Martian Crawl Classics Review

Martian Crawl Classics is a third-party sourcebook for Mutant Crawl Classics. It was written by Tim Snider of The Savage Afterworld and contains are by Aaron Siddall. The book takes The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells and turns it into the reason the Ancients society fell and Terra A.D. (the default setting of MCC) was created. Essentially the Martians invaded and the Ancients fought back with everything they had (including nukes which irrevocably changed the world), though like the original story, it was weapons that stopped the Martians, but rather Earth bacteria and viruses. However, like we adapt to things of that nature, some Martians did too. The small enclaves still lurk in Terra A.D.

A majority of the book is made up of nice crunchy bits. Several species of Martian are introduced. We are presented with the Overminds that lead the remaining Martians, the rank-in-file centurions, the smaller and more insidious infiltrators, the hounds that serve them, and finally discussion of the red weed, a horrendous plant that feeds on Terran blood and use being used to terraform the planet. The tools of the Martian war machine, such as death rays, black smoke, and the infamous tripods are all given technological artifact stats. A new NPC archaic alignment, the Triad Allies, is introduced. This deplorable group is made of up Terran collaborators. This is followed up by one of my favorite additions, a new pure-strain human class, the Scholar. As a librarian, I think this one absolutely kicks ass! 

Not sure exactly how to incorporate this new content into a campaign?  Tim has done that work for you too. The Martian Invasion Continues is a 2nd-level mini-adventure that allows you to introduce the elements of this sourcebook into any Terra A.D. game. 

This book is definitely a labor love and you can tell. Tim has cherry-picked the best elements from numerous adaptations of the story and included a nice appendix. I'd say this is a fine addition to any MCC game. Honestly even if you don't want the Martians to be a central part of the game, the are a fun addition and can be lurking in the background. Also while this book is designed for MCC, it can easily be used in other "Crawl Classics" games. The Martian tripods could drop into the Known World. I think this is also a great sourcebook to add to the recent third party supers content for DCC. Comic Crawl Classics and Evovled both seem like would be fun if peppered with the Martian menace. 

The pdf is currently only available to Kickstarter backers. It and a print-on-demand version should be coming to DriveThruRPG soon.