Character Generation

[pessimisthalfling]

Vociferous Bastard From Innsmouth

Class: Specialist
Prime Req: Dexterity
Level: 1
Colour and Gender: Green Man
Age: 25
Alignment: Neutral
Psionic Ability: No

Skills:
Stealth (2 in 6)
Tinker (3 in 6)
Search (3 in 6)


Background:
Other folks coins and items always seem to favor The Vociferous Bastard From Innsmouth's purse over that of their legitimate owner. He uses quick hands and a smooth tongue to acquire items for himself and others. The Vociferous Bastard From Innsmouth was employed by a Sorcerer who paid him to acquire items for an enigmatic experiment. The Vociferous Bastard left Innsmouth with much haste when he began suspecting that his employer intended to offer him as a sacrifice after the last of the items and trinkets was delivered.


Strength: 13
Intelligence: 9
Wisdom: 13
Dexterity: 15
Constitution: 15
Charisma: 12

Hit Dice: 1 ( +1 due to Con; Men & Magic)

AC: Unarmored

+1 to Missile Attacks

Items:
Specialist Tools
Light Crossbow
Minor Weapon (Dagger)
Backpack
bedroll
clothing, normal
cookpots
lantern
rope 50'
Crowbar

7 SP

[Mushgnome]

pessemisthalfling I see you have invested your 6 in Dexterity, a wise choice! You'll receive a +1 bonus to hit with missile weapons. (And a +1 to hit points for high Con, as you note.)

One quirk of the Specialist class is that you may choose your own Prime Requisite. You have both Dex and Con of 15, either of these would grant +10% to earned XP. The decision will affect the "flavor" of your PC: a Dex-themed specialist would be nimble and sneaky, while a Con-themed specialist would be rugged and pragmatic. Your call!

I hereby "gift" you 1 additional skill point to invest in the skill of your choice, representing some aspect of your PC's background.

You may post your finished PC (I love the concept!) in the Character Sheets thread, and jump right in to the game.

[Deleted]

Apothecaria, female purple Witch (apprentice)

Str: 16
Int: 14
Wis: 6 11
Dex: 8
Con: 10
Cha: 14
Starting cash: ( 6 + 5 + 2 ) = 130sp

Dinosaur: "Grekk" the Dracula Dinosaur referenced here: www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/03/dracula-dinosaur-pegomastax-africanus-video_n_1936167.html

Armor: Leather (are prices reduced to silver, too?)
Weapons: Spear, Dagger, Sling
Other: Pouch (filled with misc. herbs and mushrooms that serve as normal rations), Waterskin, Whistle (for calling Grekk)

Appearance: All body hair is absent, due to use of herbal depilatories. Face and visible skin modified by crudely performed ritual scarification. The herbs and plants she carries in her pouch give her an earthy aroma.

Elixirs Known: Heal, Haste, Slow (a powder), Purify Food & Water (a powder).

Other Skills: bushcraft, pottery

[Mushgnome]

I love your character concept, Cameron, and I think she will fit right into the wacky world of Chainmail Carcosa!

For your dinosaur Grekk, are you picturing a life-size version like a familiar/pet, or a gigantic version you can ride as a mount? Either is OK with me.

As regards your starting equipment, please use the lists contained here: www.lotfp.com/RPG/uploads/downloads/GrindhouseRulesMagicFree.zip

The prices are indeed scaled down so that 1sp is worth approximately the same as 1gp in "classic" D&D. Gold is fabulously valuable in Chainmail Carcosa such that 1gp is worth 50sp and 500cp!

Many items list both a "city" and "rural" cost. For character-generation purposes, you may use whichever price is most favorable.

[purple]Apothecaria[/purple] begins play with 5 loyal potter's apprentices. These are normal zero-level humans and may be of either sex and of any color (though it should be noted few communities in Carcosa are not segregated by color). They are equipped with commoners clothes, daggers and slings, and divided between them, they carry the tools to set up a portable pottery studio. Any additional arms or equipment for these henchmen can be purchased out of Apothecaria's starting funds.

I will introduce Apothecaria into the game sometime in the next day or two, once the final details are settled. Welcome on board! Keep an eye on this thread: odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=muchgnome&action=display&thread=7914

[Deleted]

Grekk is more of a pet, it is an omnivore and eats mushrooms, seemingly able to detect which are poisonous and which are not. Thus, it aids Apothecaria in finding food for herself.

The potter's apprentices are four purple humans, two of either sex; and one red woman.

[Mushgnome]

How's this look?

Grekk (small Pegomastax Carcosicus): AC 7, move 15", HD 9d4, attacks/defends as: Lycanthrope-1 (fangs and quills), special: detect poison at will

[Deleted]

Looks good MG!

Further notes, the purple apprentices are pretty gregarious and don't seem to have the reservations most colours do about mixing with other humans. The red, Bast, on the other hand is surly, cantankerous, and about as approachable as a rabid dog. She doesn't keep to herself, but she rarely adds to a conversation or even speak much at all ... if you get two words put together out of her you've accomplished a great deal.

All apprentices carry a week of rations of various sorts (mushrooms, fresh and dried meats/veggies, etc.). All carry backpacks.

[Mushgnome]

Once you've finalized Apothecaria's equipment purchases, please copy her stats (as well as her dino & henchmen) to the Character Sheets thread: odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=muchgnome&action=display&thread=5614

Then I will insert you into the game at an opportune moment in the plot. Welcome and good luck!

[Mushgnome]

Hi, a bit of history about the campaign for the new players... I like to describe our current state of affairs as "Lamentations of the Flame Princess is the Player's Handbook, Chainmail is the combat engine, and Carcosa is the DMG/Monster Manual."

Our current "big 3" classes are:
1. Fighter (LotFP with Chainmail combat mechanics)
2. Sorcerer (Carcosa, exactly the same as Fighters except they need 50% more xp to level and have the ability to learn Sorcerous Rituals: costly rites of conjuring, binding, and banishing that usually involve human sacrifice)
3. Specialist (LotFP thief/rogue/bard/adventurer/scoundrel/healer/skill-monkey)

Originally we used the 1974 edition of OD&D Men & Magic to fill in gaps in the rules not covered by Chainmail or Carcosa. But my concern was that OD&D is out of print so I wanted to choose a rules system with a free legal download. About that time, Geoffrey (writer of Carcosa) teamed up with Lamentations so it was a no brainer!

Here is a link to the free Lamentations of the Flame Princess: www.lotfp.com/RPG/uploads/downloads/GrindhouseRulesMagicFree.zip

Very important to note that we are only "cherry picking" a few rules from LotFP to fill in the gaps of things neither Chainmail nor Carcosa provide. These include: Fighter and Specialist class, equipment lists, the skill system, hireling prices, etc.

Also important to note we use a "silver standard" currency where 1gp = 50sp = 500sp and 1sp is roughly the buying power of 1gp in D&D.

If you don't own a copy of Chainmail or Carcosa it's no sweat. What I will do is the next combat we run, I will "play with the cards face up on the table" and talk you through the combat system for the benefit of the newbies.

[Mushgnome]

Q: Does your campaign have any defined deities gods/goddesses etc...?

A: I prefer the word "entity" to "diety" but yes, we do have a defined list. The "greater entities" of the campaign are the Cthulhu Mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft. If you google "cthulhu mythos" then you can research Azathoth, Hastur, Shub-Niggurath, etc.

Then there is a second "tier" of entities from the Carcosa rulebook. These have evocative names like The Crawling God, The Inky Crawler, The Putrescent Stench, and it is assumed there are an infinite number of such entities beyond those described in the book.

The greater Cthulhu entities range as high as 60 hit dice, and no rules for interacting with them are given in the book, on the assumption doing so would be an entire adventure/story arc in and of itself. The lesser Carcosan entities are in the 10 to 20 HD range and can be conjured, bound, banished, invoked, tormented, or imprisoned by a Sorcerer with the correct ritual formula, components, and sacrifices at the right place and time.

If you play a sorcerer, I will randomly assign 1 known ritual from the Carcosa book. If you want to regard the diety controlled by that ritual as "your god" that would be the obvious choice in my opinion.

A: I'm also curious some of the benefits of higher or lower stats?

This is a good question, this is one area where we DON'T use the LotFP rules (which are similar to the BECMI -3/+3 bell curve). Rather, we are sticking with the out of print rules from OD&D Men and Magic, modified for Chainmail Carcosa, which I'll quickly summarize:

Strength: prime requisite for fighters.
Intelligence: prime requisite for sorcerers. 1 bonus language for each point Int over 10.
Wisdom: a rare commodity in Carcosa
Dexterity: -1 penalty to missile fire for a score of 3-8 or +1 to hit with missile for 13-18
Constitution: 3-6 results in -1 hp/HD; 15-18 in +1hp/HD and also determines system shock survival
Charisma: Determines henchmen and loyalty (see table in LotFP)

note: Specialists may choose their own prime requisite to reflect their chosen specialization.

[Mushgnome]

Skill System

We're using the skill system from Lamentations of the Flame Princess. If you want to be a "skill monkey" then you should choose the Specialist class.

As a house rule, I'll give all non-Specialist PC's 1 skill point plus 1 point at levels 2, 4, 6, etc. so you can customize your PCs a little bit.

Here is the list of skills to choose from:

Architeture
Bushcraft
Climb
Open Doors
Search
Sleight of Hand
Stealth
Tinker

[kipper]

Oh, in that case do the newly-leveled 4th level heroes get a new skill point? If so, Breath will take Languages again, bringing her up to 4-in-6.

[Mushgnome]

Nov 14, 2012 12:33:10 GMT -6 kipper said:

Oh, in that case do the newly-leveled 4th level heroes get a new skill point? If so, Breath will take Languages again, bringing her up to 4-in-6.

Sure, why not!

[ehiker133]

Shade increases his Sense Motive skill, if I haven't already indicated otherwise...

[Mushgnome]

sirravd here are your numbers:

Str ( 6 + 5 + 2 ) = 13
Int ( 1 + 1 + 3 ) = 5
Wis ( 4 + 3 + 4 ) = 11
Dex ( 4 + 3 + 1 ) = 8
Con ( 1 + 2 + 3 ) = 6
Cha ( 2 + 4 + 6 ) = 12
Silver Pieces ( 3 + 2 + 2 ) = 70sp

You may swap any 1 die of your choice to a 6.

[Deleted]

I'll make Int into a 10.

[Deleted]

The Preservation of Humanity
Str 13
Int 10
Wis 11
Dex 8
Con 6
Cha 12
sp 38, cp 5
Skill point is in Climb
AL L
Equipment: Dog, mancatcher, blowgun, backpack, 1 week's worth of dog food

[Mushgnome]

Nice work, sirravd. The name is perfect for the setting.

A few questions for you:

Character class? (choices are: fighter, sorcerer, specialist)
Skin color? (black, blue, brown, green, orange, purple, red, white, yellow, bone, dolm, jale, or ulfire)
Age? Gender? Any distinguishing features/traits (or do you prefer to let that emerge through actual play)?

There are no "dogs" as we know them in Carcosa. So please describe some kind of loyal animal companion, with the same size and stats as a dog, appropriate to the setting, perhaps some kind of reptile, insect, or tentacle-thing.

Last but not least, your Charisma of 12 entitles you to 4 henchmen. These are normal zero-level men with no special abilities or equipment other than what you provide for them. Decide whether they are the same color/race as you, or a different color (in which case they might be slaves, servants, or mercenaries). You can give them names and personalities, or just have them be nameless meatshields and cannon fodder.

[Deleted]

Sorry––
Jale Fighting-man, Male, age 27. PoH is a simple, honest and courageous man who wishes the best for humans (especially for Jale ones) and absolutely despises sorcerers––even lawful ones.

His animal companion is a bipedal ant, two feet tall, called Wizard-killer.

His 4 henchmen are apprentices to a sorcerer whom he slew. They themselves did not learn any sorcerous rituals, though they have some knowledge of the discipline as a whole. They are all Jale men. Unsurprisingly, PoH despises his henchmen, has little regard for their safety, and abuses them constantly.

[Mushgnome]

Oh man, you are going to fit right in!

Please copy your completed character sheet to this thread:

odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=muchgnome&action=display&thread=5614

I will work you into the game shortly. The party is exploring a chain of islands, so I think I'll go with the "adrift in a lifeboat" scenario to introduce PoH and his henchmen. Sound good?