Cominius

Re: Pulp Hero Resources I found a list of web links in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune that had retro as the common theme. Several of them seem like they might be useful to a Pulp Hero GM. For creating realistic looking telegrams: http://www.retro-gram.com If you want to spend money you can have a telegram mailed to you (or somebody else), or you can follow the ‘via e-mail’ link and have the telegram e-mailed to you (or somebody else) in a PDF file. They have styles ranging from late 19th/early 20th century, to 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s style telegrams. For 1930s and 1940s radio shows: http://antiqueradios/shows/ The shows are available in a mix of streaming audio and downloadable files. You can also purchase shows on CD. For recordings made between the 1890s – 1928 on wax cylinders: http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu They have a searchable archive. The recordings are available for download, and as streaming audio. For newsreels: http://www.archive.org/movies/ They have a searchable archive. Just searching for the key word newsreels gave me some 280 different files available for download. They have a lot more available then just newsreels. Enjoy.

Re: Pulp Adventure Ideas (7 Deadly Wonders and 1491) I just recently finished reading 1491 myself, and I second Proditor's suggestion it is an enjoyable read and a very good source of inspiration for a GM. I have to admit my first thoughts were to use the information in a fantasy game, but I can see how it would be equally useful for a pulp game. I’ll have to check out the other book, it sounds quite interesting.

Re: Supernatural No I don’t think it’s just you. I know my first thoughts when I saw that scene were how reminiscent it was of both Ringu and the Hollywood remake The Ring. Ringu is the only Japanese horror film I’ve seen so I don’t really have much basis to form an opinion about whether the Lake episode (or any of the episodes) has much in common with Japanese horror films. However, assuming that the creators of Supernatural are using every tool at their disposal to make a quality series, then I wouldn’t find it surprising if they used filming techniques from well made horror films (Japanese or otherwise). I am thus far impressed with some of the internal consistencies. Specifically I like the visual similarities between the two ghost children from the pilot, and the ghost child from the Lake episode. Since they are all the ghosts of drowned children, it makes sense to me that they’d look a bit similar. Also now that this thread has me thinking about it I recall both the ghost’s movement and the camera work during the above mentioned Bloody Mary scene as being similar to the scene from the pilot where the ghost children confront the women in white. On a less visual note I’m also enjoying the main characters copious use of lies, credit fraud, and fake IDs, badges, and credentials to get them access to the target of their investigation. I love even more how temporary the usefulness of their ploys generally proves to be during the course of an episode. In many shows if a protagonist used a fake badge to convince the local police he was a US Marshal, the ploy would either work, or it wouldn’t, and the show wouldn’t deal with the issue again. In Supernatural people are routinely actually checking into things, calling to see if they really are US Marshals, or smart enough to figure out they really aren’t Park Rangers, etc. That is actually something I’m going think about better incorporating next time I run some campaign where the PCs routinely make use of fake ID, or frequently try to bluff their way into places they shouldn’t be.

Re: Supernatural I'm enjoying the series. I haven't given a great deal of thought to translating the two main characters into game stats. However by happy chance I had started running a horror campaign about a month before the series debuted so I'm finding the series to be a good source of future adventure ideas. I've got plans for two future story lines inspired by the show. I'll almost certainly be using the "Woman in White" from the pilot episode as a basis for my players' next adventure. And the episode with "Bloody Mary" (just last weeks I believe) will likely prove to be the basis of a ghost with similar abilities, and background for my players to deal with.

Re: FH Campaign Yes please. I'm certainly still very interested in following this thread.