I've got Adamant's Mars d20 and the Iron Lords of Jupiter setting. Anyone know off hand of any other planetary romance type settings? I guess you could stretch and call Space: 1889 one too; it's close enough.
I've had a bit of a fetish for this subgenre since I was very young, so if there's some good interpretations of the genre out there somewhere, I don't want to miss them.
Or if you've just homebrewed it, what have you used? I've been in a pretty good tongue in cheek True20 planetary romance game that I worked well too.
It's been suggested that Talislanta is sort-of a planetary romance setting, or at least has the potential to be one if you just create a template for "lost astronaut" (as I believe it was Silverlion did on these here boards).
There is a GURPS Planet of Adventure book, based on the Jack Vance tetralogy.
That's all I got, but many an S&S setting/game ought to be just a hop skip & jump from planetary Romance. Consider perhaps Barbarians of Lemuria (Thongor) and Under the Broken Moon (Thundarr)--both free.
You might want to check out Under the Moons of Zoon (http://artikid.altervista.org/zoon/Moons_zoon.pdf). I've heard some good things about it, and it is on my reading list. Alas, Planetary Romance is not on my gaming radar right now, so it may be a while before I give it a good read myself. If you do check it out let us know what you think.
TGA
PS I concur with Elliot's recommendation of the GURPS Planet of Adventure book.
Have a look at Dictionary of Mu (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12743.phtml).
Well I guess everyone knows what my choice would be :
http://www.jorune.org/
Regards,
David R
That zoon link isn't working for me...but this does:
http://artikid.altervista.org/zoon/Moons_zoon.pdf
Or just go to http://artikid.altervista.org/ click What and proceed from there.
John Carter, Warlord of mars was an RPG put out by Heritage games in 78. Lord knows if you could still find a copy. Also saw this (http://http://www.amazon.com/Edgar-Rice-Burroughs-Mars-Sourcebook/dp/0977721191), god knows of what quality it is. This (http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/lost-in-smaragdis) Free RPG might fit the bill too. I dont know too much about it though. Came across it sailing across the web.
Jason Durall (main author of the BRP rulebook) is working on what I'm hoping could be the definitive planetary romance sourcebook, for BRP. As far as stuff that is already out, I recommend GURPS Planet of Adventure if you like your Vance.
I think T&T is a good fit, and I'm working on a setting/rules variant for 7th ed.
I'm looking forward to the BRP book as well. I've done a number of planetary romance campaigns, with rules from D&D/Arduin to Fudge to GURPS to the others mentioned above. I love the genre, but I don't think it's very system-dependent.
Quote from: Ronin;254788John Carter, Warlord of mars was an RPG put out by Heritage games in 78. Lord knows if you could still find a copy. Also saw this (http://www.amazon.com/Edgar-Rice-Burroughs-Mars-Sourcebook/dp/0977721191), god knows of what quality it is.
Fixed the link for you.
Quote from: Ronin;254788John Carter, Warlord of mars was an RPG put out by Heritage games in 78. Lord knows if you could still find a copy.
I found a copy years back while house-sitting for the parents of a friend. I got pretty hopped up for a short while, until I sat down and started reading it. Page after page of character and creature stats, with only the barest descriptive text (seemingly assuming that one was already intimately familiar with the setting). No art. It was very much a product of its time -- a book of stats for those who already knew the novels inside and out.
!i!
Wow, lotsa links! Thanks, folks. Looks like I'll be busy for a while.
I'll comment on them after I get a chance to check them out. In case anyone's curious.
Hollow Earth Expedition is an rpg by a company called Exile Games. It draws on lots of things for inspiration, but I think the biggest is ERB's Pellucidar stories. In addition, Exile Games has recently announced a forthcoming sourcebook to be titled "Revelations of Mars". There's not much out on the book- it's slated for a Fall 2009 release, but from the hints dropped on the message boards it sounds very much like it will support John Carter style games of planetary romance. Of course you can use the Hollow Earth Expedition rules to run such a game right now.
I have a copy of the 1977 "Flash Gordon and the Warrior of Mongo" rpg by Fantasy Games Unlimited written by Lin Carter. It's not much of a rolepalying game, but it's got a great map of Mongo.
I was going to second Hollow Earth and some of Savage Worlds things are thick with Swords and Planets influence.
I would dodge the JCM and Flash Gordon and the Warrior of Mongo games, unless you are a total completist. They were kind of painful back then, they will be even more so right now.
There have been pdf and web versions of Barsoom and similar settings done for Uni-System (html), Fusion (pdf), there has been some spotty work in Hero systems a couple of places, and supposedly Risus, but I can't find it.
I am unable to recomend it because I have never seen it, but there is one game not mentioned:
Mars: The Roleplaying Game of Planetary Romance
"Not Mars as it is an airless, most likely lifeless, with only the faintest hints of what might have once been a damp, if not necessarily lush and living, world billions of years in the past. No, this is Mars as it should be and as it was once imagined to be an ancient, dying, but not yet dead world, a world where a vast canal network reaches from pole to pole, bringing water and life to vast and fantastic cities. A Mars where albino apes run a vast empire in the last surviving jungle, a world where warrior tribes of Green Martians raid the outlying cities of the canal dwellers, a world where, in places dark and quiet and forgotten beneath the surface, ancient and terrible intellects plan dark and dire deeds.
"It is a Mars of sky-corsairs, of duels with blade and blaster, of vile plots, fantastic inventions, daring rescues, arena battles, and spectacular stunts. It is a Mars where ancient cities can be discovered and their lost treasures plundered, a Mars where a trek across the dry sea bottoms can yield amazing discoveries, where terrible monsters roam the rocky wastes. It is the Mars of pulp fiction and Saturday morning serials. It is now yours.
"Adamant Entertainment's long-awaited Roleplaying Game of Planetary Romance features everything you need to get started telling tales of adventure beneath the moons of Mars. From character creation to combat, from strange science to even stranger beasts, MARS has it all. No other rulebooks required - although guidelines are provided on using other versions of the world's most popular role-playing rules as well, allowing you to use Mars as a setting for your fantasy campaigns, or to transport your Modern characters to the Red Planet!"
More when I get hold of a copy! I have been meaning to get it, but just have not done it.
Locations: Adamant Entertainment Online Store (Book) , DriveThruRPG (PDF download) or RPG Now (PDF download) http://adamant.rpgnow.com/index.php?cPath=272_4256
Actually, I referenced that Mars game in the OP.
It's pretty good, as long as you don't mind a d20 Modern game engine (I don't.) It manages to more or less be a fusion of Barsoom and H. G. Wells' Mars without stepping on any potential IP issues. In fact, IIRC, it was specifically delayed while Adamant went on with the ERB estate over specifically how Barsoom-like it could be.
Quote from: Elliot Wilen;254747It's been suggested that Talislanta is sort-of a planetary romance setting, or at least has the potential to be one if you just create a template for "lost astronaut" (as I believe it was Silverlion did on these here boards).
There is a GURPS Planet of Adventure book, based on the Jack Vance tetralogy.
That's all I got, but many an S&S setting/game ought to be just a hop skip & jump from planetary Romance. Consider perhaps Barbarians of Lemuria (Thongor) and Under the Broken Moon (Thundarr)--both free.
I'm working omn a new edition of Barbarians of Lemuria right now. Initial responses to the early draft have been rather good. I am inclined to be rather pleased with it myself.
Simon W
Beyond Belief Games
Slavelords of Cydonia from Badaxe Games is an expansion for Grimm Tales (a D20M spinoff-type game). It's pretty damn cool, too.
And Pinnacle just released Slipstream for Savage Worlds. Very Buck Rogers, as opposed to John Carter, but it might do the trick for you (I'm a big Savage Worlds fan).
-Tom
Quote from: Elliot Wilen;254801Fixed the link for you.
Oops, :o Thanks Elliot for the save.
D&D could probably do the style, if not Barsoom in particular, if you made the different classes different species. Eg Fighters are the burly Green Martians, Magic-Users are decadent Red Martians etc.
Quote from: Ronin;254788John Carter, Warlord of mars was an RPG put out by Heritage games in 78. Lord knows if you could still find a copy.
Is that the same as the 1979 SPI game of the same name (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3369)? If nothing else looks like the rules are online for free skimming. Most SPI games are rare & sought after, I'm guessing this would be also. Looks rather boardgame + RPG elements but may have some useful ideas or maps.
Cool on the new edition of Barbarians of Lemuria. Fun game. Speaking of L. Sprague de Camp, SJG also did GURPS Planet Krishna (http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/krishna/), from a Lin Carter series which looked somewhat Barsoomian to me.
There's another Jack Vance RPG, though nowhere near as musclebound as ERB, Dying Earth RPG (http://www.dyingearth.com/). The free lite version is very playable, so take a look.
Tekumel (http://www.tekumel.com/) is very much in the Planetary Romance vein, esp. if you focus on the six legged lizards spitting acid, the aircar "dragons", unrusting metal rocketship "Plain of Towers", techno-magical "eyes" that shoot rays, underground tubeways, alien slaver motile Oscar the Grouches, lack of clothing, deadly environment, buxom babeage, et al. Just plop a standard D&D party (say, from the Wilderlands) into a jungle or desert adventure, let them earn some XP, GP and good tans, then gate 'em to Tekumel. Cha!
Start with Tekumel.com and the first published RPG setting game, Empire of the Petal Throne. Then expand with the Tekumel Sourcebook, Book of Ebon Binding, Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne and/or the Book of the Gods.
You're not in Kansas Anymore. (http://www.tekumel.com/eoasw4_02.html)
That Moon game looked excellent when I last saw it, but the rules were still in playtest. Can't get a link to work currently. >.<
Dying Earth however is pretty far from Planetary Romance, even though the stories do sometimes have ultra-tech.
Quote from: Casey777;255539Is that the same as the 1979 SPI game of the same name (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3369)?
No, they're two entirely different games. The SPI game is a standard board wargame with cardboard counters and very tight procedural rules. The Heritage John Carter game (http://rdushay.home.mindspring.com/Museum/SF/JohnCarter.html) was an RPG.
Quote from: Casey777;255540Cool on the new edition of Barbarians of Lemuria. Fun game. Speaking of L. Sprague de Camp, SJG also did GURPS Planet Krishna (http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/krishna/), from a Lin Carter series which looked somewhat Barsoomian to me.
I haven't looked at them in forever, but wasn't Planet Krishna L. Sprague de Camp's Barsoom ripoff? Lin Carter did the Calliso and Green Star series as his Barsoom ripoffs.
Did anyone actually mention Space: 1889 here? Because the whole "sky captains of mars" thing certainly has a Burroughs-esque feel to it at least.
Quote from: RPGPundit;257224Did anyone actually mention Space: 1889 here? Because the whole "sky captains of mars" thing certainly has a Burroughs-esque feel to it at least.
The OP mentions it. It has been my go to game for this kind of campaign in the past, but there are several games out there now that specifically do planetary romance, which is what Hobo was interested in.
TGA
Quote from: Hobo;256821I haven't looked at them in forever, but wasn't Planet Krishna L. Sprague de Camp's Barsoom ripoff? Lin Carter did the Calliso and Green Star series as his Barsoom ripoffs.
I actually never got around to reading de Camp's Planet Krishna stuff, but I got a copy of the
GURPS: Planet Krishna book somehow and it was an enjoyable read.
TGA
To be honest with you, I don't think all that highly of the work of either Lin Carter or L. Sprague de Camp. And it's kinda trendy to dislike them these days because of the hash they made of Conan, that's only recently been "fixed." Lin Carter rather shamelessly copied his favorite writers, and only his almost childlike sense of wonder about them made it endearing rather than annoying, and L. Sprague de Camp's approach to it always struck me as off-puttingly elitist; he essentially wanted to rewrite the settings to "get them right" because he was bothered by the lack of hard scientific rigor that Howard and Buroughs displayed.
Still, far be it from me to suggest that they didn't have some good ideas here and there. I didn't realize there was a GURPS Planet Krishna book. I might have to go check that out now.
Quote from: Hobo;257251To be honest with you, I don't think all that highly of the work of either Lin Carter or L. Sprague de Camp. And it's kinda trendy to dislike them these days because of the hash they made of Conan, that's only recently been "fixed." Lin Carter rather shamelessly copied his favorite writers, and only his almost childlike sense of wonder about them made it endearing rather than annoying, and L. Sprague de Camp's approach to it always struck me as off-puttingly elitist; he essentially wanted to rewrite the settings to "get them right" because he was bothered by the lack of hard scientific rigor that Howard and Buroughs displayed.
Still, far be it from me to suggest that they didn't have some good ideas here and there. I didn't realize there was a GURPS Planet Krishna book. I might have to go check that out now.
Funny you should mention it, but my dislike of de Camp's style (and admittedly the trendy reason of his butchering of Howard's work and legacy) is what kept me from bothering with reading the actual Planet Krishna novels. I think that I was literally given the GURPS book by someone, and after looking through it there were some interesting ideas. Just not enough to overcome my sloth and existing dislikes to give the actual novels a read. As I recall, one of the more interesting aspects of the setting was the "Prime Directive"-like prohibition on Earthers bringing high tech items to the planet, leading to those adventurous enough to go planetside having to rely on their wits and swordplay to survive.
In the end, for that kind of "stranded on an exotic planet with strange customs" adventuring, I much prefer using the works of Jack Vance as a model. Hence my suggestion that you look at the
GURPS: Planet of Adventure book. It is awesome.
TGA
You are correct, I got the authors mixed up when checking links. I tend to get the two of them together since I've only recently started trying their separate works that aren't Conan or "Fill in the Mythos Gaps Best Left Unwritten" stories. They look short reads if nothing else. I tend to lump Dying Earth and Planetary Romances together, a bad habit perhaps. There's overlap in authors and influences, not a lot of examples of either genre and most importantly I like them both. ;)
I respect Lin Carter more than de Camp, mainly because he was the junior partner & also because he did some good editing & anthologizing outside of Conan, including the seminal Ballantine Adult Fantasy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballantine_Adult_Fantasy) series that was very influential to early RPGs and RPG authors. For many key fantasy works it's still the easiest to find edition.
de Camp is arguably the stronger writer & has more original works but is often too clinical and precise. No need to go over his editing style or tendency to toot his own horn & line his own pocket. I do really like his shortish (300+ page small HC) Arkham House guide to Sword & Sorcery fiction. Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy. It helps that he doesn't have enough space to really start ripping into any of the authors. :) Arkham House may still have a few copies and it goes pretty cheap for an Arkham House book. Puts Weird Tales' "big three" (Howard, Lovecraft, and Smith) in context and still has yet to be surpassed as a published genre overview AFAIK. There is some coverage of ERB and related authors though neither he nor Planetary Romance get a devoted chapter.
I don't mind either, and frankly if I can do as well as they did with my games, I should consider myself so lucky. Neither is a particularly talented writer, though, IMO. de Camp is arguably more "serious" although he's notorious for missing the point of the stories he was imitating; not understanding what made them fun in the first place, and adopting a dry, lecturing approach.
Lin Carter's books are almost laughably badly written, but like I said, his earnest fanboyism of ERB and Howard (and others) has a certain charm all its own, at least.
As you (Hobo) may or may not know, I've been running Iron Lords of Jupiter using the Spirit of the Century Rules at GenCon 08 and at the recent NC and DC game days and it's been a riot. You (er, again, Hobo) played in my Mars D20 game at GenCon 07; I wasn't really happy with the way it played (though in hindsight, I can think of one simple change that would have made it play much better... steal damage bonuses from SWSE). That's what prompted me to use a different system.
Bretbo (@ENWorld/CM) mentioned to me that Exile Studios is planning a "Secrets of Mars" sourcebook for their Hollow Earth Expedition.
I wasn't aware of that. I've heard a lot of good things about Spirit of the Century. I was happy enough with how the Mars game turned out, although I do agree that a few minor mechanics tweaks need to be added in to get that appropriate two-fisted pulp dynamic in d20. It doesn't naturally lend itself to that without a little bit of work, although the work is simple enough.