Official, Licensed John Carter RPG
I'm amazed it's taken over 40 years, but there's finally going to be a licensed roleplaying game based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series. It's being developed by Modiphius Entertainment in the UK, using their house 2D20 system. Release date is December of this year, which like all release dates should be taken with a big grain of salt.
Like FFG's Star Wars license, this one grants rights to other games as well, and Modiphius has announced a miniatures game for Spring 2016, whose miniatures are also intended for use with the RPG. (They've also announced a boardgame, but I'm not into boardgaming.) That an RPG publisher is producing miniatures for their RPG is a thing that fills my old-school heart with glee. They're described as "collectible miniatures", though, which I hope doesn't mean cheap plastic, instead of heavy crisp metal like the Gods intended.
There isn't much about the system yet. The only information on the website is a vague "core mechanic of rolling under an Attribute plus Skill total on two twenty sided dice". In the RPG.net thread, reaction to the system was very negative. One of the devs, posting under the username JoystickJunkies, replied with some vague marketing-speak, but nothing specific. I'm a system nerd, but that's for systems that do something new or interesting. So far, 2D20 sounds like somebody's houseruled Interlock variant, circa 1994. But at worst, the book will make a fine setting sourcebook for a game using, oh, Fate Accelerated or something.
Meanwhile, I think I'll go watch the movie again.
