ArmlessTigerMan

Re: Favorite Pulp Character The Avenger and The Rocketeer. The Avenger had the ability to mold the features of his paralyzed face. Combined with make-up, elevator heels, and inflatable pouches in his clothing to simulate girth or muscles, this would either be Disguise or Shapeshift. Not sure how I'd but it. As for the Rocketeer's rocketpack, there's a write-up for a jetpack in the margin of page 115 of the Big Black Book. I might increase the speed a tiny bit, as well as ad some sort of disadvantage to simulate that the rocketpack was either on or off, with no speed in between. And I might require some sort of Dex or Acrobatics roll to land succesfully without hurting oneself; in the comic he had a lot of rough landings.

Re: Pulp Discussion I don't get it. Are Action and Adventure different things? If they are, shouldn't a good game have both?

Re: Pulp Hero?? found this the other day. Pulp Villains not bad, considering it's free.

Re: DARK CHAMPIONS: What Do *You* Want To See? Under the sample characters section, please include only those characters that correspond to power levels that are suggested in the book for Dark Champions campaigns.

Re: Martial Art Manoeuver Creation

Re: Every good four color supers games needs: Secret civilizations in lost cities: Atlantis, Lemuria, Mu, Shangi-La, K'un L'un. The inhabitants may be superpowered, like the Inhumans, Eternals, or Deviants. Alternately, lost explorers who find these cities emerge months later as superheroes or supervillains. Tons of aliens. Good, bad, just too darn many races to keep track of. A secret city of hyper-intelligent gorillas with advanced mental powers. Bless Steve Long for bringing my favorite piece of the Silver Age to the CU. The team of supervillains whose origins, backgrounds, and powers have absolutely NOTHING in common, save that a) they are all very greedy, or they are each the main hunted of one of the heroes. Adventures where all the heroes get transformed into something; like puppets, statues, trees, or animals.

Re: Gaming Historical Zeitgeists Ever read The Alienist, by Caleb Carr? It's set in turn of the century New York, and the zeitgeists include the emerging sciences of psychology and criminal profiling, as well as challenging society's belief that criminals are born and not made. The engine that drives the story is the hunt for a serial killer. The proto-psychologist wants to study the killer's pathology; his friend the reporter is drawn in by his knowledge of the criminal underworld, etc... My point is... that you have to have action and conflict. So one npc dictating these new discoveries to the players, not exciting. On the other hand, if the players are investigating the murders of doctors who are researching the brain, then said research becomes more relevant to the players, especially when it helps lead them to the killers. Maybe the doctors were killed by members of the clergy who didn't want these doctors to give the masses a reason to begin to doubt the existence of the soul. Just my two cents.

Re: What superhero world concept are you tired of seeing? Amen. How many times can Warren Ellis kill Superman? He don't like Supes! We get it already! One exception to crappy homages was Alan Moore's run on Supreme. Obviously, it wasn't meant to be dark, but he was able to show his affection for the source material and poke fun at it at the same time.

"power fantasy" -- this has been used repeatedly. I thought every Champions game was, by definition, a power fantasy. "hero" -- the word 'hero' should not be used interchangeably with 'player character' or 'protagonist.' Especially if the player characters conquer the world. This seemed like an interesting campaign before all the politcal hooha set in. But there doesn't seem to be any source of conflict, unless you allow for powerful surviving supers, 'reformed' supervillains, etc... Taking these guys out would seem to be your first order of business before you conquer the world. So what are we left with? A bunch of superbeings sitting around playing at civilization? What prophiteth a superbeing if he gains the whole world? Perhaps a low combat campaign ripe with great roleplaying opportunities - the Captain America clone's slow realization that the takeover was one thing, but to hold on to power, he has to get his hands dirty, and is now longer the shining icon of the masses. In fact, now he's no better than his arch nemesis. A mixed bag of character motivations would be fun. In Squadron Supreme, most of the protagonists had the best of intentions. But if our world conquerors fought and squabbled amongst themselves, ala The Watchmen. You have Adrian Veight as the Nietchean ideal who has freed himself from societal morality, and the rest of the principals, who either violently disagree, or are willing to go along. This would probably be a better game than one where all the pc's are in complete agreement. This would also solve the lack of conflict problem; perhaps the campaign consists solely of these superbeing fighting amongst themselves, some trying to liberate the planet, others protecting the status quo.

I was serving my court-ordered community service this week, and while working at the local Goodwill store I found an awesome weird tales anthology: Weird Tales, The Magazine That Never Dies. As opposed to the Hero Pulps like Doc Savage and The Shadow, this book is packed with short stories and novellas, mainly of the horror and 'shudder-pulp' variety. I highly recommend it, especially if you can find it for $1.29 like I did.

Black Mask Online http://www.blackmask.com/page.php has a good pulp fiction section.

sorry, not an internet source, but I recommend the "The Everday Life..." series. Specifically: Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in Colonial America: From 1607-1783 According to Amazon, it is out of print, so you can try to get it used, or check you library. The series is as you would expect from the name, details of everday life during the time period that you can use to slip into your game.

http://www.wolfram.demon.co.uk/rp_ch_om_1995_top.html This guy has some cool ideas in his timeline, superhumans appearing in the 1880's and how this affects history. Aside from that, how do superhuman archetypes interact with western archetypes? There would seem to be some overlap between speedsters and the fastest guns in the west, bricks and burly blacksmiths, indian scouts and sneaky stealthy types... Do all these fit into the same game, or are some superfluous?

Hmmm... You could go the alternate history route. Someone already mentions Crimson Skies. The New Deal falls flat, or FDR is killed/never elected, and network of highways that ties america together is never built. According to FASA, from there it's just a stone's throw to anarchy, rebellion, and the balkanization of America. Or.. set your way-back machine to the late 1700's. The U.S. never evolves past it's Confederacy days outlined above in Dauntless's post. The states might get together to repel the threat of foreign invaders, but in most other ways are completely separate entities. Fast forward to the 21st century and extrapolate the results. Or... set your game in the 1700's. America declares it's independence, and magick re-emerges in the world. Or... maybe hyper-technology causes the balkanization. In the early 1900's, Henry Ford mass produces Edison's personal teleportation devices. America no longer needs a net of Railroads or highways to connect it, and airplanes are obsolete before they are developed. America's agrarian population can now bulk telelport their crops to market. There's no such thing as Hobos, as you can either afford a teleport device, or a horse, or you stay home. And then, as per Crimson Skies, the Depression causes anarchy and the states secede from the Union. Anyways, just trying to say that the sudden breakdown of technology, or sudden environmental devastation are not the only ways to go.

Great character, and great write-up. Even though Delta Green is a modern day setting, The Lord of Sleep struck me instantly as quite 'pulpy.' Take away his guitar and make him a Frank Sinatra style crooner, or the leader of a swing band, and instant pulp. How is the rest of Delta Green in this regard? Firmly rooted in modern day sensibilities, or do you think it could easily be mined for cool stuff for a pulp-era campaign?

Lies!!! Santa has kicked martian ass: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (Pia Zadora's film debut) and demon ass: Santa Claus, (Mexico, 1959) Santa is one tough mother!

ground_rules Check the House Rules section near the bottom. The hardest part was getting the players to use the rules; most of them were stuck in their 'let's use the Hero System to quantify EVERYTHING' mindset. But once I explained that it was supposed to give the players the ability to control exceptional moments of skill or luck, instead of having the GM control everything, they got into it.

I'v read alot of Doc Savage, but my problem with Doc was always the lack of fantastic elements in his adventures. Aliens and dinosaurs are always explained away as tricks by conmen. Notable exceptions to this include: The Cold Death, The Secret in the Sky, and The Spook Legion, which feature death rays, anti-gravity flying machines, and invisible crooks respectively. I got these by cruising ebay at work. They are curently out of print, and as far as I know there are no e-texts, and you probably won't find them at the library. I'm also a big fan of the WPA books, specifically The Wpa Guide to New York City . If you can't wait to see whether or not Allston's Pulp Apple project ever sees fruition and want to write your own 1930's new york type setting, this is the reference to start with. Really enjoyed Frost he was kind of a Sherlock Holmes for the pulp era. Also a big fan of The Spider. You can get his books here. Just browsing the titles of his novels will give you tons of adventure ideas. I don't think anyone mentioned free shadow pdf's. This one is neat, not just because it's free, but because they also inlcude the illustrations which originally went with the story. If I need inspiration, I stroll the pages of Mr. Nevins. Truly he is a superior human being. There are also Yahoo groups for Pulp_Games and AonAdventure which can be mined for ideas. Heh, just couldn't let the pulp thread die without chiming in