Which pulp adventure-style RPG's are out there now?

[Goodsport]

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Since both of these Indiana Jones roleplaying games have long been out of print...


The Adventures of Indiana Jones (TSR - 1984)

The World of Indiana Jones (West End Games - 1994)

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp ... there has been precious little out there in terms of pulp adventure roleplaying games.

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp However, not all hope is lost - there are some currently out there that, while not having the Indiana Jones brand, still evoke the spirit of pulp adventure that is Indiana Jones.

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp The two that I'm currently aware of are:


Adventure! (White Wolf Publishing - 2001)

GURPS Cliffhangers, Second Edition (Steve Jackson Games - 2002)*

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Has anyone else here played these games? And what other pulp adventure RPG's are out there?


-G


* GURPS Cliffhangers, First Edition (also by Steve Jackson Games) was released in 1989, but has long since been out of print.

 

[JPL]

I have both of the in-print games.

Adventure is great, provided you dig the Storyteller system.

Cliffhangers, like so many GURPS products, is very useful as a genre/historical reference for any thirties game.

What else...

- Forbidden Kingdoms [can't say I'd recommend this one]
- Pulp Heroes [from Polyhedron]
- Zeppelin Age [coming soon, I believe]
- Two-Fisted Tales [system looks shaky, but good feel for the genre]

Really, I'd just go d20 Modern plus Cliffhangers as reference material. You can always import dramatic editing from Adventure [an alternate use of Action Points, perhaps].

 

[Goodsport]

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Thanks for the info, JPL! I'll try that out.


-G

 

[JPL]

You bethca.

One other suggestion: there's a site out there that has the back cover blurbs for every single Doc Savage paperback. That's 181 crazy old-school pulp adventure hooks.

Read them all. Meditate upon them.

Then you shall understand pulp.

 

[Skade]

For d20 there is Forbidden Kingdoms by Otherworld Creations. I have not seen too many books in this line, but the main book is great. It's easily one of my favorite d20 books. Just the flavor text alone is worth the price. The book covers alternate earth versions of 1900-1940 or so, with chapters like Tesla Time, and Nazi Thugs. There is agood selection of new classes (not modern rules, but you can make changes if thats your thing), a variant psionic and martial arts system, and rules to make cool gadgets and guns for all eras.

 

[Goodsport]

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp I've also heard that GURPS Places of Mystery is a good sourcebook for ideas and locales when running pulp adventueres.


-G

 

[haiiro]

- Gear Krieg is the pulp version of Heavy Gear (mecha tabletop game and RPG).
- Pulp Cthulhu should be out sometime in 2003. Regular CoC can be pulped up pretty easily (sort of like regular CoC investigators ).

Much older stuff:

- TSR's Agent 13 and Buck Rogers XXV: the 25th Century (a bit of a stretch).
- Flying Buffalo's Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes is pulpy, I'm told.
- FGU did Daredevils.
- Champions had a Golden Age supplement.

The older stuff comes from web searches, not personal knowledge or playing experience.

 

[Lisa Nadazdy]

You're forgetting the classic HERO book, Aaron Allston's Lands of Mystery.

 

[Damon Griffin]

For d20 there is Forbidden Kingdoms by Otherworld Creations. I have not seen too many books in this line, but the main book is great. It's easily one of my favorite d20 books. Just the flavor text alone is worth the price.

I love the pulp genre, but Forbidden Kingdoms was one of my least favorite d20 books. To be fair, this was more due to some confusing aspects of the layout, and the fact that the obviously truncated equipment list isn't addressed in the errata, than to the actual rules content.

The "martial mystic" class was also some cause for concern in our group, since it was too easy to become seriously threatening psionic kung-fu character by 3rd or 4th level.

I won't recommend to anyone that they not buy this book, but I do strongly suggest a good thorough browse before purchase. It may avoid disappointments. I just jumped on it when it came out, happy to see any pulp-genre release. I'll look at the Paris sourcebook when it comes out, but just at the moment I'm leaning toward not buying any more FK releases. The experience has not soured me on Otherworld Creations, though, and I'm still looking forward to seeing some of their upcoming d20 books outside of FK.

 

[Goodsport]

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp There apparently is a Heroic Pulp Online game called Lost Continents in the works.

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp And of course, don't forget that Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb is due to be released for the PC and the Xbox in February, and for the Playstation 2 in March.


-G