In Geoffrey McKinney's Carcosa it's not uncommon to find a laser capable of shooting a beam of pure elemental fury. Not elemental as in fire/earth/water/air, mind you, but rather things like a zap gun that fires sulfur rays. And depending on whether your PC is a purple-skinned or blue-skinned Carcosan, you might take double or half damage, varying by element.It's a level of weapons-based lunacy that ranks up there with the Midnight Sunstone Bazookas of World of Synnibarr. And like everything else in Carcosa, determining which element your atomic ray spews at people is determined by a die throw. True fact: Geoffrey McKinney may be the only dude in the Old School Ruckus who actually pushes random generation too far for my tastes. I love Carcosa to pieces but the idea that at the beginning of combat you should roll a die to see which dice to roll is one step beyond the pale for me. Again, going back to Synnibarr, I'm reminded of Raven McCracken's advice when you want to generate a chance for something to happen. Mr. McCracken advises throwing percentage dice to set the % chance, then rolling the same dice again to see if that happens. CRAY-ZEE.
Anyway, there's this two page chart of 96 possible elements and who they affect. I wanted to see those effects overlaid on a Periodic Table, so the following monstrosity was born:
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That took way longer to make than I thought it would. And I'm not sure if I learned anything new from it.
PS - I'm totally stoked that McKinney and Jim Raggi are joining forces to publish a Lamentations of the Flame Princess deluxe edition of Carcosa.
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I'm stoked too. Should be a wild ride.
ReplyDeleteYou know, Pendragon 5th Ed (and possibly older editions) features a rule not far from the Synnibarr one. Roll two different coloured D20s, one to determine a random target and the other as the actual roll to complete.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea how a system which has gone through decades of editions can have a rule which is a really complicated way of flipping a coin.
Jeff, why limit yourself to just the periodic table? You should do the entire chart of the nuclides! I mean, come on, Uranium-235 kicks ass over Uranium-238!
ReplyDeletehttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/NuclideMap_small_preview.jpg
"Don't cross the streams!"
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This is awesome, thanks for sharing. Now I have to redo my Carcosa screen!
ReplyDeleteNow I've got to roll a % dice to see if I roll another % dice followed by another % dice. You guys go on this might take awhile. I'm stoked as well excuse me I have to go roll some % dice.
ReplyDeleteWell, now you've got a chart that you can use Vornheim style. Need an element & a number fast? Drop a dWhatsit on the chart to find out which one & how much damage it does/how much of it there is/what its half-life is, or whatever else.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me happy that in the age of new sincerity, the modern-day equivalent of McCracken gets taken seriously and get mixed—some rave—reviews.
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