Carnival Ideas - help? Need to string this together

[Oni]

Give the Jack of Tears a cameo and see if your players notice.

 

[Nightfall]

Give the Jack of Tears a cameo and see if your players notice.

Oh yes. The Jack WOULD make a nice addition. Plus maybe some Sons of Mirth as well!

 

[Oni]

Holy Crap your fast, do you have some kind of special Scarred Lands alarm rigged up?

 

[Nightfall]

Holy Crap your fast, do you have some kind of special Scarred Lands alarm rigged up?

Uhm no, but it's my Deific sense. See my sig.

 

[Kibo]

it's almost a crime that no one has mentioned Something Wicked This Way Comes yet.

 

[Shadowdancer]

it's almost a crime that no one has mentioned Something Wicked This Way Comes yet.

Boothbey already did in his post.

Another good movie to check out is "The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao." It's more of a comedy, but has some good ideas you can steal for a fantasy carnival.

 

[Kibo]

Boothbey already did in his post.

Turns out I'm illiterate. Ya learn something new every day.

And as he pointed out, games of luck, or rather skill at luck where ones fate or friends hang in the balance are a LOT of fun. It's one of the reasons I like Castle Amber so much. (It even has a tarot card game which seems to be the first precurser to the deck of many things.) And there have got to be at least a couple of twilight zone episodes, or tales from the crypt for that matter, to blatantly steal from.

Might be a little much at first level, and, again I didn't read the book see above, but why not have a real live hall/house of horrors with some nice flesh eating zombies munching on the people who preceeded the PC's.

Maybe have the PC's notice that some of the people who died at the carnival were damned to 'enjoy' or 'work' the carnival in everlasting undeath. Perhaps if one of PC dies, they initially join the carnival, (or a loved one from a PC's backstory turns up in the carnival, or an NPC they've grown fond is so cursed) and the surviving party members have the opportunity to gamble for their friends and loved ones souls. (Game mechanic wise you might not nessecarily need "raise dead" etc, unless you want it such that the 3rd level illusionist made the carnival, as opposed to was trapped into running it. After all as an evil magical carnival it only really needs to follow its own rules, which should be ruthelessly consistant.)

The freaks might be particularly unsettling....

You could have them go into a tunnel. Then have them pop out on the other side in a land they do not know, where a little gnome gives them an energy bow, a shield, a club, an elven cloak, a magic hat, and an extending staff. Then have the gnome tell them that they'll need to find their own way home and to watch out for Venger.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Things to add...

The old woman that will read your fortune...who hides her face yelling 'get out, you are cursed' as she looks at one of the players hands.

The simple youth that cares for the animals but by the light of the full moon becomes one!

The beautiful dancing girl that teases and flirts with the players only to make her lover jealous...just to watch the dance of knifes and the spilling of blood.

 

[Mangrum]

The second edition Carnival sourcebook was fairly rules light, so converting it shouldn't be too beastly. In fact, I believe Carnival is revisited in Champions of Darkness, which comes out this month, handily enough. It may help with the conversions.

And Carnival includes nods to Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, and Tod Browning's Freaks.

 

[Mangrum]

Oh, and here's a web extra I wrote for it back in the day:

http://www.kargatane.com/secrets/carnival.shtml