Weird Pulp set-up

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Jonkga
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Weird Pulp set-up

Post by Jonkga »

OK, I volunteered to run a one-shot (or so) playtest for our Savage Worlds Weird Pulp game. And, I need some help setting it up. I have the story concept already, it is really just the background I need your input to help set up.

So, I've decided this adventure will take place in the late 30's, a la the Indy Jones movies, the Doc Savage stories, Sky Captain, etc. What I need is the following: what characters are you going to play? Now, I don't need all the SW numbers and stats (like what Edges and Hindrances you've taken, etc.), at least not yet. What I need is an explanation of what character you will be playing. And, I need help setting up how the heroes know each other and work together, etc.

For example, in the Doc Savage stories, Doc was a "genius billionaire philanthropist playboy", and his "Fabulous Five" were: Monk Mayfair, an industrial chemist with a simian build; Ham Brooks, an accomplished attorney considered one of the best-dressed men in the world and carrying a sword cane; Renny Renwick, a construction engineer and a giant of a man; Long Tom Roberts, an electrical engineer and a sickly-looking character who fought like a wildcat; and Johnny Littlejohn, an archaeologist and geologist with an impressive vocabulary who never used a small word when a big one could suffice.

Similarly, although the movies really just focus on Indian Jones the globe-trotting archeologist, for gaming purposes the college he taught out of could be considered his base of operations, with Brody as his boss and sometimes travelling companion, and his contacts around the globe like Short Round, Sallah, Marion Ravenwood, Jock Lindsey, Willie Scott, etc.

So, a basic character archetype would be helpful: what kind of hero are you? What do you do when you are not off having adventures? What organizations are you connected to? How do you know any of the other PCs (if you do)?

As you can see, I need some help here so we can decide how we want to frame our Weird Pulp adventures. Once we've figured this out, then I can work on how to hook all of your characters into the adventure I've got.


Also:
Some additional things I'm thinking about, and I figured you might as well think about them, as well:

Where are we going to be based out of? Like any of the good globe-trotting pulp stories, I'm sure we will get to jungles, arctic island, etc., but many of the pulp heroes were based in an city. Sure, NYC and LA dominated, but we could be in Philly, or Chicago, or even Montreal or London, for that matter. What say you?

What are your thoughts for an organization to belong to? Ken and I have both posited this, and I like the idea. What are your thoughts on what this team might be like? Is it secret, or public? Do we have a face that is different from/separate than our heroic efforts, or not?

What is our connection to governments/law enforcement, etc.? Is it the same for all of us? Do any of us act "outside the law"?

I am also assuming that in our Weird Pulp campaign, we are regular people and not superheroes. Sure the pulps had the Shadow, the Spider, the Phantom, the Green Hornet, etc., but I assumed we are going for more regular Joes, or at the very least gumshoes, like Doc Savage, Indiana Jones, Richard Diamond, Johnny Dollar, etc. Let me know if I am off-base on this, or if you want to do something more masked. Also, that doesn't mean your regular Joe can't have a "cloud men's mind" power like the Shadow, but maybe he doesn't go around dressing up as a bat and swinging through the city fighting crime. Maybe he just uses it on adventures to stop evil around the world while ferreting out ancient relics.

Also, money is going to be important. In this era, it would be possible to be pretty destitute, but pretty much all the heroes without exception are on the far other end of that scale. Britt Reid has a secret silver mine, Doc Savage has hidden Mayan gold, even Indy has a pretty prestigious job at a tony Connecticut private college (as opposed to teaching remedial archeology at the local community college). So, just how wealthy are you, and where does that wealth come from. Perhaps at least one of us should be super-wealthy, to be able to bankroll the gang. That goes especially if you are an inventor or gadget-guy, so as to fund your creation of anesthetic, "knock-out" bullets and the like.


Again, any suggestions and help will of course be welcomed. Feel free to post in this thread with thoughts, etc. (in addition to your characters), as I want to ensure we all enjoy this. Thanks.
Last edited by Jonkga on Thu Aug 29, 2013 2:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Weird Pulp set-up

Post by EvilGenius »

My character will be a college educated man who became a police investigator and later left the force to become a self-employed private-eye. I think I'm going to loosely pattern my character after Nightwing. :)
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Re: Weird Pulp set-up

Post by NukeHavoc »

Spirt of the Century (another pulp game) handled this by making the players members of the Century Club -- everyone who was born on Jan 1, 1900. The Century Club provided a handy background for bringing the players together.

I think having some sort of loosely-knit affiliation or organization would help us as well, particularly when we're trying the storyline together to future eras. For example, Delta Green began as an American occult research division during World War II, then became a formal government agency in the 1960s, then was disbanded and went rogue in the 1980s.

I like the idea of our own pulpy Justice Society. In addition I'm assuming our characters have a such of the heroic about them (which would make them want to be part of such a society). I don't know if they are Indy or Doc Savage ... but they could be the *next* Indy or Doc Savage. :)

For my part I'm thinking occult researcher who dabbles in arcane magiks (think Doctor Strange) or a McGuyver-like adventurer/scientist. I'm leaning more toward McGuyver.
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Re: Weird Pulp set-up

Post by EvilGenius »

At one point in the Savage Worlds discussion someone (Ken, maybe?) had suggested that we start our investigators at the second tier instead of the first. What's your preference, Jon? Brand-spanking-new investigators or lightly seasoned investigators?
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Re: Weird Pulp set-up

Post by Jonkga »

Bob, we are definitely starting at the very first tier, starting character, no artificial advancement place. Create a new character - he will be powerful enough, and we will hopefully avoid the problems we've sometimes had with biting off more than we can chew with a new ruleset.

Ken, I like the idea of belonging to some sort of group - I just didn't want to impose the details of that group on our group. So, hopefully as a group we can has out the details of that here.
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Re: Weird Pulp set-up

Post by Jonkga »

Some additional things I'm thinking about, and I figured you might as well think about them, as well:

Where are we going to be based out of? Like any of the good globe-trotting pulp stories, I'm sure we will get to jungles, arctic island, etc., but many of the pulp heroes were based in an city. Sure, NYC and LA dominated, but we could be in Philly, or Chicago, or even Montreal or London, for that matter. What say you?

What are your thoughts for an organization to belong to? Ken and I have both posited this, and I like the idea. What are your thoughts on what this team might be like? Is it secret, or public? Do we have a face that is different from/separate than our heroic efforts, or not?

What is our connection to governments/law enforcement, etc.? Is it the same for all of us? Do any of us act "outside the law"?

I am also assuming that in our Weird Pulp campaign, we are regular people and not superheroes. Sure the pulps had the Shadow, the Spider, the Phantom, the Green Hornet, etc., but I assumed we are going for more regular Joes, or at the very least gumshoes, like Doc Savage, Indiana Jones, Richard Diamond, Johnny Dollar, etc. Let me know if I am off-base on this, or if you want to do something more masked. Also, that doesn't mean your regular Joe can't have a "cloud men's mind" power like the Shadow, but maybe he doesn't go around dressing up as a bat and swinging through the city fighting crime. Maybe he just uses it on adventures to stop evil around the world while ferreting out ancient relics.

Also, money is going to be important. In this era, it would be possible to be pretty destitute, but pretty much all the heroes without exception are on the far other end of that scale. Britt Reid has a secret silver mine, Doc Savage has hidden Mayan gold, even Indy has a pretty prestigious job at a tony Connecticut private college (as opposed to teaching remedial archeology at the local community college). So, just how wealthy are you, and where does that wealth come from. Perhaps at least one of us should be super-wealthy, to be able to bankroll the gang. That goes especially if you are an inventor or gadget-guy, so as to fund your creation of anesthetic, "knock-out" bullets and the like.

Just some ideas. I'll add them to the main post, but feel free to answer these about your characters, also. (Maybe as edits to your character post, or new posts).

Thanks.
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Re: Weird Pulp set-up

Post by EvilGenius »

Well, I for one like being based out of New York. It gives us a more familiar home base. As for the group, I'm not sure. I like the idea of a shadowy organization of adventurers operating outside of the limits and the sight of the law but within the bounds of morality. As the characters and story develop our organization could become a whispered curse among our enemies and a mysterious name among those who do good. :)

How about something like The Wardens? Or something less on-the-nose like The Tourist Society or something more esoteric like the Vitruvian Society?
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Re: Weird Pulp set-up

Post by setanta14 »

I was thinking about a young educated aristocrat who previously competed in the Olympics for fencing, but is the black sheep of the family for seeking adventure instead of going into the "family business".
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Re: Weird Pulp set-up

Post by NukeHavoc »

EvilGenius wrote:How about something like The Wardens? Or something less on-the-nose like The Tourist Society or something more esoteric like the Vitruvian Society?
I like this. I always wanted to run a 1920s Cthulhu campaign that revolved around an organization known as "The Saturday Club" so a more nonsensical name appeals to me.
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Re: Weird Pulp set-up

Post by erilar »

I'm on the same page. Secret society, largely unknown to governments, or at least non-affiliated and -beholden.

I would posit the group is funded by a small, semi-organized inner circle of old-wealth European families and nobility, American industrialists, the Catholic Church and the like.

Why not make this organization the precursor to what would later could become Delta Green? Through the Cold War era, the old money is starting to dry up, and the US government eventually steps in and absorbs the group? But in earlier decades, it is more like the B.P.R.D.

Contrasting with the B.P.R.D. though, I would recommend that the group is more about righting wrongs and crusading into issues that the governments can't/won't. In other words, many of the backers and active members/adventurers would be skeptics and not necessarily believe in the occult and nocturnally-bumping entities.
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Re: Weird Pulp set-up

Post by NukeHavoc »

Jon -- what's your thinking on Powers/Arcane Backgrounds for characters? (e.g. "Miracles", "Weird Science", etc.)

As far as character creation goes, I was thinking we should stick with what's in Savage Worlds Deluxe (there are a handful more edges and hinderances there, but characters are pretty much the same as the old Explorer's Edition books most of us have).

The other big thing would be whether we wanted to use the Sanity rules (I think that the Horror Companion's take on those is easier to use than Realms of Cthulhu) and if there should be a "Guts" skill.
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Re: Weird Pulp set-up

Post by Jonkga »

NukeHavoc wrote:Jon -- what's your thinking on Powers/Arcane Backgrounds for characters? (e.g. "Miracles", "Weird Science", etc.)

As far as character creation goes, I was thinking we should stick with what's in Savage Worlds Deluxe (there are a handful more edges and hinderances there, but characters are pretty much the same as the old Explorer's Edition books most of us have).

The other big thing would be whether we wanted to use the Sanity rules (I think that the Horror Companion's take on those is easier to use than Realms of Cthulhu) and if there should be a "Guts" skill.

Again, these are all decisions I hope we will gain group consensus on, but here are my thoughts:

1 - I am of course ok with powers/arcane backgrounds. My earlier example of someone making a "Shadow" type character or a mad-scientist inventor would use this sort of set-up. That said, I had taken from other conversations, and the characters proposed so far, that the group was less enthused about this. So, if the group doesn't want PCs to have these sorts of powers (or maybe not to start with them), I'd certainly be ok with that. Most villains will of course be regular, but the occasional mystical artifact or evil-doer who taps into the spirit world may show up eventually. What does everyone think?

2 - As for initial characters, I haven't had a chance to go through all the .pdfs you posted, but in general, I'm all for using the SW Deluxe ruleset as our standard go-to book. Everything in there would be fair game (provided it is setting-appropriate, etc.). I would say, we most likely would branch out into other supplements as time and adventures went on, perhaps even "opening" certain Edges/Hinderences as a result of actions taken during adventures, etc. But, as we usually do, I'd say if you have a particular rule from a supplement or additional source, run it by the group and it may be ok. What say you all?

3 - Well, as for reacting to the strange/weird/occult, yeah, there should probably be something that covers that. I'm thinking right now this first adventure may not get too weird, and certainly right away, but it would be good to decide how we are handling this. I need to look at all these rules before I say for sure, but my initial feeling is something like a Guts or Spirit check should suffice. I'll post more once I review the material. What do the rest of you think?
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Re: Weird Pulp set-up

Post by Lars Porsenna »

For my character I'm thinking: Judah Schillenberg. A German-Jew scientist that has fled Nazi Germany (and all the complications therein). THink Einstein, but younger and more punchey! :)

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Re: Weird Pulp set-up

Post by EvilGenius »

Lars Porsenna wrote:Think Einstein, but younger and more punchey! :)
OMG, that's a GREAT tag line!! :D
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Re: Weird Pulp set-up

Post by EvilGenius »

I'm all for arcane or wierd powers presented in a mysterious 1920's way. I just happen to not be creating a character who does that. :)

I'm keeping everything to the Savage Worlds Deluxe book. I looked at the other things but they didn't seem directly on-point. Perhaps that will change as we get into the adventures.

Ken, you're more familiar with the various Savage Worlds rules, is there a marked difference between using a Guts skill as opposed to a Spirit check?
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