Your Favorite Martian (Game)

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Lofgeornost

Lofgeornost

Feeling Martian!
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With apologies to Roy Walston, and all that...

With distant light visible at the end of the COVID tunnel, I've been thinking about campaigns I might run once I can begin face-to-face gaming again. I'm intrigued by the idea of a Sword-and-Planet game, based on pulp(ish) visions of 'Old Mars': a dying desert planet, with canals, ancient ruins, etc. Rather than bringing Earth humans to the setting, I think I might just focus on the native Martian cultures.

In the event, I'll probably concoct my own Martian setting, drawing a lot on older SF, but I'm interested in games that I can plunder for material or ideas. I'm aware of a number, and even own some of them, but I'm interested in people's reactions to and evaluations of them. So this is more of a 'what do you think of X' thread than a 'give me a list of games about X' thread, if that matters.

I'd be interested in hearing reactions to any of the following (or other Mars-like games you may have played):
  • John Carter of Mars by Modiphius. I'm actually a bit less interested in this one, since I know Barsoom pretty well and don't plan to use it 'as-is' for the setting, though I may borrow some elements of it; I'm looking for something that's a bit more like Leigh Brackett's Mars.
  • The Mars line by Adamant, available for D20 and Savage Worlds.
  • Space 1889, which is available for at least 3 different systems these days. I played some of the original edition back in the day; my memory is that the game focused pretty heavily on the human presence on Mars and less on Martian culture. But maybe later editions have changed that.
  • Rocket Age has a Mars sourcebook and adventures; I've never seen them.
  • Hollow Earth Expedition has a Revelations of Mars book; again I've never seen it.
  • Cavaliers of Mars, which I gather from the description is more 'musketeers in space' than pulpy in its inspirations.
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I like the Modiphius version. It has different eras to play in and the mechanics helped with the pulp action feel. I ran the Dotar Sojat era, and basically substituted a band of Earth men going to Barsoom versus John Carter. My players never used the Momentum pool, but they also ignore it in other games with this type meta mechanic.

I've always wanted to run Space 1889 and it is still on my to do list.
 
Picaroon Jack said:
I like the Modiphius version. It has different eras to play in and the mechanics helped with the pulp action feel. I ran the Dotar Sojat era, and basically substituted a band of Earth men going to Barsoom versus John Carter. My players never used the Momentum pool, but they also ignore it in other games with this type meta mechanic.

I've always wanted to run Space 1889 and it is still on my to do list.
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How does Modiphius handle the more gonzo elements of Barsoom, which Burroughs himself would often forget or ignore after inventing them, like radium rifles that can shoot 100 miles, or that houses were on giant pedestals that went up at night to keep assassins out, or that Martians had telepathy?
 
With the Martian telepathy in game terms it basically means two things, 1. Earth folk learn the language quicker and 2. Earth people can lie more effectively.

The radium weapons are pretty awesome and have a Fearsome tag, a band of Tharks just about brought down the party's air ship in one barrage. I used these optional rules:
Screen Shot 2021-04-20 at 5.50.41 PM.png

The Dotar Sojat supplemental era book has more gear and way more on airships .
 
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I like the John Carter game quite a bit as well. The 2D20 system isn't very popular in these parts, but the iteration of it used for John Carter is excellent for the kind of high pulp swashbuckling I associate with the Barsoom books. It does a fantastic job as a setting reference.

Revelations of Mars is also quite good. I'm a sucker for Hollow Earth Expedition and I really enjoyed its addition to the game line. It does a decent job of drawing on its inspiration while simultaneously making the setting its own thing.

Another I like, which is more solar system space opera than planetary romance, is Worlds United (Mythras). It draws heavily on War of the Worlds for inspiration and is a lot of fun. The book spends a lot of time on Mars given that the settings baddies (evil space Octopoids) are from there.
 
I've read the Savage Worlds version of Adamant's Mars. It was pretty good, as I recall, although even without having read any of the John Carter novels at the time I could tell Adamant borrowed from it heavily. Mixing in the War of the Worlds Martians was a neat choice, though.

Incidentally, if you happen to have the Pathfinder books People of the Stars and Different Worlds, Golarion's home system has a Mars-equivalent called Akiton that may be worth a look.
 
I tried to like Adamant's Mars d20 rules, but after trying it out, it became apparent that they took the fairly pedestrian D20 Modern system and took out the parts of it that were actually working.

What I did many years ago was take the Iron Lords of Jupiter setting (published in the pages of Dungeon magazine back when it was in print) for D20 Modern and adapted it to Fate. I ran that for several GenCons and it was a game that I got the most compliments for. Yeah, it's not Mars, but it's Sword-and-Planet action.
 
If you can grab a copy of Dictionary of Mu, I think you'll find plenty ideas to mine there. It's a supplement for Sorcerer but you really don't need it, especially if you only look for inspiration. [Yeah I didn't really respect the OG post rules but hey, it's really a great book].
 
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Savage Schemer said:
Another I like, which is more solar system space opera than planetary romance, is Worlds United (Mythras). It draws heavily on War of the Worlds for inspiration and is a lot of fun. The book spends a lot of time on Mars given that the settings baddies (evil space Octopoids) are from there.
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I've been interested in that one, because it was written by John Snead--and because I like Mythras in general.

TristramEvans said:
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That looks interesting, but too closely tied to the 1950s BEMs attack Earth scenario. It does remind me that GURPS used to include a Mars sourcebook that I think had some sword-and-planet elements. Has anybody read it?

cover_lg.jpg
 
So does anyone have an opinion about which version of Space 1889 offers the most interesting take on Mars? The original G.D.W. version, which is still available, had a whole series of supplements or adventures: Canal Priests of Mars, Beastmen of Mars, Caravans of Mars, Steppelords of Mars, and Cloud Captains of Mars, as well as material in Conklin's Atlas of the Worlds. For the current Ubiquity version, it seems there is only one Mars sourcebook, though there might be some useful information in the earlier Marvels of Mars.
 
I have used the Adamant Savage Worlds Mars within a HEX campaign. Conversion to HEX is easy as you just use half the die value, or half the die value -1 dependent on how competent you want the opponent.
 
Lofgeornost said:
With apologies to Roy Walston, and all that...

With distant light visible at the end of the COVID tunnel, I've been thinking about campaigns I might run once I can begin face-to-face gaming again. I'm intrigued by the idea of a Sword-and-Planet game, based on pulp(ish) visions of 'Old Mars': a dying desert planet, with canals, ancient ruins, etc. Rather than bringing Earth humans to the setting, I think I might just focus on the native Martian cultures.

In the event, I'll probably concoct my own Martian setting, drawing a lot on older SF, but I'm interested in games that I can plunder for material or ideas. I'm aware of a number, and even own some of them, but I'm interested in people's reactions to and evaluations of them. So this is more of a 'what do you think of X' thread than a 'give me a list of games about X' thread, if that matters.

I'd be interested in hearing reactions to any of the following (or other Mars-like games you may have played):
  • John Carter of Mars by Modiphius. I'm actually a bit less interested in this one, since I know Barsoom pretty well and don't plan to use it 'as-is' for the setting, though I may borrow some elements of it; I'm looking for something that's a bit more like Leigh Brackett's Mars.
  • The Mars line by Adamant, available for D20 and Savage Worlds.
  • Space 1889, which is available for at least 3 different systems these days. I played some of the original edition back in the day; my memory is that the game focused pretty heavily on the human presence on Mars and less on Martian culture. But maybe later editions have changed that.
  • Rocket Age has a Mars sourcebook and adventures; I've never seen them.
  • Hollow Earth Expedition has a Revelations of Mars book; again I've never seen it.
  • Cavaliers of Mars, which I gather from the description is more 'musketeers in space' than pulpy in its inspirations.
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Have you read Ian McDonald's brilliant 1988 book Desolation Road? It's possibly my favourite novel about Mars, in all its weirdness. I realise it's not a game, but it is well worth reading.
 
Franko77 said:
Have you read Ian McDonald's brilliant 1988 book Desolation Road? It's possibly my favourite novel about Mars, in all its weirdness. I realise it's not a game, but it is well worth reading.
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I've not, though I have a strong memory of its remarkable cover, featuring a train on Mars.

Sloth_in_a_bowl said:
I have used the Adamant Savage Worlds Mars within a HEX campaign. Conversion to HEX is easy as you just use half the die value, or half the die value -1 dependent on how competent you want the opponent.
Click to expand...

Interesting to learn. The Adamant Savage World version seems like one of the cheapest alternatives currently; you can get the whole line in PDF (the core rules, two supplements, and 6 adventures) for about $20 U.S. on Drivethru.
 
It's not on your list but I've read through Warriors of the Red Planet and it looks pretty cool. Very rules lite, and to my knowledge pretty much just OD&D on Mars.

I especially like the addition of an optional sorcerer class for a "mystic mars" type setting.
 
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