![]() ![]() We then get a staple of OSR games which should make a lot of you happy - the Random Table! In this case, it's really clever and fits right in the setting - It's two tables that work in conjunction to make a naming convention for "pulp science." Table I tells you how many Catalysts, Functions, and Prefixes the name has, and in what order, and Table II presents a column of Prefixes, two Catalyst columns, and two Function columns. Science in this type of setting is both promising and threatening, as secret societies and fascist nations also have scientists working on making giant attack robots, death rays, and super bombs. In the Pulp Heroes section specifically, one of the things I really loved was the description of "pulp science." The section explains how Pulp Heroes scientists are eggheads who publish academic papers, but rather are tough adventurous inventors who test their own unproven inventions themselves to work out the kinks. ![]() #D20 MODERN CORE RULEBOOK PAGE 36 PC#We get pictures of various period planes and zeppelins, descriptions of fire arms, sailing ships, aircraft, and ground vehicles, and some cool pictures of various characters that you could use as PC or NPC portraits. so you can compare speeds.įrom a pulp noir standpoint, there are tons of really fun and cool things in here that can help with a game that takes place during this era. To let you in on how rules-light this book is, we don't see any rules or tables or anything until page 9, and on that page and the next few pages, the tables are actually just the various movement rates of different vehicles such as trains, ships, horses, etc. There are tons of great ideas in here, including "Cloistered" (characters who grow up in a Himalayan fortress, hidden Vatican chapel, or other places isolated from society), which is actually a background idea I ended up stealing and using for my player character in a Call of Cthulhu game that started with the D20 system but has since switched over to Savage Worlds. Sure, the starting occupations include a few rules tidbits (recommended skills, bonus feats, etc.), but that's easily ignored for what's really important - ideas on typical character backgrounds and how they fit into historical settings. So again, people who hate D20-type games might be thinking that this is too rules-heavy, but I disagree. ![]() The entire book covers the time period from about 1450 to 1950, divided into three main sections: The Age of Adventure (pirates and muskateers), Shadow Stalkers (characters hunt "creatures of shadow" throughout the 1870s, whether as gunslingers in the Wild West or detectives in Victorian London, for example), and most relevant for us, Pulp Heroes (private eyes, bold explorers, mad scientists, and fascist generals in the 1920s and 1930s).Įach section covers things like character archetypes, an overview of the types of campaign styles, friends and foes, including new monsters, prestige and advanced classes, and some sample adventures.īefore all of this comes an overview of historical campaigns and various ways to run them (strictly historical or semi-historical including adding varying levels of fictional elements, thoughts on starting occupations for characters, technology levels at various points in history, and new skills, feats, and equipment. Most notably for Pulp Noir fans, it includes material from the "Pulp Heroes" material from Polyhedron #149 by David Noonan, and "V for Victory", by Chris Pramas, which was originally published in Polyhedron #156. This particular supplement was written by James Wyatt (not my favorite game designer) and Gwendolyn F. But, I figured I could mine this book for ideas for future games and also for a D20 Call of Cthulhu game I was playing in at the time, and it came in really handy for that.ĭ20 Past is a supplement for the D20 Modern role-playing game that was published by WotC shortly after 3rd Edition D&D was released. I look at D20 Past the same way - I've actually never even played D20 Modern and didn't acquire the core rulebook until about two years after I picked up this release. #D20 MODERN CORE RULEBOOK PAGE 36 TV#I've covered comics and TV shows, and the only two game-related releases that I have covered so far are really mostly setting material - the game mechanics are negligible. So, firstly, for those Old School types who strictly only stick to games that stopped publishing back in 1988, I'll just point out that almost all of my Pulp Noir inspiration posts are actually not even game-related. ![]() For more pulp era posts, check out my Pulp Noir tag. Continuing in my posts of pulp-era themed games, books, comics, movies,Īnd TV shows, today's post covers a somewhat under-the-radar supplement for WotC's D20 Modern game, called D20 Past. ![]()
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