Pulp fiction Sci-fi anyone?

[techumseh]

Has anyone read any of the Barsoom books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, like "A Princess of Mars"? They were popular pulp fiction sci-fi books written in the 1930s and 40s, with a revival in the late '60s. Burroughs was also the author of the "Tarzan" books. Disney (I know) made a movie a number of years ago called "John Carter of Mars". The reason is that I have an old, half-finished scenario. It's multi-player and multi-level. Anybody interested?

 

[JPetroski]

I'd be interested in a new multiplayer scenario though this entire genre is largely foreign to me

 

[CurtSibling]

Always loved the Verne scen from the old CIV2. That era of adventure lends itself nicely to the game. Consider me interested.

 

[techumseh]

John: Think hordes of green Martians with 4 arms, flying battleships, and swords and ray-guns.
Curt: It could also be developed as a single player quest-type scenario, along the lines of Prince of Darkness.

A trailer from the movie:

 

[Patine]

Has anyone read any of the Barsoom books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, like "A Princess of Mars"? They were popular pulp fiction sci-fi books written in the 1930s and 40s, with a revival in the late '60s. Burroughs was also the author of the "Tarzan" books. Disney (I know) made a movie a number of years ago called "John Carter of Mars". The reason is that I have an old, half-finished scenario. It's multi-player and multi-level. Anybody interested?

I've read the books. The original Disney movie (and the other vaguely-themed, John Carter-esque movies that came out in a similar time frame) were not very high quality to me films to me - than again, only a very few made in the last two decades I actually have a liking for - including a set of three @CurtSibling vocally detests. But the books were quite intriguing, I'll admit. It's an idea I'll keep an eye on, and maybe the odd bit of advice.

 

[CurtSibling]

@Patine
Vocally detest...Those be strong words!
What movies do you mean?...I am seldom moved to real emotions by movies these days, seeing as they are all crap.

 

[Patine]

@Patine
Vocally detest...Those be strong words!
What movies do you mean?...I am seldom moved to real emotions by movies these days, seeing as they are all crap.

The Star Wars Prequels have gotten more negative commentary out of you on this sub-forum than any other movies that I recall...

 

[techumseh]

And there he goes....hijacking another thread.

 

[Patine]

And there he goes....hijacking another thread.

I was done, actually. It was just a jovial jab with an emote, and then explanation of what was intimated. I wasn't planning on going any further.

 

[JPetroski]

So what will the multilevel mean/entail?

 

[Patine]

So what will the multilevel mean/entail?

As I recall, in the novels, Carter and company visited a few other worlds, including, I believe, Pulpy takes on Venus and Jupiter. I'm not sure if that's @techumseh had planned, but it does spring to mind from the original source material.

 

[techumseh]

So what will the multilevel mean/entail?

Barsoom's (Mars) surface, atmosphere (lots of aerial battles), underground seas, and Thuria (a moon of Mars). The various civs are essentially city states of 2 or 3 cities each, with vast wildernesses in between, populated by various fearsome beasts and hordes of Green Martians and dotted with dead cities. Aerial navies are the primary military force.

 

[Blake00]

Barsoom's (Mars) surface, atmosphere (lots of aerial battles), underground seas, and Thuria (a moon of Mars). The various civs are essentially city states of 2 or 3 cities each, with vast wildernesses in between, populated by various fearsome beasts and hordes of Green Martians and dotted with dead cities. Aerial navies are the primary military force.

Apologies if it's too late chime in but I've only just seen this and as a big fan of Mars scenarios I would friggin LOVE that. Very cool idea!
Over in the Civ3 community there was preliminary work on a Barsoomian Mars scenario but it barely got going as it's main creator Balthasar passed away sadly. A multi level one in ToT would be freaky, and better quite frankly. Hope you finish it one day.

.

 

[techumseh]

I might, given some renewed interest in multi-player games recently. Here's a screen shot: The fleets of Helium and Zodanga prepare to engage, while John Carter and Princess Dejah Thoris move to intercept a group of Tharks and a White Ape, led by a Holy Thern. (Read the books or see the movie if you want to make sense if any of that. ) This is stuff I did nearly 20 years ago, long before the movie.

 

[Blake00]

Wow! That looks absolutely awesome! Even without the lore knowledge I'd play this as it's got good immersion and I love martian scenarios. The forest/bush areas blend in with the martian terrain well and remind me of the surviving grassland tree areas of the C&C2 Tiberian Sun wastelands. The irrigated fertile desert areas around the cities looks nice and reminds me of Kingdom of Heaven scenes. Lots of nice Martian terrain variants (some I haven't seen before). Cool looking units.

Think I have a copy of the film somewhere, I'll have to check it out. Then I'll probably like this even more lol!

.

 

[techumseh]

The first book is available online here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/62/62-h/62-h.htm

 

[techumseh]

And the title page.

 

[CurtSibling]

Frazetta, the finest pulp artist of them all.

 

[Tanelorn]

" If my answers frighten you, then you should cease asking scary questions."

 

[Konig15]

Hey I'd LOVE to talk about implementing Pulp tropes as quests and stuff like in the Fantastic Worlds Jules Verne scenario. Cause I want to do a Fallout scenario someday, and while building the world is enough for some I wanted to have the flavor of pulp with investigations, two-fisted hero units and in the case of things like Fallout straight-up dungeon-crawling via the multiple map system.

I was also thinking it could come in handy for elite personal troops in war scenarios fighting in urban combat where you're big nasty artillery pieces and aircraft just can't efficiently go into urban combat zones and you have rely on infantry engineers clearing debris and hero units to seise objectives.

The problem of the Verse Scenario is that instead of using explorers and stuff, you wanted to find the exotic units and pound THE HELL out of them with artillery. In the case of explorers, using a modification of Tootall's Tunnel Rat system where you engage in a kind of research and lateral play to get the appropriate explorer unit in mass then SPAM the event marker to death, but here it's not your sacrifices archeologists to the adventure Gods like Belloc at the end of Raider of the Lost Ark, this represents the funding and government backing they have to REALLY crack the case open.

Suggestions on things like this are very VERY welcome!