Pulp Adventure Hacks

  • 2 Replies
  • 3361 Views
Pulp Adventure Hacks
« on: April 10, 2017, 02:45:53 PM »
I'm considering a stab at my own PbtA hack, themed around 1930s pulp magazines and comics. I want to go relatively broad with it. Depending on the chosen playbooks, an adventure could include Indiana Jones-style archaeology, Flash Gordon space antics, plucky corruption-exposing journalism, and so on.

I'm aware of City of Myst, and I'm sure this hack wouldn't have much overlap with that game (though I do want a "masked vigilante" playbook). Are there other PbtA hacks that tackle 1930s pulp well? I don't want to step on any toes if this setting has been done justice already. 

Re: Pulp Adventure Hacks
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2017, 04:32:03 PM »
Fate Spirit of the Century is not pbta at all, but would be an obvious place to start. I wish I'd read it before I ran my own pulp risus game.

---

The closest I came to converting that risus game to AW can be found on the "Her Majesty's Secret Service" tab here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I9pjr5S5nFOalZIM3NhF8ScamCuotSAr92TN27pYkxg/edit?usp=sharing

Premise was the extended royal family, being highly trained and with access* to the magical artifacts of the empire, find their unique abilities in deamand as war threatens in Europe and decadance dances through the upper crust.

Five stats: 
magic
military
establishment
socialite
seedy

Playbook ideas were generated from combinations of stats, but that was as far as I took it. I'd love to see your work :)
(*instead of wharehousing them like the americans)


Re: Pulp Adventure Hacks
« Reply #2 on: April 28, 2017, 10:24:50 AM »
Yeah, SotC hits on many of the character archetypes I'd like to include, but doesn't have quite as strong a hand with the setting. I'm specifically imagining an alt-history 1930s which, by default, is open to mad science/archaeology/masked vigliantism/etc.

For the limited world-building I'm particularly inspired by Monkeyfun Studios' "Spirit of '77." (http://www.monkeyfunstudios.com/what-is-spirit-of-77/). In describing their fictional 1977 they do an excellent job getting the feel of the era down, without wedding themselves to every historical detail. I'd like to do a similar thing for the '30s with my hack.

For example: in Spirit of '77 Nixon has managed to dodge impeachment, the U.S. still has a military base in Saigon, and a sport called "Rollerball" "Derbyball" is just as beloved as baseball or football. But, gas is still crazy expensive (for the time).

In my '30s hack, the world would have Tesla-esque scientists and explorers discovering entire civilizations beneath the planet's crust... all while the Great Depression is still in full swing.
« Last Edit: April 28, 2017, 11:32:08 AM by KidDublin »