Anybody heard of Carcosa?

[ThaBenMan]

Hey everybody!
Recently, I've been kind of interested in the Old School Renaissance scene of Tabletop RPGs. A recent release that's kind of making waves is Carcosa.

Here [http://lotfp.blogspot.com/2011/12/carcosa-what-is-it.html] is a pretty detailed description of the book. In a nutshell, it's a weird science-fantasy/horror setting, the distant planet Carcosa. Primitive tribes of humans try to survive against roving Lovecraftian horrors and inscrutable aliens. The less savory ones turn to dark ritual Sorcery to gain power.

Quite a bit of controversy surrounds the book. Unlike a lot of RPGs, the only magic available to player characters is Sorcery. The majority of Sorcerous rituals involve the torture and murder of human sacrifices, to summon and appease transdimensional monsters. Nearly 100 rituals are detailed in the book, down to gender, age, tribe, and the precise method of slaying the sacrifices. A lot of people are displaying moral objections to this system.

So, what do you guys think about it?

Myself - I see no problem with it. A lot of RPGs, video games, books, and movies are just as violent. And Carcosa doesn't glorify the torture and killing - Sorcery is difficult and has a lot of drawbacks. A player could even be a "good" Sorceror - the banishment rituals are the only ones that don't require sacrifices, so a player could employ them to thwart other evil Sorcerors. Or they could eschew Sorcery altogether, choosing the Fighter class instead, which is arguably more powerful than the Sorceror.

And the cover of the book is clearly labelled, in big print: "WARNING: ADULTS ONLY" - the writer and publisher are very straightforward about the mature content. That such awful things happen in the book's world weren't added as afterthought or filler - they were deliberately added to support the artistic theme of a grim and horrible world where humans are the underdogs.

I can only applaud such a bold work that stays true to it's themes and doesn't aim to please the masses. In fact, I'm probably going to buy the PDF when I get paid again! I would love to buy the physical book, but it's kind of expensive, and also would need to be shipped at great expense from Europe.

So please, share your thoughts about Carcosa!

 

[ThaBenMan]

It has some pretty awesome illustrations as well (don't worry, these aren't graphic at all)

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Togs]

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is

Lost Carcosa.


The King In Yellow?

 

[Trololo Punk]

I, am actually interested. Thanks for a new thing for me to research/google about. You sir just made my day less boring.

 

[King Toasty]

Cool. It's sad that society still has these bizarre fears of witchcraft, but whatever. It's a minority that's against it.

I've never done tabletop, might be a good place to start.

 

[DEAD34345]

Sounds pretty cool to me. I don't see what makes ritual murder and sorcery in an RPG any worse than it is in a book, movie or game. I'll bet the "controversy" is almost entirely from people who don't actually play the games, and thus assume they're going to mind-control everyone and corrupt our youth because... well... just because. I imagine the logic goes something along the lines of "I don't know what it is -> It must be EVIL!".

If I knew enough people who would actually consider playing a tabletop RPG, I'd probably go for it. I wish more video game RPGs would have novel ways of performing magic like this, I've never really been one for the whole mana-bar system. Doesn't feel very mysterious or powerful at all, to me.

 

[jonyboy13]

I have no problem with it. It isn't different from anything we've seen already.
It sounded pretty awesome until I read that Sorcerers almost always died young because of the monsters they summon. It went from a dark fucked up world to the bad guys must be punished!

 

[ThaBenMan]

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is

Lost Carcosa.


The King In Yellow?

It is very loosely inspired by that work, yes. It pretty much just took the name and the idea of some horrible place you would never want to go to. I would like to read The King in Yellow sometime - would you recommend it?

 

[ThaBenMan]

I, am actually interested. Thanks for a new thing for me to research/google about. You sir just made my day less boring.

Glad to hear it! There's all kinds of nifty info on that site that I linked.

 

[ThaBenMan]

I bought and downloaded the PDF a few days ago, and have enjoyed perusing it. Included is a huge hex map. Each map is 10 miles on a side, and there's a short but evocative description of a couple interesting features of each one. And there's also a sample adventure - "The Fungoid Gardens of the Bone Sorceror"! Such an awesome, pulpy title - I'm looking forward to reading it.