I’d say it’s more boiling down than writing up. I post an occasional series called “Thrilling Cities”.
This is what I wrote as an intro.
“Approach One might be described as the “Dent Method”. Nearly all pulp rules seem to include pulp guidelines or even a random generator. All such exercises trace their ancestry back to the author of the Doc Savage stories, Lester Dent. Dent proposed the “Pulp Master Fiction Plot”. The Plot needed five elements.
1. Villain
2. Something for the villain to seek
3. Murder methods for the villain to use
4. Locations in which the protagonists and the villain operate
5. Menace to hang over the protagonists
However, Dent-derived guidelines are somewhat lacking when it comes to locations. That’s because the author/GM has to provide all the detail from his own imagination. Indeed Dent’s advice was to avoid world-spanning pulp. The creator should choose a locale that was familiar, “a place where you’ve lived or worked.” “So many pulpateers don’t,” he lamented. The result was often “embarassment” because it was obvious to editors that the authors who used exotic locations were complete bull*******s. They were too ignorant to achieve a suspension of disbelief and thus unfit to be published.
Dent suggested that if the author must globetrot he should acquire a children’s guide and a phrasebook. A few palm trees and some cod Arabic and the reader is transported to Egypt – it might be enough to secure publication.
Approach Two could be described as the “Masks Method”. Starting with Masks of Nyarlathotep Chaosium tried to get Cthulhu out of Arkham, Mass. It’s notable that the co-author of Masks was a professional screenwriter, Larry DeTillo.
The Masks Method, used in many RPG publications since, creates a dramatic opening scene in which the characters must participate, then offers them clues to a range of exciting locations which they can visit in any order. Within these locations are one or more adventure sites. However, all this criss-crossing of the globe leads to one Final Destination where The Grand Finale takes place.
The usual criticism of the Masks Method is that it creates a one-way trip to railroad city. Characters absolutely must be kept on the straight and narrow by invisible walls. They are still in the dungeon but with none of its “authenticity”, constantly ambushed by the Quantum Ogre.
However, that’s not the main problem for anyone who wants to have fun designing a world-spanning campaign. Their problem is that The Masks Method requires a ****ton of work. Even with the aid of Wikipedia, and red-lining travel a là Indiana Jones, it’s not a task to be tackled lightly. Indeed the baroque Masks Method campaigns of recent years remain heavy on storytelling – cheap, linear text – but light on useable resources, too many gimmicky handouts in Sanskrit, not enough maps and floorplans. Rumour has it that the next Kickstarter for Horror on the Orient Express will include a 1:1 scale model of the train as a stretch goal.”
