Thoughts on Supplement V: Carcosa (and AD&D Carcosa)

I've been reading Geoff McKinney's original OD&D version of Carcosa. I had read it before but that was really just a skim and I hadn't read the LBB back then so I decided to really read it. I decided to gather my thoughts about it nine years after the party was already over.

This fits right into the setting

Many colored-men: Probably one of the better features of Carcosa. It's weird and different but at the same time mechanically simple. It differentiates the setting in a good way. Also, it seems like no one mentions that Bone Men are Newhon Ghouls.

Alignment: Simple and straightforward, fits the setting, not open to debate.

Sorcerers and rituals: Ah, the eternal stumbling block for Carcosa. I can help but think that if Carcosa had been released six years later the criticisms about the magic would be coming from a different side of the political spectrum. I'm thoroughly desensitized (thanks, Skortched 'Urf) so I have different complaints. The sorcerer is a fighter 90% of the time and the other 10% of the time he's on endless fetch quests and wilderness treks to try to bind horrible space gods that will eat him as soon as they can. If the player eschews all the evil stuff to be a good guy banisher hero then he's a fighter 99.9999% of the time until the referee decided to toss out one of the six monsters that your rituals can affect (one of whom also requires a fetch quest). I would just toss all of this out, it's far too clunky.

Psionics: Just too ephemeral for my tastes. Needs more meat.

Dice Conventions: Yeah, that's gonna be a Yikes! from me.

Monsters, part 1 (Lovecraft commentary): Carcosa uses a lot of Lovecraft material but Geoff changes a lot for unclear reasons. Azathoth is a cthonic deity like in Rats in the Walls rather than the nuclear chaos at the heart of the universe. Cthugua and Ithaqua get obscured names even though Geoff was already toeing the IP infringement line. Yog-sothoth is some sort of fleshy pile and a rapist even though I recall the Dunwich Horror showing the mating was consensual (at least as far as an inbred teen girl can consent to the key and the gate). Shub-Niggurath is literally Abhoth (with some Ubbo-Sathla influences). Deep Ones, Elder Things, Yithians, and others are all spawned by Shub-Niggurath despite very different origins in Lovecraft's stories. Cthulhu is Cthulhu, but the constant overhyping of him in RPGs rubs me the wrong way.

Monsters, part 2 (other stuff): Carcosa has Lovecraft-inspired monsters. Most border on self-parody, with way too many colorless, protoplasmic, or slime creatures. I liked the one made of obsidian shards though. I also dig the Man-Thing/Swamp-Thing homage. The Spawn of See-my-complaints-above are interesting but a pain unless you generate a bunch beforehand.

Magic Items and Technology: This is another one of the great differentiators of Carcosa; no +1 swords or potions, instead plutonium rifles and robots.

The woman and small, non-horrifying animals would be out of place on Carcosa

Geoff McKinney has also released an AD&D line of Carcosa modules on his lulu page. They're mostly by-the-book AD&D (minus demi-humans) featuring the standard classes, alignments, and magic (no objectionable sorcerous rituals). They manage to stand out due to the writing style but are lacking in the hydrogen beam rifle department.