I'm looking for true fans of pulp adventure that are willing to look at each of the games below to see which is the supreme pulp adventure game for everything from Indiana Jones to The Mummy to Tomb Raider to Uncharted to Clive Cussler to hardboiled detective noir fiction ala Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett to Sin City.

The contendors:

Hollow Earth Expedition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth_Expedition
Broken Compass https://twolittlemice.net/brokencompass/
Dicey Tales https://diceytales.com/
Two-Fisted Tales 2nd. edition https://www.pigames.net/store/default.php?cPath=46
Temples & Tombs https://shop.gallantknightgames.com/products/temples-tombs

Quote from: Batjon on February 21, 2023, 09:15:38 PM
I'm looking for true fans of pulp adventure that are willing to look at each of the games below to see which is the supreme pulp adventure game for everything from Indiana Jones to The Mummy to Tomb Raider to Uncharted to Clive Cussler to hardboiled detective noir fiction ala Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett to Sin City.

The contendors:

Hollow Earth Expedition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth_Expedition
Broken Compass https://twolittlemice.net/brokencompass/
Dicey Tales https://diceytales.com/
Two-Fisted Tales 2nd. edition https://www.pigames.net/store/default.php?cPath=46
Temples & Tombs https://shop.gallantknightgames.com/products/temples-tombs

So here's my totally surface level review.

I find art of a game usually has clues to the politics, and world view of the game designers. Pulp should be hyper masculine, have a period style, and any competent women are attractive and feminine while being dangerous. The further the art strays from that, the more likely the game won't ring true.

Hollow Earth Expedition: Plenty of manly men and attractive women, images of fighting and strange locations. Looks good.

Broken compass: The main art splash is 2 women, 2 men. 1 woman acting like Indy, man standing in a pose, woman saving a damsel in distress man. Instant concern.
Then an image search for the game gives us this:

Hard pass.

Dicey Tales: Looks like a borderline case. Art has plenty of muscular, competent men; but also seems to have a need to have a physically dangerous woman for every man. In a nutshell not egregious enough to put me off of trying it, but not very evocative either.

Two-Fisted Tales: Great cover. Higher male to female hero ratio, and no need to randomly make traditionally male hero roles female just because. Female archetypes seem period authentic. Guys look capable, women look pretty. Use of Pulp art from the period speaks of a love of the genre.
Makes me want to give it a try.

Temples and Tombs: Only one pic to go from (the cover), but it's faux-Indy, in a nice exotic temple. So far so good.

Quote from: Grognard GM on February 22, 2023, 12:02:01 AM
Then an image search for the game gives us this:

Hard pass.

I thought that was a man with long hair!  Maybe it's a gender-queer asexual? 

Quote from: S'mon on February 22, 2023, 03:45:50 AM

Quote from: Grognard GM on February 22, 2023, 12:02:01 AM
Then an image search for the game gives us this:

Hard pass.

I thought that was a man with long hair!  Maybe it's a gender-queer asexual? 

Proportions are all off.  Look at size of the hands compared to the presumed Nazi's face.  No hips.  Don't see much of a bust.  Jawline is more masculine than I would expect.  My guess is the original was a man, and someone ordered a change to a woman, so the arts did some small tweaks, softening the face a bit, adding some shading to give impression of busts, extended hair.  Look at where the beard/stubble would be; that area is paler than the rest of the face.

Savage Worlds not even a contender for Pulp heroic adventure?

Oh Batjon...

I'm a big fan of Pulp Alley. Just my 2 cents worth.

Quote from: tenbones on February 22, 2023, 10:18:57 AM
Savage Worlds not even a contender for Pulp heroic adventure?

Oh Batjon...

I second this.

Given that Temples & Tombs seems to be just an Indiana Jones game I would recommend instead the magnificent Raiders of the Lost Artifacts by Night Owl Games.

Quote from: Batjon on February 21, 2023, 09:15:38 PM
I'm looking for true fans of pulp adventure that are willing to look at each of the games below to see which is the supreme pulp adventure game for everything from Indiana Jones to The Mummy to Tomb Raider to Uncharted to Clive Cussler to hardboiled detective noir fiction ala Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett to Sin City.

The contendors:

Hollow Earth Expedition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth_Expedition
Broken Compass https://twolittlemice.net/brokencompass/
Dicey Tales https://diceytales.com/
Two-Fisted Tales 2nd. edition https://www.pigames.net/store/default.php?cPath=46
Temples & Tombs https://shop.gallantknightgames.com/products/temples-tombs

There's a huge range in potential source material here. First of all, I think there's a huge divide between:

1) Original pulp stories published on cheaply-printed paper between 1900 and 1950 or so - Howard, Chandler, Hammett, etc.
2) Retro pulps that try to recreate the earlier style but not on pulp paper, usually set in the past - Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, Sin City, etc.

Note that #1 has a lot wider range of genres, from fantasy and sci-fi to women in prison and westerns. They also ran the range from reactionary to progressive, but always lurid and gripping more than political.

From the list, I feel like you're zooming in mostly on contemporary (at the time) adventure pulps and detective fiction. These are called back to with retro works like Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider, along with Sin City. That's fine - but you might want to be clearer about that.

I can't help much with this list, as the only one I'm familiar with is Two-Fisted Tales. The last time I ran a pulp game, I used Spirit of the Century -- but I don't recommend it. The character generation and talents were fun, but combats/conflicts were slow and toothless.

For source material, I'd recommend the adventures for the FGU RPG Daredevils -- as well as Aaron Allston's wonderful "Lands of Mystery" supplement for the Hero System game Justice Inc.

Quote from: Ron Maiden on February 22, 2023, 10:38:10 AM
I'm a big fan of Pulp Alley. Just my 2 cents worth.

Pulp Alley is a mini skirmish game, though

Quote from: Tasty_Wind on February 22, 2023, 01:25:31 PM

Quote from: Ron Maiden on February 22, 2023, 10:38:10 AM
I'm a big fan of Pulp Alley. Just my 2 cents worth.

Pulp Alley is a mini skirmish game, though

OOPS! Thanks for pointing that out. I'll slink away now.

Basic Roleplaying works really well for pulp...I've also played Pulp HERO and GURPS Cliffhangers, but Savage Worlds probably does 90% of those two with like 20% of the effort. I'd still recommend both those books just as resources.

Amazing Adventures has a super low bar for entry due to basically being close enough to D&D that you can run it with little explanation.

If I was going to run a pulp game now, I would probably just go with BRP and the Pulp HERO book and wing most of it. I had actually written up something for this, found the file...circa 2001. "Two-fisted Action Game Outline". Looks like it is essentially BRP or something. "Amalgam of Cthuhlu (skills, combat, equipment, etc), Runequest (some of the magic stuff) and Stormbringer (various ritual mechanics). Characters will get 1500 points to divide between their skills. This will result in some rather high-powered characters to start." Hmmm, wonder why I never played this.

Quote from: Grognard GM on February 22, 2023, 12:02:01 AM
So here's my totally surface level review.

I find art of a game usually has clues to the politics, and world view of the game designers. Pulp should be hyper masculine, have a period style, and any competent women are attractive and feminine while being dangerous. The further the art strays from that, the more likely the game won't ring true.

Hollow Earth Expedition: Plenty of manly men and attractive women, images of fighting and strange locations. Looks good.

Broken compass: The main art splash is 2 women, 2 men. 1 woman acting like Indy, man standing in a pose, woman saving a damsel in distress man. Instant concern.

Dicey Tales: Looks like a borderline case. Art has plenty of muscular, competent men; but also seems to have a need to have a physically dangerous woman for every man. In a nutshell not egregious enough to put me off of trying it, but not very evocative either.

Two-Fisted Tales: Great cover. Higher male to female hero ratio, and no need to randomly make traditionally male hero roles female just because. Female archetypes seem period authentic. Guys look capable, women look pretty. Use of Pulp art from the period speaks of a love of the genre.
Makes me want to give it a try.

Temples and Tombs: Only one pic to go from (the cover), but it's faux-Indy, in a nice exotic temple. So far so good.

If we're going off of the based-ness of the illustrations, then I think Thrilling Tales for Savage Worlds takes the cake.

Quote from: ForgottenF on February 22, 2023, 02:57:55 PM

Quote from: Grognard GM on February 22, 2023, 12:02:01 AM
So here's my totally surface level review.

I find art of a game usually has clues to the politics, and world view of the game designers. Pulp should be hyper masculine, have a period style, and any competent women are attractive and feminine while being dangerous. The further the art strays from that, the more likely the game won't ring true.

Hollow Earth Expedition: Plenty of manly men and attractive women, images of fighting and strange locations. Looks good.

Broken compass: The main art splash is 2 women, 2 men. 1 woman acting like Indy, man standing in a pose, woman saving a damsel in distress man. Instant concern.

Dicey Tales: Looks like a borderline case. Art has plenty of muscular, competent men; but also seems to have a need to have a physically dangerous woman for every man. In a nutshell not egregious enough to put me off of trying it, but not very evocative either.

Two-Fisted Tales: Great cover. Higher male to female hero ratio, and no need to randomly make traditionally male hero roles female just because. Female archetypes seem period authentic. Guys look capable, women look pretty. Use of Pulp art from the period speaks of a love of the genre.
Makes me want to give it a try.

Temples and Tombs: Only one pic to go from (the cover), but it's faux-Indy, in a nice exotic temple. So far so good.

If we're going off of the based-ness of the illustrations, then I think Thrilling Tales for Savage Worlds takes the cake.

The original run of SW, compared to the modern iteration, is like a different game created by a different species.

They went from embracing tropes of older settings, and just putting a perfunctory note about changing sensibilities; on to sanitizing settings till they're grey and bland.

I've been gathering stat-blocks for a SW game, and seeing Cannibal Pygmies in an official supplement was delightfully shocking to my 2023-damaged brain.

Quote from: jhkim on February 22, 2023, 01:01:08 PM
For source material, I'd recommend the adventures for the FGU RPG Daredevils

Yeah, those look really good to me too! I'd never run the system, but I'd definitely run the adventures, likely in Mini Six.