Lamentations of the Flame Princess Campaign — and Why I Love My Players

We play our LotFP game on Monday nights. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, my Players usually get an email chain going, full of jokes and quotes from the game’s previous session. It’s a blast across days… all from one night of play.

Early on in the campaign, the Players started tossing oil and lighting things on fire as the first choice of action and reaction. By the second session they were calling their group “The Lamplighters.” The game is set in Germany in the Thirty Years War. As a group they have explored the crypts and tombs of secret cults and encountered the tools and spies of alien worlds hoping to invade ours.

One player, Eric, has become a huge fan of the hit musical “Hamilton” and listens to the lyrics over and over again.

He sent off an email that began…

Maybe I’ve been listening to too much Hamilton hip-hop, but I got a rap battle in my head now.

And was followed with this…

I’d tell you our story but you’ll think I misspoke
Our crew is no joke, we went from broke to baroque
You’ll know we coming to your town when you see smoke
And by dawn we’ll be gone like the settlement of Roanoke

We’ve likely burned more horses than we’ve ridden
Struck by gods that’d leave mortals bedridden
We find old curses and corpses in tombs hidden
And we break open doors that say “FORBIDDEN”

So if you need us light a vigil
But first hire some firefighters
Steel and flame is our sigil
Yeah, we’re the Lamplighters

You try to keep up with us you might need a trainer
To kill your doppelganger like it’s a no-brainer
Half our original crew is currently “extra-planar”
Those we don’t slay we tend to put on retainer

Now we’re on a roll with some psycho gear we stoleJust jumped down a hole with a God living like a mole
So Anika can get a new scroll and go grenade bowling
And Werner heads to the roof for some Scooby-Doo trolling

So if you got room for new-hires
After a blood god killed your gunfighters
Light the chariot signal, sires
And summon the Lamplighters

If anyone else survived we’d have fans
But we don’t ever stand around for reprimands
And Rauk’s about to try some crazy plan
‘cuz Adrian’s in the corner with his head in his hands

[double-time rhyme stanza]
In night blacker than black we come back just to reap what we sowed
Got an almanac of bric-a-brac and a brain with a toad
We make our attacks and the facts’ll just end with: explode
We leave with your tax and an axle alone in the road

So if it’s time for a heist
Then believe, Bavaria needs us
We got the spear that killed Christ
And we comin’ for Space Jesus

–Lamplighters