Barsoom

I am reading A Princess of Mars to prepare for a convention panel this weekend: "A Princess of Mars: 100 Years Later". It's actually a bit short of a hundred years, since Edgar Rice Burroughs' book was published in 1917. But even so, with the recent John Carter movie, it's definitely time to talk!

http://www.davewindett.com/blog/2012/03/01/
a-princess-of-mars/

So, we'll be doing a short series on Barsoom here, since Burroughs' Mars was after all the world's first SF sandbox.

Schiaparelli's Notebook (1888)
http://www.brera.inaf.it/hevelius/galleria.html

To start, we'll stat out The Solar System circa 1866 (the year John Carter first goes to Mars), and then in a subsequent post we'll take a closer look at the planet Barsoom itself.

A Map of Barsoom,  http://barsoom.wikia.com/wiki/Barsoom 

OGL MECHANICS

The Solar System in 1886

• T -2: Industrialization*
• E 3: Two garden worlds and one hostile world**
• R 0: Sustainable
• ASPECTS:
• Verdant water world hidden beneath the clouds (Venus/Amtor/Cosoom)
• The Age of Empire - Iron ships and wooden men (Earth/Jasoom)
• A dying desert planet preserved by ancient machines (Mars/Barsoom) 

*There are pockets on T-1 technology on Barsoom, such as the radium rifles that are in broad use. Note that the radium here denotes the metallic content of projectiles fired by the rifle.'

**We consider Barsoom to be a hostile world since water is scarce and the atmosphere is maintained only by ancient machines. Earth and Venus are garden worlds.