Building Ruins #8

 

Building Ruins #7

 

Buildings Ruins #6

 

Thark Building Ruins Map

 Another one down, many more to go.

Thark Building Ruins Map

 

Just one level of this tower.

PotRP Design Diary #39 - Thark

 On the edge of a dusty basin of a long-dead Martian sea lies the ruins of a city called Thark—or at least, that’s what the green Martians call it now. No one remembers its real name. What’s left of it sprawls in eerie silence, the bones of a lost civilization slowly being swallowed by red sand.

Once, Thark was grand. Marble towers rose into the sky, elegant frescoes and mosaics lined the walls, and wide avenues bustled with life. Now, it’s all broken columns, leaning buildings, and windswept plazas. Faded images of pale-skinned, golden-haired people still decorate some of the ruins, ghosts of a vanished race.

At the center stands a great circular hall, once a ceremonial chamber, now a rough meeting place for the warlike green Martians. Scattered around the city are strange chambers with hanging metal beds and walls etched with forgotten symbols. Outside the city lies the incubator vault, buried in hills and sand, where the green Martians hatch their young.

Under it all are hidden vaults, cracked aqueducts, mural-lined tunnels, reminders of a time when water flowed and the city thrived.

But now, Thark is silent. Not haunted by spirits, but by memory. The wind moans through its dusty broken streets like a city trying to remember who it once was. If you ever visit, you’ll feel that sense that something ancient is still watching.

Thark

WotRP: Apt

 As many drawings as I did for Warriors of the Red Planet, I still wish I'd drawn more! It is amazing how much art a roleplaying game book can gobble up. I was rereading Llana of Gothol and thinking about how the Apt was described. Since I didn't draw one for WotRP I sketched out this interpretation for fun.

So many of the creatures on Barsoom are essentially 6-legged centaur like designs.

Apt
AC: 6 [14]
HD: 10
Atk: bite or 2 claws
Dmg: 2d8, or 1d8 each
Save: F10
Move: 120’
XP: 6500

The Apt is a terrible scourge of the frozen north. Running on six powerful legs, it can stand upright on four of them to tear with two massive claws before closing to bite with its tusked maw. Its multi-faceted eyes can see in pitch darkness, and can even see invisible creatures. Its rich fur, ranging from white to yellow, sometimes with black stripes, is highly prized and valuable. Their lairs are often stinking charnel pits, as they enjoy letting their prey rot a bit before feasting.

PotRP Design Diary #38 - Structure

 Way back in December of 2022 was the last numbered PotRP Design Diary entry. I knew writing a Weird West RPG would be a (necessary) distraction, but wow did things go off course. This is the start of getting back on track with this project and wrapping it up.

When I started Princess of the Red Planet I thought writing it chapter by chapter in sync with the novel would be a good approach. It wasn't. But it was good for doing research and collecting the notes needed to make the adventure. A location by location approach, like all adventures, is the right way to structure this module.

With that obvious observation out of the way, here is the current breakdown of the location chapters of the adventure:

ARIZONA SECTION 

• Arizona Hills
• Claim Site
• Apache Camp
• Mysterious Cave

BARSOOM SECTION

• Dead Sea Bottom
• Thark
• Warhoon
• Korad 
• Zodanga
• Helium
• Atmosphere Factory

These locations will still be presented as sandboxes, so each is an adventure area, not a railroad. 

Arizona Hills

The location of the Arizona portion of the story is somewhat vague in the novel. 

John Carter mentions:

“We were camped near the old gold mine in the Arizona hills not far from the Rio Colorado...”

— A Princess of Mars, Chapter 1

The Rio Colorado has two major tributaries—one on the western side of the state and one on the northern side. However, the Apache were located in the central and south eastern region of Arizona. Some commentators have suggested the White Mountains as the setting, but this doesn’t quite align with the story’s geography.

I prefer to place the events in Aravaipa Valley, where all the features mentioned in the novel are present. It’s also the location of Fort Grant, where Edgar Rice Burroughs was stationed during his brief military service.

Ultimately, the GM can place the western portion of the adventure wherever they choose within the Southwest.

Next week I'll talk about the Claim Site.

Map - Temple of Sota’ver the Heretic

 As I've been digging back into the Princess of the Red Planet adventure I've been drawing lots of maps. The goal has been to create distinctive and unusual maps with unconventional designs, to feel like otherworldly architecture. This isn't the strangest one I've drawn, but it is definitely different than typical rectangular dungeon maps. I imagined this as one floor of a crumbling tower.

How far can I go with this and driving the party's mapper crazy?