My involvement with Geoffrey McKinney's Carcosa goes back to almost the beginning. About a year after the release of the original Supplement V: Carcosa Geoffrey expanded one of the hexes on the campaign map in an article for issue #4 of Fight On! and I contributed some pictures; I'm not certain but this may have been my first published role-playing game work.
Later Geoffrey self-published that same content, this time in colour, as a zine. In 2011 Lamentations of the Flame Princess released an expanded version of Carcosa in a handsome hardback edition and almost all of my pictures were dropped in favour of new pieces by Rich Longmore. A fair trade, I think.
(Although I like my Bone Sorcerer more. Sorry Rich!)
I say "almost all" because I do have one very small piece in the published book. It's only about 5mm square and even I had trouble finding it yesterday, but it was apparently enough for James at LotFP to send me a contributor copy of the book. I've always been touched by that generosity and am always keen to tell people about it, because it's a side of James that I think gets overshadowed by his general infamy.
(I'm not sure James himself would approve, as much of that infamy is self-generated, quite deliberately!)
Earlier this year James got in touch to tell me that a new, even more expanded version of Carcosa was in the works, adding all the supplements and extras to the LotFP hardback. This time my pictures from 2009 (!) would be included and I also found a piece intended for the Fight On! article that was not completed at the time. Don't ask me why, it was 16 years ago!
Yesterday I received my contributor copy of the new book, and it's even more handsome than the 2011 printing. There are three variant covers, of which my favourite is probably the Yellow Lotus, and you can also -- if you are rich -- buy all three in a sexy -- and very heavy -- slipcase.
Which is what the contributors received.
See what I mean about generous?
Anyway, Lost Carcosa is out now, and it's quite swish. You can read Grognardia reviews of the original Carcosa here if you're interested in what it's all about.
