I no less than Jon Snow about the John Carter books or the setting. I picked up the game because I like the system and Modiphius’ videos made me interested in another version of the 2d20 system. Due to may lack of understanding of the setting I’m having trouble understanding how humans get to Mars. I’ve just gotten the PDFs (book on the way) so I’ve only been able to flip through a few sections.
I’ve inferred from the section on Humans and the section on Earth that it’s a sort of sudden “bam you’re on Mars now; by the way you’re naked so good luck with that” sort of thing. That’s cool. I can work with that. Another section of what I’ve gotten to read so far (not much) implies that it’s possible to go back and forth between Earth and Mars. I wasn’t able to find more about this in the sections I’ve read so far. I’d appreciate some help understanding this.
There’s no real rule mechanic needed for back and forth. It’s just an element of the story-telling, like you said “bam, you’re on Mars now.”
In the stories, it just kind of happens. John Carter is transported to Mars by some mysterious effect whose nature is unclear. At a certain point, he gets transported back to Earth and is stuck there for 10 years until he’s returned to Mars, again by no clear mechanism or process.
The examples given in the book for the Earthborn pilot character and the Earthborn Sikh are good–they were looking up at Mars and mysteriously appeared on the planet.
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If I remember Princess of Mars correctly John Carter lost conciousness inside an Arizonan cave with some mysterious totems. There he had some kind of out-of-body experince seing himself lying on the ground while standing naked over his unconcious body. Then he saw Mars and started travelling towards the red planet.
As far as I know Ulisses Paxton experienced something similiar after being (mortally?) wounded in trenches of World War I.
John Carter was the only Earthborn who somehow managed to return to Earth. I believe that this was possible because his original body was still lying in that mysterious Arizonan cave, while Ulisses Paxton’s body most likely ended up burried in one of the military cemeteries in France.
But that maybe not the only way to travel to Mars. We know that Carson Napier tried to travel to Mars with a roket ship but lands on Venus instead. We also know that it is possible to communicate with Mars via Gridley Wave. And there is that adventure hook in the Narrator’s Toolkit…
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