PhantomNarrator

Re: Hero Games HPAs ported to THRILLING TALES

Although I will stick with using Pulp Hero for my campaign, this is certainly a welcome development.

Now if Adamant would be willing to double-stat their own material we'd really be cooking with Crisco. It would be a grand return to form, as some of the best old Justice Inc. supplements were also statted for related games like Daredevils, Call of Cthulhu, and MS&PE.

Re: Pulp Hero: The animated series artwork

Repped.

Most impressive. Most impressive, indeed.

Re: If YOU have been playing Hero since the 80's why do you still keep coming back?

1988 for me.

 

 

 

Ditto. Repped.

Since about 1985. I'll Ditto TC's Ditto, and Rep him as well for that truly inspired avatar. Full damage indeed.

Re: Sun Koh, the Nazi Doc Savage. Character and links.

Honestly, although I love using nazi super-science in my pulp game (hard to think of a funner set of bad guys really - its the uniforms!) I do confess to some discomfort when it comes to nazi supermen. Even if they were allied supermen, the presence of such characters in the game would lend support to Nazi conceptions of the superman and the "master race" in my eyes. For this reason, I always burden my supermen with super flaws (especially hubris). No squeaky clean ubermensch like Doc Savage for me, thank you. I always thought his criminal lobotomies were creepy anyway. Just a personal preference, I realize pulp is very much Of Its Age, that is, crypto-fascistic (wait, I got that mixed up, I was thinking of our age . . . )

Re: Pulp campaigh underway (Finally) !

The tong were looking for a ring (the heroes won't find out until later) that had fallen into a carton of ice cream during a fight between two leaders of the tong. The fight took place in a confectionry factory controlled by one of the tong. It is rumored that the ring has special mystical powers that will give it's weilder exceptional skill at martial arts.

 

The tong are searching all the ice cream stores in town to find the ring. Ownership of the ring can shift the balance of power in Chinatown.

 

Jak

It's a clever take, you gotta give him that.

Re: Pulp Hero, after looking it over

Wow' date=' so it's really 432 pages? I was going to get it before (I love Pulp and Victorian era Steampulp, as I call it), but now I really, REALLY want it![/quote']

 

Yes, it most certainly is, and yes, you most certainly must. I finally got to pick up the hardbound copy my agent scored for me, and I'm caressing it even as I type this. Big shout out to Brian at the Dragon's Lair Games in Davie, FL.

 

Ah, anticipation is sweet, but this . . .this is pulp ambrosia.

 

The timeline and world chapters are very comprehensive, and I'm definitely adapting Randall's Raiders and all the villains for my home campaign.

 

Special mention should go to the overall solid artwork. Nice to see the old Justice Inc. stuff, and the pulp cover chapter inserts were a super sweet touch.

 

What impresses me the most 'though, having read through the genre and GMing chapters, is the depth to which the authors obviously studied the original sources. You boys did your homework, or you certainly make it look that way, which is just as good to me. I'm still digesting the new mechanics, particularly the Heroic Action Points (not sure if I want to replace my homebrew rules yet, but we'll playtest them), but Chapters One and Six are worth the price of the hardcover alone. Kudos Messrs. Long and Ross! Guys like you are the only reason I'm still gaming.

Re: Pulp Hero, after looking it over

The good news? My agent succeeded in scoring for me both a hardcover copy of Pulp Hero and a secret decoder ring.

The bad news? I can't make the drive to pick it up until this weekend!!!

Re: pulp hero over opinions?

I'm still positive about this book, and you can be sure my agents will be working to secure my hardcover and secret decoder ring, but frankly, when I compare this cover with the original art of the Justice Inc. box, I just want to

The logo is less offensive, but I'm sorry to say I think the cover is pedestrian. Worse, it's *computer generated* (shudder). Tres, tres non pulp!

Re: Real world Pulp characters

If I remember right' date=' wasn't Schauberger supposedly involved with the (probably fictional) Kubelblitz project, i.e., 'Nazi flying saucers'? If so, he might make a good villainous mad scientist for after WW2 as well, if you want to do Operation High Jump as a sort of 'last hurrah' of the pulp era.[/quote']

 

He was indeed, allegedly. One of the beautiful things about pulp is, the rumors are almost never accurate - the truth is even more outrageous.

Re: Real world Pulp characters

These are all good references, but a bit skewed to explorers and adventurers. The Pulp Age was also an age of "Progress." Despite the hardships of the Depression (or more likely because of them), people still had faith that science and reason could eventually solve mankind's problems. In my alternate 1930's setting of Terra Omega, Nikola Tesla had an even greater impact on history, but he's just one example.

Here are two excellent real life models for your well-meaning but mad scientist/engineer:

Howard Scott

Founder and Executive Director of the Technical Alliance, an American think tank whose members include such notable men of science as Charles P. Steinmetz, Richard C. Tolman, and Bassett Jones, Scott is a prodigious inventor and vociferous champion of technocracy. The only child of a 19th century American logging baron, he was a child prodigy who read (and understood) evolutionary biology by the time he was four years old. With the use of linear vector analysis, he developed “The Mathematical Theory of Energy Determinants†as a model to describe the entire energy ecology of the North American continent. The premise of Scott's thinking was that anything that functions performs as an "energy consuming device." This definition covered everything from geophysical systems, through ecological systems, organisms, populations, tools and machines. He argued that just like a steam engine, a social system's use of energy could be assessed in terms of efficiency.

Of course, the Axis has its share of pulp scientists too:

Viktor Schauberger

Eccentric Austrian genius and author of "Unsere Sinnlose Arbeit" or “Our Senseless Toil,†outlining his unconventional ideas about harnessing the untapped “implosion energy†of water. His implosion technology creates a self sustaining vortex flow of any liquid or gaseous medium, which has a concentrating, ordering effect and which decreases the temperature of the medium, in opposition to the dictates of "modern" thermodynamics. His Repulsine dynamic hydroelectric engine can produce power and even suspend gravity.

Re: S. John Ross

Yup, he wrote part of Chapter Six (GMing).

 

Plus, he brought the yaks.

Ah, so he's the one responsible. Mr. Stranger will be sure to pack his yak repellent when we take the inevitable excursion to Tibet.

It's simply delightful news to see S. John Ross contributing to HERO, and especially Pulp Hero. I have been awaiting the release of Flee From Evil ever since I stumbled on his website doing research for my own campaign of Omega City last year. Looks to be very cool stuff, and useful for Pulp games to boot!

Too bad I can't make Origins or GenCon this year.

Re: Pulp Hero Resources

Although I run a game set in 1933, this slang site should serve for any game set during the pulp era, except the very early ones (pre-WWI), or the vary late ones (1943-):

Jazz Age Slang

A guide to the vernacular of the 20's and 30's.

http://home.earthlink.net/~dlarkins/slang-pg.htm

My home campaign is set in an alternate 30's where some pulp-tech has changed the course of science and technology. Not everyone has a taste for Crimson Skies-GURPS Gernsback style action, but everybody can use a few cool super-science toys to throw at player's now and again. These two sites proved a great resource for me:

Tales of Future Past

Enter a world where engineers have no budgets. A world where gigantic machines promise mankind a future of unlimited romance, adventure, and really big robots. It's Tales of Future Past!

http://www.davidszondy.com/future/futurepast.htm

The Future We Were Promised

An archive and research library of futurist nostalgia

http://www.losthighways.org

Happy pulping

Re: Pulp pictures.

Here's a few images of NPC's from my collection. I've renamed a couple of them for my campaign, but they're suitable for use in any Pulp Hero game.

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

First off, let me say that I am ecstatic about this thread and that the project is finally moving forward! Kudos to you Steve, for breathing new life into Justice Inc. Now, on to my comments . . .

To start, I’d love to see a classic-style pulp cover, along the lines of the original Justice, Inc. – one with lot’s of color, not that horrid sepia tone they used for Adventure.

As many appropriate interior illustrations as possible—but spare us cartoonish or manga-like images, please, there’s too much of that already and it doesn’t fit the style.

An extensive table of world destinations with costs and travel times by transportation type would be appreciated. With that in mind, more details on the special challenges and dangers faced by travelers in that era would be ideal.

An extensive technology table, with dates of invention and their widespread availability in developed countries.

A discussion of scientific models in vogue at the time. Which theories were dominant in each field? Which were on their way out but still had adherents? What were some of the fringe scientific beliefs and predictions of the time?

A discussion of period technology, especially radio (in terms of its portability and environmental conditions that can effect transmission and reception), and the telephone system. Players will be using these constantly, they deserve special coverage.

Lot’s of advice for running pulp adventures, especially for capturing that breathless sense of adventure they engendered. For example: how to keep the pace moving, how to build suspense, how to design interesting death traps with samples and possible escapes, and an extensive section on creating and role-playing criminal masterminds and their modus operandi.

Also, David Blue’s comments on ammunition and animals are very salient and would add novelty and flavor to the product.

Finally, not necessarily in the main book, but definitely worth a supplement: A detailed urban setting, like Hudson City. Ideally this would be a new city, like Brian Misiaszek’s great idea for a “Pulp Apple†version of New York City. I have already done most of the work for my bi-weekly “Omega City†campaign, actually, only for San Francisco.

Sorry my first post is so long, but with this new forum I just got so excited. Can’t wait for GenCon - my lurking days on these boards are done!