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Post by Finarvyn on Jun 20, 2025 14:43:49 GMT -6
Around two weeks ago Troll Lord Games released "Barsoom Pocket Guide" as part of their Reforged kickstart. At this point, as far as I know, only the PDF has been released. I understand another wave of stuff from the KS is going to be shipped out to backers soon, and perhaps the physical version will be in hand.
So, what do we know about the Barsoom Pocket Guide?
--> It's a 20-page PDF, so clearly more of a starter thing than a full product. (I think Steve is still hoping to make Barsoom a three-book series.)
--> Cover by Michael Whelan, from one of the 1980's (?) paperbacks.
--> Part One: The Word of Barsoom (pages 2-4) gives some background and history of the planet.
--> Part Two: Gazetteer of Barsoom (pages 5-12) has astronomy, geography, people of Mars, technology and economics, animal life.
--> Part Three: The Role Playing Game (pages 13-18) talks about the SIEGE engine, races, classes, types of telepathy, "conflict, setting, mood and rules", unique aspects of Barsoom, adventures and world building.
--> Back cover lists price of $9.99 and code # TLG88001.
Lots of nice ideas, somewhat crude line art in the interior, not a lot of rules details, but looks like TLG has a good start on where this game can go and has a good feel for the vibe of Barsoom. There is a promise of new classes (technological and telepathic) as well as some hints on how old classes (fighter, rogue, etc.) might be done in a Barsoom setting.
Anyone else have this? What do you think about it?
(Cross-posted to the Piazza)
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Post by stevemitchell on Jun 20, 2025 18:13:06 GMT -6
Hmm. The Reforged Kickstarter evidently passed me right by. I did order the Starter Kit back in February but have heard nothing further about it. If they do a standalone Barsoom game, based on C&C, I'd be interested.
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Post by tdenmark on Jun 20, 2025 18:34:39 GMT -6
Oh, its for the Reforged Kickstarter backers. Reforged didn't really interest me, but I am very curious how they handle Barsoom.
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Post by Finarvyn on Jun 20, 2025 19:19:25 GMT -6
I think Reforged folks got an early peek, but since it has a product code I assume that it will be up for sale for everyone at some point. And I'm still hoping for that three-book series of Barsoom stuff, which I assume would be like a PH and DMG and MM for Barsoom.
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Post by tdenmark on Jun 20, 2025 20:29:13 GMT -6
I hope it is better than what Modiphius did with it. I backed their KS and was pretty disappointed with the final product. Part of it was me not being able to get into the 2d20 system, but something about the tone of the writing, and the art (a lot of photobashing and painted-over 3d) was wrong.
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Post by stevemitchell on Jun 21, 2025 9:15:51 GMT -6
I felt the same way about the 2d20 system--just something I would not be interested in playing.
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Post by Finarvyn on Jun 21, 2025 14:38:32 GMT -6
The thing is, I bought pretty much everything I could buy for 2d20 John Carter. I just don't really like it. I got the core rulebook (x2), the campaign book, the three "era" books, both tile sets, all three colors of 2d20 dice, STL files of a bunch of the monsters of Barsoom. I just don't get 2d20. It's hard enough to explain a setting that none of my players has read (they have mostly seen the movie, I think) but adding that to a rules set that I don't really get makes 2d20 Barsoom a real challenge. Now, Warriors of Mars is a lot like OD&D, but a bit random in some places and not explained in other places. tdenmark made Warriors of the Red Planet (https://www.nightowlworkshop.com/warriors-of-the-red-planet) and thegreyelf made Barsoom for OD&D (https://www.grey-elf.com/barsoom.pdf), and both are a huge upgrade but I'm really hoping that C&C Barsoom fills in some more gaps and makes a game my table will be willing to try. Three hardback books will be more content than those two products combined, I suspect. (Assuming that's what we get, that is.)  |
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Post by stevemitchell on Jun 21, 2025 15:14:59 GMT -6
My son gifted me with the core rulebook, knowing of my interest in ERB and Barsoom, and while I appreciated the background work that had been done for the game, the system itself just didn't grab me. Ditto on Conan; I looked at the Quickstart and a couple of freebees, and decided the mechanics just got in the way of the setting. I did buy the PDF for Kull, just for the background material, in case I ever wanted to do a campaign in the Valusian Age.
(Just saw the ADMIT EDIT. Yes, I was referring to the 2d20 game.)
ADMIN EDIT: Just to be clear, as we have discussed several different Barsoom games in this thread, I'm pretty sure that the above pertains to the 2d20 game.
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Post by tdenmark on Jun 22, 2025 0:22:40 GMT -6
thegreyelf made Barsoom for OD&D (https://www.grey-elf.com/barsoom.pdf), and both are a huge upgrade Barsoom is excellent. Highly recommended. Since the first 5 books are in public domain (Project Gutenberg has 7 listed) which are, arguably the best books in the series, a detailed Barsoom setting could be published without a license. If I had more hours in the day, or a full team of writers/designers, I'd probably do it. |
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Post by tdenmark on Jun 22, 2025 0:35:25 GMT -6
The thing is, I bought pretty much everything I could buy for 2d20 John Carter. I just don't really like it. I got the core rulebook (x2), the campaign book, the three "era" books, both tile sets, all three colors of 2d20 dice, STL files of a bunch of the monsters of Barsoom. The minis were the best thing about it. |
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Post by thegreyelf on Jun 22, 2025 4:36:21 GMT -6
The thing is, I bought pretty much everything I could buy for 2d20 John Carter. I just don't really like it. I got the core rulebook (x2), the campaign book, the three "era" books, both tile sets, all three colors of 2d20 dice, STL files of a bunch of the monsters of Barsoom. I just don't get 2d20. It's hard enough to explain a setting that none of my players has read (they have mostly seen the movie, I think) but adding that to a rules set that I don't really get makes 2d20 Barsoom a real challenge. Now, Warriors of Mars is a lot like OD&D, but a bit random in some places and not explained in other places. tdenmark made Warriors of the Red Planet (https://www.nightowlworkshop.com/warriors-of-the-red-planet) and thegreyelf made Barsoom for OD&D (https://www.grey-elf.com/barsoom.pdf), and both are a huge upgrade but I'm really hoping that C&C Barsoom fills in some more gaps and makes a game my table will be willing to try. Three hardback books will be more content than those two products combined, I suspect. (Assuming that's what we get, that is.) Technically I didn't do the OD&D Barsoom. I added a few monsters and ideas in there, as did Falcon, but that's really the work of a poster here who went by the nom de plume of "Doc." I'm not sure if he's still around. He did the rules and asked if I'd edit, clean up, and do the mock layout so they looked like an OD&D booklet. |
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Post by thegreyelf on Jun 22, 2025 4:38:31 GMT -6
The TLG Barsoom RPG is going to be cool. Steve is a MASSIVE fan of burroughs, and he, Davis, and I have been shooting ideas back and forth about it for a long time. I can't really say much about it other than it's going to be a game unto itself, based off of C&C and Amazing Adventures, and it's planned for multiple books and should be pretty comprehensive.
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Post by stevemitchell on Jun 22, 2025 8:50:15 GMT -6
That sounds very promising!
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Post by thegreyelf on Jun 24, 2025 19:21:15 GMT -6
That sounds very promising! From where I sit, it's just about time we had one of these quintessential licenses that were a formative influence on D&D, using D&D-like mechanics instead of some goofy third-party mechanics that they decide to ramrod the setting into (Modiphius 2d20, I'm looking at you). Okay, in fairness, I guess the Mongoose Conan did that, too. Sadly, it gave way to wildly inferior Conan RPGs after it. |
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Post by stevemitchell on Jun 25, 2025 13:09:51 GMT -6
And then, after Barsoom, let's take those D&D-like mechanics and use them for games on Venus, in Pellucidar, and even in Tarzan's Africa.
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gonyaulax
Level 4 Theurgist
I still miss the 1970s . . . @:^/
Posts: 161 
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Post by gonyaulax on Jun 26, 2025 11:40:59 GMT -6
And then, after Barsoom, let's take those D&D-like mechanics and use them for games on Venus, in Pellucidar, and even in Tarzan's Africa. I, for one, would LOVE to see a " Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs" RPG with rules very close to OD&D with a sprinkling of Holmes Blue Book. |
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Post by blindaudelay on Jun 26, 2025 17:47:12 GMT -6
First time I'm hearing about this. I'm intrigued! I just finished reading Princess of Mars and it was great.
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Post by Finarvyn on Jun 26, 2025 21:00:38 GMT -6
ERB's Barsoom series was highly influential in my gaming experience in the 1970's (along with REH and Leiber and Tolkien). Much of my "character is a good guy who rescues princesses" vibe came from Burroughs.
Burroughs' fiction relies on a lot of coincidence, but if you treat it as fun fiction and try not to nit-pick its clearly worth the read.
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Post by jeffb on Jul 1, 2025 18:47:32 GMT -6
My first D&D game was playing a (LBB GH) Paladin (Skyhawk the Mighty- I was in my single digits, cut me some slack) and the DM ran a game on (under) Barsoom where we were exploring a temple of Set. Yes. He always will be my favorite DM.
I was familiar with and had read some the John Carter and JC/WoM comics previously, but that D&D game absolutely hooked me in the jaw and I've never really got loose.
Looking forward to the TLG release. I know they will do a good job with that. I've already got a TON of previous prints of C&C stuff and early AA books so found it hard to justify supporting Reforged , but Barsoom will be hard to resist.
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Post by thegreyelf on Jul 1, 2025 19:17:18 GMT -6
And then, after Barsoom, let's take those D&D-like mechanics and use them for games on Venus, in Pellucidar, and even in Tarzan's Africa. I, for one, would LOVE to see a " Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs" RPG with rules very close to OD&D with a sprinkling of Holmes Blue Book. When we first reached out YEARS ago to the Burroughs estate about getting the Barsoom license, Modiphius had just snatched it up. We talked at that time about doing a Worlds of ERB RPG based on Amazing Adventures. I had actually begun to draft it, but we ended up letting it go because it was just a bit too much to work with at the time. But who knows what the future might hold? No, that's not a hint. Just saying that yes, it's been considered in the past. One of many licenses I started working on that fell through. I once had 2/3 of a Blade Runner RPG written for Eden Studios using the Cinematic Unisystem. That one fell through, too (obviously, since there's now a Free League Blade Runner RPG). Free League's is good. I think mine was better. But I may be biased on that  |
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Post by tombowings on Jul 2, 2025 6:13:58 GMT -6
One of many licenses I started working on that fell through. I once had 2/3 of a Blade Runner RPG written for Eden Studios using the Cinematic Unisystem. That one fell through, too (obviously, since there's now a Free League Blade Runner RPG). Free League's is good. I think mine was better. But I may be biased on that But where is the Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep RPG? |
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Post by thegreyelf on Jul 2, 2025 6:49:37 GMT -6
One of many licenses I started working on that fell through. I once had 2/3 of a Blade Runner RPG written for Eden Studios using the Cinematic Unisystem. That one fell through, too (obviously, since there's now a Free League Blade Runner RPG). Free League's is good. I think mine was better. But I may be biased on that But where is the Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep RPG? In mine I directly discussed the novel and the differences between it and the film, and tried to reconcile the two as best I could. The sad thing is, while everyone will sign onto a Blade Runner RPG, a "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" RPG would likely crash and burn as a crowdfunding campaign. |
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Post by Finarvyn on Jul 2, 2025 8:44:30 GMT -6
When we first reached out YEARS ago to the Burroughs estate about getting the Barsoom license, Modiphius had just snatched it up. We talked at that time about doing a Worlds of ERB RPG based on Amazing Adventures. I had actually begun to draft it, but we ended up letting it go because it was just a bit too much to work with at the time. But who knows what the future might hold? A shame. The Modiphius game is okay, but it's so different from anything I enjoy playing that it's hard for me to really get fired up about it. C&C is essentially old school D&D and I've wanted a "D&D Barsoom" for decades. An official one, not something which is sort-of-but-with-numbers-filed-off as some of the other games are. That's part of what excites me so much about C&C Barsoom, and I wish you could have jumped on it years ago.  |
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Post by thegreyelf on Jul 2, 2025 14:59:57 GMT -6
When we first reached out YEARS ago to the Burroughs estate about getting the Barsoom license, Modiphius had just snatched it up. We talked at that time about doing a Worlds of ERB RPG based on Amazing Adventures. I had actually begun to draft it, but we ended up letting it go because it was just a bit too much to work with at the time. But who knows what the future might hold? A shame. The Modiphius game is okay, but it's so different from anything I enjoy playing that it's hard for me to really get fired up about it. C&C is essentially old school D&D and I've wanted a "D&D Barsoom" for decades. An official one, not something which is sort-of-but-with-numbers-filed-off as some of the other games are. That's part of what excites me so much about C&C Barsoom, and I wish you could have jumped on it years ago. You and me both, for reasons I can't even BEGIN to get into. |
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