John Carter, Warlord of Mars is a role-playing game published by Heritage Models in 1978 that is based on the Barsoom novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs featuring the hero John Carter.
Description John Carter, Warlord of Mars is a science-fantasy system based on Edgar Rice Burroughs's novels of Barsoom, a Mars ruled by various humanoid warrior races that fight with sword and gun. Although it mainly consists of man-to-man combat rules for use with miniatures (as they were published to support a line of Barsoomian figures), it does include some rules for role-playing.
Publication history John Carter, Warlord of Mars was designed by Michael S. Matheny, with a cover by Russ Manning, and published by Heritage Models, Inc. in 1978 as a 64-page book.
There were at least two printings with different interior layout but both had a copyright date of 1978. One had a full color cover and one had a red tinted cover.
Reception In Issue 24 of Space Gamer, John J. Nutter thought the rules had been written in "an entertaining style" but found the editing was "atrocious. The text is a virtual cornucopia of misspellings." Despite this, Nutter called the content "quite accurate and a good working basis for the uninitiated player." Nutter also found that the game featured "a sound combat system and role-playing game which captures much of the flavor of the novels." However, Nutter noted the complete absence of travel by flier, which play a major role in John Carter stories.
In his 1991 book Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games, Lawrence Schick called the rules "poorly organized" and commented that "Players unfamiliar with the concepts of role-playing games would probably be unable to use them."
See also The Warlord of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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