Forking this into its own thread.

To catch everyone up:

I said

QuoteI keep hearing good things about this one [Two Fisted Tales]. Can anyone give me their perspective on this game, after having played it a bit?

Is this the kind of game I could take the players to the hot jungles of Venus to partake in a big game hunt of aliens one week, have them pursue Solomon's gold through overgrown ruins filled with pigmi blow-dart wielding savages the next week, and wind up crashing a runaway train into the lost city of Atlantis while being chased by assassins from the orient sporting Fu Manchu mustache's the third week?

If you've played them, how does Two-Fisted Tales compare to games like Spirit of the Century, Hollow Earth Expedition, and Savage Worlds?

FlyingMice said:

QuoteIt's an awesome game, one my players and I both love. It is exactly this kind of game - with my group it was fighting intelligent gorillas in the Amazon one week, crashlanding on a Himalyan glacier and finding Shangri-La another week, and tracking down giant Sumatran rats in the sewers of Manhattan the next. Easy to run and easy to play, and perfect for sweet pulp goodness. Best of all, not a trace of that self-conscious campiness I detest!

Pundit said

QuoteIts better than any of those. I like the mechanics best out of all those others you mentioned, and unlike SoTC, 2FT was written by people who actually understood what is appealing about Pulp.

And KrakaJack said:

QuoteUmmm...I've played Savage Worlds. Savage Worlds, to me, is a game of mini's action, inspired by pulp stories(in a good way). Two-Fisted tales is a game about playing actual Pulp Stories. The system directly emulates the kinds of stories you'd find in Doc Savage, The Shadow, Sam Spade or Conan. IME the majority of it is diceless but not systemless and the Dice and occasionally card play reinforce the genre spectacularly.

So, tell me more about the system.  How does character creation, for example, function to emulate pulp stories?

Does the game come with a decent sample adventure?

I would also be interested in any info you guys can offer about two fisted tales, as im seriously considering buying a copy later this week.

I hate getting involved in these threads since I really don't like pimping my stuff, but I can at least answer the questions on content. I'll let other people speak to how good the game is, but as far as creating characters goes, you basically pick a template (like an explorer, martial artist, detective, or wild man) which has almost ready-to-use stats and specialties. You then spend points (depending on the reality level) to increase abilities, and add specialties/masteries and schticks (like hypnotic powers, magic spells, martial disciplines, etc.). Pretty simple, but it allows you to really customize the type of character you want. And if you don't want to use a template, you can pretty much build a character from scratch.

The system is d10 - d10 + abilities/specialties/masteries. You need to beat specified target numbers. Bonus (+d10) and penalty dice (-d10) may be added depending on the circumstances. 9s are rerolled and added. You can also play cards (standard playing cards) which are dealt before play. Depending on the suit played, you can add or subtract to/from a roll, increase/decrease damage, etc. Again, it's nothing complicated, but it emulates the grand fortune and proportionally equal bad luck that pulp heroes run into.

There's also templates for villains and random adventure generators. There are currently two adventures available for the game, both from the Gripping Tales of the Impossible series (#1 Requiem in the Depths and #2 Crisis at the World's Fair). A third adventure (#3 Peril in the Skies) is currently in the editing stage. Additionally, a Film Noir sourcebook (Mean Streets) is planned, as is a Golden Supers book. Don't ask when they'll be available though -- it's slow going.

What the hell - I'm feeling generous. Here's a coupon for $10 off the Two-Fisted Tales softcover directly from Precis Intermedia. Just enter 56MFEURWYY at the checkout payment screen to get the discount. Anyone on the site that's interested can take advantage of this coupon, but it's set to expire at the end of the month. You can also get the Brutes Fantasy Miniatures Microgame for free with it, so remember to select it in your shopping cart.

I don't pimp at random. I think its a good solid game, barring I haven't yet run it. I still often fall back to Adventure!, for pulp.  I'm going to try this out in the future though when I get a chance to run another pulp game.

Quote from: Silverlion;328881I don't pimp at random. I think its a good solid game, barring I haven't yet run it. I still often fall back to Adventure!, for pulp.  I'm going to try this out in the future though when I get a chance to run another pulp game.

I have not heard of Adventure!, what's it like?

Quote from: brettmb;328875I hate getting involved in these threads since I really don't like pimping my stuff, but I can at least answer the questions on content. I'll let other people speak to how good the game is, but as far as creating characters goes, you basically pick a template (like an explorer, martial artist, detective, or wild man) which has almost ready-to-use stats and specialties. You then spend points (depending on the reality level) to increase abilities, and add specialties/masteries and schticks (like hypnotic powers, magic spells, martial disciplines, etc.). Pretty simple, but it allows you to really customize the type of character you want. And if you don't want to use a template, you can pretty much build a character from scratch.

The system is d10 - d10 + abilities/specialties/masteries. You need to beat specified target numbers. Bonus (+d10) and penalty dice (-d10) may be added depending on the circumstances. 9s are rerolled and added. You can also play cards (standard playing cards) which are dealt before play. Depending on the suit played, you can add or subtract to/from a roll, increase/decrease damage, etc. Again, it's nothing complicated, but it emulates the grand fortune and proportionally equal bad luck that pulp heroes run into.

There's also templates for villains and random adventure generators. There are currently two adventures available for the game, both from the Gripping Tales of the Impossible series (#1 Requiem in the Depths and #2 Crisis at the World's Fair). A third adventure (#3 Peril in the Skies) is currently in the editing stage. Additionally, a Film Noir sourcebook (Mean Streets) is planned, as is a Golden Supers book. Don't ask when they'll be available though -- it's slow going.

What the hell - I'm feeling generous. Here's a coupon for $10 off the Two-Fisted Tales softcover directly from Precis Intermedia. Just enter 56MFEURWYY at the checkout payment screen to get the discount. Anyone on the site that's interested can take advantage of this coupon, but it's set to expire at the end of the month. You can also get the Brutes Fantasy Miniatures Microgame for free with it, so remember to select it in your shopping cart.

Thank you very much both for the answers and for the discount offer.  That's much appreciated!

Quote from: Mistwell;329047I have no heard of Adventure!, what's it like?

Besides out of print?
It leans more towards low power Supers so, if that is the type of game you want to play, and you like dice pools, it works well.
=

Adventure is the White Wolf (Storyteller) powered pulp game it was the last produced of their Trinity/Aberrant/Adventure line, but the first chronologically speaking. Its got a lot of good dieas and a few bad. In general it is easy to sue (As most WW games are easy to use) and it used the most balanced version iof the WW system.

It sets up the pulp world they detail, but its primary use is pulp rules, not the bzrely detailed alternate Earth they use. You have three "classes" that is three types of pulp heroes and that gives you various access to abilities (with the caveat the GM can make versions of any ability for any origin. Of course I'd just ignore the restrictions anyway.)

The three types were
 Daredevil/Heroic(skilled normal, with feat like abilities)
 Mesmerist (psychic) and
 Stalwart (Low powered superhero)

On top of that you picked powers/special abilities for each archetype/class (these could be things like you can take on several foes at once with no game penalty so they're marginal "super" powers at best)

Mechanically speaking you rolled stat+skill and looked ro4r 7's or higher, and you had to get so many of those to pass task checks. You failed if you didn't get enough.

It had a better bibliography than Spirit of the Century, but failed to provide enough information on multiple planes. A big failing in pulp games is to ignore that perfectly important part of the "pulp" era, the fascination with and wonders of air travel.)

I liked its basic mechanics better than FATE/SOTC system, which I think is why I've stuck with it more often than not, and it doesn't require weird reading of the dice, or new dice. (Hollow Earth Expedition.)

Understand, I'm not saying its better than Two Fisted Tales, just more comfortable. Plus I'm not fond of rolling and subtracting, even Alternity bothered me with that issue--it doesn't mean I won't run or like the game, just that its mechanics get me less enthused.

Quote from: Silverlion;329212Adventure is the White Wolf (Storyteller) powered pulp game it was the last produced of their Trinity/Aberrant/Adventure line, but the first chronologically speaking. Its got a lot of good dieas and a few bad. In general it is easy to sue (As most WW games are easy to use) and it used the most balanced version iof the WW system.

There was also a D20 version, which wasn't really as good mechanically -- lots of intriguing ways to chump the system -- but which did turn out to be a rocking way to run a pulp game for a bunch of friends who knew D&D but were leery of Storyteller systems.

Two-Fisted Tales is fast and intuitive enough to begin play with a minimum of fuss, and yet thorough and detailed enough (both in mechanics and fluff / context) to keep you interested for a good long time.

Literally, my only gripe is that the art is split between original art and what appears to be some public domain pulp illustrations, and there's a really noticeable difference in quality.

Really great game, IMO, well worth full price, much less with discount.

(If you're into the more noir end of things, Mean Streets, also by Precis, is really good too...)

Quote from: brettmb;328875What the hell - I'm feeling generous. Here's a coupon for $10 off the Two-Fisted Tales softcover directly from Precis Intermedia. Just enter 56MFEURWYY at the checkout payment screen to get the discount. Anyone on the site that's interested can take advantage of this coupon, but it's set to expire at the end of the month. You can also get the Brutes Fantasy Miniatures Microgame for free with it, so remember to select it in your shopping cart.

Wow. Just some more reasons why YOU ROCK MAN. :cool:

No I have no excuses left for not buying TFT.

That's really cool what Brett just did.
Thanks, man.

Hm.  There is a tremendously good chance I will now be picking this up.

I ordered a copy along with the 2 adventures this afternoon from leisure games.  So i now have something good to read through while im stuck without net access for a couple weeks...heck i may even get to play a game or 2

Quote from: brettmb;328875What the hell - I'm feeling generous. Here's a coupon for $10 off the Two-Fisted Tales softcover directly from Precis Intermedia. Just enter 56MFEURWYY at the checkout payment screen to get the discount. Anyone on the site that's interested can take advantage of this coupon, but it's set to expire at the end of the month. You can also get the Brutes Fantasy Miniatures Microgame for free with it, so remember to select it in your shopping cart.

Another reason you rock, Brett.  Well, generosity AND the great games.