Barsoom is the setting of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars saga, staring American Civil War veteran John Carter and the martian princess Dejah Thoris, first created in the 1917s under the title A Princess of Mars.
This series of novels shaped the "Pulp Era" of science fiction, and even non-literary media like comic books and movies. This fiction also inspired a sub-genre of science fantasy called "Sword & Planet". The strange and exotic nature of this setting (and genre) lends a lot of a Mutant Future setting.
Barsoom is a world of high adventure and intrigue! The world is dying, made somewhat livable by artificial means. Civilization is technologically advanced, but is suffering form social and technological stagnation. The red martian sands hide the ruins of untold civilizations. The many city-states dotting the red landscape are always at war, be it on ground or by great flees of airships, with fragile alliances and betrayals around every corner. The cites are suspended technological marvels from a bygone age, fitted with an infrastructure that is beyond description. Sky pirates raid shipping lanes with boarding actions that are fierce and bloody. Mad scientists work is secret labs, building and searching highly useful or destructive inventions. Most lifeforms are exotic multi-legged creatures that are able to survive in the harsh and unforgiving martian wilderness.
While Barsoomians look like human Earthlings, they are far more exotic. Their skin can be red, black, yellow, white and green, with the last being way more alien in appearance. They live far longer than any Earthling, while retaining an ageless beauty thought their long lives. After a millennia, a Barsoomian is expected to make their final pilgrimage. People are generally militant, using guns alongside swords and daggers. While people are cultural nudists — deeply appreciating the human form — Barsoomian people only fell naked without their battle-harness and weapons. Dueling and personal honor is everything to a Barsoomian, but despite that, people are not above using assassins to discreetly deal with enemies. People are ether city-dwellers or nomadic wanderers.
There are a number of gaming supplements designed to run a Barsoom-inspired/Sword & Planet setting. Gray Elf's Dungeons & Dragons Warriors of Mars is a free fan-made OD&D supplement full of info on Barsoom. Night Owl Workshop's Warriors of the Red Planet is an indi-OD&D retro-clone rulebook with rules and ideal for Barsoomian-styled gaming.
Rules and Conversions[]
(WIP)
External Links[]
- Gray Elf's Dungeons & Dragons Warriors of Mars fan-supplement
- Warriors of the Red Planet rulebook