Carnivale: Masque of the Red Death during the Depression?

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

Has anyone else seen the TV series "Carnivale"?

I've only caught a few episodes and was wondering if anyone else thinks it has applications to a MotRD campaign set in 20s America?

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Having never seen Carnivale, nor even knowing what Carnivale is, I can confidentally say yes. Yes it does.

Seriously though, what is the show about?

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

I'm not actually sure!

It's about a travelling Carnivale and the end of the world. There's a psychotic preacher who is the main villain and a young man (played by Nick Stahl) who joined the Carnivale at the beginning of the series and how their fates are linked.

[Coan]

Ok first off, yes this show is Gothic Earth in the great depression but with virtually no monsters -save people.

This is quality television.

Unfortunatley it was cancelled after the second series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivale

I haven't seen the second season yet but the first was cool.

What exactly did you want to know about it?

[Coan]

Oh and just before I go to work -when I first saw this I thought it was a take on The Carnival.

That's how good I thought it was, plus that really describes it pretty well. The Gothic Earth take on the Carnival.

[Jennifer]

Hi all,
Finally someone mentions Carnivale here. I almost thought I had to start my own thread about it.

YES! carnivale is ideal for a gothic earth campaign in the US of the 20s and 30s. I feel Carnivale is so good, i want to be able to DM ravenloft and Gothic earth like that when i grow up! I felt it was so good, I forced my ravenloft grout to at least watch series one when it was shown on dutch telly (having first seen in on belgian telly)

What i especially like is the fact that the epic storyline is part of the beginning of the story from the word go. through the dreams and visions of the two avatars you can see they are connected, even though the story starts out small, a man on the run joining a traveling carnival and a priest working hard in his church.

the story follows mainly ben, a young and destitute man who buries his mother while his farm is being repossesed. (dustbowl area). he then joins a carnival, with a large cast of weird people. he stays with them for a while.
Ben is strange from the start. As a child he brought kittens back to life, which his mother did not appreciate. in the carnival the blind mentalist tries to read bens mind while he dreams. the nightmare ben experiences nearly cause the death of the mentalist.
the never seen managment of the carnivale wants to keep an eye on ben, as he thinks ben is a link to a man he is hunting. so ben stays and trhough his dreams directs the progress of the carnivale against the better judgement of the director of daily events of the carnival.

anyway, the story gets weirder and weirder, but in a good ravenloft way. series 1 set up the story and asked a lot of questions. a lot of those are answered in series 2, but it is clear that carnivale was ment to run more series as the ending is very open ended.

I have seen series one and two and am bitterly regretting the fact that HBO canceled the show.

A great series and definitely a good inspiration for ravenloft stories.

Jennifer

[Maximillian]

A great TV series and really close to MotRD IMHO. It was dark and gritty, with nice twists and really weird characters. In the begining I was almost shocked by the raw realism of some scenes. I was deeply disappointed though that they discontinued it after the second cycle... The official excuse is that the series had run its circle.

[Coan]

Well it took a while but they finally showed the final episode of season 2 over here. All I can say is that this show should definatley not have been cancelled. However apparently it cost $4 million an episode to make but wasn't a huge crowd drawer so I can see why it was cancelled.

Why does anything good on T.V. never get high ratings? Firefly, Carnivale...

Oh well I'd rather have these two seasons than nothing at all (I intend on buying the DVDs when I see them).

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Yes, the DVD, the eternal afterlife of television - the righteous live on forever, while the wicked are damned to an eternity in the 3/$30 bin.