Pulp fiction game

Between the scientific romances of the Edwardian era and the Golden Age of Science Fiction and Superhero comics, there was the "pulp adventure genre," a style of popular fiction that inspired more modern works like Indiana Jones and The Rocketeer.

Gamers interested in retro-games of early 20th Century heroics and villainy should check out these tabletop RPGs, each featuring rules and settings designed to let players tell their own two-fisted tales of thrilling adventure — car chases, fist fights, and cliffhangers included.

As far as genres go, "Pulp Adventure" encompasses a wide variety of adventure stories from the s, s, and s, and their heroic protagonists wildly different form each other in many respects. Some pulp heroes are prototypes of the modern superhero, such as the scientist-adventurer "Doc" Savage , the masked Green Hornet, or The Shadow " Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of man? The pulp adventure genre also included heroes that are archaeologists, explorers of lost worlds, intrepid reporters, detectives, barnstorming aviators like Captain Midnight , and super spies — united in archetype by their thrill-seeking tendencies, their belief in science, justice, and progress, and their tendency to run afoul of dastardly villains.

First, their mechanics need to capture the the aesthetic, themes, and exuberance of thrilling adventure fiction from the early 20th century, full of enthusiasm for topics like ancient civilizations, aviation, athletic stunts, and scientific crime-busting. Second, they need to consciously address and reject harmful prejudices and colonialist attitudes baked into a lot of fiction from the early 20th century no mighty white-guy heroes foiling the plans of racially stereotyped villains, for instance , making sure contemporary players of all races, genders, sexualities and identities have fair, forthright representation in the game's setting.

The key feature of the FATE system is its use of "Aspects," narrative details describing the qualities of players characters, people, and places. It was a boxed set with a rule book and campaign book with several adventures. The game had a trio of authors, one being Aaron Allston , creator of Doc Sidhe. Thankfully I have both. Sadly, Hero Games never reprinted this game.

But later came out with Pulp Hero in as part of their fifth edition system but never updated it for their current 6th edition. Even in Pulp Hero which is over pages long there is a lot of information and resources listed on the pulps that may be of interest to pulp fans. I was even surprised that they included other pulp games.

First edition came out in and a second one in I have the first edition when it came out. In it was a two-page bibliography of suggested reading that I marked up in pencil with notes.

They were off on some reprints. I will review it at some point. No idea why. So did they do a pulp-related RPG? Kind of. But because of what came out of that I am going to devote a future posting to Agent This includes a sample adventure, then a one-page explanation of pulp heroes by Bryce Knorr.

Someone pointed me to a PDF scan of this on the internet. While not specifically a pulp RPG, it can be used for pulp inspired games PIs, soldier of fortunes, lost worlds, etc , and even has a few solo games people can run. Jackson have been tasked by their gangster boss Marsellus Wallace to retrieve a briefcase.

Marsellus is a powerful gangster with lots of money and connections. He bribes Butch Coolidge Bruce Willis to throw his next boxing match. Vincent purchased heroin earlier in the film, and Mia mistakes it for cocaine, snorts it, and overdoses. She is saved, and the two agree to not tell anyone, especially Marsellus, about the event. Butch decides that he will take the money he was offered in the bribe, bet on himself, win the match, and make even more money. Not only does he double-cross Marsellus, but he accidentally kills his opponent.

Butch knows he's in danger and gets ready to flee the city with his girlfriend. But she has forgotten to pack a gold watch a very important family heirloom and Butch must go back to his apartment to retrieve it, even though he knows hitmen will be looking for him. And that's when he runs into hitman Vincent Vega, whom Butch shoots and kills after he emerges from the bathroom. Marsellus is clearly a very scary guy that everyone wants to avoid upsetting even if the mistake was clearly an accident.

This alludes to his possibly evil and satanic nature. Throughout the film, several of the characters are seen looking upon the contents of the briefcase and saying things like how it's beautiful and perfect.

But there is an obvious detail about Marsellus's appearance that some believe show he may have had his soul removed from his body. There is a very large bandage on the back of his neck, which could have been the area the soul was removed from.