OD&D Carcosa One-Shot
Yesterday, we played some D&D!
Books Used
• Men & Magic + Original Edition Delta's Target 20 System
• Carcosa for LotFP by Geoffrey McKinney
• Carcosan Grimoire & Carcosa Rehab for Carcosa, by various people
• Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad Issues #1-3 by Wayne Snyder, Edgar Johnson & Adam Muszkiewicz
• Tomb of the Serpent Kings by Skerples (w/art by Scrap Princess)
Notable Rules
• Fighting-Men Only, and no Demihumans, but you get to be a weird color or a stranger from Earth.
That's it really. The rest was "by-the-book".
Player-Characters & Their Friends
• Potiron, a Blue Man played by A.
• Bilmidou, a Purple Woman played by Lu'
And their brothers and sisters (they were all kidnapped before their eggs hatched and raised by a kindly but insane old couple in the desert south-west of the Silken Conclave, where Ur-Hadad stands), a bunch (7 in total) 0-level men and women of various colors.
What Happened?
• After the kindly couple passed away one night, the now-orphans decided to leave their home cave and learn about the world, and walked towards the city at the edge of the desert that their parents warned them against - for all cities are corrupted and blasphemous!
• There, they saw strange beings: ape-men in high-tech pajamas, snail-men nobles carried by countless slaves everywhere on huge thrones, and a lot of street artists and cultists.
• After thinking about and giving up preemptively on joining the assassins' guild, the orphans decided to join a cult and try to get money this way. One in particular sounded good enough, a bunch of weirdoes in masks and robes talking about "The Stoned Demiurge" and "The Path of the Evening Star". On a misunderstanding, the 3 INT Potiron made a sort-of faux-pas and found himself carried by the mob around the cultists and brought at the feet of the Hierophant who led the whole bunch. When the high priest touched Potiron, he gave him a strange vision, which convinced Potiron that they were the right cult for him and his family.
• Having followed the mob of newly converted to a luxurious temple in hopes of "some good truth, or at the very least some free stuff", the party surrendered all of their wordly possessions for grey robes and the promise of a "purifying ritual" which they happily agreed to.
• The ritual turned out to be a big orgy in hot baths with LSD-skinned Ulfire concubines and all the newly converted, which was very pleasant but confusing, for the psychedelic skin of the Ulfires is particularly potent in its effects. A few hours later, the two PC found themselves in an underground cell, being interrogated by the Hierophant about the vision!
• It turned out, the whole thing is supposed to be a scam, and what Potiron described somehow angered the priest as he was now convinced they were spies sent from another rival cult. This led to a few days of torture. After which the priest came back and apologized for his mistake, explaining that there was another explanation: Potiron was the Chosen One, and as such he should be sent on a quest with his family to retrieve an artifact for the cult, proving his worth by braving a dangerous and ancient tomb to get it. The party had no choice in that matter, as refusal to pursue the quest would mean Potiron was not, in fact, the Chosen One and should then be tortured to death.
• After being transported through the desert with hoods on their faces, the party was given back its gear and sent forth into the Tomb of the Serpent Kings!
The Tomb of the Serpent Kings!
• Half the party got knocked out by poisonous gases in the first room they explored.
• Then almost everyone left got crushed by a hammer trap at the first closed door.
Including the Chosen One.
• A few retainers awoke from their poisoned slumber and re-joined the party as PC ownership was switched around, and the remaining party members proceeded with extreme caution.
• At this point, Lu' figured out that this was a dungeon she had already explored, and triumphantly found her old map of the place! As the party was mocking Fate for being a cheap bastard who re-uses dungeons, they stumbled upon a skeleton holding the scroll upon which the newly found map was scrawled.
• They eventually found a massive room with a hanging chain and broken pillars, got spooked, and left before realizing what was in there.
• A lot of trapped rooms were cleverly dealt with, now that the party was in "dungeon mode" after the horrible and quick deaths.
• A Skeleton Jelly was met and the party spent about 15 minutes trying to kill it in various ways before deciding to tie it up with rope to one of the many snake-men statues in the dungeon.
• Some more traps were dealt with, little loot was pilfered, and everyone was pretty tired, so we called it a night, hoping to finish the dungeon next time!
Thoughts
• Delta's Target 20 system is the best combat algorythm AND the best way to handle saving throws.
I was worried the adding of secret AC might slow things down, but it turns out that it's the easiest way I've seen so far for determining whether an attack is a hit or miss, and I've been a fervent defender of both THAC0 and Attack Matrices in the past (not that there's anything wrong with AAC but it doesn't feel natural to me).
• I really like not having Wizards and Elves and Dwarfs. It makes the game feel much more "fantasy" as in, anything can happen, magic is mysterious, monsters are weird, etc. I'm glad I stopped caring about typical expectations after reading a lot of posts from Planet Algol.
• I love humans, and I love weirdly coloured humans. I think it's a fun way of differentiating the human cultures without resorting to "faux vikings and faux indians" kind of deal like in old-school Sword & Sorcery settings. Here colour is tied to very broad and simple clichés, but they're just that, clichés.
• While OD&D remains an excellent system, abandoning tradition and feeling good about it made me think about maybe using Maze Rats in the future, or maybe a simplified version of it (I'm not a fan of Paths or skill systems in general and prefer these things to be discovered through play). Or maybe I'll hack OD&D and strip it out of some more things until it fits my playstyle entirely.
Books Used
• Men & Magic + Original Edition Delta's Target 20 System
• Carcosa for LotFP by Geoffrey McKinney
• Carcosan Grimoire & Carcosa Rehab for Carcosa, by various people
• Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad Issues #1-3 by Wayne Snyder, Edgar Johnson & Adam Muszkiewicz
• Tomb of the Serpent Kings by Skerples (w/art by Scrap Princess)
Notable Rules
• Fighting-Men Only, and no Demihumans, but you get to be a weird color or a stranger from Earth.
That's it really. The rest was "by-the-book".
Player-Characters & Their Friends
• Potiron, a Blue Man played by A.
• Bilmidou, a Purple Woman played by Lu'
And their brothers and sisters (they were all kidnapped before their eggs hatched and raised by a kindly but insane old couple in the desert south-west of the Silken Conclave, where Ur-Hadad stands), a bunch (7 in total) 0-level men and women of various colors.
What Happened?
• After the kindly couple passed away one night, the now-orphans decided to leave their home cave and learn about the world, and walked towards the city at the edge of the desert that their parents warned them against - for all cities are corrupted and blasphemous!
• There, they saw strange beings: ape-men in high-tech pajamas, snail-men nobles carried by countless slaves everywhere on huge thrones, and a lot of street artists and cultists.
• After thinking about and giving up preemptively on joining the assassins' guild, the orphans decided to join a cult and try to get money this way. One in particular sounded good enough, a bunch of weirdoes in masks and robes talking about "The Stoned Demiurge" and "The Path of the Evening Star". On a misunderstanding, the 3 INT Potiron made a sort-of faux-pas and found himself carried by the mob around the cultists and brought at the feet of the Hierophant who led the whole bunch. When the high priest touched Potiron, he gave him a strange vision, which convinced Potiron that they were the right cult for him and his family.
• Having followed the mob of newly converted to a luxurious temple in hopes of "some good truth, or at the very least some free stuff", the party surrendered all of their wordly possessions for grey robes and the promise of a "purifying ritual" which they happily agreed to.
• The ritual turned out to be a big orgy in hot baths with LSD-skinned Ulfire concubines and all the newly converted, which was very pleasant but confusing, for the psychedelic skin of the Ulfires is particularly potent in its effects. A few hours later, the two PC found themselves in an underground cell, being interrogated by the Hierophant about the vision!
• It turned out, the whole thing is supposed to be a scam, and what Potiron described somehow angered the priest as he was now convinced they were spies sent from another rival cult. This led to a few days of torture. After which the priest came back and apologized for his mistake, explaining that there was another explanation: Potiron was the Chosen One, and as such he should be sent on a quest with his family to retrieve an artifact for the cult, proving his worth by braving a dangerous and ancient tomb to get it. The party had no choice in that matter, as refusal to pursue the quest would mean Potiron was not, in fact, the Chosen One and should then be tortured to death.
• After being transported through the desert with hoods on their faces, the party was given back its gear and sent forth into the Tomb of the Serpent Kings!
The Tomb of the Serpent Kings!
• Half the party got knocked out by poisonous gases in the first room they explored.
• Then almost everyone left got crushed by a hammer trap at the first closed door.
Including the Chosen One.
• A few retainers awoke from their poisoned slumber and re-joined the party as PC ownership was switched around, and the remaining party members proceeded with extreme caution.
• At this point, Lu' figured out that this was a dungeon she had already explored, and triumphantly found her old map of the place! As the party was mocking Fate for being a cheap bastard who re-uses dungeons, they stumbled upon a skeleton holding the scroll upon which the newly found map was scrawled.
• They eventually found a massive room with a hanging chain and broken pillars, got spooked, and left before realizing what was in there.
• A lot of trapped rooms were cleverly dealt with, now that the party was in "dungeon mode" after the horrible and quick deaths.
• A Skeleton Jelly was met and the party spent about 15 minutes trying to kill it in various ways before deciding to tie it up with rope to one of the many snake-men statues in the dungeon.
• Some more traps were dealt with, little loot was pilfered, and everyone was pretty tired, so we called it a night, hoping to finish the dungeon next time!
Thoughts
• Delta's Target 20 system is the best combat algorythm AND the best way to handle saving throws.
I was worried the adding of secret AC might slow things down, but it turns out that it's the easiest way I've seen so far for determining whether an attack is a hit or miss, and I've been a fervent defender of both THAC0 and Attack Matrices in the past (not that there's anything wrong with AAC but it doesn't feel natural to me).
• I really like not having Wizards and Elves and Dwarfs. It makes the game feel much more "fantasy" as in, anything can happen, magic is mysterious, monsters are weird, etc. I'm glad I stopped caring about typical expectations after reading a lot of posts from Planet Algol.
• I love humans, and I love weirdly coloured humans. I think it's a fun way of differentiating the human cultures without resorting to "faux vikings and faux indians" kind of deal like in old-school Sword & Sorcery settings. Here colour is tied to very broad and simple clichés, but they're just that, clichés.
• While OD&D remains an excellent system, abandoning tradition and feeling good about it made me think about maybe using Maze Rats in the future, or maybe a simplified version of it (I'm not a fan of Paths or skill systems in general and prefer these things to be discovered through play). Or maybe I'll hack OD&D and strip it out of some more things until it fits my playstyle entirely.
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