I've run fantasy, various kinds of science fiction, horror, post-apoc etc games but I have never run a "Pulp" campaign. I keep reading about them and know I want to get some Pulp "action" but I have no idea of how to run such games. The stuff that I have come up with seems to wander into "parody" terrain and that's not what I want.

What kind of atmosphere are pulp games supposed to have? What about themes? Hell what exactly is Pulp in gaming terms? I know one can possibly do a lot of stuff with it, and there's a whole lot of sub genre stuff, but I need a starting point.

I reference a lot of movies and books which I suppose could be considered "pulp"...oh, who am I kidding, I don't even know if the stuff I'm referencing in my campaigns is even "pulp" ...

So there's some talk of "pulp" games but not much talk on exacty how to run such games. Any words of advice ?

Regards,
David R

HI David!

First and foremost, Pulp is over the top, but without irony or self conciousness. If you can nail that, then the rest falls into place.

-clash

Added: Also, "pulp" isn't a genre - you can make any genre "pulp" - but a feel.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmiceHI David!

First and foremost, Pulp is over the top, but without irony or self conciousness. If you can nail that, then the rest falls into place.
Added: Also, "pulp" isn't a genre - you can make any genre "pulp" - but a feel.

You're gonna have to give me a bit more Clash

I know what you're saying but I have no idea how to do it...if you get my drift. The "feel" is what I'm struggling with. I keep seeing all these interesting games but I always come up with nothing...or worse, stuff that my players (who really want to play "pulp") can't take seriously...by this I mean my ideas seem "hokey"..

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David RYou're gonna have to give me a bit more Clash

I know what you're saying but I have no idea how to do it...if you get my drift. The "feel" is what I'm struggling with. I keep seeing all these interesting games but I always come up with nothing...or worse, stuff that my players (who really want to play "pulp") can't take seriously...by this I mean my ideas seem "hokey"..

Regards,
David R

The fault lies not with you, but with your players, David. Pulp should be hokey. That's the problem. You have to treat it seriously to do properly, and it's something our self-referential post-modern mega culture just can't take seriously. Most people nowadays play it for irony or satire, but it's actually very straight forward. Characters named Mack Armstrong and Dirk Blade, intelligent gorillas bent on world domination, leaping from a flaming zeppelin into the rear cockpit of a biplane, nefarious mandarins with laquered three inch nails and byzantine plans, white amazon tribeswomen in the highlands of central africa guarding the mines of Solomon... It's very hard not to be self-concious about it. Now it may be that your players don't want pulp, but neo-pulp - over-the-top adventure in the twenties and thirties with a flavor of parody, like Romancing the Stone.

-clash

In my experience there are two types of Pulp games.

The first, and perhaps slightly less common, is the Indiana Jones pulp.  The characters are action heroes, they're larger than life but still mortal and failable, and while their adventures often touch on the fantastic they're strongly grounded in Real World ideas.  For this sort of pulp I stress action and adventure, but with a backdrop of principles and ideas.

The second type of pulp is, in my opinion, a fiction created in the modern day.  It's full of weird science, zeppelin, psychic powers, and stranger things still.  Characters are one dimensional, in a fun way, and games focus on solving the plot and beating the bad guy.  For those sorts of games here are somethings I do:

1. I don't pause to ask myself "Does this sound stupid to me?"  Instead, I say "Dinosaurs!  With control helmets!!"
2. I pull out the familiar ideas.  Time fortresses, freeze rays, ships from Mars, etc.
3. As an extension of 2, NPCs are very important for flavor.  Girlfriends get kidnapped, butlers are shot and almost-but-not-quite fatally wounded, and recurring villains are a must.
4. Constant movement.  Pulp games need good forward momentum better than many other games, such as mysteries.  I'm not saying to nix character dialog or to always "Send in the ninjas" (an overused strategy), but do use strong foreshadowing to make progression through scenes easy.  It's the fantastic locales, witty jokes, and descriptive action sequences that win the day.
5. The narrow escape.  It's ok for Pulp stories to be a little derivative of one another, that's part of the fun.  In keeping with that, stretch your imagination when it comes time to escape death.  Daring escapes and the reappearance of villains thought to be dead for sure are as important to pulp as they are to comics.

I put it to you that if you don't buy that there are two different types of pulp then there is a continuum of ways to approach pulp.  On one end is example 1 and on the other is example 2, not unlike a Gritty / Four Color superhero spectrum in some ways.  Clearly defining your game and knowing your goals will help significantly when it comes time to build characters and get the ball rolling.

Yeah - CW has it right. That's what I called Pulp and Neo-pulp.

-clash

Quote from: David RSo there's some talk of "pulp" games but not much talk on exacty how to run such games. Any words of advice?

I concur. I've watched some pulp stuff and run some pulp games, but I'd be very interested in a list of genre conventions, tricks for making games pulpy, etc..

Seanchai

Not to pimp the RPG but the 40 or so page "Keeping it Pulpy" section in Spirit of the Century is absolutely fabulous, covering not only conventions but real practical advice on running a pulp RPG.

For example:

Put Them on the Clock

There's nothing like a clock for keeping your game's metronome regular. Whether you're running a pickup game or a longer series, you've already got one clock going – the length of real time for the session. You should already have a concern for making sure that you pack in enough events and interest in the bounds of that clock's timeframe, but here, we're talking about something else.

We're talking, instead, about the in-game clock – something which the characters should always hear ticking away over their shoulder, hounding them. In-game time pressure is vital to encouraging an ongoing action atmosphere. No situation that needs the players to act should come up without having some sort of time limit on it before dire consequences shall befall the dawdler.

Example: Lydia is running a game of Spirit of the Century, and wants to open things with a small murder mystery set at a dinner party. Stated simply that way, there's no real time pressure, so using that principle, she decides to make it a mystery that must be solved by midnight, when all the important foreign guests and dignitaries head back to the safety oftheir embassies and plane flights abroad.

Later, she's staging a fight on top of a moving train. This is an exciting backdrop to be sure, but it would be even better with an element of time pressure. The solution is simple: the train is rapidly running out of track!

As a GM, you should tune your ear to the sound of this clock, and move quickly to renew it whenever the sound falls silent. The tension in a dramatic scene should never fall slack; if it does – put them on the clock! Your players could use the occasional nudge to get going; they may be inclined to sit around and talk rather than take action – put them on the clock!

David, you may find our play notes valuable.

OTOH,
You may just be thinking of games set between the wars.  (WWI & WWII)

This is a time when many things were thought to be possible. In game, many of them are.
A lot of what people think of as "Pulp" was actully TV Serials.

One of the advantages of it is that people can imagine the times well enough to feel comfortable with it.

When I run a Pulp game, it is on the edge of possible.  Science! is involved and the Heroes are average people in unusual situations.

Kidnapped! and kidnapping! are two parallel PbeMs that I ran in this style.

Another PbPost game was about a formula that allowed a person to breath water (for a time.)
=

Thanks for the input so far. All comments have been pretty interesting. Halfjack and Greentougue, bloody good pulply links

Perhaps I should just put out an idea for a pulp campaign I've been toying with. It's pretty cliche but I want to start small and move on to bigger things.

I was thinking that all the players begin the campaign as the cast and crew of a low-budget sifi "Red Menace" type conspiracy movie in the 40's who discover that real aliens are hatching a scheme most foul against poor unsuspecting Earthlings. After they confront this menace they move on to other things perhaps travelling the world making similar low budget movies and at the same time getting involved in staple pulp adventures.

The alien menace forms the basis of the campaign's mythology. One arc of the campaign could have the pcs becoming super heroes another could find them exploring a "lost" city etc.

Is this too self referential, too post modern...am I falling into the "trap" Clash outlined earlier. How would I present this to the pcs. Should I up front say this is a "pulp" campaign? As Seanchai commented earlier, what are the standard genre/"Feel" conventions I should be aware about? I'll cop to running "serious" type games so I don't want this to be "jokey"...I mean I don't want the players thinking, "Oh, okay this is a pulp game, so let's just not take things too seriously"...or is this the wrong attitude to have?

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David RIs this too self referential, too post modern...am I falling into the "trap" Clash outlined earlier. How would I present this to the pcs. Should I up front say this is a "pulp" campaign? As Seanchai commented earlier, what are the standard genre/"Feel" conventions I should be aware about? I'll cop to running "serious" type games so I don't want this to be "jokey"...I mean I don't want the players thinking, "Oh, okay this is a pulp game, so let's just not take things too seriously"...or is this the wrong attitude to have?

The thing with Pulp is that the "feel" is much more important than the substance IMO.  If you get how pulp feels, then you can turn anything into pulp pretty much (though there are clearly certain things that lend themselves to pulp).

From Spirit of the Century here are some of those "feel" things:

- Stay action oriented
- Put them on the clock
- Provide plenty of clues
- Embrace crazy plans and schemes
- Encourage action over contemplation
- Allow two fists to solve what ails us
- Use good cliches
- Use deathtraps

In addition to get the higher pacing of Pulp as a GM use cinematic tools like scene framing, montages, cut scenes and perspective.

Quote from: Skywalker- Encourage action over contemplation

This may be a problem.

QuoteIn addition to get the higher pacing of Pulp as a GM use cinematic tools like scene framing, montages, cut scenes and perspective.

This isn't. (But just to be on the safe side, how do you do this ?)

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David RThis may be a problem.

There a number of ways to encourage this. As a GM, don't discoruage action by penalising a lack of planning. If the players suggest something off the wall that's quick, let it succeed. Remember that villains are not flawless and may even overlook something obvious if it comes out of the blue.

To discourage contemplation: "put them on the clock!". Keep the time pressure obvious and if necessary visual. Have the world's imminent destruction show itself through earthquakes. Have the villains rocket have a count down. Have lava slowly fill the room.

Quote from: David RThis isn't. (But just to be on the safe side, how do you do this ?)

Scene framing is a very large topic. Again, I recommend Spirit of the Century as a great resource that covers all of these topics. Essentially, as a GM, establish scenes in such a way that they suggest (or even compel) action.

If a scene starts to slow, think about ending the scene in favour of a new scene, cut scene or montage that establishing the pace again. For example, say the PCs want to do some investigation by asking questions door to door - cut to a montage. Say the PCs are floundering as to what to do next - throw in a new event such as having mooks attack the PCs. Say the PCs are bogged down trying to plan out their big attack - cut to a scene with the villains upping the ante.

This will need some buy in from the players as it means that the GM will not be following the action in a realistic manner, and as such some jumps and liberties may be needed. Eventually, even the players may use this technique to suggest scenes of their own.

Thanks Skywalker for that post.

Hmm it seems SotC is mighty popular with folks when it comes to Pulp. I am thinking of going the Savage Worlds route since I'm currently using it for a brief campaign I'm running.

Regards,
David R