Labyrinth Lord Cover to Cover: Part 2, pages 4 and 5

For this series of posts I will be using the free PDF of the 

Labyrinth Lord rules that can be found Here at Goblinoid Games
This is the second part of a series, find the first part Here

   Pages four and five cover section one of the rules. Whats section one you ask? The introduction, including stuff like dice notation and other useful things. For any of you out there planning to make a rules book like this don't skimp on it. What you may take as common knowledge might not be as common as you think.

Page 4

   This page starts off with a little example of play split by some interesting stuff. Right after the first part of the example it gets right to the heart of what a roleplaying game is. Beginning with telling you that "There are no limits" and continues with an excellent analogy comparing roleplaying to acting out a play where there is no script because you make it up as you go along. It also introduces the concepts of levels and the fact that gaining them increases your power. The second bit of the example that follows is a little gruesome with the character ending up in the bottom of a pit on top of a fallen comrade but it sets the stage quite well for what this is all about.

   Next the page talks about the various base ideas such how there is a moderator who in the fine tradition of rename what they are called in every game is name the "Labyrinth Lord" who runs the world and all the Non Player Characters (NPC). While the other players each get to control a Player Character (PC) who is their in-game alter ego. All real basic stuff for roleplaying games really but it no one says it how are there supposed to be new players coming into the hobby.

   The import thing it say after all that though is that no one "wins". Now you may be scoffing at that or wondering why I bring something like that up but anyone coming into this from modern Computer Roleplaying Games this can be quite a shock. Even just coming from the perspective of games in general this can be quite odd. The only thing I don't agree with is that it follows this revelation up with a wishy washy statement that basically comes down to saying no one "Loses" either. It may just be that I come from the game where Losing is !!Fun!! but I like to lose for a reason. If I do something stupid and my character dies, he died. Now pointless death isn't losing if you couldn't do anything about it, but whatever.

   The next area talks about adventuring and what it means. Basicly saying you going to be in the labyrinth (read as dungeon) a lot and that while the Labyrinth Lord can make the places, the option to use pre-made setups.  There is more on the pages after this but its the start of the dice section so I will just patch it into the next page where the bulk of it lies.

Page 5

   Dice, that and common terms and abbriviatons but Dice it where its at. It starts by going over that there are six types used in play then gets down to what all those notations mean. The first example is 3d4+3 which they descibe thusly,  "roll three four-sided dice, sum them, and add 3"  then goes over what the fancy notation means. It follows all this up with a nice table showing how to obtain various d# results such as the d3 where you use a d6 with one and two equaling one, three and four equaling two, and five and six equaling three. This is an immensely useful table for people who are new to all these funny dice.

   Next it goes over terms and how apparently the word level can be used quite a few different ways. First there is character level, then a spells level, followed by a monsters level, and finished off by what level of the dungeon you are on. I never noticed that before.

   Finally it finishes up with abbreviations such as strength is STR and this is needed whether you wanted to assume people already knew all about roleplaying games or not. The reason is because of how the Labyrinth Lord rules where made they couldn't use all of the terms from D&D. For instance THC obviously means Trojan Horse Capers, right? (Note: THC does not mean Trojan Horse Capers, it actual stands for Treasure Hoard Class)

   To finish up now seems to be a good time to mention that I like the two column format they use. It looks clean and fits the correct amount of information to a page. The columns are easier to read then just having the text go all the way across the page as well so over all good formatting.

This is the second part of a series, find the first part Here

Once again you can find the rules Here at Goblinoid Games