"Good rules for Victorian or Pulp RPG" Topic

I am restarting game nights for the History Club and Zombie Survivalists' Club at the campus at which I teach. Does anyone know of a good set of rules for a RPG set in the Victorian Period (late 19th century) or the early 20th century (1900 -1930). I am not interested in a science fiction setting, but I would like one that combines rules covering modern weapons (revolvers, rifles, etc.) with elements of the supernatural. Also, I hate PDF rules. I would like a set of rules that actually come in book form. If possible, could you also give me a brief review of these rules based on your experiences.

Thank you,
Kevin

Savage Worlds has pulpy things for it, but out of the box, its super flexible.

It uses all the polyhedral dice (with your dice type determining your skill), it has a good balance between heroes being larger than life and regular guys being quite squishy, its mini's friendly if thats a priority, character creation was rather quick and I found the combat to be more tactical than D&D but not as involved as GURPS.

It's also pretty easy to teach, I found.

Well recommended and the "explorers edition" book is dirt cheap.

Take a look a "Pulp Alley":

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Search through the "Pulp Gaming" Message Board for AARs. They will give you some idea of how the game plays.

There is also the 2nd Edition of ".45 Adventure" available from Brigade Games:

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shame lots of stuff on Drive through RPG

adamant stuff is very good

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Great source boooks what ever system

Just saaw this

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looks good d 20

Larger Than Life Director's Cut. Here's some info. It focuses Story building where the adventures tie in together.

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Also some bat reps.

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Also well supported, been in the business since 1998 and not going anywhere. Here's more info.

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Big plus is you can play it on a small table as you move from scene to scene.

I would plug Savage Worlds for any pulp game. Made for it actually.

Thanks for your help.

Kevin

call of cthulhu

I am happy to plug my Game Stars of Empire.

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If you support the KS you get AT LEAST SIX download PDFs for 40.00. We hope to hist some stretch goals. Thos six books will be two core rule books, one for Referees, one for players, Two vehicle source books, Aircraft and Land Machines, the Miniatures rules (Based on The Sword and the Flame) and the Venus sourcebook. This is over 1200 pages of material! We are also looking at three stretch goals that will present even more source material, a book of adventures, a book on Victorian/Pulp space travel and a travel guide style sourcebook on the International City on Venus. All these are full color. If we fund the first stretch goal by the 31st of July we will throw in Three FREE adventures!

As mentioned already, Call of Cthulhu or Cthulu by Gaslight. There's also Pulp Hero and my personal favorite pulp game, Spirit of the Century, which uses the versatile FATE system. Best part about FATE – it's less about the GM and more about collective storytelling of the whole group. The others are very good, but SotC and its FATE brethren are superb roleplaying games.

I'm a fan of GURPS. (I assume you're asking about rpg's and not miniatures games.) GURPS 4th edition is a system that can be used with any setting.Their Cliffhangers supplement is perfect for Pulp gaming.

Played a variety of .45 Adventures in campaign mode set in 1920s with Egyptian mummy and pulp overtones. Simple rules to pick up with enough of a fudge factor for special events. Good set of rules for a player to run one character, a sidekick, and a couple fodder followers.

Savage world's is great game for cinematic style action
But I'd recommend battles played out miniature's flats or something to get the most out of the system.

If you are looking for deep emersion style role playing I'd recommend CHILL 2nd end only problem is its no longer in print! So eBay?.
I have to say it produced some of the best RPG experience's in my experience.
It's horror and does it very well but needs more work from the GM.
Chill works on a d100 or 2d10
To be more accurate (00 to 99). Their are 4 levels of success low,medium,high&critical so for information/research type tests need 4 results so a medium result you reavel the
Low and medium results.
The character creation process point based and is fun but be shore to have your players have backup characters cos compared to other systems chill characters are darn right fragile ie normal people.
Another great aspect to the game can have starting characters and seasoned characters can be in the same party without the noobs feeling like 5 wheelers.
As with all RPGs their are expansion's but they are not nessairy,unless you want to do a voodoo campaign.
That particular expansion is of the chart good and a must have resource with a distinction between cinematic and folklore style play.

Leagues of Adventure is Triple Ace Game's Victorian SF RPG. There is a Gothic Horror supplement, and you can easily discard any science fiction elements and just run weird adventure, or straight pulp (Tarzan would fit just fine).

Some products are available using Savage Worlds, I think.. Ubiquity and Savage Worlds have similar dice pool mechanics.

drivethrurpg.com/product/103275/Leagues-of-Adventure--Core-Rules?src=hottest_filtered&filters=44291_0_0_0_0

Everything is available on DriveThru RPG.

Wiley Games has a supplement to their Lead Adventure rules called Tales of Horror you might wish to look at. Both sets of rules can be purchased from Wiley Games along with markers for statuses. As players and GM you should be able to do a "story" to fit the scenarios you create. It has all the nuts and bolts needed. The rules are pretty easy for players to learn and covers besides the weapons and era rules for Vampires, werewolves and necromancers. There are several videos on YouTube and some beautiful miniatures available from Highgate Miniatures. Each player controls about 5 single miniatures activated by a playing system. cards. There is a topic site on the Lead Adventure Forum about Victorian Gothic Gaming including this system.