"Suggestions for rules (PULP Era)" Topic

Hi All:

I was wondering if people could give me suggestions/reviews for rules to use during the Pulp era. I am currently using Steve Barber's Prohibition rules. I am also looking for something that will work for large games and up to 10+ players.

Thanks,

Michael

I just tried .45 Advanture/Future Worlds this weekend at RECON. They ran very well and were not difficult to pickup at all. I felt the rules left alot room for flexiblity as far as stats and abilities for the characters/squads.

These are the ones I have played and can therefore give a personal "OKAY" on…

.45 Adventures (along with Fantastic Worlds for the futuristic stuff & Thrilling Expeditions: Valley of the Thunder Lizard for a ton of prehistoric critters) – They have a free "try out" set of rules to see if you like them or not.
Warning: This link goes straight to the Demo PDF rules (if it works)!
PDF link
The main site is here:
link

Astounding Tales 2nd ed – So far this is my favorite with .45 Adventures coming in a VERY close second. They have the 1st ed in the files section of the Yahoo group:
link
I like these rules because my pulp likes were the larger-than-life characters like Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Spider, The Avenger, etc. I never really got into the detective/gangster type of pulps. AT2 handles this aspect well. They can be gotten from here:
link

Both play fast and easy… as any pulp game should. I give them both a 2 thumbs-up!!!

Others that I have heard work well but have not tried out myself are:

Rugged Adventures(free):
link

Savage Worlds Showdown (free):
Warning: link goes directly to the PDF rules.
PDF link
I HAVE played this game but have not used it for pulp… but I think it would work quite well.

Crimefighters RPG (free): This is an excerpt from one of the old Dragon magazines from looooonnnnggggg ago. I have it in PDF form. If you'd like a copy just send a request for it to:
warrenss2(at)yahoo(dot)com
and I'll send it out as quickly as I can.

Can anyone point out any others?

Cos,

For games the size of yours ".45 Adventures" (my favorite but I'm biased due to being a playtester) would probably not work. It is more for 2-5 figs per player and small (2' x 2' or 3' x 3') boards. True it has the Hordes of Mooks rule for groups of shotgun fodder, but I still think it might bog down for your large-scale games.

"Astounding Tales" might work if you broke the board into "scenes" with a director (GM) for each scene since the GM is necessary for moving the game along and making the snap decisions on-the-fly.

No one has mentioned "To Be Continued By GASLIGHT" which is the pulp version of the GASLIGHT ruleset. I haven't actually played or run it yet, but I have run scads of historically-based GASLIGHT games and if it follows along the same lines it might be more of a scale for your use.

"Rugged Adventures" from Bob Murch/Kurt Hummisch also might be along the lines of what you are looking for.

Jim S

You can also try Triumph and Tragedy. A good rule set from the guys over in Germany.

You can check out the Lead Adventures forum for more details.

lead-adventure.de

Rich

Chaos in Cairo

Even before TBCGL came out, I used GASLIGHT a lot for Pulp. The BIG advantage is that it is a simple gaming system to begin with from which you can drop all the complicated bits without losing flavour. This enables you to play games with up to 15 people in an evening (given some basic management skills).

There are lots of Pulp rule sets out there (most have been mentioned, I think), all with different flavours to them – and all very good, from what I've heard.
Rattrap products seem to be the prefered rulesets, and are very well supported by Rich/Op5 and his crew :)

You also need to take a look at Supersystem and all its avatars (Chaos in Cairo, as mentioned by Number6, Chaos in Carpathia, and the newly released Chaos on Cronos).

Then there is my own adaptation of the WarEngine to a Pulp/B-movie setting, Golgo Island – check them out, you can't go wrong as it's free from:
link

In Golgo Island, you play a handful of units (from 1 to 20, hands down): characters or rank and file troops. It's a game with point values, and the scenario helps are designed to for make balanced games. No GM is required; the non players characters/creatures are handled by players following some very simple rules. Games are meant to be short and the action "compact" – in half an hour, your 2 player game can be done. We have tested it with up to 6 players all playing on their own, with 2 units each, and it works smoothly.
10 players? Should work as well as a 10 player can work, I guess :)

Cheers,

Sylvain
golgoisland.free.fr

There is a GASLIGHT list on yahoo groups where you can get more information about GASLIGHT and the various variants and expansions, including To Be Continued… by GASLIGHT. The group is reasonably active -- active enough that I just get the daily digest.

I'm one of the authors.

We've worked very hard to make sure that all the GASLIGHT games fit seamlessly together. You can, for instance, use some of the rules from To Be Continued with a GASLIGHT game but use the activation system from Battles by GASLIGHT. This provides significant flexibility to play games on 2'x2' squares like the Rattrap games to larger games on 4'x6' (or larger) tables -- all within the same family of systems.

I run GASLIGHT pulp games fairly often. Well, once every two or three months. I usually have 10 to 16 players. I can run the games in an afternoon (about 3 to 4 hours). Its a blast! Lotsa fun, lotsa laughter. Its one of the most flexible systems I have ever done. I can't recommend it enough. I've played 45 Adventures, Rugged Adventures and Astounding Tales. GASLIGHT beats em all. But, thats just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.