Mars!
Not Mars as it is – airless, most likely lifeless, with only the faintest hints of what might have once been a damp, if not necessarily lush and living, world billions of years in the past. No, this is Mars as it should be and as it was once imagined to be – an ancient, dying, but not yet dead world, a world where a vast canal network reaches from pole to pole, bringing water and life to vast and fantastic cities. A Mars where albino apes run a vast empire in the last surviving jungle, a world where warrior tribes of Green Martians raid the outlying cities of the canal dwellers, a world where, in places dark and quiet and forgotten beneath the surface, ancient and terrible intellects plan dark and dire deeds.
It is a Mars of sky-corsairs, of duels with blade and blaster, of vile plots, fantastic inventions, daring rescues, arena battles, and spectacular stunts. It is a Mars where ancient cities can be discovered and their lost treasures plundered, a Mars where a trek across the dry sea bottoms can yield amazing discoveries, where terrible monsters roam the rocky wastes.
It is the Mars of pulp fiction and Saturday morning serials. [Mars, p. 7]
It is now ours!
Sword and Planet: The Planetary Romance Genre
Mars is a setting of planetary romance. This genre is also sometimes called ‘sword and planet’.
Heroes and Glory
Mars is a world filled with swashbuckling tales of adventure. Epic heroes stride boldly across all corners of the world, facing impossible odds and coming out on the winning side.
Villains and Vast Plots
Dastardly villains commit deeds most heinous. Madmen want to conquer all of Mars, or at least destroy an entire city. Heroes are inevitably drawn into these sinister machinations.
Ruins of a Glorious Past
Mars once held advanced civilizations that built flying ships, great canals that watered an entire world, and radium engines that powered entire cities. Much of that technology is now forgotten. Yet, despite the passage of time, remnants of the past are still accessible. Many stories revolve around trying to discover knowledge of the past. A ruined city might hold a library with clues to creating great inventions. A ruined fort might contain an ancient, but still functioning war machine.
A Bleak Future
Mars is a dying world. The seas have dried up and deserts cover much of the surface of the planet. In many ways, it is a post-apocalyptic world, even though the apocalypse has been going on for millennia and is still going on. The end is still more millenia away, but nothing can be done to stop it.
Romance
In the classic, literary sense, a “romance” means a story about ideals and archetypes. In the modern sense, it means erotic love. The planetary romance genre combines these two ideas. A larger than life hero meets a larger than life heroine, sparks fly, and Mars will never be the same.
Weird Science
The fundamental rule of the genre is that almost anything is possible, if a convincing bit of technobabble can be flung out. [Mars, p. 105]
Weird science and fantastic inventions help make an interesting story. Their overall impact is limited, however. Skyships exist, but most transportation is by land animal. Ray guns exist, but most fights are with a sword. A mad scientist can create a giant, rampaging robot, but he can’t mass produce it. Further, the answer to a giant rampaging robot is not to reconfigure the tachyon emitter; but instead to leap onto its back and drive your sword through its one weak spot.
Under the Moons of Mars
The campaign is about the epic adventures of our band of heroes. You will engage in aerial battles in sky ships with vicious pirates, fight with ferocious White Apes in the verdant jungles of the north pole, war with savage Green Martians in the dry sea bottoms, duel with scheming Red Martians in decadent cities on the edges of the great canals, and deal with the schemes of the alien Grey Martians in caverns below the surface of Mars.
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