OSR Commentary - H.G. Wells' iconic Martian war material tailored for The Burrows & Borderlands Rpg

Here  is a conversion of H.G. Wells' iconic Martian war material tailored for Burrows & Borderlands (a standard fantasy tabletop roleplaying framework utilizing classic six-attribute blocks and d20-style mechanics).

1. The Fighting Machine (The Tripod)

The crown jewel of the Martian vanguard. This massive, 100-foot-tall engines of glittering metal parodies the human gait with a terrifying, rhythmic, three-legged stride. It is propelled by intricate electromagnetic muscular systems rather than wheels, emitting puffs of green vapor from its flexible joints.

Size: Gargantuan (100 ft tall)
Type: Construct / Alien Warmachine
Attributes:
  STR: 26 (+8)   DEX: 14 (+2)   CON: 22 (+6)
  INT: 10 (+0)   WIS: 14 (+2)   CHA: 08 (-1)

Armor Class: 20 (Heavy Martian Alloy plating)
Hit Points: 210
Speed: 60 ft (Ignores difficult terrain under 15 ft high)

Traits & Senses

• Brazen Hood (Panoramic Cockpit): The pilot sits in a swiveling brass cowl at the apex, granting immunity to being flanked and blindsight up to 120 feet.

• All-Terrain Strider: The tripod can wade through deep coastal waters and step cleanly over structures, trees, or defensive walls up to 30 feet high without slowing down.

• Iron Cage / Collector's Basket: A large, mesh white-metal basket hangs from the rear of the main chassis. Up to 10 Medium-sized creatures can be held captive inside.

Actions

• Multiattack: The Tripod makes two Tentacle attacks and uses either its Heat-Ray or fires a Black Smoke Canister.

• Articulate Steel Tentacles: Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 30 ft. Hit: 18 ($2d10 + 8$) bludgeoning damage. The target is grappled (escape DC 18). While grappled, the target can be placed into the rear collection basket as a bonus action.

• The Heat-Ray (Recharge 5–6): A jointed metallic arm aims a polished parabolic mirror, projecting a beam of pure, invisible thermal energy in a 150-foot line (5 feet wide). Each creature in the line must make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw.

  • Failure: 55 ($10d10$) fire damage. Combustibles ignite, water vaporizes instantly, and targets reduced to 0 HP turn to ash.

  • Success: Half damage.

• Black Smoke Canister (2/Day): Fires a canister from a gun-like tube up to 300 feet away. Upon impact, it releases an inky, heavy poisonous gas in a 40-foot radius. The smoke clings to the ground, contours to the landscape, and sinks into valleys or trenches.
  
  

  • Any breathing creature that starts its turn in the smoke takes 22 ($4d10$) poison damage and is blinded.

  • The Martians can discharge built-in steam nozzles to instantly clear and neutralize the smoke when they wish to advance.

2. The Handling Machine

A low-profile, highly dexterous workhorse. Looking like a cross between a metallic spider and a glinting crab, it stands roughly 7 to 8 feet tall. It is used primarily for excavation, building other warmachines, and direct resource processing. It possesses an unsettling, near-organic fluidity.

Size: Large (8 ft tall, wide base)
Type: Construct / Alien Labor Unit
Attributes:
  STR: 18 (+4)   DEX: 16 (+3)   CON: 18 (+4)
  INT: 10 (+0)   WIS: 12 (+1)   CHA: 05 (-3)

Armor Class: 17 (Reinforced Shell)
Hit Points: 85
Speed: 40 ft, Climb 30 ft

Traits & Senses

• Complex Articulation: Features 5 agile, jointed legs and an array of levers, bars, and reaching levers. It has advantage on checks made to grapple, disarm, or manipulate objects.

• Cerebral Sync: The machine mimics the movements of its pilot perfectly. It suffers no penalties to dexterity or precision despite its heavy mechanical nature.

Actions

• Multiattack: The Handling Machine makes three attacks: two with its Clutches/Levers and one with its Grasping Tentacles.

• Jointed Levers / Metal Claws: Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft. Hit: 11 ($2d6 + 4$) slashing or bludgeoning damage.

• Grasping Tentacles: Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 15 ft. Hit: 9 ($1d10 + 4$) bludgeoning damage and the target is grappled (escape DC 14).

• Blood Extraction (Grappled Target Only): The machine drives an direct feeding apparatus into a living creature grappled by it. The target must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 27 ($6d8$) necrotic damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. The pilot Martian is nourished by this extraction.

3. The Flying Machine

Built toward the end of the campaign as the Martians adjusted to Earth's thick atmosphere. It is described vaguely as a flat, broad, and very large shape. It acts as an aerial transport and carpet-bombing platform, flying silently through the cloud cover to rain down darkness.

Size: Huge
Type: Construct / Alien Aircraft
Attributes:
  STR: 20 (+5)   DEX: 12 (+1)   CON: 16 (+3)
  INT: 10 (+0)   WIS: 14 (+2)   CHA: 05 (-3)

Armor Class: 16 (Lightweight Alloy)
Hit Points: 115
Speed: 0 ft, Fly 90 ft (Hover)

Traits & Senses

• Aerodynamic Mastery: The machine does not rely on wings or loud combustion; it glides with a quiet, ominous hum, giving it advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks while flying at night or inside heavy weather.

Actions

• Aerial Heat-Ray: Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 100/300 ft, one target. Hit: 27 ($5d10$) fire damage.

• Rained Darkness (Recharge 5–6): The Flying Machine releases a specialized payload of Black Smoke canisters directly beneath it. It coats a 60-foot square area directly under its flight path in a dense cloud of toxic black vapor (identical properties to the Tripod's Black Smoke).
  
  

Here is the entry for the Martians themselves, designed to pilot the war machines and terrorize the woodland defenders of Burrows & Borderlands.

The Martians

The Martians are a chilling testament to pure, intellect-driven evolution stripped of emotion, empathy, or physical beauty. They are sluggish and physically vulnerable under the heavy gravity of the mortal realms, yet they possess a terrifying telepathic malice and a completely alien biology.

An individual Martian is essentially an enormous, fleshy head roughly four feet across, dominated by a pair of massive, dark, unblinking eyes. Instead of a body, a cluster of sixteen thin, whip-like tentacles projects directly from the base of the head, arranged in two groups of eight. They have no internal nostrils (smelling via their skin), no ears, and no complex digestive tract. Because they cannot digest solid food, they sustain themselves by directly injecting the fresh, living blood of captured creatures into their own veins.

Size: Medium
Type: Aberration / Alien
Attributes:
  STR: 06 (-2)   DEX: 08 (-1)   CON: 10 (+0)
  INT: 22 (+6)   WIS: 16 (+3)   CHA: 12 (+1)

Armor Class: 11 (Natural unarmored sluggishness)
Hit Points: 32 (5d8 + 10)
Speed: 10 ft. (Crawling/dragging)

Traits & Senses

• Vulnerability to Earthly Flora/Fauna: The Martians have no immune system. They have disadvantage on saving throws against diseases, blights, and infections native to the setting.

• Telepathic Unity: Martians do not speak. They communicate with each other instantaneously and silently via telepathy up to a range of 1 mile. They can project a crushing, wordless sense of dread into the minds of non-Martians within 60 feet.

• Overwhelming Intellect: The Martian adds its Intelligence modifier (+6) to any saving throws made against magical illusions, charms, or psychic attacks.

• Senses: Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 13.

Actions

• Tentacle Slap: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 bludgeoning damage. (The Martian rarely fights physically outside of its machines due to its profound weakness).

• Psychic Static (Recharge 5–6): The Martian unleashes a wave of raw mental energy. Each non-Martian creature within a 30-foot radius must make a DC 16 Intelligence saving throw.

  • Failure: 18 ($4d8$) psychic damage, and the creature is Frightened for 1 minute.

  • Success: Half damage and is not frightened.

• Vampiric Transfusion: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one incapacitated or grappled creature. Hit: 9 ($2d8$) necrotic damage. The Martian regains hit points equal to the damage dealt. This represents the Martian using a needle-like tube to harvest and inject the target's blood.

Behavior & Strategy

Outside of their warmachines, Martians are nearly helpless, dragging themselves slowly across the ground with wet, heavy gasps. Consequently, they are almost never encountered unprotected. They spend 99% of their time sealed within the pressurized cockpits of Tripods or Handling Machines. If a player manages to breach a warmachine's hull and expose the pilot, a single well-placed arrow or sword stroke from a brave badger or mouse knight can easily dispatch the alien mastermind.