Using More Old School Resources For Designing Martian Adventures In The Warriors of the Red Planet Rpg

So I've been looking at some of Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom literature especially the Amazon entry on the Master Mind of Mars which has a great summery of the book; "In The Master Mind of Mars, Ulysses Paxton (late of the U.S. Army and long an admirer of John Carter) finds himself in the hands of that extraordinary scientist-surgeon Ras Thavas of Barsoorn. Renamed Vad Varo, the former U.S Army Captain is trained by Ras Thavas as an assistant in the 'transfer of life' operations for which the master mind is famous. Vad Varo witnesses one such transfer-the wicked old mind Xaxa, Jeddara of Phuundahl, into the young and lovely body of a nameless victim, while the mind of victim number 4296-E-263-H is now housed in the body of an ancient crone. When Vad Varo brings 4296-E-263-H to life he discovers she is Valla Dia and falls in love with the spirit and mind of the girl imprisoned in the 1000-year-old body that had been Xaxa's Incredible dangers and adventures follow as Vad Varo, determined to restore Val la Dia to her proper form, battles his way through weird countries and savage peoples until at last he meets with John Carter, Warlord of Mars, and brings Valla Dia safely to her home in Duhor." 

 When it comes too the Mastermind of Mars we have a real grab back of locations from the swamps of Duhar to the streets of Lower Helium. This all ties into what I've said before on this blog.  It was actually Curst Saden 2010 review that could my attention;"In the sixth installment of the Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs, it focusses on a new man from Earth named Ulysses Paxton, who after dying in World War One finds himself in a strange facility on Barsoom run by a crazy old man that is master of modifying bodies. There Ulysses is apprenticed by this old man and he assists him in various surgeries. He meets the love of his life, a beautiful woman, only to discover the man he works for has stolen her body and now houses the brain of the wicked Jeddara (queen) Xaxa. Thus Ulysses goes on a quest to find Xaxa and recover the body of the woman he loves. To accomplish this he recruits a religious zealot, an atheist and a Great White Ape that has had it's brain spliced with that of a man's and thus can talk.

This story is a little slow at first but it's very interesting. It contains action and suspense. For once this is not a tale about rescuing the damsel in distress, which is a nice break (unless you count the quest for the body Xaxa stole, so it's like the body in distress.....)

It's weird but it's fun. I recommend it." Jeddara  Xaxa is in my opinion only the start of the wicked Barsoomian royalty. Stay with me for a moment, there's a huge hierachry of royals each vying to out do each other to get ahead to the thrones of Barsoom. Backstabbing, asassination, and worse are the operating rules for Barsoomian royalty. How do I know any of this?! Because of the fact that assassins are legally employed & used throughout Mars.  This ties directly into the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition Assassin rules found in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeonmaster's Guide. 

Again totally stealing this photo from Wayne's Books. 

The Warriors of the Red Planet Rpg also plugs into this sancitioned asssassination and duelist culture that infects Mars. Behind the scenes murders,poisoning, etc have to be rampant throughout Mars. Only this style of murder is going to be ritualized and prettied up with warrrior codes. This ties into many of the tribal elements that Leigh Brackett wrote about. So in other words the alignment of Lawful Evil certainly fits the assassins of Mars. 
This brings up Dragon magazine issue #64 with it's Assassins Guild article which goes into traditional assasins guilds. These secretive organizations could easily be applied to Mars.