Lamentations of the Flame Princess No Dignity in Death The Three Brides - People of Pembrooktonshire.pdf - Lamentations of the Flame Princess - sororita

ISBN 978-952-67263-3-5

People

Pembrooktonshire

Author’s Notes

While working on No Dignity in Death: The Three Brides and placing three adventures that were

unconnected in my campaigns into a single location that came to be called Pembrooktonshire, my mind

started to be filled with the possibilities for fleshing the place out. Early on I decided that it was probably

best to leave the adventure itself alone and make the “fleshed out” material into its own book. It had to be

released separately from (for those that just wanted the adventure) and simultaneously with (I hate when

game companies rip off their customers by publishing additions or changes to their games or settings after

the fact) the original adventure.

But how to best flesh out the setting in a way that was modular, entertaining, and personally interesting?

• The players in my home group seem to enjoy NPC interactions as much as actual adventuring. So when I

run games, I often think of weird and sometimes disturbing personalities on the spot for NPCs.

• I am a big fan of The League of Gentlemen, the British TV series which takes place in the fictional town

of Royston Vasey. One of the things I enjoy about the series is how every person in town seems to have

a different sort of defective personality.

• While responding to a post on the Grognardia blog back in March, I made a quip that people will

determine there are 137 of us in the Old School Renaissance. It was just a throwaway comment but

people picked up on it as an in-joke.

Suddenly, I had my focus. I’d do what I normally do – come up with strange characters – to make

Pembrooktonshire truly an adventure in itself rather than just a backdrop to adventure. All I had to do was

come up with 137 weird and distinct NPC ideas. Easy, right? Hah! Towards the middle of the process I was

considering a third book called Nuke Pembrooktonshire because I was beginning to despise the place. But

doesn’t that happen in all projects somewhere between “REALLY COOL IDEA!” and “Finished saleable

product”? Luckily I caught a second wind that the last half was easier to complete than the first.

The inspiration for the individual characters came from many sources. Some were standard thriller-fare.

Some were straight out of pop culture. Some were from my imagination. Some were designed to be horrific.

Some were designed to be frightening in a more sophisticated kind of way. Some were meant to be comedic,

and some were meant to be downright goofy. Some were intended to be a moment’s diversion in a game,

some were meant to be able to anchor an entire scenario.

There were some moments of doubt when writing this. Is this a valid and smart thing to work on and

release? Will anybody care? Is it “old school” enough? In the end I just had to trust my own instincts.

Whether this book gets bought or used or not, I would have felt the whole Pembrooktonshire creation to be

incomplete without it. So here it is, and I can now close this creative chapter without regrets.

I hope it enriches your game, I hope it provides some entertaining reading, and I hope it inspires more

original creations of your own!

James Edward Raggi IV

Helsinki, Finland

August 6, 2009

used under the Labyrinth Lord TM Trademark License 1.0 available at www.goblinoidgames.com… This product uses the OSRIC™ System (Old School System

Reference and Index Compilation™). The OSRIC system text may be found at http://www.knights-n-knaves.com/osric. The OSRIC text is copyright of Stuart

Marshall. “OSRIC” and “Old School Reference and Index Compilation,” are trademarks of Matthew Finch and Stuart Marshall and may be used only in

accordance with the OSRIC license. This product is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast… Swords & Wizardry, S&W, and Mythmere Games are the

James Edward Raggi IV. Lamentations of the Flame Princess and LotFP are trademarks owned by James Edward Raggi IV. Only one real person was used as

inspiration within this book. Really.

How to Use People of Pembrooktonshire

Many traditional role-playing campaigns don’t bother with “the town” or social interaction or political

intrigue. That’s perfectly fine. But some do, and in general these games have been underserved by gaming

supplements. No Dignity in Death is largely an in-town adventure, and while details are given for the

principal characters for the situations detailed therein, it gives almost nothing for interactions that are not

related to those situations. Pembrooktonshire is obviously not your run-of-the-mill village, and obviously the

possibilities for intrigue and adventure don’t have to stop with No Dignity in Death .

People of Pembrooktonshire provides a toolkit for fleshing out the town and making it interesting while

other adventures are experiencing downtime as well as a repository for triggers and hooks for entirely new

adventures, all disguised in the form of character bios.

Nothing in this book is “official.” The only version of Pembrooktonshire that is “official” is the one found in

No Dignity in Death , and even in that adventure it is just a convenient background/excuse for the matters at

hand. There isn’t even much requiring the use of Pembrooktonshire in that adventure in the first place,

especially if the given adventures are placed by the referee in different locations.

Nothing in this book supercedes the information found in the original adventure unless the referee so

chooses. There, Constable Stark is gone on holiday, and that is not so unusual for a resident to do. Here,

since foreign holidays are unconscionable to the average citizen, it is instead revealed that he was murdered.

In the original campaign that spawned the adventure, he was at some sort of policeman’s convention

elsewhere in the kingdom, however it was worded at the time. None is more correct than the others except

what the individual referee decides.

It is not expected that the entirety of this book will be used by any one referee. The characters in this book

introduce a great variety of tones and elements into the town. By deciding which characters and/or elements

to use, the referee can decide whether this town is to be played for laughs, as a political dystopia, as a horror

setting, as a surrealistic farce, or something else, or even all of these at the same time.

By the same token, many of the characters’ oddities have little connection to the character itself. Elements of

a character can be mixed and matched with other characters found here, or in other supplements (Hommlet

or The Keep could have just gotten much more interesting), or NPCs of the referee’s own design.

Be aware of the effect that any change will have in other areas. For example, if a referee dislikes the idea

about dwarfs being the secret overlords and protectors of the area, then The Great Games portion of No

Dignity in Death will require a major revision, if it is to be used at all, and there will also need to be

effective fighting men in the town. Small Town Murder would require no adjustment at all in this situation,

and A Lonely House on a Lonely Hill would change only in backstory that players will very likely never

discover to begin with.

Even if not one word of this book is used as-written, it is hoped that simply reading this text colors one’s

impression of No Dignity in Death and inspires ideas about fleshing out the town.

About Pembrooktonshire

The less said about Pembrooktonshire in general, the better, in order to allow the individual referee to tailor

the setting. However, there are certain assumptions made in the character writeups that must be addressed.

The Environs

Pembrooktonshire is nestled in a mountain valley, several days’ journey from the nearest settlement. The

town itself is surrounded by a network of hills, between which are a series of fields and pastures. A river

runs from the mountains into the hills forming a series of ponds, and there is a large pond near the town

itself.

The hills form a barrier from the outside world, and the area is difficult to travel through unless knowing the

proper routes. There are even forks in the road that lead only to dead ends in the hills. Many travelers

seeking Pembrooktonshire never find it, spending days lost in the network of hills before giving up.

The townsfolk believe that the mountains are haunted with the spirits that guard the town, and people never

go there. Sure, some foolhardy teenagers and curious adults will tempt the mountains, but as often as not

they do not return.

The secret of the mountains is that a large nation of dwarfs claims the mountains as their own, and do not

want humans encroaching on their territory. They have a network of tunnels throughout the hills surrounding

the town, and are always on the lookout for trouble. They protect the town in order to keep up the spirit ruse,

and nobody in town knows that the dwarfs are there.

General Culture

Pembrooktonshire has turned tradition and correct living into a way of life.

There is a complicated mass of customs and courtesies that govern what people should do in many

situations, from offering (and accepting) tea and how to pay for goods in a shop to courtship and how to

behave differently on different days depending on phase of the moon and day of the week. It’s not so much a

set of learned behaviors so much as a built-in means for everyone to feel superior over everyone else, as not

one single person can keep it all straight and still function in daily life. Of course the niceties are less

important for those doing work and socializing amongst friends, but they are essential when dealing with the

important people (who often have advisors whose sole job it is to prompt them on proper etiquette).

The end result is something resembling a giant movie version of a high school clique. You’re either in or

you’re out. And nobody wants to be out.

The Law

While there is a mayor and town council, these are effectively figurehead positions elected in what amounts

to popularity polls. They basically rubber-stamp activities initiated by important private citizens and perform

Master of Ceremonies duties at festivals and such.

The only official laws really have to do with property rights, physical violence, and theft. While even these

are subject to the whim of the mob, convincing the general public that a murder or blatant fraud is

acceptable will be nigh impossible.

The Great Families

The Great Families are the de facto rulers of Pembrooktonshire. Not because they have power in a

traditional sense, but because they are the rich trend-setters that everyone wants to be. Most gossip and

dinner-table conversation in town revolves around the various members of these families and what they are

up to.

The great families behave like they are eternal institutions, and it certainly seems so at any point in time, but

in fact the families that are considered “great” constantly change over the generations. It’s prestige, not

power.

Marriage

Marriage is a very powerful political and social tool in Pembrooktonshire. Only the lower classes will marry

simply for love, and that usually assumes that neither party believes they have a chance to advance socially.

There is also an intense social pressure to marry and produce children. Those who are not interested in

marriage are considered in many ways unfit for general society. Those who seek to marry but are unable to

find a partner are pitied. Couples who do not produce children are shunned, and an infertile person will find

themselves divorced in short order. In this situation, both spouses generally blame the other, but the truth of

the situation will normally come out as each finds another mate.

Once married, couples are expected to behave as if they are hopelessly in love. Adultery is considered a very

serious (social) offense in Pembrooktonshire, and anyone caught committing it can expect many, if not most,

of their close friends, acquaintances, business partners, and/or customers abandoning them.

Names

When a couple gets married, there is no assumption that the wife will take the husband’s surname. What

happens is that the people involved, and their families, negotiate as to which last name will be taken. Gifts,

bribes, and subterfuge is almost always a part of this process. Lower-born people will want the couple to

take the name of the higher-born partner, in order to attach themselves to a greater family. Higher-born

people will want the couple to take the name of the lower-born partner, if they approve of the wedding at all,

in order to not dilute the importance of their family name.

Sometimes families can not come to an agreement (usually because the families are so close in status), and

the married couple each retains their original name. But then come children, and the issue of which name

they will carry flares up, far more intense than deciding what the married name will be.

Pembrooktonshiretonians do not use hyphenated names.

Religion

Pembrooktonshire follows the religion of All, which is a monotheistic religion which recognizes one creator

which set the universe in motion and monitors it to keep it in good working order. Worship and prayer to All

ensures that the well-being of the worshippers is included in the definition of a universe in “good working

order.”

Magic of any sort is generally considered to be an offense against the working order of the universe, and is

generally feared and shunned, as are any practitioners.

The Church of All does recognize a number of saints. The saints are generally martyrs to All, or sometimes

just great achievers who were also very pious, that are ascribed a certain profession or trait which they had

in life, and those who admire or possess those traits or professions will generally also pray to the particular

saint.

Organized worship is held every Sunday. There are six churches in Pembrooktonshire, one on the market

square which can hold over 500 people, and five others scattered about that hold between 100 and 250

people each. The main church is decadently decorated, while the others are simple affairs.

From the point of view of what the believers do and how they express their faith, the Church of All is indeed

very close to Roman Catholicism. However, what they actually believe is quite different. There is no mortal

manifestation, or savior, or judgment day or great adversary in the religion of All. Hell is considered a real

and awful place, but the danger is that wicked living will attract a demon to take one to hell, not that a

wicked soul will go there after death.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess No Dignity in Death The Three Brides - People of Pembrooktonshire.pdf

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