Courting Controversy: Lamentations of The Flame Princess

James Raggi IV's Latest (Mis)Adventure?

Before anyone reacts, please read this completely through. That’s all I’m asking. After that, do what you will.

Two things are not a secret here in this space. First among them is that I’m a Lamentations of The Flame Princess fan as I see a type of genius in the design of the game itself in that it doesn’t ever need a new edition or anything like that. This is a game for the folk horror enthusiast and the collector/librarian but this game isn’t for everyone. There are no sacred cows save for maybe it’s 17th-Century setting in many ways. The core book itself can be used for just about anything but it’s not really the core book that makes the game, it’s the other books that come after it. From Carcosa, 6x6x6: The Mayhemic Missile Method, The Book of Antitheses all the way to Winnie The Shit, one thing is clear; James Raggi IV Does Not Do Sacred Cows.

He’s taken on the personal and even the social, delving into works like Death Love Doom in which he dealt with his own hopelessness following the dissolution of his relationship and even adventures like Fuck For Satan that shows the destructive power of rumor.

To get to know James Raggi IV means he’s going to find what your sacred cows are and then he’s going to attempt to tip them.

I’ve interviewed the guy. I’ve talked to him. He knows one of my sacred cows and he took absolute delight when he’d figured out through no intention of his own that he had not only sold it to me but had placed it in front of me, effortlessly. What is that sacred cow with me? Anything involving eyeballs. Tear one out of someone’s skull or make one pop out, I’ll cringe harder than my morning cup of English Breakfast. Traumatize one and I’m gonna get grossed out to the point where that tea…it’ll probably come back up with whatever I’ve had for dinner for the last six nights.

James also spoke in one of his videos about the first-ever Death Metal concert he attended and, I’m paraphrasing here, when he heard the names of the songs, something happened. In his mind he went, “You can do that?”

For the uninitiated who think they’ve never heard Death Metal before, I need to ask if you’ve seen the movie Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. If you said yes, great. If not, watch this and tell me if you recognize it.

That band was Cannibal Corpse and they were playing their song Hammer-Smashed Face from the album Tomb of The Mutilated.

Believe me, that’s one of the more modestly-titled tracks.

Growing up, I had the albums Tomb of The Mutilated, The Bleeding and the debut album when George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher took over called Vile. Among the song titles on The Bleeding were luminary titles like…

WARNING: There Will Be Coarse And Graphic Song Titles Ahead…

Fucked With A Knife

Stripped, Raped & Strangled

She Was Asking For It

and…

Force-Fed Broken Glass

…just to name a few. So let’s dial it all back for a second because this will come up again. Music, I mean. We’re going to be mentioning another band very shortly.

I don’t know who James went to see but when you hear song titles like this and you weren’t aware that your art form (metal) could take song titles to this level, you have one of three choices in the matter. You can walk away because it’s not something you’re into, that’s fine. You can passively accept it or actively oppose it, for certain. Finally, you can be inspired by it.

James chose the third option. James was also inspired by a lot of Hammer Horror and that sort of thing.

James has also expressed his atheism before in a short statement that just clarified his stance on the matter rather than using it to play a game of “I’m Better Than You” that some atheists tend to adopt.

James has also actively defended free speech and expression in tabletop gaming and has discouraged (or at least made the attempt) any of us from going after the people that were exposed behind the Dungeongate Drama. I’m sure you remember that. I wrote a few articles on it in this very space and that revelation came to light just a little over a year and a half ago. Oh, how soon we forget that incident.

His body of work clearly shows that. I’ve made the point that most people who lean Christian Conservative probably won’t pick these titles up based on the covers alone.

Forgive the fuzzy photo there, I took it rather quickly but anyway, I’m gonna bank on it being none but the truly adventurous with a healthy separation of fantasy and reality here that would pick these up from that particular group. How many of them are going to actively play out the adventure called Fuck For Satan? Refer to previous answer. The point is that James himself has made it clear that there are no sacred cows in his game. Horror provokes feelings and emotions of being, big thing here, horrifying. When you are horrified by something, he’s done his job and done it well.

This isn’t horror with apologies and James makes none whatsoever. If you’re offended by something in the work, then that’s exactly what James and the crew who made that particular book. We’ve told the extreme, radical, slacktivist cancel cult that these are the reasons we are in this game. All the stuff that offended them, we bought. It’s not that LoTFP is an anti-woke game in and of itself, no. It’s a horror game without apologies. It uses B/X D&D rules but it’s not D&D and it will punish your character for attempting to play it like you’re playing D&D. Again: This Is A Horror Game.

So let’s get back to the T-Shirt Incident…or rather, lack thereof. If this t-shirt isn’t familiar in some way to you, then let me dial back history a bit for you.

Remember when I said I’d be mentioning another band? Yes, that’s happening.

Let’s talk about Cradle of Filth, a British Extreme Metal band. Cradle of Filth had a t-shirt with a masturbating nun that had a rather controversial phrase, similar to what was on the back of James’ shirt only the name preceding the rest of the phrase was Jesus. Yes, CoF suffered backlash from it and several arrests of people wearing the shirt were made, which should show you that censorship is favored by both sides with the justification of “Well It’s Okay When WE Do It!”

James re-worked the design to have President Trump’s face and the phrase on the back. You can see it yourself, it’s a derivative design.

Here’s the thing, I voted for Trump and that’s the other thing that isn’t a secret. I don’t put the guy on a pedestal and pretend he’s some kind of savior. He’s done things that, while I may not be against it, I’m certainly looking at it going, “Ummm…we do have more important issues to work on other than re-naming an entire gulf of water but, okay, I guess…” When it comes to Trump, the man, I’m cautiously optimistic. Cautiously. My opinion of his policies, well, there are some I’m in favor of and others, not so much but when it comes to James’ opinion of Trump, I have only one thing to say.

I Do Not Care.

I don’t. I went into James and his art fully-aware that there are nothing is sacred. If the game or James’ artistic expression (even derivative) are offending you at the moment then I have to ask how you continue to watch South Park because they too have disregarded every sacred cow we’ve had in society. Why give Trey Parker and Matt Stone the pass you won’t give James Raggi IV? He doesn’t attack Trump’s supporters and he certainly hasn’t attacked me or you. He voiced his displeasure (at best) with a President that he hasn’t voted for. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone hard in the paint at some of our elected employees on the Hill, myself so why is it only okay when it’s one side?

Let’s look at Leyline Press, remember them? They fired an artist because he worked on LoTFP. Was that wrong? Yes. What did James do? Rehired the guy and paid him more making his anti-censorship stance clear. We’ve constantly called out the spurious claims that things like “Safety Tools, Lines & Veils, Trauma Checklists” and all the other ridiculousness were just that; ridiculous. We’ve never needed those codified, ever.

Daniel Fox decided he was going to put an easily-circumventable question about who you voted for if you want to buy Zweihander. Look, what’s to stop me from picking it up at my FLGS? They’re certainly not going to ask and if they do I’ll politely and assertively remind them that it’s none of their concern, just as James’ opinion of our current president isn’t any of mine.

James hasn’t done any of that. He’s kept his politics out of his games, save for when free speech and expression needs to be defended which he’s effectively done in many ways.

James has also stripped down to nothing and run around in the snow in Finland.

When this screenshot was presented to me, it was no surprise. It was everyone else clutching pearls and acting like it was such a shock. It’s not. What it shows is that you haven’t been paying attention and now that lack of awareness has made you angry at him instead of where the real fault lies…yourself. It’s one of two things here. Either you weren’t aware and didn’t do your due diligence or you knew and decided it was expedient to decide to overlook it before.

This is a simple question of maturity. He did some edgelord shit (which, not gonna lie, he did something I wouldn’t have, nor would I care to) and the intended effect was that everyone in physical proximity to him pretty much had the same response I did. They didn’t care. So did it succeed? Nope. It was meant as a provocation, similar to how Death Metal and Black Metal bands work and…no one cared.

Bottom line: You do not have a right against offense. Sounds familiar, I wonder if we’ve told other groups that too. The problem is that some of you are actually acting like it. Fair point, no, you don’t have to purchase his game. No, you don’t owe him anything, fine but please stop pretending that everyone else has to. The thing is, Lamentations of The Flame Princess is a game for Mature audiences, not Modern audiences or a bunch of easily-offended and childish types.

When I call out Wicked Ones, Kids on Bikes or other ideologically-compromised games, I do so because there’s good reason. Those reasons?

It gives you all that advice and then…this fuckin’ thing…

Then there’s Kids on Bikes with…

Much like the BrOSR, if you say “no thanks” and decide to run a table of these games at a convention, you can expect serious backlash. I’ll give you an example of that. I really take exception to this unnecessary blurb in the most recent iteration of Vampire: The Masquerade.

Yep, that one kicked up a real shitstick which I ended up with responses for days.

This is where I raise both middle fingers to full-mast and respond with, “Just share, I only have two to give.”

James didn’t put any of this stuff in his game, he wore a t-shirt with a derivative design that he’d altered. Guess what, folks, welcome to the real world. Welcome to that thing called life.

Personally, whether I agree with his opinion of Trump or not is beside the point. I fully support his right to wear that shirt. I fully support his right to say the things he wants and if ever I have a problem with that, then it’s my problem, I’m not gonna go making it anyone else’s.

Still remembering days when it was “This wouldn’t be so bad if they kept their politics out of our games” but it looks like I’m probably the only one with a memory longer than that of a fuckin’ goldfish.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna see if I can’t score a copy of Death Frost Doom.