Pulp Storytime #9: Science City Saga!

I ran an action-packed session so this is a long one, but I think it had some great moments. It was supposed to be easy. Coach a bunch of orphans into winning a science fair by presenting Jonesy’s gadgets as their own. Win a 15-pound trophy made of pure star metal. And it might’ve worked except for the Utgyar Bratva. The Bratva ("Iron Brotherhood"), was a subset of the eastern European mafiya, and had a bone to pick with Calvin due to his actions in the Sino-Russian war. Knowing he had powerful companions, they planned to kidnap one of them in Vienna and hold a ransom/ambush. Unfortunately, Calvin and the group (Jonesey, Mary, Javid,) rushed into action and foiled it, saving Reinhart, smartest of the orphans. (Although the fastidious Javid wasted time, leaving the train on the far side to the stairs instead of leaping out the dirty window.) The group eventually arrived in Kaliningrad Latvia, USSR, aka Nukeograd Syet ("Science City Seven"). The players marveled at the futuristic city: self-operating elevators, washing machines, and buffet-style dining were some of the wonders on tap. They met a few people during the welcome dinner: “Helga Dwyer”, who Mary swore was an old Scottish coworker of hers at the Nottingham Post; Mack Silver, airline tycoon and member of the newly formed Century Club along with their longtime foe Gregory Goyle; Bertholt Schaal, electrical genius of Düsseldorf (who also clearly made his team’s inventions) And the heads of the Dawn and Dusk boarding schools, Dr Katerina Valentina, and Principal Grigor Korizev. Katharina was nice, if a bit standoffish; Grigor was creepy and poorly kept. An investigation unearthed two discoveries: — Mary’s past wasn’t as she thought. Why had she never actually seen an issue of the newspaper she worked for? — Members of the bratva had infiltrated the science city, and one of the academies had clues. This led to Mary and Calvin sneaking into the Dusk academy during the daytime, and discovering the hard way that Grigor was a Zolotznihe. Someone who had 'missed their death' and was condemned to never die unless the “correct” death was replicated. Mary ducked into a lab (what kind of modern school teaches alchemy?), Calvin signaled Javid and tried to hold the beast off. A sniper bullet crumpled against the beast’s forehead. Mary tried throwing acid in its face, nothing. Calvin’s sword, which has devastated many lesser enemies, barely broke skin. In desperation, the merc burnt a fate point and all the team’s advantages and tossed Grigor out the window. The defenestrated principal might have survived the fall, except he landed chest-first on a metal fence. Calvin the mercenary would’ve been caught fleeing the crime scene if it wasn’t for the help of Jonesey and Jav spying the approaching police. Stealthy Mary made her way into the principal's office, finding both a purple gem (a memory device that revealed that she had been intentionally mesmerized to forget she was a spy!), files on Calvin, and more information on the Bratva’s dealings. The tournament was canceled on account of the death, and a charity auction was held for the trophy. Millionaire Mack Silver won, and through a complicated scheme, Jonesey was able to fly Lucy, Mack’s futuristic plane, but “lost” the trophy in transit. The session hit all the pulp genres: action, spies, science fiction, horror, comedy, and impalement.

Mercenary Calvin Davino.

Pulp Storytime #8: Nova Roma Ain't Goin' Away!

Jonesey the scammer/mechanic, and Mary Willard, extremely competent secretary and aspiring journalist, joined the group in Benghazi Libya. they were investigating Zenova Tlaib’s smuggling ring, trying to restore it to glory, when they noticed the pieces appeared fake. Ancient Roman artifacts that seemed completely pristine? With a little digging, they found a cave complex, and inside… Nova Roma! Thousands of years ago, separated from their detachment by a fierce windstorm, a group of centurions stumbled into a cave complex miles from civilization. Unable to return because of the fierce sands, they started their own Roman city. And it had been undiscovered… Except by Sir Aldis Riley (order of Canada), his assistant Maude Brown*… and Tlaib. The gang snuck in, hoping to rescue their friend Maude... only to find her potentially wed to the emperor’s son! All the outsiders stirred up a revolt by the “exploration” faction of the populace… one that was put down by Maude’s amazing recriminations, using all her acting power to convince the crowd that if they disobeyed, they would be turned into spiders! The players rescued Riley and Tlaib, but were caught on the surface by a circling Italian plane! Jonesey drove the escape car like a maniac… and with the help of Javid and Mary, reached Benghazi, faked out the pilots, and made it to the airstrip, flying his plane The Vivian Leigh to safety. *Maude’s player showed up late and had Sunday commitment for the next ten months, so this was a good way to write her out.

Mary Willard, "Reporter".

Pulp Storytime #7: Fear at fashion week!

Paris, Fall of '35!

After a slow, slow cab ride, the group got to the Day one festivities late. Their contact, Bea Bingen, sister of Maude’s Butler*, was relegated to a dingy corner. Her designs had been plagiarized, but by who, and how? The gang also encountered Hugo Boss and their foe George Gyssing. Was he still holding a grudge after they got him fired from his job as the Nazi’s chief censor in Hollywood? Party associate Devika, the mystic orphan, was modeling for India-based fashion company END, which hired her to steal the thunder from Princess Karam**. Bea told them their mission was to not only discover who had been stealing her designs, but photograph and promote her fashion line in the press. (For this adventure, we used a day/night circle to keep the pressure on the players; drinking, parties, and restaurants at night, investigation during the day.) Investigating the Bingen fashion offices was difficult until sniper/photog Javid opened his mystic senses. Using automatic writing on a map of the city, he knew someone was scrying from either abandoned subway tunnels at the edge of the city, or the Eiffel Tower itself! Soon, the group headed to the Eiffel Tower, learned there was a secret apartment inside, and intended to distract the tour guide to see it. Unfortunately, Javid was mocking merc Calvin’s fear of heights so severely that the former was kicked off the tour, onto the deck with the secret apartment. Also investigating was Georg, a member of the Thule society! The Nazi pulled a pistol, but was too slow. Javid was able to find some leads and leave some lead, stashing the German’s body in the secret room. Evenings came quickly: a gory show at the Grand Guignol, where frontiersman François nearly beat up some cops for insulting his native Canada; a trip to a friend’s restaurant, the only Italian place in the Pigalle, and a visit to Harry’s New York bar, where everyone thankfully spoke English. But we’ll get back to that. The players followed their map and discovered the psychic Apache of orphans hiding in subway tunnels, stealing fashion designs at the behest of Madame Grés***. With none of the party particularly skilled at diplomacy, François “accidentally” destroyed their sewing machine, while Javid lied about getting them new jobs. The gang celebrated "solving the problem" at the New York bar. While fishing for journalists to sell their story to, they met Zara Bloome, NYT Paris correspondent. She asked some leading questions and discovered the group's involvement with the Eiffel Tower slaying. Oops! They promised her better dirt, which they would also get while hiring a bunch of models, seamstresses, and publicity representatives, because that part had fallen by the wayside. So had their quest: discover an amazing collaboration planned for the end of the week. The group restored the fashion line, but were under the gun at the finale, held at the park near the French Statue of Liberty****. The huge collaboration was a 12-foot swastika-covered fashion robot called END-Boss! The crowd had no idea of the danger as it began crushing the catwalk, walking back and forth, and “accidentally” endangering the group. They swung into action, though, with Calvin distracting it, and Javid shooting it in a fragile leg joint. The Nazis played it off as a big joke but the negative press was enough to leave the Eiffel Tower slaying unsolved, at least for now. *Later a PC! **https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sita_Devi_(Maharani_of_Kapurthala) ***https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Gr%C3%A8s https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/statue-of-liberty-pont-de-grenelle

Zara Bloome, troublesome reporter.

Pulp Storytime #6: Hollywoodland On Your Feet!

After learning that their exploits were being made into a motion picture, members of the party made their way to 20th Century Fox to find out some more. After some finagling with security, they were admitted with the help of Maude Brown, radio star and movie hopeful. Maude had been cast as Devey, a composite of Devika & Evie, and apparently Kabir’s daughter. The group quickly discovered that the film is: A. Wildly inaccurate B. Produced by the Gray Gargoyle and C. Being heavily influenced by the Nazi film czar Georg Gyssling. The group began to sabotage the film set, and weaseled their way into a meeting with the studio head by way of an old associate, Otto Preminger. Coming to verbal (and then physical) blows with the Gargoyle himself, Kabir and Maude come to the conclusion that the best plan is to ruin the reputation of the German and eliminate his influence over the studio, numbers be damned. Through the cajoling of the studio print shop, some borrowed items from props and risque photos of Lord Simon, a trap was set in the German’s car. (Drugs, porn, AND commie propaganda!) Studio security and media were both alerted to the contraband, and Georg drove off in a huff. Needless to say, the movie won’t hit your cinema anytime soon.

Below, Georg:

Pulp Storytime #5

Thrilling tales: Radio Marauders by Steven S. Long.

Our group of ne’er-do-wells included a nervous Swedish reporter, Oksana Larrson, and a returning Lord Simon. He seemed both surprised and a little bit jealous that his sidekick Devika was rich enough that she had her own private jet*, but their chemistry was undeniable. (A great moment was when they finally realize that Swedish people speak French. They had been gossiping about the party members but Oksana was too polite to say anything.) Much ado was made about the reporter hiding in the villains' getaway car and crawling into a giant sack with a dollar sign on it. Other highlights were robbing the robbers before reporting their hide-out to the police; convincing a mad scientist that we were on his private island to give him an award, the igNobel prize; and luring Al Capone, whose loot we had ripped off, into a trap with a particularly provacative series of radio ads. (It was the sneakiest party I’ve ever been part of, with three different characters having stealth as their top or second-best skill. Just a coincidence of which people showed up.)

*Devi's Millions explained!

I feel like one of the main characters becoming a millionaire is a detail worth explaining! Over the course of some adventures that I didn’t write up, including The Curse of Sekhmet by J.C. Connors, Devika became extraordinarily wealthy. The first was when she helped purge the ghosts from a Yukon gold mine and took it over. The second was the intro and outro of “Curse”. It starts with the players foiling a multiple-bank robber. Devika, unaware that Italy didn’t have FDIC insurance in 1935, decided to split the money recovered with her peers. One of her peers was a Russian journalist who despised money, so Devika became rich splitting 7 robberies two ways.

Pulp Storytime #4

With this ring, I thee…DEAD?

December 31, 1935, Kochi Japan. Ray “Jonesy” Jones had plans to get rich: one, win the first ever sky-athalon; second, pose as his friend Javid to play photographer at a royal wedding. Plan one went bust immediately, when fashion plate Mary Willard did the athletic section of the foot/plane/motorcycle triathlon in kitten heels. It went even more bust when Jonesey’s teammate, Mexican college-boy detective Mateo Ortiz, tried to run opponents off the track and careened through a cactus patch. The group discovered that the race was crooked, and challenged the cheater Sunny Bounder to an aerial race through the forest section. Through aggressive “counter” cheating, the group was able to win back their money and more, with only a mild risk of dismemberment. Next was the wedding, which involved one of Jones’s old contacts, rich New Zealander Carl Giltrap, and the broke Baroness Kujo Kimiko. They were supposed to be married at midnight, and would’ve, except for a few factors: *One of the wedding guests attached himself to Mateo, showing off a beautiful ring that was secretly property of a deadly Indian cult; *The fact Kimiko didn’t love Carl, and actually loved wedding photographer Yoshi; *That the actual heir, Kujo Shohei, was chained up in the basement, murderously mad at his parents for trying to steal his birthright. The players dealt with these issues, mostly through deceit and chicanery. But MVP was “Hollywood psychic” Madame Valeira. Not only did she spin an amazing web of deceit, convincing Kimiko to return for a super quick 11:58 PM wedding that she administered, and redirecting Shohei’s anger in a way that prevented scandal; she also defeated several cultists, throwing heavy bracelets to knock them off a slippery railing and into the sea. Though battered and bruised, the players made some new allies, and only a few new lifetime enemies.

Mateo Ortiz:

Pulp Storytime #3

Science City Saga!

I ran an action-packed session so this is a long one, but I think it had some really great moments. It was supposed to be easy. Coach a bunch of orphans into winning a science fair by presenting Jonesy’s gadgets as their own. Win a 15-pound trophy made of pure star metal. And it might’ve worked except for the Utgyar Bratva. The Bratva ("Iron Brotherhood"), was a subset of the eastern European mafiya, and had a bone to pick with Calvin due to his actions in the Sino-Russian war. Knowing he had powerful companions, they planned to kidnap one of them in Vienna and hold a ransom/ambush. Unfortunately, mercenary Calvin Davino and the group (Jonesey, Mary, and Javid) rushed into action and foiled it, saving Reinhart, the smartest of the orphans. (The fastidious Javid wasted time, leaving the train on the far side of the stairs instead of leaping out the dirty window.) The group eventually arrived in Kaliningrad Latvia, USSR, aka Nukeograd Syet (Science City Seven). The players marveled at the futuristic city: self-operating elevators, washing machines, and buffet-style dining were some of the wonders on tap. They met a few people during the welcome dinner: “Helga Dwyer”, who Mary swore was an old Scottish coworker of hers at the Nottingham Post; Mack Silver, airline tycoon and member of the newly formed Century Club along with their longtime foe Gregory Goyle; Bertholt Schaal, electrical genius of Düsseldorf (who also clearly made his team’s inventions) And the heads of the Dawn and Dusk boarding schools, Dr Katerina Valentina, and Principal Grigor Korizev. Katharina was nice, if a bit standoffish; Grigor was creepy and poorly kept. An investigation unearthed two things: — Mary’s past wasn’t as she thought. Why had she never actually seen an issue of the newspaper she worked for? — Members of the bratva had infiltrated the science city, and one of the academies had clues. This led to Mary and Calvin sneaking into the Dusk academy during the daytime, and discovering the hard way that Grigor was a Zolotznihe. Someone who had 'missed their death' and was condemned to never die unless the “correct” death was replicated. Mary ducked into a lab (what kind of modern school teaches alchemy?), Calvin signaled Javid and tried to hold the beast off. A sniper bullet crumpled against the beast’s forehead. Mary tried throwing acid in its face, nothing. Calvin’s sword, which has devastated many lesser enemies, barely broke skin. In desperation, The merc burnt a fate point and all the team’s advantages and tossed Grigor out the window. The defenestrated principal might have survived the fall, except he landed chest-first on a metal fence. Calvin would’ve been caught fleeing the crime scene if it wasn’t for the help of Jonesey and Jav seeing the approaching police. Stealthy Mary snuck into the principal's office, finding both a purple gem (a memory device that revealed that she had been intentionally mesmerized to forget she was a spy!), files on Calvin, and more information on the Bratva’s dealings. The tournament was canceled on account of the death, and a charity auction was held for the trophy. Millionaire Mack Silver won, and through a complicated scheme, Jonesey was able to fly Lucy, Mack’s futuristic plane, but “lost” the trophy in transit. The session hit all the pulp genres: action, spies, science fiction, horror, comedy, and impalement.

Mack Silver by Christian N. St. Pierre.

Pulp Storytime #2

'Ween of the Worlds!

[Halloween in our pulp game. We had a very new player who never played the system before. He decided that his Filipino mercenary had the aspect No Fun. He refused to dress up for the Halloween party or laugh at any of the jokes, which made the jokes the other two players made much funnier.]

Yee haw! This session mystic orphan Devie and aerialist Evie St. Clair were joined by super-serious Filipino mercenary Calvin Davino. En route to a fancy dress party, with Devika playing a cowgirl and Evie as a foppish millionaire, a strange radio broadcast claimed that aliens were invading Grovers Mill New Jersey. The trio stopped by the radio station, where they found Orson Welles, furious that his light alien comedy was interrupted by this news event.

What ensued was a cat-and-mouse game between the overmatched trio and giant alien walkers with fire cannons. Strong rope and Cadillac horsepower, along with some help from the military and the mob, took out the invaders.

Fear the Fashion Spetnaz!

I ran a Paris fashion week adventure. The players killed a Nazi and hid them in the secret apartment of the Eiffel Tower, tracked down a gang of psionic children, and fought a giant robot designed by Hugo Boss named END BOSS.

Nova Roma ain't Goin' Away!

Jonesey the scammer mechanic, and Mary Willard, extremely competent secretary and aspiring journalist, joined the group in Benghazi Libya. They were investigating Zenova Tlaib’s smuggling ring, trying to restore it to glory, when they noticed the pieces appeared fake. Ancient Roman artifacts that seemed completely pristine?

With a little digging, they found a cave complex, and inside… Nova Roma! Thousands of years ago, separated from their detachment by a fierce windstorm, a group of centurions stumbled into a cave complex miles from civilization. Unable to return because of the fierce sands, they started their own Roman city.

And it had been undiscovered… Except by Sir Aldis Riley (order of Canada), his assistant, Radio Star Maude Brown*… and Tlaib.

The gang snuck in, hoping to rescue their friend Maude… only to find her potentially wed to the emperor’s son! All the outsiders stirred up a revolt by the “exploration” faction of the populace… one that was put down by Maude’s amazing recriminations, using all her acting power to convince the crowd that they disobeyed, they would be turned into spiders!

The players rescued Riley and Tlaib, but were caught on the surface by a circling Italian plane! Jonesey drove the escape car like a maniac… and with the help of Javid and Mary, reached Benghazi, faked out the pilots, and made it to the airstrip, flying his plane The Vivian Leigh to safety.

Mary

Raymond "Jonesy" Jones

Starting now: PULP STORYTIME!

I’ve been running one of the best games of my life over the last few years. I’ve been writing them up over at SA, but that site is gated and I wanted to share those stories with a larger audience. I’m gonna be posting two tales of pulp adventure from my table, weekly. Enjoy!

The Park-North Snipe Hunt!

In this game, we play a collection of pulp gentlemen thieves, grabbing & nabbing in 1930s New York. And an errant detail changed the course of the entire session. The session started with us trying to steal the Doomsday Clock, a pastiche of the Antikythera mechanism. Someone beat us to the punch, so we were forced to investigate…which led us to the local Syndicate. While looting a safe in a mafia speakeasy, I decided to forge a note, taking credit, signed “the Gray Gargoyle”. Who’s that? Well, it’s a costumed adventurer who smashes crime, especially art crime! Total ass-pull, but it fit the setting. We didn’t think much more about it, until our adventures led us to an upstate airfield, where mafiosos were trying to smuggle the Clock out of the country. I spent a fate point to declare that they were already being stopped… by the Gray Gargoyle! Yes, he dove off the air control tower and with his Gliding Cape, intercepted the plane! We rescued him from airfield security, but we had a plan. Since we were gentlemen, it wouldn’t make sense to just kill the guy and take the artifact. After all, that’s not thievery, that’s mugging. So we engineered a plan where we gathered the mob boss who was after the artifact, killed him with a sniper rifle, and escaped in the confusion. Unfortunately, the Gargoyle didn’t take the bait and get himself killed in the fracas, instead watching our escape from the valet stand.

Running the circus from the monkey cage!

The campaign continues, with a rotating GM. This week and last, we were joined by Evelyn St. Cloud, insecure Circus Aerialist*. This week was a flashback featuring her and mystic orphan Devika Velyapur, trying to pull some scams at the Hagenbeck–Wallace circus. And while we prevented an accident, saved the circus and altered history, most notable were three things: —Evelyn only agreeing to help prevent a train crash because of Devika goading her, targeting her aspect “Anything you can do…”. —In order to chase the villain, we convinced the circus strongman to bend the frames of two penny farthings together to create an ersatz duo bicycle. —We discovered the villain of the adventure, Mabel Smith Douglass, was someone we met last week. And since this was a flashback, that limited our options. Highwire-walker Evie jumped onto the plane. But while she couldn’t open the door, all she could do was force a landing. And without a suitable escape route, there was no way to convince airport officials that the villain had stolen property. So after some fisticuffs, we swore revenge on someone who died at the end of last session. *There was a brief cameo by Smuggler ‘Typhoon’ Mike McGinty, but he had to leave after the first hour. He discovered a tiger sleeping on his boat and used his connections to try and sell it to a buyer in Canada.

For reference, Devika, Lord Simon, and Javid, our initial trio:

Getting a lotta smoke from this one

2024? More like 200-and-late. Just my opinion

2024? More like 200-and-late. Just my opinion

My bad Lorcana decks from 2033

Ravens promised 10 years of support for this game. These are the decks I will be losing with at that time.

HSM:TM: The Series Wave: SOUR & Strange: Olivia Rodrigo (Floodborn 'S4 Nini') & Sid’s toys

World Showcase Pack: "Big Swing" Mike Eisner/Remy "Paris rush" deck (loses to the 2032 Kim Possible/Figment meta)

General bad decks: Mulan/Gus from Recess “Sun Tzu’s kindergardeners”

Chip/Dale/Indiana Jones: "Dueling Fedoras"

Corey Matthews/Jaeger Clade: "Boy Meets Strange World"

Movie Silver Surfers

"Just Red/Blue characters voiced by Jim Cummings”

To Joss Whedon, Regarding the Black Widow in Avengers: Age of Ultron (The Major Motion Picture)

You nailed it, Wheaty!

My best post?

Halloween Obama

Don’t Vote. Boo.

Seems legit!

Feelz

Here is my completed extremely self indulgent Banjo Kazooie series I made between 2019-2020 because I miss them so much.

I make a show now!

See me GM, not live!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4OFNefwts0