Lair of the Lamb and subtle adventure design and my own shortcomings as a GM (SPOILERS FOR LAIR OF THE LAMB) a

Play
,
1

I recently listened to the Between Two Cairns episode concerning Arnold Kemp’s Lair of the Lamb (thoroughly recommend, by the way) and, naturally, I was reminded of running the adventure myself. There was some back-and-forth during the discussion about the pros and cons of Arnold’s hand’s off approach to worldbuilding, and the gaps left for players and GMs to fill in themselves.

A specific element not brought up int he show was the relationship between the vinegar in room 3 and the spiders at crack 15 (although both rooms are mentioned). Crack 15 is the characters only opportunity to interact with the world outside (indeed, to obtain nourishment) but is seriously restricted by the presence of tiny red spiders: conversations with the chicken vender through the crack are conducted in real time, with each minute that passes carrying a 50% chance of a spider bite from the hundreds of tiny red spiders.

Now I’m aware that both these rooms are discussed, but what isn’t raised is that vinegar is just about the best organic spider repellent, due to the fact spiders are highly sensitive to acetic acid. I’m not knocking Yochai and Brad for not bringing this up: I only know it because one of my players raised it during the game… and here’s the crux of the post (finally, after 3 million words…)

I don’t recall the full details but there was something involving the goat being bathed in vinegar to avoid spider bites and squeezing it into the crack. ADMISSION OF BAD GMing: I ruled that this was ineffective because of the goat’s hair or something- I can’t really remember, exactly, and honestly it was mainly a knee jerk reaction because it caught me off guard! I like to think that if the player had pushed back a little I would have come to my senses (as I have now) and seen this was “just a cool idea”, but at the time the player seemed happy to go with that excuse. But maybe- maybe- if it had been mentioned in the game text I would have totally gone with it!

Again, not pointing fingers at Arnold, I really should have rewarded that piece of player knowledge with a cool outcome, but still…it’s hard for me to think the vinegar isn’t there specifically for the spiders…

I should probably just ask Arnold Kemp directly…

Anyway:

  • Are there any items/features of LotL that you think could have done with greater exposition or detail?
  • Did you have anything like this occur when you ran lair iof the lamb?
  • Do you have any regrets about how you responded to a player suggestion in any of the games you’ve run?
4 Likes
2

Are there any items/features of LotL that you think could have done with greater exposition or detail?

The head of Davok is pretty vague in how it might help or hinder the PCs during the course of their adventure (if it joins them). I let my players call on Davok once to fireball the lamb to scare it away, then Davok says:
“Clean up your own messes. Next time you summon me, it best be for a better reason, lest I burn you and find another servant worthy of me.”

Do you have any regrets about how you responded to a player suggestion in any of the games you’ve run?

Yeah, I made crap calls during games all the time. If its bad enough to warrant a discussion, I have one with the players later. Otherwise, I try not to obsess over it too much. We all make mistakes. Next time, I might have learned from it.

1 Like
3

My take on the Head of Davok is that it works to shepherd a PC into the Warlock class. There’s a similar thing going on with the Black Iron Spellbook (which opens the door to playing a necromancer). It’s a quirk of how this particular iteration of the GLOG works with classes, that they sort of “unlock” through play.