Carcosa 2020!

Is Carcosa still a controversial publication? It’s been out in the world for more than 10 years now, but it was (or is?) somewhat notorious in this niche hobby of ours as being some sort of nihilistic obscenity unleashed upon an innocent world, particularly pertaining to some of the more lurid ritual descriptions, so I suppose I should address that. Truthfully, I don’t think my disposition would ever let me run a truly “dark” game, even if I set out to do so.  I suspect players will find my version of Carcosa to end up being a little more akin to my own weird influences from childhood (cartoon treasures like He-Man, Dino-Riders, or The Pirates of Dark Water), and, in execution, far less menacing and atmospheric than the text as-written would imply.  Basically, I’ll run things as close to “by the book,” but probably gloss over the more salacious stuff (if applicable) to keep things PG-13, and it’ll probably be way more action/adventure than horror/suspense.

We’ll be using the “playtest” rules for Lamentations of the Flame Princess, which appear in the back inside cover of Eldritch Cock.  You may find it helpful to have the books on hand for reference and that sort of thing, but they’re not strictly necessary, and you can find a no-art free PDF version of Rules & Magic at www.lotfp.com (or rather a re-direct link to drivethrurpg, which handles the PDF transactions).  You can find a (free) PDF of Eldritch Cock at the same site.  There’s no free version of Carcosa, but as a player you don’t strictly need it.        

I was fortunate enough to play in a game run by Jeff Rients a few weeks ago using the same playtest rules mentioned above, so I’m going to basically rip-off his character creation document schtick with a couple Carcosa-themed additions and amendments.  So, credit where credit is due, most of this is Jeff’s document shamelessly copied & pasted— check out his website at jrients.blogspot.com.  I’ll also plug a rad adventure he wrote called Broodmother Skyfortress, which quite honestly might get dropped into this campaign somewhere too.  

Character Creation

Go ahead and make a character (or two, in case of quick sudden death) before the game begins! If you have questions, or get stuck, we’ll go over it at the start of the session, so don’t fret if something doesn’t really make sense.  I’ll even prep a handful of pre-gens just in case.  

First, roll 3d6 in order for Charisma, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Strength, and Wisdom. You may switch any two scores. If the total of all six scores is 54 or less then “Name the character and decide their means of death, then discard” (Eldritch Cock, p. 52).

Second, determine starting skills. Roll 1d12 twice on the chart below. The first skill is rated +3, the second at +2. You get more skills based on your Intelligence score. Either look it up in Eldritch Cock or ask about it at the start of the session.

Random Skill Chart

1. Architecture
2. Bushcraft
3. Climb
4. Languages
5. Leadership
6. Luck
7. Medicine
8. Seamanship
9. Search
10. Sleight of Hand
11. Stealth
12. Tinkering

Third, choose a class: Fighter, Sorcerer, or Specialist. See the section below for the particular class to build the rest of your character, or at least as much as you can if you don’t have Rules & Magic or Eldritch Cock to reference.

Fighter

• First level fighters get to roll their hit points twice, taking the higher roll. For what die to roll, see page 52 of Eldritch Cock or ask at the session.
• First level fighters get a +2 attack bonus with all weapons.
• First level fighters using the Guard maneuver get +3 AC, even if they Guard out of initiative order.
• For your initial equipment, pick a column below to roll d12 on. Once that item is selected, roll d10 on another column. Then roll d8 on the last column.

Initial Equipment Chart

Armor	Melee Weapon	Ranged Weapon
1. None	1.Club	1. None
2. Piecemeal Gladiator Armor (+1 AC)	2. Some sort of Space Alien polearm	2. 3 Weird Darts
3. None	3. Spear	3. None
4. Leather	4. Rapier	4. Sling w/ 12 stones
5. None	5. Short Sword & Shield	5. None
6. Reflective Space Alien Jumpsuit	6. Pair of Hand Axes	6. Shortbow, quiver of 20 arrows
7. None	7. Mace & Shield	7. None
8. Futuristic Space Plastic Body Armor (as chain)	8. Sword & Shield	8. Heavy Crossbow, 12 bolts
9. None	9. Pair of Cesti	9. None
10. Chainmail	10. Spear & Shield	10. Space Alien rifle and Power Cell with 2d20 charges
11. None, but you have a cool cybernetic limb	11. Big Club	11. None, but you have a cybernetic eye that works like night vision goggles
12. Plate Armor	12. Great Axe	12. Space Alien pistol and Power Cell with d100 charges
Fighters only: You also have a 1 in 6 chance of having a cool Helmet, like with horns or batwings or something like that.

Sorcerer

The Carcosa Sorcerer is a bit different than the usual LotFP or D&D-style Magic-User.  You don’t cast spells, but instead can learn and cast rituals to summon, bind, compel, or banish extra-dimensional entities.  These rituals are usually lengthy affairs, all except banishments require ghastly human sacrifice(s), and often require days or hours of chanting and preparation, as well as esoteric and exotic ingredients, or pilgrimages to special locations.  It is not a simple matter to cast a ritual, and, as such, the sorcerer as written may… well… might not have a lot “to do” in a short term campaign.  So, as a Carcosan Sorcerer, you know one spell: Summon (see Rules & Magic page 134), and can learn/discover additional rituals.  Unlike the other rituals, Summon attempts to contact and compel literally any random entity that may heed the call.  Very often, this is a dangerous and disastrous endeavor for the 1st level Sorcerer and their companions, so use caution!  Or don’t!  After all, only the insane would ever want to become a sorcerer…  

For a bit of extra Carcosa-flavor, we’ll use a slightly modified version of Summon: To cast the ritual, the Sorcerer must have at least 1 HP worth of fresh human blood on her hands or dagger, either her own or someone else’s. Without this component, the ritual is a dud (no arcane mis-cast consequences). It’s probably “too quick” compared to the other Carcosan rituals, but to keep things interesting, the Sorcerer must spend two rounds of stationary chanting and somatic invocation (“hand waving”) to cast the spell, which will “go off” at the end of the Sorcerer’s second turn, if she is not otherwise interrupted. After casting the ritual, successfully or not, the Sorcerer must make a saving throw against Magic– failure indicates unnatural aging, as per Carcosa page 14.

Anyway, to make a Sorcerer:

Randomly determine your combat skills (1d6):

1-2. +1 Melee, +1 Guard

3-4. +1 Ranged, +1 Guard

5-6. +1 Firearms, +1 Guard

For your starting weapons and armor you may take one of the following options:

• Roll d4 each on each column of the Initial Equipment Chart listed under Fighters.
• Roll d6 each on any two of the columns on the chart.
• Pick no armor, opt for a dagger, and get two extra rolls on the Miscellaneous Equipment Table below.

Special notes: Heavy encumbrance can jeopardize your spellcasting, so you should probably avoid the better armors. Also, the only weapon you can safely hold and still cast rituals with is a dagger.

Since Sorcerers begin at level 1 knowing no rituals (aside from Summon), roll twice on the following table to find out some “leads” on where you might find more information about a couple rituals.  As with any rumor, some of these might be dead-ends, half-truth, or totally accurate— you’ll have to investigate to find out!

1. It is said that ageless servitors known as “Diseased Guardians” may be summoned by certain rituals performed underground. 
2. Somewhere to the north, east of the Smoking Rifts, an old structure was once used to contact the Deep Gibbering Madness… perhaps some secret to the ritual may be found there.
3. The Violet Mist may be cowed to the Sorcerer’s will by binding a sacrifice to a certain desert altar somewhere… but the Violet Mist must first be imprisoned in a place called the “Angled Labyrinth” for the ritual to be effective.
4. A sunken temple near the Damned Isles holds the secret of banishing the Leprous Dweller Below.
5. The Colorless Ooze may be imprisoned by the blood of eight Bone Men children, but the ritual requires some sort of container, and what is described as a “Colorless Knife.”
6. The colorless flesh of the Bone Men, along with a certain ritual of summoning, can be used to entice the Colorless Ooze to manifest.
7. Some number of Purple Men, sacrificed by means of some sort of poison, can bind an entity known as the Foul Putrescence to a Sorcerer’s bidding.
8. A handful of a special dust, made from a crystal found from a peculiar formation near the Mutated Forest, in conjunction with a brief ritual may be used to banish the Suckered Abomination back to the hell it came from.

Specialist

Distribute 4 points to any skills listed on the Random Skill Chart above. Note that there is little point to making a skill higher than +5.

Randomly determine your combat skills (1d6):

1-2. +1 Melee, +1 Guard

3-4. +1 Ranged, +1 Guard

5-6. +1 Firearms, +1 Guard

For your starting weapons and armor you may take one of the following options:

• Roll d4 each on each column of the Initial Equipment Chart listed under Fighters.
• Roll d6 each on any two of the columns on the chart.
• Pick any one item listed.

You also get one set of Specialist’s Tools for the performance of a skill of your choice.

Miscellaneous Equipment Chart (d20)

In addition to the weapons and/or armor you have rolled, each character gets a satchel equivalent to half a backpack and three rolls on the following chart.

1. Small bag with 12 caltrops
2. 6 candles
3. 6 feet of rusty iron chain
4. A piece of chalk
5. A crowbar
6. A lantern and d4 flasks of oil
7. d6 rations
8. Small metal case of d4 healing doses (Space alien tech)
9. D4 Communicators (Space Alien tech)
10. A pair of iron manacles
11. A small jar of lard
12. A steel hand mirror
13. A pair of night vision goggles with d100 hours worth of charge (Space Alien tech)
14. 50’ of rope
15. A small shovel
16. A mallet and 3 wooden stakes
17. 5 torches and a tinderbox
18. A mallet and 4 iron spikes
19. A wineskin full of wine
20. 3d6 silver pieces

Fourth: Color!

I almost forgot— your character is a human… sort of.  There are no “normal” humans on Carcosa, like the humans of Earth.  Instead, “humans” are 13 races of, well, “technicolor weirdos.”  Like, Crayola Crayon Cartoon colored… a “Red Man” on Carcosa is a cherry lipstick kind of red.  A “Green Man” is the same shade as the Incredible Hulk or the Jolly Green Giant.  Your character’s color confers no mechanical benefit, but it might paint a target on your back if the local sorcerer needs 5 Blue Men to sacrifice for a ritual, and you happen to be a Blue stranger walking into town.  Your color is kind of like a loose tribal affiliation— the different colors of humans cannot interbreed, so think of it as extended family of a sort.  That said, if a group of Orange Bandits descends on your party, you may not be spared because your character is Orange— you’re still a stranger on a desperate, resource-scarce planet overrun with cosmic horrors.      

An Important Note On This Color Business: Note on the list that characters can be Black, White, or Brown— of these, the only possible “Earthly” skin tone might be Brown, but White is Porcelain Arctic White, and Black is Jet Obisidian Black; not earthly skin tones at all.  Rest assured your GM has no intention of introducing any notions of earthy racism into this game— as ever, racism and sexism are attributes characters will encounter only in villains (if at all), and you don’t need to fret about wandering into some town where you’ll be kicked out or lynched because “Purple Men Ain’t Welcome.”  Nevertheless, “the thirteen races tend to regard each other with suspicion, and the Bone Men are especially shunned by the others” (Carcosa pg. 16)   Most settlements tend to be a single Color, but mixed communities & groups (like the PCs) do occur, and are not going garner any more attention than any other group of armed strangers.  Carcosans might lean toward xenophobic, but they're equal-opportunity xenophobic.  

There’s 13 colors (three that don’t exist on Earth!), so if you, like me, don’t have a d13 around the house, shuffle a deck of standard playing cards and draw a card to determine your character’s Color.

• Ace – Black
• 2 – Blue
• 3 – Bone
• 4 – Brown
• 5 – Dolm
• 6 – Green
• 7 – Jale
• 8 – Orange
• 9 – Purple
• 10 – Red
• Jack – Ulfire
• Queen – White
• King – Yellow

Fifth, choose your alignment: Law, Neutral, or Chaos.  This dictates your “relationship” with the Old Ones.  For example, if Cthulhu were to be unleashed, the Lawful would oppose him, the Neutral would avoid him, and the Chaotic would serve him.  This does not otherwise dictate your character’s behavior or moral sense— Lawful and Chaotic characters frequently cooperate with one another, so it does not simply mean “Good, Evil, and Indifferent.” It won’t come up in most mundane situations– Chaotic characters live in Lawful settlements all the time without persecution, and vice versa.    

Sixth, check for Psionic ability! This is admittedly low probability, so I won’t go into deep detail, but refer to your ability scores in Charisma, Intelligence, and Wisdom, and roll on the following table if any one of them is equal to or higher than 15. Or, if you want to be fast & loose about it, just roll d100– if you get a 1 or 2%, you have Psionic ability! Otherwise:

Ability Score	% for Cha	% for Int	% for Wis
15	1.5 %	1 %	0.5 %
16	3 %	2 %	1 %
17	4.5 %	3 %	1.5 %
18	6 %	4 %	2 %

If you are psionic… lucky you! You get some extra powers to fiddle with– check in with me for details at the first session.

The Premise

Now that you’ve got a character made, here’s the set-up for the first session…

You’ve seen The Matrix, right? You know that part where a confused, goo-covered Neo wakes up in a pod, hooked up to some weird sci-fi machinery? That’s just happened to you. Well, maybe not a Matrix pod precisely, but some kind of busted-open cylinder storage thing. Coughing and sputtering, you struggle to your feet, and take in your surroundings. The floor tilts at a strange angle; the room seems to be crooked by about 10 degrees, which only adds to the disorientation you feel in this windowless space. The lighting is dim, flashing red intermittently, and a light smoke lingers in the air. Everything seems to be made of some kind of metal? And it’s a mess– pod/cylinders like the one you’ve just climbed out of are scattered around the room, which seems to be a ransacked storage area of some sort– approximately 30 feet wide, and 80 feet long. There are others here too, like you, climbing out of broken pods, gasping for air, and climbing to their feet. They are strangers to you, but at least recognizable as fellow people, unlike the unusual body you notice lying partially crushed by one of the containers.

Slender, with grey skin, and bulbous, unblinking eyes, you know this creature to be alien to your world. You cannot remember why, but you do not like this creature… your captor? You cannot remember details beyond dim memories of being restrained, of horror, and of rage. Whatever it was, it’s clearly dead now, a fact which brings you some small sliver of satisfaction. Your companions begin to rummage through the containers and toppled shelving of the room, salvaging equipment, donning clothing, and arming themselves. You begin to do likewise. It seems opportunity has struck– you are free, after how long? And where are you?

Your character is one of a small gang of amnesiacs (your fellow players) who were apparently abducted by aliens. You grab some gear and weapons (the randomly acquired equipment from character creation), and now… we play to find out!

(If you’d like to sign-up, but don’t know how to contact me, click here [Edit: link disabled, as campaign term has concluded… for now!])