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.

OSR Commentary - Using Worlds without Number with Sword of Cepheus 2nd edition

 Mash-ups between Worlds Without Number (WWN) by Kevin Crawford and Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition (SoC 2e) by Stellagama Publishing form a phenomenal pairing. They are both built for sandbox-style, gritty sword-and-sorcery worlds, but they approach the genre from two completely different mechanical lineages: WWN uses an OSR (D&D-adjacent) baseline, while SoC 2e is a d6 skill-based system (Traveller/Cepheus Engine baseline).

Combining them allows you to leverage the ultimate sandbox world-building toolkit (WWN) with a highly lethal, career-driven, tactical skill system (SoC 2e).

1. The Direct Port: WWN Framework + SoC 2e System

In this setup, you use Sword of Cepheus 2e as the core mechanical ruleset, but you use Worlds Without Number to build and run the campaign. This requires almost zero mechanical conversion because WWN is specifically built to be setting- and system-agnostic.

• World & Sandbox Generation: Use WWN’s legendary world-building tools. Generate your nations, courts, ruins, history, and factions exactly as written in WWN. The system’s faction turn rules function perfectly in the background regardless of what dice your players roll.

• The Travel & Wilderness Loop: Use SoC 2e’s highly simulationist rules for daily travel, rations, getting lost, and weather. Match them up against WWN’s wilderness tags to instantly create regional hazards.

• Monsters and Encounters: Use the 95 beasts in the SoC 2e bestiary to populate your world so you don't have to convert D20 armor classes or hit dice into 2d6 terms.

2. The Mechanical Hybrid (Kitbashing)

If you want to blend the mechanics themselves, you have to bridge the gap between WWN's d20/2d6 hybrid and SoC 2e's pure 2d6 lifepath engine.

Lifepaths with Foci

SoC 2e features Traits (special perks that grant mechanical advantages). WWN relies heavily on Foci (unique talents chosen at character creation and leveling).

• The Hack: Replace or supplement SoC 2e Traits with WWN Foci. Because WWN skill checks are already rolled on a 2d6, many Foci convert natively. If a WWN Focus says "Gain a level in a skill," it translates perfectly to a +1 skill bonus in SoC 2e.

High-Stakes Magic

Both games treat magic carefully, but SoC 2e makes magic actively dangerous—rolling an accidental snake eyes or failing a check by 4 or more triggers a horrific mutation or soul-warping mishap.

• The Hack: Keep the SoC 2e Sorcery skill check system ($2\text{d}6 + \text{INT} + \text{Sorcery}$). However, allow characters to learn traditional WWN spells or arts as rare "Eldritch Rituals" found in forgotten ruins. If they attempt to cast a powerful WWN spell without proper preparation, force them to roll against the lethal SoC 2e mishap table.

Resolving Skill Gaps

The two games have slightly different skill lists. If you blend them, use the SoC 2e skill list as your baseline since it maps precisely to the 2d6 math, but pull in WWN-specific skills like Lead, Know, or Magic if your specific setting requires them.

Summary of Strengths

Feature	Use This Book	Why It Works
Character Creation	SoC 2e	The 2d6 lifepath/career system creates deeply flavored, grizzled veterans out of the gate.
Combat & Lethality	SoC 2e	Combat is incredibly fast and dangerous; two clean hits can easily kill an unarmored PC.
Magic System	SoC 2e	High risk, corruptive, and unpredictable—perfect for the sword-and-sorcery vibe.
World Building	WWN	Unmatched tools for creating tags, ruins, religions, and historical layers.
Faction Gameplay	WWN	Keeps the world moving and reacting dynamically behind the scenes while the PCs explore.

Here is a concrete blueprint for translating mechanics between the two systems.

Because both games already resolve standard skill checks using a $2\text{d}6$ roll, converting a passive ability (a Focus) is incredibly smooth. Converting a creature requires mapping Worlds Without Number's (WWN) D&D-style Hit Dice and Armor Class onto the classic Traveller-derived characteristics of Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition (SoC 2e).

1. Focus Conversion: Shocking Assault

In WWN, Shocking Assault makes a warrior exceptionally dangerous with melee weapons, ensuring they deal a minimum amount of damage ("Shock") even if they miss a target, provided the target's Armor Class isn't too high.

The Original (WWN Level 1)

• Gain a bonus combat skill.

• You can inflict Shock with your weapon even on a miss, as long as the target's AC is equal to or less than the weapon's maximum Shock rating.

• Add $+2$ to your weapon's Shock damage.

The Conversion (SoC 2e Trait)

SoC 2e uses Traits instead of Foci. Because Cepheus combat doesn't use a "miss but still do damage" mechanic, we translate this into the game’s existing economy of combat advantages: increased initiative, reliable damage, and heavy momentum.

Trait: Shocking Assault

Prerequisite: Melee Combat-1

Your melee attacks are brutally aggressive, forcing opponents onto the defensive even when they parry.

• When rolling for initiative at the start of combat, you may add your Melee Combat skill rank to your total if you have a melee weapon drawn.

• If you attack an opponent with a melee weapon and miss the Effect check by exactly 1, you still deal a glancing blow. The target takes damage equal to your STR DM + 1 (ignore weapon damage dice and armor).

2. Monster Conversion: The Husk Warrior

Let's take a classic dark fantasy staple: a desiccated, ancient guardian reanimated by sorcery.

The Original (WWN Statistics)

• HD: $2$ (average 9 HP)

• AC: 15 (equivalent to scale mail/heavy leather)

• Attack: $+2$ to hit

• Damage: $1\text{d}8$ (Longsword)

• Shock: 2 / AC 15

• Move: 30'

• Save: 14+

• Morale: 12 (Fearless/Undead)

The Conversion (SoC 2e Statistics)

In SoC 2e, monsters use the same primary physical stats as characters (STR, DEX, END) to track their physical pool. Damage is subtracted directly from these characteristics.

Husk Warrior

Ancient, leatheraries-dry corpses bound to life by lingering curses or spiteful sorcery. They do not tire, feel pain, or bleed.

Characteristics: STR 9, DEX 6, END 10

Armor: Leather & Bronze Scale (Armor 3)

Skills: Melee Combat-1, Athletics-1

Attacks:

• Ancient Bronze Sword: $2\text{d}6+1$ to hit; Damage $2\text{d}6$

Special Traits:

• Undead Resilience: Immune to psychological hazards, poison, disease, and asphyxiation.

• Brittle Bones: Piercing weapons (arrows, rapiers) roll one less damage die against them. Crushing weapons (maces, warhammers) gain an additional $+2$ damage on a successful hit.

• Unstoppable: Husk Warriors never check morale and ignore the effects of a "Stunned" combat result. They fight until one of their physical characteristics is reduced to 0.

Mechanics Translation Notes:

1. Hit Dice to Attributes: A 2 HD monster in WWN translates to roughly a total physical pool of 20–25 points in SoC 2e (split across STR and END).

2. Armor Class to Armor Rating: WWN AC 15 reduces a regular character's chance to hit by about 25%. In SoC 2e, we match this by giving them an Armor Rating of 3, which flatly subtracts 3 damage from any incoming physical hit.

3. To-Hit Probability: The WWN attack bonus of $+2$ translates perfectly to a skill rank of Melee Combat-1 in SoC 2e, which gives a reliable, professional baseline to their $2\text{d}6$ combat checks.

Xmen Comics Sentinel Mark II (Standard Model) For the Superpowered! rpg & Classic 2d6 Science Fiction Rpgs

 Bringing the iconic, mutant-hunting Sentinels from X-Men comics into Stellagama Publishing’s Superpowered! RPG (the lightweight, 2d6-based Quantum/Cepheus Engine ruleset) requires capturing their sheer scale, implacable tracking systems, and adaptive defenses.

In Superpowered!, a standard comic-book Sentinel operates as a high-threat powerhouse designed to force team coordination rather than solo combat.

Sentinel Mark II (Standard Model)

Below is a ready-to-run profile for a classic 3-story-tall Sentinel scaled for Superpowered! campaigns.

Attributes & Characteristics

• STR (Strength): 15 (+3) — Massive hydraulic might

• DEX (Dexterity): 6 (+0) — Deliberate and heavy movements

• END (Endurance): 14 (+2) — Solid armored construction

• INT (Intellect): 8 (+0) — Advanced algorithmic mainframe

• EDU (Education): 6 (+0) — Loaded tactical database

• CHA (Charisma): 2 (-2) — Cold, electronic monotone

• Stamina: 65

• Armor Value: 8 (Heavy Armor Plating)

Skills

• Combat (Energy Blasts) 2

• Combat (Heavy Melee) 2

• Recon (Mutant Tracking) 3

• Athletics 1

Core Superpowers

• Flight (Rank 2): Equipped with boot jets. Moves at high speeds horizontally and vertically.

• Energy Blast - Plasma/Concussion (Rank 3): Fired from palms or chest. Deals 3d6 damage on a successful ranged combat roll.

• Super-Strength (Rank 2): Grants the lifting capacity of heavy industrial vehicles. Adds +2d6 damage to physical smash attacks.

• Mutant Detection Scanners (Sensors Rank 3): Can track individuals possessing anomalous genetic markers (the X-Gene) within a several-mile radius. Automatically bypasses standard stealth unless the target uses psychic or technological cloaking.

• Capture Cables (Restraint): Can fire high-tensile steel or energy cables from its fingertips. Targets must succeed on a Formidable (-2) STR check to break free once ensnared.

Special Rules & Adaptation Mechanics

To capture the true horror of the comics, incorporate these custom system rules during gameplay:

Adaptive Defense Shielding: The first time a Sentinel takes damage from a specific elemental energy type (e.g., Cyclops' optic blasts or Iceman's freezing), it suffers full damage. On its next turn, its onboard computer adapts. Reduce all subsequent damage from that specific superpower type by 4 points for the rest of the encounter.

Colossal Target: Due to their 30-foot height, attackers receive a +1 DM (Dice Modifier) to hit a Sentinel with ranged attacks. However, any melee attack targeting their head or primary visual sensors requires an Athletics check or a specialized flight power to reach.

Building The Red Planet Empire - Mixing Warriors of the Red Planet (WotRP) with the Domain-level Architecture of ACKS II Rpg - The d100 Table of Barsoomian Land Encounters Table & Martian Outlaw Markets

 For a ground-bound caravan, a party of infantry, or a lone hero traversing the dried seabeds (ochre moss plains), deep scarps, and shifting orange dunes of Mars, the wilderness is a brutal testing ground. Without the safety of a sky-galleon's hull, adventurers are directly exposed to predatory megafauna, tribal raiding parties, and environmental hazards unique to the dying world. This blog post picks right up from Building The Red Planet Empire - Mixing Warriors of the Red Planet (WotRP) with the Domain-level Architecture of ACKS II Rpg - d100 Random Martian Dungeons & Wilderness tables

The table below provides a d100 Land-Based Wilderness Encounter Engine designed to plug directly into the hex-clearing and travel procedures of your ACKS II / WotRP campaign.

The d100 Table of Barsoomian Land Encounters

d100	Encounter	Category	Description & ACKS II Mechanical Impact
01–04	Green Horde Scouting Party	Faction	$1d6+2$ Green Martian warriors riding Thoats. They are hunting for meat and metal. If they outnumber the party, they demand all weapons and pack beasts as tribute or attack instantly.
05–08	Wild Thoat Stampede	Wildlife	A herd of $3d6$ riderless, eight-legged beasts thunders across the moss plains. The caravan must succeed on a Group Saving Throw vs. Paralysis to avoid being trampled, which causes $2d6$ damage to mounts and loses $1d4$ stones of gear.
09–12	Ochre Moss Sinkhole	Hazard	The seemingly solid orange moss carpet hides a cavernous limestone collapse. The lead scout or pack beast must make a Find Traps or Saving Throw vs. Paralysis or plunge 30 feet down into a dark, unmapped fissure.
13–16	Lone Panthan (Mercenary)	NPC	A displaced Red Martian duelist seeking a new master or a city-state to hire their blade. They possess the Sword-Mastery proficiency and will join the party for standard mercenary wages + 1 shares of loot.
17–20	Banth Stalkers	Beast	$1d3$ hairless, ten-legged Martian lions track the party’s scent trail from the parallel dune ridges. They attack during the third watch of the night, ignoring campfires.
21–24	Dead Sea Bed Caravan	Commerce	A nomadic Red Martian trade train pulling heavy, low-slung repulsor carts. They act as a temporary Class V Market, willing to trade Radium Fuel Cells for fresh water at a 20% premium.
25–28	Radium-Charged Dust Devil	Hazard	A localized twister glowing with a violent static green hue. It sweeps through the hex; characters caught in its path take $1d8$ radiation damage and all electronic or radium-powered weapons are shorted out for $1d4$ turns.
29–32	Ancient Glass Road Ruins	Salvage	A section of a pre-cataclysm highway made of vitrified green glass emerges from the sand. Searching the roadside way-stations yields $1d6 \times 100$ gp value in scrap metal and ancient structural components.
33–36	Calidon Hunt	Wildlife	A massive, slow-moving herd of tusked, multi-legged game animals. A successful Tracking or Hunting check provides the party with fresh meat rations, preserving $2d6$ days of standard caravan rations.
37–40	Jeddak’s Outrider Patrol	Faction	A well-equipped cavalry unit ($2d6$ Red Martians on domestic racing thoats) representing a nearby city-state. They interrogate travelers to ensure they aren't spies, runaway slaves, or smugglers.
41–44	Psychic Echo Zone	Weird Science	The party enters a valley where an ancient battle took place. Mentalists or characters with high Wisdom suffer intense telepathic static, imposing a -2 penalty to all Initiative and Proficiency throws while in the hex.
45–48	Abandoned Air-Skiff	Salvage	A light, civilian one-man flier sits crashed nose-first into a sand dune. The engine is ruined, but a Scientist can salvage a pristine Targeting Matrix HUD or $1d4$ usable radium ammo cells with 1 turn of work.
49–52	White Ape Ambush	Beast	$1d2$ four-armed, semi-intelligent Albino Great Apes leap down from a rocky canyon overpass. They attempt to grapple characters, dragging them away into the high crags to feed.
53–56	Atmospheric Plant Failure Vent	Hazard	A nearby regional air pump suffers a pressure drop, causing a sudden pocket of unbreathable, thin air. All land travelers without active oxygen apparatuses suffer $1d6$ suffocation damage per round until they clear the zone.
57–60	Feral Sith Attack	Wildlife	A giant, predatory Martian hornet swoops down to paralyze a pack beast with its stinger. If successful, it attempts to fly off with its prey, threatening the caravan’s logistical supply capacity.
61–64	Escaped Slave Group	NPC	$1d8$ starved, exhausted runaways from an obsidian quarry. They beg for water. Harboring them builds a permanent negative reputation with the pursuing bounty hunters who arrive in $1d6$ hours.
65–68	Ancient Boundary Marker	Weird Science	A polished chrome pillar stands in the desert, humming softly. A Scientist or a character with Ancient Lore can interface with its interface panel to instantly map all adjacent hexes on their wilderness chart.
69–72	Desert Nomad Holy Site	Faction	A ring of carved stone pillars surrounding a deep oasis well. A tribe of nomadic zealots guards it. Drinking or watering beasts without offering a valuable weapon or relic as tribute triggers a tribal blood-feud.
73–76	Scavenger Pit-Trap	Hazard	A concealed netting trap laid by desert outlaws. The front rank of the party must make a Find Traps check or be hoisted 20 feet into the air, initiating a surprise round ambush by $1d6$ bandits.
77–80	Precious Lifewater Seep	Salvage	A tiny fissure in a ruined stone canal pipe is weeping fresh water into a rocky basin. The party can completely refill all water canteens and supply barrels for free, boosting crew morale.
81–84	Mad Scientist’s Automaton	Automata	A rogue, silver-plated clockwork warrior stumbles out of a canyon, its targeting array corrupted. It attacks the largest target present with integrated arm-blades until destroyed or deactivated via Mechanics.
85–88	Yellow Martian Assassin	NPC	A cloaked agent from the northern polar rifts hiding via optical camouflage. They are tracking a specific NPC or player character, waiting for a camp sequence to strike with a poisoned needle.
89–92	Ornate Burial Mound	Salvage	The tomb of a legendary Green Warlord, marked by crossed longswords. Digging it up yields $1d4 \times 1,000$ gp in ancient bullion, but triggers an automatic Morale Check penalty for any hired guides who fear the curse.
93–96	Phasing Dunes	Hazard	Local magnetic anomalies cause the sand dunes to shift and liquefy rapidly like quicksand. The caravan movement speed is reduced to zero for the day as characters labor to winch out heavy repulsor carts.
97–100	The Jeddak of Jeddaks	Faction	An extraordinary sight: A massive horde army ($1d4 \times 1,000$ Green Warriors) marching to lay siege to a rival metropolis. The players must hide successfully or face capture and mandatory recruitment as vanguard scout units.

Mechanical Land Rules (ACKS II Integration)

Running a ground campaign across the Barsoomian wastes changes several base fantasy survival assumptions:

1. Water Scarcity: Unlike standard fantasy settings where foraging for water is a routine survival check, water must be explicitly managed. A standard man requires 1 gallon of water per day in the thin air. Foraging in a standard "Dead Sea Bed" hex carries a base 1-in-6 success chance unless an oasis or canal is explicitly listed on the hex map.

2. Mount Management: A Thoat is an incredible land asset. It requires no water for up to three days due to its alien metabolism, and its eight padded feet allow it to travel across the shifting sand dunes at full operational speed without incurring the standard terrain movement penalties that bog down wheeled or repulsor-based carts.
   
   

When your players need to fence hot sky-galleon salvage, purchase forbidden radium isotopes, or hire low-morale panthans without the prying eyes of a Jeddak’s secret police, they leave the pristine spires of the city-states and seek out a Martian Outlaw Market.

In ACKS II, these lawless hubs are fluid, treacherous commercial zones. They do not have fixed Market Classes like imperial capitals; instead, their economic power fluctuates based on recent raids, local warlord protection, and the proximity of imperial patrols.

Here is how to mechanically integrate Outlaw Markets into your ACKS II / WotRP campaign.

1. Structural Class & Fluctuation

An Outlaw Market usually occupies a transient or hidden location: a hollowed-out canyon rift, a decommissioned atmospheric pumping station, or a permanently grounded cloud-leviathan hull.

Mechanically, treat an Outlaw Market as a Dynamic Class IV or V Market, but apply the Scavenger Premium:

Current Status	Market Class	Cash Cap	Tech Component Availability	Market Stability Modifier
Booming (Post-Raid)	IV	5,000 gp	75% chance; high influx of sky-ship salvage.	+1 to all Trading Throws
Lean (Patrols Nearby)	V	1,500 gp	40% chance; fences are hoarding resources.	-2 to all Trading Throws
Busted (Raided/Moving)	VI	500 gp	10% chance; basic survival bartering only.	Banned (Barter Only)

The Moving Market Rule

Outlaw markets are highly mobile. Every month during the Domain Phase, the referee rolls a Stability Throw (10+). On a failure, the market has been tipped off to an impending imperial fleet strike and packs up. It vanishes from its current hex and relocates $1d6$ hexes away into the deep desert. Players must use a Streetwise or Tracking proficiency check to relocate it.

2. Underworld Commercial Rules

Because there is no central banking system or judicial law, the baseline ACKS II mercantile procedures are heavily modified.

High-Risk Liquidation (Selling Tech)

Fences in outlaw markets don't care about imperial licenses, but they operate on thin margins and high personal risk.

• The Cut: Fences buy ancient technology and contraband at a flat 30% of its baseline gp value (compared to 40% in a standard city-state black market).

• The No-Tax Benefit: However, because the gold is already completely outside the Jeddak's banking grid, players do not pay the 15% Money Laundering Tax to convert this wealth into Character XP. It counts as clean adventuring loot the moment it changes hands.

Barter & Weapon Exchange

Outlaw markets frequently refuse currency if the local city-state’s coin is currently devalued. Fences prefer Hard Currency: Radium Ammo, fresh water cylinders, and slave labor contracts.

The Barter Rate: Trading functional weapon systems or Radium Fuel Cells grants a +20% value bonus when bartering directly for sky-ship repairs, fuel, or information.

3. Black Market Complications (The Edge)

There are no city guards to maintain order; peace is kept entirely by hired mercenary muscle or the local warlord’s personal hit squad. Any transaction involving items worth more than 1,000 gp requires the seller to make a Reaction Roll with the buyer, using their Charisma modifier and any Streetwise or Bribery bonuses.

[REACTION ROLL RESULT]
  ├── 2-5:   Immediate Ambush / Double-Cross in the back alleys.
  ├── 6-8:   The "Outlaw Tax" — Buyer demands a 15% cut for the local Warlord.
  ├── 9-11:  Standard Transaction goes through smoothly.
  └── 12+:   Flawless Deal — Buyer offers an underworld hook or rumor tip.

4. Unique Outlaw Market Mercenaries

When recruiting henchmen or mercenary units using the ACKS II Subjugation and Recruitment tables within an outlaw market, swap standard troops out for these specialized planetary archetypes:

Troop Unit	Cost / Month	ACKS II Stat Chassis	Special Outlaw Traits
Savage Panthan (Red)	12 gp	1st Level Fighter	High Morale (+1), brings their own traditional longsword and leather harness armor.
Horde Outcast (Green)	20 gp	2 HD Green Martian	Four-armed skirmisher. Disdains sky-ships; prefers fighting on foot or from a thoat.
Radium Fixer	45 gp	1st Level Scientist	Non-combatant specialist. Reduces the repair time of damaged sky-ship engines by 25%.

5. Sample Location: The Rust-Grip Market

To drop an outlaw market directly into your campaign map, use this pre-detailed hub:

                  [ THE RUST-GRIP RIFT ]
                            |
         ┌──────────────────┴──────────────────┐
         V                                     V
 [THE CRASHED FLIER]                  [THE REFUELING VATS]
  - Sola-Varn's Foundry                - Radium Line Siphons
  - Heavy Salvage Fencing              - 1d4 Scout Skiffs Docked

• Location: Hex 1408 (A deep obsidian fissure in the South Dead Sea Bed).

• The Anchor: Built around the split-open chassis of a downed Imperial Dreadnought flier. The central market plaza sits inside the empty cargo bay shield network.

• The Boss: Controlled by Jeddak-Varn, a scarred, cybernetic outcast who charges a flat 5% "protection fee" on all incoming sky-ship berths. If anyone draws a radium blaster inside the hull without his explicit permission, his personal squad of 10 automated clockwork drones terminates the offenders instantly.