|
|
Post by eaterofkittens on Jul 30, 2014 0:08:13 GMT -6
It's easy for me to imagine burning wastes and strange ruins, freakish abominations and so on, but something that prevents me from playing a game set there is a lack of a sense of the people.
What I know is that they come in crayola colors and a few non standard ones, they generally live like scavenger savages, nomads and warlords. There are sorcerers and psions who may not have enough contact to form individual cultures.
If any of you have made some characters set here, good and bad guys, help me imagine a conversation with the people.
I wonder about naming conventions.
"My son's name is Tantalizer of the Utmost. When he completes his rite of passage by riding a pterodactyl, we'll figure out what he tantalizes exactly..."
About government. Rule by the eldest? By the best fighter? Biggest mutated head?
I imagine a clan gathered round a fire, the light casting dancing shadows in a ring around it. Storytellers recount the oral history of their people, of battles and their heroes, of the snakemen and their terrible machines, and of things so mysterious and frightening, they warn every new generation. "Avoid the glowing blobs that float the swamps at night."
Are women equal to men or traded like herd animals? Are there wise sages who, because they are still humans, have an affection for and insatiable curiosity about the natural world? There must be.
I want a table for scars and body piercings. "...then I woke up and I was covered in carnivorous slugs. That's how I got these markings."
|
|
|
|
Post by burningtorso on Jul 30, 2014 10:43:37 GMT -6
I had an assortment of body mods features built in to my character creator program. I could try to extract out the details sometime if there is interest. Most are common ones, but had a few crazy ones.
|
|
|
|
Post by eaterofkittens on Jul 30, 2014 12:57:53 GMT -6
Most characters are merely names of leaders of populations, usually chromatically segregated. I'm looking to learn the content of character beyond colour of complexion. Attachments:
|
|
benno
Level 1 Medium
Posts: 23 
|
Post by benno on Jul 30, 2014 23:36:12 GMT -6
I think it really depends on your interpretation of Carcosa. What sort of themes do you concentrate on? For example, if you played up the horror then slavery, brutal patriarchy, and a divinely apocalyptic tone might colour the personalities you would meet. Perhaps there is a tribe or citadel which treat women like cattle due to a Cassandra-esque character. She was singled out for sacrifice because one of the gods fancied her but she tricked the sorcerer-priests into sacrificing her twin-sister. Since then, she has been cursed with madness, wandering the wastes of Carcosa brining doom prophecies and bad omens upon anybody that listens to her words. As a result, no woman from the tribe or citadel can be trusted. There could be an interesting conflict, with the women of that tribe breaking off and forming an anrcho-feminst tribe, conducting constant raids to free women from their abject slavery.
if your Carcosa is lighter in tone, there are many picaresque characters to draw from. For example, maybe there is a Quixotic fellow roaming around on a raptor. A laser-rifle slung over his shoulder as his mind flows in and out of reality. In one meeting he could have wise words to say about the past and future of the planet, the next he's playing cowboys and indians with a dust-storm.
To me, the most interesting aspect of a campaign like Carcosa is the nature of madness. If you lived in a finite time-line, how would you handle it? Vance does this a little bit in his Dying Earth stories. I think in order to really get into the head of a Carcosian, you're probably better off thinking about how you want to interpret it and then extrapolate some interesting conflicts.
|
|
|
|
Post by eaterofkittens on Jul 31, 2014 0:49:41 GMT -6
What I want from Carcosa
1. A story that does not resemble King Arthur or Lord of the Rings.
2. A world that is gross and startling.
Beyond that, I think Garcia's is an opportunity to play someone who struggles against a hostile environment filled with predators and humanity struggling to civilized and reclaim some control over their destiny.
Human sacrifice was used to eliminate the unuseful (criminals, drunks, the indolent, the weak) and the inconvenient. (Illigitimate son's, rabble rousers, people who point out corruption among the powerful)
For many, the neighbourhood sarlac is a useful tool for keeping people well behaved and productive.
Sword and Sorcery is about exploration and being the deadliest very often.
Sword and Planet is like that but with Ray guns and robots.
Horror is about confronting the unknown and distortion of the familiar.
|
|
benno
Level 1 Medium
Posts: 23
|
Post by benno on Jul 31, 2014 5:08:25 GMT -6
What I want from Carcosa 1. A story that does not resemble King Arthur or Lord of the Rings. 2. A world that is gross and startling. Beyond that, I think Garcia's is an opportunity to play someone who struggles against a hostile environment filled with predators and humanity struggling to civilized and reclaim some control over their destiny. Human sacrifice was used to eliminate the unuseful (criminals, drunks, the indolent, the weak) and the inconvenient. (Illigitimate son's, rabble rousers, people who point out corruption among the powerful) For many, the neighbourhood sarlac is a useful tool for keeping people well behaved and productive. Sword and Sorcery is about exploration and being the deadliest very often. Sword and Planet is like that but with Ray guns and robots. Horror is about confronting the unknown and distortion of the familiar. In that light, maybe an interesting aspect to look at is hope. Personality wise, prophets would probably be everywhere. Borgesian Al-Muqanna, and John of Leiden types, I would assume. Asa Hawks is another character I could see wandering around selling hope. I'm not sure if this is helping at all but this is how I develop NPCs. I think that's a fairly flat way to look at human sacrifice. The Aztecs believed that sacrifice would keep the world turning. Rene Girard theorises sacrifice flows from competing metaphysical desires. Scapegoating has some interesting explanations to inter-ethnic violence under sociological theories. There are a lot of views out there, I would utilise all of them in order to keep groups and individual NPCs fresh. |
|
|
|
Post by crusssdaddy on Jul 31, 2014 14:14:43 GMT -6
play someone who struggles against a hostile environment filled with predators and humanity struggling to civilized and reclaim some control over their destiny. I agree that the PCs are agents of resistance and perhaps even change, but I view the overwhelming majority of Carcosan humanity as utterly alien and savage. Humanity at large is powerless against the forces arrayed against it and has ceded control of destiny in exchange for simple, day-to-day survival. Their motives and morality would appear to us -- or visitors from Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, or even Dark Sun -- as incomprehensible, arbitrary, conflicting, bizarre, frightening. Humanity does not struggle to reclaim civilization, because the concept is utterly unknown. The only valid moral stance is one that allows survival, the requirements for which could change at any moment. I envision the PCs as evolved into a mindset that understands there are possibilities beyond mere survival and that there are avenues to control destiny, or escape Carcosa to more civilized (or controllable) surroundings. This may arise from exposure to high technology, sorcerous learning, knowledge of predecessor races, etc. But the PCs understand they are different from the rest of humanity. Accordingly, PCs would never expect a warm reception from the typical village or citadel or castle, just as we wouldn't expect to be welcome in a pride of lions. PCs might wait for night to enter a village and steal what they need. They might intimidate with a show of force. They might, after a very careful and controlled first contact, find a way to make a limited exchange of goods and services. But they're not going to find a "home base" like Hommlet, unless they somehow pacify the community and install themselves as leaders. So, for me, having a clear delineation between the PCs and the rest of humanity is key to running the setting as written. Geoffrey's example in the LotFP edition is of the Skull Island denizens, who would be very difficult to roleplay by virtue of their savagery and alien mindset. |
|
|
|
Post by eaterofkittens on Jul 31, 2014 15:25:41 GMT -6
People need a sense of control to function. People personify weather and volcanoes because cataclysm, beyond death and destruction, makes clear that we are not in charge.
I imagine this would intensify in Carcosa where humans are lesser than most of the beasts. We ride the beasts, we serve the best monster (our monster is the best monster for the same reason that ours is the cutest puppy) and we will be the masters of the universe. That's the human mind set. If you're not cracking the whip keep your head down.
There will be fundamentalists who feel they are driving populations back into a golden age from which they have fallen while prophets and visionaries can feel a change coming in the power structure. The true masters will take us from these pretenders. The poor will hold the wealth and the scattered will be made one and the victims will be avenged.
Carcosa will increase the number of wishes and perhaps provide novel avenues of fulfilment.
The names are a manifestation of hope. The Resplendent Vigilance of the High Places is a name given to someone you have high hopes for.
Compare that with the steampunk existence where people are moving from technological renaissance to industrial enlightenment and everyone thinks they're an inventor. The blimp and submersible means anyone can be an explorer. And if we can just scrap together enough phlebotinum to show people how my idea works, I can change the world.
Here in Carcosa, we can feel that same wanderlust. If we can just find enough of these blue gourds to make it through this desert, maybe we could become master warriors.
Or if we can find more power armour, and more power, we can smite the terrible thing that stupid sorcerer conjured into existence.
|
|
|
|
Post by Red Baron on Jul 31, 2014 17:13:45 GMT -6
What I want from Carcosa 1. A story that does not resemble King Arthur or Lord of the Rings. 2. A world that is gross and startling. King Arthur is a pretty gross and startling dude. He continually solves his problems by hiring a bunch of mercenaries, surrounding his enemies until they all starve to death, and then burning their settlements to the ground. |
|
|
|
Post by eaterofkittens on Jul 31, 2014 17:35:54 GMT -6
A siege is pretty hardcore. A siege with combat-amoebae crawling up the walls is better. And dropping brainsucking starfish creatures on peoples heads is good. Boiling oil that turns people into protoplasm and rioting limbs.
|
|
benno
Level 1 Medium
Posts: 23
|
Post by benno on Aug 17, 2014 19:16:15 GMT -6
I came across another idea that I think would be good to steal. I rarely read anything new these days but I came across the comic Orc Stain. The Orcs in that comic aren't buried with names unless they have "earned" it. I think a Carcosanian landscape littered with various mausoleums of "named" heroes and villains would provide great flavour and endless dungeons. My main thought in regards to this thread was that it would provide an alternative PC motivation besides survival. If you manage to become notorious enough then you get immortalised in a mausoleum with your name on the facade.
|
|
|
|
Post by tkdco2 on Aug 17, 2014 21:17:42 GMT -6
One idea I've had is that the fancy names the village chiefs have are actually hereditary titles. While succession may not necessarily go from parent to child, the next person who rules a certain village will take on that title. There may be small changes to reflect gender differences.
Other villagers have their own personal names.
|
|
