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THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?


Steve Long

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Greetings, pulpsters!

 

I'm doing the preliminary planning for one of our upcoming Pulp Hero supplements, Thrilling Places, with the author and we wanted to get your input!

 

Basically, this is a book of thrilling and intriguing locations for characters to have adventures, learn new skills, meet cool NPCs, and so on. Here's the blurb:

 

Pulp adventurers need places to adventure in! Thrilling Places provides them, with detailed information about exotic and amazing locations around the world for Pulp Hero characters to visit and explore: lost civilizations, secret islands, hidden temples, and many more.

 

So, with that in mind, what sort of locations would you like to see in this book?

 

As you think of and make suggestions, please also try to suggest ways that each location could be made interesting and useful to players as well as GMs. What can we include that would make the locations, and thus the book, interesting to players? New Package Deals, gear, special abilities, what? The book's utility to GMs is obvious; we want to make sure there's something for players as well.

 

Thanx! :hex:

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Before I forget, to save you time I should add that the three places I definitely want to have in the book are:

 

1. Our own little version of Skull Island. (An homage, yeah, that's the ticket....)

 

2. A lost civilization in Darkest Africa.

 

3. A speakeasy with a generous helping of intriguing NPCs.

 

 

Beyond that I have lots of ideas, but we want to hear your ideas, too!

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

The always classic "Secret" Nazi Rocket/A-Bomb/Zombie-Legion-Creation-Experiement Laboratory located somewhere inside a mountain. Having an old abbey/monastary as part of the facility is sorta standard.

 

A section of it could also double for a quick-and-easy lab for the Heroic Dr. Something-or-other-ov.

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

A Greco-Roman hidden city with strange, advanced technology.

 

A homage to Ayesha the immortal.

 

A city of Fishman servants of the Kings of Edom, maybe several.

 

An interdimensional nexus.

 

A haunted mansion with a Lovecraftian twist.

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

A Greco-Roman hidden city with strange, advanced technology.

 

A homage to Ayesha the immortal.

 

A city of Fishman servants of the Kings of Edom, maybe several.

 

An interdimensional nexus.

 

A haunted mansion with a Lovecraftian twist.

 

Additional:

 

The Atlantean / Mu hidden city can have strange devices, links to giant monsters, link to Pulp outerspace adventures.

 

Ayesha's city should be the home city of the CU's future Wonder Woman.

 

The Edom locations can serve as the basis of a Pulp Heroes vs Cthulu style campaign. Edomite package deals might be fun.

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

You sorta have to have a lost Ancient Egyptian tomb with hidden, forbidden secrets. With a bit of work, you could even conceal it (today) under the lake formed by Aswan High Dam.

 

Remnants of the Atlantean civilization, clinging to a shadowy existance on the rim of an uncharted volcanic island. The remnant population keep the volcano from exploding by periodic sacrifices to some malignant supernatural power. For reasons known only to pulp writers, that power prefers to receive blonde off-island women :rolleyes:. Pelee on Martinique as well as Tambora and Krakatoa make adequate models for the island.

 

A medicine wheel in a hidden canyon in the American Southwest [yes, I'm mixing tribal traditions here ... this is pulp, right?] where a secret group of medicine men are working to evoke the spirits of their ancestors to expunge the White Man from their lands and restore the Old Ways. Stealing an idea I already used above, maybe this valley is going to be inundated by one of the Colorado River dams, so there are activities going on to slow down the building of the dam and accelerate the return of the spirits.

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Yengtao Temple please and all the juicy secrets to go with it. :)

 

Second on the Nazi Base but not just inside a mountain. How about a flying fortress for the would-be-conqueror.

 

A long deserted spaceship that crashed eons ago and is covered in snow or jungle foilage. It may hold several nasty weapons and hidden dangers inside.

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Lost civilizations out of time as in the Tarzan books. Descendents of the refugees from Troy having carved out a city state in Africa which they defend to the death from all strangers until the intrepid group of explorers happens to include a woman who is the twin of the last surviving image of Helen.

 

Temples in Tibet which still practice the ancient rituals granting them extremely long life, excellent health and wisdom of the ancients.

 

Legendary outlands of Scandanavia where the old races still attempt to bring Ragnarok about by reviving the spirit of Loki from its long sleep.

 

The Casbah in North Africa where life is cheap but everything else is negotiable.

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

A frigid, windblown, barren rock islet, thousands of kilometers from anywhere in the southern Indian Ocean, around which carved, greasy-black stone columns rise from the deeps. In the middle of the islet is a stone altar carved with Lovecraftian letters, praising the Old Gods, behind which is a shaft with a spiral staircase that descends down into unlightable darkness.

 

A henge somewhere in Cornwall or Wales, where once, at the start of each every Metonic Cycle they gather and perform the wicker man sacrifice.

 

A canyon in northern Siberia (or an island off Siberia's northern coast) accessible only by an airplane with skis, where the Ice Age never lifted and dire wolves, mammoths, and Neandertals still struggle against the undending cold. The Neandertals know that they've been all but extinguished by the Frail Ones (as they call modern humans) but hide their hate until they can destroy the airplane and capture all the outsiders at once.

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Schloss Verbotten, the abandoned seventeenth century castle on the Swiss/Austrian border, rumored to be the place of origin of the premier Western secret society conspiring to infiltrate all the governments of the world. Fortunately a copy the organizational tables and secret contact phrases for the entire cabal were left behind, if only somone can solve the cipher in which they were scribed.

 

(Yes, Steve, I know I'm getting really specific, hopefully these still are OK):)

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

You want Pulp locales? OKay, then --

 

The hidden and off-limits-to-all-infidels City of Thieves in Central Asia.

 

A 'lost kingdom' in the Himalayas/Tien Shan/Kun Lun/whatever chain of mountains in Asia.

 

A new Fortress of the Assassins.

 

The Seven Brazen Towers of Evil and their vile Pulp style Yezidi masters.

 

A Lovecraftian -- sorry, I meant to say 'Edomite' locale would be nice too.

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Yengtao Temple please and all the juicy secrets to go with it.

 

I am definitely considering something along these lines (i.e., hidden temple of martial arts mastery and weird mysticism), but I don't think I want to use Yengtao. Some of the abilities already described as being taught there wouldn't be proper for Pulp games. We need something a smidge lower-powered. ;) I'd rather save Yengtao for something else -- an appropriate Champions adventure, or maybe an HPA or something.

 

Second on the Nazi Base but not just inside a mountain. How about a flying fortress for the would-be-conqueror.

 

Since we've already got a world conqueror with an air fixation in MM (the Skymaster) along with six pages of maps of his amazing Skyfortress, I think putting a secret Nazi base in the air would be a little redundant. ;) A mountain or the like would probably work better. But I'll give it some thought and knock it around with the author and we'll see what seems coolest. :D

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Schloss Verbotten, the abandoned seventeenth century castle on the Swiss/Austrian border, rumored to be the place of origin of the premier Western secret society conspiring to infiltrate all the governments of the world. Fortunately a copy the organizational tables and secret contact phrases for the entire cabal were left behind, if only somone can solve the cipher in which they were scribed.

 

(Yes, Steve, I know I'm getting really specific, hopefully these still are OK)

 

Be as specific as you like! "Schloss Verboten" is a pretty cool name; even if the idea as a whole won't work I may swipe that. ;)

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

A secret underground temple run by a sect bent on world conquest (ala "Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom").

 

A ruined city hidden in the jungles of Asia or South America with links to a previously unknown civilisation.

 

A plateau in South America or Africa still inhabited by Dinosaurs ! (Oh, that sort of gets covered in the "Inner Earth" supplement doesn't it ?)

 

The lost tomb of Genghis Khan (complete with solid silver coffin !),

 

traces of ancient Lemurian civilisations in the Pacific.

 

If I might make a suggestion to the writers here. I have (but haven't actually read !) several of the "Lost Cities" books by David Hatcher Childress (published by "Adventures Unlimited Press") . They cover lost cities in "North and Central America","South America","China, Central Asia and India", "Africa and Arabia", "Atlantis, Ancient Europe and the Mediterranean"and "Ancient Lemuria and the Pacific". If you can't find some ideas in that lot then you aren't trying very hard ! A lost city in the Gobi desert is always fun too ! As is a hitherto unknown tribe from Central or South America guarding a mysterious temple to a terrible God (Something Lovecraftian perhaps ?). A lost necropolis in Egypt which will sink into the sand (Ala "The Mummy"!) could be fun too !

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I am definitely considering something along these lines (i.e.' date=' hidden temple of martial arts mastery and weird mysticism), but I don't think I want to use Yengtao. Some of the abilities already described as being taught there wouldn't be proper for Pulp games. We need something a smidge lower-powered. ;)[/quote']

 

Well, they could always have a cover temple at the top of the mountain, with a hidden temple underneath. Alternatively, they may refuse to teach "advanced" techniques to mere 150 point characters.

 

"I am glad to teach you the Staggering Butterfly defense, but you are not yet ready to learn the Thirteen Steps. Come back after you earn another 200 experience points."

 

"What is this 'Fourth Wall' of which you speak?"

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

(First, apologies to St. B for involuntarily editing his post -- it's just easier for me to see all the ideas he suggested by putting 'em in a "list" form. ;))

 

A plateau in South America or Africa still inhabited by Dinosaurs ! (Oh, that sort of gets covered in the "Inner Earth" supplement doesn't it ?)

 

Yeah, I-E already has dinos. And possibly our homage to Skull Island will as well. So, we probably don't need any more... I'll leave them to all y'all out there to put on such plateaus as you desire. :hex:

 

I have a bunch of the Childress books, and may plumb them for inspiration.

 

An Egyptian tomb of some stripe is definitely on the "possibles" list.

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Hmmm...

 

American Government's "X-File storage warehouse" a'la the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" including all the staff and security measure it has and a list of the few items various cults and groups are trying to steal back from it.

 

A Lost Antartic Nazi Research station secretly built upon mysterious ancient ruins.

 

Giant underwater sub that mysteriously sunk in the deepest, darkest trench of the atlantic ocean.

 

A large network of caves under the american south west deserts and butes, filled with undiscovered natives, hostile creatures and fabulus treasures.

 

Mars. And the real reason for all the cannals...

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Thinking along the lines of the Pueblo indians, some plain old bandits, both anglo and mexican ("Badges? We don't got no stinkin' badges."), plus maybe a western city of sin where many these outlaws do business.

 

I might be messing up my time periods, but something like this might be shoe-horned into a pulp campaign.

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

A giant zeppelin, big enough to hold a couple hundred people. It should be capable of indefinitely sustained flight.

 

Similar to the above, but a giant submarine, instead. A giant ship sounds less interesting to me, but it might work.

 

A PI's office, along with al the quirky folks in the other offices in the building. Obviously this will be a small office building; no more than a dozen or two offices, and the ones other than the shamus will be treated broadly. We don't want the writer to get tired, now do we? ;)

 

Something in the South Pacific, among beautiful Polynesian women, coral beaches, palm trees, etc.

 

One thing that could make locations interesting to players is hints on how to use them as (part of) the characaters' backgrounds.

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Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Just off the top of my head...

 

A lagoon or island base. Aerial, naval, or both. Blackhawks optional.

 

An archeological dig site of some Earth-shattering significance. Ark, Spear, Knot, and Grail optional.

 

Any place accessible by gondola or speedboat.

 

Any place with at least one door labelled "Section", "Projekt", "Warehouse", "Abteilung", "X", "23", or any combination thereof.

 

Two words: Martian. Canals.

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