The best of Other Pulp RPGs

[demonjuice]

I think we should take a moment to look at what makes other pulp rpgs work, so we can insure pulp hero a place at the head of the class.
titles like Adventure (original and d20), Forbidden Kingdoms, Gurps Cliffhangers, Bloodshadows, Noir, Pulp Zombie, Pulp Era, etc...
what do you guys think they do well, and how could that success be improved upon in hero?

[TheImperialKhan]

I really can't say as I don't own any of them.

I bought Justice Inc. when it first came.

Since I already had the best I had no reason or desire to pick up any of the pretenders to the throne when the King was already sitting on my game shelf.

[st barbara]

To "Demonjuice" Well, the only one that I have actually tried to play is "Daredevils" which was fun, if a bit "fiddly" in the rules as far as I was concerned. I never got to play "Justice Inc" but I thought that it had some really good ideas and I played ONE game of "Adventure" but it never got any support from "White Wolf" and needed some more "fleshing out". The other systems I either have read but not played ("Gurps") or don't know.

[TheQuestionMan]

Agent 13/Top Secret S.I. by TSR


More later

QM

[Lamrok]

I think we should take a moment to look at what makes other pulp rpgs work, so we can insure pulp hero a place at the head of the class.
titles like Adventure (original and d20), Forbidden Kingdoms, Gurps Cliffhangers, Bloodshadows, Noir, Pulp Zombie, Pulp Era, etc...
what do you guys think they do well, and how could that success be improved upon in hero?

I've got quite a few at home, but I don't think Hero has much to fear from the bulk of them. The most important mechanical features of a pulp game are the ability to add interesting abilities and combat mechanics that produce cinematic results. Hero covers these very well. I have a very strong presumption that Pulp Hero will provide a set of excellent tools to fine-tune the rules to get the exact feel a GM has in mind.

I think Savage Worlds gives some strong competition, though. It is a simple, streamlined system that has a very complete feel to it. It is a universal system, but the base rules seem to be targetted at the pulp genre. The streamlined nature allows for quick combat resolution, allowing for more non-combat role-playing time - something I think is fairly critical for a pulp-genre game.

[ThothAmon]

The daddy of the pulp games is probably Call of Cthulhu but it handles a very specific subgenre and is thus not likely to be threatened by Pulp Hero.

As long as Pulp Hero builds on the quality of the original (Justice Inc) I will be happy.

[DrFaust]

Any pulp game desperately needs some version of Adventure!'s Dramatic Editing. Not only is "Ah, but look, I've found extra parachutes in this concealed locker" totally in-genre, but it's a great way to engage the players even further.

[teh bunneh]

Certainly not among the best (mechanics-wise, it was virtually unplayable), but Danger Quest by Torchlight Games, had a very neat background -- [i]Pulp Gaming in the Twenty-Fourth Century![i]

The concept was that at the end of the 21st century, civilization was destroyed by an asteroid hit. Mankind struggled to rise back up out of the ashes and eventually succeeded. Now it is a new era -- an era of two-fisted heroes and brave heroines who fight to spread Democracy and Freedom across a changed world. They do battle with armies of cloned super-soldiers (Nazi-like villains called "The CReePs"), evil oriental masterminds, crazed Aztexican death-cultists, and (of course) dinosaurs (which were created in Jurassic Park type labs before the disaster, and have since escaped and roam free in some parts of the world).

You can probably find it on Ebay for <$10, and it's worth that much just for the background material.

Bill.

[Redmenace]

Oh yeah, it was really a good idea with great need for another system. There was an advertisement for atleast one supplement as well.

The only other Pulp games I've thought were special were JI and the NIle Empire setting for TORG.

For the Completist, there was a in-mag game in an early issue of Dragon that, while not great, had some nice Jeff Dee art.

[BigJackBrass]

Most of the pulp RPGs have something to offer, especially as you can find many of them going for a song on eBay. The best supported was certainly "Daredevils," and despite the slightly clunky rules the adventures at least are worth pinching.
TSR's "Agent 13 Sourcebook" has a specific background and is fairly brief in its coverage of the era, but there is enough non-system information there to mine for hints and adventure ideas. Likewise, the pulp setting for Rolemaster is detailed and chock full of events and timeline information tailored to pulp games, although it's a bit dry in comparison to "Cliffhangers" and other related and highly useful GURPS books ("Warehouse 23" alone should keep you in adventures for a year, and the harder to find "Places of Mystery" sparks so many ideas from every paragraph that it's worth a shelf of supplements from many publishers). I never had much time for White Wolf's offering, which puts a unique spin on the pulp era and manages to seem both padded and full of uninteresting information at the same time.
Much better is "Terra Incognita," which has a supporting website chock full of handy pulp links and is itself a delightful game presented with tongue in cheek and gadgets in every pocket. Since it's written for the descriptive Fudge system it also has the benefit of being easily adapted to other games. "Savage Worlds" is also easy to adapt, but the supplements are a bit pricey for the information they offer if you're not using that system (It's a very enjoyable game in its own right, however). This is often the case with D20 supplements too, which have a tendency to focus on new rules above all else.
Finally, FBI's "Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes" managed better than most to cover a wide range of pulp styles, be superbly playable, well written and brimming with wonderful advice for the GM. New Hero players might not be aware that several supplements for that game also sport Hero statistics (and it's written by "Justice, Inc" co-author Michael Stackpole.
Even the best game can benefit from the ideas found in other products, and although I shall be adding to "Justice, Inc" with the information from "Pulp Hero" when it comes out I fully expect to keep casting an eye over new pulp games as they come out: "Pulp Era" is next on my list. There is more than one reason to pick up another game, if you choose carefully.

[Lord Liaden]

Any pulp game desperately needs some version of Adventure!'s Dramatic Editing. Not only is "Ah, but look, I've found extra parachutes in this concealed locker" totally in-genre, but it's a great way to engage the players even further.

The lack of this kind of metagame option is one complaint I hear repeatedly from HERO critics who are into more "narrativist" gaming style. That and an analog to the various fate/karma/etc. mechanics that allow characters to influence the outcome of random rolls that go against them. HERO's variant Luck mechanic does address this to some extent, but isn't as flexible or reliable as some other methods.

There are fan efforts on the Internet that do deal with this, though. Donald Doepke's excellent Amazing Adventures! website adapts the setting and some of the game mechanics of Adventure! to HERO System, including Inspiration Points and Dramatic Editing. (Mr. Doepke has recently updated his website BTW. I recommend checking it out.)

Jesse Zwerling's Thrilling True Tales!!! pulp website also deals with Dramatic Editing, as well as fate mechanics, with his Action Points!. (Exclamation points his.) He's allowed for greater flexibility while still tying Action Points! to the standard HERO dice mechanics.

For my part I've had success combining Jesse's system for acquiring Action Points! and for when and how they can be used, with the expanded Dramatic Editing options for Donald's Inspiration Points. I'd love to see this or something similar appear as an option in Pulp HERO. It would let HERO do something that some pulp gamers want, see as appropriate to the genre and can get from other games, that HERO doesn't really do now.