The main character drops into the story, knowing very little about this new world. Reading A Princess of Mars with D&D in mind, one can see obvious parallels with a B/X campaign. The Barsoom stories appear to have had a more significant impact on B/X through their setting and structure. Moldvay does give his apes a role in some Neanderthal tribes similar to a niche Barsoomian apes fill among a type of Martian introduced later in the series, but the influence on Basic D&D remains more flavorful than concrete. While Burroughs describes his white apes as 15 foot tall, six-limbed monstrosities, nothing in the Basic description, or Erol Otus’ illustration, indicates Moldvay’s apes are anything other than white gorillas. Barsoomian white apes, however, differ from Basic white apes. Will he be in time?Īs mentioned above, Moldvay’s Basic Rules include the white ape as a monster-the first D&D rules set to do so. Carter finds he must risk everything to save the woman he loves, her people, and all of Barsoom. Carter learns of the dead sea bottoms, ruined cities, and flying ships of the red planet, variously fighting, befriending, commanding, or loving green and red Martians, savage white apes, his loyal calot Woola, and his incomparable princess, Dejah Thoris.īut Mars is a dying world.
#BARSOOM CITIES SERIES#
Thus begins a series of fantastic adventures among the denizens of Mars (which they call Barsoom). Refusing to make the same mistake as their quarry, the Apaches leave Carter to his fate.įollowing their departure, and while making a desperate effort to rise, Carter suddenly finds himself standing naked in the cavern, separated from his body, which remains lying on the ground.Įxiting the cave in wonder at his new condition, Carter looks to the night sky, and finds himself captivated by the sight of the red planet Mars, which draws him inexorably through the darkness of space, where he wakes upon the world’s surface.
Its inclusion, along with others of Burroughs’ works, sufficiently establishes the influence of this science fantasy novel, and its author, on the development of B/X.Ĭaptain John Carter of Virginia, a former soldier on the losing side in the American Civil War, is prospecting in Arizona when an encounter with Apaches finds him trapped him in a mountain cave, paralyzed by a strange vapor. Of these three possible sources, however, only Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars is mentioned by name in the “Inspirational Source Material” section of the Basic Rules. I say “possibly” because the monster’s description differs from Burroughs’ portrayal, and because pulp literature, with which Moldvay was quite familiar, includes at least two other “white ape” antecedents. The 1981 Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rulebook, edited by Tom Moldvay, omits these references, but introduces its own possibly Barsoom-inspired creature: the white ape.
0 kommentar(er)
