Polyhedron also had a d20m setting for playing pulp heroes.

Quote from: Trond;1123384Author, or just enthusiast? Feel free to tell about the system.

Editor and Publisher.

The system relies on D10 - D10 roll against a fixed difficulty OR ability check against a random difficulty. Various ability scales can customize your adventures for anywhere from Gritty Noir to Action-Packed Pulp to Golden Age Supers. Both basic and advanced combat keep the action fast-moving with the amount of detail needed at the time. A number of templates make creating characters and villains a snap.

Quote from: Omega;1123411Dragon magazine had a great one involving the Liberty Legion battling an Axis plot. Even sprited them for the MSH-UA project.

Also while not a TTRPG. The PC game Freedom Force has a nice street level feel to it. Though it escalates as the adventure progresses. The sequel is set during WWII I believe.

Yeah I remember that! It was very cool because of the street-level conceit at the jump. Could probably fold a lot of those elements into 'Shadow of Evil'

Quote from: Omega;1123335There was a thrad on this a month or two ago.

Some personal favourites.

Marvel Superheroes: TSR: This is a surprisingly versatile system and can easily handle pulp era heroics.

Call of Cthulhu: This can do pulp action surprisingly well. Cthulhu LIVE has a supplement called Shades of Grey specifically to run pulp heroes with the CoC system modiefied for LARPing.

Adventure!: The pulp era version of Aberrant. Does a pretty good job via the modified WOD system.

Mercanaries, Spies & Private Eyes: from flying Buffalo. Though more modern themed. It can handle pulp era to a degree.

Justice Inc. : Hero games system for heroics in the 20s-30s.

Indiana Jones RPG: TSR version: Despite looking a bit... off... it plays fairly well. But does not have anything for running the more fantastical heroes.

And many more!

I had almost forgotten that I have Justice Inc box somewhere. I wasn't too keen on it on first read through though, some parts of the Hero system just didn't gel with me. I'll take another look. I have to say I love the box art though (also used later by Savage Worlds Thrilling Tales)

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If you are wanting a more RKO Serial level near mundane pulp hero gameplay then Cthulhu LIVE's Shades of Gray is geared for exactly that. And gives some great examples of pulp heroes like The Spider, The Avenger and G-8 and his Battle Aces. That last one featuring several foes that would fit right in with a standard CoC investigation.

Always liked Justice Inc. Quite a fan of Dicey Tales too - since it uses BoL as it's baseline.

And came across another one whole looking up a CoC western book.

Pulp Cthulhu. Still undecided on picking this up yet as according to a friend they just had to drag out how racist and sexist pulps were back then because of course. But past that from the description they gave it sounds like it allows for crating a pretty broad range of adventurers from the relatively mundane to the more mystical or weird science types. Essentially a more fleshed out Shades of Gray.

Two-Fisted Tales
Airship Daedalus - XPG system
Dicey Tales - BoL system
Hollow Earth Expedition - Ubiquity system
Pulp Fantastic - Vortex system (later revived for Savage Worlds, unfortunately)
CoC 7E + Pulp Cthulhu

BRP: Astounding Adventures - not very good
Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes - this is a very deadly game, so arguably not the first choice for straight-up pulp adventure

Quote from: 3rik;1123617Two-Fisted Tales
Airship Daedalus - XPG system
Dicey Tales - BoL system
Hollow Earth Expedition - Ubiquity system
Pulp Fantastic - Vortex system (later revived for Savage Worlds, unfortunately)
CoC 7E + Pulp Cthulhu

BRP: Astounding Adventures - not very good
Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes - this is a very deadly game, so arguably not the first choice for straight-up pulp adventure

Interesting. So you think Pulp Cthulhu is better than Astounding Adventures? Something specific you don't like about the latter?

I agree that MS&PE can be a rather deadly game as the PCs tend to have very little CON which is also their health points. STR is the other one, vs poison damage. If they never put more points into CON or STR over the course of adventuring then thats all they have and a solid punch can do 1d6+adds damage - though punching damage only renders unconcious unless the attacker declares otherwise. A rapier or remmington revolver does 3+1add damage. Enough to potentially kill a person in one round. A 44 magnum does 7 die of damage. A browning bolt action rifle does 12 die.

Quote from: Omega;1123640I agree that MS&PE can be a rather deadly game as the PCs tend to have very little CON which is also their health points. STR is the other one, vs poison damage. If they never put more points into CON or STR over the course of adventuring then thats all they have and a solid punch can do 1d6+adds damage - though punching damage only renders unconcious unless the attacker declares otherwise. A rapier or remmington revolver does 3+1add damage. Enough to potentially kill a person in one round. A 44 magnum does 7 die of damage. A browning bolt action rifle does 12 die.

I really loved MSPE, but the high damage for weapons was a real bugbear. I've seen a few 'fixes' over the years, but nothing that really worked for me. As we mostly played detective games with it back in the day, it was just about OK for that, as we were only dealing with pistols - and one shot kills were quite popular on the tv shows we were trying to emulate. Then we moved to Call of Cthulhu, and MSPE went back on the shelf.

These days I like something more pulpy, where PCs can pull off the impossible. I am a big fan of BoL, so Dicey Tales was my go to classic 30s/40s pulp game for years. However, Two Fisted Tales was used where we wanted something a little less over the top and more dangerous. Everywhen uses the updated edition of BoL as its base, and there is a 30s/340s supplement being written as we speak - 'Pulse Pounding Pulp'. Not sure when this will arrive, but I've successfully used Everywhen to update Dicey Tales with no problem. Recommended.

HP of all things is the way to go then if you want to emulate that. "damage" is near misses and all that you see in movies and serials and its only that last bullet or two that actually connect and do them in. Note that in alot of these shows everyone who can tends to get behind cover. Preferrably lots of it.

That and dont end up on the business end of a machinegun or any other heavy arms as thats likely the end of you.

Anytime I have encountered players wanting a Pulp game they have who never read or even glanced  at any of the source material and they just want pc's not to get injured (never mind actually die), mow down multiple NPCs with a single die roll, never surrender  and automatically succeed at anything that is not combat.  Pulp was a medium not a genre and  characters tended not to die because they were the income of poorly paid writers and bar a few exceptions like DOC Savage not because they were all indestructible .


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Indeed and people forget that these heroes and heroines also got beat up and captured a-lot. They were not invincible or infallible.

Quote from: Gruntfuttock;1123665I really loved MSPE, but the high damage for weapons was a real bugbear.

I liked the lethality myself. When Indiana Jones shoots someone, they die. When he gets shot in the shoulder, he is seriously injured. Conan gets hit in the head with a sword, and only survives because he's wearing a massive helmet, otherwise he'd be dead. Etc.