning, serving as a nice adventuring 101 lesson, which, should also be involved enough to engage more experienced players. I may be biased on that last observation, as I really enjoy this particular type of set-up and the necessities involved for success. The investigatory adventures, while pretty basic, as well, provide excellent role-playing opportunities. Of course, any of this can easily be adapted to the needs of the DM and his/her group.

If you’re introducing new players to the game, then Larm’s adventures are perfect for showing them the ropes. Some are of the over and done with type, others are wedded to deeper events and concerns, or, the history of Larm. Once the newbs get an idea of what their doing, they’ll then be ready for the DM to create more involved adventures. Larm will serve as a useful, friendly spot of civilization for the characters to call home, serve as a base for forays into more dangerous lands, nearby, allow the characters to make some friends and perhaps, some enemies, as well.

If you need a well designed village environment, Larm is a solid choice and should serve you, very well. A lot of information is provided, in an economical, well thought-out fashion. Overall, I found Larm to be Charming, very Useful and Pleasing to my DMing sensibilities. I like Larm a lot and encourage everyone to check it out.

I love this town setting! It has an extremely old school feel, and even though it's written for Labyrinth Lord and such, it can easily be adapted into any other D&D version without too much problem.

This is okay as a basic village when I'm feeling lazy. No real problems with it within those parameters.

I don't know what's better: the old-school adventure setting or the old-school artwork. This book was a blast to read! Suddenly, I was twelve years old reading my first RPG books again. This is retro-clone gaming at its best.

A good value for the price. I would definitely reccomend this product.

The intention of this product is stated clearly: to provide a settlement that not only can be used as a base for a party of adventurers, but to include opportunities for dungeon-exploration and role-playing as well.

Larm is the classic small village on the edge of nowhere, an outpost of civilisation subject to attack by the denizens of the wilderness. The history and daily life of the settlement is given in a concise manner, yet with sufficient detail for use whenever the characters visit, enabling a consistency of approach which enhances the alternate reality of your game. There are loads of rumours to add atmosphere or even spawn whole adventures if you have a mind... while every establishment and nigh-all of the 112 regular inhabitants have a brief listing, again aiding you in consistancy when characters return.

For those seeking more than one of the delightful snacks listed under the bakery, there are a couple of adventures to be had right here in Larm. To start with, the miller needs some help - there's SOMETHING in his store room, he thinks it may have eaten his apprentice... it may just be a vermin problem but beginning adventurers should enjoy playing exterminator (as well as making themselves quite popular in the village for dealing with it!). There is also an abandoned temple, and characters who venture within will soon discover why. Again a straightforward but atmospheric simple scenario for the beginning character.

If your characters would prefer to deal with unpleasant neighbours, there is also a well-detailed goblin camp which needs dealing with before they become too much of a problem. There are some nice clear maps of Larm and the 3 adventure locations and a collection of new items to round the book off.

This is a nicely-written piece which, while of general application, will be of particular use to novice players just beginning to explore the potentials of role-playing. For the more experienced gamer, it brings back memories of early exploits and has a certain charm which means it can still play a part in their adventures with low-level characters.

Labyrinth Lord is a retro-style game system similar to OSRIC and harkens back to the days of gaming in the 70s and 80s. This system, freely available through Goblinoid Games, includes a trademark license that allows other publishers to develop products for it, and since its release a number of publishers have done just that. Brave Halfling Publishing is one such publisher, and this product, Larm, presents an old school RPG village suitable for Labyrinth Lord or other similar old school system.

Larm is a 27 page pdf product for the Labyrinth Lord game system, and presents an excellent starting package for budding adventurers or those new to the system or RPGs in general. As a product aimed at the healthy fanbase of old school gaming, the look and styling of the product is similar to the products from the early days of RPG gaming. The product includes a healthy dose of good, even excellent, art by Andy 'Atom' Taylor, and is very well presented with good writing, editing and layout. Maps are clear and concise in the familiar old school 'blue', with minimal detail but a good supporting legend. In fact, if you were to pick this product up as a hardcopy in some bookstore, you'd be hard pressed to say that it was recently published. It mimics the old school style very well, and is a completely presented product that easy to assimilate, read and use.

Naturally when reading through this product I thought about my own experiences with gaming in the 80s, and had a brief comparative look at my own experiences with more modern gaming systems now that I'm older. The conclusion I came to was that you really couldn't compare the two experiences at all, but I did come to a few realisations. Firstly, this product reminded me how much material you can actually put into a small amount of page space. Old school gaming systems like Labyrinth Lord allow for much more detail and information, largely because they don't get bogged down by lengthy stat blocks or overly complicated mechanics. Secondly, the beauty of the product and indeed the system, is in its simplicity. You don't need complicated mechanics covering everything to create a pleasant and enjoyable adventure or gaming system.

Larm contains a complete and detailed village, complete with NPCs with personality, loads of plot hooks, realistic goals and motivations of the village and its inhabitants; and also three short adventures that are ideally suited to starting adventurers or those new to gaming. The adventures are almost designed to be progressive in the sense that each introduces different aspects of RPG gaming and has a slightly different feel and approach. For example, clearing the rats out of an infested mill is a good introduction to gaming, whereas tackling a goblin encampment is a more tactical approach. The quantity of material, and indeed the approach of Larm, aided by the system's simplicity make this a refreshing product with a lot of material to offer in roleplaying and combat gaming.

The product is presented as a starting point for adventurers, and it succeeds very well at presenting a sensical and fleshed-out village that is logical. The village contains the types of buildings one would expect, caters for commerce, creates a good social scene between the villagers, and supports fantasy and adventurers as well. It's one of those villages that you could almost imagine were real, and that touch of reality is always pleasing to see in a product, and indeed appealing to gamers. Larm allows budding adventurers to test their feet, it provides loads of subplots and plots with plenty of avenues for exploration and expansion. Larm also doesn't take a heavy handed approach, meaning that it's very freeform. In other words, the village is not designed for characters as much as it's designed to be a village. Adventurers are almost a second thought, but even so are well catered for.

As mentioned, each of the three short adventures in the product caters to a different style of adventure. The author has done well to make the three adventures different in style, theme and approach, keeping them short and enjoyable but also neatly fitted in with the rest of the village. Throughout the adventures, a lot of new material is included to aid in crafting good adventures with an air of mystery and challenging encounters. The second adventure is perhaps a little heavy on the undead creatures and combat encounters, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Overall, I was really pleased with this product. It does exactly what it says on the packaging, so to speak, and does it well. Questions often arise on the various forums and boards of the internet as to which adventures are good starting adventures - I would heartily recommend this one. Larm provides an excellent, realistic starting village with some enjoyable adventures and plenty of opportunity for roleplaying. You really get a sense of the village atmosphere and village life in general, and the whole village comes to life in this product's page. The three adventures, and indeed the other subplots, are all enjoyable, the NPCs are well presented, and the product presentation is very good. A thoroughly enjoyable and excellent product.