PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

[Agemegos]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Sure if you want to have a hero who runs around with a .45 automatic in each hand by all means construct your character that way. Like any character it becomes a trade off as to where you want to put the points and' date=' if some sort of recoil rules for pistols are included it forces the characters to decide between a hero with greater strength who uses a larger gun (but therefore has less points in other areas of his character) or a person of lower strength who carries a lighter firearm but has more points in other characteristics.[/quote']

 

Just so. Strength minima (or other recoil rules) support a decision to play a weak character who chooses a gun with small recoil: such as a Webley .445 revolver.

 

I want concealment rules to support a decision to play a strong character who carries a Walther PPK rather than a Colt .45 on those occasions when he needs to conceal his firearm under a tuxedo. Rule that affect only weak charcters, or that do not provide an appropriate incentive to choose a different gun in a casino than on a battlefield will not achieve the effect I am searching for.

[CourtFool]

The black death ninja robots are still on their way, Steve.

 

The Ultimate Skill

[st barbara]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

To "Agemagos" Well a Webley .455 certainly has a lower recoil than its American near equivalents, but as you suggest it isn't a small weapon. By all means include a "size" factor for firearms. A Webley Mk VI is 111/4 " long overall and weighs 38 ounces (Source:"The Book Of Pistols and Revolvers" -W H B Smith 1977 edition). If some sort of size factor or "concealability" or something is included it will give the players who don't perhaps know a lot about guns some idea of how big they are. Certainly if my (female) character was going undercover she might pack a .32 Colt Pocket (63/4" long, 24 ozs) rather than her preferred Colt .38/40 Single Action revolver (101/4 " long. about 36 ozs) !

[st barbara]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Again to "Agemagos". It would seem to me that it would be logical for players to taylor their weapons to the particular situation that their character is in (provided they have the chance); one firearm for "undercover" operations that can be easily concealed in a pocket or a handbag, and another for more obvious occasions, such as roaming around the jungles of South America searching for a lost temple ! It shouldn't be too difficult to construct a set of rules concerning size and recoil of weapons or "strength minima" for use that will see players gravitating towards the most appropriate weapons for their characters size and the likely cicumstances under which the weapons will be required. I think that if someone playing a lightly built character wants to use a heavy firearm (perhaps because of its greater damage) there SHOULD be some sort of penalty.

[st barbara]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

addendum. Really, "all" you need is a good reference book that gives sizes for firearms, then work out a system that gives each weapon a "concealability rating" or something ! These could vary from 1 for a tiny pocket pistol such as a 3mm Kolibri up to say 10 or more for a .45 Buntline special with a 12" barrel ! The referee might have to make a decision on how easy it is to discover a hidden gun depending on where and how the P C is concealing their weapon (hiding a Colt 1911 .45 Auto in your stocking top is NOT a good option for most female characters !) but I don't think that it would present too much difficulty.

[gojira]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I don't want a history book. The Pulp Era is fictional' date=' so I would like the setting details to be as fantastic as possible. There are plenty of sources for the crunchy details on prohibition and the rise of Nazism for example. I'd be more interested in the state of tourism to Maple White Land, or whatever happened to King Kong's body after he died. Setting and history based on the source material, not on the real world.[/quote']

 

I mostly agree. TWO WHOLE CHAPTERS on pulp history sound like too much. I'd think that half a chapter would be more like it, and in a pinch, we are talking about one decade's of history, one page could do it.

 

Obviously it's your book, but two chapters might look like filler as someone flips through it, and might desuade me from purchasing the book.

 

On the other hand, I'd like to see descriptions of all weapons and equipment. I've never seen an RPG where this effort seemed like a waste. Twilight 2000 and Dark Conspiracy had large descriptions and pictures of each gun and piece of equipment, and it added greatly to the feel of the game world (both games used the same rules).

 

GURPS High Tech takes a middle road. The equipment description is in smaller point size than the rest of the book, and is basically a combination of brief description and designers notes. For example, it'll say that gun X was rushed into production and was hated by the troops as it tended to collect dirt in the magazine and jam, so it was given a lower malfunction rating to reflect this. Each description is a short to medium paragraph, and with the smaller point size, gives the reader a lot of bang for the page count.

 

My $1.25 (inflation).

[Koshka]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

The old Champions II "Mastermind" rule doesn't really fit, but something on how the Evil Mastermind/Mad Scientist gets his weird science goodies would be useful. A mind control ray that will cover all of Campaign City isn't normal tech by any stretch of the imagination, so he can't use cash; but if he's got to come up with enough XP to pay for the thing he'll be 98 years old by the time he can finally start his Evil Master Plan and probably die of a heart attack when the heroes charge in.

 

(These rules could then be used for PCs whose players want to stick Art Deco ornaments on everything in Gadgets And Gear and use them in your Pulp game. I'm certain I'm not the only one who has run into that type of player.)

[Guest Admiral C]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Are you going to do great white hunters and the endless (it seemed at the time) war on man-eaters (eg. The Ghost and the Darkness), evil witch-doctors and the like? If so, I think the gamemaster new to this needs a little advice. Sustaining the tension in a man-eater scenario calls for a repertoire of tricks - but not one too many. A leopard with a three-figure kill-list is unlikely to stun the hero, bind him, explain the master plan, put the hero in a death-trap (another common use for animals, especially enraged apes for some reason I've never understood), and then in effect give him another chance; so one bad call or bad roll can be - bad.

 

 

More about Africa and African adventures period. Africa (aside from Egypt) is usually under represented in the RPG market. Unless you count the Rifts books or Nyambe. But all of those books are not really helpful to pulp.

 

As a side note I have GURPS Cliffhangers (also a good book) and it stated (about Lion attacks) that they rarely happened, but in Brian Hernes "White Hunters" it says that they happened far more often. Usually attacking Indian coolies working on the railroad. J.A. Hunter is quoted in both.

 

One other thing I'd like to see is writeups (even in sidebars) of important historical characters pulp era characters might interact with. J.A. Hunter is one, Otto Skorzenzy, Albert Einstein, Bonny & Clyde, Al Capone, are other examples.

 

Adm

[Tim]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

As a side note I have GURPS Cliffhangers (also a good book) and it stated (about Lion attacks) that they rarely happened, but in Brian Hernes "White Hunters" it says that they happened far more often. Usually attacking Indian coolies working on the railroad. J.A. Hunter is quoted in both.

 

 

Wow, they used Indian coolies to build a railroad in Sub-Saharan Afirca? Wouldn't it have been easier to use the natives?

 

(I know you didn't write the book. But it is such an obvious mistake that I had to comment.)

[Agemegos]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

It shouldn't be too difficult to construct a set of rules concerning size and recoil of weapons or "strength minima" for use that will see players gravitating towards the most appropriate weapons for their characters size and the likely cicumstances under which the weapons will be required.

 

Indeed it would not. Exactly such rules existed in Justice, Inc.. the original HERO System pulp adventure game.

[Agemegos]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Wow' date=' they used Indian coolies to build a railroad in Sub-Saharan Afirca? Wouldn't it have been easier to use the natives?[/quote']

 

Evidently not. The British encouraged a lot of Indians to migrate to South and East Africa, many of them (originally) as railway workers. That is where the ethnically Indian component of the old 'coloured' category under Apartheit came from. If you look into the real events behind the movie The Ghost and the Darkness, you will discover that when Patterson was building his railway bridge across the Tsavo in 1898, most of his workforce consisted o indentured workers from India.

 

http://www.ralphmag.org/DH/lions.html

 

http://www.lionlmb.org/gandd.html

 

http://www.russelltexas.com/Newspaper/perspectiveJuly202003.htm

 

http://www.rtpnet.org/robroy/tsavo/dest26.html

 

Perhaps too few locals wanted jobs are railway workers. Or too few were skilled plate-layers. Or too few were in indentures. In any case, it is not a mistake, let alone an obvious one.

[Agemegos]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

addendum. Really' date=' "all" you need is a good reference book that gives sizes for firearms, then work out a system that gives each weapon a "concealability rating" or something ![/quote']

 

I don't pay game designers for the permission to write rules myself.

 

And I don't want to by a $57 encyclopaedia of smallarms for something that could easily be a column in the Pulp HERO weapons table the way it was in Justice, Inc..

[Agemegos]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Again to "Agemagos".

 

Umm. Do you dislike my user name for some reason?

[BobGreenwade]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

The old Champions II "Mastermind" rule doesn't really fit...

While I agree with this wholeheartedly, a passing mention of it (with a Stop Sign) would not be necessarily a Bad Thing. This is the only genre where the rule would really work, and I'd not dwell on it for more than about a short to medium-length paragraph, but a small insertion wouldn't kill the book.

[Prometheus]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

A small section on the pitfalls of adapting Pulp to Hero, similar to the GM notes on what works in comics, but not in Champions.

 

And since Hero gamers tend to roam in packs, something on how to handle a Pulp Hero team.

[Old Man]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

And since Hero gamers tend to roam in packs' date=' something on how to handle a Pulp Hero [i']team[/i].

 

In particular, what happens when two players bring the same character to the table. The leading cast of a pulp story usually has one each of each character arche/stereotype. What if there are two professors or two gumshoes?

[Lamrok]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

In particular' date=' what happens when two players bring the same character to the table. The leading cast of a pulp story usually has one each of each character arche/stereotype. What if there are two professors or two gumshoes?[/quote']

 

Or two freakin cowboys, which has happened in our last two pulp games. My advice is to let the GM know your archetype ASAP.

 

Two professors works out fine if they have different areas of expertise.

[Andrea]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Hi,

I don't know if someone has already cited the book but what I would like to see is a book similar to Rolemaster's Pulp Adventures that was a very good book.

It detailed history, VIPs, Slangs and geography. Maybe it was a little to light in vehicle rules and gadgets ( that are so importan in a Pulp setting).

 

Ciao

Andrea

[st barbara]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

To "AgemEgos" No I just try to type too fast and i'm a lousy speller !

[st barbara]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

To "Agemegos" So what DO you want from the gun rules ? Do you not want to worry about recoil ?( I think that some sort of recoil rules could be included as optional), do you not want to have to worry about the size of the weapons ? All it would take to give the weapon's size would be a figure included in the description or a simple table. I think that it would be good to have that in the rules but, if it isn't there, there ARE resources on the Web and other players who have useful reference books that you may lack (like me !) can help. You said that you want a reason for a large person to carry a small weapon; the most obvious reason that comes to mind for me is concealability and for this to work you will need some sort of information on how large and heavy each weapon is.

[st barbara]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

To "Andrea" The original "Justice Inc" rules had a good section on slang as well, if I remember correctly.

[st barbara]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

To "Lamrock" and "Old Man" The referee might have to supervise the character creation process carefully to avoid character clashes; or tell you players in advance that you will only accept ONE of each of a group of archetypes and ask them to sort out who gets what among themselves !

[Old Man]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

You said that you want a reason for a large person to carry a small weapon; the most obvious reason that comes to mind for me is concealability and for this to work you will need some sort of information on how large and heavy each weapon is.

 

That's why he keeps asking for some kind of concealability stat in the weapons chart, just like in Justice Inc v1. He's said this over and over, I can't figure out how you keep missing that.

[Old Man]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

To "Lamrock" and "Old Man" The referee might have to supervise the character creation process carefully to avoid character clashes; or tell you players in advance that you will only accept ONE of each of a group of archetypes and ask them to sort out who gets what among themselves !

 

My only problems with this approach are that 1) it essentially enforces character classes which Hero gamers generally detest and 2) it is very likely that you will get two players who forcefully insist on playing the same type.

[David Blue]

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

My only problems with this approach are that 1) it essentially enforces character classes which Hero gamers generally detest and 2) it is very likely that you will get two players who forcefully insist on playing the same type.

No no, we can easily settle this by straightforward agreement. I'll be the iron-muscled Handsome Hero who woos and wins the Native Princess, and you'll be the Cynical Piano Player who looks for a piano to play in the steaming jungle of the Lost World, and never gets a girl of any description. Plenty of roleplaying possibilities for both of us. Or maybe you can be the Girl Looking For Her Father. Just so we agree that any Native Princess romance plot is mine.