Pulp Cthulhu (Pulp Cthulhu print), while being completely optional, is one of the main reasons I enjoy Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition so much. You play a hero instead of an investigator, you live a bit longer, and you have a bit more talent. Not that you always want to be a hero but having the option to play either one greatly increases the options for the game. And you can shoot a Mi-Go right in the convoluted ellipsoid and maybe live to tell about it. And if you use the optional alcohol rules you might even reduce any Sanity loss from the fight.
Pulp Cthulhu layers rules on top of Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition. You can use as much or as little as you want to get exactly the campaign you want if you want to tweak the base rules. Options include more ways to spend Luck, extra hit points, better starting characteristics, Pulp Talents, psychic skills, and weird science. And Masks of Nyarlathotep and Down Darker Trails include Pulp as an option for play right in the included rules text and with the pre-generated PCs.
There are forty Pulp Talents in the game, ten each in physical, mental, combat, and miscellaneous. You might take Rapid Fire to shot that Mi-Go with two pistols and then shrug off some damage using Tough Guy when its fungoid buddy shoots you back with its electric gun. The Talents aren’t complicated (except Psychic and Weird Science are a bit more involved) so the game does not become bogged down. Most Talents are one sentence long.
The Psychic Talent nets you one psychic skill from the list of: clairvoyance, divination, medium, psychometry, and telekinesis. Weird Science allows you to build gadgets using normal skills. Gadget examples include death ray, portable telephony device (weighs 20 pounds), and a jet pack.
So the rules are enhanced, how about the world? The setting default becomes the 1930s. An entire chapter details pulp organizations from the era like Department 29 so heroes can be Feds kicking in doors and plugging cultists. Also covers evil cabals like the Gray Tigers, big game hunters who hunt anything truly dangerous, even other men. Plus, dinosaurs (read below for more).
The Keeper gets an entire chapter dedicated to running pulp games. Plots and themes are covered, scenario hooks and a MacGuffin generator are included, and the Keeper is given lots of ideas to up the action. Another chapter covers the world of the 1930s. The Great Depression hits and everything goes to hell. Near the end of 1929, Black Thursday ushers in the beginning of the crash. The 30s include an assassination attempt on President Roosevelt, Hitler’s rise to power, and ends with the beginning of World War II and Einstein considering how to build an atomic bomb. Prohibition is repealed in 1933 while at the same time the Federal government increases in power. Crime skyrocketed. Heroes really were needed.
The Keeper also gets another chapter of pulp villains. Silas Caravaggio is a world-wide criminal kingpin. The Goop is half-man, half-Shoggoth, all monster. His description is whoever he feels like (usually his last victim who he engulfed and consumed). The Grave Robber is a serial killer with the Resurrection spell and an unknown (but without a doubt) horrible agenda. He carries his mentor around as essential salts in a tin in his pocket. Keepers also get a t-rex, velociraptor, and killer robot to unleash. Four scenarios round out the book to get everything kicked off including maps, stats, and a fistful of player handouts.
Pulp Cthulhu is a hoot. PCs get amazing Talents, more hit points, and a wider stretch of Luck. But the villains get a boost too and as weird as Mythos monsters are, some of the supervillains are pretty darned strange also. There is an alcohol table. Plus, the Keeper gets stats on two of the greatest RPG dinosaurs to use. To me, this is an essential Basic Roleplaying RPG set of rules. Get this book and punch the Mythos right in its tentacled face.
Pulp Cthulhu layers rules on top of Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition. You can use as much or as little as you want to get exactly the campaign you want if you want to tweak the base rules. Options include more ways to spend Luck, extra hit points, better starting characteristics, Pulp Talents, psychic skills, and weird science. And Masks of Nyarlathotep and Down Darker Trails include Pulp as an option for play right in the included rules text and with the pre-generated PCs.
There are forty Pulp Talents in the game, ten each in physical, mental, combat, and miscellaneous. You might take Rapid Fire to shot that Mi-Go with two pistols and then shrug off some damage using Tough Guy when its fungoid buddy shoots you back with its electric gun. The Talents aren’t complicated (except Psychic and Weird Science are a bit more involved) so the game does not become bogged down. Most Talents are one sentence long.
The Psychic Talent nets you one psychic skill from the list of: clairvoyance, divination, medium, psychometry, and telekinesis. Weird Science allows you to build gadgets using normal skills. Gadget examples include death ray, portable telephony device (weighs 20 pounds), and a jet pack.
So the rules are enhanced, how about the world? The setting default becomes the 1930s. An entire chapter details pulp organizations from the era like Department 29 so heroes can be Feds kicking in doors and plugging cultists. Also covers evil cabals like the Gray Tigers, big game hunters who hunt anything truly dangerous, even other men. Plus, dinosaurs (read below for more).
The Keeper gets an entire chapter dedicated to running pulp games. Plots and themes are covered, scenario hooks and a MacGuffin generator are included, and the Keeper is given lots of ideas to up the action. Another chapter covers the world of the 1930s. The Great Depression hits and everything goes to hell. Near the end of 1929, Black Thursday ushers in the beginning of the crash. The 30s include an assassination attempt on President Roosevelt, Hitler’s rise to power, and ends with the beginning of World War II and Einstein considering how to build an atomic bomb. Prohibition is repealed in 1933 while at the same time the Federal government increases in power. Crime skyrocketed. Heroes really were needed.
The Keeper also gets another chapter of pulp villains. Silas Caravaggio is a world-wide criminal kingpin. The Goop is half-man, half-Shoggoth, all monster. His description is whoever he feels like (usually his last victim who he engulfed and consumed). The Grave Robber is a serial killer with the Resurrection spell and an unknown (but without a doubt) horrible agenda. He carries his mentor around as essential salts in a tin in his pocket. Keepers also get a t-rex, velociraptor, and killer robot to unleash. Four scenarios round out the book to get everything kicked off including maps, stats, and a fistful of player handouts.
Pulp Cthulhu is a hoot. PCs get amazing Talents, more hit points, and a wider stretch of Luck. But the villains get a boost too and as weird as Mythos monsters are, some of the supervillains are pretty darned strange also. There is an alcohol table. Plus, the Keeper gets stats on two of the greatest RPG dinosaurs to use. To me, this is an essential Basic Roleplaying RPG set of rules. Get this book and punch the Mythos right in its tentacled face.
