Part of my hesitation is indecision. I'm not sure which version to get. There's the original and its blasphemous rituals, as well as a forthcoming revision which redacts the grisly details of Carcosan sorcery. And just this morning I learned about yet another version:
A Bold New Take on the World of Carcosa
First came the controversial original. Then came The Expurgation. But now comes the most shocking Carcosa yet. Can you survive the horror, the madness, the hours of fun and laughter that is....
Carcosa Mad Libs
"Summon the Adjective Ones: This number-hour ritual can be completed only on a adjective related to weather night. The sorcerer must obtain the kind of food found only in ruined kind of shop, plural of the Snake-Men. The sacrifice is a noun number years old with noun. The sorcerer, after partaking of the kind of food, must verb the sacrifice number times, afterwards verb-ing it with its own noun. As it verb-s, 10-100 of the Adjective Ones will verb out of the mists."
(I accept all blame, but this post is probably where I got the idea.)
4 comments:
"Summon the Tacky Ones: This three-point-one-four-hour ritual can be completed only on a partly-cloudy night. The sorcerer must obtain the chiles rellenos found only in ruined boutiques of the Snake-Men. The sacrifice is a mountebank ninety-three years old with automobile. The sorcerer, after partaking of the chiles rellenos, must audit the sacrifice two times, afterwards ignoring it with its own recreational vehicle. As it spazzes out, 10-100 of the Tacky Ones will verb out of the mists."
Not to fire up what is mostly dead, and I've not read any of this "bad material" so I can't even comment on the specifics, but it's all a matter of a group's play-style if you ask me. For some horror gaming I did a few years back I sat down and literally wrote my own little Grimore for the PCs to find, and it was filled with all sorts of yucky stuff. Did the players think it was gross? Yup. Were they disturbed? Yup. Did they love it, and are they still talking about it, almost 10 years later? Yup.
Badelaire: The rituals are gross, but described in a matter of fact way. They made me wince -- and that's a *good thing* about them, as far as I'm concerned. as Jim at LoftFP points out the average Cannibal Corpse album is far more violent and disgusting, but the approach is so over the top it's more like gross out humor than inhuman evil.
That said, Carcosa's unredacted rituals aren't the sort of thing I'd use in a game, probably. Certainly not for PCs. But with the magic of text editing I could turn the whole section into Mad Libs if I chose! Based on Doc Rotwang's comment I'm tempted. Good show, Doctor!
Thanks for the comments.
I am preparing a compilation of fan-based Carcosa material for public release (free PDF, "at cost" digest-sized book).
This post is pure gold. May I include it in "The Carcosan Grimoire"? If you agree, please let me know how you would like your name to appear in the credits.
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