Got a LotFP going with a few friends, but we had a "guest" player come in for a story and now the group kinda wants to snag him - but there's a catch.

The player in question was portraying "The Man from Outer Space."  I'm sure you folks remember the City of the Gods or Expedition to the Barrier Peaks?

Ever wonder if a person from one their crews ever survived instead of being dessicated corpses for adventurers to trip over?

That's him basically - he's the guy whose escape pod/cryogenic tank/whatever didn't malfunction.   

He's the man in a doubly-surreal environment (What?   Magic?   Demons?   Rejects from a LoTR convention?)  - making mostly everyday experiences in LoTFP a bit Weird at least for him.  (Wait till he gets a load of Pembrooktonshire).

He's the Scientifically-minded Technological capable Humanist who gets along great standing between the Quasi-Nihilist Mystic Muttering Magic User and Sanctimonious Vain Cleric.

My groups problem is that we're not quite sure what to make him in terms of a character class - the player himself doesn't have much of a clue either.   

The only thing he's really established as part of the character is that he's really handy with applied technology.   ie: He's at home in a place like the City of the Gods or Warden II.   Well, at home in the non-malfunctioning versions at least.

So my group is going over its collective storehouse of RPG goods looking for a template CC to futz around with - but if anyone here has any ideas about the matter - we're all ears.

The conflict between the natural (Lawful) world and the supernatural (Chaotic) world is eternal. Since its very beginning, Humanity either worshipped the gods of the natural world (Lawful), consorted with Fey and Demons (Chaotic) or shied away from both (Neutral). The Chaotic world seeks to infiltrate and subvert the Lawful world (Changelings - my interpretation of the Elf class - are one example - Fey babies transplanted in place of abducted human babies); the Lawful world fights back; but most people, and many animals, sit on the sidelines in this conflict.

Both the Old and the New Faiths are Lawful. The Old Faith worships a quasi-monotheistic nature/agriculture goddess (of the Maiden-Mother-Crone type); the New Faith worships the Mastersmith, a monotheistic god focused on craftsmanship. The Old Faith has a less aggressive stance towards Chaos, and merely seeks to contain it and to ward against its worst excesses; the New Faith seeks, in theory, to smite Chaos whenever it defiles our reality; in practice, certain types of chaos (such as Changelings and some M-Us) are - barely - tolerated by all but the most fanatical sects. The Lizardmen of the New World (and the nearby Dreaded Islands) have Shamans who are also Lawful.

Most clerics (New Faith), priests (Old Faith) and shamans (Lizardmen Tradition) are level 0 NPCs and DO NOT belong to the Cleric class; for the most part, they lack magical ability, though many have other skills (such as herbalism or medicine) and all enjoy the power of their positions in society; the more devout of them - not all are - may Turn Undead as Level 1 Clerics and even cast spells such as Protection from Chaos as a level 1 Cleric; the most devout may even cast Dispel Chaos as level 5 Clerics; but they lack the other abilities of Clerics, and, usually, have 1 HD and the other stats of level 0 NPCs.

A few clerics, priests and shamans DO belong to the Cleric class; regardless of faith or tradition, they follow exactly the same game rules (though PCs can't be Lizardmen Shamans - only the Lizardman class which I'll detail later on). These are the exception and not the rule - the saints and prophets of the New Faith, the holy women (and men) of the Old Faith, and a few very powerful Lizardmen Shamans. In most cases, especially in the New Faith, the official religious hierarchy dislikes these men and women, in extreme cases branding them heretics. They tend to be adventurers more often than not as they put their gifts to use in the service of the God(ess)/Spirits in the most effective way outside of the church, temple or tribal hut.

Most commoners haven't seen magic in their lifetime, though everyone has heard (very inaccurate) tales of it. The ignorant peasant or his similarly ignorant village priest (or even the educated by politically-motivated city bishop) may call both the Old Faith priestess and the Magic-User sorcerers "Witches"; in extreme cases, when fanatics are involved, they might even burn them at the stake.

Fey are the most common manifestation of Chaos in the Mortal Realm. They dwell relatively "close" to reality, and thus, in many cases, resemble worldly creatures and plants - sometimes even humans - to a degree. Further away from reality lie far more alien things - the creatures summoned by the Summon spell in LotFP. Fey sometimes abduct human babies and replace them with their own - this leads to Human-like Fey being raised by humans (these are the Changelings), and while their standing in society is quite low (most people distrust Fey), they are usually tolerated (usually is the key word here - sometimes a more fanatical sect of the New Faith lynches them).

Low-level Magic-Users usually consort with Fey one way or another. High-level Magic-Users usually learn far more bizarre truths and consort with far more alien beings from Beyond the Veil. Not all Magic Users are servants of the cause of Chaos, but most do dabble in the Chaotic world, and traffick with Chaotic beings - risking their souls in order to gain arcane power.

Of course, the Lawful god(ess)/spirits rarely answer prayers in person, and rarely grant obviously visible powers to their followers. While this doesn't get in the way of most people's faith, some people want to worship gods who bring more immediate results. This is how cults - who usually worship particularly nasty Chaotic beings - attract their followers. Cultist priests usually have much more magic than priests of either faith; they are, however, Magic-Users and not Clerics and learn their powers from their "Gods".

1) As a villain.

2) As a hero who uses only Banishing rituals, which don't require human sacrifices.

3) As an emotionally tortured anti-hero who reluctantly does whatever's necessary, no matter how evil, to keep the Great Old Ones imprisoned.

But I've thought of a way I've never seen mentioned to go about the third option:

Use Imprisoning rituals -- but ONLY with VOLUNTARY sacrifices.

A Sorcerer played this way probably would spend much of his time talking to people, explaining the situation, trying to convince them to voluntarily sacrifice themselves for the benefit of everyone else.

Tell!

Me, I'm 34 now, I lived in the US (Connecticut, Georgia, Florida) before moving to Finland. I started gaming either in December 1983 or 1984, can't remember which it was, with the Mentzer red box. After moving to Atlanta to go to school in 1992, I drifted out of gaming since it just seemed everyone wanted to play Vampire or Magic and I wasn't interested.

In the early 00s I wanted to get back into gaming, but nothing at the local game store caught my interest. So I thought I'd make my own RPG. After most of the writing was done, I got online to find that, well, there were websites and forums dedicated to RPGs. Surprise! This was 2003, I think? Maybe 2004?

When I moved to Finland, I decided I was going to play old school D&D, so I re-bought the books and got a group. Aside from a 4-5 month HERO System game, I've been playing the old D&D versions, or one of the clones, since March/April 2006.

Also since that time, I've toyed around with amateur publishing projects, some to good effect, some which were ill-considered disasters. In July 2009 I decided getting a normal job wasn't for me so I started my own publishing company, hoping that I've learned from my earlier mistakes.

Things are looking pretty good so far.

You?

http://www.frpgames.com/cart.php?m=prod … amp;c=3093

The set I received in my box was "Shimmer Green," did everyone get the same type, or are they all different?

Many of the threats on CARCOSA appear to be extra-terrestrial in nature: Space Aliens, the God of the Primal Void, perhaps the Old Ones. This invites speculation that other stars and planets are quite nearby.

Stars in the Hyades are 'more enriched in heavy elements' than our own sun. What might this mean in game terms?

It mentions that clusters suffer from 'evaporation' or 'dissipation' in which member stars continually drift/are pulled away. I prefer to think that the Carcosan Hyades are actually drawing together, continuously capturing additional stars within its malign embrace.

In such a crowded neighborhood, the 'stars being right' might be a more frequent occurrence. The Hyades also have lots of binaries - maybe CARCOSA has a companion that appears infrequently?

This is a list of stars in the cluster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_of_Hyades

Which one might be a likely home to CARCOSA?

http://thedoomedworldcarcosa.wordpress. … cosa-pt-1/

The top vote getter from the readers was, in a blowout, Trippo's entry.

Congrats to the winners, and hopefully we do this again sometime soon.

Can a person in Carcosa have two skin colors? One on the left side of his body, a different one on the right, split down the middle?
How does that happen?
Would the Snake-Men have sought after that as a valuable trait? Or would they would they have engineered xenophobia and reproductive incompatibility into the human race in order to prevent that type of mixing from occurring?

How does a thing like this affect rituals?

And furthermore...

Can a person be of mixed genders on each half? Male on one side, female on the other? Hermaphroditic? Self-fertilizing and hermaphroditic?
How does that affect rituals? Does it make the individual more versatile as a sacrifice, being usable for a wider variety of rituals than otherwise? Or does it result in catastrophic failure?

Ever see that movie Zardoz?
Can a character age on one side of their body and remain young on the other? What does that do?

Reading through it, I'm struck that I both like the idea of it whole cloth and don't like the idea of native PCs (as a whole) at all.

I've been watching, among other things, episodes of Outcasts and Terra Nova lately. Now, I could see options for both a standard D&D crossover or a scifi one (say, with Stars Without Number):

Destruction or near destruction of a fantasy home world / continent / what have you. Clerics or magic users establish the means to gate to the ancient city of Carcosa. Once the - seemingly abandoned - city is found to be "safe", they bring people over en masse.

Scifi could have a more traditional arrival, or a stargate style similar entrance.

I like the idea of sandboxing out of Carcosa city, with PCs needing to worry about issues with home that send them out to learn about their horrible, horrible new world. Reveals of the various natives, monsters, technology.

Now it's YOUR turn to vote!

Send an email to lotfp@lotfp.com with THING as the subject line and the thread's post number of the entry you liked best in the body of the email. Vote for just one entry!

Contest ends Sunday 11:59pm Helsinki time.

The author of the entry with the most votes will get a 5€ coupon code for the LotFP store, and one random voter will also get a 5€ coupon code for the store.

(I'll announce my own pick for the 10€ coupon code winning entry on Monday along with the winners here. I wouldn't want to influence the voting by revealing my pick now. Or maybe I got Elder Sign over the weekend and I've been playing with myself too much to have taken more than a quick glance at the entries as of yet.)