Worldscape Workbook—Under the Moons of Mars

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Issue #3 of Pathfinder Worldscape, Dynamite's blockbuster all-star sword & sorcery supergroup crossover, hits newsstands TODAY, so I figured now would be a perfect time to peel back the curtain a bit and let you know about some of the decisions that went into the Pathfinder RPG rules appendix found in the back of the issue.

This month's appendix is a bit of a doozy because the issue's story features the first appearance of one of the major stars of the series, John Carter of Mars! The great Virginian steps onto our pages to join the likes of his green Martian ally Tars Tarkas, the she-devil Red Sonja, Frank Frazetta's jungle hero Thun'da, and more (to say nothing of Pathfinder stalwarts Valeros, Kyra, Merisiel, and Seoni).

Of all Worldscape's superstars, John Carter's star shines the brightest in the firmament of fantasy literature. Carter first appeared way back in February, 1912, in a serialized story entitled "Under the Moons of Mars," by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The story appeared as a novel entitled A Princess of Mars, in 1917, and it's been in print ever since.

Carter helped to define the "formula" for adventure story heroes (especially in a science fictional setting). He and Burroughs's Barsoom (Mars) also launched an entire sub-genre of fiction that arguably includes stories like Star Wars, but absolutely 1000% includes stories like James Cameron's Avatar, which borrows heavily from the tropes established in "Under the Moons of Mars."

Like many of the sub-genres we're touching on in Pathfinder Worldscape (including mainline "sword & sorcery" and especially jungle adventure stories), the heroes of "sword & planet" stories present an interesting challenge for the Pathfinder RPG, because none of them ever wears a scrap of armor. Indeed, John Carter's world probably reveals more flesh on a regular basis than even the Tarzan stories and their various knock-offs, which star a guy wearing a loincloth.

So, as I did with the sword-devil archetype in Pathfinder Worldscape #1 (which covered Red Sonja, so to speak), this month's appendix presents a brand new archetype called the warlord that allows players to run around in their briefs and kick just as much ass as John Carter did without a massive sacrifice to their Armor Class. From my perspective, it really stinks when the rules don't allow you to play a concept you want to try out, or even worse punish you for it. This archetype (and really all of the rules presented over Worldscape's six issues) creates new space for players to play heroes like Red Sonja, John Carter, or Tarzan without getting hit multiple times every round. The Pathfinder rules don't really handle characters wearing no armor and going toe-to-toe with monsters and fully armored enemies.

At least not until this series, that is. If I accomplish nothing else from writing all of the stories and appendices for this series, I hope that Pathfinder Worldscape develops a reputation as the Catcher in the Rye of no-armor martial archetypes.

The warlord is a fighter archetype, a particularly challenging breed of archetype because, unlike so many other classes, the fighter doesn't have a ton of class features to "swap out" as most other classes do. That's partially by design. When we sat down to create the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, we thought it very important to include at least one class that was easy to understand and easy to play. The fighter has traditionally played that role, so we carried that forward into the final Pathfinder rules. This was, of course, a year or two before we came up with the idea for archetypes, so only after their introduction in the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide did we realize that this might turn out to be a bit of a problem.

That's the reason that you don't see as many fighter archetypes as you see for other classes. There just isn't as much design room to make interesting options.

The class isn't without ANY options, of course, but things are a bit more challenging. I knew this going in, but I didn't really care. John Carter is obviously a fighter. One of his books is called A Fighting Man of Mars, for Pete's sake. So I had to make him a fighter archetype, design space or not!

First off, I modified the fighter's usual class skills to include Barsoomian staples Acrobatics and Knowledge (nobility), which replace Swim (not super useful on a desert planet) and Knowledge (dungeoneering). Fair trade, in my book.

Barsoom doesn't offer the same sort of weapon options we have here on Earth, so I significantly tailored the class's proficiency list to include only weapons that appear in the John Carter comics and novels, including the radium pistol and rifle included in the RPG appendix for Pathfinder Worldscape #2. This helps to keep warlord characters "on model" and representative of the way they appear in the source material, which is the overall goal of these adaptations.

The most important power the warlord has is likely Evasive Dueling, which allows a warlord to add a +1 dodge bonus to his AC in lieu of one of the MANY bonus feats fighters get throughout their careers. This means that the player gets to decide how important AC is to his warlord, and doesn't deny him the opportunity to drop some bonus feats into his weapons or other combat abilities. He can always come back for some more Armor Class when he really needs it.

And in case he needs more AC (which he will, because he's not even proficient in armor and a lot of his powers don't work when he's wearing it), I also created a power called Battle Bravado, which (at 3rd level) allows the warlord to add his Charisma bonus to his AC when unarmored and unencumbered, so long as he is not wearing armor or carrying a Medium or heavier load. This power even comes with a few more dodge bonuses spread out over the full 20 levels.

He also gets some weapon type-specific modifications to Weapon Training, and by the time he hits 19th level, he unlocks DR/5, the benefit of a life spent surviving against impossible odds in a hostile world.

So there you have it, a broad overview of the warlord archetype from Pathfinder Worldscape #3! You can order your copy from paizo.com right now, or you can pick up a copy in person at your game store.

To make sure you never miss an issue of Pathfinder Worldscape, consider setting up an ongoing Pathfinder Comics subscription today.

I'll be back in two weeks with a look at John Carter himself. Until then, keep rolling 20s!

Happy holidays to you all!

Erik Mona
Publisher