3 Vermis Session Reports In Brief, with notes on running in different systems
Session 1: Lamentations of the Flame Princess, heavily houseruled
Location: Pauper's Catacombs Party: 4 level 6 characters
Pauper's Catacombs was my choice because it is one of the most dungeon-like and easy to parse. I used my ever-evolving homebrew of LotFP/OSE/B/X, which is overall higher-powered than those systems RAW but still plenty dangerous. The key differences are different skills, with each class getting a dedicated skill (a la Lore or Combat on this blog), using the DCC Personality & Luck stats (luck points aren't a thing though) and randomized advancement upon gaining a level. We use the Weird Magic system, and balance is out the window. Despite the power of the PCs, several are missing limbs, players are traumatized, etc.
This presents a challenge because Vermis's atmosphere is kind of quiet, moldy, unearthly. It's not weird or cosmic horror, which present much more indomitable threats. In fact, while creepy, most of the creatures and bosses seem meant to be defeated, because you have to progress through the video game, right? That's not necessarily true of Vermis, it doesn't say that, but it seems implied. Our adventure was primarily atmospheric, which was very effective. I was able to channel the vibe, and players felt as though they were in a hazy, melancholic tomb. I improvised that the place was so forgotten and abandoned that it was difficult to hold thoughts or remember details, and that any spirits who resided here had forgotten their names and given up their identities. There were not many encounters, but there was a sense of things looming in the shadows or echoing in the distance. Primarily the players explored, mapped, avoided darkness and noise, and solved environmental puzzles. It's fun to have a tense, threatening atmosphere without combat; it changes the tempo and expectations of the game. Ultimately, the players had to escape as the tears of the statue flooded the Catacombs, erasing them fully. It was as if the tomb had been painted in watercolor and reduced to a featureless blur.
In this case,Vermis set a tone in which somewhat high-powered, experienced characters (level 6) were still threatened and engaged, and focused on core Old-School mechanics like resource and light management, mapping, checking for and avoiding danger, and utilizing the environment for survival and success. It was a good fit by virtue of the fact that a well-designed, well-run dungeon or location will bring out the best in players in most systems, showing that Vermis can be versatile.
Verdict: I will keep using my homebrew for Vermis as "side-shots" because those are so damn fun. I will obviously be presenting things non-linearly, but I think that Vermis is a good fit for a creepy cosmic horror game, bringing threat and menace even to powerful PCs and creative players if played right.
Session 2: Old-School Essentials, rules as written (+Carcass Crawler)
Location: Silver Swamp Party: 3 level 3 characters
We played the Silver Swamp as a die-drop generated point-crawl. I framed the session as a journey to find the tomb of the Goblin Princess, with hope to learn something about her power, implying that we were following the linear progression of the book. We even "passed through" the erased Pauper's Catacombs from the other session I ran, although it was done primarily with different players. Locations in the Swamp were shrouded by mist, but sounds, glows, etc. through the mist gave hints as to the direction. Encounters were fully randomized. Players encountered the Lost Paladin, who had connections to the order of the Lost Old Glory Fighter and who used his faith to bless the Fighter's blade before submitting to the mist and falling asleep, vanishing. They encountered a Damsel, the spirit of a maiden of the Goblin Princess who had been lost in the mist as the Princess's captors took her through the Swamp. She told them about the journey and warned them about the Dreamer of the Swamp (in this case, the Emerging Visage) who controlled the mist. The encounter with the Damsels They set off and encountered a Corpse, which I used Wight stats for (3HD). It hit Rat Man with a Level Drain off the bat. It was dispatched by the Fighter, with his magic blessed blade. After more exploration they found the Emerging Visage and fought it to the point of despair, losing the Rat Man, but ultimately killed it with a Javelin of Lightning, though the Fighter used it for thrusting as it was his last one, and consequently fried himself with the lightning bolt in an epic display of self-sacrifice. The Myconid gave into the mist, laying roots in the swamp, as the adventure faded to black.
OSE was an easy system to pull everything together for. Character creation is quick, even for level 3 characters, and using just Carcass Crawler #0 and the Advanced Referee's Tome I was able to create thematic class abilities that weren't TOO overpowered, give out magic items that more or less fit, and pick monsters that could suit the purpose. Level Drain was brutal, especially on the first hit of the first combat. It SCARED Rat Man. It's controversial in campaigns, but for a one-shot it was fine. The Fighter player complained that even at level 3 he didn't have much for abilities- even his THAC0 and Saves didn't improve, he was effectively just a 3d8 HP character who could wear armor and use weapons. This is something that can be worked with, of course, but a Referee would definitely have to use engaging adventures, bestow mechanical benefits from magic side-effects/mighty deeds, that kind of thing. Stuff that's not in the rulebook. But that's OSE for you- it gives you the rules and encourages you to go beyond them.
Verdict: OSE is an amazing fit for Vermis. As a Referee, the resources for OSE are so easy to use that it doesn't take much reference at all to set something up. This session was zero-prep. I didn't even have the location picked out beforehand. While my players rolled level 3 characters, while I was free to look at my books because OSE is so easy, I found items and monsters to stock the Silver Swamp. Decisions were easy to make. Procedures for timekeeping, light, encounters, reactions, etc. were quick and had a measurable impact on the game. OSE is an ideal choice to run Vermis, with the understanding that there will have to be some leeway on the Referee side of providing flavorful additions to the core character classes, but otherwise it is something that a reasonably experienced Referee could turn into a very memorable session or campaign!
Session 3: Lamentations of the Flame Princess, rules as written
Location: Flutewood Forest Party: 3 level 3 characters
The Myconid Murk Sage from the OSE session carried over, but we re-created them to fit the LotFP session. Surprisingly LotFP does have a Mushroom Man class, but we didn't use it because I didn't have that book. A Stone Scholar character was represented by a Magic-User.
I ran the Flutewood Forest as a simple point-crawl. I organized it as a couple of simple branching, mostly reconnecting paths. In retrospect, I didn't create much in the way of meaningful differences or player agency with these paths, and relied mostly on timekeeping and random encounter rolls to flesh out the area as we played. What I would have done differently had I spent more time in advance (this was a no-prep session, which is what I always do with Vermis) is make sure to tell the players that they can see a ruined castle-like structure in the distance on a mountain clearing through the forest, to set up the Green Sun Ruins and build mystery.When the players started, I opened with finding a Vagrant stone, explaining their significance, and emphasizing it was mostly "bald", devoid of tokens of travelers, implying danger. Our Stone Scholar determined that he would take the stone to a place it was more suited, excavated it, and loaded it into the party's wagon. Venturing in, the party randomly encountered a follower of Murgo who they spoke with, finding common ground, and accepted some seeds to spread in the name of Murgo. A weather roll indicated extreme weather (wind) was coming in, which is a BAD scenario in a forest of sound-making trees. The party had to cover their ears with cloth and seek shelter, finding a place for their tent to stay warm in the extreme winds. Their tent was battered, and the _ sensed a threatening presence outside in the night. The party initially decided to stay within, hoping the danger would pass. The Myconid sensed that it was spore-related, and with a knowledge roll determined it was a circle of connected Myconids (wild that they're on the Flutewood Forest random encounter page). The Stone Scholar set the stone up in the tent in hopes of some kind of protection. Ultimately, they decided to leave the tent and try to deal with the danger. The Rat Man failed a save after exposure and was plagued by intrusive thoughts of giving in and becoming a fungal zombie. The Stone Sage, being fascinated by spreading the seeds of Murgo, was in favor of the Rat Man joining the Myconids. The Myconid Murk Sage, conversely, was not. Much at-the-table deliberation occurred, and the Rat Man player had to leave early and decided this was a great way to go, so he laid in a disturbingly Rat Man shaped outline of fungus on the forest floor and "put down roots" so to speak. The other PCs, being OSR murderhobos, thought this was just fine and decided that the Myconids would be cool with them after this willing sacrifice, which was true. We faded to black, unable to "finish" the session, but my players later described Vermis as something that "fades in on misery, disturbs you, then fades out on misery" and that's pretty goddamn dope.
Verdict: Lamentations of the Flame Princess is a solid choice to run Vermis. Going Rules As Written, it has limited class options, which makes it harder to fit to the flavorful classes of Vermis. There are not a lot of first-party class supplements. Similarly there is no official bestiary or magic item collection. If someone wants to use the structure of LotFP, they will have to bring in supplements for those things. It will be difficult to do that without changing the LotFP tone, though of course it might be compatible with Vermis's tone. Ultimately, I don't know if there is a way to play LotFP vanilla, Rules As Written with Vermis. It would work just fine with OSE items, monsters, etc., or those of a different system, and that is ok. A "bare-bones" system that doesn't have those things isn't going to work. Of course LotFP is based closely on B/X, so any B/X or other OSR bestiary is technically fine for RAW depending on your interpretation. It may not feel RAW, and if so that's an insurmountable problem. I'm personally of the opinion that LotFP has stronger mechanics than OSE, based on encumbrance, Specialists and combat rules, but OSE is hands-down an easier book to reference, and if you have Carcass Crawler you can include all of the things I mentioned that LotFP does (d6 Thief skills, slot-encumbrance, even firearms).
And the winner is....
House-Ruled Lamentations of the Flame Princess! Old-School Essentials!
Sadly, I do not have a published House Rules document that you folks could use or a large devout following of yall that would want to. It works great, though. I have to say, however, that Old-School Essentials is an awesome fit for Vermis because the less you have to focus on rules, the more you can focus on atmosphere.
How should you do it?
Keep it behind the screen: Never, ever describe the creatures in familiar terms. They may be using OSE stat blocks, but players should not know that for a second. Same goes for spells and effects used by NPCs or enemies. A Charm spell should be creepy as hell. I don't care what it is. It should feel foreign, forgotten, and threatening.
Give the players more than just what is on their character sheet: This is RAW, but most OSR games say that your character should build up beyond what is standard in the book. This is Basic D&D after all- imagine the curses, prophecies, etc that players should go through in a fun campaign, and how those things should be expressed in ways that are not as basic as the way it starts out. Apply the "No +1 Swords" doctrine. When I was keeping it as RAW as possible at the request of my players, I still mixed and matched things from the rulebook in ways that make them seem cooler, more powerful, more full of potential, even if they are outside of the scope of total purist OSE.
If you want to be a purist, this is not your starting point: Building off the prior point, if you do want to stick as humanly possible to the book, I guess I'd advise having the characters pick one of the Vermis classes, align it to a vanilla OSE class, and then go off on some more vanilla (but grimdark) style adventures until they've leveled a few times and gained a few treasures and abilities. There is, after all, strife in the Capital, as it says in the intro to Vermis (and no other description at all). The deserts detailed in Vermis 2 could also be a "sandbox"setting (I'll see myself out...) to get you started. Once they've grown into themselves, start the campaign in earnest.
There are always one-shots!: I've only run one-shots so far, and it's been gangbusters. I'm not worried about the arc, because only one of my players have read Vermis. Some have barely glanced at the book! Even so, it does a good job of inspiring me and establishing itself. Showing the odd page to them when I'm at a loss to describe does wonders. Everyone is filling in the gaps. With a one-shot you don't have to sustain the mood forever, either. This book is a treasure trove of individual adventure locations.
You inspired me to purchase Vermis. Thank you!
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