I'll Never Play Pulp

[Edsel]

I'll buy the book and probably enjoy reading it and wishing to play a game of Pulp Hero but I doubt that I will ever get a chance to play it. Our RPG group plays Hero System most of the time. DC and FH are our usual fare but we also venture into Champions, SH and other genre from time to time.

 

The problem is that I am the only one of us that seem to have any interest in that particular era. The group seems to have a dead-spot in history that none of them are interested in. This seems to extend from the dawn of firearms until the modern era. Anything before or after this time period is pretty much enjoyed by the whole group. Alas I majored in history in college and would love to play a Victorian-era or Pulp-era game someday.

 

Oh well, perhaps I can use some of the stuff from PH to run some non-traditional, modern-era, pulp-style games.

[Guest Black Lotus]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

Are you the gamemaster of your group?

 

If they're unwilling to play, that's up to them... you could possibly find another group of players to try a few sessions of Pulp HERO. That's assuming your regulars are mature enough not to get upset or feel put off by it.

 

I'm betting you can "swindle" them all into playing a few sessions, though. Be persuasive! Be underhanded!

[Lord Liaden]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

Hmm... sounds like you should consider enticing your group with the wilder brands of pulp adventures. Mention some of the many notable characters from the era that they may have heard of, and how you can play games reminiscent of their adventures. For example, Dark Champions-style high powered vigilantes like the Spider or the Green Hornet; fantastical, borderline superhuman characters such as the Shadow, Doc Savage, and Tarzan; retro sci-fi in the vein of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, or even sci-fi swashbuckling like John Carter of Mars; lost-world romances full of dinosaurs and hidden cities from ancient civilizations (if you haven't got it yet, hunt down Lands of Mystery!)

 

Offer your players the chance to go up against the likes of Fu Manchu, La of Opar or Ming the Merciless, and see if their eyes don't light up.

[BigJackBrass]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

No reason why Pulp shouldn't encroach onto your other games. Champions, Star HERO and even Fantasy HERO can be a simple portal into a Pulp game, even as a temporary one-shot to whet the appetites. Time travel, alternate dimensions, perhaps even a Lost World adventure where the Fantasy HERO characters are the ones who live in the hidden valley discovered by Pulp adventurers... If your players won't go to Pulp, then bring Pulp to your players.

[Hermit]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

And while it does fall short compared to Face to Face table gaming (IMO) there is always HERO Central or PBEMs... you never know.

 

Have hope.

[Steve Long]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

"There's no pessimism in Pulp Hero!"

 

Have faith, Edsel! I bet you can convince your group to play PH if you inspire them with a cool campaign descriptions and some helpful copies of the Pulp Hero genre book.

 

And if that don't work, pummel 'em into submission with the hand crank from a Ford Model T.

[Barwickian]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

Let me get this straight - you have players who DON'T want to be Indiana Jones*?

 

* Insert name of player's favourite pulp or pulpish character, from Sherlock Holmes, through Doc Savage and Richard Hannay to Lara Croft.

[Blue]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

Bribery might work. Cash, or a promise of letting them into the legendary cache of doritos in the gaming safe.

[Barwickian]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

Mmmmm... Doritos!

[JTesla]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

I’m probably like the members of your group, I don’t want to play in a real world setting of the 1920’s and 30’s. However, as BigJackBrass pointed out, it can encroach into other areas. A sci-fi pulp game would be ideal for me. Or, why not have a stereotypical pulp game with a few ancient or futuristic twists? Use the book to it’s fullest, but throw a few items in that give it a futuristic or ancient feel.

[Edsel]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

I guess I could alway try something along the lines of the Rocketeer or Sky Captains and maybe get them to give it a try. I'll have to stay away from Lovecraft though, most of them are too frightened of the high mortality of that setting. (That may be what scared them away from the 20s-30s era in the first place). Perhaps the upcomming King Kong movie could move them.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

I guess I could alway try something along the lines of the Rocketeer or Sky Captains and maybe get them to give it a try. I'll have to stay away from Lovecraft though' date=' most of them are too frightened of the high mortality of that setting. (That may be what scared them away from the 20s-30s era in the first place). Perhaps the upcomming King Kong movie could move them.[/quote']

 

I've always found The Empire Club website to be a great source of inspiration. It's derived from the organization of the same name in the classic Justice Incorporated boxed set. No game stats, but a host of fascinating NPCs, and the campaign logs are loaded with cool ideas. You could easily derive a whole batch of exotic adventures from them.

[BigJackBrass]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

And if that don't work, pummel 'em into submission with the hand crank from a Ford Model T.

 

Just don't pummel anyone with the Pulp HERO book itself. Judging by the page count you'd have some fatalities on your hands.

[Guest Black Lotus]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

Just don't pummel anyone with the Pulp HERO book itself. Judging by the page count you'd have some fatalities on your hands.

 

[st barbara]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

I am fearing the same thing myself a bit. However I have some players who have played "Adventure" only fairly recently and I think that "Pulp Hero" may be attractive to them. The guy who referees our "7th Sea" campaign certainly sounds interested in a"Pulp Hero" game !

[Super Squirrel]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

I'm sure I can get at least one player in the area into a Pulp campaign. The problem is, one player is not enough. So I know exactly what you mean.

[BigJackBrass]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

The trouble with Pulp is that it's a very tricky thing to define, yet everyone seems to have strong opinions about what it covers. As a result it's often seen as old-fashioned and out of touch.

 

Pulp covers a massive range of genres, romance to westerns to sci-fi to supers, but the strongest associations are the Doc Savage and Shadow style settings. To my mind, Pulp is a feeling (if I can badly misquote David Byrne here), a certain approach and tone rather than necessarily a genre per se. When the Indiana Jones films came out everyone suddenly wanted to do Pulp again, and most of the bandwagon-jumpers didn't last for very long. We had a handful of RPGs as well, and they managed moderate success, but something about Pulp holds people back. I sometimes wonder if it's not akin to inviting the average computer gamer to sit down with an Intellivision or Vectrex... they just assume that it's had its day.

 

The people who like Pulp tend to love it. I got into HERO, Silhouette and "All Flesh Must Be Eaten" through the Pulp games/supplements and I'll cheerfully sell my girlfriend so that I can afford Pulp HERO (my girlfriend who does not, I trust, read these boards...). The problem I've had is not finding people who love playing Pulp games, it's letting them know that they do. Getting someone involved is the biggest challenge, so don't tell them that you're running Pulp. Sell it as a detective game, or action/adventure, or superheroes, or sci-fi or a western. Play it with square-jawed Pulp sensibilities, show your players just how much fun that style of play is and you may just make a few converts.

[Edsel]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

One of the things that one of my players said, in effect, was:

 

Fantasy, everyone understands and a sword is a sword, everyone knows where they stand. The 20s & 30s are, in many ways, similar to the modern era. The weapons of choice are guns. Most of us know about modern guns and weapons, but don't know much about early firearms. It is just more comfortable to play in an era that you understand.

 

I need to get these people to watch some gangster movies, or read some gum-shoe novels.

[Fox1]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

Most of us know about modern guns and weapons' date=' but don't know much about early firearms. It is just more comfortable to play in an era that you understand.[/quote']

 

Interesting.

 

In point of fact, the pulp era saw modern firearms come into being. Most of the weapons of the period are still basically in production today and are widely used.

 

From .30 cal bolt action rifles, pump shotguns and double action revolvers to the Colt Govt. in .45 ACP. There are Thompson SMG, BARs, and .30 class machineguns.

 

The 'Modern' era only adds semi-automatic rifles and of course the assault rifle to the mix. Lower weights, larger mags in the less powerful weapons, improved accessories (better scopes, laser sights, reflex sights, etc.).

 

I personally own and fire a number of pulp era weapons. Indeed, I much prefer these types of weapons and consider many of the modern developments to be setbacks in many ways.

 

Would a 'Pulp' era weapon chart at my website help?

[yamamura]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

What your player says is mostly true, but I would say familairity with the period and not knowledge of its tools that is important. Yes, knowing a type of gun might be important if I was a gun expert in the time period, but if I am a professor who needs a weapon to help out with a were-wolf hunt then I just need somebody to hand me a weapon I can handle.

 

Though I think your solution should work nicely Edsel to hopefully get them hooked.

[Mentor]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

Ignorance of the period, in the case of our campaign 1905, was one of the big concerns for our group, too. We decided to get proactive in generating some enthusiasm. There are a couple of ways to generate interest. What we intend is to;

 

1. Have a couple of movie afternoons where we watch some of the classics set in the period.

 

2. Give the players a timeline of the events of the world in the era you are running the campaign.

 

3. I have already designed and published my PC to give other potential players an idea of the power levels and flavor of the campaign.

 

4. Maps and pictutres from the period are always a good way to get some flavor added.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

I am fearing the same thing myself a bit. However I have some players who have played "Adventure" only fairly recently and I think that "Pulp Hero" may be attractive to them. The guy who referees our "7th Sea" campaign certainly sounds interested in a"Pulp Hero" game !

 

In that case you might be helped by Donald Doepke's fine Amazing Adventures! website, which adapts the setting and some of the game mechanics from Adventure! to HERO System.

 

 

Interesting.

 

In point of fact, the pulp era saw modern firearms come into being. Most of the weapons of the period are still basically in production today and are widely used.

 

From .30 cal bolt action rifles, pump shotguns and double action revolvers to the Colt Govt. in .45 ACP. There are Thompson SMG, BARs, and .30 class machineguns.

 

The 'Modern' era only adds semi-automatic rifles and of course the assault rifle to the mix. Lower weights, larger mags in the less powerful weapons, improved accessories (better scopes, laser sights, reflex sights, etc.).

 

I personally own and fire a number of pulp era weapons. Indeed, I much prefer these types of weapons and consider many of the modern developments to be setbacks in many ways.

 

Would a 'Pulp' era weapon chart at my website help?

 

There's already a very good pulp-firearm resource on Dany St. Pierre's website, with links to stats, detailed descriptions and photos of all types of guns from the period.

[MitchellS]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

One of the things that one of my players said, in effect, was:

 

Fantasy, everyone understands and a sword is a sword, everyone knows where they stand. The 20s & 30s are, in many ways, similar to the modern era. The weapons of choice are guns. Most of us know about modern guns and weapons, but don't know much about early firearms. It is just more comfortable to play in an era that you understand.

 

I need to get these people to watch some gangster movies, or read some gum-shoe novels.

I agree with your players. Unless they have read various pulp novels they really don't have a good understanding about what the pulp period was. Heroism was different then. Ideologies were different then. Most modern gamers, unless they are pulp fans, have no real understanding of that time period. You can use Tarzan [and other pulp characters] as a reference but what most of us understand of Tarzan comes from the various TV shows rather then the novels. Pulp is a genre you can't easily fake when you game it. If you try to fake it most of the time it just come off as being a modern-era game using 20s-30s technology. The pulps are an era of sophistication and innocence at the same time.

 

If I were going to run a pulp game I'd probably go and buy each of my players a couple of Doc Savage books and download the free Doc Sidhe novel and have them read that as well. Maybe a couple of the later, early Nazi, Tarzan books too. If the players can read and enjoy those books then I might be willing to give them a pulp try. If they can't then you're just doomed for failure.

[Fox1]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

There's already a very good pulp-firearm resource on Dany St. Pierre's website' date=' with links to stats, detailed descriptions and photos of all types of guns from the period.[/quote']

 

 

Sure, but his stats suck

[Savinien]

Re: I'll Never Play Pulp

 

And while it does fall short compared to Face to Face table gaming (IMO) there is always HERO Central or PBEMs... you never know.

 

Have hope.

 

I'm with this guy.