LotFP's Weird Fantasy - Why I'll Never Run It

I'll get back to the review of Weird Fantasy,either tonight or over the weekend, but the thought has occurred to me more then once that I would never DM / GM / CK / ABC / 123 - I would never run a game of Weird Fantasy, except MAYBE as a one off at a convention or something.

It's not that it isn't well written. It's not that it isn't evocative. It's not that certain parts aren't pretty damn awesome - I think the Specialist Rocks!, I love many of the changes to the spell disruptions, the Referee book deserves a review post of it's very own - My issue is this is not the type of game I'd enjoy running as is. Heck, I'm not sure if I'd enjoy playing it, as is. Which is a shame, as it's pretty darn good as a total package.

I'd want my players to strive to be heroes. I'd expect Dwarves, Elves, Clerics and Specialists to improve in combat ability (maybe not as fast as the older rules, but advance none the less). I'd want combat to be exciting, without risking a TPK each time the players jump in a fray. For me, it strays to far from it's roots for me to feel completely comfortable.

That doesn't mean it won't work for you. I actually think it would work best for a group that doesn't have itself rooted in the OSR and all the baggage that it brings. Keeping things simple makes this a good choice to introduce new players to roleplaying, or to bring a group over to the D&D corner that has played RPGs with non-TSR rooted rules.

I read on another blog (which I can't seem to find at the moment) that Weird Fantasy might work better if played as a Call of Chtulhu game, where combat is avoided and knowledge is deadly. It makes sense, but I don't think it would lead to campaign play. More likely one shots and the like.

Just some less then random thoughts on the matter.