• From: Hungary
  • Registered: 2011-08-04
  • Posts: 23

Topic: Carcosa - Campaign Kick-Off Ideas

As I was thinking about what kind of starting adventure I would like run in my - yet upcoming - Carcosa campaign, I realized there is no real "base of operations" kind of place, partly because different coloured people distrust each other, partly because there are only small villages scattered throughout the landscape, trying to survive (merely living is hard enough on Carcosa).

The other thing I came to know is that Carcosa is more than a weird setting as there is no normal (normal in our IRL terms) part of it to create a normal-weird opposition but a completely different, alien place. As in planetic romance, it might be easier to introduce newcomers to the setting letting them play outsiders, who are new to this world themselves.

So, I came to the conclusion I should use one of the spacefaring OSR books to create the PCs, namely: Terminal Space, Stars Without Number or Humanspace Empires (I think I will use HE, with only human characters and maybe some other small changes).

What do you think? How would YOU start a Carcosa campaign?

Last edited by YnasMidgard (2011-09-26 15:16:23)

ynasmidgard.blogspot.com
  • Registered: 2011-06-04
  • Posts: 34

Re: Carcosa - Campaign Kick-Off Ideas

I was wondering this myself.

There are citadels, villages and castles in the world, from what I understand, so starting off there might be an idea. You'd just need the players to be all the same color.

Likewise, they could wake up in vats in some old snakeman or alien fortress as the power fails, forcing them to ally (taking a line from the Free RPG day Black Crusade adventure.) It also introduces a lot of weird things, such as battling failed experiments or haywire robots, and would give them a leg up if you allowed them to have some tech from it.

It also means that no settlement would allow the group as a whole, if they're all different colors.

Just some ideas I came up with just now.

  • Registered: 2009-10-09
  • Posts: 77

Re: Carcosa - Campaign Kick-Off Ideas

Keep in mind that the different races of humans on Carcosa have dislike and suspicion towards one another. Typically the different races don't launch into massacres at the drop of a hat. Thus, an adventuring party of variously-colored humans can typically be OK in a village, but the village won't cut them any second chances.

  • Registered: 2009-12-30
  • Posts: 64

Re: Carcosa - Campaign Kick-Off Ideas

I'm thinking it's a place to visit, wouldn't want to live there. As such, it's the ultimate place for a dimensional portal or semi-permanent gate to lead.  Rather than have to info dump at the start of the campaign, just make everyone visitors from someplace sane.  I'd use a regular campaign world, so a Carcosan sorcerer could be a villain there, but the crashed ship works well too.

Dreams in the Lich House
  • Registered: 2011-09-27
  • Posts: 1

Re: Carcosa - Campaign Kick-Off Ideas

To my great surprise, I found out today that a few of my players are willing to try Carcosa. Our first session will be on Thursday (yikes!), so I'm pondering this very question: How To Start A Carcosa Campaign.

They don't know much about the setting at all, and like others here I'm grappling with the All Weird All The Time aspect of Carcosa. It's a big plus for me, but I wonder if it's going to be harder on the players without giving them at least some background information. I'm very much inclined to simply get them rolling characters and putting them into the thick of things right away, though. I'd love to hear more suggestions!

--I like the idea of starting the group off in an isolated village, like Ed Dove points out. Perhaps the campaign begins with a hostile Sorcerer slaughtering the players' village? Or threatening to do so?

--A while ago I was also toying with the idea of using a John Carter of Mars kind of setup: the characters are ordinary people from another world (possibly even our own), who are mentally snatched from their beds and now inhabit the bodies of Carcosa natives; this is a variant on the waking up in a hibernation tube scenario. However, this might lead to too much confusion on how to interact with the world.

--I was also thinking about starting them in the Lost City of the Ancients from Fight On! #10: the party was swallowed by the Flapping Maw and now they've been crapped out by the weird intestine hidden in the caves under the Sanctum of the Irrationalists. In this scenario they could either be from a more "sane" world, or Carcosa natives from the surface.

Last edited by Dr Locrian (2011-09-28 00:06:29)

  • Registered: 2011-06-04
  • Posts: 34

Re: Carcosa - Campaign Kick-Off Ideas

Ed Dove wrote:

Or, even less dramatic, the village's Sorcerer could just run low on something necessary for performing some banishing ritual -- so the PCs are sent out to get more of it.

And, either way, one or more of the PCs could be the Sorcerer's apprentices.

That's still pretty dramatic, considering most of the rituals involve human sacrifice of particular colors of men.

"The village we pull tribute from yearly was attacked by a roving band of <color> men not native to the area. We must <find a new source of sacrifices/take the sacrifices by force/defend them from this encroachment> or the beast that sleeps in the <bay/volcano/cave/crevasse/ancient tree> will devour us all."

Now, the 'antagonist' humans could have some gimmick, like having space tech or a subdued lesser beast (mutated cyborg elephant, "baby" spawn of shub, some form of robot) and the PCs may have to do a roundabout series of adventures to get what they need to defeat them.

Of course, the more power they seek, the more danger and the more time it will take. Will they be able to save their home from certain doom? Or will the (un)natural hazards of Carcosa stop them before they even have a chance? Only the dice can say. wink

  • From: Hungary
  • Registered: 2011-08-04
  • Posts: 23

Re: Carcosa - Campaign Kick-Off Ideas

These are all good ideas, thank you very much!

ynasmidgard.blogspot.com
  • From: Los Angeles, CA
  • Registered: 2011-10-05
  • Posts: 8

Re: Carcosa - Campaign Kick-Off Ideas

I've been thinking a lot recently about ways to differentiate the races, as way to force them together.  Maybe they have to interact because each race has a specialty.  The Orange Dudes are master dinosaur tamers.  The Blacks Guys are good with hi-tech.  Purples are famed mercenaries.  We already know the Dolm Guys are tops at sorcery.  Etc...

So if you want a brontosaurus to help pull blocks so you can build your pyramid, you have to go talk to the Oranges... and you better have something they want in trade.  This arrangement retains the segregated settlements, but creates a framework where it's cool for different races to hang out - mixed-race (PC) groups that wander into a village will still turn heads, but won't be attacked immediately.  Probably.

And then, yeah, there's a lot of in media res options for jumpstarting an adventure: crashed saucer escapees, slaver escapees, sorcerer escapees...

http://thedoomedworldcarcosa.wordpress.com/

CrusssDaddy's Website

  • From: Hungary
  • Registered: 2011-08-04
  • Posts: 23

Re: Carcosa - Campaign Kick-Off Ideas

I am currently designing an adventure to be run on a local Hungarian mini-con, using Carcosa and Swords and Wizardry. I actually have something very similar in my mind, i.e. every human race has some little specialty (also reflected in game mechanics).

ynasmidgard.blogspot.com