OSR Commentary On Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing From Raven God Games

 "Aeons before man arose from the primordial mire, ancient creatures descended from the stars or stepped through dimensional passages to inhabit the Earth. Whilst many of these Old Ones have since passed into inactivity, the secrets they carried with them have been shared with man and now terrible cults haunt the fringes of modern society. These ancient terrors thus still menace mankind and, if the prophecies are to be believed, the Old Ones shall return to reign again over the Earth!"

So if you've been following 'the Lost in The Eighties' campaign then you know that we've returned to our own version campaign  of  Geoffrey McKinney's Carcosa. And we/ve already discussed White Box Gothic so let's move into Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing From Raven God Games. So what does  Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing From Raven God Games besides adding modernish technology to Geoffrey McKinney's Carcosa. There several reasons why this is a solid OSR addition to the already crowded campaign setting.. And that's adding alien sorcerers to the cultists NPC class that we have in Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing From Raven God Games. The deadliest monsters in the Eldritch Tales are the human cultists. Add to the mix is the alien sorcerers who are more then happy to deal with cultists for more forbidden magicks & knowledge. 

Besides opening up the 20th Century to Carcosa & its Lovecraftian monster gods. Carcosa is open to the Lovecraftian cults as well! This means that Earth's cultists could look at Carcosa as the promised land. And this brings into focus the fact that Carcosa could be the origin point for more then one horror that has been extinct or nearly so on Earth for millions if not billions of years! Plus we've got the unkown horrors as well. 
And this all comes down to the spawn of Shub-Niggurath whose spawn could easily overwhelm large portions of Earth. Fortunately these spawn are fragmented at best & actively opposed to each at certain points. 
The mixture of Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing & LoFP's Carcosa is actually a rather rich one to mine! There's tons of ideas just floating within the OSR mix that it could take months to untangle the whole cloth here! 

OSR Commentary On Black Box Books -- Tome Three: Cannibals and Confusion By Kirt A. Dankmyer From Ivanhoe Unbound For Your Old School Campaigns

 Now we've been revisiting Geoff McKinney's Carcosa recently & digging through my old campaign notes I came across a reference to Ivanhoe Unbound's Black Box Books -- Tome Three: Cannibals and Confusion By Kirt A. Dankmyer. And these monsters, races, and magick are a perfect addition to Carcosa according to the author Kirt A. Dankmyer; "Four of these six ANTAGONISTS are based loosely on Clarke Ashton Smith! As for the OTHER TWO, one STRANGE CREATURE comes from authentic myth and legend, and one FOE comes from inauthentic myth and legend that I wrote last week!

WHAT SIX MONSTERS DO YOU GET?

1. Stats for an Avatar of Mordiggiel, corpse-devouring Angel of the DEAD!

2. The SKINNY on the Clergy of Mordiggiel and the way they have been CHANGED by association with their DREAD LORD!

3. The forbidden DETAILS of the Graedigg, half human, half FIEND, master of illusion!

4. The tale of the HEADLESS Akephalos, who DEVOUR MEN WHOLE when they go MAD!

5. The secrets of the clever Fögr, who HIDE their VUGLAR HABITS behind DISQUIETING MASKS!

6. And finally the TABOO-BREAKING RITUAL that will bring forth WRATHFUL EMANATIONS from a man's soul... or a Graedigg's soul.

AND THAT'S ONLY THE FIRST HALF!

Ever feel your CLERICS and MAGES need more RANDOM TABLES?'

WHO DOESN'T? Well, our CHAOS MAGIC system has got you COVERED! For every ADVANTAGE, there is a DISADVANTAGE, or at least a GOAT! " 

These races fit the weird & wonderful of Carcosa quite well and given the ten mile size of the hexes of Cacrosa these monsters have more then enough room to appear. And that's some of the advantages of these monsters they quite nicely fit the cultclassic 'B' movie asthetic of Cacosa. And add to this the fact that these races have been inspired by Clarke Ashton Smith & everything becomes clearer. 
We get some unexpected weirdness not directly taken from Lovecraft or Jack Kirby. 

Sprinkling these races & entities throughout the Carcosa setting allows the DM to make Carcosa his own and gives a greater range to the occult forces on the Weird Tales aspect of the campaign. 

Add into Carcosa another alternative magick system & things take an unexpected turn giving PC's even more magical options for their wizards without having resort to the more powerful and icky occult rites that belong to the villains. And this comes into the grip of the Chaos magick of Cannibals & Confusion; "During character creation, with the permission of the referee and all the other players, a Magic-User or Cleric can be declared to be a Chaos Devotee. The character cannot be Lawful in alignment, and a Chaos Devotee Cleric must worship an appropriate god, like a trickster deity. A Chaos Devotee is exactly the same as a normal Magic-User or Cleric in nearly all respects. The only difference is whenever a Chaos Devotee casts a spell, they roll on the special tables below to modify the effects of the spell. First, roll for a Chaos Blessing." 
Ok, not one player I know is going ask permission to play a Chaos Devotee and even if they are a nice one these PC's don't seem to last at my table. These are at best temporary PC's who always seem to get themselves killed. 

And this is one of the aspects of the Carcosa setting, its that deadly all on its own. Numerous times has the Lovecraftian aspects or mundane aspects of Carcosa claimed a victim. Its simply part of the landscape so have a few PC's available. 

OSR Commentary On White Box Gothic By James M. Spahn [Swords & Wizardry]

 ""Alone with the dead, I dare not go out!"

White Box Gothic brings gothic horror to your Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox campaign! Inside this terrible tome you'll find a horde of horrors!

• Six New Classes: From the deadly Monster Hunter to the damned Dhampir.
• Thirty New Spells: Speak with the dead, defile the land, and bind spirits to your service!
• Twenty-Five New Magic Items: Draw undead servants from your Bag of Bones, learn the secrets of the Book of the Damned, and draw hope from the Symbol of Piety!
• Fifteen New Monsters: The lowly Cultist, the mysterious Breath Stealer, to the powerful Vampire Lord!
• Optional Rules: Corruption, Dread, and laying Curses!

Inside these fifty pages you'll find all manner of dark and dire secrets to vex your players and defy the undead" 

Its been a long time since I cracked my copy of White Box Gothic By James M. Spahn & this rpg is going to pick right up from yesterday's Lost Carcosa review here. The idea here is that White Box Gothic has a few PC classes that would compliment Lost Carcosa nicely. We've got the monster hunter class which goes to ten levels. The Metaphysican which is standard occult 'Van Helsing' type & cleric rolled into one. Spiritualist whose your medium distrusted by society. The wanderer class covers everything from your cast out victim of supernatural forces to your wandering crusader. Dhampir is your half vampire whose on a mission against the occult! The Reanimated is your Frankenstien monster type created in a lab whose a victim of circumstances who crusades against the forces of darkness. 
We've got optional rules on Corruption, Dread, & Curses both major or minor. And then we get into major spells up through the sixth level; "Empower Turning Spell Level: Cleric 3 Range: Self Duration: 2 rounds This spell allows a Cleric to roll 4d6 instead of the normal 3d6 when attempting to Turn Undead." This gives far more weight to the cleric! 

The magic items are ideally situated for a Gothic OSR campaign romp with little preparation on the part of the DM take for example;"Candle of Darklight This appears to be a large candle crafted from black wax. When lit it produces a black flame that actually radiates no visible light. Those who are within 60 feet of a lit Candle of Darklight are able to see perfectly in natural or magical darkness. A Candle of Darklight can burn for up to six hours before being expended. Usable by: All Classes" 
Useable by any PC class and able to peer through those infernal clouds of darkness that demons & the like love to use. And this dives into the White Box Gothic  monsters of this Gothic OSR rpg & we get the following nastiness; " Blood Raven Armor Class: 8 [11] Hit Dice: 1 Attacks: Peck (1d6-3) Special: Devour the Eye Move: 6 (15 when flying) HDE/XP: 2/30 These large, red-eyed birds have feathers as black as midnight. It is not known whether they are truly ravens or not – but they are most commonly found on ancient battlefields, barrow mounds and in graveyards. They crave human flesh and take particular delight in devouring the eyes of living victims when freshly dead carrion is not available. Whenever a Blood Raven rolls an unmodified 19 or 20 on its “to-hit” roll, the target of the attack must make a saving throw or find their eye plucked from its socket and devoured. This blindness can only be cured by powerful magic, though once a blood raven has devoured the eye of its victim its lust for blood is slaked and it flies contentedly away. They are known to travel in groups of 3 – 18 (3d6). These groups are known, aptly, as a “murder” of blood ravens." 

How could White Box Gothic be used with LoFP's Carcosa?! Well there are several thoughts that come to mind. The first is the fact that Carcosa despite its Gonzo trappings is actually a Sci Fi horror campaign setting and so the corruption rules are going to be in full affect for PC's messing with the technological magic items of Cacosa. And the nasty nature of Carcosa itself is just waiting for the PC's themselves and this can be traced to the Great Old Ones who are more then willing to created one of the most dangerous monsters of White Box Gothic The Clerical Liche; "Clerical Liche Armor Class: 1 [18] Hit Dice: 12 - 18 Attacks: By weapon (1d6) Special: See Below Move: 12 HDE/XP: 15/2,900, 16/3,200, 17/3,500, 18/3,800, 19/4,100, 20/4,400, 21/4,700 While the vast majority of liches have mastered the arcane arts of the Magic-User in rare cases, some of them devote themselves to the service of a malign god or goddess with such zeal that they rises as powerful and terrible 42 Eric Fabiaschi (Order #34172416) masters of corrupted divine magic. These are known as Clerical Liches. They are able to cast spells as a 10th level Cleric. In addition, they have also mastered the spells of a Magic-User, though to a lesser degree than traditional liches. A clerical liche can memorize and cast spells as a MagicUser with a level equal to half their normal hit dice, rounded down. This means that a liche with 14 or 15 hit dice would memorize and cast spells as a 7th level Magic-User and as a 10th level Cleric. Clerical liches cannot paralyze with either their touch or aura, but can Turn Undead as a Chaotic Cleric of 9th level, as described in Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox." 
Such a liche created by the Great Old Ones or Outer Gods would be perfect as the head of a cult or other  Mythos related religion sprung from the dark other worldly jungles of Carcosa. The third thing that comes to mind is the way that White Box Gothic's spells really makes the cleric into a force to be reckoned with & with Lamentations this makes for a much more dangerous playing field. Anything the PCs can do the NPC can do as well! This means that the inversion of some of the spells could cause a lot of harm to the PC's in spades!