Thursday, January 4, 2018

John Carter of Mars

Just giving this initiative by Modiphius Entertainment some extra publicity.  I've loved the John Carter world of Barsoom since my first reading of one of the novels and gaming in this period is a long term aim of mine.

They are doing a role playing game, miniatures and eventually a board game.


Dear friends, we're very close to launch now and I hope you can assist me with a small task which will help us shape the Kickstarter and will provide you with a lot of information on our plans! If you click here you'll find a survey about the Kickstarter please try to complete it before Monday, and share with friends, they can sign up for the newsletter at the same time. 

There's plenty more to see and learn below too! 

The scheming Sab Than, prince of Zodanga must be stopped - who will stand against him? 

First I'd like to reveal a little more about what's to come. The Kickstarter for the John Carter of Mars roleplaying game and miniatures will run from next Tuesday 9th January at midday until Sunday 11th February at 8pm UK time. There will be plenty of time to get involved, though there are a few limited edition items that we expect to go fast so do keep your eyes open!

There's a preview of the beautiful landscape book below that is going to let us reveal lots of epic long landscapes of Barsoom showing you never-before-scenes from our favourite stories of the Virginian and his friends. You'll be able to pledge for it in PDF, as just the landscape book, or in the deluxe portrait collectors slipcase to fit nicely on your shelving. 

Another benefit of the Collectors Slip case is it will be upgraded (once unlocked) with a second book the Swords of Mars Campaign including a complete set of linked adventures and the full guide and rules for using miniatures to recreate battles across Barsoom. Plus you'll receive any items unlocked in PDF - the GM Screen, geomorphic tiles and further books. 



If you want to get a straight forward introductory package, you'll find a Starter Set complete with the Collectors Slip Case (including all the PDF's) as well as the Gamesmaster Screen, a beautiful Prince of Helium digest size notebook and a set of Helium Dice including 5 d20's marked with the symbol of the mysterious Ninth Ray, and 6 Combat dice marked with the Jeddak of Jeddaks symbol on the 5th and 6th sides. 


There will be a host of Add On's including the dice, miniatures and the notebook mentioned above as well as many other items unlocked over the coming weeks. The Prince of Helium notebook will be approximately 160 pages featuring several sets of character sheets, pages to describe the cities and ruins you visit, the creatures you discover plus lined journal pages and squared paper for the explorers amongst you, blank paper to sketch the strange sights and more. 
We're ensuring there's a pledge simply for the Heroes of Barsoom themselves in case you just want to pick up this collector's set of miniatures and not the roleplaying game. This includes John Carter, the Princes Dejah Thoris, Tars Tarkas and faithful Woola all rendered in very high quality multi-part resin with lovely scenic bases. You could then add further sets as they're unlocked, or alternatively opt for the Miniatures Collection to get all the unlocked sets of miniatures. 



We're working with a renowned Spanish artisan to create a very beautiful limited edition bespoke, handmade real leather bound version of the core book for those who want the ultimate memories of Barsoom. It will feature engraved metal corners, martian red page edges, a metal closure and the icon for the Jeddak of Jeddaks impressed in to the cover in gold. Add to that an A1 (841 x 594mm) engraved and aged real leather map of Barsoom will complete a truly deluxe experience. There will be just 90 of these books on their own, and 10 complete with the whole collection of items unlocked in the Kickstarter; the Jeddak of Jeddak's pledge, along with 10 of the hand-aged and crafted A1 leather maps of Barsoom. Each edition will come with a certificate. 

Here's a recap on what you can expect in the book below. Don't forget to complete the survey!



John Carter of Mars - Adventures on The Dying World of Barsoom is a planetary romance tabletop role-playing game. We've created it in under license and with the cooperation of the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of the original Barsoom novels and with the guidance of Scott Tracy Griffin one of the leading scholars of his works to ensure utmost authenticity. Using a pulp-action inspired lite variant of Modiphius' 2d20 system called Momentum, John Carter of Mars allows players to take the role of various adventurers and heroes as they travel, battle, and romance their way across the a wondrous and dangerous world known to its natives as Barsoom. Play as John Carter, the princess Dejah Thoris, the fearsome Thark Tars Tarkas or you can create your own new heroes from a wide variety of options. 

Included in this book are:
  • An overview of Burrough's Barsoom and its peoples, perfect to introduce new players to the wondrous world of John Carter of Mars.
  • Detailed chapters on technology, creatures, and various cultures.
  • A new skillless Talent focused variation of the 2d20 system, including a step by step character generation system designed to make heroes from a variety of backgrounds and concepts. Choose a wide variety of characters such as a dashing Red Martian duelist, a brilliant First Born scientist, a savage Beastmaster, a courageous airship officer, a disciplined assassin, or even Earthborn characters, so players can follow in the bounding footsteps of John Carter himself!
  • A detailed Narrator's section with information on how to run genre and setting appropriate games and campaigns, including information about the great secrets of Barsoom.
  • Three eras of play based on the adventures of John Carter himself. Play during the early days of Dotar Sojat, adventure during the time when Carter was a Prince of Helium and in the years after when he was believed dead, or fight alongside Carter and his allies during the later Jeddak of Jeddaks era.
  • An introductory adventure, the Mind Merchants of Mars, to get players and Narrators started on their adventures.
"I do not believe that I am made of the stuff which constitutes heroes, because, in all of the hundreds of instances that my voluntary acts have placed me face to face with death, I cannot recall a single one where any alternative step to that I took occurred to me until many hours later." - John Carter, Princess of Mars


The Momentum system is a streamlined version of the 2d20 system used in other games such as Conan, Infinity, Mutant Chronicles and Star Trek Adventures.  It focuses entirely on the abilities of the characters you play by allowing characters to build talents out of whole cloth and eschewing granular details that just aren't important in describing the ultra-competent characters of Barsoom.

Characters in Momentum are described by 6 attributes that combine to form the Target numbers of all tests.  There are no skills.  If you're a talented scientist then you will have a Talent that describes how you use science.  It might be that you make discoveries after hours of painstaking research or perhaps your best leaps of intuition only happen when under fire, however you relate to the activity is custom described for your character. 

The Momentum system cuts down on the descriptive terms such as status effects and weapon qualities.  Once you understand how to do a skill test and have chosen how you want talents to describe your character you're ready to go and there's an entire chapter of example talents for you to choose, reword, combine and ignore as you see fit.


See you in a few days - we will send out an email to give you the link as soon as we're live and keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Please do share this with friends you think will like to join in. 


Chris Birch, Modiphius Entertainment


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About Modiphius Entertainment
Modiphius Entertainment is a UK-based publisher of games, novels and adventure from classic titles like Achtung! Cthulhu and Mutant Chronicles, to new roleplaying games like Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of and Star Trek Adventure. For more information please visit Modiphius.com and you can catch the very latest news on Modiphius' Facebook page and Twitter feed.

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