Brian Carpenter's page

I don't have a large background in reading the classic sword & planet genre. What drew me to this was the description of the main character as a physicist swordsman. Brains and brawn combined in a protagonist sounded like a fun read. Thankfully, the book turned out to be just that.

If you've ever read John Carter, Warlord of Mars, then you know how this book begins. Earthman is transported to Mars through mysterious device and quickly becomes acclimated to the the Martian environment and culture. Moorcock explained away the obvious disconnect with what was actually known of the real Martian surface in the 1950's with a clever time travel element. The book plays out with fun fight scenes, classic tropes of the pulp era stories, such as fights with swords and ray guns, flying ships, princesses to be rescued and delves into the depths of the planet. The dialog doesn't flow easily at all times, and the plot is very reminiscent of the John Carter books, but City of the Beast is a fun ride as you read along, and I'm looking forward to the next title in this series.

I purchased this adventure initially just to read through it. However, upon doing so, I immediately incorporated it into my Rise of the Runelords game.

The entire first half of the adventure is a fantastic race around the city. The encounters are varied enough so that it doesn't feel like the same thing over and over. Chases, combat against giant apes, a party and hellish landscapes keep the players guessing the entire time. The second half of the module transforms into a dungeon crawl but set in a modern home with fantastic creatures and traps.

The core of the module worked great even when I scaled the encounters to fit my groups level. This module now has me watching for other work by Stephen Greer.