Sky Masters of the Purple Planet

DCC #84.3: Sky Masters of the Purple Planet is a 6th level adventure on the Purple Planet by Jim Wampler. Art is by Doug Kovacs (cover), Steve Crompton (cartography), William McAusland, and Stefan Poag. The publisher is Goodman Games.

If you are familiar with the Barsoom books of Edgar Rice Burroughs, you will know that pirates on flying ships appear in Chapter VI of The Gods of Mars. Unlike the pirates of Mars, though, the Sky Pirates are also winged, living in a citadel that reminds on of the Weiroo of Caspak. In fact, this short digest-sized adventure drips with the flavor of Edgar Rice Burroughs' planetary romances.It is also the first adventure to explore a wider part of the Purple Planet - leaving the Plateau offers a much wider world of adventure!

Flying ships are pretty common in the Barsoomian stories, and smaller versions can be found in Peril on the Purple Planet and The Dread God Al-Khazadar, both if which have clear Burroughs influences. Sky boats are quite a bit more central to this adventure, and the author provides all the rules you need to make aerial chases and engagements memorable.

Another strength of this adventure is that the PCs get to engage the Sky Pirates in the same way that John Carter or Carson of Venus engages his foes - through subtlety and wits rather than outright assault - the author makes certain that you understand how confident the Sky Pirates are. And, if the PCs are equally confident, they are very likely to die.

With a little jiggery-pokery, it would be easy to set this adventure in almost any campaign milieu. 

When a legendary race of demonic beings pours out of the double-mooned sky and raids the party’s camp, events are set into motion that will lead them far southward to the equatorial region of the Purple Planet. Between the party and their destination lie air-ships and aerial combat, pirates and plunder, and the silver-spined Sky-Spire of the Sky Masters of the Purple Planet!

Get It Here!