Pulp AAR: The Escape!

The second and final game of last weekend, the Professor and co try to evade the Constabulary, who pursue in their battered old truck.

We played a 'rolling road' game, where the terrain moved back 12" each turn and was randomly regenerated. Tweaking Pulp Alley, the 'plot points' represented our heroes' escape, collecting 3 would be enough to escape completely. The points were randomly distributed on the square foot of road each turn along with a random hazard which was a peril (people, donkey carts, (!?), rocks). The road could also veer, determined by the person with initiative.

The vans were represented with the stats and skills of 'sidekick' characters and could take five hit points before they were damaged beyond use. Each van could move 3" in a combination of forwards or sideways (so could move up the board or sacrifice speed for manoeuvrability. There was also a 'floor it' 6" move with no shooting or plot points allowed. All shooting and collecting plot points/challenges was done as per the rules.

Turn one, the constabulary start as they mean to go on with a cheeky shunt...

Crunch!

Whoa! Out of nowhere a local cart appears and their pursuers shunt them again, forcing our heroes to swerve sharply and career around it. A close one, that.

Screech!!!

With two plot points collected, our heroes fail to collect the third that could be vital their escape, while their vehicle is starting to get battered.

With a cough, a splurt and a bang! our heroes' van gives out and skids to a halt. Detective Adolfo rushes out to take our heroes into custody. Time for the Prof to pay a hefty fine and perhaps pull some strings to get out of this one! India will have to wait.

Cripes

Conclusions

Some fairly simple modifications made a workable game with a different challenge - something of a race against time to collect the plot points before the vehicle gave out! The 12" rolling road took some getting used to, with hazards fast approaching. Pulp Alley took the modifications well to make the game work while retaining all of the key systems.

Next time, I'd be tempted to drop the vehicles to weaker 'allies' rather than sidekicks as they were offensively powerful. Well, the Constabulary were, as evidenced by the result. That and/or giving the vehicles 10 hit points to spin the game out longer. But it was a fun diversion for an hour!

Pulp Alley AAR: On the Trail of the Professor (part 2)

The adventure continues from part 1:

Michaels, still wounded from his exchange with Detective Adolfo, gets into a firefight with Captain Usman of the Constabulary. He pauses to pop open the battered briefcase: Lo and behold - the Professor's papers! He wouldn't go far without them and surely must be close by.



Over in the busy market, Pilot Renshaw dashes over to Abdul the rug merchant, gesticulating wildly. Could he know where the professor is? But without a word of Arabic, he just can't make himself understood. Victoria, holding her own against the Constabulary's finest, knocks Constable Atso down with a single blow.

Victoria nimbly melts away into the crowd, but Atso shrugs off the blow and staggers to his feet - he isn't knocked out that easily!

But before our dashing heroine can speak to the gate guard, Usman throws open the gates and barges her out of the way. The gate guard is flabbergasted by the sudden appearance of the Captain of the Constabulary. Waving his pistol angrily, Usman demands to know where the Professor is. Before Victoria can intervene, the guard tells Usman he thought he saw him just an hour ago - the trail is still warm.

Renshaw, having none of the luck today, is charged by an angry Atso who pummels him to the ground. The Constabulary seize the initiative and have a chance to quiz canny old Abdul.

With Usman having disappeared, Michaels, tries to circle around Adolfo while his back is turned, clutching the briefcase closely...

...before noticing rustling in a copse at the edge of town. Heading over to investigate, he finds a local porter, bleeding heavily.

Continuing the search, Usman manhandles the gate guard away. Seeing the opportunity to find her father slip away, Victoria takes aim at the Captain, but can't draw a bead through the shocked crowds. Pausing to recover her breath, she sets off in pursuit. Meanwhile, our adventurers boat captain, Jenkins, charges Adolfo, who is still in a commanding position on the rooftop. But hardened Adolfo dives out of the way, leaving Jenkins sprawling.

Time is running out and the Professor is still nowhere to be seen. In a last ditch attempt to get solid information, Victoria abandons her pursuit of Usman and doubles back, heading for slow-witted Atso and the baffled trader Abdul. Taking aim, she fires on Atso, who scrambles for cover.

Converging on Abdul, Edo harangues him, threatnening and waving his nightstick, but Victoria pushes him aside and smiles sweetly. Taking Abdul by the arm, she regales him with her tale in fluent Arabic. 

Always happy to ignore the Constabulary and honoured to help a lady in distress, Abdul smirks and turns, arm outstretched, to reveal the Professor, lurking away from curious eyes. Success!

Our heroes find Professor Hemmingway, but the Constabulary are hot on their heels.

Next up: Can our heroes, now (almost) all reunited, escape the clutches of the Constabulary?

Closing thoughts

Another mighty fun game of Pulp Alley. The streamlined core system is great fun and the dual use cards for both random events, perils, encounters and to drive the plot really work well. Best of all, it doesn't need an umpire, it gives you the toolkit to throw together a scenario quickly and easily.  As a fun, light game full of twists and turns in 90 minutes and which gives plenty of fodder to make a ripping yarn, I'd highly recommend it.

Pulp Alley AAR: On the Trail of the Professor (part 1)

Setting the scene

We rejoin our daring adventurers after a disastrous chain of events: en route to India, their airplane crashed in the Egyptian desert, two days from civilisation. Beset by less than friendly local tribesmen. Sq Ldr Michaels and his old RAF buddy, pilot Renshaw swallowed by a sandstorm. Singh captured and Professor Hemmingway escaping by a whisker on a donkey.

Renshaw surveys the bustling marketplace

We rejoin Michaels and Renshaw, who weathered the storm and salvaged enough supplies from the crashed plane to make it to the nearest town. A minor and utterly unmemorable port on the banks of the Red Sea. Here they happen upon no other than Victoria Hemmingway, travelling a more leisurely route to the East on Captain Jenkins's steamer. What a place to stop off for fuel and supplies!


Someone must have seen him!

In town, they start asking after the Prof. You know, pale well dressed gentleman, glasses, about so tall? You can't miss a man like him in a town like this. On top of that, it just so happens that the regional chief of constabulary, Usman, has been trying to collar the professor for some years over a trifling issue over a few antiquities that may have been taken from Egypt without the proper signature on the official paperwork. The constabulary are also combing the town for our beloved Prof.


Two locals languidly making repairs

The Scenario

Gharak and I used a manhunt scenario from the forthcoming Pulp Alley Perilous Island expansion. Our daredevil adventurers must find the Professor before the Constabulary and high-tail it out of town!

The (invented, rather than rolled) plot points were:
-A recognisable briefcase
-The dying porter
-An officious gate guard
-Abdul, peddler of rumours and rugs
-A stolen donkey

After successfully completeing a plot point, each league can place a card representing the Professor into the deck, giving a chance to find him from the next plot point.
Opening Gambits

With both leagues scattered across town in the search, things literally start with bang for Michaels as Usman's sidekick, Detective Adolfo opens up on him from a nearby rooftop. Lightly wounded, he dives for cover and trades shots back to no effect.

Meanwhile, Victoria starts to search the market area, before two more of the constabulary pot her and head off to intercept. Eager to capture the foreigners at the behest of Usman, the Constabulary break out into fire even in the busy marketplace, with little regard for the citizens going about their business. After wounding Detective Chigaru with counter-fire, Victoria approaches to finish him off, before hearing the dreaded 'click' of the hammer on an empty chamber. Curses!

In a quieter part of town, Constable Ebo bumbles through the dockside, happening on an untethered and very dusty-looking donkey. Very suspicious! Reports suggested the Professor ridden into town on just such a beast. As he reaches out to search the load, the ill-tempered mule kicks out, sending Ebo flying. Picking himself up, Ebo manages to grab the load and rifle through, finding an old leather glasses case marked "B. Hemmingway". Meanwhile, in the background Michaels has made retreated to higher ground, coming across a very battered and very familiar briefcase...

The hapless Ebo and the ill-tempered mule

With neither side claiming a clear advantage, there are countless more thrills to be had in part two...

End note: do you like the vintage-effect photos? I've been playing with the options and it seems fitting for pulpy AARs but I've tried to tone it down to show off the minis and terrain too!

Pulp Alley: a dusty alleyway, somewhere in the world

A sneak peek of the professor's latest adventure...

Pulp Alley AAR: Butch Sullivan and the Lost Idol

The second of our Pulp Alley trial games from last month, once again dual posted with Gharak's blog. Once again, words by Gharak, photos by me.

First, a belated group shot of the our fine French adventurers.

From left to right:
-Gustav, Andriy's dog. Diminutive, but known to bite.
-Veronique Dujardin, rising star of the Societe
-Andriy Shukhevych, Ukranian Exile and sidekick to Captain LeFranc
-Expedition Leader, Captain Jermone LeFranc, once of the Foreign Legion,
-Old Gerard Pelissier, once the LeFranc family gardener, now accompanying his master on more dangerous travels.
-Joseph Arnaud, hunter from the forests of Morvan
-Lastly, occasional member of the group Marie

Butch Sullivan and the Lost Idol

Our fortune hunters find themselves in French Indo-china, Butch and his party have been hired by a local elder to recover a ceremonial statue from deep in the jungle. After many days hacking through the bush, Butch and co are nearing the resting place for the revered idol. Two local guides with Butch have followed a trail of old clues to this point, they however have reported of another group of foreigners in the area who appear to be looking for the same statue.

Captain Jerome LeFranc has been summoned by the local regional Governor to ensure that the dastardly Americans do not remove the idol from the country.

Our heroes must follow a train of clues to discover the statue, tracks in the ground, the stolen baggage and there is rumour missing hostages, whose knowledge could be invaluable.

Butch and his crew make the first move, splitting their group Butch heads off with Indiana, whilst Lauren and Kazim follow the two local scouts.

Meanwhile the French group move up, heading towards the missing hostage.

Andriy struggles through the thick jungle leading the pack but the effort seems too much and he becomes tangled in vines, injuring himself as he pushes through the think and perilous jungle. 

But his struggle was not in vain as he stumbles into one of the hostages, who appears to have knowledge of some papers which were stolen in the raid against the baggage train, the chest of documents included several cryptic papers on the legends of the area.

Dashing forwards, Jerome investigates the lost baggage train, whose mules are not impressed with the disturbance and lash out. The French captain dodges the flailing hooves as he moves to calm the beasts. Stashed in the equipment is a journal detailing an ivory skull carved with texts describing the now abandoned temple where the Statue was housed. Perhaps it may also detail its fate.

Before he can read further, Kazim rushes Jerome, knives drawn. He almost takes a tumble but manages to regain his footing before going toe to toe with the ex-Foreign Legionnaire.

Not so far away the Andriy's less than fearless hound scampers away, daunted by the size and power of Indiana.

In the centre of the old temple complex one of the local guides let's loose a hail of arrows and wounds old Gerard.

Lauren moves up to a vantage point to help out but once again appears to be out of ammo.

Click, click (its becoming a theme for sharpshooter Lauren Stone...)

Gustav charges towards the local to avenge his fallen comrade, whilst in the background Jerome and Kazim continue to trade blows.

Gustav might hve more luck with the puny archer

Andriy investigates the loosely concealed chest, triggering a trap. His reflexes fail him and darts shoot out, lacerating his hands and face. Unperturbed, he opens the chest and draws out the Ivory Skull, reading the ancient inscription. Andriy has discovered the whereabouts of the missing statue and realises he needs to retrace his steps to locate it.

Fancy that, a clue hidden at skull mountain (it is Pulp, after all!)

The race is on to get to the giant statue first, but the Captain sprints ahead of Butch and Lauren to secure the prize and Butch's crew slink off. The Governor will be pleased and Jerome hopes the reward will cover the trouble.

Endgame as our heroes converge on the ever so well hidden statue

All in all, another fun game of Pulp Alley, the cards drive the scenario and to an extent, the characters (Lauren's ever-empty pistols). The scenario didn't quite work as I was able to fiddle the trail by putting the final clue behind my characters, hugely increasing my chance of getting it. Using the recommended 3' by 3' board rather than 2' by 4' would help avoid that and it didn't really detract from the fun.

Pulp Alley AAR: The Tomb of Ahmet Ra

Last month, Gharak and I managed a few test games of the recently released Pulp ruleset 'Pulp Alley'. We both threw together leagues and raided Gharak's extensive terrain collection, with limited prep time. Rather than using the Professor and his chums (who are still mid-story, last played using .45 Adventure), I used my second league: the 'Societe Archaelogique'. Led by Jerome Lefranc, who previously served with the French Foreign Legion and is now an expedition leader for the Societe, with his Hungarian sidekick Andriy Shukhevych. They were joined by the beautiful, young and enthusiastic Veronique Dujardin and mooks Gerard and Joseph. Rounding out the group is Gustav, Andriy's diminutive but unexpectedly ferocious dog.

They were opposed by Butch Sullivan's League of Adventurers, featuring the brave, talented and ever ready Butch Sullivan, his partner in crime Lauren Stone and regular adventuring buddies, Kazim of the Umbaku tribe, Marcus, Akhmed the eagle-eyed and Indiana the dog.
Our first game took our two groups of adventurers to Egypt, to locate the lost treasure of Ahmet Ra. Butch Sullivan's League of Adventurers have had a tip off from an anonymous caller as to the whereabouts of an undiscovered and unplundered tomb entrance. 

The major plot point for this scenario was the Colossal Tomb of Ahmet Ra, and the minor plot points were; Ceremonial Hieroglyphs, Disassembled Survey Equipment, The Jeweled Orb and Smuggled Explosives.
Writeup by Gharak (lightly edited by me, also available on his blog), photos by me.
Andriy and Joseph move up towards one of the the Orb, Akhmed lives up to his name and takes a shot at Joseph, wounding the Frenchman. Looks like he may be down for a while.

Moving up through a perilous area of old crumbling pillars, Lauren deftly dodges out of the way of some falling masonry and makes it through safely.



Andriy reaches out to grab there sacred Orb, a snake slithers out from among the trinkets and rears up to strike. In a show of reactions and strength, Andriy strangles the beast with his bare hands. Collecting the orb he stashes it safely and takes cover behind the plinth.



Butch make his move forward and stumbles on something buried beneath the sands, kicking the dirt aside he uncovered a discarded crate, the markings on the sides suggesting that the contents are explosive. Likely to come in useful, with a swift boot Butch smashes through the lid and retrieves several sticks of dynamite. Meanwhile, Lefranc aims round the crates he was taking cover behind and downs Kazim with a single shot as he makes his way around the sphinx.



Veronique makes her way over to the crates and reassembles the surveying equipment and she soon moves away back to cover.



Gustav makes a brave attack on Indiana but the larger dog clearly has the advantage and comes off better.



Lauren edges along the side of the Sphinx and taking aim she squeezes off a shot against Veronique, with an heart-sinking click Lauren realises that her pistols are out of ammo and the chance is wasted. Nearby an enraged Indiana rushes Gerard and the two engage in a deadly melee.


ReEloading, Lauren moves up to provide cover but Andriy quickly closes the gap and charges,  but the nimble adventuress deftly breaks away from his attack.



Butch seizes his chance and makes a dash for the tomb entrance, lighting the dynamite he steps out of the way and a mighty explosion destroys the seal and grants entry to the treasure inside.

Butch and his team recover the lost treasure of Ibis from the tomb of Ahmet Ra.

Closing Thoughts

I really enjoyed Pulp Alley. It is quite a simple ruleset, using the dice type and number of dice rolled to pass a test to differentiate between different characters. The standard role is to get multiple successes of a 4+ and the dice range from D6 to D10. Combat is done via 'dice-matching', giving one player the advantage of choosnig how to match them up. It has an asymetric turn order, with the initiative sitting with one player, who can choose which player activates a model next. Initiative is passed when wounds are incured or plot points succeeded, which reminded me a bit of a reverse 'turnover' in Blood Bowl, on success rather than failure.

Also, each player has a hand of cards (like 'Stay Down' in the first picture) which serve as both random events and extra challenges that you can play as 'perils' at certain points. Leaders and sidekicks are notably better than lower-grade characters, so you need to concentrate attacks on leaders to wear down their defences and do damage.

It is a better ruleset for two players than .45 Adventure and no need for an umpire. This meant both Gharak and I can run competing Leagues, saving Gharak from his usual role of 'playing the scenario'. The scenario generation is quite nifty, created by a series of rolls on tables to generate the 'plot points'. That serves as an outline from which Gharak and I work out the whys and wherefores. Some of the tables are a bit odd (covering more science and weird than the Indy Jones-type adventuring we do), but we were happy to re-roll a couple of results to get something more suitbale and could easily re-jig the tables themselves to suit our purposes.

Also worth mentioning the great presentation of the ruleset, it has an really neat 'Pulpy' style and is chock full of inspiring sketches. All in all, a really fun ruleset and most recommended. Its ease of play and focus on fun and great scenario generation means it will become our Pulp ruleset of choice.   

Pulp Adventures AAR: Where in the World.. Part Two!

Ive not had chance to post the second Pulp game my brother and I played back in April. I hope you've been looking forward to how it ends.

As we left it, Professor Hemmingway and stalwart companion Mr Singh have survived their crashed plane, collected what equipment they could and escaped both unhappy locals and a vicious sandstorm. Unfortunately, their third companion and pilot had to be left behind!

As it turns out, what appeared to be an uninteresting crevice opens out into a hidden cave system. Ever curious, our heroes head out to explore, after pausing to lick their wounds and take some tea of course. Here they are at the top, while shadowy figures patrol a large cavern below.

As they work their way down the rocky paths, they discover some small, hardy-looking ponies (yes, ponies. Though they might look like dogs, they are ponies, honest). These might come in useful. Our heroes take no chances and open fire on the locals. But the numbers of enemies could well take their toll.

Locals close in, as the camerawork takes turns all vintage.

As our heroes fight off the angry locals, bad luck heaps upon bad luck, with a very peeved-looking tribal heavy emerging from his tent (perhaps the shooting woke him up), backed up by two bodyguards. Singh takes aim and fires, emptying his pistol. The heavy hesitates, buying our heroes a few seconds, but then recovers from a full panic. Damnation! The Professor makes a dash for the ponies, hoping Singh is close behind.

Urging his mighty(?) steed on, the Prof flees towards the entrance. Meanwhile, Singh falls under the weight of the tribal horde. This appears to be a theme for Singh. These most recent travels have not started well.

A few lessons from this game. The heroes were well underpowered, coming into the second scenario two men down. Also, the Prof isn't much of a combat character, being about as much use as a chocolate teapot when the firing starts in earnest. I the we'll have to tweak the satlines and write in some more mid-level combat characters. We're finding that Level 3 combat heroes are too powerful, but Level 2 non-combat characters are a bit weak (we use the .45 Adventure second edition rules, including character design).

It should also be noted that we had a poor draw of encounter cards, with what I'm told was all three antagonist cards coming out in the first four draws. Though we use a pre-set encounter deck, perhaps we need to tweak things on the fly if this happens again. And the final lesson - My brother needs to mention that he's written horses into the encounters - I've had to dig some spares out to add to the painting pile.

I mentioned an ending, but unfortunately, that's as far as we've got. Things are looking decidedly bad for our heroes at the moment, an escape will have to be planned before the next instalment in June sometime. If we survive this we might one day make it to India!

Pulp Adventures AAR: Where in the World are we?!

A big gaming weekend for me, not only did we have Salute, later that evening my brother and I managed two short Pulp games, a continuation of our recent adventure.

We left our adventurers having failed to identify their current nemesis and return the missing artefacts. So, our old friend the Director of Antiquities had a new errand for the party - which happened to be in rural India, jewel in the Empire's crown! The Professor readily agreed, having spent some of his earlier years of military service there he was keen to investigate this most mysterious of countries further.

After pausing in Egypt to refuel, the plan had engine difficulties from the scorching heat over Arabia, leading to a less than comfortable landing. Lost, battered and carrying limited supplies, to make matters worse a vicious sandstorm looked to be closing in!

Our adventurers regain their senses around their wrecked plane.

After much searching, the Professor finds our heroes' weapons, as some unfriendly-looking locals close in...

Sdn Ldr Michaels spots something sticking out of the sands and rushes to investigate. Felling one local with his gun, he hauls what turns out to be their badly wounded pilot towards safety. But the sandstorm is now closing in fast - will they make it in time?

As winds rage and the vicious sandstorm swirls, the Professor and Mr Singh desperately flee for the cover of what looks to be a cave. Michaels and the wounded pilot are too far behind to make it - lets hope they were able to find some shelter and fend for themselves...

This first game was great, short and snappy, with a few objectives and a little impending doom before our heroes' narrow (and partial!) escape. The green gems were our encounters, containing kit that had survived the crash and other events. The sandstorm moved to cover an extra D10 + turn number of square inches each turn. We were wrapped in under an hour.

I should close with a huge thanks to my brother for the terrain - impressive work to scratch-build this in six weeks while doing father duties for his 3-month old! The 2' x 2' mat is a new purchase from Zuzzy in the US, and lovely it painted up too.

Part two to come soon!