Sunday, March 30, 2014

Another Free Sword and Science Fantasy Fiction Download- The Yellow Men Of Mars By Edgar Rice Burroughs



Grab it For Free
HERE

Tag line :
Blurb: "Never had John Carter faced more danger than in the polar hothouse city of the yellow men of Mars."
From the Science Fiction novella published August 1941 issue of Amazing Stories magazine. 
I've always loved this particular novella. There are a ton of ideas here to use for a sword and planet game set on Mars. Ancient and decadent cultures, Apts, weird technology,damsel's in distress.
Lots and lots of ideas for mega dungeons. You see this particular novella was part of a cycle that later became Llana of Gathol.
The plot according to wiki: 
The stories in this collection revolve around John Carter's granddaughter Llana of Gathol, who plays the "damsel in distress" role played by Dejah Thoris and Thuvia in earlier entries of the Barsoom series.Basically this is Mars 'the Grand Tour' with lots of action, exciting set pieces, and plot points of really interesting locals that seem to flash by in an instant during the book. There's lots of potential here for a DM. I've taken this particular book in measured doses to get into the background setting material. Even though there is ton of stuff written about this book it's sometimes best to read the material yourself to get the maximum benefit.
Llana of Gathol

In the cycle of Barsoomian pulptastic terror we've got the following : 
  • "The Ancient Dead", originally "The City of Mummies"
  • "The Black Pirates of Barsoom", originally "Black Pirates of Barsoom"
  • "Escape on Mars", originally "Yellow Men of Mars"
  • "Invisible Men of Mars"
    There are a ton of old school conventions in this Barsoom novel. From dungeon crawling, to backroom Martian politics, to the monsters, etc. 
    The Plot : 
    "John Carter is captured by the inhabitants of Horz, one of the supposedly "dead" cities of Mars. Together with Pan Dan Chee, his captor, who has also been sentenced to death for bringing Carter into Horz, he is sent down to the pits under the city. To the astonishment of the two men, they discover the remnants of a maritime race which had existed hundreds of thousands of years before men and women gorgeously apparelled, maintained in suspended animation, unaware that the five beautiful seas of Mars on which they used to sail are now dried up, that indeed, their whole way of life has long since disappeared from the face of the dying planet. It is many moons and many countries before Pan Dan Chee and Carter are able to bring Llana safely home to Gathol.

    You might want to read the following which has the collected stories in one place.  

    There's a text file of the entire book from Project Gutenberg Australia right over
     
    HERE
  • The ERB magazine site has a fantastic pulp gallery of artwork from this cycle of Edgar Rice Burroughs writings right over  HERE
    Time and again like so many other DM's I've turned again and again to Edgar Rice Burroughs to fill in some of the gaps of my own post apocalpytic Mars campaign. This particular set of ERB's writing is one of my favorites even though purists have stated that the writer was parodying himself by the time of publication of this book. The book's influence is evident by the number of writers who have paid homage to the book over the years. 


    Check locally if ERB's classic is within the public domain in your country, region,etc. We take no responsibility for this matter. This post is for entertainment purposes only and is not an attempt to violate the trademark or copyright of the material. 

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