Pulp Hero

[phydaux]

I'm thinking of running a Hero System demo based on the old pulp serials - Sort of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Thing is, I've only ever run Hero as Supers.

Now I think I understand the genera enough to lay out the characters - The two-fisted Adventurer, the brainy Professor, the British Big Game Hunter, the beautiful Neice, etc.

My question is point levels. 50/50? 75/75?

I'm thinking 50/50, but what have you guys run?

[phydaux]

And what's a good range for DEX and SPD?

[Sketchpad]

I usually run Pulp @ 75/75 with some of the following House Rules:
Characters may take up to 30 AP in powers

• Stats are considered to have Normal Characteristics Maxima and must spend additional points for stats higher than 20.

• I allow fantastic gadgets of the genre. Would I allow a "laser" gun? No. A "ray" gun on the otherhand is good.

• I avoid VPPs like the plague.

• I allow most things to be bought with money and Resource Points. The exception to this is odd/tricked-out vehicles and special HQs. Having a car and a flat is a money issue. Having a car that has oil slicks and a secret underground lair? That's a point issue.

Hope this helps

[phydaux]

POWERS? For a Raiders-type campaign?

What kind of powers did Indy have? Or Short Round? Sure that Shiva-guy who could pull out your heart, but he was an NPC.

[Tetsuyama]

I'm working on putting together a pulp flavored 1930s/40s steampunk influenced campaign. It'll probably actually be something like LXG meets Indiana Jones in its final incarnation. Here are my current rough guidelines for character development (still in some flux, but I don't expect major deviations at this point).

Starting Points: 175 base/100 disads, max from one disad category being 35. I decided not to go with NCM, rather limiting PCs to one Primary stat over 20. Characters can carry normal technology according to the rules for Resource Points in Dark Champions.

Power Levels:

OCV/DCV start at 5-8 and are capped at 12
Speed starts at 3-5 and is capped at 7
DEF probably in the 8-12 range, no more than 18
rDEF I'm expecting 3-8, max 12
Skill rolls 11- to 14-, max 16-
Powers should be in the 15-30 AP range with a negotiable cap of 45.

I'm planning on using Hit Locations, Knockdown, and some variant of Impairing. Characters will be allowed to Push.

All told, it's pretty high-powered for a true pulp campaign, I guess. But I tried building a couple of sample PCs for it, and they were surprisingly not outrageous (granted, my view may deviate from yours). My goal with these limits is to make the PCs able to take on lightly armed civilian criminals in droves, and Nazi thugs at 2 to 1 (or even 3 to 1) odds in hand-to-hand or with surprise, but still have them be vulnerable to massed small arms fire from infantry units or border patrols.

[Sketchpad]

I look at things like super-skills and pulp-era abilities as some powers. Take for example the Shadow's ability to cloud minds, or the fact that Doc Savage is damn hard to hurt ... even Indy's incredible luck could be seen as a power

[GreyGuardian]

better to start low with 50 / 50 and build up or infuse points if needed than to start too high. It's always easier to give things to the players than take them away.

[AlHazred]

Alternatively you could give them 75+75 and just not give them XP every session; do it per story arc, and give them maybe 10 or 15, enough for them to buy another super-skill, group contact, device, etc. Make it a caveat that they can only buy one new skill per arc.

For a Raiders-style game, call 'em Talents and make a set list you're comfortable with. For instance, Combat Luck would be very appropriate, as would Hypnosis. On the other hand, Door-Smashing Fists might not be.

[Lord Liaden]

POWERS? For a Raiders-type campaign?

What kind of powers did Indy have? Or Short Round? Sure that Shiva-guy who could pull out your heart, but he was an NPC.

Well, the Indy Jones movies did include a variety of supernatural elements such as artifacts. Also, the pulp and movie serial era embraced a lot of conventions and characters that were well beyond the ordinary world: this is the era of the Shadow, Doc Savage, Mandrake the Magician, the Phantom and Flash Gordon. Not that you have to include any of these elements, but they're not foreign to the genre.

Since, as you say, you haven't run a pulp-era game before, I'm going to offer you a few HERO-related web resources that may help you. All of these contain or have links to many useful items:

Here are two HERO websites for ongoing pulp campaigns which include guidelines for character creation, and sample characters: Jesse Zwerling's Thrilling True Tales!, and Donald Doepke's Amazing Adventures! (which is adapted from White Wolf's Adventure! pulp game).

Dany St. Pierre's Hero Pulp website has lots of prebuilt stuff - many period weapons, vehicles, character Package Deals, and prewritten characters - but I'd especially recommend you download the free "Pulps Fuzion Jazz" PDF. That contains an excellent essay on pulp gaming and dealing with its various subgenres.

For general inspiration, you might look at The Empire Club, a long-established campaign based on a classic Hero pulp era organization. It has no game stats, but lots of characters (heroic and villainous) and extensive campaign logs to crib ideas from.

I hope that's of some help to you.

[Curufea]

Has anyone done Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow? It only opened in theatres here two days ago, and it has enthused some local GMs

[Barton]

Has anyone done Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow? It only opened in theatres here two days ago, and it has enthused some local GMs

Just released in US on DVD, own a copy!!!
Great idea for game, get the Hero Games book on vechicles and you will be set.
I have not used that genre, but I have run (and will run at GENCON Indy) a 1938 Heroes adventure. Set in East Africa, it is "good guys" vs. Itialian and German facists in Ethiopia. Lots of fun when I ran it at Rock-Con a few months back. They liked the story line and I even had to add an extra player because of demand. I used 100pt + 100pt disads with few powers allowed (mostly as super-skills), many skills, some perks, and of course NCM. For equipment I was somewhat generious for what players were allowed.

[Koshka]

My question is point levels. 50/50? 75/75?

I'm thinking 50/50, but what have you guys run?

If you're sticking with the more "realistic" serials, such as The Green Hornet or (so far, I haven't finished watching it yet) Phantom Empire, 75/75 should be plenty of points. Personally, I like building 100 base/50 disad -- but that's because several of the disads really don't apply to regular people.

[rjcurrie]

The characters for my Friends of Justice Pulp Hero convention game are built on 100 + 50 Disads + XP and range from 200-224 points. All of them are pretty normal except for a few talents (some from FH) and a couple of gadgets for the scientist/inventor in the group.

[AmadanNaBriona]

I've always liked the "base points from campaign role" type idea that A. Alston put forth in Lost Worlds. It seems to fit most of the pulp era novels I've read, but you need players who are willing to start unbalanced. One idea I've been toying with for my current campaign is to allow 3 different starting point levels, each having certain incentives. A "rookie" level, that starts with less points but gains additional XP and has more options to go through "retraining" situations which can also add additional Disads, a Standard Hero level, that uses all the normal rules, and an Epic level, which gets more starting points but gets decreased XP and requires GM permission, and gets, essentially, a Semi-NPC disad for no points to reflect that the price of these extra points is that the GM is GOING to use the character to drive elements of the Plot even if it is to the detriment of the character (GM hands note to Gandalf's character... "You will NOT run from the Balrog")

[ArmlessTigerMan]

I've always liked the "base points from campaign role" type idea that A. Alston put forth in Lost Worlds.

Cool idea. Is this in Lands of Mystery? I'd look for it on ebay, but it's probably impossible to find, like his Strikeforce book.