Topic: Visiting Carcosa

Seems like everyone's talking about Isle of the Unknown again. I don't own that book, so I've started re-reading my copy of Carcosa instead, with an eye towards using it as a complete package rather than just cherry picking some elements here and there (I already decided to adopt the psi-mechanics earlier, for example, though I upped the percentages and removed the daily rolling).

The sandbox is a bit problematic, though. Sure, there are plenty of cool hexes here and there, but for the most part its just different slimes and funny-coloured dudes that can and will murder you over and over again. I can see this working for a Carcosa-specific campaign, but the world seems like too much danger for too little reward for any (relatively) mundane LotFP-group.

Nothing that can't be fixed, of course. With that in mind, share your story:
Have you used Carcosa as a part of an ongoing LotFP campaign? Was it an alien planet, a strange island, a trippy dreamworld or something else? How did the group get there and did they get out? What did they find and how did the experience change the characters and the campaign?

Re: Visiting Carcosa

My personal favorite usage of Carcosa is as a planar/inter-planetary travel deterrent. Also as the "other end" of things like Commune and Contact Outer Sphere.

As a kind of mid-campaign set piece, you can have a villain escape to Carcosa via some kind of portal artifact with the ONE THING the players need to save the world. Then let them play their standard LotFP characters in the Carcosa world for a bit. If any of them should die (and not have any hirelings to use as a replacement character) they can only stay with the party if they make a Carcosan character and join forces. Then if/when the party goes back to regular LotFP world, any surviving Carcosan characters continue using ALL the Carcosa rules. It sounds wacky and kind of unnecessarily-complicated-wierd, but it's hilarious. Also, if any Carcosans come back with any ritual knowledge, RESIST the urge to make any rulings on how/if they can overcome the no-Carcosa-races/places-available-for-sacrifice thing. Let them work it out as they go. And if you let anyone succeed at a ritual of summoning in your LotFP world, you have only yourself to blame for whatever happens next. tongue

You could easily tweak Tower of the Stargazer to make the planet visible in the telescope Carcosa and have the telescope be the (un)reliable means of getting there. Getting back.. well, I don't see any particular need to actually write that. Let the players figure it out.

Re: Visiting Carcosa

I'd like to use it as is but have a group of explorers from 1900-1915 era earth go through a gate here to search for alien technology that might give their home country the advantage in the coming/current conflict.

The party would be a group of fighters and specialists (linguists, engineers, medics, etc) and once on the other side they'd be cut off from the gate (or watch it blow up) and need to adventure through gonzo Carcosa in an effort to get back home. Casualties can be replaced with native Carcosans. Even if the whole party dies off, one by one, the goal of getting to the mythic sanctuary known as "earth" could still be a party goal since the survivors would have enough info and likely desire to continue the quest.

I'd need to alter the firearms slightly to add revolvers and bolt-action rifles but that's not a big deal and if it causes trouble it's not like their ammo will last long.