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Post by javaapp on May 16, 2012 22:43:27 GMT -6
I have several short questions that I was hoping you would be willing to answer. Please assume that all the Carcosa-specific questions are about your Carcosa, as I know your encourage a liberal interpretation of your work in individual campaigns.
After the publishing of the Revised edition by LotFP, are you still allowing others to post (on a blog, website, or message board like this) expansion material for Carcosa?
When you mention Citadels, I assume you mean a walled city with a castle or fortress. Correct?
When you specify a castle, I assume you mean a fortress with fighting men only, plus some amount of support staff or peasantry, correct?
Are the numbers quoted for population armed fighting men or total population? Should we assume the number given x5 for total population?
I assume that most people farm (and eat) weird looking tubers, roots, ugly squashes, and such. I assumed that the elite (Fighting Men, Sorcerers, troops) eat more protein by way of giant insects, dinosaurs, and such. Correct?
Are there any centers approaching towns in number of inhabitants?
Is the Silken Conclave the closest thing to a nation on the map in the book?
I assume that there are roughly several levels of civilization among Men:
Primitives, who basically are cave men. They can make leather armor, spears, clubs and stone knives.
Nomads, who domesticate dinosaurs and other creatures as mounts, but have the technology of primitives, and who trade for or steal metal goods such as weapons.
Agriculturalists, who practice subsistence level agriculture, and who usually have an elite composed of armed footmen.
Are there any levels of civilization higher than this?
Are smiths who work metal rare? Should we expect them in any village of significant size?
I assume no one outside of a few mad sorcerers knows how to harness wind, water or steam to power anything.
I assume there are coins that are pounded out or minted. Are they snake-men relics or do large villages produce them?
Ditto for Gems and Jewelry.
Please excuse me if you feel you have answered any of the questions before. Any comment at all would be welcomed.
In fact, I welcome commentary from anyone about how you deal with these issues/questions in Carcosa campaigns
Thanks!
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Post by jimlotfp on May 17, 2012 0:27:51 GMT -6
After the publishing of the Revised edition by LotFP, are you still allowing others to post (on a blog, website, or message board like this) expansion material for Carcosa? People are already doing it. No problem. |
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Post by javaapp on May 17, 2012 9:50:53 GMT -6
Cool, thanks for the quick reply.
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Post by kesher on May 17, 2012 10:42:43 GMT -6
That's awesome. I'm stealing that.  |
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Post by geoffrey on May 17, 2012 11:41:46 GMT -6
After the publishing of the Revised edition by LotFP, are you still allowing others to post (on a blog, website, or message board like this) expansion material for Carcosa?
Yes, indeed. The more Carcosa material I see out there, the happier I am. I encourange people to make Carcosa material, both for free and for profit.
When you mention Citadels, I assume you mean a walled city with a castle or fortress. Correct?
When you specify a castle, I assume you mean a fortress with fighting men only, plus some amount of support staff or peasantry, correct?
I pretty much use the terms "citadel" and "castle" as synonyms. For example, there are some citadels with very small populations (such as the citadel in hex 2410 with only 31 men).
Are the numbers quoted for population armed fighting men or total population? Should we assume the number given x5 for total population?
That's total population. I assume that about 25% of a village's population are effective 0-level combatants. For example, the village in 1207 (population 240) would have about 60 0-level combatants, and about 180 people would be noncombatants.
I assume that most people farm (and eat) weird looking tubers, roots, ugly squashes, and such. I assumed that the elite (Fighting Men, Sorcerers, troops) eat more protein by way of giant insects, dinosaurs, and such. Correct?
Kind of. I assume that the men of Carcosa are to a large extent insectivores. That is, they eat large quantities of (normal-sized) insects. I assume that farmland on Carcosa is pretty rare, and what is there is pretty sad. Side note: I remember this photo book at my local library of people all over the world eating bugs. Lots of photos of smiling little girls munching on the most revolting-looking insects. Of course, I'm sure eating cow muscle seems just as revolting to many of those people eating bugs.
Are there any centers approaching towns in number of inhabitants?
Not really. The villages marked on the map are the major centers of population on the Carcosa map. Humans are just too powerless to form larger political entities. Mankind's best hope for survival is to stay small, stay quiet, and stay unnoticed.
Is the Silken Conclave the closest thing to a nation on the map in the book?
Yes.
I assume that there are roughly several levels of civilization among Men:
Primitives, who basically are cave men. They can make leather armor, spears, clubs and stone knives.
Nomads, who domesticate dinosaurs and other creatures as mounts, but have the technology of primitives, and who trade for or steal metal goods such as weapons.
Agriculturalists, who practice subsistence level agriculture, and who usually have an elite composed of armed footmen.
Are there any levels of civilization higher than this?
You are basically right. There are some small groups of men who have completely "converted" to a Space Alien way of life (technologically speaking). These small groups are the stereotypical pre-Star Wars sci-fi humans: white body suits, impeccable hygiene, short hair, high-tech everywhere, etc. But these groups are small (with populations typically measured in the dozens) and rare.
Are smiths who work metal rare? Should we expect them in any village of significant size?
No, they are not rare. The harshness of Carcosa has accelerated mankind's arms and armor technology. They make weapons and armor as good as any in western Europe circa A. D. 1300. You can expect to find smiths in any village of significant size.
I assume no one outside of a few mad sorcerers knows how to harness wind, water or steam to power anything.
That's right.
I assume there are coins that are pounded out or minted. Are they snake-men relics or do large villages produce them?
Ditto for Gems and Jewelry.
Both. Villages produce metal coins (and gems and jewelry) because of the relatively advanced metal-working skills mentioned above. Such treasures were also made by the Snake-Men.
I hope that helps! ;D
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Post by javaapp on May 17, 2012 12:57:51 GMT -6
That's marvelous. Wonderful answers. Thank you very much.
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Post by crusssdaddy on May 17, 2012 20:04:39 GMT -6
javaapp, if you're going in a direction of fleshing out citadels, castles, and villages or developing any sort of social/political/economic structure, I'd love to see you post what you come up with. I was trying to do up a village that might serve as a starting base for a CARCOSA campaign and nothing I came up with felt right, I stalled on silly details, then got frustrated and quit. I'd appreciate seeing a different perspective.
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Post by javaapp on May 17, 2012 20:52:54 GMT -6
javaapp, if you're going in a direction of fleshing out citadels, castles, and villages or developing any sort of social/political/economic structure, I'd love to see you post what you come up with. I am working on a sub-hex generation system, so that a DM can flesh out and map a hex on the large scale map on the 710 yards per hex scale. As soon as I get a working version, I'll post it here and ask for people to test generate hexes, to make sure that consensus deems it sufficiently Carcosan. Plenty of people have done this before (expand hexes and flesh them out) but I wanted to create a tool to facilitate this. Maybe some enterprising young person could code it. I must admit, that I am thinking about the society of Carcosan men a lot more because of this exercise, but I would want to put that thinking into actual play to test it's (fictional) validity. I think that those who have actually played in Carcosan campaigns should trump the 'theorists' if you know what I mean. |
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Post by kesher on May 18, 2012 8:30:53 GMT -6
@jvaapp: That's awesome, and would be superbly helpful! Unfortunately, I cannot code it... One thing I think fundamental to any attempt in fleshing out Carcosan society, such as it is, would be the fact that the races of Men were created by the Serpent Men simply to be used in their sorcerous rituals... |
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Post by crusssdaddy on May 18, 2012 9:03:59 GMT -6
I think that those who have actually played in Carcosan campaigns should trump the 'theorists' if you know what I mean. As someone who is only a theorist, I heartily endorse this. |
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Post by Mushgnome on May 18, 2012 9:24:09 GMT -6
@jvaapp: That's awesome, and would be superbly helpful! Unfortunately, I cannot code it... One thing I think fundamental to any attempt in fleshing out Carcosan society, such as it is, would be the fact that the races of Men were created by the Serpent Men simply to be used in their sorcerous rituals... +1, you can be d**n sure that every resident of Carcosa knows which ritual(s) he (and his wife and children) can be used in as human sacrifices, and will take appropriate countermeasures. (Or perhaps use the ritual on his own people, in the case of Chaotic leaders.) ps If I like what I see, I'm happy to take a stab at coding it! |
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