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(VERY
MUCH UNDER CONSTRUCTION)
Table
of Contents
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Introduction
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What are Pulp Adventures?
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What is Risus?
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Master
Cliché List for Pulp Adventures
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Guy Hoyle’s “A Quick Guide to
the Anatomy of a Cliché”
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Character Creation
Guidelines
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Daring Adventure Tales |
Setting Notes
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Pulp Examples
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Helpful Clichés
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Sample Character, Jackson Dare
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House Rules
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Why No Magic Rules?
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Why No Weapons or Vehicle Rules?
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Ripping Air Yarns |
Setting Notes
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Pulp Examples
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Helpful Clichés
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Sample Character, John Scipio, “The
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House Rules
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Aircraft Rules
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Stellar Space Magazine |
Setting Notes
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Pulp Examples
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Helpful Clichés
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Additional Clichés
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Sample Character, Captain Stella “Blaze” Bannister of the Space Rangers
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House Rules
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Spacecraft Rules
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Strange Western Stories |
Setting Notes
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Pulp Examples
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Helpful Clichés
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Additional Clichés
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Sample Character, Sheriff Hiram Parish
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House Rules
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Magic and the Supernatural
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American Indian “Medicine”
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Locale – Lonesome Gulch, pop. 312
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Weird Crime Report |
Setting Notes
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Pulp Examples
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Helpful Clichés
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Sample Character, Jackson Dare
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House Rules
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Magic and the Supernatural
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Background – The Supernatural, Paranormal and Otherwise
Unknown Criminal Division (S.P.O.U.C.D.)
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Resources |
Pulp adventures take their name from the publishing method
of choice for the popular press from, say the turn of the century to the
1950’s. Cheap paper made of pressed wood pulp was used to print magazines
affordable to the working class. These magazines covered a wide range of
genres: science fiction and fantasy, horror, detective mystery,
globe-trotting adventure, sports, wild west, and even
romance.
No matter what genre was
featured, there were some near-universal conventions: clear-cut heroes
and villains, an insidious plot, a mystery, “deathtraps” and the triumph of the
Right over the Wrong.
Pulp magazines were
published regularly from the 1920’s through the 1950’s, peaking during the 30’s
and 40’s. Eventually, paper quality improved, but because the stories
were all written along a certain style, the name “pulp” became associated with
the adventures themselves rather than the medium.
Pulp authors wrote
stories featuring simple, almost visceral themes such as good vs. evil, order
vs. anarchy and the like. As gritty as the stories could become, they
almost always offered an escape from the grim realities of the day.
Although they were simple stories in terms of theme, often they featured rather
complicated characters. The “heroes” of hard-boiled detective pulps were
hard-drinking, chain-smoking, skirt-chasing, acid-tongued insomniacs. The
protagonists of gangster pulps were, well, gangsters. But no
matter how rough such anti-heroes were, there was always something redeemable
about them, which again fits in with the underlying black-and-white themes.
Many readers, when discovering
the pulps for the first time, are shocked to discover that the pulps are often
full of latent and sometimes overt sexism and racism. This can be blamed
on the fact that they are products of their times, in which gender roles were
very rigid and anyone who differed from the average “White Anglo-Saxon
Protestant” template of an “All-American” was either locked into subservient
roles or held in deep suspicion, or both.
Pulp heroes in general are
“All-American-Boy (or Girl)-Next-Door types. They are not motivated by a
desire for personal glory, but by an almost overdeveloped sense of right and
wrong, justice, and fair play.
As an example, take a look at
the personal code of Doc Savage, one of the greatest pulp heroes:
Let me strive every
moment of my life, to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability,
that all may profit by it.
Let me think of the
right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for
anything but justice.
Let me take what
comes with a smile, without loss of courage.
Let me be considerate
of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and
do.
Let me do right to
all, and wrong no man.
Pulp heroes stand as paragons
of clean living, education, and morality. Although they appear on the
surface to be the “hometown boy or girl done good,”
there is a presence about them, a charisma that causes them to stand out from
the crowd.
They are not superheroes.
That is, they are not “endowed with powers and abilities far beyond those of
mortal man.” Rather, they are highly trained, educated and
motivated. They succeed not because they have super-powers, but because
they are determined, clever, and possess a strong moral character.
To roleplay these heroes, the player must “buy in” to the concept that the PC is deeply committed to preserving the ideals of Western (specifically American) civilization. These ideals of justice, fair play, humility, “stick-to-it-iveness,” ingenuity, humor, and, when necessary, self-sacrifice.
Players should not expect
to be showered with wealth at the end of a successful adventure or
campaign. Rather, their reward is the satisfaction that they have helped
humanity.
Risus is a FREE rules-lite role-playing game (rpg) that focuses on clichés to describe characters, rather than stats, skills, and attributes. Its features are extreme fast play, flexibility, and humor. In fact, it is billed as a “comedy rpg”, but the author, S. John Ross allows that it can be used to play serious games “if you insist.” For more information, and to download your own FREE copy, go to the Risus site at http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm.
· Guy Hoyle’s
Article on clichés
The best way to really get the most out of Risus
is to customize your character’s cliché. Here is a great article that
explains how clichés work, and may give you a good idea for how to put your
character together.
Typically, Characters using the Adventure Street Omnibus
series of pulp settings will use the standard Risus
character creation rules. In other words, players will have 10 dice to
allocate among various clichés. There is a limit of 4 dice allocated to
anyone cliché. I personally like the idea of an rpg where regular, ol’
fashioned six-sided dice stolen from an old board game can be used to play, so
there Funky Dice will not be used. As players create their characters,
they might want to add a Hook and a Tale. A Hook is a character flaw, a
physical/mental/social disability that the GM could use to his great
advantage. A Tale is just what it sounds like: a detailed background
story that breathes life into your character. Hooks and Tales each give a
bonus of one (1) die that can be allocated among either clichés or Lucky Shots
or Questing Dice, which are explained below. Language skills must be
specified in either the clichés or in the tale.