Sam Pearson is the person behind two of Games Workshop’s greatest games: Warcry & Spearhead. He has recently started a YouTube channel after ending his time at the company as one of their lead game designers. So far the videos are all straight up bangers, but he’s recently shared three videos on game design that are worth watching in particular:
Meaningful Player Choice is an incredible discussion on game design, whether you’re interested in war-games or not. The last video is about turning your ideas into a polished product. This is all top tier! Enjoy.
… the leader of Invak would pay for the heads of Jale Slavers, and so the game because all about hunting the slavers and chopping of their heads. Blood Meridian, but in Carcosa. (Except the party would actually kill slavers, not any old person.)
Wait, I lied. This session the party does end up killing people and taking them back to Invak to collect their reward. Bad PR for OSR players everywhere.
Were these Bone Men slavers? No, I’m pretty sure they were cultists working for The Dominant Reflection. If you have been following along, in the very first session the players freed a Bone Man they found imprisoned in the Abandoned Space Alien Outpost. He disappeared into the wilderness, but that wasn’t the end of his story. At this point the players had not encountered him or his followers again, but that was soon to change.
The party also some how manage to turn the death of two hirelings they recruited in town into some positive PR, paying for their funerals. Jahar initially had a negative disposition to outsiders, but the group would slowly change that over the course of the campaign.
The main goal for the session was to pilfer Alien technology from the campsite of the lost Space Aliens they had rescued recently. This resulted—once again—in a battle with insane Mi-Go. How many times would I have the players fight Mi-Go? Several: I always listen to the results of the dice!
I came close to going the whole year without playing a single game of Mordheim, but a visiting gamer from Vancouver put the call out to see if anyone in our Mordheim league was free to play while he was in town. Of course I said yes. Another regular from the store’s Mordheim posse joined in, alongside someone who had never played a game of Mordehim before. We had planned to play 2-3 games, but we all forgot that multi player games usually take a while. We got through one, but it was a fun one.
I used my undead warband again. They are the team I feel most comfortable playing. After the last campaign my vampire leader, Lord Volchyakrov, was killed. I was tempted to try and paint a new vampire before this game, but didn’t have the time. I have to assume the necromancer Gallean the Mad helped bring the vampire back to un-life. As usual, I prioritized bodies over equipment. My warband consisted of my vampire, a necromancer, and 3 dregs, who were accompanied by 2 ghouls, 7 zombies, and a dire wolf. (Though in my case my dire wolves are dire rats.) I actually have wolf models now I should build and paint. Maybe before the next big league or campaign takes place.
We played a pretty crazy scenario, themed for the holidays. There were 6 building that contained presents for us to steal. Each building was guarded by d3 peasants armed with spears. All the units in your warband were carrying a torch they could use to set these buildings on fire, after they had fist been explored (and then number of peasants inside had been determined). The game ends when all the buildings are burned down, or the last team routs. The session had some real old-school D&D energy. It felt very violent and chaotic.
The peasants proved to be surprisingly tough. In true Mordheim fashion, one peasant held off my dreg and a zombie for basically the entire game. Another peasant single handedly held off a team of dwarven slayers. That old man was only killed when my team set his home on fire and it collapsed upon him. (Killing a few dwarfs in the process.)
I hadn’t played Mordheim in ages, but I quickly remembered how it all worked. The game has lots of little edge cases, but its core is quite simple. Our new player, who had only played 40K, really loved how evocative the game and its rules were. It really is the gold standard for narrative gaming. (Though perhaps Trench Crusade will soon carry that torch?)
Hopefully we’re manage to get another game (or more) in before the holidays season is over.
The caverns the party explore this session were another way I had imagined to get the party out of the region they were in. The Protector of Truths was leading a group of Yellow Men in a war against evil Mi-Go on the other side of Carcosa. The Mi-Go the players would encounter on this part of the world were those lobotomized by The Protector of Truths, so they were more like animals than intelligent adversaries. My notes for the NPC were: disfigured, easy going, idealistic. I made a small map of the caverns that lead to the hidden castle, and then a map of the castle itself. I didn’t figure anything else about this particular thread, or who the evil Mi-Go on the other side of Carcosa were. This was the right call, because this was another thread the players didn’t end up pursuing.
This session was also the first encounter with the race of Space Aliens that made the mistake of exploring Carcosa long ago, who now find themselves trapped on the planet. The players would encounter more Space Aliens as the campaign progressed: the scientists that ran the abandoned output that started the campaign, and the bad-asses of the Space Alien Strikeforce.
This was a funny session, with the party wandering back and forth between the nearby towns and these caverns, where they kept encountering Mi-Go and not making much progress through the caverns.
The party finally visits the merchant town to the South, Brown Man village of Jahar. These merchants were the ones who escorted the players up to Invak in the first session, when the party encountered them on the road. Because the party had gained some notoriety in the region they were able to wander and meet with the people of the town. I’m quite certain I ran this sort of things using reaction rolls. I tracked the groups renown, which I would sometimes use to modify results up or down, but not in a way that I was particularly consistent about.
You can see that once again I was laying it out pretty thick when it came to reasons to explore the Putrescent Pits of the Ameboid Gods. Don’t worry, the players wouldn’t take the bait.
The party travels south from Invak to Jahar.
The trip is uneventful. They travel through the night to make it to the town in one day. They camp outside of town, but encounter nothing.
Unlike Invak, Jahar is particularly xenophobic.
One of the guards is aware of the Rainbow Connection, and lets the players into the town.
Most of the people manufacturing goods in the town, along with the guards, have a fairly negative reaction to the party.
The merchants in town have a more positive disposition.
The party meets the person who runs the “resale items” shop, along with his children. They pick up some random knick knacks.
They meet the sage that lives in town.
For 10 GP he tells them two locations that he thinks feeds the water in the Castle of Decline, which could be the source of the human waste and guts that are poisoning the water
For free he lets the party know their map of the Putrescent Pits of the Ameboid God is probably junk. The story goes that a cult worshiped the god, that lived in an impossibly deep pit to the North. They would feed the beast all the gold and jewels they could find. Another cult came and fought the god and its cultists, culminating in sealing the god underground by building the mountain range on top of it. He lets the party know that mountain ranges form over millions of years, and this story is probably nonsense.
The party learn about a citadel to the North East, hidden out of sight. Some merchants saw it a few days back, but avoided the site. The sage will pay 10GP for information confirming its existence.
The party ventures off in search of the site, which they find without any complications.
It appears to be sealed from the inside. The party doesn’t want to make a noise by breaking down the front door, or a trapdoor in the roof.
A cavern near the Castle is also found, and explored.
The party encounters a group of 6 Mi-Go’s. They kill one and then flee. The Mi-Go’s make a half-hearted pursuit.
The party returns to Jahar, where they let the sage know of their findings.
Treasure:
10 GP paid by the Sage.
Notes:
Provide clue about next complication.
Being worried about the game being boring was a common theme it seems. Once again some planning for the next session takes place in the comments, and I share a little bit more about what the group has learned about the world. Cole suggested I write a follow up review of Carcosa, having run the game for a few months now. That review ended up focusing a lot on how I prepared to start the game, but didn’t talk much about actually run the game.
Ramanan S (2015-03-10 17:13): Sorry for the quieter game. I owe you guys a clue for a haven complication. I’ll also update the campaign map with trade routes from Jahar.
Richard Hawkins (2015-03-10 17:21): Sorry that I missed out on this one, I will look forward to eating brains soon!
Beloch Shrike (2015-03-10 18:38): Nothing to apologize for. I got to kill a Mi-Go. Lets do more of that. =D
edchuk sockmonkey (2015-03-10 20:23): Richard Hawkins Lightly sauté them with garlic and a little lemon. Delicious!
Richard Hawkins (2015-03-10 22:45): Yes… yummy!
Richard Hawkins (2015-03-10 22:45): Beloch Shrike a CoC MI-GO! … Yikes
Ramanan S (2015-03-14 03:41): The merchants reveal the location of towns along their trade routes. To the south they visit: Glom (Ulfire Men village), Lesel (Brown Men Citadel), Brackdor (Bone Man Village), and Cron (Ulfire Man Village). They abandoned routes to the East decades ago because of the Slavers. They stopped trading to the West some time ago, though people can’t give you a straight answer as to why. What do people want to do?
Beloch Shrike (2015-03-21 16:57): I wouldn’t mind returning to those caverns and exploring further.
Eric Boyd (2015-03-21 20:03): Are there trade caravans headed anywhere interesting that need guards?
Dion Williams (2015-03-21 21:34): Either of the option mentioned work for me.
Ramanan S (2015-03-21 22:33): Eric Boyd traders will leave from Jahar heading South to the town of Cron soon. The route they take is as follows: 1 week in Glom, 1 week in Brackdor, 1 week in Cron, 1 week in Brackdor & Glom, 1 week back in Jahar. (i.e. That’s where they’ll be for the next 5 sessions.) If you wait a session another group will leave for Lesel: 1 week in Glom, 1 week in Lesel, 1 week back in Jahar. I’ll figure out how to update the map or something.
cole long (2015-03-21 22:47): Ramanan S you should do a post (or have you done one already?), having DMed several sessions, about what you find Carcosa brings to the table and what you’ve done to make it “yours?”
cole long (2015-03-21 22:50): i feel like it is one of the rorschach-blottiest settings
Ramanan S (2015-03-21 22:51): cole long Good idea. I’ve certainly had to do a bunch of flesh things out.
Ramanan S (2015-03-22 01:06): From the old thread, of note: The merchants reveal the location of towns along their trade routes. To the south they visit: Glom (Ulfire Men village), Lesel (Brown Men Citadel), Brackdor (Bone Man Village), and Cron (Ulfire Man Village). They abandoned routes to the East decades ago because of the Slavers. They stopped trading to the West some time ago, though people can’t give you a straight answer as to why.
Ramanan S (2015-03-22 01:10): Also: the merchants won’t pay you to be guards, they have their own guards, and they don’t think your acting troupe is menacing enough. They are fine with you tagging along on any trip, however.
Ramanan S (2015-03-22 17:52): Event is up. Can do upkeep and haven stuff there.
Ramanan S (2015-03-28 05:54): cole long http://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/review/carcosa-review-reprise/
Ramanan S (2015-03-29 22:37): http://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/masters-of-carcosa/session-6/
Chris G (2015-03-30 03:02): This is my favorite kind of writeup. I wish I’d thought of it back when I was doing Redbox Vancouver.
Ramanan S (2015-03-30 03:07): I did the first one as a play report for a Carcosa session Brendan ran. Certainly one of my better ideas as gaming stuff goes. http://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/rescue-chauncy/
The session began with exploration and learning more about the world. This was the first time the party got lost in the wilderness, an important part of the game. My travel rules worked. The party found more caves to explore in the future, and learned of a second citadel that purportedly held a tomb of vile sorceress magic—the best kind. The party would refuse to seek it out for the remainder of the game, of course. The later half of the session was spent getting high with some stoner Carcosans. Dion joined the game this session, and was a fixture in the campaign for a long time to come, playing Ulfire Sorcerer Asha-Rea. His character used the distraction of everyone getting high off their ass to steal some Jale Lotuses to sell later. A quiet session, but they can’t all be loud.
The party is in Invak, returning after vanquishing the cultists to the North.
They elect to escort two of the bone from the the Citadel of Decline back home.
Get lost on the way there, ending up South of Invak.
Encounter Jale Slavers on the road. 17 in total and they look like bad asses.
The party books it, escaping into the wilderness. They are forced to abandon a pack animal to do so.
They spend the night in the wilderness and then head back to Invak.
Once more, the party heads North West towards the citadel.
The trip is uneventful, but on the way there hey find two caves to explore later.
The citadel is as it was before. Lots of sad sack bone men and women.
The party hears a rumour of a citadel to the south the bone men avoided when they stumbled upon this castle many years ago. This other citadel was also abandoned, but covered in sigils and markings that left everyone feeling disturbed. The scouting party who ventured within claimed to see a book of foul sorcery that so terrified them they turned and ran he moment they set their eyes upon it.
The party rests the night and heads towards Invak, stopping at cavern on the way.
It’s home to stoner brown men, who snort Jale lotus and receive visions.
The characters decide to get high with the Brown Men.
Orange Julia learns of a Sunken Temple filled with Amphibious Ones held in Stasis.
Renoir learns of a Forlorn Citadel.
Usha Ray sneaks some Jake Lotus while everyone is busy getting high.
The party returns to Invak.
The apothecary examines water from the Citadel of a Decline, and informs the party that the water is full of human filth and dead humans. He suggests they don’t drink it.
Almost a full month since our last game! The fastest way to kill a campaign is to miss games, and playing every week meant that a missed game had an oversized impact. I’m impressed the Carcosa game managed to last as long as it did, as I was a bit too quick to reschedule when I was a little busy or tired.
Reading the comments I see that at this point I still didn’t have a clear procedure for wilderness travel I was happy with. I suspect I was just using travel times from OD&D and winging it. Before the next session I would settle on Hazard Die based procedures, borrowing from how Brendan ran his games. Earlier that year (2014) Brendan wrote two seminal blog posts: Overload the encounter die and Proceduralism. I joke that I am part of the OSR that is obsessed with Adventure Time, but I’m also part of the OSR that is obsessed with procedures of play. It felt like everyone read Torchbearer, didn’t want to play it, but did want to add procedures and downtime to their games.
In this session the players decided to attack the Orange Man Citadel to the North. They were aware the citadel was an ally of their enemies the slavers, that they apparently ran gladiatorial games. Evan using his teleporting laser gun to teleport the Frog God away was great conclusion to the fight, as it meant the Frog God was now wandering the wilderness alongside the players. I added the Frog God to my encounter table. My encounter tables would slowly grow and change based on the actions of the players each session. Will the frog show up in a future session?
The players found a “strange metal collar with buttons and lights (Treasure #1)”. The players had to figure out what the magic items (or super science) they found did. I had a list of items so I wouldn’t forget. Treasure #1 was a truth collar the space aliens used for interrogation. Will the players figure out what it’s for?
I don’t recall if Nick named his character or not. He was killed this session. His previous character, Horace, was killed in the session 2, the previous game he played. The game was a bit of a meat grinder.
The rainbow connection were resting in the cavernous castle, home to the Ideal of Decline and his sad group of Bone Men. They debate heading North back to the Putrescent Pits, or South in Invak to help start some sort of alliance between the two towns.
The party suggest to the Ideal of Decline that they abandon their crazy castle and come live in Invak.
He is wary of the idea, but sends 6 of his Bone men with the party to investigate the town and report back.
In Invak the party meet with the Speaker of All Graces, and decide that it’s the red moon and they should save those slaves.
The Speaker of All Graces is always down for fucking with slavers, and provides one of his best lieutenants and 40 men to help the party.
Organina recruits another 7 Orange Men from the refugee quarter to help as well.
The party head north to the Orange Man Citadel, home to cultists famous for feeding the winners of their gladiatorial games to their spawn god.
The citadel seems strangely abandoned.
The party does some scouting, and then attempts to scale the walls.
The grappling hooks alert two Orange Men inside.
A crazy fight breaks out—I bet Zak has some rules for mass combat in Vornheim I could have used here.
The Orange Men have laser guns, but are about as good a shot as Cobra.
Things are overwhelmingly going the parties way until the interior doors to the citadel are opened, and the giant spawn god, a huge feathered frog with a beak, lets out a croak that scares most everyone in the battle.
A small number of reinforcements join the fight, but in the end they are also put down quite quickly.
Nick’s character is eaten by the terrible toad.
The Spangled Inquiry had been shooting at the frog with his teleportation ray for several rounds, finally hitting the beast when it was perhaps almost dead. The beast disappeared into the wilderness, and presumably ran off.
Searching the citadel reveals a stash of valuable gems.
The Speaker’s lieutenant gives the party the first 3 gems (100 GP, 5000 GP, 5000 GP). “The Speaker of all Graces would thank you for pushing us to finally finish these slavers off. I will do so in his stead: 100 GP a slaver to your strange troupe. The remaining treasure we split evenly. The money due to the dead will be given to our home Invak. I will keep 35 men here with me to secure the fort these slavers wasted with their idiocy. My remaining men will head south with you and he freed slaves to report to the Speaker of all Graces. Tell him to send word of what he wishes to do here.”
35 Bone Men and the lieutenant stay behind in the citadel, the party returns to Invak the next day.
Strange metal collar with buttons and lights (Treasure #1)
There are 52 people on this adventure: 368 GP each, or there about. 1100 GP for killing slavers split 4 ways is 275 GP. So each player gets 643 GP.
Monsters Defeated:
11 crazy Orange Man Cultists (and slavers)
1 Spawn of Shub-Niggurath, a huge toad
It’s funny reading all the “who will run next week” chatter. This Monday night spot was a hot commodity. You can see I didn’t have any concrete treasure rolled for the citadel, I figured things out retroactively. I was all about just in time prep, which worked until it didn’t.
Eric Boyd (2015-01-27 05:16): Player Notes: We need to write an easy-to-sing ballad about killing slavers, so our motives are clear when we show up in situations like this.
Ramanan S (2015-02-02 02:36): I still owe you guys: loot, a players map of the region, and better rules for wilderness travel!
Ramanan S (2015-02-07 20:59): Still behind on things. I asked to see if Bryan Mullins can run next weeks game as well.
Bryan Mullins (2015-02-07 21:39): Just got out of work, sorry no quick replay Ramanan S. I’ll post an invite for that game (the 9th) tonight.
Ramanan S (2015-02-10 05:24): [Ram figures out the treasure for the session, finally. There is lots.]
Bryan Mullins (2015-02-10T05:38:34.431Z): Damn, thats the one I missed!
Ramanan S (2015-02-10 05:42): They raided that orange man citadel to the north to free slaves, bolstered by a militia from Invak. My notes for that citadel were a small map and stats for the frog God, which is why I didn’t have treasure handy at the time. I wasn’t sure how to allocate it till I saw Courtney Campbell’s post about treasure types today and that seemed like the obvious thing to do.
Eric Boyd (2015-02-10 06:41): clarifying: is the party splitting 10,100 GP of gems four ways?
Ramanan S (2015-02-10 11:03): The party splits their 3 gems worth 1100 GP between the 4 of them. It’s like a bonus or finders free or something. For simplicity we can just assume the Speaker of all Graces in Invak can swap the gems for currency.
Ramanan S (2015-02-10 12:04): My current thinking is that “gold” is ancient super hardy metal coinage from some bygone era. So it all looks pristine and new, and most Carcosans don’t have the tech to mint new coins or mess with the old ones. So they are a good hard to counterfeit common currency. Thoughts?
Ramanan S (2015-02-11 04:55): Bryan Mullins Am I running stuff on the 23rd (normally when my next slot would be), or this Monday (normally your spot, but you covered for me so I don’t know if you need / want a break or not). Let me knows.
Bryan Mullins (2015-02-11 05:05): Um…lets say that I just did you a favor so you could get up to speed? Ultimately, I’d like to see Richard come into the rotation so that I can rest my Monday game more often. Sorry, side track. I’ll be ready and running for Monday the 16th, and you’ll be back on for the 23rd. Sound okay?
The party had been told rumours that there were healers to the south that could heal Gus’s character of his terrible mutations. (You may recall that was his first character’s fate in our first session of the game.) The party ignored those rumours last session, but decided to pursue them this time. Bryan’s character came out of my random generator with a tattooed map on his skin: a map to the mega-dungeon I had imagined I would run, whose name appears in Hex 1109 of Carcosa: On the northern slopes of the mounds are the yawning pits that lead down to the infamous and deadly Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods.
I would occasionally seed more rumours in the alternate future restocking tables I would create after each session, as part of my recaps. For example, in the recap for this session I wanted to let the players know that another group as aware of the Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods and would explore it even if they did not:
A caravan makes its way North. The men and women ride lumbering lizards and have several days worth of supplies. They have a map leading to the Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods.
When I would post the invites to the games on Google+ I would try and include these open threads and rumours so the players had some rough ideas for things they could do. There was no overarching “plot” for the campaign, I was curious where the players would take play. It turned out, not to the Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods, so I’m glad I only ever drafted the first level.
This session the party learned a little more about the Jale Slavers, stumbling upon some escaped slaves. I created specific encounter tables for the rough regions I had imagined the hexes could be grouped into. Because this area was home to the Jale Slavers, there were entries tied to them. The first session the players had rolled to encounter some slavers after after they had sold off their slaves. This session the rolled and encountered some escaped slaves. They wouldn’t find the slaver’s base till the tail end of the campaign.
The men on standing upon the giant plinths come from the Carcosa book. A couple sentences describe the scene, which I extrapolated from. I love the short pithy hex descriptions of Carcosa. From these men Gus learned his character could be cured by heading far to the North. I had imagined this might lead the characters out of this region, but Gus didn’t even like the character they were trying to cure, so that thread was left alone.
The party discovered The Castle of Decline, home to a group of sad-sack Bone Men. One of the first groups outside of Invak the party would end up befriending. If I recall correctly, they eventually convince the Bone Men to abandon their home and join them in Invak. (Easy enough, since their home sucked.)
The session ended with the briefest exploration of the Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods. They might have explored a handful of rooms before us having to end the session. They would never return!
The party ventures south west in search of healers for Mr. Smyth
Just before dusk they encounter some escaped slaves, orange men who have fled the slaver city.
They reveal the slaves that aren’t taken to be sold are poorly chained up outside the citadel, beaten and kept in a weakened state, and guarded by men and women who ride dinosaurs.
No one else in town is escaped from the Jale Men’s citadel, so this is a pretty remarkable situation
The party sends them on their way with food and continues south west.
They see a tall pillar reaching out toward the sky. As they get closer they can see a smaller 40’ pillar of smooth poured stone next to the matching larger one. On top of this pillar is a Jale man. The party speaks with him briefly, and he sends them East where a White Man is supposed to be.
Continuing they encounter a Black Man who they speak to briefly. They learn a little bit about his life via Brendan’s character’s ESP.
They ignore all other pillars till the teach the White man. The party pretends Mr. Smyth is a mute, for the fear his mind will be controlled by the mystic.
The mystic can’t cure Mr Smyth’s mutation, but can offer up prophetic visions via dreams.
The party sleeps for the night, and Mr Smyth learns of a dungeon to the North where his cure might be found. He sees the entrance to a dungeon, choked with dead bodies, beyond which lies a Serpent Man.
Fuck travelling to the North for a character Gus doesn’t even like. The party heads back to Invak, and plans to head North to the Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods.
Along the way they avoid a group of White Men marching away to the East, along a river to the North.
The party heads West and finds a strange citadel full of Bone Men.
The Bone Men seem to be having a shitty time: some of them have recently died due to some issue with their water supply, others from a strange cyborg to the West, and some from capture by the slavers.
The party heads to the Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods, but only explores it briefly.
They fight a Spawn of Shub-Niggurath and call it a day.
Tressure:
Spawn Guts (to be claimed for reward in Invak)
Monsters Killed:
- Spawn of Shub-Niggurath
At the time I thought the session might have been boring, but reading the recap and thinking back on everything the players managed to do, I have no idea why I thought that was the case. There is some more logistics around who will run something next. I realize now it was Bryan and I trading turns running because Brendan and Nick wanted a break. (Brendan was running his dungeon & rule set The Final Castle, which remains unpublished to this day!) Chris was a new player, who would join our games for a little while, on and off.
Ramanan S (2014-12-24 - 02:09): Sorry if that session turned out boring. My plan is to get organized over the break. I realize now that my biggest road block to being a successful DM is not a lack of rules mastery, but being really boring and/or bad at describing things. I’m having fun anyway. Hah! Brendan S You can run all my Monday games till you are busy again. So the next one (29th) is yours. (Maybe that’ll be the only one you have a chance to run again?)
Eric Boyd (2014-12-24 02:10): My character is Orange Julia — she hails from Fuudkaht.
Gus L (2014-12-24 2:12): Nah it was a great session, the stylites seemed mildly terrifying.
Ramanan S (2014-12-24 02:15): I learned a new word. They are medium tough, but there are 5 of you …. I realize that all these “tough” solo monsters are actually rarely a serious threat due overwhelming numbers on the players side. I don’t think any of the spawn for example have given you much trouble except for that plant one the sorcerer released last session.
Bryan Mullins (2014-12-24 02:42): I feel like 5 to 7 first level characters can do a lot vs pretty nasty monsters. If you account for some attrition… Also. I’m enjoying the game because the feel is that we’re all finding out what’s happening as a group. That’s a feature, not a bug … at least for me.
Brendan S (2014-12-25 22:03): For the 29th, if people are interested I would be down with running The Final Castle rules. Magic would be W&W. Probably some other dungeon though, because The Final Castle main dungeon needs more work.
Chris G (2014-12-31 05:44): When is the next session? I love the hex-key-as-session reports.
Ramanan S (2014-12-31 12:47): Thanks. This coming Monday is Brian’s game, probably. I’ll be the Monday after that. Unless Brendan is running something again. He may be less busy at the start of the term.
Ramanan S (2015-01-03 05:38): Brendan S do you want to run something again on the 12th?
Brendan S (2015-01-03 06:21): The 12th I actually have some other commitments. I might still be able to play, but it is uncertain, so I shouldn’t run that day.
My first session of Masters of Carcosa only included 2 players, Gus and Eric. I was a little worried the game wouldn’t catch on, but the next session included 6 people! This was basically the Pahvelorn crew, along with the lovely Bryan Mullins. Players would change from sessions to session. A true open table! These were all the rage in the early 2010s. The parties home base was the town of Invak, and they were expected to end sessions somewhere safe. This typically ended up being Invak, as its leader and his bounties was one of the few sources of gold in the game.
This session sees the introduction of the parties primary antagonists for the entire campaign, the Jale Slavers. There were lots of factions playing around in the background, but I was far too coy with them in hindsight. I wrote about this a long time ago, inspired by some writing from Vincent Baker: Have Them Act. I had intended to do something different than XP-for-Gold with this game, as in my mind Carcosa wasn’t a setting that fit that adventure framing. What ended up happening was I never figured out a new scheme, the leader of Invak would pay for the heads of Jale Slavers, and so the game because all about hunting the slavers and chopping of their heads. Blood Meridian, but in Carcosa. (Except the party would actually kill slavers, not any old person.) A few sessions latter the party would liberate the settlement mentioned in the note they found on the first slavers they killed. I would try and litter clues about wider world whenever I could. With a hex crawl you want to give people reasons to explore the setting.
The second half of the session saw the players exploring a little dungeon I created, looking for supplies for their towns alchemist. I made several small dungeons to litter the environment with, and I’m pretty sure I just followed to see which weird cave system they encountered.
In the session Evan’s character is shot by a ray gun and disappears. I didn’t tell him his character wasn’t vaporized till the start of the next round of combat, when he found himself on the surface, shot by a teleport gun. The sorcerer that shot him would eventually retreat to the surface as well, ending up dead at Evan’s character’s hands. I originally thought my rules for eating sorcerer brains to gain power predated Evan’s character eating some sorcerer brains, but it was the other way around. He figured a weird bone man sorcerer would eat his enemies brains for power, so I made some rules for what would happen after the fact. House rules from play: that’s the juice.
Eric’s first character was killed this session, to be replaced by the infamous Orange Julia. She would survive till the campaign ended.
The Rainbow Connection, now joined by some new friends from the town on Invak, decide to make some cash exploring the region for Desert Lotuses, which the apothecary The Falling Flower will happily buy.
2 hours out of town, to the North East, the party encounters a band of 5 over-confidant Jale Slavers while looking for Desert Lotus filled caverns.
They initially parlay, but then realizing that slavers without slaves are probably carrying currency decide to attack.
They make reasonably quick work of the slavers, with minimal injuries. They find manifest for 14 sold slaves and 700 GP in the Citadel of ???? to the North.
For their efforts they are rewarded by The Swift and Silent Beginning, the leader of Invak, with an additional 500 GP for each dead slaver and 100 GP for recovering this manifest.
The rest for the day—for no mechanical benefit, harsh Ram—and head out again in search of caverns.
Heading South West they come across a small opening that leads into a bigger cavern. It’s damp and dewy, and seems like a prime candidate for being filled with weird flowers that don’t need light to grow because they are so magical of course.
Venturing South they find an empty camp site, that seems to have been recently used.
To the West they stumble upon an obvious pit trap. Exploring the cavern below they find what they thought were flowers, but turned out to be some strange plant that would knock out those who lingered too long.
Resting in the room with the pit trap after all this exertion, some strange insectoid beasts ambled down off the ceiling.
The party retreated to the North, the creatures uninterested in pursuit.
Heading west the party finds their first Lotus, a blue flower.
Further West still they stumble upon Purple Men cultists, dragging an Orange couple.
There is some arguing, cut short by a blast from a Bazooka.
A purple man sorcerer enters the fray from a room to the West. He shoots Evan’s character with a ray, and he is teleported to the surface.
As the tide turns the sorcerer retreats into back into his room. He frees a giant plant Spawn and then shoots himself with his ray.
The purple men turn to flee. Two manage to escape.
On the surface, Evan’s character and the sorcerer grapple, but Evan’s character is victorious. He feasts on the brain of his foe.
The battle is long and hard, Horace is cut down by a Purple Man, Gux is killed by a strange plant Spawn.
The party explore the sorcerers abode, and find strange alchemical supplies and a ladder and hatch that lead to the surface.
They return back to town!
Treasure:
5 whips (how many did you guys keep?)
5 swords (ditto)
5 pieces of armour (10 x 5 = 50 GP)
700 GP from slavers
600 GP reward for killing them
Blue Lotus - 100 GP
6 White Lotus - 100 x 6 = 600 GP
Dead Spawn Guts - 100 GP
Alchemical Supplies - ???
Reptilean Armour - Looks badass, and grants 16 AC
Teleportation Ray
Unknown number of charges remain, if any.
Unclear if the ray sends someone to the same place, or some fixed distance.
Monsters Killed:
5 Jale Slavers
7 Purple Men Cultists
1 Purple Man Sorcerer
1 Spawn
I’m not sure I’ll always include the comments from the session recaps, but in this case you can see us discussing rules, world building, etc.
Ramanan S (2014-12-02 05:47 UTC): So glad to play with you all. If you have ideas for what I should be doing differently let me know. I’m still trying to figure stuff out. Let me know your characters names, or if there is anything of note I missed in the recap. I will let you guys know what’s on the map Bryan Mullins’s character started with. And I’ll give you the name of the citadel the manifest mentioned. You are all aware of the place: “A castle of Orange Men to the North run a gladiatorial arena of sorts: there are no prizes and the winners of the games are fed to the Spawn of Shub-Niggurath the Orange Men worship as a god.”
Eric Boyd (2014-12-02 05:47 UTC): My dead character was Gux, a ST17 IN7 Yellow Man. New character is Orange Julia, WI17 CO16 and Cell Adjustment. No pic yet.
Beloch Shrike (2014-12-02 06:01 UTC): My new character’s name is Alfred.
Ramanan S (2014-12-02 06:05 UTC): The apothecary will pay 200 for the alchemical supplies, though he already has everything he needs to work with these plants.
Bryan Mullins (2014-12-02 07:34 UTC): Gloss-o-lalia. or Lalia
Eric Boyd (2014-12-02 08:07 UTC): I DECLARE THAT ORANGE PEOPLE ARE OVERSIZED OOMPA LOOMPAS.
Bryan Mullins (2014-12-02 08:25 UTC): Lalia kept a whip, she likes the reach as an option. Still, she was obsessed with her battle axe this session.
Ramanan S (2014-12-02 14:37 UTC): I think a few people have whips. Anyway, they are probably a few GP each so they aren’t going to have a big effect on how much XP/GP you end up with.
Gus L (2014-12-02 17:32 UTC): I kept a obsidian sword as a backup weapon.
Gus L (2014-12-02 17:34 UTC): As a possible rules tweak have you considered weapon traits? To differentiate them? Cleave for axes, armor pen for maces etc? It doesn’t really matter, but is an idea.
Mike Davison (2014-12-02 19:52 UTC): Are you open to new players Ramanan S ?
Ramanan S (2014-12-02 19:53 UTC): Yeah, though the people we normally play with would have preference. I’m basically just filling in DM duties while Beloch Shrike and Brendan take a break. Bryan Mullins is doing the other week.
Beloch Shrike (2014-12-02 19:56 UTC): Despite the deluge of players we had last night, attendance on Monday night has been flagging for awhile. We could use a new player or two in the group.
Ramanan S (2014-12-02 19:58 UTC): Not too keen about adding too much in terms of additional rules. I don’t mind if people have weird weapons that are mechanically identical, honestly. One of the things I like about OD&D. Though, could steal rules from 5e about that. (Could also just run 5e really, but I thought it’d be good to run something turbo simple to start.)
Gus L (2014-12-02 20:28 UTC): Yeah totally get that, the question I have though is how does this interact with fumble as weapon breakage? If a broken weapon is functionally the same as a good one how does the fumble work?
Ramanan S (2014-12-02 22:07 UTC): Yes, good point. I mean, in this game Brendan’s weapon just shattered and that was that. Need to think of clearer rules. Was thinking of just stealing from Dark Sun, where some materials cost more and do less or more damage, and are less or more likely to break. Though doing things based on costs seems to scale poorly, people end up with cash quickly. So could probably have things balance against each other. (Bone is +1 to hit, but more prone to break or something.) Need to think more about money in general. Should maybe switch to XP for CP recovered, and keep costs besides room and board the same GP values. So most stuff is rare and very expensive. Not sure if that actually makes sense or would be playable.
Eric Boyd (2014-12-02 22:44 UTC): XP for copper ceramic pieces worked for Dark Sun. You do need a nice big price list with plenty of cheaper items on it.
Ramanan S (2014-12-02 22:48 UTC): Yeah, that’s what i’m thinking. I need to figure out what the rules we are playing with actually are. Then it’s go time! Hah.
Bryan Mullins (2014-12-02 22:55 UTC): I have the same feeling, for the Blackmash game…I’d never used LotFP…but it looks simple. I think by the end, I’ll be running some other system because the LotFP is going to get hacked up pretty bad.
Eric Boyd (2014-12-02 23:23 UTC): We’re all pretty adept at swapping between systems at this point; DMs, please don’t feel a need to cast the rules in stone.
Ramanan S (2014-12-02 23:25 UTC): Yeah, no doubt. I mean, I think we are all used to playing something vaguely “D&D”. It certainly makes DMing much simpler.
Gus L (2014-12-03 01:39 UTC): You could do something like the upkeep rules and carousing I’ve been using. Like basic upkeep is near free and spending more get session only bonuses (rerolls, extra HP, etc) it eats the money of the cautious.
Eric Boyd (2014-12-03 02:32 UTC): I really like Gus’ Apollyon upkeep rule. It scales nicely with level: the 15gp for +1 HP options are awesome at 1st, not so much at 3rd or 4th.
Eric Boyd (2014-12-03 02:38 UTC): [a bunch of math splitting all the gold for XP]
Brendan S (2014-12-03 03:13 UTC): By “stumble upon” I think you mean cleverly find.
Brendan S (2014-12-03 03:15 UTC): For a rainbow connection there’s a lot of yellow going on. I think we need to buy recruit some followers to up our diversity before we are found out as frauds.
Brendan S (2014-12-03 03:18 UTC): I think dCarcosa would overwhelm any mundane weapon differentiation so why bother? Also we will soon all have space alien ray guns. Right?
Brendan S (2014-12-03 03:20 UTC): Thanks for the XP summary Eric Boyd (also: note to self, XP incorporated).
Eric Boyd (2014-12-03 03:50 UTC): Count’s Dolm, Bone, 2x Yellow, 2x Orange after battle casualties. Also I’ve got Telsa the Yellow Woman and Bolgo the Black Man from the funnel still, and Gus has one more surviving funnel dude I think.
Gus L (2014-12-03 04:30 UTC): Yeah Mr. Smyth, the greedy radiation poxed white man in carved wooden demon armor.
Evan Webber (2014-12-09 04:12 UTC): My bone man sorcerer is named The Spangled Inquiry, and I’m wearing that snake armour now, and I didn’t tell anyone about the ray gun though I assume someone would have noticed. And I consumed the brain of the Purple sorcerer and I’m assuming that yields great benefits but you can let me know, Ramanan.
Evan Webber (2014-12-09 04:15 UTC): But since I’m travelling and need to miss the next session someone can borrow the ray gun.
Ramanan S (2014-12-09 04:16 UTC): The teleportation ray? Yeah, i’d assumed people would know it was on the guys person when he died. I’ll think about the benefits of eating sorcerer brains.
Gus L (2014-12-09 04:34 UTC): Have you considered? http://www.lastgaspgrimoire.com/lets-see-whats-been-on-your-mind/
When I was running my Carcosa campaign, I would post session recaps on my blog in the form of hex descriptions written as if they came straight from the book. Each session had additional descriptions for each hex the characters explored, and I also included a random ‘restocking’ table. Three of the entries in the table would present alternative endings to the session the players just played, with the forth being the true ending. This was all very cute, but I also kept traditional notes of what happened so myself and the players could refer back to them later. These were posted to G+, where you can still read them today.
Oh wait.
I’ve been meaning to repost these session reports for a while. Nick downloaded my Carcosa community before G+ imploded, and the export has been sitting on my computer for ages as XML & JSON I never had the time to turn into Markdown. But now computers can do a so-so job programming for you, so I have text that’s pretty close to cleaned up Markdown. I’ll take it.
This is the first session of my Carcosa crossed with He-Man campaign. I ran it for a little over a year, playing every other week, give or take. The rules were OD&D, and we all were figuring out how to run a hex crawl as we went. It was a lot of fun. Perhaps the most fun I’ve had running a game?
This was my first time DM’ing since I was a teenager. I was certainly nervous. Brendan took a break from running Pahvelorn, and I took over the spot every other week. (I think Nick might have been running the other week.) Pahvelorn was certainly a hard act to follow. Brendan’s megadungeon campaign was incredible, and really inspired how I ran this campaign.
Carcosa is a hex crawl, and my expectation was players would wander the wilderness session to session. This happened for the most part, but party didn’t stray too far from their home base. The party were called the Rainbow Connection, a travelling acting troupe. (This was rolled up using my crowdsourced “why are we together” table.) During the first session the players explored a dungeon I created, an abandoned space alien outpost. They released one of the main antagonists of the game, a Bone-Man sorcerer. He would get more and more powerful while they were distracted by the faction they would come to hate the most, the dirtbag Jale Slavers.
The Rainbow Connection, a travelling acting troupe, were attacked and captured by a strange spherical robot while travelling through the wastes of Carcosa. They awake outside an alien outpost surrounded by bodies in various states of decay and mutation. Behind them lays a mysterious alien outpost, in front of them more nondescript wastes.
They feel woozy and lethargic. Searching the area they find random knickknacks, but also quickly realize everyone now dead is horribly mutated in some way.
Lacking proper supplies for an aimless overland trip they venture into the outpost.
Opening some large garage doors the party comes face to face with their captor. The robot rests in what looks like a bay of some sort, ignoring them. They back away and leave the robot alone. The second door into the base takes them into a small room.
The base is quiet, and seemingly empty.
There is still something powering it: the hallways are lit, and random computer screens flash strange inscrutable messages.
Venturing further into the base the party finds a large open work area that looks to be unused.
The party quietly explore. A room that looks to be another entry way to the complex contains nice warm furs for everyone to wear, but is otherwise bare.
The next door the group opens reveals a room full of rock specimens: some look to be quiet valuable. They are all stored behind glass, that feels a bit warm to the touch. The greedy Mr. Smith opens up the glass to get a closer look, and suffers a terrible mutation for his trouble: he now stinks thanks to some newly grown boils on his body.
The next room the party discovers is filled with crates, but also a strange Spawn—a blue hexapod with a gaping circular maw. They make quick work of it, and end up with a Bazooka of some sorts for their efforts.
The party avoided one Jale Slime and killed another with fire.
The party released a seemingly mad Bone Man into the wild. He was apparently imprisoned by the other Bone Men, though the party does not know why. He looked to have been left to die: he smelled terrible and was starving when discovered.
The Green Man Greenox was killed trying to grab a weapon from the weapons cache. The room filled with poison gas. Mr. Smith quick closed the door to the room, so the rest of the party was safe.
The alarm that was triggered startled the Bone Men that lived in the basement of this outpost.
the Illustrious Prince of the Bone is the leader of the Bone Men, who decided to spare the party if they put on a show.
The party promised to never reveal the location of the outpost, or ever return.
the Queen of Autumn leads the party from the outpost towards Invak.
a merchant caravan takes party the rest of the way, grudgingly. The party gives them a wide berth, and follows at a distance.
They arrive in the town on Invak late at night.
Treasure:
6 large furs: they are very warm (you can sell each for 15 GP to the traders currently in town).
Bazooka: you don’t know how many charges it has, or what it does, but its clear it still works.
