Has anyone tried varying the setting at all. I’ve thought about Burroughs’s Mars being millions of years in the past (he travels through a worm hole), Barsoom being an alternate universe Mars, or an enormous automated Dyson Sphere replacing our red planet w/it’s red planet (originally used this concept for a Flash Gordon campaign).
Some of my fellow players talked about being current era humans (Jasoomians?) & I was mulling around thoughts of ‘updating’ the setting to fit their ideas. Curious on any other ideas.
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Well, for 1, in Burroughs’ Mars, Olympus Mons doesn’t seem to exist. That gives the alternate/not our Mars, or even a future Mars (missing the Volcano) setup credence.
HtH
One thing I have definitely thought about - Modiphius is already producing a character that might do well in a combination - How about Conan on Mars?
Bruce
There was a sort of Conan/JCM conversion.
John is from another time - but there are ways to get to his world from ours. A campaign about a 21st century man on Barsoom appeals to me. And, there has been a great deal of time between “A Princess of Mars” and the novella that finally uses his name - which was the 11th in the series. “Princess” was first printed in the US on about October of 1917! “Skeleton Men of Jupiter” was first introduced on about 1943! Shouldn’t the same period of time (about 20 years) have passed for the Earth too? And, as long as I am on the subject, what about Tarzan? “Pellucidar” might be a bit of a stretch, but the Venus novels might not.
Once over that hurdle, just about anything is possible with John Carter. From the early days of 1917, thru the late '40’s were quite a few “pulp” heroes" (and heroines) that might make for at least a good one-shot adventure. My favorite of those won’t enter Public Domain until next year, but I’m going to give you his name right now - “The Shadow”!. Doc Savage anyone? “The Spider”?, “Buck Rodgers?”, “Flash Gordon” (not the incredibly dumb movie), H. G. Welles?, Jules Verne? (Imagine, if you dare, “Captain Nemo” on Barsoom)! Nuff said for now.
I re-imagined the Kaldane as more like the mindflayers from D&D. The Rykors are just another species of Red Martian that are bred to be slaves, food and hosts for Kaldane larva. The larva are inserted into the Rykor, which eventually transform their bodies into the full Kaldane.
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I re-imagined the Goolian kangaroo people (goofy for sure) to resemble tieflings from D&D, so they have horns, tails and claws.
I’ve started my campaign shortly after the events of Warlord of Mars, so it’s very early Jeddak of Jeddaks or 1896 on Jasoom.
I will be bringing in the Sarmak- H.G. Wells Martians as presented (or rather hinted at) in George Alec Effinger’s Mars: The Home Front. (I already have them statted out and am working on the war machines at present.)
Eventually, when we get to 1930 or so the players will face a Jasoomian invasion as The Royal Space Corps arrives in their Thunder Child class cruisers with Carolinium bombs looking for payback- Carson Napier & Korak, Son of Tarzan set to make guest appearances.
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I’ve got the idea of a crossover with Stargate SG-1, making Issus an very old Goa’uld who after the death of its ancient firstborn host took Matai Shang as its new host.
Or, for a twist, Carter’s!