Bringing Out the Big Guns

In Burroughs' Barsoom novels, he justifies all the swordfights (when his heroes have access to some rather brutal firearms) by having all Martians abide by a code of honor that would make it unthinkable to anyone but the lowest rogue to shoot someone who has a sword drawn. The problem with doing this in a role-playing game, of course, is that most players are rat bastards who would have their character shoot a guy in that situation without blinking an eye.

On some level, that's just common sense. Maybe that's why firearms are either not part of the typical landscape of other planetary romances (like in Carter's Green Star and Callisto novels) or of reduced effectiveness (Howard's Almuric). I have tended Athanor toward the latter approach, because I like the swashbuckling idea of having some pistols around, especially if they are essentially black powder arms.

But Athanor also is home to many pieces of lost technology, including a variety of firearms. But in this case, we're talking rayguns, Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon style ray guns. Call them lasers or death rays, I don't really care. But ray guns will be rare but dangerous treasure that heroes can get ahold of, and will make guns much more likely to be used. And the PCs are going to use them with brutal efficiency.

So will I enforce some sort of Burroughsian "code of chivalry?" Of course not. There are better ways to control this through more subtle Referee manipulation:

1. Control the Ammunition
How much can players recharge their weapon? If the answer is not much or not at all, every shot from the precious 4d6 damage laser pistol is going to be tracked much more carefully.

2. No Mercy Cuts Both Ways
An arms race of brutal behavior will eventually either land the PCs in trouble or kill them. Combined withe some in- or out-of character discussion of this escalation may help curb some of it.

3. Actions Have Consequences
Ruthless cowards will not make as many friends as brave warriors. Though the players could always live by the motto "oderint dum metuant" I suppose.

However, I think that this stuff isn't necessary-- at least not in a heavy-handed way. My experience is that powerful items so long as they don't dominate all aspects of play and plot can work well in the game if they ar treated realistically. Others will change their expectations (for good or ill) of the guy who can fell a Tyrannosaur with a couple of shots. Having such an item may make you the target of the attentions of Bad People who want to take it from you, from Good People who want your help, and from Scared People who find your power intimidating. Include that kind of stuff in game, and things get interesting.

Playing with the genre tropes

First of all, I want to point out that I see Athanor playing off planetary romance novels the same way that D&D has always played off heroic fantasy — I'm not slavishly reproducing the source material and am, in fact, often going a different direction from the original source genre. It is, however, the foundation for what I am doing. I like playing with the genre for many reasons: dislike for the colonialist sentimentality of the original works, a desire to allow for rip-roaring picaresque anti-hero activity that I think is generally typical of the gaming groups I have known, and a desire to loosen the reigns of genre enforcement to allow players to make the game their own. But I like to at least give some nods to what I think of as key tropes of the genre.

One of the things I think of with planetary romance is The Princess. Now, in my head, the archetypal Princess is, of course, Dejah Thoris. (And for the record, in my head she is either drawn by Frazetta or appears as a red-skinned naked Salma Hayek. Both of which I'm sure you can find pictures of on the Internet. I'll wait here while you search for them on Google.) The Princess figure even appears in all sorts of pastiches of the literature, and is central to the genre. The courtly love trappings of the relationship with Our Hero, her frequent kidnapping/departure/maguffinish disappearances drive Our Hero to go out and Do Heroic Stuff in Her Name.

But frankly, much of this really bugs me. The sexist overtones, the cowering women with moments of bravery before becoming frail little flowers all speak of a sort of boring exploitation that I find distasteful. After all, if we are going to have exploitation, let's be more interesting about it and less invested in a sort of retro-Victorian nonsense. It almost wants me to see somebody do a planetary romance with a female heroine rescuing her useless male prince (I mean, come on someone has to have done this, right? If only in some sort of fanfic?)

So I want the possiblity of romance, and doing things to impress beloveds and allow for beloveds to be the impetus for adventure. I like that. Hell, I'm cool with half-naked eye candy popping up along the way, and the occassional damsel in distress. I like the idea of rivalries for the hand of someone.

But boring women who just show up to faint and get rescued bore me. As does the hot-headed, independent woman who, once you get past her fiery nature, is just a wilting flower. (Though if you're playing an Earth woman character, maybe I can have a red-skinned Zamoran prince who constantly gets kidnapped fall in love with you and pursue your hand. That might be fun.) I'm more likely to throw in difficult to woo women in positions of power, warriors, criminals, schemers, foils, and ordinary people with strengths and weaknesses.

However, I don't want to create a race of Joss-Whedonish superwomen on Athanor. Just make them less set dressing and more interesting in their own right.

A nod to the original, if you will, but with my own sensibilities.

Pulpy Planetary Romance Plot Generation

Athanor is all about the pulpy planetary romance action. In that spirit, I offer my own Pulp Planetary Romance Plot Inspiro-tron. Roll on Chart A for your villain, Chart B for their evil scheme, Chart C if you need to determine a victim for the scheme or an ally for the hero to make along the way. Keep rolling for all you need, since heroes are always finding new supporting cast members to have to rescue later.

Chart D is for the plot devices, maguffins, or odd bits of alien technology that show up. Chart E is the plot twist about the larger campaign that the plot reveals. I have used a mix of actual elements of planetary romances I have read and some ideas that sounded good to me at the time. However, some word on the general plotting of Edgar Rice Burrough Barsoom-style tales is worth some time.

To be loose, general, and a little facetious, the general Edgar Rice Burrough style plot should resemble:

Villain(s) enact an Evil Scheme (usually involving the kidnapping of Dejah Thoris or another princess) that leads our hero to pursuing the Villains across the planet resulting in the Revelation of a Secret that affects the setting. In the end, the hero triumphs (usually rescuing the princess and killing a lot of bad guys along the way) with a different understanding of the world.

On with the charts.

Chart A: The Villain(s)

d10 Result
1 Cowardly and Treacherous Noble
2 Wise Scion of a Dead/Dying Race
3 Cold and Amoral Alien Scientist
4 Heartless Assassin
5 Rival
6 Bounty Hunter
7 Slavers
8 Pirates
9 Bandits
10 Cultists

Chart B: Evil Scheme

d Result
1 Kidnapping
2 Theft
3 Exploration
4 Chase
5 Attack
6 Brainwashing
7 Brain-stealing
8 Dishonor/Besmirch
9 Sell into Slavery
10 Imprison/Transform/Make Comatose

Chart C: Victim or Ally

d10 Result
1 Beautiful Princess
2 Noble Savage
3 Brave Warrior
4 Strange Alien
5 Scientist/Philosopher/Scholar/Priest
6 Ousted Nobleman
7 Misunderstood Scoundrel
8 Loyal Handmaiden
9 Brute with a Heart of Gold
10 Warrior-Maiden Who Will Not Allow Herself to Love

Chart D: Plot Devices & Maguffins

d10 Result
1 Ancient Weapon of Vast Power
2 Terrible Monster from the Dim Past
3 Advanced Power Source
4 Terraforming Device
5 Last Scion of an Ancient Race
6 Device that Will Make the User a (Near-)God
7 Mind Control Device
8 Army of Robots
9 Library of Lost Knowledge
10 Still Functioning Computer/AI/disembodied brain(s)

Chart E: Secret That The Plot Reveals

d8 Result
1 Lost City of Ancients Who are Now Degenerate.
2 Lost City of Ancients Who Have Vast Mental Powers But are Now Amoral
3 The Truth Behind the Locals' Belief About the Gods
4 A Terrible Monster Worshipped as a God
5 A Terrible Danger That is Coming From Far Away
6 A Lost Race Who Secretly Manipulates the World
7 The Villains Are Even Worse Than They Seemed
8 A Prophecy of Great Import

My Boxed Set

Now that I think the rules are fairly finalized, I am putting together little booklets of rules for the tabletop. I am laying them out for practical play and not including the OGL declarations or S&W trademark information since I am just printing out copies for myself... anything I put on the web will be a little different to make sure I follow the right procedures for these kinds of things.

My own Personal Boxed Set (which does have its own box!) consists of six booklets:

1. Character Creation
2. The Basic Rules
3. Magic Rules and Spells
4. World Information
5. Monsters and Treasure
6. Compiled Tables

My goal here is easy tabletop reference to the rules, keeping books 5 and 6 to myself, and allowing books 1-4 to be used by players as needed. We'll see how it plays out in real life.

I have put my rules in digest-size PDFs, and use booklet printing to crank out copies, using my long-reach stapler to put them together all old-school.

While I was at it, I printed out my PDF of the Esoteric Creature Generator to throw in the box, as well as a copy of Matt Finch's Eldritch Weirdness and his City Encounters PDFs, also in booklet form. Add some dice, some pencils and a small notebook, and I have box of portable game ready to play.

Should This Be Basic Roleplaying Rule Number 1?

Truer advice cannot be found. If I were to write my own game, this might be part of the rules of play....

Monsters and Manuals: Gaming Advice #1: Don't Be A Dick Head