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Pen & Paper Roleplaying Central => Pen and Paper Roleplaying Games (RPGs) Discussion => Topic started by: AndrewSFTSN on June 15, 2014, 04:16:21 AM

Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: AndrewSFTSN on June 15, 2014, 04:16:21 AM
Stats
Roll 4d6 for each, pick 3 highest and arrange in any order.

Available Races
Humans (with Carcosan colour)
Gnomes (with Carcosan colour)
Half-Orcs (Rebranded as Androids/Replicants/Vat-People, not sure yet, any suggestions welcome)

Available Classes (multiclassing allowed as in AEC)
Fighter
Assassin
Druid
Illusionist
Necromancer (from City of Iron) (http://the-city-of-iron.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/necromancer-new-class-for-labyrinth.html)
Ranger
Monk
Thief

Alignment
L/N/C

Healing and HD
0 HP = instant death

Improved HD as in the AEC

Normal healing rules as per LL but:
+1d6 HP if spending a night of rest in a village/castle/dome/camp with same alignment as PC
+1d6 HP if slaying a Human or Gnome of opposite alignment before midnight (ONCE per day only)
 
Mutations
Base chance for mutations:  Humans 10% Gnomes 20%

Add +10% chance of mutations for each point of negative CON modifier, positive CON modifiers have no effect here.

Mutations are taken from Mutant Future, but using the crossover Labyrinth Lord rules in the back of the book.

Any PC that starts the campaign mutated rolls percentile dice to see if more mutations are obtained when levelling up.

Magic
No clerics or deity based spells as per 'normal' D&D rules
Carcosan sorcery spells can be implemented by Druids/Illusionists/Necromancers in addition to normal spell lists

Rayguns
25% chance of a party starting play with 1d2 rayguns as rolled using the Carcosa charts
Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: Spinachcat on June 15, 2014, 04:26:16 AM
I wonder about the Druid and Monk in Carcosa.

The world is severely damaged by magic, so I would create a more Twisted Druid concept, not a nature priest / animal dude. Maybe look at the Defiler class in Dark Sun.

Monks might work, secret order kinda stuff, but they seem almost too "civilized" for Carcosa's post-apoc feeling.
Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: AndrewSFTSN on June 15, 2014, 04:33:15 AM
Yes it's slightly odd, I suppose I wanted a 'mystical' option for players who felt denied the Cleric.  My main reason for including the Monk was the write up for the Brotherhood (of the Skull?  Not sure, don't have it on me) in the Carcosan Grimoire.

Druid - I haven't properly looked over the spell list before this outline, but do you think it would be too much of a stretch to use these spells with Carcosa's twisted, blasted vegetation/jungles?  Animals though, you're right on...'normal' animals aren't very Carcosa.
Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: Opaopajr on June 15, 2014, 06:24:38 AM
Is the starting scope for your campaign encompassing all those races and classes? You can pare down to limit party range to your starting scope's regional composition. This helps avoid analysis paralysis when brainstorming content creation; a focused palette sets thematic boundaries, establishes mood, and so on.

For example,
outdoorsy frontier campaign: Fighter, Druid, Ranger with Humans & Half-Orcs.
indoors espionage campaign: Assassin, Thief, Illusionist with Humans & Gnomes.
City of Iron regional campaign: Necromancer, Thief, Monk? with Half-Orcs & Gnomes?.

Even if you allow players to play something outside that pool, note how it will shape their reception to that slice of the setting. Like, there are consequences for being a ranger in the big city. And those who blend in may find use exploiting the exotic, for good and ill. That means content creation opportunities and hooks!
Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: JeremyR on June 15, 2014, 06:34:09 AM
You should grab Theorems & Thaumaturgy from there too. Besides the Necromancer, it has the Vivimancer class, which would be right at home in the setting.
Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: AndrewSFTSN on June 15, 2014, 07:02:18 AM
Quote from: JeremyR;758244You should grab Theorems & Thaumaturgy from there too. Besides the Necromancer, it has the Vivimancer class, which would be right at home in the setting.

Aah, didn't realise this was a bundling of all this stuff together, I think you've just solved my druid problem!  Thanks!
Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: Premier on June 15, 2014, 07:19:20 AM
I could see Monks in the vein of the [strike]Chinese[/strike] Khitai agents from Howard's Conan novel, The Hour of the Dragon.

Take the basic AD&D Monk concept as an unarmoured mystical combatant, rip out all the inelegant and clearly kung-fu-inspired mechanics and build it back up from the ground. Combat bonuses for bare-handed fighting, appropriate weapons (like staves) and lack of armour, good stealth and athletic abilities, but replace the clearly wuxia stuff with some more sinister elements, like poison touch, some sort of hypnotism, etc.. In a Carcosa-like setting they could serve as an order of spies and assassins, agents of the Aliens, a cult of sorcerer-killers, etc..
Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: AndrewSFTSN on June 15, 2014, 08:07:08 AM
I was also thinking of Carcosa monks could be like Shang-Tsung from Mortal Kombat 1.  Soul-eating, fire breathing robed horrors with a penchant for pulling their own faces off.
Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: Just Another Snake Cult on June 17, 2014, 12:19:24 AM
What's a Carcosan "Gnome" like?

Jawas? 1930's Jungle pulp cannibal pygmies? 60's psychedelia mushroom-headed little druggies? The Zuni fetish doll from "Trilogy of Terror"?
Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: AndrewSFTSN on June 17, 2014, 05:51:16 AM
Hopefully that will come out in play, but maybe:

(http://readbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/dontlooknow.jpg)

(http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/a-m/jodorowsky/jodorowsky_shot23l.jpg)

(http://horrorfanzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/troll-2-01.jpg)

but with out-of-whack colour balance and more spikes.
Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: Simlasa on June 19, 2014, 12:32:41 PM
What weirdness is that second image from?
Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: Premier on June 19, 2014, 03:33:48 PM
Holy Mountain by Alejandro Hodorowsky. It's awesome.
Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: Just Another Snake Cult on June 19, 2014, 04:02:04 PM
Quote from: Premier;759487Holy Mountain by Alejandro Hodorowsky. It's awesome.

Yes. Oh yes it is.

One of the most audacious movies ever made.
Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: Rincewind1 on June 19, 2014, 04:34:00 PM
Looks pleasurably interesting so far, any ideas on the world (I could help out with? ;)).

For the half - orcs, here'd be my suggestion: Go the Atlantean route. A fallen race that once has ruled mighty sways of Carcossa, before the great cataclysm/invasion of Mi-Go/Raising of Great Old Ones destroyed it, forcing it's descendants to flee into the wilderness/deep underground caverns, where they have degenerated into the stone age, remaining abhumanly strong but brutish and forgetful of their old glory. Most of them completely degenerated, there are still few - even some enclaves - which hold onto the old ways, speaking in an odd dialect of the Human Tongue - unknown to most, the tongue they have created.

Also, instead of death on 0 HP - I'd suggest grabbing the Critical Damage (or however it's called) table from ACKS, or some other subsystem like that. I think a party of cripples'd fit nicely into the theme. You can even combine some mutation mechanic into that.
Title: Ideas for a Carcosan-ish AEC campaign - opinions please!
Post by: RPGPundit on June 21, 2014, 01:32:57 AM
Quote from: Premier;759487Holy Mountain by Alejandro Hodorowsky. It's awesome.

Jodorowsky