So today brought me a brand new gift from the other half The Warriors of The Red Planet Second Edition book from Lulu. The book has left me somewhat speechless, the author and artist did such a great job with the retroclone system. There's a lot happening here for your old school Mars role playing. The box was solid and no cracks or dents, the tracking went off without a hitch.
Lulu packed the book up very nicely and the new book looks fantastic, the system has gone over a bit of a revision and there are are new PC options on the table along with expanded set of skills for the scoundrel class and plenty of tables for adventure generation. No longer are PC's bound to Mars either, this seems to be the first in an expanded range of interstellar and solar system adventures.
The cover art reflects the old school OD&D homage right off the bat and there's plenty of self referencing going on in the book. The DM is really in control right out of the gate and there's a ton of old Mars action happening right between the pages. This book could be used as both source book and as rule book for your old school games and even though its a retroclone sort of it takes its own liberties and directions with the old school vibe straight out of the gate.
As I said the packing job was up to Lulu's usual standards. I think I like the company's books a bit more then Drivethrurpg's and this is a personal opinion rather then fact. Another thing I think that the Pdf doesn't do the physical book half of the justice it deserves. The artwork, layout is gorgeous and very well done.
The physical cover just pops and has such a vibrance as well as old school edge to it in my opinion.It just makes you want to actually play the damn game.
The print is clear and the binding is tight as hell which is nice and since this is my fourth or fifth book from Lulu I'm pretty damned stoked to have this piece of old school retroclone fun. Warriors of the Red Planet brings a nice fresh and upbeat sword and planet vibe to the table top scene.
All of the familiar faces are there from Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Lovecraft circle including Albert Otis Kline but there's plenty of new material to bring a fresh Martian prospective to life on Mars. The speed of the system is as good as OD&D and in some places far more clear.
The racial choices and classes are really very nicely done bringing to life not only a sword and planet but any number of science fictional creations can be brought to life on your version of Mars. The ideas and reflections of the WoRP system are pretty endless and the idea is brought home in the DYI OD&D ethos of the system itself.
The rulebook is really very well done and I couldn't be more pleased on any number of levels. Knowing my passion for old school pulp roleplaying this game has been a God sent on any number of levels and now even more so. Everything here is crisp and very well done reflecting a simple and intuitive D&D style with echoes and touches from the authors making it their own. This marks a nice bench work in sword and planet systems.
The back half of the book is the meat and bones of the Warriors of the Red Planet system for me. It is taken up by planetart dungeon and underworld design and its very well done. Much of this material could be used to create material and generate old school planetary dungeons for any number of old school science fiction or fantasy systems.
Tables and skills have been tightened, equipment expanded, material in WofRP edited & tightened up then dovetailed into other areas. The book does a good job of prepping up any number options for both high test science fiction and planetary romance adventures
The central affair of this game book is generating the adventure and getting you the DM as well as your players onto the table and rolling some dice. The systems are tight, crisp, and exuberantly old school in both ethos and practice.
Monsters are well laid out and there's lots of red man action as well as the usual exotic Martian horrors to make your PC's life a red hell on Mars or the solar system choice of yours a real adventure.
The races of Mars are well represented and easily incorporated on any number of levels of old school adventure play. These races are high test and old school facets of the Edgar Rice Burroughs school and all of his imitators who came after them and they're perfect choices to get the players in the right frame of mind for a planetary romance or old school science fiction adventure romp.
As I said the binding is very nice and the quality for this book is surprising on any number of levels.
There are a ton of random tables to get the DM's juices flowing and ebbing with adventure design, there's enough material here for six to eight campaigns with a quick toss of the dice. Did I mention the artwork is spectacular
There's lots of adventure design choices from weird science artifacts to fully blown horrors waiting in the wastelands to a ton of NPC tables all waiting for your adventurers. There's enough here to transport a ton of D&D or Sword and Wizardry characters into the deep end of the Martian pool.
Oh I do love the air ship to ship rules and artwork of Warriors of the Red Planet, it hearkens back to the OD&D wargaming roots while blazing its own trail against the back drop of the planetary tales of Mars.
They're concise, intuitive and well done and they tie everything in the book together. The whole game is aimed at creating and running adventures on Mars and aboard, I'm really impressed with the other all system and care that went into this product. I have plans for the second edition of Warriors of the Red rpg system.
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