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Author Topic: Review of Supplement V: Carcosa  (Read 25978 times)

Spinachcat

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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« on: October 16, 2008, 04:24:50 PM »
FULL DISCLOSURE: I received a free copy of Carcosa in exchange for writing this review.  I am a huge fan of old school D&D, Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos and the sword and sorcery genre.   I am the target market for Carcosa and predisposed toward a setting that combines my favorites.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is Lost Carcosa
- Robert W. Chambers


SUPPLEMENT V: CARCOSA
Back in the disco 70s, Gary Gygax and his TSR crew published four supplements for the original Dungeons and Dragons game.   Thirty something years later in 2008, author Geoffrey McKinney publishes the unofficial fifth supplement entitled Carcosa.  Like Greyhawk and Blackmoor, this supplement presents alternate rules and a fresh new setting for your D&D adventures.   Thanks to RPGNow, new players can discover the original D&D books on PDF without paying a king’s ransom and even better, there are free “retro-clones” like Swords & Wizardry, Microlite74, Labyrinth Lord and Basic Fantasy available online that are 99% compatible with Carcosa.   Fans of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia, AD&D, and Castles & Crusades will have an easy time converting the new rules.

Obviously, naming the book “Supplement V” invokes nostalgia.  The booklet is 96 pages, measures 8.5 x 5.5 with a beige cardstock cover so Carcosa nicely matches the other OD&D books.  The cover has an evocative image of a strange ruined city “of non-Euclidian geometry” under a pale green moon.   There is no interior artwork except the two page hand-drawn campaign map in the center of the book.  All the text is laid out cleanly with an easy to read font.   It is clearly homage to the early days of DIY gaming where RPG fans produced supplements in their garage without any need for glossy art and slick pages.  Instead, Carcosa rivets you with a raw vibrancy so missing from many current products.

Carcosa is not Tolkeinesque high fantasy.    This setting is far away from Middle Earth, Shannara or the Forgotten Realms of the Renaissance Faire.   Carcosa is the twisted kindred of Conan’s Hyborea and Elric’s Melnibone.  This setting is Swords and Sorcery, or better yet, Swords against Sorcery.   The gameplay espoused in Carcosa is completely old school.  If you are unsure what that means, google an article by Matthew Finch called A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming.

From shambling man-apes, the Snake-Men bred the various races of humans
 to be sacrifices efficacious for their sorcery.


Carcosa introduces the Sorcerer class to OD&D whose only magic comes in the form of incredibly powerful rituals to control a variety of weird and terrible Cthulhoid entities.   The Sorcerer can banish, invoke, conjure, bind, imprison and torment these entities and force them to do his bidding.  Ritual magic is complex, requiring many hours effort with strange implements at odd locations under the right astrological conditions.   So instead of Magic Missile, you can cast The Ninth Tracing of the Measureless Void to gain forbidden lore from weird entities beyond the galaxy.  The Sorcerer class can wear armor and use any weapons, just like a Fighting Man.  His XP requirements are much higher so his level progression is slower.   There are no elves, dwarves, hobbits, standard magic-users or clerics in Carcosa so character choices are limited to Fighting Men or Sorcerers.  I am excited to tell you more, but first let us get clear about these rituals.  

Most of these rituals require human sacrifice.  Some of these rituals require child sacrifice.  A few of these rituals require the rape and torture of children.    The Primal Name of the Worm requires the Sorcerer to drown a baby and rend its corpse.  An eleven year old girl must be raped eleven times and strangled with her own hair to Summon the Amphibious Ones.  And there are a few other rituals with equally disturbing requirements.  Please note that you can play a Sorcerer who does not commit any atrocities, but you are limited to binding rituals.  

I have run many Stormbringer and Warhammer games where innocent blood was spilled, torture was committed in the name of power and romps with pleasure slaves were commonplace.   I have zero problems with gratuitous sex and over-the-top gore in my entertainment.  However, the rape and torture of children is not something I accept at my game table.   But before anyone jumps on their high horse and starts pontificating, remember that Carcosa is a fictional place with fictional characters.   More importantly, if you have the energy to crusade against immorality in RPGs, please use that energy to crusade against the real rape and real torture of real children that is happening right now in the real world.  Okay with that behind us, back to the game review!

The thirteen races tend to regard each other with suspicion,
and the Bone Men are especially shunned by others.


Carcosa is populated by humans, monsters and Cthulhoid gods.   Humans are broken down into thirteen races, determined by the hue and shade of their skin.   Yes, the Snake Men who created humanity made sure that your hero, his family and all his friends were color coded spell components for their bizarre rituals.   There are Green Men, Red Men, Blue Men, Purple Men, Yellow Men, Bone Men, Black Men, Orange Men, Brown Men, and White Men along with three other colors Jale, Dolm and Ulfire that do not exist on our earth.  Every skin color is deeply pronounced so a White Man is not a Caucasian or even an albino, but completely stark white.   Oddly enough, humans of different colors can not interbreed and generally segregate themselves.  There is no racial hatred, but considering the horrifying rituals that specify sacrifice of particular races, there is an understandable suspicion of strangers.

Alignment is simplified into the character’s stance toward the Lovecraftian gods.  Lawfuls oppose the Great Old Ones, Neutrals avoid them and Chaotics would aid them and may worship them.   All other behaviors are outside the purview of alignment and characters of opposite alignments can mostly usually get along because few Lawfuls are truly active in their opposition and few Chaotics are casually open about their desire to serve Hastur the Unspeakable.  

There are no orcs in Carcosa.  The only classic D&D monsters roaming Carcosa are the slimes, oozes and puddings Gary Gygax imagined during a bad case of sniffles.  Instead, we get two dozen creatures with names such as Deep Gibbering Madness, the Violet Mist, and the Squamous Worm of the Pit plus the better known Cthulhoid horrors such as Deep Ones, B’yakhee and Mi-Go.  Many monster descriptions include quotes from Lovecraft’s stories which add a fun authenticity.   Rounding out the list are Sword & Sorcery favorites such as giant jungle ants, lake monsters, mummy brains entombed beneath radioactive deserts and misshapen phosphorescent dinosaurs.  Oh, and a random table for mutations for extra variety.  James Raggi’s Random Esoteric Creature Generator would be a great book to use alongside to create even more unique terrors.

Many of their artifacts seem to be living things,
Or a hybrid of living and non-living substances,
Or perhaps even a third category other than life or non-life.


Many sword and sorcery authors occasionally blend science-fiction elements into their stories.  In this “Swords Versus Space Men” subgenre, both fools and heroes discover dangerous far future technology.   Space aliens (think Grays from X-Files) have crashed on Carcosa and brought along a plethora of devices from Silver Age comics and Saturday matinees.   There are random creation tables to make sure these items are downright weird, like a cannon that fires pulses of zirconium plus a random robot generator.  Don’t forget the cyborg spawn of Shub-Niggurath!   In my campaign, all alien tech would be made out of malleable nano-plastic without working parts or any metal.  Plus, I would avoid mundane descriptions like “force field” or “space suit” to continually enhance the Great Unknown.    

The Space Aliens in Carcosa add a Gamma World aspect to the game, but they are not integral to the setting and easily omitted if you want a “pure” fantasy campaign.   In addition to the Space Alien technology, there are the amazing artifacts of the Great Race and Primordial Ones.   These range from benign Elder Signs to a crater whose fumes create gaseous monsters to the Spatial Transference Void which is “a hole in existence.”   The price for attaining some artifacts makes Vecna’s Body Part Emporium look like an easy bargain.

The book finishes with short descriptions of notable features within all 400 numbered hexes of the campaign map.   These descriptions range from “0409: 2 of the Great Race” and “0615: Village of 340 Ulfire Men ruled by ‘the Unbearable Poignancy’, a chaotic Champion” to “1104: Deep rifts run for miles.  Smoke continually rises from the invisible depths.  Hideous, semi-human screams and chants can be heard far below.”  If you get inspired by Judges Guild products, these brief notes may spark many adventuring ideas.  

They make me wonder.  Are those two of the Great Race are always in 0409?  If slain, do another two appear?   Do they like each other or are they doomed to be trapped together by fate?  What relationship do they have with the village of Green Men in nearby 0308 ruled by some warrior called “the Speaker of all Truths”?   Since “the Unbearable Poignancy” is chaotic, is he (or she) already a mythos cultist?   If so, which god?  If so, what plans are being laid out for the village of Ulfire Men and do they know what their ruler is really planning?  Hmm…which unspeakable ritual requires a whole bunch of Ulfire sacrifices?   If these musings are fun for you, chances are good that Carcosa will be a worthwhile purchase.

At the end of the day, I would love to play a campaign in Carcosa...with a few changes.  It is one of the most engaging, creative and provocative fantasy settings I have read and certainly takes D&D light years away from the standards of dungeon-crawling.   Remember Pat Pulling and her idiotic Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons crusade from the 1980s?   She’s spinning in her grave because Carcosa is the sum of all her fears.    My response is spin you wretched old hag!!  And spin some more!  Carcosa has several disturbing passages in its 96 pages, but for me this is greatly outweighed by its bounty of fresh ideas.

Carcosa is available in both print and soon PDF.   Visit the author’s website at http://carcosa-geoffrey.blogspot.com/ which has information on how to order the book.   Also, Geoffrey’s blog has many discussions on the origins and evolution of his Carcosa campaign setting.

JimLotFP

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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« Reply #1 on: October 16, 2008, 05:22:10 PM »
My copy should arrive any day now... and I'm not sure what's going to be more entertaining... the book itself... or the shitstorm that it's going to cause. :D

And thanks for the plug!

DeadUematsu

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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2008, 06:30:42 PM »
Want!
 

Pierce Inverarity

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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« Reply #3 on: October 16, 2008, 07:57:33 PM »
Holy Cow. I must possess this gaming accoutrement. Thanks for the great review.

Just two classes is a bit of a bummer, though. Or are the human races mechanically differentiated? Are there Thief "races"?
Ich habe mir schon sehr lange keine Gedanken mehr über Bleistifte gemacht.--Settembrini

walkerp
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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« Reply #4 on: October 16, 2008, 08:22:18 PM »
That looks very cool.  Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
"The difference between being fascinated with RPGs and being fascinated with the RPG industry is akin to the difference between being fascinated with sex and being fascinated with masturbation. Not that there's anything wrong with jerking off, but don't fool yourself into thinking you're getting laid." —Aos

arminius

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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« Reply #5 on: October 16, 2008, 08:35:01 PM »
I read the blog and I'm of two minds, particularly given the recent fuss.

If you go to the blog and read the quoted sections from The Book of Ebon Bindings and the literary antecedents, you can tell they are pastiches of grimoires, which acts as a distancing mechanism. The narrator/author of the rules is a fictional character if you will, and the "real" author is slyly commenting on their decadence and depravity.

The language of the quoted actual rules from Carcosa on the other hand seems rather more straightforward, so it's missing that ironic quality, perhaps unintentionally, with the result being a bit creepy in real terms

On the other hand, yes, it sure sounds interesting. I can't imagine playing an evil sorcerer in the game. Somewhere in another thread someone said that, of course, PCs would be fighters (and good sorcerers?), which would be genre-appropriate. But then again, the mapping of "PC" onto "character in a novel", even "protagonist" is problematic.

(Sorry to be cryptic, gotta run.)

Kellri

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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« Reply #6 on: October 16, 2008, 09:40:27 PM »
The author has already been taken to task for his extreme campaign journals on Dragonsfoot which feature very graphic depictions of pederasty and human sacrifice. For those of you who look askance at recent indie game extremism (Poison'd, Maid, etc.) you'll want to give this one a wide berth. And for good reason, the stuff in question isn't from a 3rd party playtest session - the slime is dripping right from the author himself, in faux Gygaxian prose no less. Despite his claims to being inspired by Lovecraft and MAR Barker the real inspiration for this smut is internet fetish porn and Poppy Z. Brite-style gore.
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Pierce Inverarity

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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« Reply #7 on: October 16, 2008, 09:44:12 PM »
I see what you mean, El. The BoEB is fine be me as well, as would be Carcosa assuming PCs are the enemies of sorcerers. AFAIAC the whole maiden sacrifice thing is all good so long as the game is not designed such that

a) PCs get their rocks off on it;

b) PC get their rocks off on both it and their own tormented soul as it struggles to find salvation, or some shit.

EDIT: Given Kellri's post, maybe I'll wait just a tiny bit longer till I hit that paypal button...
« Last Edit: October 16, 2008, 09:46:32 PM by Pierce Inverarity »
Ich habe mir schon sehr lange keine Gedanken mehr über Bleistifte gemacht.--Settembrini

RPGPundit

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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« Reply #8 on: October 16, 2008, 10:03:19 PM »
Is this even being published by someone? Or is this the guy self-publishing without so much as a company name?

Also, how much of this game is the guy reveling in his own quasi-erotic fantasies?
Is the idea that these aforementioned "rituals" that require child sacrifice are there for evil wizards to use, or for the PCs to eagerly get to doing? Does this evil come with a cost for the sorcerer, or does it make him superpowerful?

It sounds to me like this guy has some serious (mythusmage-level) issues.

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Pierce Inverarity

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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« Reply #9 on: October 16, 2008, 10:10:45 PM »
To be honest, given the blog and the review, it sounds about 95% kosher to me. The guy is a long-time Dragonsfoot regular, and that the book is self-published is neither here nor there. That he found Sorcerer inspiring may or may not set off the creep-o-meter.

That said, Kellri, would you post a link to those DF campaign journals? I did a search, but there are just too many Carcosa posts coming up.

EDIT yet again: Never mind, here's the thread:

http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=25010

Elsewhere he says the PCs in his game are usually sorcerers themselves, and usually of LE/LN alignment.

In other words, they're getting their rocks off.

I think this is borderline, I understand Casey's objections, but I also think that unlike certain other examples it can be converted into something acceptable easily enough.
« Last Edit: October 16, 2008, 10:35:06 PM by Pierce Inverarity »
Ich habe mir schon sehr lange keine Gedanken mehr über Bleistifte gemacht.--Settembrini

TheShadow

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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« Reply #10 on: October 16, 2008, 10:55:05 PM »
Had a quick look at the DF thread. Ick. That's enough for me.
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The Good Assyrian

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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2008, 11:09:19 PM »
Quote from: Spinachcat;257313
A few of these rituals require the rape and torture of children.    The Primal Name of the Worm requires the Sorcerer to drown a baby and rend its corpse.  An eleven year old girl must be raped eleven times and strangled with her own hair to Summon the Amphibious Ones.


And why, exactly, is this necessary?

Just checking.


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David R

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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« Reply #12 on: October 16, 2008, 11:16:05 PM »
Quote from: The Good Assyrian;257431
And why, exactly, is this necessary?


Verisimilitude ? Or maybe the guy thinks Eli Roth is a cinematic god....

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T. Foster

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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« Reply #13 on: October 17, 2008, 01:38:18 AM »
That dragonsfoot Campaign Journal (graphically describing a group of PCs raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl) is actually a significantly sanitized version of what was originally posted. That's what pushes this product over the line from "edgy" and "mature" to reprehensible sick fucking shit that makes me both angry and nauseous to even think about -- not that it includes graphic depictions of human sacrifice a la The Book of Ebon Bindings (though, admittedly, even that would probably have been enough to keep me from buying it), but that it graphically depicts the rape and murder of children as an act to be performed onstage by player characters. That a lot of the other stuff in the book actually sounds kinda cool if anything makes it even worse -- "here's a bunch of cool-sounding stuff to lure you into giving me your money so I can tell you all about my child-rape fantasies." The fuck you will!
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droog

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Review of Supplement V: Carcosa
« Reply #14 on: October 17, 2008, 01:41:52 AM »
Anybody read that chapter in Salammbo where they sacrifice all the kids for rain?
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