Samson of Mars, a novel.

 I wrote a novel that takes place in my Mars setting. I will start revisions within the week and I hope to have it up on Amazon by the end of August. Some of you might find this interesting: I wrote the first draft in 19 days after reading that Bradbury did Fahrenheit 451 in 18. he did more words and I assume all his revisions within that time, but still 19 days is pretty good.  

BX Mars going out of print.

 Drive Thru RPG is discontinuing the hardcover format, so if you want a copy BX Mars at the end of the month so now is the time. You will have to change your settings, because it’s on the adult side. Here’s the link: BX Mars

Weird Wood: Sagoth Caves

 23

Sagoth Caves: A series of limestone hills riddled with caves. The caves show evidence of former habitation, but nobody lives there now- or at least not permanently. Strange things happen in the caves, ghosts are seen and fell beasts come up, without warning, from the lower tunnels. 

Comments have been turned on. 

BX Mars Deep City Ruins Zine, Early days.

 Here is a look at the table of contents and rough notes for the upcoming BX Mars Deep City Ruins Zine

BX Mars

Into the Ruins (BXM2)

Brief: An in-depth look at the deep city ruin environment, 2 new classes, three new factions a bunch of maps and art and stuff.

Intro

Classes (Scout, Druid)

Masteries

Factions 

Dry Well

Deep Xumos- three maps. 

Denizens of the Deep ruins

On presenting monsters

New wonders of the ancients

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Optional rules for smaller groups. 

Design notes and possible conversions. 

6-8 page comic. 

The Deep City Ruins. 

The edges of Ruined Xumos are controlled by the Thark, but the deeper into the ruins one ventures, the wilder and more dangerous things become. 

There’s a water source somewhere below the city and, ancient machines, the final vestiges of a forgotten irrigation system of unthinkable proportion, bring it to the surface. As a result the city is choked with vegetation. Some of it is dangerous. Nearly all of it is edible if properly processed and some of the plant’s will do their best to eat you as well.

This vegetation, of course, provides a basis for the local food chain. Within the confines of Zerzura, the biodiversity of the deep city ruins is matched only by that of Shadow Canyon. Many of the plants and animals living in the city can be found nowhere else in the region or, possibly the entirety of mars. 

There are wonders of the past and many other valuable things to be found in and under the deep city. Every year, dozens of Martians, red and green, alike, set out from the settlement at the frontiers edge and venture into the ruins in hopes of finding such things. Most don’t come back. Few of those who do escape with more than their lives. Countless stories and rumors tell of treasure found and then lost again the prospectors were slain on their way out of the ruins.

One of the great treasures supposedly lost in the ruins is a working food machine. It is almost certain that each of the regions factions sends agents in search of it from time to time. Such a find would surely destroy the current balance of power and spark the Zezura’s first major armed conflict in time out of mind. 

However stories of lesser treasures have been more than enough to motivate a steady stream of prospectors for time out of mind. 

Who ventures into the ruins? Members of every class represented in the BX Mars book and the two new classes presented in the following section are suitable for Deep Ruin adventures. 

Classes

The Scout

Scouts are one of the rare classes available to both Thark and Red Martians. Scouts are individuals who have dedicated their lives to exploring the ruins of the city. Although individuals they are often business rivals, costs generally work in a loose association with one another. As stated above, few expeditions return, even fewer do so without scouts. It should not be assumed that a given scout will know the layout of a particular area. The frontier between the civilized city’s edge and its deeper sections is constantly shifting inward. 

 

The Druid

Rarely encountered outside the ruins, Druids are Thark! who through rigorous effort have attained a level of psionic influence over plants and animals.

New Masteries

Backtrack

Ruin Lore

Jimmy

Factions

The Explorers

A loose association of druids and scouts. 

The Grax: warriors and leaders of the great horde. They rarely act in concert and might defiantly makes right. 

The Nuphal: The traders maintain a permanent presence here and is always interested in the acquisition of ancient artifacts, regardless of means. 

The Unclean: Servants of the Mad Sun lurk here as they do everywhere. They actively attempt to disrupt trade and sew discord between the other groups. More than one scout and possible a druid or two as well are agents of the unclean. They lead prospectors into the ruins and either kill them or abandon them once they are lost. Unclean druids may have special relationships with some of the evil creatures who lair in the ruins. 

Spies: Virtually every power and faction in the region- and perhaps one or two from elsewhere as well, maintain spies in Dry Well. 

Dry well and Beyond

Map of Dry Well

Map of section: Extremely overgrown.

Map of section: Broken terraces, waterfall.

Map of  section: This one overwhelmed by Sand and partially underground as a result.  

Each map comes with a gazetteer. 

Urban Weather Table

Denizens of Deep City

Blood Monkeys

Vine snakes

Club moss

Tangler

Stone Spider

Cleaning cubes

There will certainly be more content then this, as well as too many maps. 

There will be two versions, one with full nudity, another with a lot of convenient shadows and opaque gusts wind. 

Weird Wood: The Sands of Time

22

Sands of Time: A beach on the shore of Mud Lake, comprised entirely of extremely tiny clock parts and overshadowed by a giant brass watch. Clockwork seagulls sail over the shore and mechanical crabs sidle and click across the gear dunes. The beach first makes itself known upon approach by the thunderous noise of the giant watch ticking.

MAP

Weird Wood Murder Peak, the Observatory and Old Canal.

19.

Murder Peak: A sharp-peaked basalt formation riddled with caves. The base of Murder Peak is surrounded by a ring of bones. The osseous remains of many species are present in the bone pile, although humans seem to be somewhat overrepresented. 

The Tribusaurus makes its lair in one of the peaks’s many caves. 

20.

The Observatory: A large and ramshackle house, sporting a tower with a highly conspicuous telescope upon its roof. The house is clearly inhabited and some nights a dark shape has been seen moving about on the tower roof, but, nevertheless, there is nothing to see in Weird Wood’s night sky. 

21.

Old Canal: An algae chocked and broken down canal. The walls and walkways of the locks are inscribed with strange pictograms of unknown origin. The waterway doesn’t smell too good. 

MAP

Weird Wood Mud Lake

18

MAP

Mud Lake: An expanse of stinking, hot, wet, burbling filth. The lake teems with huge eels and giant roaches.