Red Planet RPG Review by Paladin in Citadel

"There are several things that I feel very strongly about.
"One is that "hobbyist" game designers are producing games and game accessories that are just as ground-breaking and note-worthy as those produced by the so-called "professional" game designers.

"Another is that people deserve to be recognized and compensated for their work.

"Which brings me to Red Planet RPG. That game was written in 1990, and updated in 2005 (presumably to add the OGL, accompanying the current version of the game), by Clovis Cithog of Jasoomian Dreams. The cover illustration is by Elton Robb of The Atlantis Blog, with interior illustrations by Kris Todd and Patric Moore.

"While not the first role-playing game to be based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian Chronicles (arguably, that honor goes to TSR's Warriors Of Mars), this early implementation of rules for a Barsoomian role-playing game is equally true to the source material, and will cost you significantly less to purchase.

"For those of you familiar with the John Carter of Mars series, all of the recognizable Barsoomian elements are included: the races (red, green and yellow martians, therns, and black pirates); measurements (tals, xats, zodes, sofads, ads, etc.); weapons (radium weapons, rapiers); fliers; and, monsters (apts, banths, and white apes).

"Red Planet RPG appears to be a very faithful adaptation of the Martian Chronicles, going into great detail regarding the setting, the peoples, culture and history of Barsoom.

"Clovis has elected to utilize both class and skill systems for character generation and differentiation. I have no fatal objections to that approach; after all, that approach is basically how Traveller works, and Traveller is beloved by many old-schoolers. The classes and skills in Red Planet RPG are well-suited for the setting: classes include scientist, trooper, criminal, warrior and priest. The skills are likewise well-suited to a science-fantasy setting, with both fantasy and high technological skills included in the list.

"Red Planet uses six abilities as the basis for character generation. Those abilities (Strength, Agility, Tenacity, Reason, Intuition and Persuasion) are roughly analogous to the six abilities in D&D. Hit points are also employed, along with saving throws and levels. Therefore, those familiar with the basic workings of D&D will have no difficulty grasping and employing this game almost immediately after digesting the flavour and setting of this game.

"The combat system is more elaborate than what you will find in early iterations of Dungeons and Dragons. The combat system includes, for example, four separate critical hits tables, for blunt, energy, piercing and slashing weapons respectively. Though the combat system is a bit more detailed than the one I typically employ,this certainly adds some interesting cinematic (for lack of a better word) elements.

"Red Planet includes spells for Priests, despite the fact that the author acknowledges that most priests in the Martian Chronicles are either frauds or charlatans. But what would a fantasy role-playing game be without spell-casters!

"At 72 pages, Red Planet RPG is a lot of game, packed in a small package. As a hobbyist game-designer and publisher, Clovis Cithog is humble about his creation, and offers it at the bargain price of $10 to US residents. As I said at the start of this review, I feel strongly about trumpeting the remarkable achievements of the hobbyist game designers in our midst, and seeing them fairly compensated for their efforts. This game is a steal at $10. "

http://apaladinincitadel.blogspot.com/2011/02/review-red-planet-rpg.html

Zodanga

The capital city of this red Martian empire is located in Barsoom’s southwest hemisphere; however, at one time, its mines, canals, farmlands and territories stretched from pole to pole. The capital city’s gates had “no regular guard, but are covered by sentries, who patrol the avenue that encircles the city just within the walls as our metropolitan police patrol their beats. . . The walls of Zodanga are seventy-five feet in height and fifty feet thick. They are built of enormous blocks of carborundum, and the task of entering the city seemed, to my escort of green warriors, an impossibility.” (PM XIV)

At the height of its power, Zodanga could field an infantry of one million warriors and a navy of several thousand battleships.
"The bravery of the Zodangans was awe-inspiring." (PM XIV) The hereditary enemy of Helium, this red Martian empire also “had for years waged a ruthless campaign of extermination against the green men, directing special attention toward despoiling their incubators.” (PM XIV)

Zodanga has never fully recovered after its capitol was sacked by a mighty alliance of 150,000 Green Martian troopers lead by John Carter and Tars Tarkas of Thark.
“Behind us we left the stricken city in the fierce and brutal clutches of some forty thousand green warriors of the lesser hordes. They were looting, murdering, and fighting amongst themselves. In a hundred places they had applied the torch, and columns of dense smoke were rising above the city as though to blot out from the eye of heaven the horrid sights beneath." (PM XVI)

After Zodanga was conquered, Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium appointed Zat Arras as the new Jed of Zodanga. Zat Arras was a man of thin, cruel lips who turned out to be a disappointing successor of Than Kosis (the former Jeddak of Zodanga who was killed by John Carter). Zat Arras was an ambitious coward, who rather than face the Prince of Helium in combat upon the decks of a battleship, turned, ran and “sprung to the rail and hurled himself headforemost into the awful depths below.” (GM XIX)

APT

INTV….... +0
ATTK….. +5/ one bite OR +3/ two tucks
DMGE…….3d6 OR 2d6 each
AC…….…. 5 [15]
HD……… 8d8
Fort..…... +4
Will……. +3
Move…..…. 7”

“The apt was our most consistent and dangerous foe. It is a huge, white furred creature with six limbs, four of which, short and heavy, carry it swiftly over the snow and ice; while the other two, growing forward from the shoulders on either side of its long, powerful neck, terminate in white, hairless hands, with which it seizes and holds its prey. Its head and mouth are more similar in appearance to those of a hippopotamus than any other earthly animal, except that from the sides of the lower jawbone two mighty horns curve slightly downward toward the front. Its two huge eyes inspired my greatest curiosity.
“They extend into vast, oval patches from the center of the top of the cranium, down either side of the head to below the roots of their horns, so that these weapons really grow out from the lower part of the eyes, which are composed of several thousand ocelli each. . . each ocellus is furnished with its own lid, and the animal can at will open as many of the facets of its huge eyes as it chooses, because much of its life is spent in subterranean recesses.” (WM, VIII, p.79-80)


Without fear and unhindered by grievous injury, apts hunt alone or in pairs, they “rove the dismal north attacking every living thing that comes within the scope of their far-seeing eyes. Even when their bellies are full, and they can eat no more, they kill purely for the pleasure which they derive from taking life.” (WM, VIII, p.80)

B&Wimage is from Kris Todd
Color is Micheal Whelan's artwork
image FROM: http://www.erbzine.com/mag14/apt1h3.jpg

Phaidor is a Goddess

"I can aid you," she said, "and you will need all the aid available when they awaken."
"Some of them will awake in Korus," I replied smiling.
She caught the meaning of my words, and the cruelty of her answering smile horrified me. One is not astonished by cruelty in a hideous face, but when it touches the features of a goddess whose fine-chiselled lineaments might more fittingly portray love and beauty, the contrast is appalling. Quickly I released her.
"Give me a revolver," she whispered. "I can use that upon those your sword does not silence in time."
I did as she bid. Then I turned toward the distasteful work that lay before me. This was no time for fine compunctions, nor for a chivalry that these cruel demons would neither appreciate nor reciprocate.
Stealthily I approached the nearest sleeper. When he awoke he was well on his journey to the bosom of Korus. His piercing shriek as consciousness returned to him came faintly up to us from the black depths beneath. The second awoke as I touched him, and, though I succeeded in hurling him from the cruiser's deck, his wild cry of alarm brought the remaining pirates to their feet. There were five of them.
As they arose the girl's revolver spoke in sharp staccato and one sank back to the deck again to rise no more. The others rushed madly upon me with drawn swords. The girl evidently dared not fire for fear of wounding me, but I saw her sneak stealthily and cat-like toward the flank of the attackers. Then they were on me."
(GM VII)


"I ceased my efforts to climb across the gunwale. Instead I took a firm grasp upon the rail with my left hand and drew my dagger. I should at least die as I had lived--fighting. . .
Thurid was beside her now--pushing past to reach me first, and then what happened happened so quickly that it was all over before I could realize the truth of it. Phaidor's slim hand shot out to close upon the black's dagger wrist. Her right hand went high with its gleaming blade.
"That for Matai Shang!" she cried, and she buried her blade deep in the dator's breast. "That for the wrong you would have done Dejah Thoris!" and again the sharp steel sank into the bloody flesh.
"And that, and that, and that!" she shrieked, "for John Carter, Prince of Helium," and with each word her sharp point pierced the vile heart of the great villain. Then, with a vindictive shove she cast the carcass of the First Born from the deck to fall in awful silence after the body of his victim.
I had been so paralyzed by surprise that I had made no move to reach the deck during the awe-inspiring scene which I had just witnessed, and now I was to be still further amazed by her next act, for Phaidor extended her hand to me and assisted me to the deck, where I stood gazing at her in unconcealed and stupefied wonderment. A wan smile touched her lips--it was not the cruel and haughty smile of the goddess with which I was familiar. (WM XV)

Navies of Barsoom

The aerial navies of Barsoom are the force that gives the Red Martians superiority in warfare against the other races. The battleship is the principal warship upon the Red Planet. Proudly displayed on the bow of all warships is the nation’s identifying device or insignia. While the hulls of scientific or merchant vessels are painted grey. “Upon each battleship there are five ten-man cruisers, and ten five-man scouts, and a hundred one-man scouts." (GM XIX)

Smaller and swifter warships such as cruiser or destroyers are used for patrol or convey duty. “If we are high enough our keel plates will protect us from rifle fire. . . . The swifter craft are seldom equipped with large buoyancy tanks, since the added bulk of them tends to reduce a vessel's speed. . . . Our speed must have approximated two hundred miles an hour, for Martian fliers are swift, so that at most we were in the shaft not over forty seconds.” (GM XIII)

Naval crew are referred to as sailors or thans. A lieutenant or padwar is the lowest rank of naval officer and sometimes will command a ten-man cruiser. A captain or dwar is the rank required to lead either a 100 man cruiser or a destroyer. A battleship is controlled by an odwar or commander, while a fleet (some as large as 100 battleships) is under the direction of a warlord or jedwar.

“My fellow prisoner was Kantos Kan, a padwar (lieutenant) in the navy of Helium. He had been a member of the ill-fated expedition which had fallen into the hands of the Tharks at the time of Dejah Thoris' capture, and he briefly related the events which followed the defeat of the (twenty) battleships. … Thirty days after the capture of Dejah Thoris, or about the time of our coming to Thark, his vessel had reached Helium with about ten survivors of the original crew of seven hundred officers and men. Immediately seven great fleets, each of one hundred mighty war ships, had been dispatched to search for Dejah Thoris, and from these vessels two thousand smaller craft had been kept out continuously in futile search for the missing princess." (PM XIX)

Soldiers salute by placing both palms forward above their head. Advancement in rank for officers and crew is thru merit and courage. \Warfare, is too omnipresent upon the Red Planet for politics and wealth to have a major roll in career progression. Naval crews of the Red Martian are disciplined, virtuous and merciless. “Upon Barsoom, quarter is neither asked nor given, and each dead man means so much more of the waning resources of this dying planet to be divided amongst those who survive.” (GM VII)

A naval battle upon Barsoom is a most spectacular sight to behold; however there is “an extremely pathetic side to the surrender of these mighty fliers, the result of an age-old custom which demanded that surrender should be signalized by the voluntary plunging to earth of the commander of the vanquished vessel. One after another the brave fellows, holding their colors high above their heads, leaped from the towering bows of their mighty craft to an awful death.” (PM XXVI)

“On the morning of the second day we raised the great fleet of transports and their consorts at the first flood of dawn, and soon were near enough to exchange signals (by flags). I may mention here that radio-aerograms are seldom if ever used in war time, or for the transmission of secret dispatches at any time, for as often as one nation discovers a new cipher, or invents a new instrument for wireless purposes its neighbours bend every effort until they are able to intercept and translate the messages. For so long a time has this gone on that practically every possibility of wireless communication has been exhausted and no nation dares transmit dispatches of importance in this way.” (PM XIX)

At its zenith, the fleet of Helium is about 7000 battleships and capital ships and at least 1000 transports. Each transport can carry 250 Green Troopers or 750 Red Troopers or 2000 Red Infantry.

The navy of Ptarth has 4,000 battleships.
The navy of Dusar has 5,000 battleships.
The navy of Zodanga has 3,000 battleships.
The navy of Gathol has 500 battleships.
Protected by a forest of towering trees, the nation of Kaol requires no navy.

The Fleet of the therns is 2000 battleships. while the elite black pirate armada is 1000 capital ships.

Joe Jusko is following MY blog ; - )

What an honor . . .
Check out his great artwork in Dynamite comics

Warlord of Mars #5 came out THIS week
enclosed is the story of Zad

Do SKILLS belong in classical gaming ?

I have never been a fan of feats, yet
I maintain that skills ARE old school. What is NOT consistent with classical gaming is munchkin character builds and complex formulas to calculate one’s proficiency or rank in a skill.
Two examples . . .


This fine argument from Mystic Mogul posted on 17 Sep 2010. . .

"First up is the idea that Skill Challenges are new to fourth edition. Nonsense! We've been struggling with them for years--let's look at a example from the 2nd edition Player's Handbook.A

" ' A freak wave sweeps Fiera (an elf) overboard during the night. Fortunately, she can swim and knows that land is nearby. Bravely, she sets out through calm water. Her Constitution score is 16. After 14 hours of steady swimming, she makes out an island on the horizon. Two hours later she is closer, but still has some way to go. During the next hour (her 17th in the water), her Constitution drops to 15 (her attack penalty is -17!) and she must make a Constitution check. A 12 is rolled--she passes. In the last hour, the 18th, the seas become rough. Her Constitution is now 13 (the DM ruled that the heavy seas made her lose 2 points of Constitution this hour), and the DM decides she must pass an extra Constitution check to reach shore. She rolls a 5 and flops onto shore, exhausted. ' ”


Traveller, the Role Playing game was first published in 1977.
Note that game's heavy dependence on skill usage.


Now, that we established that skills are consistent with classical game play.
Why should we include them . . .

The elegant use of a skill system allows seamless customization of characters without having to propagate an endless series of new character classes. No need for a ranger class, just have you fighter select tracking and stealth as skills. No need for a sage class, just have your mage acquire scroll craft and archaic knowledge.

The use of a skill system provides value for the non-fighters and those characters who lack spell casting abilities; i.e., a thief with climb skill is going to have a much higher degree of expertise or rank than an equal level fighter or priest who also has climb skill.

Long gone are those days of endless time and four television channels when you had hours upon hours to design and craft your own unique dungeons and adventurers. The use of a skill system is a great time saver for the modern, adult game master who has significant work, familial and social commitments.

A skill system (and ascending armor class) makes your rules compatible with the most popular game system of all time
(OGL, v.3.X, and Pathfinder).
The GM can now scavenge a plethora of free or darn near free adventures from the net, E-bay or Amazon for hiser weekly game. An OGL compatible game allows a resourceful GM to more rapidly prepare stories, maps, plot hooks and stat blocks.

“Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler”
Attributed to Albert Einstein