Complete: The Carcosan Grimoire

[Deleted]

Note: Submissions deadline is Monday May 11th.

Carcosan Grimoire (tentative title) is now a work in progress.

I've begun collating and formatting the material in preparation of layout. I'm searching the 'web in order to find fan-based material, plus I'm compiling an FAQ of Geoffrey's response to questions regarding his material (such as the excellent post regard the six spawn).

Needed:

• A nice bit of cover art
  
• Black & white interior art
  
• More contributions

Besides the material posted here and Rient's wonderful d30 table from his 'blog, I've a commitment from Geoffrey for an intro and possibly some additional material.

I'll be including the witch NPC from my module, plus I am doing some minor expansions of the psionics.

I need to repeat that this is a free work, so anything you contribute will be non-compensated, artwork included (though if you have something that blows me away and insist on payment I'll see what I can cough up). I should also state, for the sake of full disclosure, that I do intend to offer a print version of the book at cost through BHP, if they agree to publish it; at this point I have no such agreement from John/BHP.

So ... It is crunch time. Do you have some tidbit for Carcosa you're dying to see in print? Now is the time.

If you have only the bare bones of an idea, go ahead and submit it for work up, or post it here. You'll find a lot of creative talent here willing to give you a hand.

[Deleted]

By the way, no material will be published without the expressed consent of the author. This is my policy no matter the source of the material.

[snorri]

PM sent with more etnology tables (architecture)

[Deleted]

Apr 13, 2009 10:26:34 GMT -6 snorri said:

PM sent with more etnology tables (architecture)

Got it! Thank you.

[Deleted]

Over 12,500 words.

[Zulgyan]

I would love to see 2 or 3 shortish (2 to 6 pages) adventure locations!

[Deleted]

Deadline for submissions: Monday May 11th.

[Deleted]

Apr 13, 2009 17:21:12 GMT -6 Zulgyan said:

I would love to see 2 or 3 shortish (2 to 6 pages) adventure locations!

Not meaning to shill my new module but (ahem) my new module would serve as a nice base of operations for your Carcosa campaign.

[Deleted]

I've plenty of material for the booklet, but I seriously need some art. I have received none. If anyone has a piece of art they would make a nice cover, please let me know. Interior art I can do without but I would love to have something to put on the cover.

[Zulgyan]

Carcosa has no ilos yet it's one of the best things published in recent years. Maybe their is no problem keeping the tradition.

[arokh]

Yeah, I agree, no illustrations isn't a show stopper. If none come in, you should just go ahead without them.

I know that Carcosa is such an unusual setting that few pieces of clip art would be even remotely appropriate, but does anyone know of any free images that could work?

[Deleted]

Another, newer note: I've tracked down the font embedding problem. It was the font, not my layout program. I've changed one of the fonts used in the title, the image below has been changed to reflect the new look. This revision also includes two lines of data omitted from the table on page 47.

Note: the project is complete, and the image below has been updated to reflect the final version. If the file you've downloaded doesn't look like this picture, please e-mail me (the editor) at my screen name at gmail period com.

Here is a proposed cover for the PDF and print.

Geoffrey McKinney has tentatively agreed to write an intro but he wants to see the end product first. This is, of course, a prudent stipulation.

I've reused a piece of interior art from my module, I've written the artist and asked his permission. If he agrees, this image below should be close to what the final PDF has on it.

The work itself is coming along well. I held off releasing it until my Carcosa module "Obregon's Dishonor" was released, and so it has been. Look for the Grimoire to be out within the next week or so.

[geoffrey]

May 27, 2009 12:06:11 GMT -6 @dubeers said:

Geoffrey McKinney has tentatively agreed to write an intro but he wants to see the end product first. This is, of course, a prudent stipulation.

I'm certain that the contents of the Grimoire will be awesome. The only reason I want to read everything first is so my introduction will be well-informed. Please give me 7 days in which to both study the contents and to write the introduction. My life has been a bit busy lately.

I suspect my introduction will be the least-interesting thing about the book, so I suggest one of the following for the cover:

1. Totally dropping the words "featuring an introduction by Geoffrey McKinney the author of CARCOSA", or

2. Put those words in a smaller font, and slightly reword it to: "with an introduction by Geoffrey McKinney, author of CARCOSA". I think the word "featured" is too strong for the one part of the book that is most often either read last or skipped entirely.

In any case, this project is most promising, and the cover looks great! ;D

[Deleted]

Thanks for the advice, Geoffrey, I will take care of that right away.

[Deleted]

The work is nearing completion. I am currently formatting the last of three submissions. We're up to forty pages, I'm not sure how many more I'll need to finish the project, but not too many.

After I get the manuscript back from Geoffrey, I will release the PDF. Then I will submit the work to Brave Halfling Publishing to see if they would be willing to publish the book, at cost. This is merely for those who prefer a printout but don't want to print it themselves, I have no intention of making any money off the hard work of my fellow gamers.

[Deleted]

Okay. Layout is complete, with a final tally of 64 digest-sized pages. The file will initially be available in two formats: PDF reading and PDF printing. As I've already stated, I'll also explore print options through Brave Halfling. I'm guessing, based on similar works, the cost will be around 5 bucks (if BHP agrees to print it, I have no such agreement with them at this time). The only issue that may increase the cost of the book is size, 64 pages is a lot of paper. I won't be taking a cut on the book sales, so it will be "cost" plus whatever BHP needs for printing setup, handling, and shipping. I'm hoping nobody has an issue with BHP making a dollar or two for putting the Grimoire between two covers.

I'm doing the table of contents this morning, then forwarding the whole thing to Geoffrey, who will write an intro for the piece. The book is formatted similarly to "Supplement V: Carcosa", with 9pt Arial font in a single column, Castellar for part of the title. The "new" font, used for the word "Grimoire", is called Tape Loop. The cover art is by the amazing Andy "Atom" Taylor.

One last appeal: this is an amateur work and I have no problem with large amounts of interior "white space" but, if anyone has some original art that fits with the Carcosa theme, I would love to include it. I would especially like an original piece of art for the cover. Andy's work is beautiful, but that art already appears in my Carcosa module "Obregon's Dishonor" and I'd like something new.

[Deleted]

A draft copy of a formatted-for-reading PDF of The Carcosan Grimoire has been e-mailed to Geoffrey.

I'm starting a new sub-forum for submissions for a possible second Grimoire. If there is enough interest, I'll put together another PDF when we hit around 48-60 pages.

[Deleted]

I've received Geoffrey's introduction via e-mail. My plate is full today but I will add the intro to the manuscript tomorrow morning. At or before 1000 hours CDST a hyperlink to the YouSendIt download site will be posted here on this thread. Unless someone has some space available for a permanent download "home"?

At the same time, I will forward the PDF to Brave Halfling Publishing to see if they are interested in publishing the booklet. Please keep in mind BHP has a very tight schedule for the Summer and it may be some months before a hard-copy booklet is available (and that is if they actually agree to publish the thing). If they are not interested I might be convinced to self-publish, depending upon interest from the community.

This is a very useful work, all who contributed to the project should feel very proud of themselves. I'm hoping this is the first of many grimoires in support of Carcosa. Anyone interested in submitting work for the next volume should post in the already begun thread on this sub-forum; a list of guidelines can also be found in that thread.

[apeloverage]

I can host it on my site if you want.

[Deleted]

Jun 8, 2009 2:38:10 GMT -6 apeloverage said:

I can host it on my site if you want.

Sounds great! There are two files: one formatted for reading and the other for printing (less than 800 bytes each).

Where should I send them?

[Deleted]

The PDFs, by the way, are completed. As soon as I can get them to apeloverage they will be available for download. Thanks to everyone for their great work!

[Deleted]

While I'm working on a permanent home for the Grimoire, here is a temporary source:

Please note this link is good for seven days only, expiring around noon CDST on 15 JUN 09. YouSendIt is a reliable download service.

Reading: www.yousendit.com/download/MnFnc2ZGaTFRYStGa1E9PQ

Printing: www.yousendit.com/download/MnFnc2ZLa0QwMEhIRGc9PQ

[apeloverage]

@dubeers:
I'll download them myself, and upload them to my site as soon as I can. I'm in the middle of moving, so this might take a few days. I'll post here once they're up.

[greyharp]

Very nice. Thank you for putting this together Cameron.

[Deleted]

Thanks, apeloverage. Have an exalt for your contribution to the project.

[Deleted]

Jun 8, 2009 16:06:10 GMT -6 Greyharp said:

Very nice. Thank you for putting this together Cameron.

Thanks, GH!

[Deleted]

Everyone, please note ...

... I did a last minute edit, rearranging certain pages, of the manuscript and forget to update the "Table of Contents". In about 2 minutes I will be uploaded the corrected PDFs. If the TOC is important to you then please download the updated files. If not, then simply add "1" to all pages on the TOC past the Witch entry.

Links in the original download post are updated.

[Morandir]

I just finished a quick scan of this, and it looks great; there's a ton of stuff in here to inspire a DM, even if your game isn't set in Carcosa. Thanks for all the hard work!

Mor

[Deleted]

@ Morandir: on behalf of everyone who contributed to the Carcosan Grimoire, thank you.

[arokh]

Gorgeous book. The contents are amazing and, I think, a terrific expansion of the setting. Thanks to Cameron for taking the initiative to compile this and to all the contributors for their hard work and creativity!