Veins of the Earth

A fantastic book! The writing and art have come together to make a wonderfully eerie set of monsters and mechanics to bring to life a creepier older feeling underground environment. The first id say Half of the book is filled with interesting monsters and races.The stats given for these monsters is fairly threadbare mostly giving AC and Hit Points, leaving it to the DM to hammer out the boring stuff. This shouldn't be too much trouble for any DM whos ever tweaked monsters but will provide some difficulties for Dungeon Masters who normally run things straight out of the Monster Manual.It is however not the numbers that makes these monsters interesting it is the flavor, the little side bits of info like, smells and sounds that really hammer home the verisimilitude of these creatures. These creatuers are also- most of the time- insane. As in they are bizzare and strange, being both funny and terrifying in their presence. A great example would be the Tetracharcarodron.*whew what a name.* Which is basically a floating inverted pyramid of gellatinous ooze inside of which is the still living head of a shark with its spine trailing behind it. Yea its like that with this book.There is also a section which I am including as part of the first half, that deals more with the races of the Underground or underdark. Absent are the drow presumably because there is a litany upon litany of info already but it features many of what youd come to expect. The Derro, Dvargir, and Deep Janeen are all fascinating races with really odd and unique twists.(Derro may push this too much depending on your taste.)However the real meat for me is the second half, for the second half of the book goes on to describe alternative rules for Encumbrance and Light, in addition to modifying combat and climbing to fit this changes. I have never tested the Encumbrance rules but the way Light operates and the way food is handled in this book is both involving and reduces busy work for monitoring rations.There is a fantasic section that describes and advises how to create your own caves, cave networks, maps, and environments. It contains information on different types of caves and how they connect and fit together a really interesting and fascinating addition to any underground campaign is the information spread across these pages. Instructions for rolling up individual caves from scratch in particular really helped me give a sense of scale and location to my game.Id say buy this book. On top of all the useful things in it its also gorgeous, with wonderfully thick paper and fantastic art and writing. Buy it and run an underdark campaign itll be spooky and terrifying like some awesome camp horror movie directed by Sam Raimi.

This is one of the best RPG supplements I've ever found in my life. It helps that I use the Underdark for almost all of my GMing, but there's hardly anything about this book that isn't praiseworthy. The physical craftsmanship is superb, the art is subjective but I adore it (Scrap Princess is a favorite of mine), the writing is intoxicating (and I normally hate purple prose), and the ideas are life-changing in their potency and density. Even what you don't end up using will still influence or inspire you. I was stuck at an airport for a day and I just read through the bestiary for hours and hours. The Antiphoenix alone is one of the most incredibly fantasy ideas I've ever encountered.The book as a whole forms a tonally cohesive and deeply creative setting, yet is flexible enough to be mixed into any vanilla RPG campaign that has room for some subterranean adventure. New rules, new fluff, new spells and monsters and resources and useful random tables. I think Patrick and Scrap are geniuses in their arts.

LotFP books, for the most part are totally awesome. THIS ONE IS CRAZY AWESOME. One of the strangest, elegant and poetic books available for the LotFP system, but EASILY used with ANY set of OSR-styled rules! I own practically everything for "Lamentations of the Flame Princess", but waited to get this one. Don't wait. Spend the fifty bucks and get it. Even if you never use it in a game, the oddness alone is worth owning. The art of Scrap Princess utterly does this book justice. How many kinds of darkness are there? More than one might think! Light is currency. Be sure you have food, or you might have to cannibalize your party. Madness is prevalent. And if you hear something that sounds like a train rumbling out of a mountain, GET OUT OF THE WAY. The Civilipede will annihilate you, unless it likes your art. Then it will annihilate you a little later. AWESOME BOOK!!!

This book is a treasure on my shelf. A mysterious breathing thing by which all other works of tabletop imagination will be compared. Merely holding these words the pathways and neurons begin to fire and explode forming and exploring new paths in the labyrinthine hall of the GM brain. This book dropped from some place special.This is a self contained system. Even if you aren't running the system this book is a must for any DM brave enough to lock a group of wide-eyed players in the channels and divides which pierce the ground like bronchial tubes. I'd you run and underground game, you need this. This is an inspiration and idea engine. Even if you aren't running an underground game this deserves a place on every shelf of every GM who ever wondered what happened behind mirrors.

Like many of the LotFP supplements, Veins of The Earth is physically a beautifully made book. Well made and thick with lots of information. It has fantastic mechanics for randomly generating cave systems, rules for cave hazards, and a whole new collection of creatures and magic items. I can't recommend it highly enough.

DO NOT pay more then $60 for it. check the Lamentations of the Flame Princess website or ask around for game stores that might have it. It is not a $200 book and it will have a second printing eventually.I love picking out some monsters and ideas for the underdark in my own game but the book is thick, very thick. If you get it make sure you take the time to ease the book into use. There are some videos online to help with that.

Amazing book. Not quite a setting book that you can just pick up and play a game with, but the ideas and art are really inspiring. Its often hard to wrap your head around in all the best ways. Patrick has some dark stuff swirling around in it and Scrap Princess does a great job of breathing life into it with the art. It's dense and claustrophobic. It's perfect.