"Pulp - What comes to mind?" Topic

We were getting into a 'heated' discussion down at the Club, about what 'style' comes to mind when you want to play a 'pulp' game.

1) Two fisted, all action heroes? i.e. Indiana Jones, Doc Savage, Sky Captain, etc…
2) The hard boiled detective? i.e. Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, Nick Charles…
3) Do gooder superheroes (with superhuman qualities : flight, super strong, x-ray vision…) fighting supervillians? i.e. Golden age super heroes…
4) Some of 1 & 2
5) Some of 1 & 3
6) Some of 2 & 3
7) Something else
8) None of these

As for me… I am more of a #4 (edited after pointing out my bad typing…) guy. If you add any type of 'superhero', then its a 'superhero' game in a different time setting. Not a pulp game, IMO…
What do you think?

Do you mean you are a #4 guy? #5 would include superhero as a part of pulp? I'm confused.

t.w.

p.s. I'm a #4 guy 1 & 2.

All of the above. A lot of comic book heroes started out as pulp characters. Now, mind you, too-powerful characters would unbalance most pulp minis gaming systems. But you can certainly have superhuman characters in AE-WWII and WHD and others.

Gotta be 5. The original JSA or more usefully the All Star Squadron (where Doctor Midnite or Hourman [essentially 1] are alongside the Flash and Green Lantern [definitely 3]).

Option #4.

Are we supposed to add up which ones we like and then average them? I like 1, 2, and 3 (1+2+3=6) Divide that by 8 and I get 0.75??
Why do you have to ask such hard questions

A little bit of everything for me.

Chuck

All of the above equally. (-: They can be mixed and matched in any way that you like, as "B movies" and serials did just that during the pulp era. Gangsters fighting cowboys, Tarzan fighting nazis, G-men fighting aliens, Axis spies fighting Broadway gangsters, fifth columnists fighting Bowery Boys, Bowery Boys fighting evil scientists, etc. in the most incredible combinations. I don't think that there's a zanier plot that you can come up with than Humphrey Bogart as shady gambler "Gloves Donahue" and his mob running into Nazi "fifth columnists" planning to blow up a battleship in a New York harbor while trying find out who killed the baker of his favorite cheesecake in "All Through the Night". (-:

Orange juice, first and foremost, comes to mind.

Then I'd say #4 with #7 as "post pulp era" character driven action stories in other media such as TV and film (Indiana Jones, Dirty Harry, etc.)

Having said that, I see The Shadow (and similar heroes with low level abilities) as Pulp, not as a super hero, even with the power to cloud men's minds, but Superman (et al) as "different"

Exactly JJ. Exactly.
Shadow, those kinda things (to me), fall into the #1 & #2 category…
I never see Sam Spade flying about in a cape, or Indiana Jones using his powers to walk through walls…

9) Jarvis Cocker

Uh, the Shadow did have the power to walk through walls, at one point? I remember some goofy excuse for how he escaped from manacles.

#7 I guess. Pulp crosses genres so no particular genre element is automatically pulp. Pulp is really a narrative focus, a prose style.

Pulp is about a no-nonsense plot that is always moving forward: action taking precedent over exposition.

So if the villains are Nazis or dictators or mad scientists or rogue generals or crime bosses, and the heroes are private detectives or international spies or wandering adventurers, it's not because those character types are automatically pulp, it's because if a pulp writer uses them, they can be explained more succinctly to the reader … which leaves more room for action.

This was originally a necessity borne of the short word count required for pulp magazine pieces, but across all genres it became a unique style of narrative: action action action! Or Raymond Chandler said: "When in doubt have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand."

Comics share many traits of pulp but are not exactly the same; the focus there is also generally on action over exposition, but priority goes to illustration.

So for instance Superman: Super strength or invulnerability or flying or heat vision can be pulp elements, if it makes it easier to explain how the hero acts to move the plot forward. But a brightly costumed flying man bending the barrel of an artillery piece, in the air, with bullets bouncing off him? That is comics. It can be illustrated with one picture. In prose it would take too long to describe so it is lousy pulp.

4

#5

Mostly 4

For me it's limited to the 1930's and heroes such as the Shadow and Doc Savage. Not so hot on the hard-boiled detective pulps but don't mind using them in pulp games I run. I usually have 4 sides in a game and if it's in the city one of the sides will be the HBD and the Dame.

>>Exactly JJ. Exactly.

Shadow, those kinda things (to me), fall into the #1 & #2 category…
I never see Sam Spade flying about in a cape, or Indiana Jones using his powers to walk through walls… <<

That's true, but I didn't mention *all* of the pulp hero possibilities. Hell, you know me, I could have written a *book* on the subject. LOL Anyway, Although Doc Savage was not a super hero he was a super human hero and therefore couldn't fit into 1 or 2, so he has to fit in 3.

>>Uh, the Shadow did have the power to walk through walls, at one point? I remember some goofy excuse for how he escaped from manacles.<<

Was that in a radio drama or from one of the pulps?

All of it.

Brian

1., Especially Doc Savage, the grand-daddy of them all.

I'll go with #4 (that is, "Some of 1&2"), but add in low-level "superheroes" like The Shadow and maybe even a Captain America/Phantom type— the sort of hero who is "at the boundaries" of human ability (or just over), or maybe has one or two unique-but-subtle powers— like The Shadow's ability to "cloud minds." The villains can be anything from gangsters to Nazis to occult mystics to mad "super-science" scientists.

There's also a separate category that needs to include Flash Gordon and the original Buck Rogers; call it Pulp Sci/Fi— same flavor, different setting.

Yes, #4. Superheroes are not in MY pulp.

#4, no question.

Too many "game balance" issues otherwise.

I like 1 & 2 & low level superhero's like mentioned above ie Cap America, & The Phantom for the good guys with almost no limitations on who can be the bad guys; Gangsters, evil scientists, martians/venutians, atlanteans, nazis/facists/communists, yellow peril, you name it.

Interesting post.
Amalric

1) Two fisted, all action heroes? i.e. Indiana Jones, Doc Savage, Sky Captain, etc…
2) The hard boiled detective? i.e. Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, Nick Charles…

Yes please

Amalric has it right.

mjc

1.
Weaselhoffen.

1,2 and low powered 3

1, 4, 7 and a fried rice… :)

John T

Saber6 is pretty good but there needs be a few more pilots in the crowd.

>>Saber6 is pretty good but there needs be a few more pilots in the crowd.<<

Bill Barnes, Frank Hawks, G-8, Blackhawk, Terry Lee, Flip Corkin, Hot Shot Charlie and Captain Midnight.

Not to mention Biggles, Smilin' Jack, and Scorchy Smith!

Carter "Immelmann Turn" Mulligan

Yes!
That's what I am talking about!

What about the pilot in Raiders of the Lost Ark?
He would qualify, right?

>>He would qualify, right?<<

I only included continuing characters from Pulp magazines, comic strips, serials and radio shows in the pulp era. If you want to include characters that were pilots and appeared only once in a film you could add hundreds!

A few more pilots from the pulp era. Hop Harrigan, Steve Canyon, Speed Gibson, Sky King and Jimmy Allen.

Met Sky King when I was kid. He and Penny flew into the local airport in the Songbird. He got mobbed by kids and the ground crew pushing the a/c knocked him flat with the wingtip tank.

I think most kids that grew up in the 1950's watched Sky King on TV and never knew that the show started out on radio in 1947.

donrice: I've never seen pulps/comics explained more succinctly.

I'm a #4

Comics as great but they shouldn't mix with the pulps. That being said, the Shadow/Batman crossover was interesting.
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