Under the Moons of Mars: Sample Adventure

I rolled up an adventure using the adventure generator that I posted earlier. I doubt that I'll be able to run this for my group, but I may flesh it out to run as a one-shot at a convention.

1-3	Villian   Adjective   Race	Noble   Rich   Red Martian	Nastor Lar - a rich Baltan noble
4	Villian's Goal	Discover	Wants to discover the secret of the Black Sphere, which lies half submerged in water in a cavern deep underground. The water is part of the Last Ocean. The cavern is located underneath the city of Rev Del.   There is a wall full of ancient Martian symbols in the cavern. Nastor hopes that the writing tells how to open the Black Sphere.   Nastor has kidnapped Jad Sorolian, a beautiful red Martian female archaeologist, who is an expert on ancient Martian symbols. The Baltan noble hopes that Jad can decipher the symbols  on the wall.   Jad's work site has been unexpectedly attacked by an invisible enemy.
5	Heroes' Hook	Rumor	The party hears rumors that their friend Jad Sorolian,  has been kidnapped by Nastor Lar, a Baltan noble with a reputation for cruelty. It is also rumored that Nastor Lar has found a Black Sphere, one of the legendary ships of the Yellow Martians.
6	Heroes' Goal	Destroy/Hunt	Hunt for the archaeologist Jad Sorolian, a friend, or destroy the Baltan noble, Nastor Lar.
7-8	Locales and Modifiers	Villain's Lair - NPC hostile	The Green Tower on Mount Jeddum, leads to the Dark Below and the Last Ocean  - Zand Hamek, a red Martian merchant, delusional
7-8	Locales and Modifiers	Exotic Land - Mystery	The Dark Below/The Last Ocean - A mysterious black sphere.
7-8	Locales and Modifiers	Small City - Trap/Ambush	Red Martian city of Rel Dev, mansion belonging to Nastor Lar - Floria will try to ambush the party.
9	Villainous Lt.	Spy/Seducer	A beautiful red Martian woman, Floria Tah
10	Guest Star	Mystic	Borrell, a yellow Martian male. (Yellow Martians are the Atlanteans of Mars: aquatic).
11	Guest Star Goal	Destroy/Hunt or Conquer	Destroy any intruders who seek knowledge of the Black Sphere.
12	Victim	Damsel or Dude in Distress	Jad Sorolian, a beautiful red Martian female. Archaeologist, expert on ancient Martian symbols. Captured by Nastor Lar.
13	Obstacles	Secrecy	Party must maintain secrecy. A war has started between the Baltan Confederacy and the green horde of Kovash Korak. Rev Del lies in Baltan territory. Anyone in the area is subject to conscription (by the Baltans) or eaten (by the green men).
14	Twists and Turns	Shock Revelation	Borrell serves an aboleth/fish god

Under the Moons of Mars: Adventure Generator

Here is an adventure generator for Mars that I put together.

1. VILLAIN
 
The villain is the main nemesis of the heroes. He is the spider at the center of the web and usually only encountered at the climax of the adventure. The villain should be a fully developed Wild Card, at least equal in power to individual heroes, if not the whole party.
 
d10 Result
1 Merchant
2 Priest
3 Noble
4 Scientist
5 Outlaw/Outcast
6 Psionicist
7 Mystic
8 Expert
9 Warrior
10 Roll twice. The first result is what the villain presents himself as. The second is what the villain actually is.
 
 
2. VILLAIN ADJECTIVE
 
d8 result
1 Bestial/Warped/Deformed
2 Bloodthirsty
3 Crafty
4 Delusional
5 Violent
6 Zealous
7 Rich
8 Filthy Rich
 
 
3. RACE
 
2d6 Result
2 Grey Martian
3-5 Green Martian
6-8 Red Martian
9-11 White Ape
12 Synthe or Robot
 
 
4. VILLAIN'S GOAL
 
The villain’s goal represents his primary motivation. His Hindrances should be chosen based on his nature (as determined on the previous tables) and his goal. A villain may have more than one goal, but there should always be a primary goal, which the other goals assist. Think of the others as sub-plots.
 
d10 Result
1 Conquer
2 Corrupt
3 Destroy
4 Discovery
5 Greed
6 Kidnap/Steal
7 Power
8 Revenge
9 Satisfy Honor
10. Subvert/Recruit
 
Conquer: The villain wants to conquer an area: a city, an oasis, or an entire kingdom.
 
Corrupt: This villain usually wants to replace one thing for another thing. He tends to work through subversion rather than brute force. For example, a cultist who wants to overthrow a Red Martian kingdom and reestablish worship of the old gods.
 
Destroy: The villain seeks to bring someone or something to a permanent end.
 
Discovery: The villain seeks to discover something of value. This may be a lost technology, a weapon, a Lost City, or even forbidden knowledge.
 
Greed: There’s more to greed than money. Seeking political favors, rare minerals, or knowledge can just as easily lead to villainous activities.
 
Kidnap/Steal: Kidnapping involves an abduction -- taking someone as a hostage or to interrogate them. Stealing usually involves an object rather than a person. The object the villain desires is usually a means to another goal. Roll again on the Goal table, ignoring any further kidnap/steal results.
 
Power: Gaining a political position or acquiring sensitive information can bring a villain power as easily as conquering a kingdom or discovering an ancient artifact.
 
Revenge: The villain seeks to avenge a perceived wrongdoing either against them personally or against their cause or beliefs. Revenge takes many forms, from simple humiliation to murder. It usually involves methods similar to one of the other goals, but is aimed at a specific target for a personal reason.
 
Satisfy Honor: The villain feels that he has been dishonored in some fashion. The goal usually calls for the death of whomever offended the villain.
 
Subvert/Recruit:  The villain hopes to undermine someone's allegiance or draw them to the villain's side.
 
 
5. HOOK
 
The Hook determines how the heroes get involved in the adventure.
 
d6 Result
1 Caught up in Events
2 Mistaken Identity
3 Motivation
4 Old Friend/Enemy
5 Patron
6 Rumor
 
Caught up in Events: Through no fault of their own, the heroes find themselves thrust into the action. Starting this way may leave the heroes confused as to what is happening, thus encouraging them to investigate.
 
Mistaken Identity: The heroes are mistaken for someone else (including the possibility of being accused of some crime they did not commit), or mistake someone else.
 
Motivation: Heroes have Hindrances and sometimes those Hindrances drag them into adventures. A villain might be a Foe of a PC.
 
Old Friend/Enemy: An old acquaintance seeks out the heroes, for good or ill.
 
Patron: Someone approaches the heroes with a job offer. The patron could even be the villain!
 
Rumor: Rumors circulate quickly on Mars. A rumor can come in the form of an overheard conversation or a piece of evidence.
 
 
6. HEROES' GOAL
 
What the heroes are trying to accomplish.
 
d12 Result
1. Assist/Gratitude
2. Destroy/Hunt
3. Discover/Solve Mystery
4. Escape/Rescue
5. Explore
6. Liberate
7. Money/Reward
8. Prevent/Protect
9. Retrieve/Steal/Acquire
10. Revenge/Thwart Villian
11. Survive
12. Win Battle/Contest
 
 
7. LOCALES
 
Exciting locales make interesting battlegrounds and scenic backdrops. Roll three to five times per episode.
 
1d12 Result
1  Small city
2 Villain’s Lair
3 Small Ruin (aerodrome, observatory, etc.)
4 Lost City
5 Isolated Building (laboratory, temple, tower, etc.)
6 Large City
7 Settlement or outpost
8 Exotic Land
9 Large Ruin (an abandoned city, a citadel, etc.)
10–11 Wilderness
12 The Dark Below
 
Exotic Land: An exotic land might the jungles of the north pole, the Dead Seas of the southern hemisphere, or a deep canyon full of exotic plant life.
 
Ruin, Small/Large: This is a building, or a complex of buildings, that had a single purpose. While the ruin might be inhabited, the people there no longer pursue the building's original reason for being built.
 
Lost City: Mars is a dying world, and there are countless lost cities.
 
Isolated Building: Like a ruin, but this building is occupied and still used for its original purpose.
 
Settlement: The adventure takes place among the comforts of civilization -- and where there are lots of innocents.
 
The Dark Below: The adventure takes place in the caverns below the surface of Mars.
 
Villain’s Lair: This is the villain’s headquarters. Roll again to see where the base is located.
 
Wilderness: An adventure set in the red deserts or the dry sea bottoms of Mars.
 
 
8. Locale Modifiers
 
Each location has something that the heroes have to interact with to advance their goals.
 
1d12 Result
1 Beast
2 Robot
2 Trap/Ambush
3 Mystery
4 NPC - ally
5-6 NPC - neutral
7-9 NPC - hostile
10 NPC - Spy/Seducer
11 Natural Hazard
12  Farmers / Settlers / Innocents
 
 
9. VILLIANOUS HENCHMEN
 
Villains sometimes operate with henchmen. Roll once per adventure.
 
1d12 Result
1 Corrupted Hero
2 Robot/Synthe-Man
3 Beast
4 Combat Veteran
5 Mystic
6 Psionicist
7-8 Right -Hand Man
9 Mad Scientist
10 Spy/Seducer
11 Thugs/Criminals
12 Soldiers
 
Beast: The villain has one or more beasts at his disposal.
 
Combat Veteran: Combat veterans are masters of warfare andmight be able to take down any individual hero in a fair fight. They may not be capable in other areas, but they are deadly duelists.
 
Corrupted Hero: A former champion, now fallen.
 
Psionicist: The villain’s henchman is gifted with strange powers of the mind.
 
Right Hand Man: The villain’s most trusted lackey is usually a jack-of-all-trades. He can fight, talk, and get his way out of trouble. He is also fanatically loyal to his master.
 
Mad Scientist: The villain has a master of Weird Science at his disposal.
 
Soldiers: The villian has a group of trained soldiers at his disposal. These might be raiders mounted on jalfs or sky pirates on a skyship.
 
Spy/Seducer: The villain’s henchman is a master of deception. Blackmail, bribery, control, seduction, and secrets of all kinds are the tools of this servant.
 
Thugs/Criminals: Low-grade lackeys, a criminal gang, or smugglers.
 
 
10. GUEST STAR
 
1d12 RESULT
1 Criminal
2. Military Officer
3 Expert/Scholar
4 Explorer/Scout
5 Friend/Relative
6 Love Interest
7 Scientist
8 Warrior/Mercenary
9 Merchant
10 Official/Bureaucrat
11 Priest
12 Mystic
 
 
11. GUEST STARS GOAL
 
Roll once on the Heroes' Goals Table and once on the Villain's Goal Table. Pick the best one.
 
 
12. Victim
 
1 Soldier
2 Damsel or Dude in Distress
3 Decent Folk
4 Deserving
5 Hero associate/friend/family
6 Inanimate/Infrastructure
7 Innocents
8 Historian/archaeologist

9 Marginal Types
10 Politician/Bureaucrat
11 Noble
12 Roll twice on the Villain Table. The first result is what the victim presents himself as. The second is what the victim actually is
 
13. OBSTACLES
 
1d12 Result
1 Accused
2 Bandits/Criminals
3 Beast
4 Natural Disaster/Bad Weather
5 Rampaging Robot
6 Mystery
7 Official Opposition
8 Rival
9 Secrecy
10 Social Opposition
11 Trap
12 War
 
 
14. TWISTS AND TURNS
 
A good sword and planet adventure should have a few twists in it. Ideally, there should be one or two twists and turns per episode. To increase the length of an adventure, make extra rolls.
 
1d12 Result
1 Deadline/Ticking Clock
2 Double-Crossed
3 Unexpected Foe
4 Trap/Ambush
5 Rescue Ally
6 False Flag
7 Escalation
8 Beast
9 Natural Hazard
10 Unexpected Ally
11 Shock Revelation
12 Discovery
 
Beast: Some sort of creature makes a sudden appearance in the adventure at any unexpected time.
 
Deadline: The heroes discover that they are in race against time.
 
Discovery: Many secrets lie buried across Mars. Maybe the heroes find a document revealing the villain’s plan or discover an inscription that leads to another adventure.
 
Double-Crossed: At some point, a key figure in the adventure switches sides. This works both for and against the heroes, depending on who it is performing the double-cross.
 
Escalation: The villian escalates the situation. He might hire more thugs or he might decide to destroy the city instead of overthrowing the rightful king.
 
False Flag: Someone is not whom they seem.
 
Natural Hazard: At some point in the adventure, the characters are hampered by the forces of nature. Rockslides, sand storms, marsquakes, electrical storms.
 
Rescue Ally: At some point during the adventure, an ally of the heroes ends up in the villain’s clutches. Kidnapping the ally may be a distraction to cover the villain’s actions elsewhere, or it may advance the villain’s main goal directly.
 
Shock Revelation: Something important is revealed during the adventure. Such Shock Revelations do not have to be bad—though they often are! Perhaps an NPC declares her undying love for a hero or maybe the group discovers a clue that suggests an old and trusted friend is secretly in league with the villain.
 
Trap/Ambush: Traps range from simple pits to complex traps involving moving walls. This could be set by the villain, or merely an ancient device stumbled upon by the heroes. Ambushes are fairly self-explanatory (again, this may be an ambush completely unrelated to the villains plans).
 
Unexpected Ally: Maybe the natives rise up against the villain and join the heroes, or perhaps the old man they met earlier in the adventure turns out to be a retired swordsman who just can’t sit back and watch the villain get away with his foul plot. Either way, someone or something comes to the heroes’ aid at a crucial moment.
 
Unexpected Foe: Maybe the villain turns out in fact to be someone the heroes weren’t expecting (“The old man was the villain all along!”), extra henchmen join a desperate battle at a crucial time, or some innocent looking animal turns out to be a vicious killing machine.
 

Mars: Campaign Concepts and Themes

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.