Weapons, Technology and Equipment

‘Weapons, Technology and Equipment’ is the first ludic adaptation of the technological aspects of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Martian storyworld, Barsoom. It creatively distils fictional artefacts from Burroughs' novels and gamifies these for the 'John Carter of Mars' tabletop roleplaying game. It makes practical use of Wright's theoretical approach to tabletop roleplaying game adaptation, deploying specifically the processes of distillation, accentual emphasis, ludic systematisation and diegetic elaboration.

The chapter distils storyworld material from Burroughs’ Martian novels, re-presenting this formally and tonally as ethnographically-inflected non-fiction. In its presentation of this material, the accentual emphasis is directed to evoking and sustaining the pulp sensibilities of Burroughs’ tales. Ludic systematisation is achieved, in part, by attributing ludo-narrative qualities to weapons, et cetera, in a manner that emphasizes the cultural aspects of the storyworld material adapted. Diegetic elaboration occurs in the synthesizing of Burroughs’ often expedient worldbuilding into a coherent and cohesive gameworld.