Immersive Ink

Hi folks, I got a PM from @rredmond that he needs to take a breather from the game to tend to some real-world responsibilities for a while. I will be NPC'ing Noh and Carc while he's away. Good luck Ron, hope to see you back soon!

ehiker133 wrote:That Carcosa game was soooooo much fun!! I'd forgotten all about it. Shoot, what was my character's name? Pretty sure he made it all the way to the end of that game. Or close to it.

So I am back in the moderator's good graces at odd74 and I'm taking a stroll down Chainmail Carcosa memory lane.

Your PC was The Shadow of the Evermore, a Jale Man who morphed into some kind of weird sea-slug after a near-death experience. He had a 7-headed flail and a big, scary helmet.

We also had,
Breath of New Moon, Bone Woman (kipper]
The Gunnery Veiled, Orange Man (waysoftheearth)
Sovereign Mask of All Who See
Servitor of The Yellow Sign
Fated to Die
The Eye of Thundera
Thaimos the Seeker
The Mirthful Doomed
Minion of the Unholy Fragnog
Vociferous Bastard From Innsmouth
Apothecaria
Grand Yet Mystifying
Loyal Beast of the Unknown Master
The Preservation of Humanity

Good times! Interesting to note that 7 of the 14 players, as well as the DM, were either banned, or had their accounts deleted, from the forums. The curse of Carcosa I guess!

That was my first-ever PbP campaign as a DM, started April 2011, so coming up on 10 years! I think my first ever PbP experience as a player was in waysoftheearth's Hinterlands campaign. My first PC, Michele, foolishly shot another PC in the back in a "friendly fire" incident, then got squished by an ogre. That was August, 2010 I joined your game, Ways.... 10 years of PbP fun!!

Then there was briefly my Chainmail Carcosa 2.0 campaign, which never really got off the ground. I just didn't have the organizational skills to pull it off. Bit off way more than I could chew. @kipper I think you were a part of that one. The premise was that each player would control an entire race/color of Carcosa People, and it would be like a big game of Risk. Each PC's level would be determined, not by experience points, but by how many map hexes were controlled by their faction. Eventually my vision was huge player-vs-player Chainmail-style battles, fighting for world domination.

Fun concept but a logistical nightmare.

The names everyone came up with for that game were SO GOOD.

Jale was one of those "unknown" colors that was iridescent/rainbow-y by nature. And that flail was awesome.

So much fun.

mushgnome wrote:

ehiker133 wrote:That Carcosa game was soooooo much fun!! I'd forgotten all about it. Shoot, what was my character's name? Pretty sure he made it all the way to the end of that game. Or close to it.

So I am back in the moderator's good graces at odd74 and I'm taking a stroll down Chainmail Carcosa memory lane.

Your PC was The Shadow of the Evermore, a Jale Man who morphed into some kind of weird sea-slug after a near-death experience. He had a 7-headed flail and a big, scary helmet.

We also had,
Breath of New Moon, Bone Woman (kipper]
The Gunnery Veiled, Orange Man (waysoftheearth)
Sovereign Mask of All Who See
Servitor of The Yellow Sign
Fated to Die
The Eye of Thundera
Thaimos the Seeker
The Mirthful Doomed
Minion of the Unholy Fragnog
Vociferous Bastard From Innsmouth
Apothecaria
Grand Yet Mystifying
Loyal Beast of the Unknown Master
The Preservation of Humanity

Good times! Interesting to note that 7 of the 14 players, as well as the DM, were either banned, or had their accounts deleted, from the forums. The curse of Carcosa I guess!

That was my first-ever PbP campaign as a DM, started April 2021, so coming up on 10 years! I think my first ever PbP experience as a player was in waysoftheearth's Hinterlands campaign. My first PC, Michele, foolishly shot another PC in the back in a "friendly fire" incident, then got squished by an ogre. That was August, 2010 I joined your game, Ways.... 10 years of PbP fun!!

ehiker133 I tend to agree with you, the best thing about Carcosa was the creativity people put into their character names. It was hard to go back to "normal" fantasy-style names after that. For example, instead of Frederick the Hobbet, my urge is to give him a Carcosa name, like The Flipper of Pancakes!

Last but not least was Deep Arkham which was basically "Keep on the Borderlands, on Acid." It ended with an episode called "Arkham on Rye, Hold the Mayoral Primary" with the PCs backing a mayoral candidate named Bob.

Cast of characters:

Brecon Smout (ehiker)
Lupe Royce (waysoftheearth)
Bremusa the Amazonian Mercenary (kipper)
Waymon Peck (mgtremaine)
Ian D'Court (mgtremaine)
Gedsil Troke
Josh Honwill
A'Poth
Besnik Zim
Prof. Francis Delapore
Casamir Whipple
John "The Fisherman" Talbot
Brother Hubert Hawthorne
Walker Mann
Osbert the Clubfoot
Endicott Crumm
Haroog the Wormy
Vordei Fields
Joe Bishop, PI
Thomas Oakheart
Silussa Carter
Vern Fowler
Haltos "The Worm" Snickens

I'd like to playtest a climbing mechanic that I stole from Veins of the Earth.

Climbs are ranked in difficulty from 0-6. Success check is 1d6 - difficulty + 1 rope + 1 spikes + 1 thief. If a thief fails, then they get a second chance using their thief skill (modified by the climb's difficulty). The DM may impose additional penalties for combat, slick surfaces, etc.

0 = ladder, auto success in normal circumstances.
1 = easy climb, like abseiling down a cliff with a rope, or (in the party's current situation) scrambling down a slope 30-45 degrees.
2 = slope 45-90 degrees
3 = hard climb
4 = very hard climb
5 = normal human limit
6 = hanging upside down like a Spider Goat; auto-failure without climbing equipment or thief training.



(artwork by Scrap Princess)

It seems pretty well-balanced to me. It gives a thief auto-success on a hard climb, if they take their time and use rope+spikes, 5-in-6 for a very hard climb, etc.. And they would get a second chance to save themselves with their thief skill if they fail.
Then if the lead climber's roll is successful, the rest of the party could follow the rope set by the thief with a 5-in-6 chance for a hard climb, 4-in-6 for a very hard climb, etc. Any comments?

I dig it! Simple, elegant. I'll undoubtedly steal it (double-steal it, I suppose)!

Veins of the Earth is Carcosa-level gonzo taken as a whole, but I really like it for cherry-picking individual ideas. And the artwork by Scrap Princess is really creepy and evocative (see the example above).

One example of the craziness: Instead of measuring wealth in silver and gold, wealth is measured in abstract units called "lumes," equal to 1 silver piece or 1 hour of light (for example in the form of oil, torches, or some weird/magical/steampunk light source). The author Patrick Stuart writes:

Oil becomes light. Light gets you more time. Time gets you more money. Money gets you more oil. Oil, money, light and time all in one.

mushgnome wrote:I think my first ever PbP experience as a player was in waysoftheearth's Hinterlands campaign. My first PC, Michele, foolishly shot another PC in the back in a "friendly fire" incident, then got squished by an ogre. That was August, 2010 I joined your game, Ways.... 10 years of PbP fun!!

Fun times

mushgnome wrote: Lupe Royce (waysoftheearth)

Ahhh... Lupe Royce. One of my faves. He was a potential DOA character with wholly below-average ability scores (were they all single digit? can't recall) and 1 hp who turned out to be an urchin boy-thief of audacious bravery. He was a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed the episode of sneaking into the boss orc's bed chamber, attempting to tie his shoe-laces or some such (as a 1st level thief, mind) and getting caught red handed. And then surviving it LOL. That was some sneakin', proper like

Lupe had perhaps the biggest jump in hit points of any PC I can remember: When he leveled up, he went from 1hp to 6hp, a 600% increase!

Lupe Royce

An uneducated, 12 year old street urchin with unruly blonde hair, a grubby smirk, and a knack for getting into trouble. He can't read or write or count much, and has no genuine appreciation for "privacy" or "property".

Human boy, neutrally aligned.

Str 7 push doors 5-6, carry 75lbs unencumbered
Int 7
Wis 9 two languages
Dex 8
Con 7 40% survive shock
Cha 10 4 retainers

2nd level thief
HD 1+1
hp max 6
AC 9

Grubby clothes,
Dagger 3gp/1lb,
Sling 1gp/1lb,
Small sack 1gp/(10 lb capacity)
Tinderbox 2gp/-
Crowbar 5gp/5lb
Candles, 11 2gp/5lb
Waterskin 1 gp/5lb
Wolvesbane, bunch 10gp/-

Total 27gp/22lb

Remaining 29gp, 26sp.

Experience

20xp pilfering goblin gold