Thoughts on a Swords & Planets Campaign

[gentleman john]

Just to amuse myself, I've been writing up some notes on a swords & planets campaign, taking the old Warriors of Mars (WoM) text as a source of inspiration. One of the things I've noticed is the assignation of levels in WoM. According to the level table for Men, Level 1 is for Women, Level 2 is for Novices and Level 3 is for 2nd Rate Levies. This leads to an interesting situation when converting across to LL.

Traditionally, in LL and BECMI, characters start at Level 1 and are considered to be better than the average person. Certainly a Level 1 Fighter is about equal to a 1 HD Man. However, using WoM as a basis, PCs would have to start off as Level 3 in order to retain that parity. This gives them a significant advantage in terms of LL - although this is an advantage that is cancelled out by the setting. Given the combative nature of Barsoom, the fact that PCs begin at a higher level makes sense.

Of course, I could always redress the balance back towards LL and a Level 1 start, making adjustments elsewhere. Any thoughts from the hive?

[ArcherSix]

So are you using LL as the basis and adding Barsoom stuff? If that's the case, I'd say start at 1st level. Maybe give max hp at level 1?
Are you going to have earthlings? If so, they'd pretty much be Super Heroes. Super Strength, jumping and so on. I think this is a really neat idea for a game, and I'd love to see how it works out for your group.

[gentleman john]

Pretty much the idea, yes. WoM is geared towards miniatures, but as it is effectively OD&D Chainmail I saw it as a decent starting point for a lazy GM with a reasonable collection of ERB.

Max HP at level 1 is an option I always use. I believe in giving the PCs an edge, but not that much of one. They have enough to deal with. After that ... You take your chances and roll those dice! However, with WoM your level is also the number of hits you can take, hence you can see why my thoughts tended towards letting the PCs start at 3rd level.

So far I have not yet thought of allowing Jasoomian PCs. I think they would be a tad overpowered and better suited if I was running a game using other rules (like Savage Worlds or Icons). It's not to say that they might not occur, but they probably won't be at the level of John Carter (13th level according to the rules).

At the minute I am toying with the idea of replacing the Magic User and Cleric classes as they don't particularly fit into Barsoom. I have been giving consideration to a purely psionic class and some kind of scholar class as replacements. While I can see the merit in a psionic class - it is a natural extension of the Barsoomian telepathy - scholars might be a bit limited. Although, I could always let them use lost technology as an ability.

[YHWH]

I'd start them off at level 1 still, even if that means they're younger and greener than in a typical setting. It'd be an even greater challange than usual. Mars is harsh, let it be harsh.

Have you seen the free RPG callled Warriors of Mars someone put together based on the old TSR wargame?

And have you heard the story of Erac's Cousin? There was a portal to Barsoom in Castle Grayhawk...

[gentleman john]

Have you seen the free RPG callled Warriors of Mars someone put together based on the old TSR wargame?

Not the old TSR wargame that got released by accident? Didn't know somebody had put out a RPG based on it. Makes me feel redundant ... Or I go with the Flash Gordon idea instead

And have you heard the story of Erac's Cousin? There was a portal to Barsoom in Castle Grayhawk...

So I heard. Never got that far in it to verify it, though.

[YHWH]

Check it out before you give up hope. It's at grey-elf.com

Erac's Cousin was a wizard character that found himself on barsoom. Did the whole staring at a star thing just like John Carter did.

He couldn't cast spells there. I've heard a couple different explanations about why: that magic just didn't work there or because there just weren't any spellbooks so he couldn't memorize anything or that it was a cultural thing, the natives insisted he couldn't use magic.

Whatever the reason, he started training as a fighter. This might be the origin of 1e style dual classing.

When he came back home he could dual wield and cast. Eventually he got himself a couple of vorpal swords and was completely OP. Gygax decided to nerf him and a demon tricked him, destroying them. He gated in Zeus to save him, but zeus snubbed him and he turned evil as a result. A slightly altered version of the story of him being tricked found it's way into the 1e Monster Manual 2 in the entry for Fraz-Urb'luu.

At least, that's what I've read.

[gentleman john]

Check it out before you give up hope. It's at grey-elf.com

I will, thank you very much.

[YHWH]

No problem.

There's also one supposed to be coming out called Warriors of a Red Planet, but the blog hasn't updated since January.

[gentleman john]

Looks like Disney didn't do for John Carter after all ...