Post by Mushgnome on Apr 14, 2011 9:29:24 GMT -6
Please post your character ideas and related rules questions in this thread. (You can PM me if you want to keep something about your PC a secret, however don't go overboard with the paranoia because I don't want this turning into a "player vs. player" game)
Since some of you don't own the Carcosa rulebook, here is a brief summary of the rules you'll need to create your PC:
CLASSES
There are two character classes: Fighting men and Sorcerers.
2012 update: There are now three classes: Fighting-man, Sorcerer, and Specialist.
Fighting men are exactly as described inMen & Magic Lamentations of the Flame Princess, except we will use Chainmail rules in place of the D&D "alternate combat system."
Sorcerers have the same fighting ability and hit dice as fighting men. Their prime requisite is intelligence. They need more XP than fighting men (3,000 for 2nd level) and have better saving throws vs. magic. Sorcerers can learn and perform rituals: elaborate and dangerous formulae to banish, conjure, invoke, bind, imprison, or torment a specific mythos entity. Most rituals (except for those of banishment) require human sacrifice. House rule: Sorcerers begin the game knowing 1 randomly determined ritual; for lawful sorcerers this first ritual will be limited to the banishment category.
Specialists are described in Lamentations of the Flame Princess. They have a flexible d6-based skill point system allowing them to fill various roles in the thief/rogue/expert/bard/assassin niche.
RACES
There are 13 races of Man, distinguished by skin color. Each of the races has its own customs and history, and the races cannot interbreed. I’ve made a random suggestion for each of you, but if you'd prefer to be a different color, feel free to switch. There are nine "normal" colors: black, blue, brown, green, orange, purple, red, white, and yellow, plus three alien colors not found on Earth: dolm, jale, and ulfire. Then there are the Bone Men; their skin and flesh are see-through so they look like walking skeletons. Bone Men are shunned by the other races, so they usually wear a veil or hood when traveling beyond their own borders.
ALIGNMENT
Purely a measure of one's attitude toward the Great Old Ones. Lawful characters oppose them, Neutral characters stay out of their way, and Chaotic characters worship or serve them. Nothing else matters; for example a Lawful character might be a back-stabbing blackguard, while his Chaotic comrade is a delightful chap who just happens to think Cthulhu is groovy.
PSIONICS
PCs with 15+ Int, Wis, or Cha have a small % chance of being psionic. These powers are unpredictable and randomly re-rolled each day.
ABILITIES
3d6 in order, rolled by the DM. You may swap any single die to a 6, for example if you roll 1, 3, 5 for Strength you may change the 1 to 6 for a total of 14 instead of 9.
I haven't yet figured out how bonuses/penalties for exceptional abilities will carry over to the Chainmail system (if at all). I'm open to suggestions.
EQUIPMENT
2012 update: the standard unit of currency is now the silver piece, and we use the price/equipment lists from the freely-available LotFP Grindhouse edition.
30-180 gp starting gold (rolled by the DM). Price list as Men & Magic except for horses (which do not exist) and belladonna, garlic, holy symbols, holy water, or wolvesbane (which might exist but have no special effect against the creatures of Carcosa). If you have an idea for an item not listed, ask me!
AGE
Choose a reasonable starting age. It is important to keep track of age because sorcerers who perform a ritual (other than banishment) must save vs. spells or suffer unnatural aging. Unnatural aging has no bad effect in the game, except that sorcerers who age beyond their natural lifespan start to turn into creepy mummies.
GENDER
The term "man" (as in "fighting man") is gender-neutral. Male and female adventurers are equally common overall, though the ratio may vary by culture.
APPEARANCE
Carcosa is a strange place, so if you want to be 7 feet tall or have 6 fingers on each hand, that's OK with me. Also feel free to describe your equipment in unusual design or material, for example leather armor could be the hide of a strange desert beast.
NAMES
Carcosan names often take the form of titles or descriptive phrases rather than personal names. Examples: the Servant of the Master, the Mistress of Small Petals, the Peerless Will. However naming customs vary from culture to culture and race to race, for example some might have a secret name in addition to their public persona. So have fun with it.
Sample PC:
the Delectable Shade of the Cosmic Tree
Class: Sorcerer
Color and Gender: Orange Woman
Age: 47
Alignment: Neutral
Psionic Ability: None
The Delectable Shade of the Cosmic Tree is an astronomer among her people. Her life's work is to travel to the remote regions of the world to observe the heavenly bodies and calculate their size and distance using the sacred science of triangles. It is on one such journey many years ago that she and her Orange Man bodyguards vanished without a trace...
Strength: 10
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 11
Dexterity: 11
Constitution:13
Charisma: 10
Hit Dice: 1+1
Coin Purse: 1 gp
Equipment:
Black hooded robe
Leather armor
Shortbow
Quiver of 19 arrows
Spear
2 daggers
Leather backpack
Small silver mirror
Grooming kit
Lantern
2 flasks oil
2 skins wine
1 week dried fruit & nuts (iron rations)
Rituals Known:
The Ninth Tracing of the Measureless Void (Invoking): This five-hour ritual can be performed only in the buried ruins of the sanctum of a Snake-Man sorcerer. Within this old domicile is an 8’ diameter floating disk of utter blackness (a gateway to intergalactic space). This ritual is unusual in that during it the sorcerer is completely silent while she traces arcane patterns in the air with her fingertips. The sorcerer must have nine Orange Men as sacrifices. If the sorcerer is Orange, she must wear a black hooded robe or she will herself be taken into the void. Throughout the ritual an irresistible force will occasionally pull a sacrifice into the disk. After the last sacrifice is taken, the sorcerer will be able to peer into the disk and see and communicate with the weird entities beyond the galaxy.
Since some of you don't own the Carcosa rulebook, here is a brief summary of the rules you'll need to create your PC:
CLASSES
2012 update: There are now three classes: Fighting-man, Sorcerer, and Specialist.
Fighting men are exactly as described in
Sorcerers have the same fighting ability and hit dice as fighting men. Their prime requisite is intelligence. They need more XP than fighting men (3,000 for 2nd level) and have better saving throws vs. magic. Sorcerers can learn and perform rituals: elaborate and dangerous formulae to banish, conjure, invoke, bind, imprison, or torment a specific mythos entity. Most rituals (except for those of banishment) require human sacrifice. House rule: Sorcerers begin the game knowing 1 randomly determined ritual; for lawful sorcerers this first ritual will be limited to the banishment category.
Specialists are described in Lamentations of the Flame Princess. They have a flexible d6-based skill point system allowing them to fill various roles in the thief/rogue/expert/bard/assassin niche.
RACES
There are 13 races of Man, distinguished by skin color. Each of the races has its own customs and history, and the races cannot interbreed. I’ve made a random suggestion for each of you, but if you'd prefer to be a different color, feel free to switch. There are nine "normal" colors: black, blue, brown, green, orange, purple, red, white, and yellow, plus three alien colors not found on Earth: dolm, jale, and ulfire. Then there are the Bone Men; their skin and flesh are see-through so they look like walking skeletons. Bone Men are shunned by the other races, so they usually wear a veil or hood when traveling beyond their own borders.
ALIGNMENT
Purely a measure of one's attitude toward the Great Old Ones. Lawful characters oppose them, Neutral characters stay out of their way, and Chaotic characters worship or serve them. Nothing else matters; for example a Lawful character might be a back-stabbing blackguard, while his Chaotic comrade is a delightful chap who just happens to think Cthulhu is groovy.
PSIONICS
PCs with 15+ Int, Wis, or Cha have a small % chance of being psionic. These powers are unpredictable and randomly re-rolled each day.
ABILITIES
3d6 in order, rolled by the DM. You may swap any single die to a 6, for example if you roll 1, 3, 5 for Strength you may change the 1 to 6 for a total of 14 instead of 9.
I haven't yet figured out how bonuses/penalties for exceptional abilities will carry over to the Chainmail system (if at all). I'm open to suggestions.
EQUIPMENT
2012 update: the standard unit of currency is now the silver piece, and we use the price/equipment lists from the freely-available LotFP Grindhouse edition.
AGE
Choose a reasonable starting age. It is important to keep track of age because sorcerers who perform a ritual (other than banishment) must save vs. spells or suffer unnatural aging. Unnatural aging has no bad effect in the game, except that sorcerers who age beyond their natural lifespan start to turn into creepy mummies.
GENDER
The term "man" (as in "fighting man") is gender-neutral. Male and female adventurers are equally common overall, though the ratio may vary by culture.
APPEARANCE
Carcosa is a strange place, so if you want to be 7 feet tall or have 6 fingers on each hand, that's OK with me. Also feel free to describe your equipment in unusual design or material, for example leather armor could be the hide of a strange desert beast.
NAMES
Carcosan names often take the form of titles or descriptive phrases rather than personal names. Examples: the Servant of the Master, the Mistress of Small Petals, the Peerless Will. However naming customs vary from culture to culture and race to race, for example some might have a secret name in addition to their public persona. So have fun with it.
Sample PC:
the Delectable Shade of the Cosmic Tree
Class: Sorcerer
Color and Gender: Orange Woman
Age: 47
Alignment: Neutral
Psionic Ability: None
The Delectable Shade of the Cosmic Tree is an astronomer among her people. Her life's work is to travel to the remote regions of the world to observe the heavenly bodies and calculate their size and distance using the sacred science of triangles. It is on one such journey many years ago that she and her Orange Man bodyguards vanished without a trace...
Strength: 10
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 11
Dexterity: 11
Constitution:13
Charisma: 10
Hit Dice: 1+1
Coin Purse: 1 gp
Equipment:
Black hooded robe
Leather armor
Shortbow
Quiver of 19 arrows
Spear
2 daggers
Leather backpack
Small silver mirror
Grooming kit
Lantern
2 flasks oil
2 skins wine
1 week dried fruit & nuts (iron rations)
Rituals Known:
The Ninth Tracing of the Measureless Void (Invoking): This five-hour ritual can be performed only in the buried ruins of the sanctum of a Snake-Man sorcerer. Within this old domicile is an 8’ diameter floating disk of utter blackness (a gateway to intergalactic space). This ritual is unusual in that during it the sorcerer is completely silent while she traces arcane patterns in the air with her fingertips. The sorcerer must have nine Orange Men as sacrifices. If the sorcerer is Orange, she must wear a black hooded robe or she will herself be taken into the void. Throughout the ritual an irresistible force will occasionally pull a sacrifice into the disk. After the last sacrifice is taken, the sorcerer will be able to peer into the disk and see and communicate with the weird entities beyond the galaxy.
