CARCOSA available in 1st and Expurgated Editions

[geoffrey]

You can now buy Supplement V: CARCOSA in both its unchanged 1st Edition as well as in the Expurgated Edition (which includes no graphic violence). Go here to purchase the books and/or the PDFs: carcosa-geoffrey.blogspot.com/

For nearly three years I've been DMing a campaign set in the weird science-fantasy world of Carcosa. Initially I used for rules an AD&D/Gamma World hybrid, then I tried C&C, and currently I'm using the 1974 OD&D rules (which have been the easiest and most fun to use).

Here is a general overview of Carcosa from early 2006:
www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16221

A number of fellow gamers have asked me to publish something for Carcosa. For a long time I despaired of the task, since Carcosa exists in a most disorganized and frankly messy bunch of three-ring notebooks, as well as in my head. But I've finally done it. I've put together a Carcosa book that I'm calling:

Supplement V: CARCOSA

Supplement V: CARCOSA assumes you own the 1974 OD&D rules. It does NOT assume you own any of the first four OD&D supplements.

I'm holding the first copy of CARCOSA in my hands. It was all done by myself (except for the stapling, since I don't own a stapler powerful enough to go through all those pages). As such, it is the work of an amateur. It is not slick and polished. That said, I think it is a bit more polished than the old Judges Guild stuff, and I tried to make it of the same quality and style as the OD&D little brown books.

The CARCOSA book is 8.5" by 5.5", with 96 pages with 9-point Arial font. Here is the table of contents:

MEN & SORCERY
Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Character Alignment, Including Monsters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Levels and Number of Experience Points Necessary to Attain Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Saving Throw Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Psionics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Explanation of Psionic Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Dice Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Determining Type of Dice to Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Rolling Hit Dice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Rolling Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Getting Wounded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Healing Wounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Sorcerous Rituals Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Explanation of Sorcerous Rituals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

MONSTERS & TREASURES
Monster Reference Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Monster Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
Carcosa Campaign Map One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47-48
Sorcerous Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
Desert Lotus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Space Alien Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Random Robot Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Technological Artifacts of the Great Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Technological Artifacts of the Primordial Ones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

ADVENTURES IN THE UNDERWORLD AND WILDERNESS
Mutations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Carcosa Campaign Map One Hex Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

It sells for $9 (plus shipping and handling).

Here is the website where you can order the book: carcosa-geoffrey.blogspot.com/

I will be posting in this thread some descriptions of the various parts of the book, as well as a few samples from the book. I welcome any questions.

[thegreyelf]

Awesome! But shouldn't that read "Men & Magic?" .

How are you putting this out? Just as a PDF download or through someplace like Lulu.com?

[geoffrey]

Sept 26, 2008 16:47:45 GMT -6 thegreyelf said:

How are you putting this out? Just as a PDF download or through someplace like Lulu.com?

Neither. I'm printing it out on my own computer, paying a printer to staple it, and then I will mail it to those who purchase it. It looks a lot like the little brown D&D books.

[coffee]

Sounds very cool! I'm looking forward to it.

[philotomy]

This looks great. I'm looking forward to it.

[geoffrey]

In this thread I will try to "take a walk through the book", so to speak. I wouldn't want any buyer to get an unpleasant surprise: "This isn't what I was expecting at all!"

I plan to devote a post to each of the following topics:

1. the new character class: the sorcerer
2. an easy-to-use and easy-to-understand psionics system for D&D!
3. a brief note on how I use dice in Carcosa (a very optional section)
4. sorcery (quite distinct from standard D&D magic)
5. monsters
6. high-tech items and sorcerous items
7. the hex map and accompanying descriptions (very Wilderlands-ish in presentation)

I'll try to answer any questions, as well.

[blackbarn]

Can't wait to see this! I love your ideas, geoffrey, based on what you have revealed online. I especially like the sorcery stuff... that's how magic ought to work, in my mind.

[jrients]

I'm looking forward to this project. I hope it's the beginning of a long line of fanmade Supplement V's!

[geoffrey]

The Philosophy behind Supplement V: CARCOSA

Imagine a D&D referee in 1974 with no gaming products except for the 1974 D&D boxed set and a bunch of polyhedral dice. In 1974, no supplements nor any issues of The Strategic Review had been published yet.

Now imagine this referee sending in a bunch of the house rules of his campaign ("Carcosa") to Gary Gygax, and Gary sitting on the manuscript and instead publishing The Strategic Review, the four D&D supplements, and The Dragon. BUT...

Instead of Gods, Demigods and Heroes being the last D&D supplement, imagine that in late 1976 Gary decided to polish this Carcosa manuscript and publish it as Supplement V: CARCOSA.

THAT is what this book of mine is trying to achieve. I have attempted to make something that people can feel good about keeping alongside the first four supplements.


CARCOSA: Truly Based on the 1974 Rules

Supplement V has NOTHING in it from The Strategic Review, The Dragon, or any of the four supplements. It is a book of rules options to supplement and vary the 3 rulebooks in the 1974 boxed set. Even the choice of font (9-point Arial) imitates the look of the 3 LBBs rather than the different font used in the four supplements.

[geoffrey]

How Much of Everything Do I Get?

The only illustration is on the cover, and it was done by yours truly. When the (modest!) website is up next month, I'll put the cover of the book on the website. Like the first Traveller book, CARCOSA has no interior illustrations whatsoever. I'm not that great of a drawer, and I figured nobody would want to pay for my scribblings. (I went ahead and put a drawing on the cover since even a mediocre drawing is better than a featureless cover.)

The cover is tan cardstock that approximates the color of the 1974-1975 rulebooks and supplements. I couldn't find any cardstock with that distinctive texturing. Nevertheless, it gets the general feel right.

The 96 pages in manuscript have 1/2" margins all around. When assembled as a book, the inside and outside margins shrink to somewhat less than 1/2". The page numbers on the bottom margin pushed the bottom margin closer to 1".

The 96 pages break-down something like this:

1 title page

1 page of poetry by Robert W. Chambers

1 index page

2 pages describing the new class (sorcerer)

1 page describing the 13 races of men on Carcosa

1.5 pages describing alignment

1.5 pages describing the simple psionics system

3 pages describing how I use dice in my Carcosa game

2 pages listing the 96 sorcerous rituals described in the book

17.5 pages describing the 96 sorcerous rituals

18 pages describing the 48 monsters

1 page describing some of the varieties of the dreaded desert lotus

5.5 pages describing the high-tech items of the Space Aliens

2.5 pages devoted to the Random Robot Generator

3.5 pages describing 11 of the bizarre and powerful high-tech artifacts of the Great Race and of the Primordial Ones

1 page with a mutations chart

2 pages with an outdoor hex-map (about 160 miles by 218 miles)

24.5 pages of descriptions of encounter areas (400 of them!) on the hex-map

5 blank pages (two on the reverse of the map, two "Notes" pages, and one on the reverse of the title page)

[geoffrey]

Sept 26, 2008 19:23:26 GMT -6 jrients said:

I hope it's the beginning of a long line of fanmade Supplement V's!

I, too, would like to see a bunch of OD&D supplements made by fans. However, I'd like to see each of them with its own number rather than all of them being "Supplement V". I'd like to see supplements VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, etc.

[cadriel]

This sounds absolutely fantastic, and I want to get in line to buy one now. I'm of the firm belief that OD&D is best played with the best material culled from different sources, so a supplement that is in ready format should be a beautiful thing.

As far as numbering supplements, we should keep an unofficial count for people who want to release numbered supps to the fan community around here. The next supplement can be Supplement VI: YOUR CAMPAIGN HERE, and so on. Either that, or everyone can just release it as "Supplement: YOUR CAMPAIGN HERE".

In any case, very much looking forward to this. Can we get a picture of the cover maybe to further whet the interest?

[geoffrey]

Sept 27, 2008 7:18:56 GMT -6 cadriel said:

Can we get a picture of the cover maybe to further whet the interest?

I'll certainly have a picture of the cover on the website that will be up in October.

In the meantime, I'll ask my wife (who knows computers, scanners, printers, and all that sort of thing better than I do) if we can get a cover image on this thread.

[geoffrey]

Please note that the actual cover does NOT have all those weird horizontal lines. Those lines are just artifacts of the scanning process. I'll have to see if we can fix that for the website. The cover in real life is darker, too.

[Bard]

This is very cool! I can't wait!

[badger2305]

This sounds very neat, and I know I will want a copy. But - here's the thing - you might get a decent deal with a bunch of pre-orders, and have some printed at your local copy shop.

(And if you number them, they will become the first printing....god, I think like a collector - scratch that).

[cadriel]

Excellent, color me excited. My sincere hope is that you manage to start a decent trend with this effort, and Carcosa is the first in a long line of fan-published new material for OD&D.

[James Maliszewski]

Sept 26, 2008 19:23:26 GMT -6 jrients said:

I'm looking forward to this project. I hope it's the beginning of a long line of fanmade Supplement V's!

I think that's a very safe bet.

[geoffrey]

The Map

In the exact middle of Supplement V: CARCOSA (pp. 48-49) is the northwestern quadrant of the Carcosa map I use in my campaign. My campaign's map was inspired primarily by the original Blackmoor map published by Judges Guild back in 1977: It's 17" by 22", with each hex being 10 miles across.

Unfortunately, the whole thing simply couldn't fit into this one supplement. I therefore made the decision to publish only one-fourth (i. e., the northwestern quadrant) of my map in Supplement V: CARCOSA. I chose this quadrant since about 80% of my campaign has occurred in this quadrant (with 20% occuring in the SW quadrant, and the other two quadrants still being virgin territory).

The map in the book is 8.5" by 11" (including the margins) and entirely redrawn by myself to make it a lot neater and clearer. Because each hex is 10 miles across, that means the map in the book covers the same area as does any one of the 18 Wilderlands maps of Judges Guild.

The map can easily be removed from the book, since the back pages of it (pp. 47 and 50) were intentionally left blank for precisely that purpose.

The single biggest section of the book (24.5 pages) is devoted to brief descriptions of encounter areas on the map, in Judges Guild/Wilderlands style. The map has 400 hexes, and each and every hex has an entry. The hex descriptions range in size from a mere 2 words up to 12 lines of text. The descriptions are intended to A) be useful and B) be springboards for the referee's own imagination. I tried to give referees inspirational hooks and starting points rather than trying to impress by giving reams of superfluous details. After all, any referee conducting a campaign on the world of Carcosa will be doing so on HIS Carcosa, not on my own.

[geoffrey]

Character Classes in Carcosa

Let me reiterate that Supplement V: CARCOSA is based solely on the 1974 rules (no Strategic Review, supplements I through IV, or The Dragon). Hence, there are no paladins, thieves, illusionists, etc.

The 1974 rules have three character classes: fighting-men, clerics, and magic-users.

The world of Carcosa has a completely different "system" of magic (called "sorcery") than that presented in the 1974 rules. Thus Carcosa has no magic-users or clerics. Instead, they are replaced with a new class called sorcerers.

Carcosa therefore has two character classes: fighting-men and sorcerers.

Sorcerers are not namby-pampy physically. They are as tough as and fight as well as fighting-men. (The early Elric was a big influence here.) Sorcerers can do anything fighting-men can do, plus they can perform sorcerous rituals. Sorcerers therefore require more experience points to go up in level than do fighting-men.

Of course, your sorcerer doesn't HAVE to wear armor, wield a sword, or shoot a bow. He can be armorless and with only a dagger as a weapon if you so choose. (After all, in the original rules [and in Carcosa] a dagger does the exact same amount of damage as any other weapon: 1 die.)

My philosophy is that the two character classes of fighting-men and sorcerers cover ALL the bases for any type of character you could possibly want to play:

a warrior completely encased in armor
a barbarian in a loincloth
a fast-talking trickster
a righteous defender of the weak
a stealthy and sneaky footpad
or whatever

Mechanics aren't needed to do any of those things. A fighting-man or a sorcerer can be ANY of the above, or indeed anything you imagine. A weak and scrawny 8th-level fighter who likes to poison people's cups rather than risk melee? No problem!

In short, a fighting-man is a man who can be modelled after anything that a human can be in reality. A sorcerer is exactly the same, except that he can also perform sorcery. Some sorcerers are frightening warriors, some are weak scholars, some are sexy vixens, etc.

In short, having only two character classes is not a limitation at all. Quite the contrary.

[Melan]

Elegant cover art, just how it should be. I will definitely order a few copies.

[tank]

Wow. I cannot wait. If you want preorders, just let us know.

[geoffrey]

Sorcery

Carcosa is home to innumberable Cthulhoid horrors. You will recognize some: Cthulhu, Hastur, Shub-Niggurath, Shoggoths, etc. Others you won't: the Inky Crawler, the Desiccating Slime of the Silent Halls, the Weird God, the Deep Gibbering Madness, etc.

The above sorts of things are the locus of what sorcery can do. The sorcerer has NO "powers" like shooting fireballs, detecting your alignment, etc. Rather, sorcerers can perform the intricate and time-consuming rituals of sorcery. Each of these rituals accomplishes one of six things:

1. Banishing rituals make Cthulhoid entities run away.

2. Conjuring rituals summon Cthulhoid entities to the sorcerer's presence.

3. Invoking rituals contact Cthulhoid entities.

4. Binding rituals force Cthulhoid entities to obey the sorcerer.

5. Imprisoning rituals force Cthulhoid entities to remain indefinitely in a confined space.

6. Tormenting rituals cause unbearable pain to imprisoned Cthulhoid entities.

With the exception of the rituals of banishing, all the rituals require human sacrifice* and hours of time to perform. They also typically require difficult-to-acquire material components. In my home campaign the adventures often are based around the sorcerers' travels to find these material components.

It will be obvious that sorcerers are running a pretty big risk whenever they perform these sorcerous rituals. Imagine trying to bind an Old One who makes its saving throw. Fun for the DM!

As if all that isn't bad enough, sorcery often unnatually ages the sorcerer.

Taken all together, this "magic system" ensures that sorcery is used relatively rarely. This helps achieve that "Weird Tales" flavor. Plus, since sorcerers are as proficient and tough in combat as are fighting-men, the player of a sorcerer does not have grounds to complain that there is "nothing for his sorcerer to do". Remember that Carcosan sorcerers can do anything a fighting-man can do, plus perform sorcerous rituals.

For what it's worth, in my campaign the majority of sessions the PCs do not perform any sorcerous rituals. Sorcery is too difficult and too dangerous to practice willy-nilly.

I have tried to make the names of the sorcerous rituals, as well as their descriptions, flavorful and an inspiration to the referee's imagination. The referee is definitely encouraged to infuse a great deal of his own dark imaginings into Carcosan sorcery. What is printed in the book is the merest tip of the iceberg.


*The human sacrifice aspect of sorcery makes sorcery a very grisly thing. It's as horrific as the magic system in M. A. R. Barker's Book of Ebon Bindings. If any one is put-off by this sort of amoral cruelty and cold-bloodedness, Supplement V: CARCOSA probably won't be to your liking.

[greyharp]

I have a feeling that a copy is going to find a home here in Australia. ;D

[grodog]

So what day in October does Carcosa go on sale?

[korgoth]

This is going to be great! I can't wait to order this puppy.

[geoffrey]

Sept 29, 2008 21:31:57 GMT -6 grodog said:

So what day in October does Carcosa go on sale?

I'm not sure yet, but I'll let everyone know as soon as I know.

[geoffrey]

Psionics

Perhaps the most versatile section of Supplement V: CARCOSA is the 2-page section on psionics. The concept of psionics in A/D&D has always appealed to me, though I have never liked the rules given for it. The official psionics rules from the 1970s were heavy on book-keeping. I'm much too lazy of a Judge to put up with that.

Hence this system. The very fact that it's a mere 2 pages will tell you how easy it is to use not only in a Carcosa campaign, but in any campaign you wish to use it in.

Only a small percentage of characters have psionics. Those humans who do can use their psionic powers between 1 and 5 times per day (depending on the character's level).

At the beginning of each day, the Judge randomly determines which of the 8 psionic powers can be used by the psionic that day. (From 1-4 of the powers will be usable each day.) This means that a psionic's powers will be different from day to day. Such variability prevents a lucky person from being able to rely every day on the more powerful psionic powers. I'm thinking of the Gamma World mental mutations. A few of those are over-the-top, and can be used all the time by the player lucky enough to roll them.

Of course, having psionic abilities that change from day-to-day might not be "realistic", but then again psionics itself is not realistic. The point of the new psionics system is to have fun, not to be realistic.

[geoffrey]

Monsters

Of the 48 monsters described in Supplement V: CARCOSA, 17 will be basically recognizable to those familiar with Lovecraft and Derleth's Cthulhu Mythos. One such monster is the "spawn of Shub-Niggurath", which are typically unique creatures and as such have 15 tables on which the referee can roll to randomly generate the spawn. All 17 of these entites are affected by sorcery, but no rituals specific to them are given in Supplement V: CARCOSA. I hope to publish these rituals elsewehere.

23 of the monsters (2 of them based on other sources and renamed) are monsters that are affected by some of the 96 sorcerous rituals described in the book. These entities are weird and icky.

3 of the monsters are undead. They are wormy or encephalic rather than the traditional spirits, skulls, and bones. Note that nobody can turn undead on Carcosa!

The remaining 5 monsters don't fall into a group, and I'll merely list them here:

Green Ooze Pool
Lake Monsters
Giant Jungle Ants
Space Aliens
Species 23750

The above 48 monsters are merely a fraction of what can be encountered on Carcosa. For what it's worth, in my own Carcosa campaign, the two most commonly encountered adversaries are humans and the spawn of Shub-Niggurath.

[korgoth]

Sept 30, 2008 8:18:29 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

Sept 29, 2008 21:31:57 GMT -6 grodog said:

So what day in October does Carcosa go on sale?

I'm not sure yet, but I'll let everyone know as soon as I know.

Hey... October is tomorrow. Get crackin'!