Pulp game questions

[grufflehead]

Hi all

 

I thought after lurking for a couple of months or so, I'd better take the plunge and make that first post. Apologies to everyone if this has been covered elsewhere and I've missed it; I've been trying to search for all the Pulp related threads to check but may not have gone back far enough.

 

Our (sadly ever-shrinking) group has a rotating GM policy and I'm up after the next change. Despite having been a fan of HERO for many moons I've never got anything more than a couple of one-shots off the ground, so I decided that rather pick up the Earthdawn game I ran last time up, I'm going to give them something else to chew on. I should also add at this point that I'm still using 4th Ed rules, should that alter any comments you might have.

 

The inspiration for the game came from the LXG movie, so Pulp-ish was the best description I could give the players off the top of my head. I'm going to set it in the mid-late 30s, with the PCs being recruited to the nth incarnation of the League. Using that time period should let me steal from Indiana Jones and other published material for scenario ideas.

 

Anyway, while I've got a fair amount of material and ideas, there are a few things I'm not just quite set on, so I thought I'd pitch them out for comments.

 

Firstly, heroic or superheroic? I was going with heroic, but there are a couple of the suggested rules in 4th ed that I'm not sure about, and if I try to explain it to the players in terms of the movie, I'm sure to get questions about how 4 of the characters in it have powers and 3 don't. Should I allow PCs to have points for taking NCM for example? How are other people doing it?

 

Secondly, I was planning on restricting availability of some powers on the rather subjective criterion that I didn't think they fit the genre - but then neither I nor to the best of my knowledge any of the players are real Pulp buffs so is that being unfair (and does that impact on the heroic/superheroic distinction)?

For example, I can see someone buying flight through a gadget (eg a rocketpack) but not because they can just fly; and I was also going to enforce a minimum level of power limitation so the power would also have to be unreliable/dangerous/limited use or somesuch. Is that too restrictive (given, for example Ms Harker's abilities in the movie)? If I come up with an arbitrary list of restricted powers and someone desperately wants to play a character with one of those I'd 'banned', is it worth restricting any in the first place?

 

And thirdly, one that came to me yesterday and is possibly the most crucial to the success or otherwise of the game: how to handle damage/healing etc? Without getting into a long debate about controlled-uncontrolled fiction (ie what you can get away with in a bok or film where the writer simply directs the action as desired vs a game where the players have an awkard habit of not playing ball with the plot or rolling 3 or 18 at the wrong time!), there are going to be a lot of situations where the opposition are spraying the PCs with automatic weapons fire, so how to deal with that sort of situation? Give the PCs a mystery 20 pts of uncontrolled, always on missile deflection (as I can't really see much in the way of armour)? Say all wounds heal automatically at the end of an 'act' so they are fresh for the next adventure? Anybody dealt with this issue?

 

Thanks for reading and I look forward to some insights from people with a bit more field experience of the system....

[Aroooo]

Re: Pulp game questions

 

I co-GM an LXG game with one of our groups, and here's how its set up. Heroic level characters (i.e. normal char max, limited pushing, etc). 250 characters; 150 base + 100 disads. Its mostly skills and talents, but for the 'extraordinary' part, each character can have up to 100 points of 'powers' that defines their schtick. Some examples include The Invisible Man, a Werewolf, a Vampire, a Dorian Grey sort of immortal, a pyrokenisis (don't think I spelled that right), etc. Each character is limited to one schtick, and no two characters can have the same schtick. Damage Class is around 50 active points (10d6). Defense is around 10 pd/ed, half resistant.

 

For us, comabt is rare, and bullets are suposed to hurt. Ours is a very skills/role play game. Generally, we 'heal' damage between adventures; but each adventure is set to be only a game session or two, so so far we ahve not run into any major healing issues.

 

Aroooo

[Prometheus]

Re: Pulp game questions

 

The GM for the Pulp Hero game I play in put together some player guidelines on his site.

 

Thrilling True Tales!!!

 

The character creation stuff is pretty much boilerplate, but the house rules may provide some options for your group.

 

Link back to the table of contents, and have a look at our character backgrounds and character sheets as well. They aren't updated to 5th Ed. (the site in general hasn't), but I think our group has a good primer for heroic level Pulp Hero.

[grufflehead]

Re: Pulp game questions

 

Thanks for those replies, particularly Prometheus - I'd seen the link you posted as part of another thread and visited the pages already. Most of the questions that were floating round before I even started writing were answered there, which made life a heap easier! The example PCs were great, and I particularly like the Action Points idea and will definitely use something similar. Maybe that's the solution to the damage problem - if a PC is about to take a burst of machine-gun fire they can spend an AP and say they tripped and fell just as the burst of .45 shells was about to hit them. Otherwise, apart from maybe giving the PCs a few more points, I can see that as a template for my own game.

[Prometheus]

Re: Pulp game questions

 

When I made my character, Johnny Danger, I was trying to simulate the same thing you were talking about in your first post- how to get around characters going splat when they take a hit. We later realized that you could stuff a stick of dynamite down Johnny's shirt and he has a good chance of surviving, but the core concept is there, even if the execution was a little much.

 

Since this was pre-5th ed., I went with a small Elemental Control, but you could also go the route of the new talent Combat Luck (which is just some Armor with limitations). Overall levels are good too, since they help simulate the larger than life feats of pulp heroes, and can be applied to DCV in combat.

[grufflehead]

Re: Pulp game questions

 

I like the combat luck and EC ideas a lot - very nicely done (as are all the PCs). I also looked at the 'Thrilling True Tales' website which has more good stuff, and the campaign journal is a very good read.

 

I take your point about sticking the dynamite down your shirt, but that's always been one of the things critics level at HERO. I was more concerned with the potential ramifications of a group of Nazi stromtroopers opening up on the PCs with their machineguns, and the possibility that a hero caught in the crossfire might be taking 3 or 4 1D6+1 killing attacks with no armour; the armour with activation is a great way to give the PC a fighting chance in that situation.

 

I think I've got a much better handle on things now, so thanks for the responses.

[st barbara]

Re: Pulp game questions

 

To "Prometheus" That game looks terrific. For myself I am waiting for "Pulp Hero" to become available before I contemplate organizing a pulp game. That is, if I can find anyone interested in playing in it !