Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

[AlHazred]

I could swear I started a thread like this, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. Anyway...

 

My next campaign for my regular Saturday group will most likely be Pulp Hero. I think I managed to convince the majority of the soundness of the game, and the few naysayers will either have to suck it up, or find another group (which is acceptable to me - no one should play something they don't want to play, but I've been hankering to run Pulp Hero for a year, since my last Pulp game died).

 

Anyway, it's going to be Vigilance League II (Electric Boogaloo - or maybe not). I'll be having only Pulp Heroes (the Golden Age supers didn't work out too well, they ended up dominating the game). And I'd like to scroll it back from the 1938 start date of the last Vigilance League campaign. But I'd also like to start it with a bang. The idea is that a large event (a disaster, an invasion, whatever) threatens a large part of the US/the World, and our heroes band together to stop it. Seeing the effectiveness of this group of Mystery Men working together, the government and/or private interests finance the group, and call it the Vigilance League. Together they face global threats by Pulp Science mad scientists, villanous megalomaniac would-be world conquerors, etc.

 

The problem for me, is, I'd like to find an event I can use to draw everyone together. I have some stipulations for this event. It has be too big or overwhelming for normal methods to work against it. It has to threaten large swaths of the populace or whole nations. And it has to be famous. It's that last part that's tricky.

 

When I ran Vigilance League I, I used the Martian Invasion of the World, as narrated by Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater troupe. The players loved it, with recordings of the original radio show allowing me to seque from one area to another. It was perfect. The only problem with it is that it takes place in 1938, and I wanted to move the game a little earlier, maybe starting between 1920-1933. And I can't think of a well-known fictional event that has the same impact.

 

Now, I can make something up if I have to, but I'd like to come up with something the players might have heard about. Or something they can find out about elsewhere. Something of mythical proportions. The sinking of the Titanic, for instance, would be perfect except that it takes place in 1912.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Maybe an event written about in one of the Pulps? Or done in a movie? Or real life? Anybody?

[OddHat]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

1937 gets you the Hindengurg disaster. What if the Hindenburg was actually transporting Sun Koh's Amazing Atomic Powered Bomb into the USA? If the Germans intended to plant the Bomb in Washington to prevent the US entry into the looming European war, perhaps your heroes could get word in time to foil the dastardly plot? Maybe their battle with Geman Pulp Heroes on the Hindenburg itself was the cause of the crash?

 

Mongo invaded the Earth in 1933. If the Heroes don't know that Flash Gordon is already handling it, they might take a hand.

 

Kong also shows up in 1933.

 

R’lyeh rises from the sea in 1925.

 

In 1930, the undersea city of Y'ha-nthlei is destroyed off the coast of Innsmouth. Your heroes might have a hand in that.

 

My timeline has some other plot seeds for that period.

[AlHazred]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

Thanks, man! That's more like the stuff I was looking for. I scoured Edgar Governo's website for Pulp timelines, but a lot of them just give a year when a particular story or set of stories occurred - they don't mention events that would have received public attention.

[Murrkon5]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

Other than those excellent suggestions above, I can only think of "Who Goes There?" by JW Campbell (or "Don Stuart").

 

Published in 1938, it is the story that the movies "The Thing from another World" (1951) and "The Thing" (1982) were based on. The story, and the 1980's movie, both discuss the catastrophe involved if the shape-stealing alien escapes to civilization...

[OddHat]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

Other than those excellent suggestions above, I can only think of "Who Goes There?" by JW Campbell (or "Don Stuart").

 

Published in 1938, it is the story that the movies "The Thing from another World" (1951) and "The Thing" (1982) were based on. The story, and the 1980's movie, both discuss the catastrophe involved if the shape-stealing alien escapes to civilization...

 

What if Doc Savage brings the remains of the Thing back to his warehouse in New York, remains that are not quite dead? Enter Patric "Eel" O'Brian, petty thief....

[Curufea]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

Quatermass and the Pit - a favourite DVD of mine

[AlHazred]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

Quatermass and the Pit - a favourite DVD of mine

That would be a great trigger event, except for it being in the 1950s. I can transpose it, but it'll take a little tweaking, with radio replacing television. I'll have to consider that. Thanks!

[Curufea]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

It's almost Lovecraftian - antidiluvian civilisation that enslaved mankind. Great for Pulp.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

What if the great flu rages a little longer, and those who die from it come back as zombies?

[Basil]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

Well, if the "event...to draw everyone together" doesn't have to be something the characters have to fight (at least not physically, at least at first) then I'd recommend either the Stock Market collapse of October 1929 and the subsequent world-wide economic collapse, or Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany Jan 30, 1933 (plus the results of the election on March 5, and the "Enabling Act" on March 23).

 

Either event might have lead a prescient individual (or small group) to realize the possibilities for world-affecting destabilization, and move to deal with same by gathering together a group of already-known Mystery Men and financing them, etc., etc.

 

Admittedly, it's not a much of a "start with a bang" as I think you're looking for, but it's the first ideas that came to mind.

 

If I think of something else, I post it later.

 

EDIT: similar to Hitler's election is Mussolini taking over Italy (late 1922-early 1923).

[ThothAmon]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

As told by Cay Van Ash in 'Fires Of Fu Manchu':

 

In 1917 the British government successfully develop a single crude atomic bomb at huge cost in lives (extracting and refining the raw material) and resources. They plan on exploding it in the NE African desert in front of an invited group of high-ranking German officials. Their intention is to force Germany to back down from the murderous war in Europe.

 

However a certain Eastern criminal mastermind is determined that weapons based on the secrets of the atom shall never be available to the warmongering West, lest those same weapons be turned upon China. The bomb is purloined mere minutes before the planned detonation.

 

Now add your Mystery Men.

 

I recommend the novel - it's well worth some reading time

[Mad_Ernie]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

You should rent the HBO series "Carnivale", as it takes place during the Great Depression and focuses on a possible apocalypse from a biblical perspective.

 

-ME

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rossum%27s_Universal_Robots

 

R.U.R.

[Savinien]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

Earth could be invaded by aliens and they last a little longer or create more wholesale destruction before succumbing to Earth-borne virus.

 

ie War of the Worlds

[Curufea]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

As he stated in his first post ;-p

 

Anyhow - an often used ploy in pulp is to take a religiously significant artifact (for religion de jour) and making it apocalyptic unless certain slightly obscure quests or tasks are done.

You can see this with the Ark of the Covenant, Shiva's Stone and the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones, The Spear of Destiny in NGE, Constantine, Wolfenstein and many other places. And with all kinds of relics.

[AlHazred]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

I'm currently reading the Fu Manchu books (for the first time) and I have to go back and construct a timeline of events, since there're some that might fit my bill in there.

 

Alternatively, maybe I should move the enabling event date back to 1912 and use the Titanic. I could have the enabling event, run through some strange events that occur there, then resume continuity in 1920, with the players having taken the lessons learned &c from Titanic and applied them to becoming the Mystery Men they now are.

[Basil]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

OK, let's see what I can come up with, doing a quick read-through of The People's Chronology. I can't swear all of these are major threats/disasters, nor all well known, but they look like perhaps-es to me. I'm not going to give details; if you want more info just ask.

 

1920:

British regular soldiers shipped to Ireland to back the Black&Tans. (May 15)

League of Nations meets for first time, w/o either the USA or the USSR (Nov 15)

Five men kill during a robbery of a payroll (April 15); Sacco and Vanzetti arresting on flimsiest evidence (May 5)

Ponzi scheme (through much of the year)

Prohibition (begins Jan 16)

 

1921:

Portugal has a revolution after the head and founder of the republic is assassinated (Oct)

The prime minister of Japan (Takashi Hara) assasinated (Nov 4)

Teapot Dome scandal

Famine kills 3 million in Russia

 

1922:

Permanent Court of International Justice opens in The Hague (Feb 15)

IRA formed (March)

Fascist dictatorship formed in Italy (Nov)

Under tha burden of the reparations payments, Germany's stock market collapses (Aug); rest of Germany's economy follows

King Tut's tomb discovered (Nov 26)

Insulin isolated

 

1923:

Hitler's "Beer Hall Putch" (Nov 8)

A garrison in Barcelona, Spain, mutinies. The leader declares the constitution suspending, gains the king's backing. The civil government is eliminated (starting Sep 12)

Japan's Great Kanto earthquake and fire destroy Tokyo and Yokohama; 100,000 die. Tokyo has to be rebuilt almost completely (Sep 1)

A plague of locusts hit Montana; a cloud of bugs 300 miles long, 100 miles wide, half a mile high. They eat everything green, leaving holes in the ground where there had been plants

 

1924:

Lenin dies (Jan 21); Stalin, Trotsky, Kamenev, and Zinoviev start jockeying for power.

The last Turkish sultan is deposed, Turkey's first president takes office (Mar 3).

The first round the world airplane flight (takes 15 days)

Chicago's bootleg king (and florist) Dion O'Banion is shot dead in his shop; the beginnings of Chicago's infamous "gangland wars" date from this.

Farmers in Owens Valley, CA armed with shotguns block the gates that feed water to the Los Angeles aqueduct. Indeed, they blow up parts of it 17 times. State militia drive of the farmers, but conflict continues for decades as LA turns the Owens Valley into a desert.

 

 

Well, it's nearly 1AM, so I'll have to continue later.

[Savinien]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

As he stated in his first post ;-p

 

*sigh* No wonder nobody else mentioned it. My apologies. So... I should try to be conducive to the discussion...

 

The era you're mentioning is between the two World Wars. I pondered using the era to create a small team of worldly adventurers headed by The League of Nations. Some popular authors of the time were certainly interested in such a thing and would likely go to great lengths to keep it going.

 

What about HG Wells work? I believe he was one of the authors involved in the League of Nations. What if his works weren't exactly fiction? The Time Machine could have had serious repercussions with its mechinations on the space-time continuum causing 'super' powers?

[Curufea]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

Not to mention the havoc caused by the Invisible Man.

[Beast]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

mad scientist creates a time machine

something goes awry

whole world is mixed with age of dinosaurs

tech is serverly reverted

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

Someone suggested that Victorian/Steampunk setting War of the Worlds event. Professor Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes, Fu Manchu and Tarzan survived the holocost and and joined forces to fight off the Martian Invaders.

 

The Martian Chemical Warfare Attack killed off 79% of the human population and Tripods wiped out the 20% of the Survivors. Less than 1% of the World Population Survived. Thsoe who did joined forces and fought back. Some of the population did more than survive. About .0001% of the Martian Poison survivors changed. It activated their latent DNA granting them powers beyond mortal men.

 

In a Post Aopocolyptic Setting those Survivors continue to fight for their lives and the human race. Technology has reached the Pulp Era Level.

 

Men and Women armed with Powers, Weapons, or Courage take the War for the First time to the Martians and perhaps to their homeworld.

 

 

 

Just an idea.

 

QM

[JakSpade]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

mad scientist creates a time machine

something goes awry

whole world is mixed with age of dinosaurs

tech is serverly reverted

 

Sound like Pulp Torg. I like it!

 

Jak

[Emerald Mask]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

Try this for background-

 

http://www.geocities.com/jjnevins/pulpso.html

 

Operator #5. One of the most memorable of the pulp characters, Operator #5 debuted in "The Masked Invasion" in Operator #5 #1, April 1934, written by Frederick Davis. He was James "Jimmy" Christopher, Secret Service Operator #5 and a man of almost superhuman abilities, Bond before Fleming put pen to paper. Operator #5 was never given any background, so far as I knew. He was simply Operator #5--and that was enough.

 

His job was to guard the U.S. and to fight against the enemies that would bring the United States down. He was aided in this by a number of people. Tim Donovan was a young shoeshine boy who, long before "The Masked Invasion," had saved Jimmy's life (a little matter of a gangster with a gun). In return Jimmy informally adopted him, making him Jimmy's assistant, and when Tim grew up he entered the Service just like his adoptive father. Diana Elliot (later "Elliott"), a reporter for the Amalgamated Press, was Jimmy's girlfriend (and frequently the Woman Who Must Be Rescued figure); during the Purple Invasion she became an agent for the Service. Z-7, a grim, stocky man, was the head of the Service; he began as Jimmy's boss and friend but was eventually replaced by Jimmy. Jimmy's father, John, was a former Service Operator himself; he'd been very effective as Operator Q-6, but he'd taken a bullet near the heart which forced him to retire and kept him from active duty. (He still managed to help Jimmy out on occasion, dying in action in some novels but returning without explanation in later books) Jimmy's twin sister Nan also was of assistance to Jimmy. Of the most use to Jimmy, however, were the Hidden Hundred, a group of 100 men who'd been members of the Secret Service until a stupid Secretary of State had dismissed them. The Hundred continued to fight for America, however, and Jimmy was their head.

 

The Operator #5 stories were all about invasions, from within or without. The United States was constantly in peril, and often it was only Jimmy who could stop it. The invaders used any number of tactics and weapons: destroy the food supply, steal the gold reserves, "green death mists," rockets, the "flaming death," the atomic bomb, etc. The Purple Empire stories were about an invasion of America by the dictator Rudolph I of "Balkaria" and his armies. Jimmy helped lead the resistance, and America triumphed, but only after Canada and Mexico were left under "vandal rule" and much of the U.S. was rubble. Worse still was the Yellow Vulture sequence, in which an invasion from Japan threatened to crush what was left of the United States. Operator #5 was canceled with the Yellow Vulture, the Japanese warlord Moto Taronago, not yet defeated. Taken as a whole the Operator #5 stories constitute the greatest epic of the pulp age, on a scale few other pulps attempted. (Can you tell I'm a fan?)

 

Jimmy, lean and hard, was in his early twenties, with a strong, clean-cut face and bright blue eyes. The only real distinguishing mark on his body was a scar on his right hand in the shape of a "spread winged American eagle. Its wings seemed to flex, as though straining to take flight, as the young man's fingers moved." He was of course adroit with knife and gun, and very very (very) tough in a fight. He had a few secret weapons: a skull ring which had the number 5 engraved on it and which had an explosive tip; a gold skull ornament which held within it a reservoir of Diphenolchlorasine, a poison gas; and a rapier hidden within his belt. In his personal life he is assisted by his very capable manservant Crowe.

 

Operator 5

Short on information, but you can buy e-texts of the original pulps from here. Part of the Vintage Library site.

 

Secret Service Operator #5

A good overview of Jimmy Christopher. From the Hero Pulps! site.

[AlHazred]

Re: Pulp Apocalypse - Suggestions Wanted

 

Good ideas all! Thanks guys! Keep 'em coming if you got 'em!

 

I'm churning through what I've got to see if anything particularly good pops up!