Using And Abusing Carcosa By Geoffrey McKinney For The Lamentations Of The Flame Princess rpg

Carcosa is both a source of adventure and campaign construction set itself. It was never intended for the players but as a resource for the DM to explore & exploit.

Grab it Right Over
HERE
Warning for Adults Only

“Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn't touched. I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror--of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision--he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath:

The horror! The horror!” 

― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

 Artwork by Tim Truman not the white men of Carcosa but how my imagination views some of the races of the setting. 

So I'm reading through a friend's blog and he's reviewing Carcosa By Geoffrey McKinney, it's a great review except once again the point of it is sort of missed to some extent ( Read Corey's review HERE). Now I've run Carosa numerous times as campaign setting, one off convention style adventure, and over all location. There are a few things to understand about the setting.  I don't want to hear about the mature themes, adult icky rituals, adult content,etc.

Carcosa is the alien savagery left over from a time when the alien eons when the alien god things and races of Lovecraft have faded into the background. This is a place that was the play pen of the cold and calculating minds of the serpent men and where they called down the power of sorcery and super science! This is a laboratory of the gods and the lab rats have run amok centuries ago. The various races of men depicted are not even remotely human but something far more dangerous, weird, and alien by our own standards. In text flavor and feel, the only novella of Robert Howard's that comes close in my mind is Almuric.  This is an entire adventure location lost to the universe and still going on. Regardless if there are PC's or not Carcosa continues on its way lost or not. 

According to Wiki :
The novel features a muscular hero known on earth as Esau Cairn. He is transported through space to a world known as Almuric by unspecified scientific methods. While there he battles with frightening monsters and beautiful women. Cairn becomes known as the Iron Hand due to his powerful punches and boxing skills. The novel shares similar elements with the John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Read more right over HERE

Carcosa is one of the only places in the entire multiverse where a completely different incarnation of  Shub- Niggurath births out both Lovecraftian spawn and any number of the main Lovecraftian races. That's right we've got everything from Elder Things to The Great Race of Yith churned out to wander the landscape and bring issues and adventure to your party of fools who blunder into their machinations. She's been doing this for centuries and she's not stopping. Carcosa just might one of the main sources of Lovecraftian horror in the multiverese. Why? Well really that's up to you as the DM.


Dominique Signoret - http://signodom.club.fr/

There is hex after hex of both nega dungeon and mega dungeon locations of epic proportions and their not going away anytime soon. These locations have both their own and center of awesome awfulness as sources of pulp goodness, spewing adventure fodder  and their own agendas right out into the multiverse. Regardless of your adventurers intent this is Carcosa and its an entire world that happens.

Carcosa is the ultimate DM's tool box allowing him or her to exploit their favorite Lovecraftian tropes in a world gone mad and push them into dimension and higher dimensional space of their own campaigns with the least excuse and the maximum amount of weirdness for their PC's. You might think of this the ultimate NPC generator. And we all know how they work. The NPC's created by the environs of Carcosa do not conform to the following.

Do you have an adventure location, Negadungeons  location that you've been itching to try out? And you don't want it to impact your regular campaign? Set it in one of the hexes of Carocsa! Seriously your not going to break Carocsa. It can be used for any number of pulptastic bits of high weirdness. The fact is that you might think of Carcosa as complete hazard zone. You don't want PC's going there unless you really want characters changed in bizarre and weird ways forever. 

One artist who never fails to inspire even the vaguest bit of Carcosa inspired madness in me is Scott Flament. For example this is probably happening right now someplace on Carcosa.
You can see more of his work right over HERE


Artwork featured is for entertainment purposes only and in no way reflects a violation of copyright or trademark infringement. This post is part of an rpg opinion blog post and only reflects my opinon and is not shared by the makers of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess game.  I'm not responsible for any PC's death, dismemberment, or insanity whist visiting upon  Carcosa.  Carcosa is one of the most dangerous Lovecrafian supplements to come on the market and should be used sparingly. All other influences should be used as needed. Artifacts and relics from Carcosa should be checked for type Z,X, and Q Lovecraftian and demonic influences.