First Pulp Run Through

I finally got off my a+++ and had a read through of In Her Majesties Name - one of several rule sets being considered for my Pulp adventures. Quite a lot in here and not all of it applicable to Pulp, as it is intended for Victorian Steam Punk - but there was enough to have a go! What I may end up doing is plagerising a lot of the stuff in IHMN and adding in some other bits from Frostgrave and other places.....we shall see.

After a couple of hours of reading, note taking and making up a couple of contingent cards, after dinner I had a quick run through of some of the rules. 

View of the table, with my second piece of 1m x 1m felt - this time in desert-ish yellow! Home made walls and buildings drafted in from my War on Terror accessories, as are the palm trees.

Of course, for episode one, it had to be everybodies favourite baddies - the whole idea was set off by the blonde Nazi in the Indiana Jones movie, after all!

The Nazis protaganist - the Evil Priestess and her acolyte

Doktor Elsa and her crew advance into the desert village, in search of an ancient artefact sought by the Reichsfuhrer, Heinrich Himmler

The leading Nazi cautiously enters the compound - everything seems quiet

Out of site, however, the Evil Priestess summons warriors from beyond the grave to defend the mystical relic

The German party advances.....

....and suddenly, the ghastly warriors emerge 

Ignoring the boney creatures, Elsa and her fanatical companion Fraulein Ilse, their piercing blue eyes shining with lustful glee, rush forwards to grab their prize!

The acolyte closes her eyes, her teenage brow creased in concentration as she summons her mystic power....

....and takes control of Fraulein Ilse's mind, forcing her to attack her companion!

One the next turn, the acolyte casts the same spell...

....but this time Fraulein Ilse rolls above her pluck score and manages to resist. Startled, she blinks as she comes back to her senses, her hands wrapped around her colleagues dainty neck....errr, I am sorry Fraulein Doktor, I dont know what just happened....

A skeleton archer unleashes an arrow at the SS officer but the latter passes her pluck test and is unaffected

Shots ring put as the SS troops take out most of the first wave of skellies

However, a second wave is on its way!

Doktor Elsa grabs the ancient treasure from its hiding place, and turns towards the compound gate

Gott in Himmel, Frualein Doktor...look!

The Evil Priestess is not amused and exhorts her boney warriors to still greater efforts

A general melee ensues in the courtyard from which only one Nazi would emerge alive

Whilst at the gate, their leaders have problems of their own with a third batch of skeletons!

Doktor Elsa is victorious in her combat, but Fraulein Ilse is knocked down!

Fortunately, next turn, she passed her pluck test and was able to get back on her feet

The few survivors head off table with their precious prize

Whilst the Evil Priestess rants at her acolyte over the loss - this is not over!

Well I enjoyed that although the rules do need some adjustment. I will be off line for a week as I am on holiday in Queenstown till next Friday - so no replies to comments for a while, but please do still leave some, and lots of pretty pics of the S Island in a week or so!

Thursday Night Solo Game

 After a long hiatus, I finally rolled some dice across a table tonight, albeit a solo effort in the garage on my recently acquired 3' x 3' folding card table, and 1m2 of felt that I bought at the weekend for about $8.

It wasn't a Pulp game as yet - because I haven't decided on a rule set and don't have a hard copy of any of the possible solutions - must take them to work on a USB and get them printed off!

So, I fell back on my other primary skirmish option, the Border Reivers.

As it was getting on for 9pm when I set up, I decided on a small scale affair as a first trial for my garage gaming (I really should have started this two years ago in our first Covid lockdown.....). Two groups of three Reivers, with a Heidsman each, were sneaking up on a small village in the dead of night. The village had a "garrison" of a Heidsman, three reivers and three villagers. The rules used were "Borderer" by Matthew Hartley - a free set pilfered from a copy of WI. Lets see how it worked out!

The rules - I added a few house extras for this game - if attackers moved at 4cm (1/3 max speed) they were creeping stealthily and could only be spotted by a defender within 30cm on a roll of any double. Once within 10cm, they would be automatically spotted. Until the attackers were spotted, the defenders would patrol randomly on 2 D6 - Green 1 = move left 2 = move right 3 = move forward 4 = move back 5/6 stand still. Red indicates 1-6cm of movement. I also rolled for who went first, attackers or defenders. Until the alarm was raised, the villagers are abed in their hovels.

General overview of the game - the attackers are in the bottom right, creeping up behind the small copse of trees

The object of the raid - a small herd of black cattle

Group two moves through the trees

Move two - the attackers have not been spotted

One of the guards wanders forwards towards group one

But he does not see them as they creep forward through the pitch black night.....

A second guard has randomly emerged from the village and is within spotting range - he rolls - but sees nowt!

Turn four - the torch wielding guard was now within 12cm, so likely to spot group one next turn, so - they all rushed him and engaged in melee! 

3 green for the heidsman, two red each for the attacking reivers and a pair of white for the defending reiver - he was only just defeated! A roll on the melee chart resulted in a "surrender" result which I decided there and then meant he had been overpowered silently and the alarm was still not raised!

But then - wandering guard number two rolled a double 5 and spotted group two. As he is armed with a caliver, he lets fly with a shot - completely missing but raising the alarm!

One of the group one attackers escorting the surrendered guard to the rear.

Situation at start of move 6

The bow armed guard on the hill spotted group one and fired - to no effect!

The remaining group one reivers take cover from the bowman

One of group two moves against a sword armed villager..

...while the other two rush the caliver armed sentry

The heidsmans three green dice dealt to the sentry - he rolled a 6 on the result chart and was deid!

But in the other melee, two villagers took on a reiver, and whupped his ass (white dice are the villagers!)

Start of move seven

Its all getting a bit messy - the heidsman and reiver of group one take on two villagers, a reiver guard and the guards heidsmas, while the remaining heidsman and reiver of group two swing in from behind

I finally remembered to do the animal test - if a melee within 5cm - they have a chance to move off 1 D6 or - on a 6 - flee 2 D6. 

Result of melee between defending heidsman (green) and villager (white) versus a single attacking reiver. A draw - but the higher ranked figure always wins in a tied result - the attacking reiver sustained a wound

Group two joins the melee, with the lance armed reiver guarding two prisoners

Heidsman v heisdman - a draw! (You only count the one highest dice)

Other attacking heidsman v super peasant - aarrrgghh!

Attacking reiver v second peasant - they really should just have stayed home, shoudn't they?!

A couple of melee result rolls and additional melees later - the end result. A single wounded attacking heidsman and one remaining reiver have three of the defenders as prisoners. The first guard has been marched off the table into captivity and the cattle have been spooked and are halfway to Carlisle - not the best night reiving that has ever been done - but it was a nice little game to remind me of the rules and to finally get a game of sorts on the board!

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you leave a comment to mark your visit - cheers!