Review of John Carter of Mars: Landscape and Location Card Deck / Landscape Art Location Deck

Blurb from the publisher: 'See the wonders of Barsoom!

• Card backs feature descriptive text to inspire your games.'

What you get: Your EUR 16,99 or USD 18,59 or GBP 14,99 will buy you the physical and electronic edition of John Carter of Mars: Landscape and Location Card Deck / Landscape Art Location Deck for use with the John Carter of Mars: Adventures on the Dying World of Barsoom game line. If you are confused by the product having two names (one on the publisher's website, and another on the product itself), I am as well. Still, it is one product, and not two.

The pdf can be purchased in pdf form alone for EUR 8,99 or USD 9,84 or GBP 7,99. The file is provided in two copies, a full-colour one and a black and white one.

Contents: The deck contains 52 cards at a size of 70 x 120 mm. The artwork has a landscape orientation. Some of the images are computer generated, others are drawn, while others give the impression of being a mixture of the two. Each image has a title like The Airship Quays, The Domed City of Marentina, and Ugor. The back side of the card describes the location that the front side depicts. The narrative can be read as is, like a boxed text of yore. The descriptions are not dry, in the sense that they do not only describe the landscape; depending on the card, they might also set up an encounter or provide a couple of rudimentary options to the players.

The strong points: The concept works rather well. Be it as a description of a landscape or as a blueprint for an encounter, these cards can bring added value to the table. The Gamemaster should expect the bare basics at around 100 to 120 words per image. For a pulp, romantic action setting like that of Barsoom this might just be enough. You can use the narratives either as inspiration to make something out of them, or as boxed texts during play. I like this duality a lot.

The cards themselves are pretty, even though the artwork has appeared elsewhere before. It does not have a cohesive style, yet this does not necessarily reduce its appeal.

The weak points: The imagery and the text don't go hand in hand. The text often describes features that are perceptible in the image, yet they are not its main focus. In some cases one can only surmise that the narrative is actually related to the image. Other times the locale is presented out of any context, which the gamemaster will need to create. The obvious result is that often the images feel forced upon the text, and convey a very different feeling to the one the text tries to bring forth.

Nice as some of the images are, it is clear that they are details from bigger drawings. This is not a bad thing per se, yet it limits the immersion, since not everything that the image wants to show fits the frame. In some cases the image's title covers a semi-important detail or two. This product reminds me of RPG accessories from the old, pre-WotC TSR which reused artwork and focused on different details of set pieces. These products were not successful, basically because text and images were haphazardly plastered upon one another. The situation is slightly better here, yet still not at the level it should have been.

The pdf is disappointing. Instead of including a card per page with both its front and back side, each page depicts five different cards touching one another. This is, frankly, disastrous. I cannot magnify the image on a tablet and show it to my players without the danger of also showing something else. If I need to print the cards, I will have to be extra attentive when cutting them, lest artifacts of one image appear in the other. This pdf needs to be retired and another one needs to be created asap.

As a compulsive card-sleever, this is the point I complain about the box not being big enough to accommodate the cards after being sleeved. To be honest however, these cards are not supposed to be held and played. Thus you won't need to sleeve them after all.

Conclusion: I like the idea behind the John Carter of Mars: Landscape and Location Card Deck, since it fits the setting's premise tightly. The actual product however needed a lot more work. The pdf is a no-go. The imagery is inspiring yet imposes itself on the text, while the narratives are immersive yet only tangentially linked to the images. When these two don't go hand in hand, the lack of focus is as obvious as an airship in a clear sky.

For more info on the John Carter of Mars: Landscape and Location Card Deck and the John Carter of Mars: Adventures on the Dying World of Barsoom game line overall, visit the Modiphius Entertainment website at http://www.modiphius.com.

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