[Let’s Study: John Carter of Mars] Part 7: GMing Chapters and Review

Much like the prior chapter, I’ll be discussing my thoughts on the various GMing chapters in the book and the contents that they have rather than repeating stuff here on the blog. Narrators of Mars This is the GMing chapter, which takes the potential GM through the genre conventions and how to run John Carter […]

[Let’s Study: John Carter of Mars] Part 6: Setting Chapters

I’ll be switching a bit to a different take on things here in this installment as we’re covering several setting chapters. Rather than regurgitate everything here, I’ll be sharing my impressions on each the section as a whole. For those keeping track, the setting chapters include: The History of Barsoom The Green Hordes The Red […]

[Let’s Study: John Carter of Mars] Part 5: Experience and Renown

Evolving a character in the John Carter RPG comes in two forms: Experience and Renown. Experience is a means of tracking internal character growth, while Renown is how you’ll track how much they affect the setting. Experience On average, a Character gains 1-3 experience points per session, with a higher end of story arc experience […]

[Let’s Study: John Carter of Mars] Part 4b: Sample Combat

Now that we’ve familiarized ourselves with the Combat Rules, let’s have a go with our sample character, Astok of the Skies! Before we go into it, let’s review what Astok has going for him: Astok of the SkiesCanny Red Martian Airship Officer 5 Cunning9 Daring5 Empathy4 Might6 Passion7 Reason TalentsAcrobatic DodgeWhen successful in defending against […]

[Let’s Study: John Carter of Mars] Part 4a: Combat Rules

We’ve gone over the basic mechanics already, and built a character. Now let’s see how the John Carter RPG handles combat mechanics. Turn Order Unlike other games, 2d20 doesn’t tend to bother with Initiative Rolls, often defaulting to having the players resolve their turns first, in any order they choose. John Carter has that option […]