".45 adventure 2nd edition" Topic

I have first edition, but never had a chance to play it yet. Second edition seems to have a lot of changes, and have been out for one year now. Any experience with it?

I first had in mind to play with more miniatures, and thought .45 was maybe a bit slow, with a lot of details like RPG.

But recognising that my painting rate is low, I have reconsidered games involving few miniatures, something like a skirmish DBA (I also bought Point Blank and Nuts), more historic or realistic adventures rather than pure pulp, and I wondered how .45 adventure 2nd edition worked for that aim.

I think your answer is given by the sub-title: Thrilling Action in the Pulp Era.

However, you can set the level of play "realistic" vs. "pulp" by choosing what game elements you use.

You might also look at THW's "5150: New Beginnings". The game is an RPG-lite format that is set-up for story telling and following your character(s) through a series of encounters. Just cut out the science fiction elements and re-write some things for the pulp era.

I haven't tried 2nd but I've heard it's much faster.
I was also under the impression that 2nd edition was a bit 'pulpier' than 1st… with a wider power divide between the heroes and mooks. It also brings together a lot of what was spread out through the different games based on 1st edition.
Weren't there some historic supplements for 1st edition? (I'm not sure if they got bundled into 2nd or not).

5150 is great as well but you might want to check out the free Swordplay version of the system to see if it's to your taste.

At Historicon two summers ago we played 1st Edition and 2nd edition back to back. First time trying 45 adventure.

At the end of the first game (1st Edition) I was unimpressed, wouldn't have considered buying the rules.

Halfway through the second game (2nd Edition) which was a demo game of the new rules, I was HOOKED, I tell ya. Huge improvement in game mechanics and fun.

I have played both versions and I'm not impressed by the 2nd edition. I don't like the change from modifying die rolls to rolling additional die. You don't improve your chances by as much rolling additional die as you do by modifying a die roll. I also don't like the fact that the class 2 and 3 move at the same time instead of in order. I most likely will return to using the first version. It has a better feel as far as differencing the levels and having more choices as far as your tactics go. I must point out we have played both versions and version 2 has made it into a ho-hum just like all the others game as opposed to the unique game version one is/was.

Hmmm, I actually read through 2nd edition last night after a lot of Bogart, Charlie Chan, and Mr. Moto over the holidays (movies, not games). I have 1st edition too, but have played neither. Interesting that two posters are almost completely opposite in opinions, so I guess I'll give 2nd ed. a try, and always have 1st ed. to fall back on.

>>Hmmm, I actually read through 2nd edition last night after a lot of Bogart, Charlie Chan, and Mr. Moto over the holidays (movies, not games).<<

Sounds like a great holiday week! If you like hard boiled, wisecracking "B" movie detectives you might also try the "Boston Blackie" and "Michael Shayne" series. The first in "The Saint" series "The Saint in New York" is also good.

I used to listen to Boston Blackie radio show re-broadcasts in the 1980s, haven't picked them up yet as MP3's, but have the Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe shows, as well as the few Charlie Chan's and Fu Manchu's available.

Still have 21 Bogart movies to go through, down to the last ones of Chan and Moto though…till I buy more box sets at least.

>>I used to listen to Boston Blackie radio show re-broadcasts in the 1980s, haven't picked them up yet as MP3's, but have the Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe shows, as well as the few Charlie Chan's and Fu Manchu's available.<<

Charlie Chan didn't do it for me as a radio drama. Dunno why as I really loved the films with both Oland and Toler. I don't recall listening to Fu Manchu. When I was seriously listening to radio drama I don't think that there were many episodes available. I'd add Richard Diamond with Dick Powell to your radio detective listening. He's as good as the others and sometimes better.

>>Still have 21 Bogart movies to go through<<

Wow! Are you down to the lesser known stuff like "Three on a Match", "Stand-In" and "Swing Your Lady"?

I got a 24 movie collection of his Warner Bros. films, from Petrified Forest to Key Largo, more or less. It's called something like the Humphrey Bogart Essential Collection. link

No Sahara, which from a gaming perspective is a good one. One big screw up though – it's the original Big Sleep, not the one with the re-done Bacall scenes. Seems like they burnt the wrong copy off the special edition that has both versions.

I get my old time radio from: otrcat.com, great selection and service. There are more Fu Manchu's surviving than Chans, but the quality isn't great, lot of hissing and wavering volume.

Sorry to the OP for going off topic!

OTRCat is great, I get most of my old radio shows from them.
They'll warn you if the quality is bad for some of the shows… but they seem to always be trying to find more and better.
Their I Love A Mystery set is much larger than when I first bought it.

I'm not a fan of Dick Powell though, maybe it's the singing… Gerald Mohr could wipe the floor with him.

>>No Sahara, which from a gaming perspective is a good one.<<

Bogey made that one at Columbia, not Warner Brothers. Are all of the rest of the films from WB? That would explain why "Sahara" isn't on the disk.

>>I'm not a fan of Dick Powell though, maybe it's the singing… Gerald Mohr could wipe the floor with him.<<

LOL. Did you see "Murder My Sweet"? Powell did a pretty good job as Philip Marlowe in that one. It's a reat noire and very hard boiled. It's actually a filming of the novel "Farewell My Lovely" by Raymond Chandler, but the studio thought that since Powell was associated with musicals, and "Farewell My Lovely" sounded like it could be a musical, they switched the title to "Murder My Sweet". As an aside to that Chandler took some sequences from his earlier short stories and used them in his novels. If you read "The Man Who Liked Dogs" you'll read it again in "Farewell My Lovely". :-)

…and i'm sorry that we hijacked the thread too.

I think the thread has been usurped…

Chandler was famous for cannibalizing earlier stories for use in books. There are bits in The Big Sleep that turned my head because I recognized them from earlier setups.
My issues with Powell are pretty general… I thought he was also the weak point in the otherwise fabulous A Midsummer Night's Dream (though Mickey Rooney is always a bit hard to tolerate as well).

I watched a bunch of Boston Blackie movies on TCM late one night… they showed 4 or 5 in a row. They looked great but there's something about the 'police are bumbling fools who Blackie always mocks' formula that grated on me. Somehow it didn't bug me as much on the radio show.
I wish they'd made more I Love a Mystery films… with bigger budgets. 'Temple Of Vampires' would be a good one for film I think.

Venusboys3

The first Chandler stories that I read were a collection of his short stories originally printed in Black Mask, Dime Detective and Detective fiction Weekly titled "A killer in the Rain". Later, when I read the full length novels I started to notice that he was re-using the short stories. "The Curtain" was another short story that I recognized right away when I read "The Big Sleep".

The cops in the "Boston Blackie" films are embarassingly dumb. The humor in the radio dramas wasn't that broad.

I didn't like any of the "I Love a Mystery" films. I found them boring. The radio show was considerably more exciting. And I agree. If any of the sequences would make a good film it would be "Temple of the Vampires".

I've played 1st edition a couple of times, but I didn't enjoy it. As a result, I wasn't tempted to try 2nd edition. For pulp games, I just use To Be Continued… by GASLIGHT, which was merged into the recently released GASLIGHT Compendium.

Buck Surdu
(one of the GASLIGHT authors)

Hey Buck, no bias there, eh?

I certainly have a bias, which is why I identified myself as one of the GASLIGHT authors. There are many on TMP who have a bias and don't admit to bias as they bash everyone and everything. Clearly, I think GASLIGHT has much to offer; however, that doesn't preclude me from enjoying rules written by others.

I DO play games written by other people, not just my own stuff. For instance, I love Brother Against Brother and Fire and Fury. The Sword and the Flame usually generates fun games. I like Crossfire as a two person game, but have never figured out how to play with more than two people. I enjoy the occasional Uncharted Seas game. I enjoy Fire as She Bears. I still think the best regimental-level ACW rules written are Rally 'Round the Flag. I've even had fun with a set of rules for English Civil War skirmish games, called Once Upon a Time in the West Country. I also found that the Foundry Fist Full of Dice cowboy rules had some really innovative ideas that we enjoyed.

I didn't enjoy .45 Adventure after playing it several times to really give it a try. I WANTED to like it, but just didn't. I like a number of the features that make it feel pulpy, but I found that it played slowly. I think Howard Whitehouse's rules are more enjoyable than .45 Adventure -- see there's another set of rules I didn't write that I like. :) We even ran the same scenario with both .45 adventure and GASLIGHT as a comparison, to make sure it wasn't just a scenario issue.

Buck

I know a well known designer who, when his company was publishing miniatures rules, refused to play other rulesets because he wanted to make sure the rules were fresh and not rehashes of other peoples work.

Mikhail:

We're wandering off topic, but you make a very good point and one worth discussing. Yes, that's clearly a risk, and your friend has a valid perspective. One size does not fit all, however, and I don't think you necessarily have to shield yourself from other rules in order to avoid that trap.

Rich Hassenauer (Fire and Fury, Regimental Fire and Fury, etc.) and I have discussed this at some length. I play his games, and he has played mine. I enjoy his games, but he and I have very different design philosophies and goals, and I don't think you'll find many similarities between his rules and mine.

One of the reasons I began designing rules was that I was frustrated at the number of rules sets that were really modifications of others' work with little original thought or research. I think I've avoided that trap. If you look at the Look, Sarge, No Charts series of rules, for instance, I think you will find the mechanics are innovative and elegant -- even if the rules aren't your cup of tea. (It's amazing how many people have bashed those rules on TMP while admitting to never having played or even read them!) GASLIGHT offers a open approach, rather than forcing players into our contrived VSF and/or Pulp back story. It also offers scalability from role playing to large battles, with small and large skirmishes in between.

On the other hand, before I go to the effort of designing a set of rules, I want to make sure that I have something unique to offer. That means I have to survey the number of sets already available. On more than one occasion, I found rules I liked and decided NOT to design a set myself. Let's face it, there is a glut of rules on the market today. Most offer little that is unique or innovative, and one never knows what will become popular independent of merit. Before I spend 2 to 6 years designing a set of rules, I want to make sure that a) they are not just someone else's original thought with minor embellishments and b) I am offering something that is unique and innovative.

For me the design process begins with about a year of reading many books on a subject, both third person and first person accounts. When designing Santa Anna Rules, for instance, I read about 30 books on the Mexican war.

[I remember on conversation after I ran a Santa Anna game at a convention, in which one of the players was arguing that American artillery was too powerful. I cited a few historical examples and asked him how he thinks the artillery should be represented. I really wanted to know, since the rules were still in design and test. His response floored me: 'I've never read anything on the period, but it's just my opinion.' Yikes!]

The second step of the design process is to enumerate a list of goals for the rules set. These are often a combination of which aspects of the historical period I will emphasize and aspects of the game mechanics I want to achieve. The third step involves a little statistical analysis -- which is at best a SWAG for historical periods because of a dearth of data. (I have also designed combat simulations professionally, where we can get testers to do real analysis of combat weapons effects, movement rates, etc.) Armed with research (not just things I didn't like about someone else's rules), goals, and some analysis, I set off on the journey. As I said earlier, this process can take several years. Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII to six years. The ACW variant took another two. The Napoleonic version, still in design, has so far taken another two. GASLIGHT took two years. The various supplements that have been included in the Compendium were developed over a subsequent eight year period. Along the journey, I will often stop and grade myself against my list of goals, making azimuth corrections as needed.

When I get toward the end of the writing phase of rules design, I try to find play test groups who are far away, so that I cannot participate in the tests. I send them the draft rule book. In this way, they have to test what I WROTE, not what I MEANT. This has been very helpful over the years.

Ironically, the rules efforts of which I am most proud have not been the most commercially successful -- although they've done well enough. GASLIGHT began as a diversion from lots of white cross belts and large formations. It was something we began as (for me anyway) a break from more serious efforts. GASLIGHT, however, has been my most successful rules, commercially. Sales have been extraordinary over the past 11 years and continue to be strong. While designed for VSF and Pulp, they stand up pretty well in "straight historical" games as well. While I really wanted to work on LSNC and a couple of other projects, sometimes you go where the market tells you, so we've done a lot of GASLIGHT over the years. It's been fun and gratifying in many ways, and the rules have been successful beyond our wildest dreams. We are well known in the VSF world, but not as well known in the Pulp world, which is a bit disappointing.

For me the joy of game design is not commercial success (few of us can do this as a full time job, and I have a day job). The joy is in watch others have fun using them, take them into directions you hadn't imagined, etc. It's also in the sense of accomplishment that comes from knowing that I achieved the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the journey.

Sorry for diverting this thread. That was not my intent. Your comment put me into introspection mode, its dark outside, and the family is still asleep. You can find some additional thoughts and musings on bucksurdu.com and bucksurdu.com/blog. I'll now go back into lurker mode. If you want to continue the discussion, there is a link on my Web page to Email me.

Enjoy your weekend.

Buck

>>I've never read anything on the period, but it's just my opinion.' Yikes!<<

LOL. Hey Buck, how many times have you heard "i'm entitled to my opinion" from somebody that knows nothing about the subject? My usual reply is "Yep. You're entitled to your opinon, but so am I, and my opinion is that your opinion is all wet". :-)

>>We are well known in the VSF world, but not as well known in the Pulp world, which is a bit disappointing.<<

Some of the reasons that Rich Johnson's ".45 Adventures" and Howard Whitehouse's "Astounding Tales" sell well is because they both run high profile games at HMG conventions. Both have web sites specifically for their games. "45A" is a great platform for creating characters from the pulp era and i've created a "Jungle Lord" character that I believe is as close to "Tarzan" as you can get using them. "Astounding Tales" has a very colorful and eye catching cover with pulp magazine covers depicted all over it. Howard is very interested in the "pulp era" and he asked me to contribute quotes from some of my pulps for specific areas of the rules, so when I see that the writer has a strong interest in the subject i'm going to assume that he/she is going to do a good rules set and i'll certainly buy it. It's also worth noting that Bob Murch's "Rugged Adventures" are good for larger unit actions and they are *free*. Not to mention that he supplies a very good range of figures for pulp era gaming and the rules are right there with his minis at his very impressive web site. He also has a strong interest in the pulp era and has had repros of movie posters hanging at his table with a TV showing "serials" as well. He also ran some of the best pulp era games that i've had the pleasure of playing in. Now *that's* promoting interest in your product by showing that you actually *enjoy* gaming in the pulp era. I haven't seen anything that announced or advertised the fact that you produced a pulp era rules set.

"I haven't seen anything that announced or advertised the fact that you produced a pulp era rules set."

That's a fair comment. Brigade Games has helped push the Rattrap rules, and the cross promotion is important. Rattrap seems to have a more robust support structure (meaning scenario developers and writers) than we've been able to muster.

We made a lot of announcements when we released To Be Continued… by GASLIGHT (the pulp supplement) on TMP and other places. We have run Pulp games using GASLIGHT at all the same HMGS conventions. We have a Web site, but we don't sell of the Web site. We have an active yahoo group. We recently did a big push for the release of The GASLIGHT Compendium -- including on this group -- that described GASLIGHT as a pulp game and also had some posters to that effect. I even tried to do some cross promotion with Bob Murch in the early days when he was just getting started, but he wasn't interested. We don't have a miniatures line, feeling that what Pulp, Eureka, and others were already doing was sufficient. We've approached some miniatures manufacturers with ideas, but they weren't intrested. In many cases they already had other plans.

While I'm not surprised that some people would prefer other rules sets than GASLIGHT, I *am* surprised that you did't know that GASLIGHT could be used for pulp games. We've really done a poor job then.

We were at the front end of VSF but trailed behind Howard by a few months on Astounding Tales, so perhaps there's something to be said for being out early. In fact, Howard and I exchanged several Emails and rules drafts at the time we were both writing our rules. I think by the time we got into the market may people had already made their choice. I'm not complaining. We get lots of visibility and sales in VSF land, and I didn't get into rules writing many, many years ago to be able to quit my day job. It's just been disappointing that having run pulp games at all the HMGS East conventions for nearly 10 years, that GASLIGHT just hasn't caught on much in this genre.

In my case Pulp interests me more than VSF. I have nearly 100 of the old serials on disk and watch them with my kids. Pulp is what I wanted to do when we started GASLIGHT in the first place. I have really enjoyed VSF, but I eventually got back to pulp a couple years after the release of those rules.

>>While I'm not surprised that some people would prefer other rules sets than GASLIGHT, I *am* surprised that you did't know that GASLIGHT could be used for pulp games.<<

I am too! I'm usually much more on top of this type of rules set release. Well, there's only one way to correct that. I'll have to get into one of your games. :-)

>>I have nearly 100 of the old serials on disk and watch them with my kids. Pulp is what I wanted to do when we started GASLIGHT in the first place.<<

Wow!! Nearly 100 serials?? I'm mainly a fan of Republic from the late 1930's to the mid 1940's. The Universal serials were good too for the most part. I've never been happy with the way the Columbia serials were directed. I really dislike what James W. Horne did with them. Are you also a fan of fiction from pulp magazines? I mean other than ERB, REH, Lovecraft, Bradbury, Hammett and Chandler?

My pulp experience until about ten years ago was limited to the serials and radio shows. I grew up in Detroit. When I was a freshman in high school, a new radio station began service, WTWR. All summer they played radio shows 24/7. I painted a LOT of Airfix ACW figures and old Heritage Lord of the Rings figures while listening to the Shadow, Intersanctum, Sergeant Preston, Lone Ranger, Fibber Magee and Molly, etc. After Jerry Lewis (the Labor Day Telethon always marked the end of Summer vacation) WTWR went to a Top 40 format, but they played two hours of radio shows every Sunday night. My family and I would sit on Sunday nights and listen to old radio shows, just like my dad did when he was a kid. That was a great time!

A couple of years ago, someone turned me onto something called the Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps. It was a tremendous value. I really enjoyed reading all those stories. Frankly, it was really my first exposure to the pulp magazine style fiction. I have hundreds of hours of old radio shows on CD. Although I prefer Jack Benny, I have a LOT of Shadow and Lone Ranger.

Yes, I prefer the Republic serials as well. My favorite serials are the science fiction ones, like Phantom Empire, Undersea Kingdom (my all time favorite!), Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Captain Marvel, etc. I also enjoy ones like Dangers of the Canadian Rockies, Fighting Devil Dogs, Tailspin Tommy, and the like. Most of my pulp games have been of the sci fi ilk, rather than gangsters, Nazis, etc. I did run a Captain America game at Historicon this year that is pictured on my blog (www.bucksurdu.com/blog). I ran a pretty neat Spy Smasher game a few years ago. Perhaps I'm not of the "true faith" with respect to pulp. :)

I hope to see you at Cold Wars or Historicon. Maybe we can swap serial highlights over a beer. :)

By the way, I think Rattrap has done a tremendous job with their supplements and scenarios.

Buck

>>When I was a freshman in high school, a new radio station began service, WTWR. All summer they played radio shows 24/7.<<

WRVR in New York City played radio shows for two hour every weeknight during the mid 1970's. The playlist sounds similar to WTWR's, including The Shadow, Fibber, etc. I was lucky enough to have listened to the tail end of radio dramas in the mid 1950's. When I got out of the Air Force in '69 I started to collect them on reel-to-reel tape. I also got to meet many radio personalities like "Raymond" the host for "The Inner Sanctum Mysteries" and Frankie Thomas who payed "Tom Corbett" on both radio and TV. Like you, i've logged many listening hours while painting minis. :-)

>>I have hundreds of hours of old radio shows on CD. Although I prefer Jack Benny, I have a LOT of Shadow and Lone Ranger.<<

I stopped keeping track of my radio shows at a couple of thousand. The Shadow as a radio show is very nostalgic for me as it's one that I listened to as a kid, but now the shows seem to be very formulaic. A crime is commited that seems to have supernatural origins. Margo and LaMont show up to help. LaMont becomes The Shadow and confronts the criminal. The crime is proved not to be supernatural and is frquently commited by a madman. LaMont becomes The Shadow again and catches the criminal. I stopped listening after about 40 shows. I *much* prefer The Shadow stories from The Shadow pulp magazine. As for the comedies I like Jack Benny too, it's a great show!, but my favorite is Fibber McGee and Molly.

My favorite serials, in no particular order are: Flash Gordon, Tiger Woman, The Adventures of Smilin' Jack, The Masked Marvel, The Crimson Ghost, Spy Smasher, The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Adventures of the Flying Cadets, Secret Service in Darkest Africa, Red Ryder, Drums of Fu Manchu, Mysterious Doctor Satan, Daredevils of the Red Circle, Zorro's Fighting Legion and Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc.

>>A couple of years ago, someone turned me onto something called the Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps. It was a tremendous value. I really enjoyed reading all those stories.<<

You read 'em all??!! You're way ahead of me. LOL. I read a few stories, move on to a different collection of short stories, move on to a novel and then come back to Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps. Right now i'm in the middle of the sequence of stories by Frederick Nebel originally published in Black Mask and later collected as "The Crimes of Richmond City" about police captain McBride and his hard drinking, wise cracking buddy Kennedy of the Free Press. I would have bought BLBBOP for those stories alone!

>>Perhaps I'm not of the "true faith" with respect to pulp. :)<<

LOL. There is no "true faith" man. Ain't no law says you have to like all fiction from the pulp era. Many pulp magazines are pure junk that I wouldn't suggest that anybody read. I found that with some exceptions, like Flash Gordon, I don't care much for serials before the late 1930's and almost none from Columbia. I'm a big fan of "B" movie detectives, but i can see where some might think them cheap and corny. You'll never see me question anybody's taste regarding the pulp era. The only time i'll question a post in the pulp group is when the topic clearly has nothing to do with fiction between the early 20th century and the mid 1950's.

Ed

>> My favorite serials, in no particular order are: Flash Gordon…

Yes, I have all those and enjoy them. I particularly enjoy it when Captain Marvel throws bad guys off the roofs of buildings. :) I was really surprised at the level of violence in Red Ryder. I don't object, but Red Ryder stands out to me as being extra violent for that era. Another favorite of my kids is Jungle Girl. My dad's favorites are Don Winslow of the Navy and Don Winslow of the Coast Guard. You are right that the old serials are not universally good, but most are better than the crap coming out of Hollywood today. Three more that I just love: the Commando Cody serials (King of the Rocket Men, Radar Men from the Moon, and Radar Men from the Moon). I also have an extensive collection of Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto, Thin Man, Hopalong Cassidy, and pulp detective movies (like Dead Reckoning, Maltese Falcon, Murder My Sweet, etc.).

Another gem in my library is a collection of Jungle Jim B movies. These are loosely based on an Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon) comic strip of the same name. The stories are decent, with convincing villains, and usually a good looking heroine. I think the set came with eight or 12 movies.

You are right about the Shadow being formulaic. Radio Spirits, where I get a lot of the radio shows that have been cleaned up and remastered, has been re-publishing some collections of Shadow short stories. I'll have to pick up one of the volumes and give them a read.

I found the stories by Earl Stanley Garnder (of Perry Mason fame) in BLBBP to be quite enjoyable. Some of the stories in the book I've liked, but others have been ho hum. On the gaming tables, I've found it difficult to get the right pulp feel of those crime and gangster stories, so I've opted for games with a feel like Spy Smasher and Commando Cody meet Flash Gordon and Crash Corrigan. This is not a rules issue. Players seem to want to just get to the shoot-em-up. I've tried weaving problem solving and clue collecting into my games, but the players (both in my club and at conventions) often decide that if they kill all the other players and take their clues, they can solve the puzzle at their leisure. :) I ran a very successful game a few times based on the movie Them! The players each had a jeep and a four figures and drove into the LA sewers to try to locate the two lost boys and kill the ant queen.

… And I do like ERB and H Ryder Haggard, but you excluded them from the conversation. :)

Where do you live and game. We've got to get into a game together!

>>Another favorite of my kids is Jungle Girl.<<

I wanted to like that one a lot more than i did. With all of the movies using Black men, like the Tarzan films, you would think that they'd use them in Jungle Girl, but instead they used White men in "black face" and wigs! They looked silly and that spoiled an otherwise very good serial for me.

>>Another gem in my library is a collection of Jungle Jim B movies. These are loosely based on an Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon) comic strip of the same name. The stories are decent, with convincing villains, and usually a good looking heroine. I think the set came with eight or 12 movies.<<

Right. Jungle Jim was the "topper" for the Flash Gordon sunday page. They were always combined on one page. I enjoyed the movies that I saw, although at least one, "Jungle Moon Men", was just plain bizarre!

>>You are right about the Shadow being formulaic. Radio Spirits, where I get a lot of the radio shows that have been cleaned up and remastered, has been re-publishing some collections of Shadow short stories. I'll have to pick up one of the volumes and give them a read.<<

I'm not sure what you're referring to. The pulp stories were full length novels. One per issue of The Shadow magazine" as shown here:

link

The books at Radio Spirits are being published by Nostalgia Ventures. They are two full length novels per re-print book. You might want to buy them via Amazon as they might be cheaper and i've seen some pretty good sales on them at the now defunct Bookmasters. The other benefit of looking at them via Amazon is that there are reviews and you can get a pretty good idea of the plots of the different novels so you can be more selective. His operatives were featured as much The Shadow in the earliest issues.

>>On the gaming tables, I've found it difficult to get the right pulp feel of those crime and gangster stories<<

I can see where they would be. The best hard boiled detective novels featured one or two detectives and a couple of villains, and not necessarilly in a shoot-out situation. One of the best pulp magazine characters for large scale action is Operator #5 as he's constantly fighting some organization or villain that's bent on conquering the USA. I developed a scenario that Chip from the Jacksonville Garrion in Florida ran at either Hurricon or Recon, I forgot which. It was from the "Purple Invasion" sequence of stories that ran for over a year in the "Operator #5" pulp magazine during the 1930's. It involved Op 5 and a group of resistance fighters attempting to rescue his sister from being beheaded by a "Purple Army" commander in the middle of Union Square Park in Manhattan! Chip did a great job of recreating the park on a gaming table and then altered the scenario a bit. Instead of resistance fighters against the "Purple" guards we used famous Pulp Era characters. Blackhawk, Spy Smasher, Doc Savage and a corp of Bob Murch's Rocket men were all there! There were about 10 or 12 players and it was truly a lot of fun!

>>Where do you live and game. We've got to get into a game together!<<

I'm originally from Manhattan New York, but I currently reside in New Jersey.

I hope to see you in one of my games at Cold Wars!

Also, depending on where you live in Jersey, you may be close enough to come to our Barrage convention in September in Harford Country, MD.

>>Also, depending on where you live in Jersey, you may be close enough to come to our Barrage convention in September in Harford Country, MD.<<

Thanks. That might be an option. :-)

Count me in as a 0.45 fan here. Had a chance to play it with the new rules last summer. Just wish I had more of a chance to game.

Well lets just say that the Mr. Moto radio shows are… junk?

Sooooo…

Is 2nd ed worth getting if you have 1st ed?

>>Well lets just say that the Mr. Moto radio shows are… junk?<<

Believe it or not, i've never listened to one. In fact, until you just mentioned the show I didn't even know that it existed! It looks like only 23 episodes were aired in 1951. That's a pretty short run and most likely a summer replacement.

PM Shadow…