We’ve got something cooking for the Pulp Hero line that I hope y’all will enjoy.
While I was writing PH, I had some ideas for scenarios that I want to write up. For the next several months my workload basically involves editing and rewriting, and I can only do that for so many hours a day before my brain begins to hurt. So, during the little bit of “free time” I try to allow myself each evening when I’m not laboring under a tight deadline, I prefer to work on a short writing project — it exercises different creative “muscles,” and keeps me fresh and focused on each day’s editing work.
To fit that particular bill, we’re launching a new type of Hero Plus product called Dime Hero Adventures. DHAs are short, simple, no-frills PDF scenarios that will sell for $3-5. By “no frills,” I mean they’re not going to have any fancy layout tricks (I’ll do the layout using Andy’s standard templates), illustrations, or other artistic touches. If maps or the like are required, I’ll create them using Campaign Cartographer — they won’t be particularly slick or pretty, but they’ll get the job done.There may be some new characters, but DHAs will mostly refer to published villains and such when possible. The whole point is to keep the adventures short (suitable for one game session’s quickly-prepared play, typically), easy to create, easy to use, and fun. That’s why we can afford to sell them for three to five bucks. They won’t make enough for us to retire or anything, but it will be a cool way for me to keep my Pulp creative juices flowing.
I’ve been working on a couple DHAs already, and I hope we’ll have the first one available for sale in another day or two — pre-release of the genre book, oddly enough, but why should we deny you, our faithful fans, such rollickingly fun adventures?Here’s what I’ve been creating:
DHA #1: SPEARS OF THE TISANGANI: When they learn that the lost half of an antique map has been discovered, Our Heroes must journey into the heart of darkest Africa in search of the long-lost city of Tisangani! But they’d best beware, for one of their enemies seeks to thwart their efforts to find the fabled city. And if they do reach it, they’ll find themselves plunged into a political battle between the king and his warlord, with the fate of all of Africa perhaps hanging in the balance....
Spears Of The Tisangani is a Pulp Hero adventure designed for characters built on a total of 150 Character Points or less each. The optimal number of PCs is four to six, but you can scale it up or down based on the number of opponents you pit against the heroes in various encounters. The adventure includes one full-page map and one NPC.
As some of you may recall from playing in it or hearing me talk about it, this is the adventure I ran at Origins this year.
DHA #2: SOLAR SMITH AND THE SKY-PIRATES OF ARCTURUS!: Imagine, if you will, a world where Hugo Gernsback and Robert Goddard team up to make space travel to distant planets possible, and bold adventurers journey forth to find new worlds and encounter aliens. That’s the Aetherial Earth of Solar Smith, a Pulp SF setting inspired by the likes of John Carter of Mars, Buck Rogers, and Flash Gordon. You can join the brave men and women of the American Space Travel and Reconnaissance Agency (ASTRA) as you investigate strange alien planets, keeps the spacelanes safe from pirates, ride zarks across the swampy terrain of Venus, fight zeppelin battles in the Jovian skies, oppose the might of the alien Dracon Empire and its wily ruler Krogan III, and struggle to contain the forces of Nazism and Bolshevism.
Solar Smith And The Sky-Pirates Of Arcturus! details the Pulp Hero and Star Hero mini-setting of Aetherial Earth and its universe (in other words, it’s not a scenario per se, unlike your typical Dime Hero Adventure). It’s not described in as much detail as, say, Terran Empire or Chapter Three of Pulp Hero, but there’s enough information for a GM to get a fun campaign up and running. So check your electric pistols and get ready to blast off to adventure!
Solar Smith features:
—a history of Aetherial Earth’s pulp era
—descriptions of the major planets in and outside the Solar System that PCs might visit (including details on the natives and their cultures)
—information about Aetherial rocketships and technology (including five example ships and several gadgets)
—scenario ideas and a GM’s Vault of secret, GM’s eyes-only information
—six NPC heroes (Solar Smith and his crew), and five villains (including Krogan III and his daughter, the beautiful Princess Aluria)
—two simple illustrations by Maestro Steve himself!
Beyond that, I have lots of ideas, but none of them have specifically grabbed hold of my imagination yet. I might expand on the example randomly-rolled adventure in PH, or on the four scenarios I had published in Adventurer’s Club #21. I have the barest scrap of an idea for a sort of Horror/Weird Menace scenario, and one for a Crimebusting sort of adventure that’ll have to waiting until after Masterminds And Madmen is out so I can use the insidious Lord Fang in it. At present I’m focusing on Pulp Hero adventures, but it’s possible that in time we may expand out to other genres with the DHA concept if it works well. If y’all have any ideas about short adventures you’d like to see, please let me know!
We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Steve Long
Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES!
Bookmarks