The Carcosan Grimoire - A Short Review

The Carcosan Grimoire is a set of free resources for the role-playing supplement Carcosa by Geoffrey McKinney. This set is too be used with the older expurgated or unexpurgated edition of the game. I see no reason not to use the material in the updated version of the game. 

This 64 page fan produced supplement isn't adding tremendous amounts of history about the world of Carcosa. Instead it offers a frame work of interesting tid-bits, cool monsters, & interesting organizations as well as npc classes. The book starts with an article listing 1d30 ways to flesh out villages from a 1d30 chart. This chart gives options to a dungeon master whose got to come up with another village after hex 13 & the characters cross into hex 36. The handy little guide is followed by Mr. Dessaux which has a set of tables for creating (1d6) random customs, architecture, and clothes for new villages; while Ellis has a random table for body modifications. 

 All of this allows one to create unique villages & places to visit within the bounds of ultra violent Carcosa without having to get one's head bashed in every three seconds. Seriously it can get old when your trying to figure out the latest alien do dad & rest your characters heads while running constantly from mutant dinosaurs.
 In addition there are new monsters Mr.Nordin contributes the Yix'Caahl, Enslaver, and Omniscient Oracle of the Refulgent Maze monsters; and Doc adds the Predatory Mantis, Swamp Fell, and Nameless Folk. These monsters are very Lovecraftian to say the least. They fill in the giant monster category along with most of the 'what the hell' is happening sense we've come to expect from this setting.
 A note on "magic items" the magic items of the setting are built like artifacts. The alien technology is one of those things that players will be grabbing for as soon as they start dungeon crawling. However unlike most 'magic items' there are cultural taboos & such to items like  the infernal pigments of the Bone Men can get one killed. While the Rejuvenating Bath and Plains of Whispering Grass are magic items that seem right out of a Lovecraft story. 

  The Carcosan Grimoire adds the witch profession, and details the Brothers of the Skull (monk/paladin analogues for the setting), including a number of rituals and NPCs. These two classes are very well fleshed out & offer endless plot hooks for the Dungeon Master to play with . There are hints that these might not be the only other organizations that PCs will run into. 

    Finally the book has a table for randomly generating suitably Carcosan names that sound like overblown titles. These can really go a long way toward setting  stuff for a DM to get the feel of his village right. 

 Finally there is more monster goodness! The book has wilderness and underground wandering monster tables, and new monsters including men (with a random mutation table), giant insects, dinosaurs, and aquatic threats. There are  'Frequently asked Questions about Carcosa' with the author. Scattered in there are notes for using AD&D monsters with the setting & more background info. Its not simply another ' This is the author interview lets see what he thinks' Q&A there's some actual good stuff here.
  Final thoughts, this book packs lots of stuff into a very small package. THE MATERIAL IS MATURE. DID I MAKE THAT CLEAR ?!? If you don't like it then please don't download it.  There is really no reason why this couldn't be used with other Retro clone, Swords + Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord, Mutant Future, or regular original edition Dungeons & Dragons. I personally think its worth the download & have been using it since 2009.
                                                  Its free & can be downloaded Here