Pulp!

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

Cowboy Duck

Formerly MattyHelms
Joined
Sep 29, 2020
Messages
319
Reaction score
1,137
I am by no means a miniature expert. I have ruined any mini that I have tried to paint. My desire to remember or reference detailed rules at the table lags far behind the desire to laugh and tell cool stories with my friends. My "miniature" collection is, no fooling, generic game pawns glued to cheap poker chips.

Nevertheless, I do enjoy some miniature games - the fast playing, heavily thematic ones like Gaslands or Six Gun Sound: Devil's Elbow - just based on the level of prep and commitment required versus role-playing games.

So I picked up Pulp! from Osprey. Man, is it cool. It can easily run anything I want - hero pulps like the Spider, adventure like Indiana Jones or Big Trouble in Little China, weird west, or swashbuckling right out of the gate. What's really cool for me is that it doesn't try to enforce that great pulp feeling through rules, but through flavor. Character abilities are named things like Terrifying Laughter or Swing From the Chandelier. Optional character backgrounds are things like My Parents Were in the Circus and I Was a Vigilante in Chicago. There's a nice section at the end which gives examples (not systems) of modifying the rules to suit a particular adventure - the penalty on your activation rolls after you discover your long lost daughter fighting for your enemies, ninjas disappearing in a flash and reappearing elsewhere instead of standard movement, etc.

All in all, a great game for someone looking to throw some miniatures on the table with next to no prep and have quick story-based fun with a friend.
 
Tell me more already!

How does it work?
It's a good, basic miniatures game - roll for initiative, IGOUGO, repeat. One rules wrinkle is that each model may only get a partial activation based on its activation roll - a model with partial activation can only take a defensive stance, hold for reactive fire, or pass.

Pulp! has gotten some poor reviews saying that it's not exciting or thorough enough. I find it's a basic set of rules that give me flavor, guidance, and examples to have some wild adventures in an hour or two. It's all about the flavor and excitement you bring to it rather than mechanically reinforcement of pulp tropes.
 
Honestly, this won me over completely.
Yeah, me too.

The backgrounds are a good example of applying the simple rules to the genre. Normally, you can apply any special benefit to any model as long as you pay the cost - Heroes can do this three times during a game. Selecting a background limits your choices to two benefits but also grants another bonus. With "My parents were in the circus," you can only use your three points during a game for Acrobatic Dodge and Acrobatic Pursuit. However, twice per game you get a special defense bonus.

Another example of adding flavor without mechanical complexity is the suggestion of Pilots. If the adventure is in a far-flung location, each side designates a pilot. In addition to any normal victory conditions for the scenario, a side automatically loses if their pilot is KO'd since they won't be able to fly out after the adventure.
 
What I'm hearing is defintiely interesting.

Could you go into some detail about the core mechanics and the amount of "stuff" the rules imply you'll need to play?

How much table space do you need?

Is this a micro-skirmish, where each player generally needs 5 or less minis? Or is more gange sized 8-14 ish?

Does it commonly have raging wildlife or annoying bystanders rolling through?

Does it cover vehicles in play?

What is an aaverage length play time once parties roughly know the rules?

Does it require a lot of markers other than miniatures and terrain?

Does it use character sheets? If so, how large physically?

I do own...several rulesets for thsi era with broad reskinning capabilities. I'm always u for another. I'm just trying to assess whether this is a Must-Have or a Nice-to-Have.
 
Sure...

It's all based on side sided dice. Each side rolls for initiative and then takes turns activating Units. A Unit can be a single model, like a Hero/Villain, or a grouping of like models. The unit type determines its stats - Activation, combat skill, special points to activate benefits. Extras are a type that can only take one hit. All others can be suppressed by ranged fire and can take two wounds before being g KO'd.

I cover Activation in an earlier post, but if you get a full activation, you get one action - walk, run, aimed ranged attack, reaction fire, defensive stance, or charge into melee. Oh - forget to mention - at the start of each turn, any models still locked in melee fight a round of melee before you begin normal model activations.

Wapons are rated in dice (and special effects - there are things like freeze rays). Roll the dice with a few simple modifiers - each one is a potential hit. The defender gets a defense roll.

The game suggests the usual - dice, ruler, 2D or 3D terrain, tokens. They recommend five different types of tokens. Model count can be low - their suggestion is one hero/villian, one or two Elite or Veterans, and two units of three Seasoned. Suggested table size is 3' x 3'.

Yes, animals are covered including dinosaurs. Animals are either Trained or Untrained. Trained animals can be part of your war band. Untrained animals activate at the end of each turn, usually charging into melee. Bystanders are not specifically covered, but would likely be one of those simple scenario adjustments mentioned in an earlier post. No vehicle rules - they assume vehicles were used only to get you to the action.

If you add background options or run the simple campaign rules, you'll need a small character sheet. There are detrimental effects you can add - traumas and phobias. You can also select one special benefit only and gain one additional activation per game.

Hope this helps!
 
I should also mention that the scenario creation section is pretty robust and covers how to physically and thematically structure different types of adventures.
 
I've got a decent amount of old Victorian vampire hunters/vampires/werewolves that are gathering dust, wonder if it'd work for those...
 
I've got a decent amount of old Victorian vampire hunters/vampires/werewolves that are gathering dust, wonder if it'd work for those...
Blue Moon, Grenadier, Vampire Wars, or All of the Above (my collection of stuff like that)? :tongue:
 
Vampire Wars. I actually got them originally for Mordheim.
I love that entire line of minis. I really should pick up some of the other human minis for it, like the cops and villagers.
 
I love that entire line of minis. I really should pick up some of the other human minis for it, like the cops and villagers.
Got them for both an Undead and Witch Hunter warband. Even made a nifty set piece for the latter in the form of mobile gallows complete with hangman.
 
Picked Pulp! up from my FLGS the other day. I have the same issue I have with it as a lot of other Osprey wargames, specifically that the font is tiny, but other than that, it looks cool.
 
Picked Pulp! up from my FLGS the other day. I have the same issue I have with it as a lot of other Osprey wargames, specifically that the font is tiny, but other than that, it looks cool.
Have you had a chance to look it over?
 
I've actually misplaced it in the course of my current home-reorganization/decluttering project :sad:. But I'm looking forward to giving it a read when it shows up again!
 
Last edited:
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top