Thursday, January 26, 2012

Adventures On A Post Apocalypse Mars - Actual Play


So tonight I'm planning on really introducing my players to this Martian landscape I talked about Here. I'm going to keep the set up simple enough. The party falls in with a band of mercenaries on Mars. The game will be a Hex crawling affair but I won't be using the standard. Edagr Rice Burroughs Mars. Instead we're going to move the time line on a bit.

Instead of the Warlord of Mars I'll be using a different Martian hero from Earth as part of my inspiration

This little story, over a hundred years old now, tells a swashbuckling tale of adventure in a distant and improbable world. Swept away by a magic carpet (!), Lt. Gulliver Jones arrives on Mars. He first lands among pretty lotus-eaters, an indolent society that seems to live for its simple pleasures and complex wines, with a different drug for each kind of bliss the drinker might pursue. Soon, however, he's off on a quest, down the river of death, into sacred temples, and finally into the land of the savages that prey on the gentler folk of this land. Arnold's languge tends toward the archaic - it was written in 1905.Edwin Lester Arnold (1875-1939) was for most of this century more famous for his "Phra the Phoenician" than for "Gulliver Jones," published in London in 1905. The stir over "Gulliver Jones" began over thirty years ago when striking similarities between his work and that of Edgar Rice Burroughs' own Mars series of books (begun in 1911) were finally noticed.At any rate, Arnold's work stands as a strange, unsung bridge between the Jules Verne/H.G. Wells style of science fiction of his day and the heroic science fantasy to be found in pulp fiction, comic-strips, and movies later in the twentieth century. The book's central figure is Gulliver Jones, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. Happening upon a flying carpet in New York City, he is whisked away to Mars, which is inhabited by characters very reminiscient of Well's "The Time Machine." He falls in love with the vapid but lovely Princess Heru just in time to see her handed over to the king of the Hither people (who are Haggard-style Africans thinly disguised as Martians)
 The Mars of Gulliver might be the same Mars of John Carter. They appear together in Allan Moore League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 
Creatures On The Loose #16
Mar 1972

Writer: Roy Thomas. Artist: Gil Kane. Inker: Sam Grainger.
They team up together to wipe out Well's Martians  if its good enough for Moore then its good enough for me. Let others argue about the canon & where it fits. Den Valdron did a fantastic job of adapting the material & will be used in my game. You can read his wonderful work Here
 While everyone is flocking over to the Disney movie. Disney whose so wonderfully known  for their trademark issues that they make Wizbros look like choirboys.
 I'll be over in my Mars campaign with Gulliver Jones on Mars. He lives in the public domain. So much so that even Marvel Chronicled his adventures!
 You can read the complete novel Here
 
If your expecting the lovely John Carter Barsoom forget it. We're talking the down & dirty Mars of Leigh Brackett here. 

My Appendix 'N' For Tonight's Adventure 

  1. The Winking Lights of Mars -  "The linking of two worlds hinged on the result of the astronomers observations. Would the Winking Lights be seen?
     Available Here
  2. The Red Death of  Mars  Blurb: "With better space ships, exploration of other worlds brings more unpredictable hazards of mystery and death." Available Here
  3.  “The Martian Circe,” "Who was this sweet-voiced singer weaving a spell of dreams and drugs 
    that drove men mad and threatened to smash the System?
    SBI Captain Roal Hartford dared the death of the 
    Thousand Minds to learn her dreadful secret!" Available Here
  4.  Rules Will Be Labyrinth Lord & Mutant Future With The Advanced Companion Here
     Along With Grey Elf's Barsoom Rules Here
     Thanks to this fantastic blog Here
  5. The enemies will be a mix of  Wells Martians & Their lower caste Edison clone soldiers 
  6. The War that devastated Mars is unknown at this time

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