To supplement the Supplement?

[korgoth]

Would anyone else like to see the other 3 (I suppose there are 3?) map sections? And a bit of detail about the eponymous city?

I would like to see the other map sections and hex descriptions because I don't find that the spartan presentation of information really limits my imagination... rather, it inspires my imagination. So I'm up for more inspiration on that front.

On the other hand, I'm torn regarding the eponymous city. On the one hand, I can see the reasoning for making it an enigma that is ultimately different for each Judge's campaign... thus the Carcosa of the individual Judge, both the city and the campaign itself, are reflections of that Judge's creativity. On the other hand, everything up to this point has been so creative that I doubt I would be disappointed by any modest revelations of the character of that important place.

Anyway, I'm just putting the thought out there... do people want more details? I would like the other maps and hex descriptions. I would be interested in seeing more monsters and rituals. I may or may not want some revelations about the city of Carcosa... perhaps some vague and enigmatic pronouncements would be in order?

[Deleted]

I wouldn't mind seeing the original as one example of how Carcosa might be further developed.

[greyharp]

Yes please Geoffrey. ;D

[geoffrey]

It is in fact the case that the map included in Supplement V: CARCOSA is only one-fourth of my map of my home Carcosa campaign. It is also the quarter of the map on which about 80% of the action has occurred in my campaign. The other 20% of the action has been in the quarter directly below the published map, and the other half of the map has remained thoroughly unexplored by the players thus far.

So truth to tell, I have more unpublished stuff in notebooks and such on the already-published map than I do on the 3 unpublished maps. I hope to someday publish the other three quarters of my campaign map, but it's not going to be in the near future. Sorry!

As for the city of Carcosa itself, no PC has ever been there yet. I therefore have only the barest sketches of the city. Suffice it to say here that the city of Carcosa is billions of years old. It is alien. No one is known to live there. The buildings are impervious to the elements. They are not in ruins. And a mystery surrounds the city. Rumors tell of great though horrific knowledge kept therein.

And if your PCs decide to explore the city of Carcosa, don't forget that Hastur is imprisoned in a crypt at the bottom of Lake Hali. Be very careful!

[blackbarn]

I was wondering the other day if we'd ever see fan-made stuff for Carcosa start to spring up, like maybe dungeon modules, NPCs or something like that. And Geoffrey, would you be ok with people doing that to share online? (I'm not volunteering or announcing by the way, just pondering!)

[korgoth]

Nov 13, 2008 22:37:49 GMT -6 blackbarn said:

I was wondering the other day if we'd ever see fan-made stuff for Carcosa start to spring up, like maybe dungeon modules, NPCs or something like that. And Geoffrey, would you be ok with people doing that to share online? (I'm not volunteering or announcing by the way, just pondering!)

Interesting idea....

[geoffrey]

Nov 13, 2008 22:37:49 GMT -6 blackbarn said:

I was wondering the other day if we'd ever see fan-made stuff for Carcosa start to spring up, like maybe dungeon modules, NPCs or something like that. And Geoffrey, would you be ok with people doing that to share online? (I'm not volunteering or announcing by the way, just pondering!)

A great, big YES. ;D

Everyone has my permission to write and publish (either for free or for profit) Carcosa materials. My only requirement is that you put on the front cover (or, for something without a cover, at the beginning of the article/module/whatever) the following text:


For use with Supplement V: CARCOSA by Geoffrey McKinney
Available here: carcosa-geoffrey.blogspot.com/


That's it! No licenses. No red tape. Nothing like that. Just the above two lines of text. I eagerly await to see what other people do with Carcosa.

[kesher]

Nov 12, 2008 18:03:01 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

As for the city of Carcosa itself, no PC has ever been there yet. I therefore have only the barest sketches of the city. Suffice it to say here that the city of Carcosa is billions of years old. It is alien. No one is known to live there. The buildings are impervious to the elements. They are not in ruins. And a mystery surrounds the city. Rumors tell of great though horrific knowledge kept therein.

And if your PCs decide to explore the city of Carcosa, don't forget that Hastur is imprisoned in a crypt at the bottom of Lake Hali. Be very careful!

That last admonishment is, truly, one of the greatest understatements of all-time!

I just have to say, I think it's pure oldskool that you can't publish anything more about Carcosa itself, simply because, in an ongoing, dynamic campaign, the players haven't been there yet.

That makes my heart warm.

[bluskreem]

I'd love to see the other maps, if only because of my love for deep ones (I'd love some more coastal areas.)

[Thangobrind]

Am I correct in assuming that a certain monarch with a penchant for wearing yellow garments resides in the city of Carcosa? Perhaps his major-domo is Lovecraft's High Priest Not To Be Described*:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Priest_Not_to_Be_Described

Curious: Is one of these as yet unpublished regions of your campaign map actually the Plateau of Leng?

*: What sort of relationship do you think Lovecraft was drawing between his High Priest and old Hastur the Unspeakable? Is the High Priest a Yellow Devotee of "Him Who Is Not to be Named"? The god himself, incarnated in humanoid form? Some fragment of old Unspeakable's alien consciousness invested with a material body?

Unspeakably Bored,

[geoffrey]

In my version of the city of Carcosa, no one lives there. It is an empty, alien city.

Of course, others' versions of Carcosa might be considerably different.

[Thangobrind]

Dec 26, 2008 15:24:56 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

In my version of the city of Carcosa, no one lives there. It is an empty, alien city.

Of course, others' versions of Carcosa might be considerably different.

Sort of a transplanted At the Mountains of Madness scenario then? Very cool.

[korgoth]

Dec 26, 2008 15:24:56 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

In my version of the city of Carcosa, no one lives there. It is an empty, alien city.

Of course, others' versions of Carcosa might be considerably different.

Hmmm... quite interesting!

I have thought about using an adaptation of John Tyne's stuff for the city itself, though I haven't decided if it is too far afield from the overall feel of Carcosa. The gears are still turning.

Also... I'm still planning on that review. But it's a meaty work!

[bluskreem]

Just thopugh i would bump this topic.

What would it take to get Geoffery to release some of the hidden bits of Carcosa? I would be the first in line to buy a Carcosa: Expanded supplement, but failing is there any chance of just getting a taste?

[Deleted]

Nov 27, 2009 11:44:40 GMT -6 bluskreem said:

I would be the first in line to buy a Carcosa: Expanded supplement, but failing is there any chance of just getting a taste?

Geoffrey replied to me, at the time of making the Grimoire, that the majority of action in his campaign had occurred in the map included with the supplement, and most of the rest in the map to the south. Because of this, none of the other maps are as fully realized as Map One and would take a lot of work to prepare them for publication.

You may wish to check out his "Fungoid Gardens of the Bone Sorcerer" that is available soon in PDF and not-quite-as-soon in print. In that module, McKinney details one of the hexes from Map One (from the Carcosa book) in great detail.

[littlewars]

I'm confused. Fungoid Gardens of the Bone Sorcerer appears in Fight On #4.

Are you saying there an expanded version coming out?

[geoffrey]

Nov 27, 2009 16:15:50 GMT -6 @dubeers said:

Geoffrey replied to me, at the time of making the Grimoire, that the majority of action in his campaign had occurred in the map included with the supplement, and most of the rest in the map to the south. Because of this, none of the other maps are as fully realized as Map One and would take a lot of work to prepare them for publication.

You may wish to check out his "Fungoid Gardens of the Bone Sorcerer" that is available soon in PDF and not-quite-as-soon in print. In that module, McKinney details one of the hexes from Map One (from the Carcosa book) in great detail.

Exactly so.

Future Carcosa releases will most probably be hex modules (along the order of the Fungoid Gardens of the Bone Sorcerer. The vast majority of my unpublished Carcosa stuff is located on the large-scale hex map included in Supplement V: CARCOSA. I just don't have nearly as much stuff on the other three quadrants of the large-scale map.

[geoffrey]

Nov 27, 2009 16:49:23 GMT -6 littlewars said:

I'm confused. Fungoid Gardens of the Bone Sorcerer appears in Fight On #4.

Are you saying there an expanded version coming out?

No, the module's text is fundamentally unchanged from its appearance in Fight On! #4. The selling points of its new publication are:

1. Tim Hartin redid my two maps, and it's a HUGE improvement over my hand-drawn things.

2. Kelvin Green's drawing of the dinosaur riders appears in FULL COLOR (whereas in Fight On! it is in black and white and poorly reproduced).

3. Cameron DuBeers did a bang-up job as editor, making the final product look very nice indeed.

4. Very handy 5.5" by 8.5" format--just right for putting in your OD&D box.

[littlewars]

Nov 27, 2009 17:12:52 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

2. Kelvin Green's drawing of the dinosaur riders appears in FULL COLOR (whereas in Fight On! it is in black and white and poorly reproduced).

That's great to hear. I'm very fond of that dino rider illo, and I remember seeing it somewhere in full color.

Being a full time graphics guy, it looks like it stems from being directly converted from color to greyscale. It's always best to recolor in greyscale mode, with none of the greys exceeding 50% - 60% value (max), else it gets muddy once printed.

Hope that helps anyone dealing with greyscale images.

[kelvingreen]

Nov 27, 2009 20:04:52 GMT -6 littlewars said:

Being a full time graphics guy, it looks like it stems from being directly converted from color to greyscale. It's always best to recolor in greyscale mode, with none of the greys exceeding 50% - 60% value (max), else it gets muddy once printed.

Hope that helps anyone dealing with greyscale images.

That is indeed almost exactly what I did (I do recall tinkering with the levels a bit, but evidently not enough!). And yes, that is helpful advice, thanks!

[jasmith]

Just caught wind of this. Is the Fungoid Gardens of the Bone Sorcerer pdf available for purchase, yet?

[littlewars]

It is available and it looks great!

See the post by Geoffrey: "Carcosa D&D module for low-level characters $2 PDF".