I was looking for unrelated item over the weekend when I ran across an "old friend" in the back of a closet: my box of Marvel Superheroes Role-playing Game stuff. Not the SAGA system one, but the original game by TSR from back in the 80's. My friends and I loved that game! It was very basic and free flowing. Many of my more "Refined" gamer friends scoffed at the game as amateurish and simplistic, to them Champions was the only true superhero RPG. Now I enjoyed champions as well, but I remember it taking FOREVER to get through a combat between 5-hero pc's and a group of bad guys and their leader.
Well anyway, many aficionados of Pulp genre gaming state that a pulp game should be quick in resolution and give the DM lots of latitude in order to make the play over the top and heroic. That got me to thinking as I scanned through my well-worn rulebook; I wonder if anyone has tried to apply MSHRPG to a Pulp setting? I took some of my favorite Pulp Player characters from other systems and applied them. With a little tweaking they made the transition just fine. I'm thinking a low powered supers campaign set in an alternate earth 1930's. By low powered I’m talking characters like the Spider, the Green Hornet, Union Jack, The Rocketeer, and maybe a Mandrake the Magician-style spell caster (That way I can use the nifty "Realms of Magic" supplement).
V&V was always my preferred superhero RPG. I bought my first boxed set of it back in the 80s and met Jeff Dee quite by accident only a few months later so it has special meaning to me. I've always wanted to run a non/low-power 1930s campaign as well where the most powerful among them would be someone like Hourman. BTW--love that scan! Show us more!
ReplyDeleteI never played V&V but I know it has a strong following amongst us "old-timers". Did you get a chance to show Jeff Dee your art? that would have been cool. Too bad you dont live in Sacramento, spacelord. the toughest part about running a pulp game is finding people who want to play,*sigh*.
ReplyDeleteToo true. I got guys that'll play regardless of the era, but they might ot get into it as much as me. And no, I didn't get the chance to show Jeff Dee my art. I didn't even know he was going to be there.
ReplyDeletethe Gagamba character was one I found on a international superhero web page. the artist is filipino. they got some damn good artists over there.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.internationalhero.co.uk/p/phillipi.htm
http://www.heroplay.com/features/software/index.php
ReplyDeletethere is a link for a character generator. and there is also an articlein a polyhedron mag on using character points instead of random rolls to create a character. If you need that let me know and i'll try and find a copy.
I'm a big Hero System fan. It's old Justice, Inc. game was very nice for pulp material, and the newer version, the Pulp Hero supplement for the system, has been getting some good word of mouth and seems cool. I mean, with a section header called "Add More Yaks," you know it's going to be a fun read.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, I was amused by the image you used. I found the same set of images (from the Polynesian artist) at one point and have used that same image for a PC I created.
Justice Inc. is definitely a big player in pulp gaming.
ReplyDeleteespescially the "lands of mystery" supplement. I would be interested in pulp hero but only as a resource. the herosystem is just convoluted for me as a pulp system. but i do hear good stuff about the new game as well. man, I wish you guys lived around here. we could have a kick ass pulp game!