Astounding Tales 2nd Ed

Ivn de la Osa Navarro (order #6361768)
The Second Edition

Incorporating
SPICY HORROR STORIES and DIME MYSTERY MAGAZINE

MINIATURES RULES for FRANTIC ADVENTURE in the manner of PULP
MAGAZINES, RADIO SERIALS and SATURDAY MORNING MATINEES
By Howard Masked Avenger Whitehouse

(Torn Apart by Giant Apes, 1932)
...The first man he met with his bare hands was catapulted back
against the wall by a straight left that packed all the fiendish power of a
sledgehammer gone mad, a blow that shattered teeth in their sockets and
smithereened a jawbone as if it had been made of glass."
Leslie Charteris, The Last Hero, 1929
I relived those ages of horror and torment in the green-gold room: I
saw again the malignant dwarf A hashashin Weymouth had told me. They
belong to the Old Man of the Mountain Sheikh Ismail. I heard the creatures dying shrieks; I saw the dacoit return, carrying his bloody knife.
Sax Rohmer, The Daughter of Fu Manchu, 1931
Send Lawyers, guns and money, the s$%# has hit the fan.
Warren Zevon, Lawyers, Guns and Money, 1978
Astounding Tales! Second Edition

By Howard Whitehouse
Layout, Covers, Editing, & Light Housekeeping by Patrick R. Wilson
Copyright 2006 By The (Virtual) Armchair General
10208 Haverhill Place, Oklahoma City, OK 73120-3922 USA Voice/Fax: (405) 752-2420
For other products and publications, visit www.thevirtualarmchairgeneral.com
Adventurously Printed by 360 Digital Books (info@360digitalbooks.com)
Please address rules questions to TVAG@worldnet.att.net Third Printing, February, 2010
Second Edition
Contents
Pages
Contents
Pages
Bar Stool Ramblings to the Second Edition
Bound And Gagged, Traps
45
An Introduction To The World of Pulp
Snappy Dialogue
46
Gaming The World of Pulp
SECTION III : Screaming Wheels
47
Emergency Braking Table, Swerving Table
48
Automobile Crash Table
49
SECTION IV : It Came From The Sky!,

Rules For Airships,
50
Shooting Aboard An Airship Table
51
AircraftKnights Of The Air, Aircraft

Crash Table
52
SECTION I : So How Do Ya Play Astounding

Tales!?
13
Whatll I Need? Sets, Props, Cast, &

Villains
14
Characters Attributes
17
Making Up Characters Rolling Up Characters
18
Buying Attributes
19
Off The Rack
20
Shooting At Planes Table
54
Skills Table
22
55
Female Characters Good/Bad Girl

Skills Tables
24
Rocketmen, Untrained Rocketman Table,

Bullet Hits on Rocket Belt Table,
SECTION V: Weird Science
Zombies
Comic Characters Skills List
25
56
Examples Of Character Creation
27
Lovecraftian Horror
57
Setting Up The Game
28
Robots
58
The Opening Scene
29
Bullet Hits on Robots Table, Nazi Science
59
SECTION II : Camera! Action!

The Rules of Play
30
Creatures!
60
62
Movement Legging It
32
What There Are No Rules For, Ending a

Scene
Pounding Hooves Horseback Riding,

Weaponry
33
The End The Big Finale, Cheap Talk &

Lies
63
Special Weapons, Exotic Skills
34
SECTION VI : Sample Characters
64
Snipers
35
SECTION VII : Scenarios,

1) The Bride of the Yeti
76
Shooting
36
2) Biggles Defies The Swastika
79
Wounds Lead Poisoning Table
37
82
Optional Wound Location Table,

Fists: Close Combat
38
SECTION VIII : Notes, Appendices, And

Other Body Parts, Astounding Titles!,
Title Generator
83
Fighting Styles Tables, BRAWLING TABLE
40
Designers Notes
83
SERIOUS BUSINESS TABLE,

Guts: Bravery
41
Alternative Pulp Ideas
84
Guts & Supporting Cast, Get a Grip!
42
A Word On GenreRead, Watch, Websites
85
Cut!The Do Over Rule,

The Interrupt Rule
43
Figures And Stuff
87
Frequently Asked Questions
Orders & Communication,

Drop That Piece, Marlowe!
44
91
Roll of Honor
93
Astounding Tales!
Barstool Ramblings For The Second Edition

Its been a couple of years since the first edition of Astounding Tales! hit the newsstands, two exciting years of slugging burly hoodlums, stealing one-eyed idols from eastern
temples, and a few too many mornings waking up in Mexican jails. In that time Ive played
the game more, and had people Ive never met send me letters, telegrams and occasional
hired goons to let me know what they think. Since Im always interested in positive criticism (especially from men with automatics in their mitts) Ive made some changes.
First off, some folks said that AT is really a role-playing game, and I should quit being so coy about it. Sure, its light on some of the complexities of back story, plotline and
character development that Role Playing Games (RPGs) typically have, but if you want to
play it that way, go right ahead. Ive made some clarifications to the character types.
Second, some folks who are primarily miniatures gamers and want to play a straightforward shoot em up and knock em down were a little put off by the need for a Director
with God-like powers and an outrageous ego. After all, if its just you and Jim playing on
the dining room table, maybe you just want to take turns moving model figures and rolling
some dice. So Ive developed a card sequence system which enables all players to actually
play. The Director becomes more a genial host than a megalomaniac creator in this version.
Third, Ive made some of the rules cleaner and clearer. Specifically, Ive made
shooting a two-die-roll rather than three-die-roll process, which makes it even bloodier.
Hell, most of the casualties are only extras.
Fourth, Ive added some rules for things like traps, zombies, robots and snipers, airships, planes, etc. Gotta have em. And enough people said that, while they understand my
dislike of points systems, they wanted some way of valuing the different grades of character, and their equipment, so that Doc Savage wasnt overpowered by a busload of school
kids and a stray dog.
And fifth (which is what Im swigging from right now) Ive added some extra
Skills to the list, especially for our daring/cunning Heroines. And some new characters. I
guess thats six.
Ive added some ideas for playing pulp sub-genres, like Sword and Sorcery and
comic-book WWII. Id write whole sets for them if I wasnt so busy drinking in the
daytime.
Ive put in some scenarios you can play straight out of
the book. And some odd little devices for making up titles,
and even whole stories, as if you have no imagination yourself.
Finally, in this Third Printingalready!some errors
and omissions (bad Bourbon scented) have been corrected in
more sober moments since. The Scenario Generator rules
and tables have been deep sixed from this printing as they
are destined for a more suitable project soon to come.
Thats all for now. Astounding Tales! rides again.
Go play --Howard Whitehouse, January, 2010
Second Edition
4
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD OF PULP
I was looking at the cover of a magazine from my grandfathers time. Aircraft of the First World War swirled around the sky.
The Allied flyers were clean-limbed and determined. The Germans
employed a considerable number of skeletons to man the basket of
a barrage balloon.
The owner of the magazine and I agreed that there was much
about WWI that had been hushed up, and he showed me similar
covers in which Oriental Panther Men, monstrous creatures, and a
small man dressed like a banker all threatened an American pilot
known as "G-8." This was not your everyday hero of the air. I was
at something called "The Fantastic Pulps Show, money was leaping out of my pocket, and
a stack of cheap novelettes written in the thirties went home with me.
Pulp. High Adventure. Men in snappy fedoras and dangerous dames, with blazing .45 automatics in one hand and a knife in their shoe. Chinese criminal masterminds and
their minions. Men of Bronze who carry small explosive charges hidden in their back teeth.
Beings who wish to destroy the Earth, or at least New York City, or subdue the populace
with mind-numbing drugs to do their fiendish bidding.
What on earth can it all mean?
Its the world as seen in cheap magazines and low budget movies from the 1920's to
sometime in the 50s, when television and comic books took over. Film Noir, hard-boiled
novels, Pulp magazines with Charles Atlas advertisements in the back, that sort of thing. A
world where most of Africa, Asia and South America are covered by impenetrable jungles,
where Southern California is inexplicably dark and rainy, and where most of Canada is under an ice-cap year round. A world where down-at-heel private eyes fight vulgar, flashy
hoodlums, but also where heroesoften cunningly disguised by wearing a tiny silk mask,
which fools even their closest friendssave the world from ambitious mad scientists,
laughably inept aliens and, quite often, the Germans. A world with garish posters featuring
a lot of Colt automatics, green gripping monster hands, and women in far too much mascara
and far too little clothing for respectable tastes.
"Pulp" requires that you see the world through the eyes of a certain sort of audience.
Often its a fifteen year old American kid in 1934; at least, that was who Lester Dentthe
writer of the Doc Savage bookswas aiming at. What you need are simple heroes, evil
opponents, and a good deal of gee-whiz science. Geography can be vague, history ludicrous, but as long as it moves fast and good wins out, thats all fine.
If you were a hard boiled writerDashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler, for
examplethe audience was older, less innocent, but still looking for a world where good
people stood against evil, even if you couldnt find a doctor who wouldnt drug you and
lock you up at his private sanatorium. This style demanded strongly defined heroes and villains, although the more sophisticated heroes might be fairly jaded, and have their own bad
habits. Actually, everyone has bad habits, as well as regrets, debts and losing bets.
In many ways the Pulp genre began after WWI (succeeding the Dime Novels and
Penny-Dreadfuls of an earlier time) in a world that was different in many ways from the
Astounding Tales!
5
one that had gone before. Popular entertainment focussed on the new movie industry, and
film stars became a new royalty. Writing styles became brief, slangy, action-oriented. Pulp
sounded like Jimmy Cagney. It was flashy, garish, neon-lit. It didnt have a lot of class, but
it had nerve. And Pulp Adventure Gaming is based on those premises. Its wild, frantic
stuff, without a lot of concern for realism. Its only demand is to be true to the conventions
of the genre. So fire eight times with your revolver, and pass the popcorn. We may not live
to see the credits.
Astounding Tales! is a short, simple and deliberately incomplete set of rules for
mayhem, murder and Weird Horror set in the period between WWI and the end of the black
-and-white B Movie era in the 1950s. The game depends on a very fast pace, not worrying about details too much, and an attitude that says that heroes (and their sidekicks, dames
and others in white hats) should have an advantage over thugs, punks, zombies and other
minions of the Evil Overlords. Its more about creating scenes of frenetic action where
Right Prevails than about a fair game in which the villainsthough they may have already
reduced cities to ashes, etcmight actually win. You can make it fantastical, with lost
cities and sinister emperors, or grittily realistic with mobsters, cops and jaded private investigators. And yes, history buffs, you can play the Russian Revolution or the Spanish Civil
War if you want, as long as you are more interested in ranting drunken commissars and
strutting-but-incompetent fascists in shiny boots than the details of armoured trains or the
organisation of the Falange in 1936. Because thats what I am interested in, and its my
game. So there.
Id like to thank a whole bunch of people if I could remember their names. Matt
Fritz, Nigel Clarke, Walt OHara, C.B. Stevens, Ross Maker and Dave Markley for their assistant directorial skills in our big games at HistoriCon. Kim Caron for her portrayal of
Roxy and Jeff Wasileski for his German movie director. Bob Murch and Mark Copplestone for their amazing metal figures and general enthusiasm. Bruce Pettipas and Howard Fielding for actual testing. Ed Dillon for his unnerving knowledge of things that blow
up or spray hot lead. Rich Johnson, Legion McRae, Roderick Robertson, Peter McDonald,
Harry Morris, Alvin Stuckenborg and Paddy Griffith for new ideas that Ive seized on gleefully. Ed Bielcik for quotes and characterization on The Shadow and The Spider. Bill
McGinnis for his Doc Savage knowledge. Mark Mintz, Scott Crane and Mike Creek for
their suggestions on comic sidekicks. Dash Hammett and Raymond Chandler for putting
crime back on the streets. Most of all, my wife, Lori, for putting up with all this nonsense
for twenty years and more.
Frankly, that part still astounds me!
H.J.W., Big Jim's Speakeasy, 1930
All Pulp Magazine covers, photos, and any other derivative graphics appearing on the
covers and in the text are intended as a tribute to those thrilling days of yesteryear when
adventure could be had for a dime. No infringement of copyright or claim to ownership of
the original images is intended.
And no Pulps were injured in the writing of these rules or their publication.
The (Virtual) Armchair General

Second Edition
6
GAMING THE WORLD OF "PULP"
"Sir, I fear we shall have to sacrifice the gin."
Jeeves
(Busily fashioning a Molotov Cocktail while being menaced by a large
animated wooden Tiki statue in the jungles of the Amazon.)
Jeeves, tell me again why we're in the Amazon."
Bertie Wooster
From The Crystal Skulls of Atlantis, HistoriCon 2003
Pulp can be approached from more than one direction. You can treat it as a historical
period, with sensational overtones. You can treat it in the same way youd approach a
fantasy game, with expected stereotypes, and a consistency that comes from the rules and
conventions of the genre: Private Eye, Jungle Adventure, Sword-and-Sorcery, Spicy, or
whatever. You can play it as a role-playing game, a miniatures skirmish system or any other
way that suits you.
Real Life in the inter-war period was not good for most
people. There was revolution and civil war in Russia, more of
the same in China, Spain, and elsewhere. Germanys fragile democracy collapsed in Nazism. Mussolinis fascists took over Italy, and made war in Libya and Ethiopia. Iraq and Palestine rebelled against British administration. Most of Europe was dirt
poor after the Great War, and what little prosperity there was
mostly in the USA was undermined by corruption and organised crime. Then the Depression came, and everyone was in
trouble. Its not a fertile period for heroic, two-fisted gaming,
youd have thought. In fact, our sources in film, books and
magazine chose largely to ignore reality completely. You can
wargame the Russian Civil War, Francos attack on Madrid or
the Italians in Libya, but its not likely to be Pulp. Its likely to
be grim and gritty, which is fine, but, well, not Pulp.
There are some real events that offer fertile ground, however. The North West Frontier of India was still ablaze with tribal risings, and the addition of aircraft and armoured
cars on one side, and magazine rifles on the other, actually gave an advantage to the tribesmen. The French were fighting in Morocco and Syria. The US fought a lot of little wars in
the Caribbean, mostly supporting their own fruit companies against the local peasants; of
course, the spin doctors turned that around!
Sensationalism was almost the watchword of the brash 1920's when it came to what
people were interested in. Indeed, it almost surpassed itself in the dreary, hopeless 1930's.
It was a time of much publicized heroes, like Lindberg, or the traveller (it was hard to be an
Astounding Tales!
7
explorer anymore) Richard Halliburton. Flyers were intent on establishing records of any and every kind. Gangsters hung out with
film stars, and vice versa. They wore $1000 suits in yellow silk,
and courted the press. Colonel Fawcett managed to get himself
lost (permanently) in the Amazon. The discovery of Tut-ankhamuns tomband the "curse" associated with itcaused a wave
of fascination with all things ancient Egyptian. Rudolph Valentino finished T.E. Lawrences work of making Bedouin Arabs fascinating to Westerners, in an exotic, unreal sort of way. The dinosaur hunter, Roy Chapman Andrews, managed to parlay his genuinely scientific expeditions into Mongolia into a money-making,
highly publicized enterprise. There were cameras everywhere.
There were movies everywhere too, and the fifteen year old kid
from Iowa could be excused if he wasnt sure why Tarzan of the Apes was not out there
looking for the missing Colonel Fawcett.
Now, this is "Pulp reality, where celebrity heroes and villains engage in things that
are dangerousoften pointlessly sofor public voyeurism. Everyone is bigger than life.
Some Pulp reality games might involve:
1) Sidney Reilly, the "Ace of Spies" on his expeditions into Red Russia to contact
White agents, and possibly making some dodgy deals of his own. Therell be sinister
Cheka agents in black leather, closed trains, and beautiful countesses who are silk-stockingdeep in intrigue.
2) Paul Dukes, more romantic than Reilly, rescuing the same Countesses at snowy
border-crossings, pursued by villainous Bolshevik guards who shoot badly.
3) Tough-but-decent Anglos (all heroes are Anglos; well get to that later) tackle
Latin American bandits, dictators and their minions, using only fists, forty-fives, and maybe
a battered seaplane.
4) An Egyptian tomb is protected against invaders by ancient sorcery.
5) Flashy gangsters shoot it out with the cops and G-men, using Tommy Guns and
fast sedans. They dont run laundry businesses
and numbers rackets like real hoods, because
thats too boring.
6) Roy Chapman Andrews fights
Chinese warlords, bandits, sandstorms and
possibly plagues of insects as he does his bit
for science, and brings back crates of dinosaur
bones.
Second Edition
8
7 ) Decent, clean-living heroes find themselves embroiled with Nazi agents and their
sinister schemes. (Its really difficult to imagine Nazis having any other kind.)
8) A pilot crashes his experimental plane in some wilderness backwater, and must
overcome rough country, unfriendly locals, fierce animals and at least one broken leg to
reach safety.
Pure Entertainment. The next step on from "Pulp reality" is to
add those elements that, well, any fifteen year old would endorse.
Take a plot item from the list weve just looked at. Lets go with
Roy Chapman Andrews, who many have identified as "the real
Indiana Jones. Reading the excellent biography, Dragon Hunter,
it becomes clear that Andrews used neither whips nor dynamite as
key tools in excavation. He only shot one person, himself, accidentally, in the foot. His problems with the Chinese warlords were
mostly about having the right papers, and were solved with negotiations rather than gunfire. He was looking for fossils of many
kinds, most of which were not nearly as sensational as the newspapers made out. So, we ask ourselves
1) Why is there no gunfire? Shouldnt there be? What sort of bandits and warlords are these, anyway?
2) Why only fossilized dinosaurs? Arent there any live ones? This is Mongolia,
for Petes sake.
3) The expedition had been provided with expensive Dodge automobiles by the
manufacturer. Would it have hurt them to put some armour on the vehicles? And mount a
machine gun?
4) The Mad Baronthe insane Baron Von Ungern-Sternbergisnt involved.
Why not? Probably because hes already dead. Revise this awkward detail.
5) The Tomb of Genghis KhanBig Genghis K himself. He ought to be
involved. Revived, possibly. He added great charm to the 1994 movie of The Shadow.
6) Russian agents. Gotta have em. Red ones, White ones. Probably one of
them countesses, too!
7) Rival parties of archaeologists/palaeontologists (who can tell them apart,
anyway?). Possibly Germans. Probably involved in that occult stuff, for Hitler. I dont
care if its only 1922.
Great! So you can see, weve really improved this whole "researchers from a museum" thing into something youd want to read about in a 25 cent magazine with a lurid
cover.
Astounding Tales!
9
Pulp Heroes are the next step away from dreary reality. Ordinary heroes with powerful fists and Colt .45's are excellent in their own way, of course, but disguised vigilantes
with secret identities, and possibly secret hideouts are better still! Think of them as being
the forebears of superheroes, with capes and masks but without the spandex and the underpants worn outside.
1) The Shadow, hero of print, radio, and later on, the silver screen. Black fedora
and cape, blazing automatics, dead criminals. He has a vague but immensely powerful
ability to "cloud mens minds so that they cant see him.
2) The Spider is the next step on from the Shadow, a man
whose personal demons have pretty much taken over his crime
fighting efforts. Bob Murch suggests that he be regarded like a
random artillery round; he arrives through the skylight, blasts
everyone around him, then leaves again. In one issue of his
magazine, he leads a hobo army against the evil forces that have
taken over the USA.
3) The Phantom Detective is an urbane, society man who (donning the
little black mask) fights criminals. A bit dull, really, but he remained in print
for two decades.
Gaming any of these really just involves taking a gangster game and
adding a spectacularly effective hero figure, who can arrive and leave with incredible speed, shoots absurdly well, and apparently receives no wounds, ever.
No problem there.
4) Doc Savagethe Man of Bronzedoes without the disguise, but
(through training, exercise and really good genetics) has a mixture of superhuman skills and fantastic, self-invented gizmos. Doc also has a crack team
of five genius side kicks, whose main function is to need rescuing. They
communicate in "Ancient Mayan"wouldn't you?
Doc operates world-wide, so he is an adventure hero in every possible
setting. On a scale of 1-6, Doc rates a "9" or so in most skills, so once again,
he is disproportionately powerful. However, he seldom kills anyone, preferring to knock them out and send them toget this!his private reform institution in upstate New York. It has been pointed out, however, that Docs enemies frequently end up
dead in fortuitous accidents, so its not all trips to rehab.
5) "Operator 5" is Jimmy Christopher, an American secret agent who
is the key to defending the republic against the massive invasion of "The Purple Emperor, ruler of a strangely multi-ethnic, but savage, empire bent on
world domination. Managing to combine "Yellow Peril" paranoia, grand strategy and stupid headgear, while out in the real world were enemies that were
far more interesting than the Purple Empire.
Second Edition
10
What little I have read in this series is more like a military/resistance theme than the
usual crime-fighting or defeating mad villains. If you like the idea of America being overrun by Asian Fascists (I mean "playing a game, not actually in real life) with a ridiculously
effective hero leading the resistance, this might work as a spin-off variant of WWII
skirmish gaming.
6) Heroes of the Air included G-8 (a fighter pilot/spy who,
with his two buddies, defeated the Germans in 1918), Dusty Ayres,
and the really bizarre Terrence X. OLeary and his War Birds. If
you think that air pulps should be relatively straight forward, with
machine guns and Immelman turns providing the excitement,
youd be wrong. In short order, there were the Kaisers zombies,
leaping Chinese villains, and incredibly hokey horror and Sci-Fi
elements. What you need here is a workable set of WWI dogfight
rules, with an addition of quite absurd horror and fantasy elements.
Once you have decided that Eastern assassins can, in fact, jump
from plane to plane with knives in their teeth, its just a question of
adding some extra rules. To counter this extra detail, you can ignore many of the real differences between plane types, as Pulp authors had little
concept of actual technical performance.
Pulp Fantastic! Beyond the realm of the masked and
unmasked heroes, who fight for good in the same world that we
inhabit (as long as we inhabit it in 1933), there is what will
come to be called "Science Fiction" and "Fantasy. This is
Buck Rogers (first seen in Amazing Stories in 1928, before he
hit the comic books), and Captain Future, who intersected with
the present day to save America (a lot) when a president who
seems very like Roosevelt calls on him. Pulp-era science fiction
is wonderful in its naivet, all bubble-helmet spacemen, babes in
brass bikinis, and monsters with huge staring eyes. Most of us
are familiar with various science fiction wargames, usually set
in techy worlds of "Hard SF or dystopian universes like Warhammer 40K. Pulp SF gamesand Im only imagining here
ought to have a playful, golly-wow feel to them, with amazing
(read "completely unconvincing") scientific discoveries, aliens that we of a later time would
simply laugh at, and a good deal of fist-fighting inside glass bubbles. You have to like that.
The other direction that the wonder pulps took was fantasy, a very mixed bag of
Robert E. Howards Conan and others, Edgar Rice Burroughs various worlds, oriental tales
and anything both horrific and too big to crawl out of a crypt (well get to that next). Fantasy wargaming flirted with the Conan-type of world in the 1970's, but somehow the savage
worlds of brawny barbarians were overwhelmed by the sub-Tolkien legions of elves and
Orcs. Time for a revival, by Crom!
Astounding Tales!
11
The "Shudder Pulps" were horror tales. At the literary
end, we have H.P. Lovecraft and his followers, with the welldeveloped world of the Cthulhu mythos. These have survived
and been built upon to form almost a genre in itself. At the other
end, its the grasping giant hands and bottle-blondes in baby-doll
nighties. (Not that theres anything wrong with that....)
Horror is quite hard to game because ...er... we arent
frightened. We all saw that monster come out of a box, and we
remember buying it at a toyshop and repainting it from the nasty
green plastic thing it was. My most successful horror games
have been "double blind" affairs where the players only saw
things when they jumped on their characters.
"Hard-Boiled" is pretty much the opposite to the
"wonder" pulps with their proto-SF stories. These are gritty
crime stories, aimed at an older audience, without zombies or
gripping green hands, and a fairly tight hand on the young
women in lingerie. Magazines such as Black Mask defined
the private eye/detective genre that we all immediately
connect with Bogart, trench coats and rainy nights in L.A.
Games in this genre will have a strong role-playing component, require few figures but lots of cars, small scenes of city
streets and deserted roads through canyons. Visibility is
shockingly poor at all times, and the protagonists may well
be drunk at any time of day. Snappy repartee is crucial. I
love this stuff!
Gaming Hard-Boiled Action is essentially a variant on
the historical gangster and cop sort of game. Obviously, the
Private Eye is essentially a lone wolf, and will need a certain amount of unfair advantage
to stay alive. He should be beaten up and left in alleys rather than killed. There will be
femmes fatale, occasional friendly cops, and villains who decide they like to have him
around. We dont know why.
The Yellow Peril and other Threats to Civilisation were
tremendously popular. The Victorian fear of Chinese domination (at
a time when China was as weak as it has ever been) extended into a
world of "Oriental" super villains, and their Chinatown minions. Fu
Manchu was copied as Wu Fang and Dr. Yen Sing. The Shadow and
The Spider found Eastern adversaries in many stories. Even
Hammett had to feature an Asian villain in The House on Turk St. In
response, there came a few Asian good guys like Charlie Chan and
Mr. Moto.
For gaming purposes, the Yellow Peril offers not only
traditional Chinoiserie, with sorcerers and assassins and men with
Second Edition
12
really big fireworks, but a whole new generation of Tong gangsters, Eastern Science and a
real new enemy, Imperial Japan.
Western Adventure was a staple of the Pulps. This was a West that
somehow segued strangely between the 1870's and the present, so
that the whole USA west of the Mississippi featured cars, and radios,
and cowboys with six guns and Indians on the warpath. Many of the
cowboys sang, as well, and orchestras played from behind a large
cactus. My Editor, Patrick Wilson, of Oklahoma City, thinks this is
remarkable, as he recalls no rampaging Redskins during his 1950s
childhood, but I suspect hes just a few years too young. A variant of
the western is the North-West Romance, which features lone redcoated Mounties taking on mixed breed villains with bad French
accents. Apparently biracial parentage was a cause for criminal
behaviour in itself.
Theres all kinds of Western gunfight rules out there. A Pulp
version should simply feature more heroes shooting guns out of
villains hands, and sudden "Modernisms" like a car full of gangsters
taking on Sitting Bulls feather-bonneted hordes (who may appear
Italian or Mexican, as movie extras might).
The Un-Dead Arisen! Zombies, mummies and skeletons are
really central to the world of Pulp Horror. They were really ideal for
the silent cinema, of course. So, Pulp is an ideal opportunity to get
the skellies out. You really dont need an excuse.
Weird Science is at the core of so much Pulp. The period after WWI provides us
with a great deal of what we think of as the ordinary devices of the modern worldcars,
radios, working aircraftso, unlike the world of Victorian Adventure, you can buy a Ford
rather than rely on your crazy inventor uncle to build something wacky. However, the very
ordinariness of these things means that it takes an extra level of
scientific effort to impress us. When its the heroes doing it, its
"super science, with Doc Savages submarine, and the Spiders
planes, which are somehow better than normal. Theres not
much of the Tom Clancy tech-speak in Pulp; the writers dont
(cant?) explain very much in the way of engineering detail.
Villains, of course, rely on a more malign spirit of
massive devices designed to inflict death, and, of course,
conquer the world. Theres almost no limit to the scope of these
machines.
Astounding Tales!
13
SECTION I : SO, HOW D YA PLAY ASTOUNDING TALES?
Who knows what evil lurks within the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!
The Shadow Voice-over
We pretend that we are making a movie. We arent, of
course, but its a good way of staging the event rather
than saying Its like chess, but with toy soldiers and
complicated rules or Its an exact simulation of real
eventsyou know, the guff that has caused so many
miniatures games to reek of sheer dullness.
The game is played with a Directora Games
Masterwho sets up the Scene and decides who goes
when, according to whatever seems right at the time.
There are suggestions for doing this. Everyone will,
however, get equal amounts of time on camera. The
players are normally all on the same sideat least
notionallythough equally they may play opponents,
in the traditional wargaming fashion.
The Director will operate various minions,
underlings, walk-on parts and others; hell will try to
make sure that these bit-part actors dont steal the
limelight from the stars, unless he is annoyed with
their egos.
Most of the game mechanisms are based on rolling an ordinary six-sided die to score
equal-to-or-less-than a particular number; sometimes the idea is that one player has to roll
to hit and then his opponent rolls to save and so avoid the hits effectan oldie-butgoody rules system from the distant past of wargaming that keeps everyone involved. The
Director will give a voice-over of whats going on, asking the players So what do you do
now? and demanding instant reaction and movement. The Director will dictate that you
roll against STUNTS or SMARTS or whatever, and youd best do it and no arguing,
Buddy!
Its all about breathless, non-stop action, so we dont care for incidentals. Legendary
detective writer Raymond Chandlerwho began in Black Mask and Dime Detective
believed that plots move along by introducing more dead bodies, no apology or explanation
needed.
EXAMPLE: Director Bob decides that he wants to run a game called The Curse of the Lost
Golden Monkey (or, TCOTLGM, as you might). His friends Bill, Joe and Sue volunteer to
play, because, Dammit, its the right thing to do. They gather at Bobs crummy apartment
in a seedy part of town, bringing pints of cheap liquor and unfiltered cigarettes, dressed in
fedoras and shabby suits (well, maybe not Sue). They understand the deal; Bob will provide
an evenings entertainment, allowing their Characters to wade through other peoples blood
to an exciting climax of gunplay and smart quips, and theyll go along with it, for right now.
Second Edition
14
WHATLL I NEED?
I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation,
I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun.
Raymond Chandler, Farewell My Lovely, 1940
First off, aside from the Director and playersanything from one poor sap to maybe
a dozen willing victimsyou are going to need Sets, Props, Characters, Villains and Supporting Cast.
Sets: A game table or board, with scenery, for each
Scene you intend to play out. For this kind of game
you dont always need whole big tables wide enough
to see for miles across the Arizona desert or African
veldt; a city scene might need a foot-square board
with a seedy alley behind a dingy diner and the back
of two warehouses, while a jungle path is really just
a track with a screen of trees on either side of it. A
loan sharks office requires just an officemaybe
only 2 x 3 bigwith a hallway and the hint that there might be stairs or an elevator to
leave by; you dont need to show the bookstore on the ground floor, the laundry across the
street, or the small-time accounting business upstairs that shares the washroom. Think
about how movie sets are constructed! You can build several quite small sets and place
them on the table as separate pieces; in the first reel the Scene is at the heros hotel in New
York, when the agents of Dr, Fu Manchu try to drug him and steal the diamonds. This set is
the size of a shoebox, and might, indeed, be converted from a shoebox. In the second
Scene we are in a Cairo market (2 x 2 square), and in the final reel we are in the ruins of
an ancient temple. All three sets are separate, but share space on the dining room table this
evening!
Props: These are exactly what youd expect, but in a world of miniature figures the
emphasis is on things that can be used by small peoplecars, boats, aircraftand fixtures
and fittings like furniture, crates and barrels, that sort of thing. We may have to imagine
diamond necklaces and letters in invisible ink,
since theyd be smaller than a pinhead in this scale.
I have collected die cast cars, plastic planes, boats
that cover a wide period, and various other bits and
bobs. Many of these are fairly generica kitchen
table is a kitchen tableand serve in different
times and places. Likewise a 1927 Ford, a rowing
boat or a small brown dogbut a butchers van advertising a shop in South London serves to show a
pretty exact time and place, along with the doubledecker bus full of un-dead Egyptians on its way to
Marble Arch.
Astounding Tales!
15
EXAMPLE: Director Bob looks through his collection of
models, deciding that he wants three sets for TCOTLGM.
He selects buildings, trees and other scenics that will allow
him to portray a New York office, a beach in Hawaii and a
jungle path in some imaginary China Seas locale. For props
he decides he needs some period cars, taxis, boats and a Ford
Tri-motor prop plane. The Lost Golden Monkey is a small
statuette, which may appear, or may simply remain, well,
lost. The players will be allowed, within reason, to pick their own cast, but Director Bob decides that the villains will be a cosmopolitan art dealer, a gangster and a chief of stone-age
head hunters.
Cast: These are the actual characters of the dramaheroes, heroines, trusty sidekicks,
dangerous dames, everyone who counts as a real
person. For each character, youll need a figure to
portray them (to really impress, have several
matching figures in evening wear, tropical garb and
regular clothes!). Again, I have gathered a group of
28mm scale figures that can be used in different
locales, because men in fedoras and women in
period day dress fit (more or less) across the globe.
Each player will have at least one character to call
their own, possibly with some others as friends, assistants, lieutenants, etc. Also included are any lesser characters that the Director may either
operate himself or hand over to the playersyou know, the amiable doorman, the drunken
reporter, the mechanic who sees things he shouldnt, the cop who never believes what anyone tells him.
The four basic Character Types are as follows:
Leading Roles (LRs)Since we are going with a movie motif, these are the
players own characters. Leading Roles are treated with special respect, and it is understood that they cannot be killed unless its an integraland previously agreedpart of the
plot. They can, of course, be taken prisoner, beaten up and slung in the trunks of Buicks.
They can make two Interruptions per scene (see the Interrupt Rules, pg 43). They can
re-roll when a GUTS check goes wrong. They always do exactly what the player wants,
although they take tests against Attributes as usual, and cannot be assumed to get absolutely
everything right.
Secondary Roles (SRs)The Leading Roles companions and sidekicks (the humorous, more inept types) operated by the players. They may have ratings as high or
higher than some LRs, but may not always do exactly as the player wishes. They take
GUTS checks, andmost importantlycan be killed off in the course of a game.
Bit Parts (BP)These are often simply promoted members of the Supporting
Castdrivers, beat cops, newsboys, etcbut they have the advantage of counting as charSecond Edition
16
acters in combat, and enough HITS that they dont just fall over when a bullet wings em.
In a smaller scenario its likely that youll need these BPs rather than the masses of nameless, one-hit-to-kill Supporting Cast who populate the grand epic affairs.
The Supporting Cast (SC) are the lesser mortals of limited abilities, whose individual fates are of
minimal interest to us. Call em extras, minions, underlings, whatever. They can serve either as devoted
servants to the Charactersin the guise of cops, soldiers, rebels against tyrannyor as hoods, heavies,
and black-hats, the henchmen of evil. They have one
life to lose, which they do, easily, and simpler rules
and fewer abilities than the Characters. They tend to run around in bunches, and may represent quite a few more than are actually portrayed, because the union scale for extras means
the producers can only afford ten guys where the script calls for a regiment of Mexican soldiers. A player can control a fair number (10? 50?) of these figures, as we arent really
concerned about what happens to them individually.
EXAMPLE: Director Bob decides that he needs figures for his Characters and villains; often
its good to let players select from several models to pick their own personal figure. For extras he will provide New York cops, gangsters, some hokey Chinese and Japanese types for
the Hawaiian set, faced off with a U.S, naval shore party, and a collection of head hunters
for The Jungle Scene. He will have boxes of figures available for that surprise moment
when it becomes clear that the jungle island has a convention of castaway tourists/Nazi archaeologists/vile creatures from the deepest chasms (etc, etc) which somehow never featured
in the original plans.
Villains are those cast members who aregaspenemies of all that is decent; as such they
are controlled by the Director or by a player serving as Assistant Director. This is not the
same thing as when players compete against one another, since
the players are trying to win in a much more straightforward
manner; we might think that Colonel Rommel is a villain by
virtue of his being a German officer, but thats not necessarily
the case in the mind of the player controlling him. Besides,
everyone knows that Rommel is a Good German. Now, the
Gestapo operative watching over Rommels shoulder is clearly
a villain! The key thing about the villains in Astounding Tales!
is that they serve to further the plot, provide dramatic tension,
etc, but they are not intended to win at the end of the day. They
can have their moments of triumph, with much gloating, etc, but
in the final Scene, they must lose. If the Director cannot manage to make them loseif the players are either grotesquely
unlucky or incompetentthen a sequel must occur. Note that, though defeated, a good villain can often make a cunning exit to appear again in another place and time! Thats why
there are so many Fu Manchu books.
Astounding Tales!
17
CHARACTERS
Meet the sinister and mysterious
Dr. Satan-the worlds weirdest criminal.
Cover blurb from Weird Tales, August 1935
Astounding Tales! is all about characters. Well,

that and unlikely plot twists, irresponsible behaviour
with weapons and talking in a terse, snappy sort of
way.
Characters have 6 Attributes: FISTS, GATS,
GUTS, STUNTS, SMARTS, and HITS. This list is
known in AT! as a Profile.
Each of these Attributes is rated between 2 (poor) and 5 (very good)possibly 6 for
Pulp Hero types, maybe even 7 for Doc Savage, who is just one step short of the guy with
the cape and the phone booth. An average Character would be rated 3 for most things,
understanding as we do that Pulp Era Characters are seldom average. For almost everything, roll 1 D6, modify if needed, and equal-or-less succeeds. So 5s do very well, 2s fail
constantly, which isnt very heroic, I know. Sixs can fail by rolling a six, then rolling 4-6
on a second roll. Sevens can fail by rolling a 6, then rolling a 5-6 on a second roll.
(That Savage, boy howdy.)
FISTSClose combat, with or without weapons. Socking em in the jaw, slapping
em with a pistol, poking them with the Sword of Nemedis, secretly buried lo these thousand years.
GATSShooting with any weapon, including knives, rocks, bottles as well as the
blazing .45s we expect for this genre.
GUTSIntestinal fortitude when faced with hideous bug-eyed monsters or ugly men
with Thompson Submachine Guns.
STUNTSBecause a chandelier is not simply a lighting fixture. All kinds of leaping, diving, dodging, driving around flaming tankers.
SMARTSGetting wise to the game, figuring out clues and not playing the sap for
anyone. This includes most kinds of charisma, observation, and anything where having a
brain might be helpful.
HITSBeing the amount of damage you can take, between 3 and 6 for a human, more for robots, horrific beasts, and possibly the larger sort of German. You collect
wounds until you have no more, in which case you are out of the game, and possibly out of
everything. Some wounds are worse than others, and take away points from other Attributes at the same time as they take Hits.
In addition, some Characters will have SKILLS, like inventing amazing explosive
devices out of common kitchen items, or having really nice table mannersthats mostly
the 1920s English detectives, who have no access to proto-atomic weaponry and the like,
and have to fall back on the martial art of Etiquette. Being unusually ugly, or lucky or
whatever are included as SKILL as well, for convenience sake.
Second Edition
18
MAKING UP CHARACTERS
Sergeant Burt Moran was a tall man with hard flat features and eyes
that were cold and dull, like those of a snake. He was that comparatively
rare thing among cops, a man equally hated by crooks and his fellow officers. Operators on both sides of the law forgot their differences and came
to agreement on one point at least: that Moran was a heel by any or all
standards.
William P. McGivern, Death Comes Gift-Wrapped, 1948
More often than not, you will be able to take a

basic character concept and work out some reasonable
Attributes and skills for themfor instance, a private
detective should be good with fists and guns, fairly
smart and able to take a few blows, whereas a Mad
Scientist might well be weak in everything but
SMARTS, but have amazing SKILLS, and possibly a
collection of loyal minions to supply the muscle, etc.
The following section features the ideas of Roderick Robertson of California, who
gives us examples from the gangster genre. These are taken from a developing AT! Variant
known as Gangsters: Mad Dogs With Guns.
To create a cast, you may either A) roll up characters, B) buy characters off the
rack. or C) purchase basic low level peoplerecruits, assorted minions, or punksand
improve them (or any combination). A player may combine these methods to create his
cast (see the example, below).
Supporting Cast can simply have a single rating for all Attributes to keep it easy. A 3
would be an average gangster, Tong member, German soldier, etc. Punks would be 2,
enforcers, hard men, elite soldiers, 4. You can mix up ratings if you like, though. For
instance, sailors brawl well, Gurkhas have tremendous STUNTS skills, and all nameless
henchmen are pretty stupid, as is well known. Since any hit takes them out of the game,
they effectively have a HITS of 1 because most serious wounds would cause several
HITS, enough to make them stop harassing the characters, at any rate. You can make it
more detailed if you want, but why? Only automatons, hash-crazed Eastern assassins, giant
apes, etc, would be higher. And theyd have their own special rules. Naturally.
The Budget concept is based on a gangland setting, where income from nefarious
activities balances the costs of keeping a criminal organisation together. You can also think
of it as a points system, but without the dweeb factor (as Little Caesar would no doubt put
it).
1) Rolling Up A Character
If you want to just make up a character randomly, roll 8 D6. For every
set of 1 and 6 that come upthats both a 1 and a 6read them as
2 and 5. Take the best six of the eight dice results and assign them to the
Astounding Tales!
19
Attributes you wish, depending on the kind of character you have in mind. For every 6
rolled (whether you modified it or not), roll on the SKILLS Table. The only thing to ensure
is that HITS is at least 3, and should generally be close to FISTS in level, because people
with tuberculosis seldom hit like Joe Louis. Female characters cannot have FISTS above 4
(although Amazon Queens or other characters approved by the Director might). Indeed,
Female characters can use their own SKILLS Tables (below).
2) Buying Attributes
A basic character has all stats of 2. From this base, you may purchase higher
Attributes and SKILLS. Bit Parts and Supporting Cast (punks, conscripts, civilians, etc)
cost $25 and all Attributes set at 2.
Basic Character Costs By Type

Character
Basic Cost
Plus For Each
Attribute of 3
Plus For Each
Attribute of 4
Plus For Each
Attribute of 5
Plus For Each
Attribute of 6
Leading Role
$400
$20
Secondary Role
$200
$10
Bit Part
$100
$10
Supporting Cast
$50
$5
$50
$25
$20
$10
$100
$50
$40
N/A
$200
$100
N/A
N/A
Only Leading and Secondary Roles may use the SKILLS Table. Leading Roles pay
$50 for each roll made on the SKILLS it, and Secondary Roles pay $25 per roll. These
characters may choose specific SKILLS from the Table, but must pay twice the random
rate.
If a player rolls a SKILL he doesnt want, he
may roll 1 D6: 1-3= He must keep the skill rolled; 46= He may roll again, but pay an additional $25. The
player may continue to roll until he gets what he likes,
but must pay every time, like it or not!
Example: Bob rolls GUN SHY for his torpedo.
Not wanting to have one of his best figures
flinching every time hes shot at, Bob rolls to
see if he can get another chancehe rolls a 5,
and pays an additional $25. He rolls GIMPY,
and doesnt like the improvement. He opts to
roll again, and comes up a 4, so he pays $25
more, and rolls up NOT IN THE FACE! At this
point, he decides to give up and keep this one.
The character figure has cost an additional $50
and not got any better!
Second Edition
20
3) Off The Rack

To buy a gangster off the rack, just purchase one of the gangster templates below.
You may purchase additional stats or abilities as above in Buying Attributes.
Type
Mob Boss
Cost
$225
Fists
4
Gats Guts
4
4
Stunts
2
Smarts
4
Hits
5
Skills
2 Chosen Skills
Accountant
$110
Required to make payoffs
Gun Moll
$140
Hell Cat or Nice Girl
Torpedo
$325
3 Rolls on the Skills Table*
Enforcer
$225
2 Rolls on the Skills Table*
Hoodlum
$100
1 Roll on the Skill Table*
Slugger
$45
No special skills
Punk
$25
No special skills
* May choose (instead of roll) SKILLS for an additional $25 each.

All characters are assumed to possess equipment suited to their role (knives, pistols,
nightsticks, decoder rings, etc) though the Director may allow each player to select one extra item suited to this adventure. This has to make sense. (Why would the perky platinum
blonde secretary have a death-ray next to her Smith-Corona typewriter?) Given the genre,
we accept that she carries a .32 revolver in her purse at all times. Thats only sensible, and
Roderick has permitted anyone with a GATS of 3 or better to have a gun for free. Note that
soldiers (Bit Player or Supporting Cast) are allowed to have rifles, bayonets, etc, and even
the most unwilling conscript has a GATS of 2, yet is issued military equipment at no extra
cost.
Roderick Robertson gives an example of creating a gang.
Equipment Costs
Item
Tommy Gun
Browning Automatic Rifle
(BAR)
Pump Action Shotgun
Cost
$200
$300
Item
Fancy automobile
Grenades
$75
Pistol
Double barrelled Shotgun

Automobile or truck
$50
$200
Hand-to-hand weapon
Cost
$500
$25 each
One free to GATS 3+
figures; others $20
Free
EXAMPLE: Bobs Gang start with a $1000 budget.

First he rolls up his Boss. He rolls a 4, 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 1, & 2. The 1 and
one of the 6s modify to a 2 and a 5, so the dice read, in order 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5,
5, & 6. Bill needs six Attributes, so he ditches the twos. The two sixes rolled mean two
rolls on the SKILLS Table. He also gets an additional $25 to spend on a SKILL or Attribute.
Astounding Tales!
21
He decides that his Boss Jimmy The Nose ODonnell is a scrapper, so allocates his
dice as follows. He chooses REAL SCARY and BRUTAL CHAMP, spends his extra $25 on a
rolled skill, and gets SHOTGUNNER.
Name
Cost Fists Gats Guts Stunts Smarts Hits
Jimmy
The Nose
ODonnell
Free
Double-barrelled
Shotgun
$50
Skills
Real Scary
Brutal Champ
Shotgunner
He buys an accountant Off the Rack
Name
Accountant
$110
Skills
Accountancy
Every Mob Boss worth his salt needs a Gun Moll, so Sally Mae is bought off the rack
and upgraded. He specifically chooses CRACK SHOT and selects HELL CAT from the two
choices given to Gun Molls.
Name
Sally Mae
$240
Pistol
Free
Skills
Hell Cat
Crack Shot
Hed like to buy a Torpedo for his gang, but hes already spent $400 on his command
structure. Instead he buys an Enforcer as his heavy. He rolls well on his skills!
Name
Cost
Fists
Gats
Guts
Saul
The Gat
$225
Pistol
2nd pistol
Tommy
Gun
Free
$20
$100
Stunts Smarts
4
Hits
Skills
Two Gun
Kid
Tommy
Gunner
He picks up some basic hoodlums for soldiers.
Name
Giorgio The Shiv
Pistol
Knife
Guido Fists
Pistol
Brass knuckles

$100
Free
Free
$100
Free
Free
Mack the Knife
Brutal Champ
Finally, he rounds out the gang with some expendable punks.
Second Edition
Skills
22
Name
Tommy
Baseball bat
Billy
Switchblade
knife
$25
Free
$25
Free
Skills
Bob has spent a grand total of $995, and is ready to control his part of town.
SKILLS
I learned much of the secrets of make-up from a clown named Ricki. To the graveeyed man with the long black burnsides who traveled with the show under the name of Don
Avigne, I am indebted for knowledge that has made the knife one of the deadliest weapons
in my hands. Then there was Professor Gabby, who taught me the principles of ventriloquism---while I was hanging around the circus I won the confidence of Marko the Magician
----
Calling the Ghost,
The Ghost Super-Detective, 1940
As weve said, for every 6 rolled in creating your character, you get to roll on the
SKILLS Table. You may want to pick these skills, but its more fun to roll 2 D6, reading
one as tens and the other as units.
Skills Table
2 D6 Roll
Skill
11
Bomber
Can take a second Flick when throwing Grenades (page 34) if the
first lands off target. (Must Re-flick from original starting point.)
12
Pick
Pocket
+1 to STUNTS when trying to sneak anything off another

character. Failure means the Dip is caught in the act.
13
Description
Brutal Champ +1 FISTS when hes in a public place and people are watching.
14
Acrobat
+2 STUNTS for all climbing feats.
15
Cold
Blooded
COLD BLOODED--Always fires an extra round to ensure that an opponent is down for good. If adjacent to a downed figure for a full
round that figure automatically takes an additional 6 wound on the
appropriate table. Character is not influenced by FEMMES FATALE, REAL CHARMERS, SCARY, and rolls again if another
SKILL would be NOT IN THE FACE!
16
Crazy
Inventor
+2 SMARTS when contriving device from whatever is handy (A tin

can, box of matches, bottle of Moxie, ball of string, ---Yes! It will
work!)
21
Drunk/
Addict
At beginning of each Scene, roll 1 D6: 1-4=-1 each from GATS,

SMARTS, & STUNTS; 5,6=+1 to GUTS.
Astounding Tales!
23
22
Fast
23
Flashing Blade
24
Call Me
Sherlock
+2 SMARTS in connection with evidence, etc.
25
Gullible
If told anything during a Scene by a Friend, he will believe it after failing a SMARTS -1 test. As soon as the truth is demonstrated--anytime,
anywhere--he cannot be fooled again by the same character for the rest
of the scenario.
26
Gun Shy
All rolls of 1 on the Lead Poisoning Table are treated as 2.
31
Hothead
Must attack nearest enemy in running range in hand-to-hand combat.
32
Just Nuts
+1 STUNTS when escaping from opponents by leaping / diving / etc.
33
Lucky Cuss
34
Mack The Knife
35
Mean Drunk
+1 to FISTS and GUTS, but -2 to GATS when hes got a skin full
(Directors call).
36
Tongue Tied
Character can communicate normally, but when involved in an Action

Scene (fighting, shooting, plane crash, man-eating gerbil stampede, etc)
he can only say two words each turn to the other players.
41
Not In The Face!
42
Cracksman
Can attempt to open any safe/strong box/door/gate or anything with a

lock on it by passing a STUNTS +1 test.
43
Martial Arts
+1 STUNTS in close combat situation.
44
Pineapple Man
45
Exquisite Manners
46
A Real Charmer
51
Scary
52
Shotgunner
53
Snappy Dresser
54
Spunky Kid
Can re-roll 1 GUTS once per scene.
55
Squeamish
-1 GUTS when rolling if you or a friend wound have been struck/

wounded.
56
Tommy Gunner
May add up to 3 when Running.

+1 to SERIOUS BUSINESS using a sword.
2 re-rolls per scene, but only for actions by or against himself directly.
+1 to SERIOUS BUSINESS when using a knife, and +1 GATS when
throwing a knife.
All BRAWLING wounds require an extra round to recover from.
+1 GATS when throwing explosives such as grenades or dynamite.

If a non-Leading Role enemy is about to start a fight, the character can
say just the right thing to put him off (prior to shots being fired or
punches thrown). The character tests his SMARTS +1 each turn until
he fails--then the fun begins!
Character can get any non-Leading Role character to do anything he
asks this turn (Director's call). He must first pass a SMARTS +1 test
in order to do so.
Opponents roll GUTS-2 when facing him.
+1 to LEAD POISONING when using a shotgun.
Character cuts a fine figure and when talking to characters other than
Leading Roles may add "1" to his SMARTS when telling a lie. If he
passes the test, the listener believes him--until the opposite is proved.
Costs an additional +$25 (hey, good suits dont come cheap!)
+1 to LEAD POISONING using any Sub-Machine Gun.

Second Edition
24
61
Tough SOB/Broad
62
Two-Gun Kid
63
Wheel Man
64
Boxer
65
Crack Shot
66
Gimpy
-1 from wounds against him for first two wounds.

May fire with a pistol in each hand per round without penalty.
+2 to STUNTS for driving feats. Accelerate/decelerate two speeds per
action instead of one. (Applies to a Pilot as Flyin Fool.)
+1 to BRAWLING die rolls.
+1 to LEAD POISONING when using a pistol, rifle or carbine.
-1 from all Movement, but -2 from Running.
Female Characters
Some of the standard Special Skills dont work too well with
female characters, or at the very least some need rewording.
TOUGH SOB becomes TOUGH BROAD, for instance. Females
also have a variety of qualities specific to their gender. In the Pulp
world, women are either Good Girls or Bad Girls. Decide
which your character is. For the characters first SKILL, roll a D6,
either as a Good or Bad Girl. For the second and subsequent
SKILL, you may choose whether to roll on the same chart, or on the
standard SKILLS Table. If the result seems absurd, try again.
Feminine Wiles Table

Bad Girls
D6 Roll
Skill
Description
Femme
Fatale
Character may make three attempts to control one or more male characters per scenario. The intended victim tests SMARTS. If he passes, he cannot be tested again. If he fails, he must do what she wants him to do
(subject to Directors approval). Femmes Fatale are automatically COLD
BLOODED and REAL CHARMERS.
Hell Cat
+2 to LEAD POISONING and BRAWLING Tables.
Two
Faced
Shows all the attributes of NICE GIRL (see other table) and lasts until she
commits some obviously wicked act when he will test SMARTS to see if the
fooled party finds her out.
Mimic
Can impersonate any voice on the phone or otherwise when out of sight.
Hearer must test against SMARTS to recognize being tricked.
Vamp
She can attempt to make any one man become A SUCKER FOR A DAME.
This will work on a roll of 1-3, and if it works, it lasts until she is found to
commit some wicked act when he will test SMARTS to see through her deception.
Sweet
Talker
SWEET TALKER--Can make any man test to be GULLIBLE whenever

she wants, but only three times during a scenario.
Astounding Tales!
25
NOTE: Some SKILLS referred to below are found under rules for COMIC CHARACTERS (below).
Feminine Wiles Table

Good Girls
D6 Roll
Skill
Feminine
Intuition
Once per scene the character may have a free Interrupt by making
any male character back up and repeat an Actionbut she gets to Act
first!
Doll Face
All men become TONGUE TIED and CLUMSY in her presence until
actual violence breaks out. She is also a REAL CHARMER.
Nice
Girl
Description
Friendly characters must always tell the truth and cannot break any
laws, promises, or confidences in her presence. Opponents 1 to GATS
and FISTS against her.
Packs A Punch +2 to BRAWLING die roll.
Ingnue
-1 to her SMARTS when being persuaded or conned until deception becomes clear, the +1 on any roll that helps her get revenge.
Heroine
Scream
Can choose to scream at times of crisis, summoning friendly male characters within 24 who must make a free RUNNING move to reach her
side, and will continue until reaching her in as few turns as possible.
COMIC CHARACTERS
These can be either Leading Roles or Secondary
Roles. The Director may assign one or more to any characters, or one may be claimed by any player with the
Directors approval.
These are SKILLS (and nowhere is that term more
out of place) primarily for Sidekicks. Since they are all
negative to some degree, whenever the player rolls a 6
while creating this character, he must pick from the list below. Note that the Director reserves the right to assign one
Second Edition
26
or more of these SKILLS as part of his scenario.
BraggartClaims skills he may not actually have. "Sure I can fly a plane/drive a car/
operate a submarine/ make a fire without matches/etc." Players may believe him or not-they havent seen his Profile.
Wrong-way CorriganNo sense of direction. If he goes to get help (for example), or
does anything relating to direction, test his SMARTS -2. If he fails, randomly determine
the direction he will take or indicateso long as its wrong!
"Errant Knight"The character will accept such challenges as to "Throw down your gun
and fight like a man!," or similar acts of ill-considered chivalry if challenged. Test versus
SMARTS -2.
Totally Oblivious--Subtract 2 from the character's SMARTS whenever his observation
skills are needed.
"Stutters"--Can't relay information for a turn after any exciting activity or narrow escape
(Directors call).
Unlucky--Director or opponent may demand this character re-roll one successful (but nonfatal) die roll per scene in the hope of failure.
BaffledConfused character must spend an Action simply reacting whenever a new element appears in a scenario.
Clumsy (Character must have STUNTS of 3 or less)Director or opponent may demand
STUNTS test once a scene for tripping, dropping things, etc.
Technically IneptWhen working with any sort of technology, a failed roll leads to the
worst possible (non-fatal) outcome (What do you mean the bomb's timer sped up?!)
Absentminded Professor--Curious about everything to the
point of ignoring the business at hand. Always wandering off
chasing a rare butterfly, poking around the mysterious but very
dangerous equipment to see how it works, always touching the
"Wet Paint" sign to see if it is, etc.
A Sucker For A DameWill let any woman talk her way out
of the room, get him to put down his weapon, remove her handcuffs, etc, if he fails a SMARTS -1 test.
Ugly MugWomen and children test GUTS on first sight.
Astounding Tales!
27
EXAMPLES OF CHARACTER CREATION
Director Bill now starts to provide his players with their characters for his scenario.
He chooses not to buy his characters, but to roll them up, so he rolls the necessary dice before he decides what sort of characters he has.
For the first, he rolls 4, 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 1, 2. The 1 and one of the 6s
modify to a 2 and a 5, as per the rules, so the dice read, in order, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5,
5, 6. Since only six Attributes are necessary, he can ditch both of the low 2s. The pair
of sixes means two rolls on the SKILLS TABLE. These result in CALL ME SHERLOCK and
LUCKY CUSS, leading him to create as a Primary Character Private Eye Pug Roscoe.
Thus, he decides being able to fight and to figure things out are both necessary, so this is the
resulting Profile.
FISTS
GATS
GUTS
STUNTS SMARTS
HITS
SKILLS
5
Call Me Sherlock, Lucky Cuss
He is armed with a .45 automatic and a lead-filled sap. He asks for a seaplane, which
would be useful but not the sort of thing that a PI can expect to have. The Director denies
this, but allows him a roadster for the New York Scene.
In contrast, Sue decides that she will be the Countess DOrdonza (born Millie
Schwarz), an adventuress desired by millionaires and wanted by authorities from Kowloon
to Kansas Citydecidedly a Bad Girl. So shell be looking to place her dice to fit this Primary Role. She rolls 2, 3, 2, 6, 5, 4, 4, & 6 giving her two SKILLS. She rolls
up FEMME FATALE and HELL CAT and ditches her pair of twos. She then sets up her list
as follows:
FISTS
GATS
GUTS
STUNTS
SMARTS
HITS
SKILLS
Femme Fatale, Hell Cat
She tells Director Bob that she carries a small automatic pistol and a stiletto, which
he accepts, and a vial of arsenic, which he denies. You cant allow just anyone to have a convenient poison in her purse!
The third player, Joe, decides on an international playboy Character, Race Kennedy.
His profile sets up this way: He claims a silver-plated revolver, a Duesenberg touring car,
and the seaplane that Bill was refused. All this seems reasonable to Director Bob.
FISTS
GATS
GUTS
STUNTS SMARTS
6
HITS
SKILLS
Wheel Man
The Director also decides that each player

will get an additional Character for the gamea
secretary for the PI, a manservant/bodyguard for
the Countess, and an old pal from the Lafayette
Escadrille for Kennedy. The players then create
them by rolling them up, or buying them as
they may prefer.
Second Edition
28
SETTING UP THE GAME

A valley of life in a land of frozen
death. A golden-haired goddess in an
Eden of a savage, lost race. Through
screaming blizzards Corporal Peters
sought them-his only signposts a madmans ravings and a skeletons longstilled boast!
Roger Daniels, Spoilers of the Lost World, 1938
So, weve got sets, weve got figures,

weve got players equipped with heroes, sidekicks and underlings. Were ready to shoot that
first reelbut wait! Wheres the script? Whats
the storyline?
This is up to the Director to provide. Now, since this isnt a complicated Role Playing
Game (or RPG), and we dont need to know the name, charisma rating or armour class of
the dishwater-blonde waitress at that crummy all-night juke joint where Phillip Marlowe is
nursing his hangover. This can be pretty loose. Hell, if we dont like where its going, we
can always cut and re-shoot. But it is a good idea to have some unifying theme to an adventure, even if it does move locations between San Francisco, Istanbul and the Upper Amazon
as the tale unfolds.
Kidnapped heiresses, stolen gems, Nazi plots to control the world, The Purple
Emperors wish to destroy it, these are classics of their type. For instance, in my Fiendish
Plot of Fu Manchu adventure, which has several unconvincing-yet-appealing story lines
tied together in an unlikely (yet appealing) stream of cuts, clumsy changes of location, failures of continuity, snappy dialogue, there is a running thread of a mad archaeologists kidnapped daughter and the exciting, though generally incompetent (in all games played so far)
efforts of her father and her fianc to rescue her from a fate worse thanwell, no actually,
just death. She always escapes by her own efforts, youll be happy to know. Theres a
starlet called Roxy who chews up the scenery when shes on camera, too.
EXAMPLE: Director Bob decides that the plot involves the theft of an idol known as the
Golden Monkey by an international art dealer with mob connections. The PI is hired by a
briefly-appearing client who wishes him to regain the Monkey and return it to the shrine on
the island of Pongo-Pongo where it rightfully belongs.
The Countess appears with offers of helpbut secretly wishes to steal the idol herselfwhile the international playboy is simply looking for an adventure in the tropics while
the winter weather closes in around his palatial Manhattan home.
There will be a Scene in New York where the Duchess steals the idol from the art
dealer, Lardache, one in Hawaii where the dealers minions try to wrest it back, with some
Opium smugglers and Charlie Chan involved, and one in the jungles of Pongo-Pongo where
the head-hunters (enemies of the gentle and peaceful villagers of Pongo-Pongo) try to prevent
our Characters returning the idol. Is this corny or what?
Of course, this plot will not survive contact with the players! Director Bob remembers
that the word Curse appears in the title, but hell figure that one out later.
Astounding Tales!
29
THE OPENING SCENE

Over New York fell the
murderous spell of Deaths
burning stare-and men died in
the throes of some terrible,
secret, inner fire! Richard
Wentworth, alone as THE SPIDER,
dared challenge the astounding
attack by a modern Genghis
Khan gone mad.
Blight of the Blazing Eye, The Spider Magazine, April 1939
Here are some classic, not to say corny, places to start:

1. In a darkened alleyway, three thugs attack our hero as he makes his way through
the shadowy world of the city at night.
2. Inside an Egyptian tomb, a party of explorers is shocked by mummies rising from
sarcophagi, skeletal bodyguards and a beautiful woman in the diaphanous robes of a priestess of Isis.
3. A nightclub, a torch singer, a backroom gambling game, illegal drugs and
prostitutionand then the lights go out.
4. A closed train, guarded by brooding men in uniforms, steams across the open desert. Suddenly there is an explosion as the tracks ahead are blown, and the cry of mounted
tribesmen galloping forward pierces the air!
5. The jungle path, the creaking bridge, the howling of monkeys ceases and the silence tells of some unknown peril.
EXAMPLE: If this were a traditional RPG wed have a lot of scene-setting stuff, or at least
an elaborate review of the penthouse suite where Lardache keeps his stolen loot. However,
since weve determined that stealing the Monkey back is the key to starting the plot, well
begin with asking the players to come up with a scheme to do this. They decide that the
duchess will persuade Lardache to show her the idol, that Roscoe should come in to show
some muscle, and that Kennedy will have the Duesenberg ready at the back door for a getaway. But we need to get the thing started. Director Bob decides that this is a workable
scene, and decides that the Action
begins when the duchess saps
Lardache with a genteel bag of lead
shot and grabs the monkey. So
In the penthouse suite of a
five-star hotel in Manhattan, a
crooked art dealer shows his latest ill
-gotten treasure to a beautiful
woman. He plans to impress her: her
plans are rather different.
Second Edition
30
SECTION II : CAMERA! ACTION!
THE RULES OF PLAY

It is written, Wu Fang cooed through his thin,
cruel lips, that defeat is often nearest when victory
appears to come.
The Case Of The Hidden Scourge, The Mysterious Wu Fang, 1936
There isnt much you need to know! Deliberately so.

A. If you are playing in RPG style, with the players
acting as a group:
First of all, decide the sequence of action. The Director will
ask the players what they want to do (Whats my motivation?) either as a group or individually, starting with the character in most immediate danger of something bad happening
real soon. If the group is fussy about who acts when, get each to roll a D6 and add the
score to either SMARTS or STUNTS, depending on whether its a Spot that poisonous
snake moment, or time for leaping across a gorge.
The Director may choose to move the villains and their minions at whatever time
seems appropriate in the turn. Since we instinctively know that the higher grade of evildoer likes to explain at some length what act of devilry hes about to perform next, its not a
bad idea to let him talk first but act last. Most of the time, anyway.
Each turn each figure can perform two Actions: These include moving, shooting,
fighting hand to hand, and the various swinging-from-ropes, leaping-from-cliffs, using-theexplosive-charge-hidden-in-the-signet-ring sorts of things that youd expect. These can be
done in any order you like. You can shoot while movingeven runningbut not well. If
things get tightand they willthe Director can cut the play down to one Action at a time,
but (to even things out) let the heroes have an extra Action when they need one.
If its not your turn, you still dont have to stand like a dummy. If someone shoots at
you, you can shoot at them. If he swings at you and misses, you get to hit back. If you are
waiting to jump out of a dark alley, you get to do that at the right moment rather than after
they move 4 past your hiding place. Likewise, you can shoot at an enemy when his silhouette moves past the neon-lit sign, not when his movement takes him into the shadows.
You do this by means of the Interrupt mechanism, which well get to.
B. If you are playing in the orthodox miniatures game manner:
This will vary a little depending on whether the Director is actively playing God,
controlling hidden traps, stray dogs and sudden arrivals on the board, or if he is simply
playing the affable host and letting the players know all that is to be known. Traditionally,
most miniatures games have been like this, and often players are most comfortable in this
context. It does, however, pose problems in that everything is clearly set out on the tabletop, and so the level of secrecy and surprise is low. Id suggest that players take a collaborative, story-telling approach to this, rather than view the games as a desperately
Astounding Tales!
31
competitive exercise.
The simplest way is to alternate turns on the I-go-U-go
principle. If there are several players, simply go round. A variant on this that I like in multi-player games is for the current
player to decide who will go next, until all have gone (and
theyre not likely to pick anyone they are actually fighting themselves). Then the nominated player can begin moving while the
current player finishes his turn.
A more interesting method is The AMAZING WIZZO
CARD SEQUENCE
How It Works: Each player is dealt seven cards of the same

suitthe ace, two and three (which permit one figure to act), the
Jack, Queen and King (which permit all your figures to act) and
the tenwhich well get to later. Each players cards are shuffled together into a single
deck, and both Jokers inserted. Use Hearts and Spades for two sided games, with diamonds
and clubs for multi-faction affairs. All the other cards in the pack are discarded. The cards
are turned over one at a time, and whenever it's your turn, your band of banditos, zombies or
Chicago cops get to move, shoot, hit each other with chairs and talk bigpossibly all at the
same time.
If you have more than four factions, you can simply give each player seven plain index cards, to mark each one with his identifying name and either one figure (3 cards) all
figures (3 cards) and civilians (1 card). Shuffle all the players cards into a deck, with two
additional index cards as jokers. However, Id say that multi-faction games using a card sequence and interrupts can slow down a lot; it may be better to put extra players into teams
rather than allow them independent commands.
When a card only allows one figure to act, well allow any of his friends within 2 to
act as well. That way he can drive a car, or bust in a door. So, effectively, its a one small
unit move.
Each card allows the figure(s) to take two actions if used right away, but only one if
used as a Hold Card. The actions allowed are:
MoveEither creeping, walking or running. You can shoot, but not well
ShootEither with a single shot, or blasting away pretty wildly
Aim (in case you really want to hit somebody in particular)
Slug somebody hard, with fists, furniture, gats or bats.
Recover from your natural reaction to a near-miss shot.
Test vs. SMARTS to spot hidden enemies.
STUNTLeap through a window, climb into a car, draw a gun, that sort of
thing.
Talk big, crack wise, make threats. Real tough guys can give The Look (see
GUTS)
You can do these things in any order you like, as long as it makes senseyou cant
slug someone with a bat and aim a pistol at the same time. And if you run into somebody on
Second Edition
32
your second Action, well let you hit him for freewere swell guys that way.
If you dont want to act right now, you can HOLD up to two cards, to play when you
need. You use a Hold Card to interrupt another players turn with one Action of your own.
If he has a Hold Card, he can interrupt your interrupt. If you play a second Hold Card, you
trump him and go first! Hot Damn!
The first jokers just a warning; when the second joker comes up, the turn ends and all
Hold Cards are thrown in unused. This means that no players can ever estimate exactly how
the cards will fall. The deck is reshuffled and a new turn begins.
If the second joker comes straight after the first, sirens are sounded. In the next turn
all figures must be off the board before the first joker comes up, and hordes of cops arrest
everyone without a badge.
Civlians: When your 10 comes up, make one Action for all civilian figures. You
cannot use them to help criminals, but you can order them to Hand over the money or get
in the way of other criminal groups. Optionally, you can roll vs. GUTS once for the bravest
citizen to see if they try to fight back, and if they do, for all the other Civilians. From then
on, they will attack the villains in question, although most will be unarmed.
Hidden Characters: These will be revealed if they move out of cover, make loud noises, or
are spotted by enemies listening and watching for them. Use common sense about this.
Note that if you are playing with a Director, you can use the Amazing Wizzo Card
Sequence but that it makes sense to let him run all civilians, hidden traps and tomcats
knocking over garbage cans.
Keep it loose, keep it fast, dont sweat the details.
MOVEMENT
Sprawled on my belly, one of Goosenecks guns in each hand, I wormed my
head over the edge. On all fours, the Englishman was scrambling out of the
way of the car.
Dashiell Hammett, The Golden Horseshoe 1924
Legging It On Foot
Characters moving on foot can do one of these things in any given
Action:
1. Creep up to 2; they may not be detected by nearby opponents
who fail SMARTS (modify for darkness, etc)
2. Walk 4; they can shoot at same time, possibly well.
3. Run 4 + 1 D6; they can shoot but dont expect to score any
hits.
4. Lose distance for crossing rough ground or significant obstacles. More minor
stuff we wont worry about.
EXAMPLE: Pug Roscoe is creeping up the stairs to Lardaches penthouse at 2 per Action.
At one point there is a mop and bucket cunningly placed on the stairs, counting as an obstacle (1/2 speed that Action). There is a gangster standing guard at the top of the stairway,
who may not notice the PI (test vs SMARTS).
Astounding Tales!
33
Pounding Hooves Horseback Riding
1. 6 per Action at the walk
2. 9 at the trot, lose 1D6 for rough ground
3. 12 at the gallop, no movement over rough groundif you do,
lose 1 D6 and test vs STUNTS to see if you take a fall. If you do, count
it as if you were wounded in the usual way (see Wounded Characters).
4. You can make up rules for dog-sleds, pack camels and amazing
zippy inventions as suits your taste.
5. Supporting Cast move as groups, so where there is a die roll, it
counts for the whole group rather than roll for each figure. We really
arent much concerned about them.
WEAPONRY ( For the fully dressed man.)
Roscoe. Chopper. Barking Iron. Betsy. Bean
Shooter. Cannon. Heater. Rod. Chicago Piano.
Almost as many monikers as there were types,
Firearms are the one indispensable item in the hands
of any Pulp character. But Astounding Tales! wont
give you a lecture on their history or designjust a
down and dirty means to find out if the Mug at the
business end of your piece will be around for the
next chapter after you drop the hammer.
The following table lists all you really need to
know about the types of weapons youll most commonly meet up with, or carry under that topcoat.
Weapons Data
WEAPON
RANGES
Number Of
Dice Per Shot
SPECIAL MODIFIERS
Short
Long
Pistol
24
None
Pistol (blazing way)
12
-2 to GATS at more than 3 *
Broom Handle
Mauser
12
Shotgun
18
3 per barrel
Tommy Gun
24
Carbine
12
36
None
Rifle
12
48
None
BAR*
12
48
-2 to GATS, -1 to GATS if on Tripod
Light Machine Gun*
12
48
-3 to GATS (-1 if on Tripod)
Heavy Machine Gun*
12
48
15
-4 to GATS (no modifier if on Tripod)
Second Edition
34
Grenade
12
See Special Weapons, below
Bow
12
(Arrows may be poisoned)
Javelin/Rock/etc
12
None
Amazing Scientific
Weapons
Details Vary Wildly (Director Will Provide or collaborate on Stats)
*= Inaccurate, but scary as all hell. If you score a miss, but still equal to or less than your basic
GATS, the target must react as if hit but not woundedducking for cover, hitting the dirtand
misses one Action next turn recovering. JAMS: Any Automatic Weapon that scores more 6s
than 1s and 2sin one burst Jams. Roll of 1-3 in the next turn clears it. If twice as many 6s
rolled as 1s and 2s, its Jammed for the rest of the Action.
Special Weapons/Exotic Skills

Grenades are weapons usually thrown for effect. This is best depicted by having the
player flick a wad of paper or piece of chewed gum (etc) at his target from the position of
the throwing figure. If he flicks more than 12 its a dud, less than 3 and hes in trouble.
Place a beer mug, large coffee cup or similar (about 3 radius is good) over the site of the
explosion. Everyone beneath the cup will roll three times vs. STUNTS starting with the
highest rated character, and will take a HIT for each failurecharacters will roll for each
wound, others will just die. Ifhoweverthe highest rates character passes all three
STUNTS tests, he will pick up the grenade and throw it back, using the same flicking
rules.
Dynamite uses the grenade rules, but increasing the radius of effect by 2 per stick
after the first one. A bundle of dynamite has a radius the size of a large pizza on your table
top. For each throw, roll a D6on a 6 it blows up in the throwers hand. I wouldnt let
players use dynamite promiscuously. (Alternatively, the Dynamite Deck is available from
the Publisher, TVAG.)
Smoke Bombs are like grenades, but issue a cloud of choking smoke the radius of
the mug, rising about 20-30 feet. Everything behind is invisible for the rest of the scene,
and anyone inside the smoke must flee, choking (counting as -3 from FISTS and GATS
next turn).
Gas Pellets can be fired from a special gun, like bullets from a pistol, and a hit releases the gas, which will affect anyone within a 2 radius. Alternatively, larger gas canisters can be thrown using the grenade rules, with a 4 radius. Anyone within must roll
against STUNTS to dive out of the gas cloud, or will be knocked out (or paralysed like statues) until next turn.
Ray Guns are dangerous experimental weapons used by mad scientist, their minions, and perhaps the odd Martian. Count them as shotguns
that dont require reloading, and +2 on the Lead Poisoning chart (they seem
very dangerous indeed). The flip side is that when rolling 4 D6 to hit, if the
roll comes up trebles of any sort (i.e, 3 of the 4 dice are the same number), the gun explodes, inflicting a +2 wound on the firer. Heroes dont use
ray guns except against their original owners! (Except in Pulp Sci-Fi future
worlds, where ray guns are just normal things to possess.)
Astounding Tales!
35
Bullwhip is essentially a short-range missile weapon with special properties. Range
is 3. Roll versus GATS to hit. Prior to attacking, the Whip-master must indicated if he
purpose is to Injure, Disarm or Entangle the victim. If he hits, use the appropriate rule, below.
Bullwhip Attack Table

D6 Roll Result
Effect
1, 2 CRACK! Target dodges back 3, and takes an action on his next turn to recover. Roll vs.
GUTS. If he fails hes scared, ducks for cover or dives. Move 6 backwards or to
safety.
3, 4
Light Lose 1 HITS, 1 FISTS, and takes an action on his next turn to recover. Roll vs.
Wound GUTS. If he fails hes scared, ducks for cover or dives. Move 6 backwards or to
safety.
5
Gashed! Lose 2 HITS, 2 FISTS, 1 GATS. Victim falls down. Recover on next 2 Actions. Roll
vs GUTS as above.
6
Blinded! Out of the game. Possible permanent loss of one eye. Lose 2 HITS, 1 FISTS, 3
GATS, 2 GUTS.
DisarmThe victims weapon is thrown 3 in a random direction (you can decide if

it hits anyone). He has to recover as if shot at.
EntangleVictim rolls against STUNTS. If he fails, the whip is wrapped around his
legs, and he can be dragged around for a turn or pulled over at the whip-masters choice.
Hypnotism is a special skill which cannot simply be claimed but must be allowed or
pointedly included by the Director as part of his scenario. This SKILL allows the practitioner to hypnotise a victim at a range of 12 or less. The victim must look at the hypnotist to
allow this to work, of course. To avoid being hypnotised, roll vs SMARTS -2. If unsuccessful, the victim is either hypnotised immediately OR at an pre-arranged signal, and will
do whatever the hypnotist wants until a) the effect is broken by a blow, fall etc, b) the
counter signal goes into effect, or c) the hypnotist is killed or wounded, thus breaking mental contact. Clearly, hypnotism is a difficult area, and much of what occurs is left to the
Director.
Snipers
"Legionnaire McNair's eye gleamed along the barrel of

his rifle. This was the only game that he loved, the game of
war; and he almost smiled despite his cracked lips, as he
looked into the face of a white burnoosed Arab as it
appeared over the front sight".
Walter Lindsay Stewart, C'est La Legion,
Short Stories Magazine, July 1931
The thing about snipers is that they are specialist hunters. They
shoot to kill with a single bullet, and will usually not pull the trigger
unless they are certain of a hit in the exact body part theyve selected. This makes them different from most shooters in the Pulp genre, who mainly want to plaster an area with lead
and hope that some of the shots hit flesh and bone.
Second Edition
36
Snipers must have the CRACK SHOT skill. They must take an aiming position for a
full turn before pulling the trigger. They then roll to hit and roll to find out whether the target has been hit. If the sniper fails to hit, he can declare that he isnt pulling the trigger, and
no shot is fired. He remains in position, and can try again on a second or subsequent action.
If he scores a hit, he then rolls on the Lead Poisoning Table, adding 1 CRACK SHOT
and another 1 for the Aimed shot. This means hes got a gosh-darned good chance of
killing his victim. Which is what wed expect!
SHOOTING
I dont like twenty-twos. When I
put a hole in a guy I dont embarrass
half a dozen doctors who try to find it.
My motto is: There isnt much sense in
shooting the same guy over and over.
Carroll John Daly, Just Another Stiff, 1936
Firing pistols, rifles, shotguns, etc, is a

very straightforward affair. Each firing character rolls one die (sometimes more) versus his or
her GATS, with an occasional modifier for
range, coverthat kind of thing. If the die
score is less than or equal to the firing characters GATS, he may have scored a hit. If so, the
Shooting Modifiers
Aimed Fire (took a full Action first) for single pistol, rifle, carbine, and bow shots ONLY. +1 to GATS
Firing while moving / long range / poor light / target in light cover or lying down
-1 to GATS
Firing while running / bad light / hard cover/ shooter drunk / running or flying target
-2 to GATS
target rolls on the Lead Poisoning Table to see if he is either killed, wounded, scared
away, or simply dodges out of the line of fire. In other words, I roll to hit you, you roll
and hope the bullet went through your hat.
You get one shot per Action with revolvers and rifles, more if you are Blazing
Away with a pistol, or spraying lead with a Tommy Gun, shotgun, etc. For each D6 indicated by Dice-per-Shot on the Weapons Data Table, roll against the shooters GATS, applying the appropriate Shooting Modifiers. If he passes, the target will roll on the Lead
Poisoning Table for effect.
If modifiers take the shooters GATS to 0, the shooter can roll again, but this time
he must get a 1. If so, he will roll a straight D6 against his original GATS, and if this roll
is successful, the target is still in trouble.
Any modified GATS below 0 and ya got no chance at all. Fair nuff?
EXAMPLE: Kennedy shoots at a gangster who tries to block his car. The Director rules that
he counts 1 for firing while moving, and another 1 because the gangster just emerged from
the shadows. So Kennedy rolls against his GATS of 3 with a -2, so he needs a 1 to hit.
Damn! Whod a thunk that shooting while driving at breakneck speed would be so hard?
Astounding Tales!
37
WOUNDS (Lead Poisoning)

Figure Im carryin eight slugs now, not--not countin em as went
straight trough. Purtypurty tough fr a man t carry eight slugs, Sarge,
not not countin em as went straight trough. Yunderstand.
Youll be all right, Quinlin said, and he knew in his own heart he was
lying.
Frederick Nebel, The Valley of Wanted Men 1940
For each hit, roll 1 D6 and apply the appropriate modifiers (if any).
Lead Poisoning Modifiers

Bows and little Sissy guns (.22s, etc), but natural rolls of 6 always count as
listed.
Aimed shot w/pistol, rifle, or carbine
Shotguns at short range, large calibre rifles, or heavy machine guns (etc) at any
range.
-1
+1
+2
Stopping PowerIm not terribly interested in ballistics and muzzle velocity, but
its obvious that blazing .45s are more effective than the little pistol you keep in your sock.
A wide group of firearms from adult-sized pistols through bolt action military rifles are
counted as the base, standard type. Small calibre weapons and bows cause less actual
damage than standard weapons, and big honkin guns are more likely to blow huge holes in
the victimas youd expect.
Wounds add up. Of course, rolling more than a characters HITS means hes
killedor at least badly hurt and facing months in bandages at a secret clinic in Switzerland.
Supporting Cast having HITS of only 1 are assumed
killed or otherwise out of action on a roll of 4-6.
EXAMPLE: Back to Kennedys shooting. He scores a lucky
1, and his target, a nameless palooka rated as a Bit Part at
3 for all Attributes, rolls on the Lead Poisoning Table. He
gets a 4,and is lightly wounded. If he were Supporting Cast
instead, hed have been killed off, no questions asked.
Lead Poisoning Table

1
Try Harder!
2, 3
Near Miss!
Light Wound
Wound
Lose 2 HITS, 2 FISTS, 1 GATS. Take a dive. Recover on next 2 actions.
Blam!
If you aint dead, buddy, youre close: Lose 4 HITS, 3 FISTS, 2 GATS,
2 GUTS. Move at 1/2 speed if you have 2 HITS left, otherwise you are
prone on the pavement.
OPTIONAL RULE for shooting at large and powerful targets: Roll 1 D6,
and a 5 or 6 is an automatic kill. Even on a Tyrannosaurus rex.
Second Edition
Hes fine, likes to be shot at. Laughs in the teeth of danger.

He dodges out of the line of fire, and takes an action on his next turn to
recover. Test GUTS.
Lose 1 HITS, 1 FISTS. Hit the deck. Recover on next action.
38
Optional Wound Location

Some people like to know that a bullet scraped the tibia while passing through the
left ventricle on its way to the frontal lobe. Me, not so much. But if you want a little extra
detail, roll a D6 for hit location, and see what the wound level means for that part of the
body.
Optional Wound Location Table

D6
Roll
Location
Light Wound
(Previous roll of 4 On Lead
Poisoning Table)
1 HITS, 1 FISTS,
No running
Serious Wound
(Previous roll of 5 On
Lead Poisoning Table)
2 HITS, 2 FISTS,
1 GATS, speed
Left leg
Right leg
1 HITS, 1 FISTS,
no running
2 HITS, 2 FISTS, 1
GATS, speed
Left arm
1 HITS, 2 FISTS
1 GATS w/ long arm
2 HITS, 3 FISTS,
1 GATS
Right arm
1 HITS, 2 FISTS
1 GATS
2 HITS, 3 FISTS,
2 GATS
Body
1 HITS, 1FISTS
2 HITS, 2 FISTS,
1 GATS
Head
1 HITS, 1FISTS
2 HITS, 2 FISTS,
1 GATS
Bad News
(Previous roll of 6 On
Lead Poisoning Table)
4 HITS, 3 FISTS, 2
GATS, 2 GUTS
No movement
4 HITS, 3 FISTS, 2
GATS, 2 GUTS,
No movement
3 HITS, 4 FISTS, 2
GATS, 2 GUTS,
speed
3 HITS, 4 FISTS, 2
GATS, 2 GUTS,
speed
4 HITS, 4 FISTS, 2
GATS, 2 GUTS,
speed
5 HITS, 5 FISTS, 3
GATS, 3 GUTS,
No movement
Body Armour, by which I mean bullet proof vests, and tin helmets of the military
sort. This can only be used with the optional Wound Location Chart. A hit on a protected
area is reduced by 2 points on the die roll (e.g. a 5 becomes 3) but a natural 6 remains a 6. If you want to count padded leathers of the pilot/motorbike variety as armour,
it reduces hits by 1 point, but only in hand to hand combat. Guns shoot right through
leather.
FISTS: Close Combat

How about half a dozen of these?, I
asked him and hit him as hard as I could
in the middle of his belly.
He doubled up mewling. The cigarette case fell to the floor. He backed
against the wall and his hands jerked
back and forth convulsivelyfinally he
worked a smile onto his brown face.
I didnt think you had it in you, he
said.
Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, 1953
Astounding Tales!
39
First off, although you may get two or three
Actions per turn, once you are in a fight, it takes
up the rest of the turn.
Second, there are two Fighting Styles with
important differences, each with its own Results
Table (below). When a fight begins, the players
must tell the Director which Table they mean to
use. Frequently, the Bad Guys will not give you
the choice and youll have to face em on their
terms. Once youve chosen your Fighting Style,
you cant go to another in the same battle.
There are also three general fight
circumstances:
1) Leading & Secondary Roles versus Each Other: Match figures one-on-one.
The attacker can add extra figures to outnumber his opponent where possible. You can
have up to 4-1 odds, but only when all other opponents have at least 2:1 to keep them
busyyou cant just leave enemies hanging around!
An attacker rolls vs. FISTS to hit his opponent. If he succeeds, the opponent
attempts to parry/dodge by testing against his own FISTS. NOTE: A roll of 5 or 6 on
the parry attempt is always a failureeven if your FISTS is 6. Thats because youd never
get hit at all, otherwise. Results:
PassHe dodges the blow. Laughs at his
opponents ineptitude.
FailHit! Roll for effect on the Fighting
Results Table in use.
2) Leading & Secondary Roles versus
Supporting Cast: This is exactly the same, except that
if a character fails to hit his opponent, the other guy
doesnt hit back. Once hit, Supporting Cast are
assumed killed, knocked out, or otherwise out of the
scene. A character who lays out one minion can try to
hit the next one right now, and then, if hes lucky, the
one after that. In theory, Pug Roscoe can beat up a
whole caf full of thugs in one round of combat.
3) Supporting Cast versus Supporting Cast: Yeah, the minions of both sides
Brawling. Just roll for both groups at the same time, 1 D6 per figure involved. Lets say
we have 12 Americans vs.12 minions of the Purple Emperor. If the Purple Minions get 4
hits vs. FISTS, and the brave American resistance get 6, then roll 6 saves for the minions
and 4 for the Yankees. Loser checks GUTS as a group (look this up in the next section, Ok,
Buddy?). If they pass, fight goes on.
Second Edition
40
Fighting Styles Tables

Brawling is the good natured bashing of faces as you might meet in a friendly tavern
misunderstanding. The purpose here is not to kill each other, but just to get a decision.
This is Pulp, after all, and people fight all the time. Normally, we dont care about specific
weapons when Brawling, since heroes are two-fisted and tough, while only cheap thugs
carry shivs and brass knuckles.
Brawling Modifiers:
+1 to FISTS for Brawling Weapons (brass knucks, ball bat, iron pipe, bottle, etc),
+1 to FISTS for anyone with a positional advantage, such as being higher up or
behind a wall, etc.
Brawling Table
D6 Roll
1.2
3.4
5
6
Result
Effect
Ouch!
Youll pay for that, Buddy! (No real effect)
Knocked Down Lose 1 HITS, 1 FISTSGet up and fight next turn
Decked!
Down for all of next turn, get up the turn after. Lose 2 FISTS & 2 HITS
Knocked Cold! Lose 3 FISTS, 3 HITS, and wake up in Jail/Hospital/Alley next day.
Will recover fully, dont worry. Its a rule.
Only villains of the worst kind fight women, unless to slap them into a swoon, so
rolls of 5 or 6 count as a Knocked Down, though they can instantly be tied up. This
happens a lot. Im not for it myself, you comprehend, Im just sayin.
EXAMPLE: The Countess finds herself faced with an ugly gunsel who wants to seize her by
the wrists. Its her Action, so she rolls vs. FISTS (3, but being a HELL CAT, she can add 2,
raising her FISTS to a ferocious 5. She rolls a 4and her fist is hurtling home! Probably
wishing hed listened to Dad about not hitting a girl, the ugly gunsel rolls against FISTS
(hes a 4) and fails with a 6. Because the Director made him a Bit Part rather than a lowly
Supporting Cast minion, he rolls again: A 3, and hes Knocked Down and loses 1 HITS
& 1 FISTS.
Serious Business is just thatlethal intent is

involved. If the villains are really trying to kill
the good guysor vice versacharacters roll 1
D6 on this table.
Serious Business Modifiers:
+1 to FISTS for long bladed weapons
(fixed bayonets, swords, spears, etc) in
first round against opponents without
them. If they survive, its an even fight
after that.
+1 to FISTS for anyone with a
positional advantage, such as being
higher up or behind a wall, etc.
Astounding Tales!
41
Serious Business Table

D6 Roll
1
Result
Scratched
2, 3
4,5
Light Wound
Serious Wound
Critical Wound
(If you aint dead,
youre damned
lucky!)
Effect
Got a blood stain on your hand painted silk tie (no effect)
Lose 1 HITS and 1 FISTS
Lose 2 HITS, 2 FISTS, and 1 GATS
Lose 4 HITS, 3 FISTS, 2 GATS, & 2 GUTS. Move at 1/2 speed if you
have 2 HITS left, otherwise you are prone on the pavement. Again,
rolling more than your HITS score means you are killed or at least
badly hurt (If hes not in action, hes in traction).
1) If the attacker fails when he tries to hit a Leading Role, the LR immediately
makes his own attack.
2) If a character faces up to four opponents, all can roll to hit.
This is pretty subjective. This is fisticuffs and dirty fighting, after all, not Roman
Legionaries facing a Macedonian Phalanx! Likewise, people who are used to fighting on
horseback count as Cavalry and get a +1 (+2 if they charged into the fight this turn), but
you or I would get no advantage from being on board a horse. Well, I wouldnt.
GUTS Bravery
No, Operator 5! Dont kill me. I can give you anything you want. I
can give you a thousand a million slaves. I can make you a prince in Europe
or Asia, or even a king. I will give you anything
His voice died away before the implacable coldness in Operator 5s
eyes. He gurgled and a low moan escaped his lips.
Curtis Steele, The Siege That Brought The Black Death, 1938
Heroes are supposed to be brave. Punks are supposed to break down when the going
gets tough. How do we know when these things happen? Roll vs. GUTS when the
Director says sowhen things look bad one way or another. This doesnt have to be
a frequent thing; Pulp-era heroes are supposed to be brave, possibly because theyve been
drinking since dawn. Particularly terrifying things can be stated as GUTS -1, GUTS 2, etc, these being as often in the line of Oriental demons, wailing banshees or giant
robotic killing machines as merely Surrounded by the FBI or other minor problems.
Leading Roles may choose to re-roll a failed GUTS check. If the second roll is a
failure as well, it stands. Tough.
Pass Carry on smiling. Possibly light a
cigarette or pour a Martini.
Fail Gasp in horror, cant move
forward, but continue at -2 from all ratings
until you roll and pass GUTS as an Action on the
next turn and Get a grip, Man. Maybe.
Fail by 3+ PointsRun screaming out of
the Scene. Director may replace this by fainting
(if female) or dying of fright with a terrible
Second Edition
42
expression fixed on your face (people with no future in this story!)
Many Weird Horror monsters use Fear as a primary weapon. Nazi officers, too!
EXAMPLE: Pug Roscoe has already been wounded, and is attacked by three gangsters and
a very large German Shepherd! Roll for GUTS? I think so! Hes a 5. Director Bob thinks
the dog is worth a 2 because this one aint Rin Tin Tin! Pug rolls a 6 and failsbadly.
Hes a Leading Roll, so he can roll againand gets another 6. He runs down the street,
leaps a trashcan, and falls white-faced into McGinnis Speakeasy.
The Evil EyeKnown among gangsters as The Look, this is a simple intimidation device. A character with this ability can stare as his or her victim, causing it to take a
GUTS-2 test, so terrifying is the effect. Of course, the user must be standing still and
doing nothing else. Range is 6, possibly less for short-sighted targets without their
glasses on.
GUTS And Supporting Cast

Supporting Cast have their own Attributes given in the Character Lists, mostly fairly
simple, and often low (see Section VIISample Characters).
Supporting Cast will follow the example of any characters they accompany, with the
exception that should they fail a GUTS test, the SCs must test their own. Do this either as
a group or individually, as you prefer.
Pass and they will stand stalwartly with their character until he Gets A Grip
againperhaps withdrawing with him to safety if things look dicey, possibly passing him
the flask of whiskey, as youd expect.
Fail, and they will bolt for cover/safety/home.
Supporting Cast who are not accompanied by a character must roll against their own
GUTS factor. Since they are not subject to wounds, etc (because they just drop dead),
there are a few situational modifiers for those moments when they feel panic coming over
them:
+1: In cover, weak enemythings look good!
-1: Lost 25% casualties, enemy outflanking them, significant oddsthings looking
bad.
-2: Lost 50% casualties, enemy behind them, overwhelming oddsthings looking
terrible!
GET A GRIP!
The man looked around him and shuddered his face
drenched with sweat, eyes wide with pure terror. He
opened the cabinet door and peered into the murky
interior. Finally, still sobbing, he snapped out the
light and walked out of the office.
Hugh B. Cave, The Lady Who Left Her Coffin, 1936
Those that have failed a GUTS test can try to regain their manhood by testing vs. GUTS -2 as an Action on their next turn. If they
Astounding Tales!
43
pass, return to normal GUTS rating. Leading Roles can volunteer to do this, though on subsequent turns they will have to be slapped by another Character in order to make the roll.
Continued failure leads to sanatoriums, cheap whisky and a bad end.
EXAMPLE: Having just failed GUTS, Roscoe staggers into the speakeasy, orders a rye with,
beer chaser, and throws them back. He rolls against his GUTS 5, minus 2 for his panic.
Rolling a 2, he Gets a Grip, and runs back into the street, rod at the ready.
CUT!: The Do-Over Rule

I dont know. Im making it up as I go along
Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981
In each Scene the player may call Cut! oncewith the Directors
approval. This means that the immediate preceding Action turn is played
over. If the new turn is clearly more successful for the player, the Director
may even allow it to be done again.
EXAMPLE: Player Bill decides that the whole Roscoe runs away from a
yapping pooch scene is not what he wants at allso he asks the Director
to Cut! and play it again. He wants the dog edited out completely! The
unfortunate savage dog scene occurred on the Directors turn, rather than
Bills. The Director has to decide whether going back will cause too much extra footage to be
re-shot, and other events altered. If the cut would involve a lot of changes, the Director
could refuse to do it, or simply say that Bill had to play the scene as it was, but re-roll the
unfortunate GUTS check that caused him to run. In this case he agrees with Bill, and the
game returns to the moment where Pug Roscoe faces the gangsters, but no dog.
THE INTERRUPT RULE

His hand whipped up inside his jacket, but Spaulding had been waiting
for that. His own clenched fist was even faster. It caught Miller on the
chin, and toppled him over backwards as the half-drawn gun flew from his
fingers and went sailing away.
Robert Sidney Bowen, Rats Dont Live Long, 1944
A character may demand to interrupt the opponents turn to, say, shoot a pistol at a
man attacking himself or a friend, or jump in to punch a goon, or even to run from the vast
mobs of henchmen running up the fire escape. A Leading Role is allowed two interrupts
per scene, a Secondary Role only one. He is then permitted a single Action (shoot, run,
hide or whatever seems right at the moment). The only
time this isnt allowed is when he is somehow not as
alert as he should bewhen he is recovering from a
near-miss shot, or has just been hit by bullets, fists, etc,
and taken a wound, or ifsay it aint sohes failed a
GUTS test and is having a yellow moment.
Bit Parts and Supporting Cast may not interrupt
with the same devil-may-care panache, but if the player
Second Edition
44
gives up an Action on his previous turn to prepare an ambush, lay in wait, or Cover the
alley, the Director may allow him to take one Action to interrupt another players turn at
the requisite point, though it has to fit the plot. Again, men who have failed GUTS, just
dodged a bullet. or been punched in the kisser arent ready for their big moment. If you
have a couple of pugs stationed waiting outside Moose Malones apartment for him to come
out, you cant use the interrupt function to have them run down a flight of stairs when
Mooses girlfriend toots the horn of her De Soto outside. Make sense?
EXAMPLE: As the gangsters and the hugedid I say it was huge?dog rush towards Pug
Roscoe, the Countess chooses to interrupt by firing her small, silver-plated automatic at the
gangsters. She fires three times (Blazing Away) at 2 to her GATS of 5. She hits two of
them and causes a third to dive for cover. She doesnt shoot at the dog, because that would
be wrong. However, Race Kennedy also interrupts, swerving his Duesenberg into the alley,
throwing open the door, and allowing Roscoe to dive into the back seat. Phew!
ORDERS AND COMMUNICATION

Doc Savage continued to speak Mayan. The lingo sounded like gibberish to the listeners in the shabby room.
To homely Monk in the uptown skyscraper, however, it carried a lot of
meaning. All of Docs men could speak Mayan.
Kenneth Robeson, The Polar Treasure, 1933
Oh come on!, we yell out to one another. We use payphones in

diners. We have radios in signet rings. We keep carrier pigeons. If we
are friends of Doc Savage, we speak in Ancient Mayanwhich features
words for airport and sedan. Our underlings follow us blindly. Our
friends appear in the nick of time.
There are NO rules for orders and communication.
DROP THAT PIECE, MARLOWE!

Poot up de hans! Queek-fast, or I keel you, by gar, weeth two bullets
one for each!
Jim laughed harshly as he spread his mittened hands apart, palms outward to show he was unarmed.
Big talk, Paulie, he jeered at the squat, swarthy leader.
Ryerson Johnson, The Dangerous Dan McGrew, 1931
Pulp heroes are always being disarmed, or disarming others.

It saves them from being simply shot at short range and allows
them to get through the rest of the book or movie. Make sure, then,
that you allow the player who is being stuck up to drop guns,
knives, infernal devices on the sticker-uppers own turn rather than
saying they have to wait til theirsbecause, of course, if its your
turn, you will shoot the gun rather than drop it. You can use the Interrupt Rule to shoot on the other guys turn if thats what you want.
Astounding Tales!
45
BOUND AND GAGGED!

Then he came round behind me, and tied me securely to the high backed
chair; my arms to the chairs arms, my legs to the chairs legs, my body to the
chairs back and seat; and he wound up by gagging me with the corner of a
cushion that was too well-stuffed.
Dashiell Hammett, The House on Turk Street, 1930
Everyone gets tied up at some time. Villains tie heroes up and take them to bizarre
underground hideouts. Heroes tie minor villains up because you cant gun down everyone
you meet and still be a hero. Attractive women can expect constant rope burns on their
wrists and ankles. Im not saying this is OK, you understand, far from it; Im just telling
you how the genre operates. So.
1) Tying a victim loosely, so they can free themselves easily,
takes one Action. They can free themselves in two Actions, or for
their whole turn.
2) Tying a victim properly takes two whole turns. Its a real
job. But then, they wont escape and hit you with a chair leg when
you are quietly reading the Racing News.
Only cops can have handcuffsapparently the underworld
doesnt know where to buy thembut villains can use manacles and
chains of various kinds. If you have any of these, they can be put on
in one Action and cannot simply be untied. Unless you are Harry Houdini.
TRAPS
Step into my laboratorygo on in. I think I know just the thing for you. (SLAM!)
Let me out of here!
Sgt. Preston of the Mounties, Episode One Bean Too Many. 1956
We are all familiar with the many sorts of trap strewn around Pulp stories to keep the
wary adventurer occupied (or at least for his half-wit sidekick to fall for them). While writing the first edition of Astounding Tales!, I was too drunk to design any rules for traps, but
Rich Johnson came up with some for his excellent .45 Adventure rules set. So, with his
gracious permission, I stole emThanks, Rich!
The basic rule for spotting traps is to roll vs. SMARTS
to observe their presence in the first place. In general, deduct
1 from your roll if sneaking along and looking out, add 1
if running. The Director can add modifiers if the trap is unusually well hidden (of course its hidden, fool!), or if it
sticks out like a sore thumb. If you detect the trap, the Director will normally let the characters simply bypass it. If you
fail, and sudden disaster looms, roll vs. STUNTS to see if
our bold hero can leap aside/dive forward or whatever fits
the bill. If he fails, well, he becomes the victim, which
means different things for different sorts of trap.
Second Edition
46
Some examples of Traps and how they work include:
Pit: Roll for injuries on the BRAWLING Table. Climb out on a STUNTS roll next
turn (takes an entire turn).
Deep Pit (10-20 feet deep): Roll for injuries on the BRAWLING table, and add 1 to
the roll. Climb out on a STUNTS -1 roll on your next turn (takes entire turn).
Pits with Pungi Sticks: Roll for injuries as if hit on the SERIOUS BUSINESS Table.
Climb out on a STUNTS roll on your next turn (takes whole turn).
Bear Trap: This is a bad one. Unless you have a friend to help, you are pretty much
stuck. Heroes may free themselves by rolling vs. both SMARTS and STUNTS for three
successive turns to escape. Otherwise, I suppose you can gnaw your own foot off.
Snare: You are hauled into the air upside down! Huh! If you have a knife, you may
cut yourself free by doing one STUNTS roll to perform an act of gymnastics, and then a
second to stop from falling on your head. If you fail the second, roll for injuries on the
BRAWLING table.
Darts: These count as shooting with a GATS of 3. If hit, roll on the Lead Poisoning
Table.
Gas: If you detect, leave this place. If you fail first SMARTS test, the Director may
permit a second test on your next turn at -2 to SMARTS. This is a final warning! However,
while the character that passes may be groggy, he can pull D6 other characters along with
him out of the affected area. Otherwise, everyone passes out, and theyd better hope its
simply a knockout gas rather than something permanent.
SNAPPY DIALOGUE
The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.
Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, 1929
Talking big is important. Of course it is. They wouldnt have had all those wisecracks and
neat slangy phrases if you werent supposed to use em,
would they? But heres the thing. In most games there
is no real point in even telling anyone to stick em up,
though, because if you dont plug him now, hell shoot
you on his next Action despite the fact that you are aiming a .45 at him and he has to reach into top coat to find
his own. So, thats what the Interrupt Rule is all
aboutamong other things. You can talk before shooting, talk while driving, talk while running up and down
stairs if you want to. Villains must explain their evil
plans to captured Characters. Strong and silent has no
place in the modern eraits 1933 and we got Talkies
now!
Astounding Tales!
47
SECTION III : SCREAMING WHEELS!
I got to the door in time to see a cerise convertible hurtling down the
driveway. The top was down, and a yellow-haired girl was small and intent
at the wheel. She swerved around Nicks body and got through the gate somehow, with her tires screaming.
Ross Macdonald, Guilt-Edged Blonde, 1954
Cars are important. They are for racing,

shooting out of, climbing onto the roof of, and
generally contributing to the mayhem. You can
also use them as transport. Who can drive? All
Americans between 7 and 70, about half of
Europeans, most trained chimps, some others, but not many. And most of those who can,
shouldnt.
We understand that there are three speeds available:
Cruising: All vehicles can move up to 10 per Action. Corners and curves slow it
down by D6. This is Sensible motoring, such as you might need while tailing a suspect,
driving out to a little bar in Bay City, or other everyday moving about. Well assume that,
as long as nobody else does anything crazy, this is always accomplished safely.
Speeding: Gotta get there fast! Move 5 D6, corners and curves slow it by the highest D6 of the roll. Corners count as 2 Hazards, curves as 1 Hazard.
Racing: Pedal to the metal and go! Move 7 D6, corners and curves slow it by the
two highest D6. Corners count as 4 hazards, curves as 2 Hazards.
Cars can accelerate from stopped to Cruising to Speeding to Racing (and vice
versa) at one speed per Action, although a Wheel Man can manage two.
Other Hazardsbesides corners and curvesconsist of, well, everyone else on the
road. Even if the Director wants to show little old ladies on their way to church, theyll still
be in the way. If the Director gives us speeding fire-engines, prowl cars looking for emergency doughnut stops, and men walking across the street carrying huge panes of glass, they
are all Hazards. And thats ignoring active participants in mayhem at hand.
You have a choice when faced with a Hazard: Either try to Emergency Brake, or try
to Swerve around the obstaclee.g. when going around a corner youll try to do it without
hitting the newsboy standing there. (Damn newsies!)
EXAMPLE: Roscoe and the Countess run out the back door and into Kennedys car. Starting from the halt, it can accelerate to Cruising speed,
10 per Action. However, since Kennedy is a Wheel Man, he can take it
to Speeding right away. He rolls 3, 5, 2, 3, & 4, and the big car
roars away 17. On the next Action, he moves up to Racing, rolling 7 D6
for a total of 28. However, he makes a sharp turn (a Hazard, test vs.
STUNTS) which loses the two highest dice, reducing the distance to 17,
and runs a red light in the process (another test vs. STUNTS).
Second Edition
48
For each Hazard, roll against either STUNTS or SMARTS, whichever is higher.
One Hazard : Basic roll vs. STUNTS or SMARTS
Two Hazards: Roll vs. STUNTS or SMARTS -1
Three Hazards: Roll vs. STUNTS or SMARTS -2
Four Hazards: Roll vs. STUNTS or SMARTS 3
Pass and you succeed. Failroll again on the appropriate manoeuvre table below.
Emergency Braking Table

D6 Roll
1, 2
3, 4
5, 6
Result
Skids 45 degrees left for 1 D6. If you hit anything, roll on Crash Table.
Skids 45 degrees right for 1 D6. If you hit anything, roll on Crash Table.
Go directly to Automobile Crash Table (do not collect $200).
Swerving Table
D6 Roll
1
2
3
4
5
6
Result
Loses a wing mirror and some paint, but no real damage to anyone
Skids 45 degrees left for 2 D6. If you hit anything, roll on Crash Table.
Skids 45 degrees right for 2 D6. If you hit anything, roll on Crash Table.
Loses ControlOpposing player moves you up to 3 D6 into anything he likes! Counts
+1 on Auto Crash Table, plus any other modifiers.
Rolls over opposing player moves you up to 3 D6 into anything he likesupside down!
Counts +2 on Automobile Crash Table, plus any other modifiers.
Flies, rolls over, goes off cliff, etc. Counts +4 on Auto Crash Table, plus any other modifiers.
EXAMPLE: Race Kennedy passes his test for the turn, but comes unstuck when he runs the
red light as a Macys van comes through. He tries to evade but the Director says its a
STUNTS 3 because of the speed hes going and the fact that its a damn big truck. Rolling a
6, Kennedy fails as he tries to swerve around the vehicle. He rolls a 2, skidding left for 2
D6and hits a parked Buick. A nice one, belonging to a little old lady, who went into a
store to get a birthday card for her grandson.
CRASH!
1. Roll a D6. Do a little arithmetic, just so everyone understands that hitting an
oncoming truck at 120 MPH is likely to be more painful than clipping a street sign at 20.
2. Deduct 1 if you are Cruising and you hit a stationary object, or something going
the same direction as you are. Pedestrians and bikes count, since youre bigger than they
are.
3. Add 1 if you are Speeding and you hit a stationary object or something going the
same direction as you are.
4. Add 2 if you are Racing and you hit a stationary object or something going the
same direction as you are.
5. If you hit oncoming traffic, add 1 if it is Cruising, 2 if Speeding, 3 if Racing.
6. If you are on a motorbike, add 2 anyway, dead man.
Astounding Tales!
49
Automobile Crash Table

D6 Roll
1, 2
3, 4
5
6
Result
Fender Benderno damage to anyone.
Collisioncar damaged but drivable.
Crash!car wreckedroll on Wounds Table for all passengers.
Horrific Crash!car blows up, as they do. Roll vs. STUNTS to escape from
blazing inferno, with a roll on wounds table for injury. Fail, and you are trapped inside.
Sorry bout that!
EXAMPLE: Kennedy skids into the parked Buick while Racing.

He rolls a 1, adding 2 for his speed, and comes up with a 3,
which means the car is damaged but still serviceable for madcap
adventure. The Buick isnt really in the game, so well assume
the insurance company takes care of it, and move on.
Riding on roofs, running boards, etc, is safe while

Cruising. Roll vs. STUNTS when Speeding, with a 1 when
Racing. Test the same when climbing between cars, dragging
people into the rumble seat, etc.
Shooting from cars cost -1 from GATS when Cruising,
-2 if Speeding, and -3 if Racing. An extra -1 if actually steering at the same time. (Just because theres no way to hit anyone, doesnt mean you shouldnt try.)
Shooting at carsIf you get a hit; roll 1 D6: 1-3=Hit the car; 4-6=A passenger, roll
for who it is, then again vs. GUTS as per usual. If its the car, roll another D6.
Hits On Automobiles Table

D6 Roll
Result
1, 2
3
Struck the bodywork. Nothing to worry about.

Engine hit! If moving faster than Cruising, car moves at half speed from now on. Roll
each turn and it stops completely on a 5 or 6.
Cut a brake line. Cannot slow from current speed except going uphill! All hazards doubled in difficulty. (Damn, this is dangerous!)
Tire hit! Skid 2 D6 (random left or right). Car out of commission, even if no crash.
The fuel tank! Explosion! Roll STUNTS 2 to escape (roll for wounds),
otherwise incinerated!
4
5
6
EXAMPLE: Race Kennedy and his pals now pursued by gangsters, continue to drive far too fast while Pug Roscoe and the
Countess shoot through the rear windows, as you would. They
are racing (-3 from GATS) so Roscoe (GATS 3) is simply making a
noise, but the Countess (GATS 5) scores a 1 and a 2 with successive shots. The first hits a gangster, a minion who drops lifeless to the floorboards. The second hits the car. She rolls again
and gets a 3, which hits the lower flangewidget crucial to the
differential thingummy, slowing their pursuers to a permanent
halt.
Second Edition
50
SECTION IV : IT CAME OUT OF THE SKY!
In this Hell-Busting novel of Whirling, Diving Crates and Roaring Motors
Bellowing their Savage Thirst for Battle...
From The Lone Eagle, September 1934
Astounding Tales! is mostly about people running around on the ground, but theres
no reason they cant run about inside Zeppelins or on the wings of airplanes. Here are some
ideas for doing these things. Feel free to make aircraft noises as you do so.
RULES FOR AIRSHIPS (Oh, The Humanity!)

by Legion McRae, our special lighter-than-air-correspondent.
"They were thinking only of getting away from that flaming mass of wreckage. Those who weren't caught in the deadly
fire ran headlong in every direction."
Robert J. Hogan, The Dragon Patrol 1934
Pulp and airships go together like mad science and robots,

and in the Pulp era, Rigid Airships (Zeppelins/Dirigibles) were
the principal form of lighter-than-air transportation. Their massive hulls were treated fabric covering an aluminum frame which
held the lifting gasbags and enough space for passengers and
freight, with access to the propelling aircraft engines. The airship was conned from the Gondola mounted on the underside, towards the bows. These airships could be equal parts luxury liner, grand hotel, and cordon bleu restaurant, except they
were also the size of a Dreadnought. They derived their lift from hydrogen or helium, the
latter being inert and safeand wheres the fun in that? By far, the majority of the worlds
lighter-than-air vessels used easily obtainedif more explosively flammablehydrogen.
Helium was used exclusively in the United States which had a monopoly on its production.
We choose to selectively ignore this detail in favour of greater danger and excitement.
In Astounding Tales!, an airship can be both a set and a prop, changing from one to
the other, and back. An example of using one in a game might go like this:
1) It starts the game as a prop in a set, say for the "Danger! Flammable!" scene.
During the scene, characters board the airship and take off, en route to another set;
2) While airborne, it becomes the set of the scene-in-transit ("Hindenburg Redux).
The action continues aloft; then,
3) It arrives at a new set, offloads the characters, and reverts to being a prop, for the
new "Pursuit to the Temple" scene.
Take a playing area from as small as a few inches to maybe a foot or so, add a dozen
or so character figures with guns, plus a similar number of villain, crew, and passenger figuresalso with gunsand you get the idea that things will happen pretty fast and furious on
the set. Right up there with a knife fight in a phone booth.
Game time aboard an airship is intentionally vague. So, Director, in your alternate
role as pilot of the airshipand once all are aboard that are gettin' aboardtake off! Play
Astounding Tales!
51
out one, maybe two, complete turns. Any more than a couple of turns airborne and you
could start running low on cast members for the next scene if the body count is rising. The
airship should then arrive at the next set and offload the cast and crew. By arrive I mean,
of course, either a serene landing, or a spectacular crash, depending on what happened during those turns aloft. Surviving characters then resume the story and continue the Action.
Of Gats And Gasbags
Gunfights aboard airships are a really, really bad idea. But, since we all know what
kind of a game this is
1) Shooting at the Gondola (from outside): If you get a hit, roll 1 D6: 1-5=You hit
the structure (roll once on the Shooting Aboard An Airship Table); 6=You plugged somebody inside. Roll for who, and then on the Lead Poisoning Table, as usual.
2) Shooting while aboard the airship: Roll once on the Shooting Aboard An Airship
Table for every shot that misses the original target.
3) Shooting at airships (from outside): Virtually impossible to miss within a rifle or
machine guns long range; always an Easy Shot. For each hit scored, roll 1 D6: 1-5= No
Effect; 6=Shot ignites a gasbag!. The Airship crashes in flames at the beginning of next
turn. For all aboard, roll STUNTS 1 to escape, but roll for a wound anyway. Each character failing to escape is lost in the conflagration.
Shooting Aboard An Airship Table

D6 Roll
1, 2, 3
4
5
Result
No Effect. You got lucky!
Cut a Rudder line. Roll 1 D6: 6=The airship goes out of control and crashes at beginning
of next turn. Roll STUNTS to escape unharmed, otherwise roll a wound for injury during crash.
Engine Hit! Roll 1 D6: 6=Engine bursts into flames, threatening to ignite the gasbags!
Roll 1 D6 next turn: 1=Fire goes out; 2-5=Roll again next turn; 6=Airship crashes at beginning of next turn. In case of Crash, roll STUNTS -1 to escape, but roll for wounds if
successful. Characters failing STUNTS are incinerated.
A Gasbag! Roll 1 D6: 6=Explosion! Gondola and envelope catch fire and airship crashes
at beginning of next turn. In case of Crash, roll STUNTS -1 to escape, but roll for
wounds if successful. Characters failing STUNTS are incinerated.
Second Edition
52
AIRCRAFTKnights Of The Air!
A burst of Spandau slugs leapt out front with yellow-orange tracers
cutting a path through the nightthe plane ahead fairly blew up in G8s lap, and G-8s plane was thrown back as easily as though it were a
sheet of paper.
G-8 and his Battle Aces, Bombs from the Murder Wolves, 1933
Aircraft are amazing things. Especially in Pulp, where they can
land in an alley, take off from a roof, and will only stop when their
wings come off after contact with a skyscraper. So, I have a choice.
Write a lot of rules, possibly even come up with a variant on the aerial dogfight theme.
But there are a lot of dogfight rules in print, many of them excellent, and it would be easy
to add Pulp elements to your favourite set.
Anyway, Im not going to do that. Im going to give you less. Much less.
Aircraft can take off and land in any clear space three times the length of the plane.
Sure they can. They need clearance on either side of the wings. Clipping trees is the
mark of a good pilot.
Landings at airports or properly laid out airfields almost always go fine. Roll a D6:
6=Danger! Roll against pilots STUNTS to bring er in safely. On a failure, go to Airplane
Crash Table.
Landings on rough ground are more unreliable. Roll a D6: 4-6=Danger! Roll
against pilots STUNTS for a safe, if bumpy landing. On a failure, go to Airplane Crash
Table
PLANE CRASH! Since the pilot has failed his STUNTS, roll for a crash landing, but
before doing so, all characters aboard may choose one of three options:
1) Bail out (with or without a parachute)
A) With ParachuteTest versus STUNTS to land safely. Fail=Roll on
SERIOUS BUSINESS Table.
B) Without ParachuteTest versus STUNTS -3 to land safely. Fail=Roll
on SERIOUS BUSINESS Table. Add 2 to the roll. On a natural 1 the jumper is
freakishly saved by a hay stack/store awning/or whatever absurdity might apply.
2) Seize the controls and try to wrestle the plane to safety (or a least to miss that
orphanage).
The pilot may roll against SMARTS to bring the Airplane Crash Table die roll down
by 1, as his professional brain works to minimise the damage.
Anyone else on the plane may roll vs STUNTS to grab the steering column. If they
are a trained pilot, its STUNTS -1. If they arent a trained pilot, its STUNTS -3. Chimps
can try, dogs cant. Fail and you go straight to the Crash Landing Table.
3) Panic, pray, and otherwise prepare to Buy The Farm.
(All Supporting cast will do this. The director will decide if any unusually moral
characters on board serve to bring down the die roll number on the Airplane Crash Table.)
Astounding Tales!
53
Airplane Crash Table

D6 Roll
Result
1
Incredibly, the aircraft lands safely, although the landing gear is destroyed in the process.
2
3
4
5
6
The wings come off, but the plane crash lands in a series of bumps. Everyone is safe, but
shaken.
The aircraft is badly damaged but passengers and crew roll on the BRAWLING Table for
injuries.
The plane crumples and is completely wrecked. Roll vs STUNTS to escape from the wreckage, with a roll on SERIOUS BUSINESS table for injury. Fail and you are killed in the
crash.
The plane blows up. Roll vs STUNTS to escape from blazing inferno, with a roll on SERIOUS BUSINESS table for injury. Fail, and you are trapped inside, and die.
A fiery ball and a huge explosion destroy the aircraft, killing everyone aboard.
(And thats not good a thing, Martha.)
Barn Storming
In the course of a game a player may find himself needing to perform daring and
dangerous manoeuvres, in the air or on the ground. To do so, the player must first describe
to the Director just what stunt he wishes to perform, then the Director will adjust the difficulty using the following guidelines:
1) Landing and taking off at night, bad weather, dead stick landings or landing on a
dime. Roll the pilot's STUNTS check at -1.
2) Flying under bridges, between buildings, through train tunnels, etc) Roll the pilot's STUNTS check at -3.
3) If the pilot fails his STUNTS check, go to Airplane Crash Table. Directors should
insist the pilot act out the results of a crash as dramatically as possible.
4) Characters wishing to board or jump off at the last moment from a plane already
rolling down a runway must test STUNTS.
Changing PlanesJumping from plane-to-plane is pretty much normal in Pulp adventure. A figure can leap his STUNTS distance to a plane on the same level, twice that to
one lower (we dont understand the physics here) but must pass a STUNTS test to avoid
falling to his death.
Brawling on the wings or upper fuselage is always exciting, and anyone knocked
down or out has a 50% chance of falling. This
would be a good time to demand STUNTS
rolls for someone to save himself by grabbing
the tail fin or wing strut (or if all else fails,
calling Cut!).
Shooting From AircraftCounts as 1
for fuselage mounted machine guns (light or
heavy), -3 for weapons simply pointed out of
the cockpit, etc. (Just because theres no way
to hit anyone, doesnt mean you shouldnt try.)
Second Edition
54
Shooting At Aircraft Completely ridiculous and absolutely to be encouraged.
However, well say that only rifles and machine guns can shoot at planes in the air. Gotta
be authentic, after all!
Shooting at Planes counts as -3 from GATS if the plane is taxiing or taking off/
landing. Its -4 if flying (but, hey, standing planes are just like parked cars). If you get a
hit, roll a D6: 1-3=Hit the plane!; 4-6=Hit someone aboard. Roll for who it is, then again
for wounds as per usual. Bad luck if its the pilot. If its the plane, roll another D6 on the
following table.
Shooting At Planes Table

D6 Roll
1, 2 Struck the fuselage. Nothing to worry about.
3
Tire shot/landing gear damaged. If the plane has fixed wheels tire is blown. If the plane
has retractable landing gear it is unable to open or close them properly and they will collapse on landing. Roll on Aircraft Crash Table, but deduct 2 from score.
4
Engine hit! If it has more than one engine, it moves at half speed from now on. Roll each
turn and stop completely on a 5 or 6. Go to Aircraft Crash Table.
5
Rudder cable hit. The plane continues on its present course for 48, then dives towards a
crash. Plenty of time to bail out.
6
The fuel tank! Explosion! Roll STUNTS 2 to escape (roll for wounds) , otherwise
incinerated!
ROCKETMEN
--Here I am in a big leather jacket, with an aluminum
helmet, rocket packs on my back, and woollen slacks. It seemed
interesting to me that they would costume this character in regular
woollen slacks--which could have caught fire in the first take-off-rather than devise some special fireproof pants for their hero.
George Wallace, the original Commando Cody actor,
recalling his uniform for Radar Men From The Moon, 1952
Its understood that mensteely eyed, firm jawed mencan fly around with incredible ease as long as they have a potentially lethal, barely tested rocket pack strapped to their
backs. I certainly have no problem with the idea, anyway.
Officially trained Rocketmen (as they all are) require one Action to take off, and
another to reach the sort of height one would require for aerial high jinks. Exact altitude is
unimportant since the Rocket Belt seems to work pretty much as the Rocketman wants.
The horizontal distance he can fly is whatever he wishes, in any direction, though Minimum Flight Speed is 8 per Action, and Maximum Thrust is 12+1 D6. Rocketmen are
assumed to have ballet-like skills, and can perform ludicrously dangerous manoeuvres
simply by rolling successfully vs. STUNTS. Likewise, landing and turning off the rocket
engine each takes one Action. There are, of course, a couple of minor wrinkles.
1) Untrained FlyerIf anyone other than an actual Rocketman attempts to use the
equipment, he is a danger to himself and otherswhich makes more fun! After strapping
on the Rocket Belt for flight (one Action), roll vs SMARTS to figure out ignition. Once
Astounding Tales!
55
Untrained Rocketman Table

D6 Roll
Results
1, 2 Pilot flies straight up for next turn, then rolls 1 D6: 1,2= Straight up again next turn;
3=Right 12+1 D6 next turn; 4=Left 12 +1 D6 next turn; 5,6=Gains control (see 5,6 below).
3, 4 Pilot flies 12+1 D6 this turn in a random direction at tree-top height. Roll against
STUNTS to avoid hitting anything. Fail, and crash with a roll on SERIOUS BUSINESS Table as if on Motorbike at RACING Speed. Pass, and see 5,6 (below).
5,6 Pilot may fly or manoeuvres as he wishes at permitted speed of choice, or land.
hes Lit the candle, roll on this table every turn his is aloft.
Once flying, an untrained pilot rolling for Maximum Thrust will experience Flame
Out (below) on a D6 roll of 1. I did say this was dangerous, didnt I?
2) Flame Out: Any roll of 1 when at Maximum Thrust means the engine has
died. Roll vs. SMARTS to restart the rocket. If he fails, the Rocketeer will move forward
3 and then test STUNTS. If this fails, he falls to the ground, and must roll on the
SERIOUS BUSINESS Table for injuries.
Shooting At A Rocketman
A flyer hit by gunfire has a chance of going down in flamesor just down!
The shooting character(s) must score a hit first (GATS 2 for this target). If so, roll again:
1-4=Rocketman Hit! (see Lead Poisoning Table); 5,6=Roll on the following table.
Bullet Hits On Rocket Belt Table

D6 Roll
1, 2 The shot ricochets off the rocket casing.
3, 4
5
6
Results
The shot damages the engine, causing a Flame Out (see above).
Pilot flies 12+1 D6 this turn in a random direction at tree-top height. Roll against
STUNTS to avoid hitting anything. Fail, and crash with a roll on SERIOUS BUSINESS Table as if on Motorbike at RACING Speed. Pass, and he regains control.
The engine goes up in a ball of flame, inflicting 4 HITS, 4 FISTS, 4 GATS. If hes still alive,
he drops according to the stalls rule. If he survives, this is truly an Iron Man ---
SECTION V : WEIRD SCIENCE

It was impossible, absurd and utterly preposterous. Such a thing
could not have happened- but there it was. In the upper chamber of my
house I had seen a woman called back from the grave. Sealed in a tomb of
ice for twenty years, this woman lived and breathed and looked at me!
Seabury Quinn, Frozen Beauty, Weird Tales, February 1938
The Pulp Era can rely on lots of pretty impressive real-life technology; this is the
Inter-war period of aircraft, telephones, cars that go really fast, radiomost of the things
we have today with the possible exception of computersand in reliable form. It isnt like
the period of Verne and Wells where the writer pretty much had to make up anything more
futuristic than a Hansom cab or a steam locomotive. Still, our heroes do need expensive
roadsters that outpace a Ford Model A, pocket-sized radios, and canoes that become tents
Second Edition
56
and yet still fit inside your sock. Villains require devilish creations that destroy whole cities, rather than simply renting the Luftwaffe for the afternoon.
Writing rules for amazing devices and strange procedures, nifty gadgets and Fiendish
Plans to Conquer All is, frankly, a tough thing to do. I could give you long lists of Doc
Savages gizmos with rules for each and every one (alright, I couldnt, because theres loads
of them, but somebody could). I could create rules that enabled you to research, fund, test
and deliver incredible new tools of science. But Im not going to. You are. Whenever you
need to. Using the ratings for SMARTS, possibly STUNTS andif things go wrong,
GUTSjust make up whatever you need. Lets say you have an inventor with an autogyro-hat, as you might (as I do). Lets say that simple up/down and across flying is at the
same speed as horses. (It might be! Do you know otherwise?) But lets say that any fancy
flying requires a STUNTS test, and that if you fail, the thing is in danger of crashing. Take
another STUNTS test to pull out at the last moment? Crash, counting as 3 wound rolls, if
you fail? The Director is primarily the guy to do this, but hey, if youas a playersay I
have explosive charges concealed in my tooth-fillings, and the Director goes for it, you are
in business. I am wary of explosive dental work myself, but perhaps I have thought this
one through a little too far.
Think...too...much.
ZOMBIES
Theyre alive!
George A. Romeros The Night of the Living Dead, 1968
Who doesnt like Zombies? Pulp era un-dead persons are of the shambling, slow
variety rather than more modern versions. They have low abilities but appear in overwhelming numbers, and are hard to kill (owing to being pre-killed). The association of
zombies with their Haitian voodoo roots is strong at the period, and most will be controlled
by a priest/priestess of Voodoun, or someone of similar powers.
They eat brains, but you knew that! Any time they get a character down on the
Astounding Tales!
57
Zombies
Type
Zombie
FISTS
GATS
GUTS
STUNTS SMARTS
Zombie
Master
HITS
SKILLS
3(1)
Various
ground hes done for unless rescued within a turn. And then hell just return for the other
side....
Zombies move 3 per Action, speeding up to 4 when they get the scent of a kill.
Since zombies try to tear you apart with claws and teeth, roll for wounds on the SERIOUS
BUSINESS table.
Note that zombies, when treated as Supporting Cast, only take one hit to kill. And
who wants to keep track of wounds on a horde of un-dead? Not me. So lets assume that
instead of being out of Action on a roll of 4-6 like a living victim, only 5,6 counts for
most weapons. Big weapons like machine guns, shotguns, etc, get the usual 4-6, as even
a zombie recognizes that being torn to shreds will put a crimp in his day. And .22s, rocks,
arrows and knives (or 78 RPM wax records) only succeed on a 6.
LOVECRAFTIAN HORROR.
Eh-ya-ya-ya-yahaah eyayayayaaa ---- nghaaa ---nghaaa ---hyuh ---hyuh --HELP! HELP! ----ff --- ff --- FATHER! FATHER! YOG-SOGOTH! ----
H.P. Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror
The works of Howard Philip Lovecraft at first appear quite unsuited to gaming, since
they feature a lot of eccentric humans (who simply go insane and die) coming into contact
with demonic books, terrifying old buildings, and eventually the sort of creatures from
other planes whose powers are immensely stronger than that of their human opponents.
Surprising, then, that the RPG The Call of Cthulhu has been a popular game for three
decades. So, what do I know? Leaving aside Great Cthulhu hisself and most of the Elder
Gods and Great Old Ones (because theyll crush even your finest adventurer like a June
Bug), here are a few of the lesser sort of Lovecraftian nasties that a bold man with a loaded
Colt might deal with to his advantage.
Examples of Lovecraftian Monsters

Monsters
FISTS GATS GUT STUNTS SMART HITS

S
S
Deep Ones
Shambler
Demon
Huge
Demon
3
(2x) 4
(6x) 4
(12x) 4
2
-
3
4
6
6
2/5
2
2
3
2
2
4
3
1
3
15
30
NOTES
A: 4/8 Move
B: 4 Move
C,T: 4 Move
C,T
NOTES: Definitions
A: These creatures have some characteristics marked x/y, which means On land/
Second Edition
58
in water.
B: These creatures want to pick you up and drag or carry you awayroll on the
BRAWLING table.
C: These creatures are so ridiculously powerful in the attack that you can't protect
against them. Roll vs. STUNTS to dodge rather than FISTS to fight. You can attack them
on your own turn.
T: Tossingmay hurl victim 6" in random direction. Roll on the BRAWLING
table.
ROBOTS
"Metal hands, claw-like and sharp, clutched for The Shadows throat. The black
form twisted in the lower grip. The hands ripped away The Shadow's cloak. Then as The
Shadow vainly sought to catch a rising arm, a steel rod pounded toward his skull!
Maxwell Grant, Charg, Monster, The Shadow Magazine, 1934
Robots are still novelty items, based on Victorian automatons rather than the active
and sentient Space Age robots we see from the 1950s onward. Pulp robots should clank
slowly and mechanically, and I certainly prefer them to fall over a lot, spin around crazily,
and have easily accessible off switches.
Robots
TYPE
Robot Servant
Small Battlebot
Large Battlebot
Giant Bot
FISTS
3
4
4 (x 3)
5 (x 6)
GATS
2
3
3
3
GUTS
2
-
STUNTS
3
3
2
2
SMARTS
2
2
2
2
The Robot Servant is a butler-type, very fastidious in his duties,

and oddly programmed to be a little cowardly. He is armed with a bottle
opener, seltzer bottle, and silver tray.
Small Battlebot is essentially human sized, and armed with one
weapon, usually akin to a BAR or Tommy Gun, only more scientific.
Large Battlebot is 7-10 feet high and armed with 3 or 4 large
weapons, of the Heavy Machine Gun /Rocket Launcher/ Ray Gun variety, and close combat claws/cutters of a very unpleasant kind.
The Giant Robot is, well, pretty darn big and can have the sort of
weaponry that makes generals call in the Heavy Bombers. At this point,
unless we have a plan involving high explosives in industrial quantities,
the game is over.
HITS on Robots.
The Robot Servants and Small Battlebots are susceptible to normal small arms fire. Large Battlebots ignore small arms, while Giant
Robots only take notice of artillery. Honestly, unless youve got the Big
Guns, just get outta their waytheyre comin through!
Astounding Tales!
HITS
3
6
10
25
59
Bullet Hits On Robots Table

D6 Roll
1
2
3
4
5
6
Result
Robot takes 3 HITS: Turns in random direction for the next turn
Robot takes 3 HITS: Begins shooting wildly across 90 Degree frontal arc.
Robot takes 4 HITS: Spins and moves backwards next turn, firing if previously doing so.
Robot takes 4 HITS: Spins and moves backwards next turn, firing if previously doing so.
Robot takes 6 HITS: Legs collapse under him, but can still fire
Robot takes all remaining HITS: Explodes in wild celebration of electrical effects
Use the GATS rules as usual for shooting at these guys. On the Lead Poisoning
Table, Rolls of 4 or 5 inflict wounds against their HITS totals normally, but the fatal
roll of 6 requires a second roll on this new table.
NAZI SCIENCE
We are only interested in one thing--to project into the dim and distant past the
picture of our nation as we envisage it for the future.
Heinrich Himmler, 1943
Nobody did evil like the Nazis. Thats why they get their own section here. Aside
from their actual atrocities, secret weapons, advanced engineering and deranged racial theories, Pulp Nazis are involved in many scientific programmes that Must Be Stopped. Well
list a few.
Nazi Science Projects

Project
Giant Werewolf
Standard
Werewolf
Jugend
Zombies
Constructs
Vampires
FISTS
(5x) 4
(3x) 4
GATS
2
2
GUTS
5
5
STUNTS
4
4
SMARTS
2
2
HITS
9 Special
6 Special
(1x) 4
3
(3x) 4
5
2
2
-
5
6
6
6
4
2
2
5
2
2
2
4
3 Special
3 (1)
8
6 Special
Mechanical Mensee the section of that name. Nazi robots are not for peaceful
purposes.
WerewolvesThe good thing about werewolves is that they are fierce, terrifying,
and can only be killed by silver bullets. The bad thing about them is that they are unpredictable, and only work at the full moon. But what if we develop a control collar, and what
if we found a way of creating a false full moon effect...? They come in three sizes: Giant
(around 8-10 feet tall, rare and unreliable), Standard Issue (human sized and hairy), and
Jugendkeen Hitler Youth anxious to be experimented on.
ZombiesScientists have synthesised the procedure that has made Haiti such a
popular vacation destination. Just like the originalslow, fairly useless, but scary and hard
to kill. See the Zombies Rules (pg 56 ).
ConstructsIn the tradition of Baron Frankenstein. Large, a bit clumsy, but very
effective in a scuffle. Damn scary too.
Second Edition
60
VampiresHard to kill, terrifying, the best forces for a night attack. If it wasnt for
the mobile crypts necessary for their daytime preservation, Nazi vampires would be an
unbeatable value!
Women in tight leather jodhpursThe Nazis like em (see Evil Germans list in
the Character Examples, below).
CREATURES!
As the Thing passed the third floor, a snakily prehensile arm whirled a
net from a window, trapped the creature that had been Mrs. Purvis and pulled
her back inside the hospital.
The City Condemned To Hell,
The Octopus Vol I No 4
Dinosaurs are swell. Giant apes

too. Nothing wrong with a grizzly bear,
or a man-eating lion, or a tentacled horror from the cursed city sunk beneath
the Pacific, either. Lets have a look at
them.
First off, they all work for the
Director. You may own a dog, and you
may have a gorilla in a cage ready for
release; the difference is, that only the
dog does what you want (and then, not always). Some Creatures can hurt you; some will
kill you. Most dont throw things, or think too clearly, but on the other hand, they can
usually rip a man to pieces.
Lets look at some, with the special rules that go with em.
Dangerous Creatures
Beast
FISTS
GATS GUTS STUNTS SMARTS
HITS MOVE NOTES
Guard Dog
(1 D6)4
6/12
Grizzly Bear
(3 D6)4
4/8
Polar Bear
(4 D6)4
4/8
Giant Ape
(5 D6)4
10-20
4/10
BT
Gorilla
(3 D6)4
4/8
Chimpanzee
(1 D6)3
6/10
Lion/Tiger
(3 D6)4
6/15
Elephant
(6 D6)4
15
4/12
CT
FISTS: Creatures roll one (or often more) dice per attack; (3 x) 4 means three dice, looking for 4 or less on each die to hit. Characters do not get to fight back on missed rolls,
unless all the die rolls fail to hit. So, a grizzly may bite, tear and claw you three times in
one attack.
Astounding Tales!
61
Beast
FISTS
GATS GUTS STUNTS SMARTS
HITS MOVE NOTES
Velociraptor (etc)
(4 D6)4
1-8
6/12
T-Rex
(12 D6)4
30
6/10
Pterodactyl
(2 D6)4
8/15
Terror Bird
(3 D6)4
6/12
Rhino (All types)
(5 D6)4
12
4/12
CT
Yeti
(3 D6)4
4/8
Penguins
(You never know...)
(1 D6)1
2/5
GATS: Uh... the things that apes throw. Mostly faecal material, I understand. Range 6.
No wounds, but check vs. GUTS if hit. No other figures will come within 3 of you after
that.
STUNTS and SMARTS are required when the director says so. Smarts are about instinct
and cunning, not intellect in the human sense.
MOVE is shown as walk/run in inches. Apes may be swinging. No penalties for rough
terrain. Director can judge whether elephants can climb (no) and raptors swim (?)
NOTES: Definitions
A: These creatures try to tear you apart with claws and teethroll for wounds on the
SERIOUS BUSINESS Table.
B: These creatures want to pick you up and drag or carry you awayroll on the
BRAWLING Table.
C: These creatures are so ridiculously powerful in the attack that you cant protect
against them. Roll vs. STUNTS to dodge rather than FISTS to fight. You can attack them
on your own turn.
D: Penguins will flap at you mercilesslycounts as BRAWLING.
F: Flyingwill try to seize and fly off
with victim. Roll on SERIOUS BUSINESS
Table.
T: Tossingmay hurl victim 6 in
random direction. Roll as if wounded in
BRAWLING.
Youll want to add more, of course. What
about my pet jaguar? Just how big is that giant
ape? Can I get a bigger one? There must be
carnosaurs that fit between the Jurassic Park
velociraptors and the big T-Rex! What about
the huge things that crush you accidentally?
Second Edition
62
WHAT THERE ARE NO RULES FOR
Two weeks from today, on August 24th, unless I see that steps have been
taken to carry out my commands, I strike again. The national capital will be
crumpled into dust and the dust scattered to the four winds of heaven.
Twelve Must Die, Doctor Death, Feb 1935
Youll have noticed there are no rules for some of the big things. Hell, no rules for
all kinds of stuff. Tanks. Alien spacecraft. Destroying whole cities. Not that I have a beef
with any of those things, but for right now the rules will have to wait.
I think youll figure out how to make up rules as you need em. I have confidence in
you. Send me the ones you like best!
ENDING A SCENE
The gun barked, and a pile driver hit my leg. I went down. Another gun
spoke and he went down beside me. Then there was Jack, the drunks gun in
his hand, stepping in close to make sure.
I blacked out.
James M. Cain, Cigarette Girl, 1953
Most wargames end when the result is clear, or one player cant see achieving his
victory conditions, or somebody has to go home. Last stands are not common. Often its
all a bit of an anticlimax. This wont do for Astounding Tales! Nosirree Bob! Keeping the
excitement pulsing and the popcorn falling under the seats requires a Director who knows
when to cut a Scene and call it a wrap for the
episode. Since he also controls the villains,
this shouldnt be too difficult.
Cut the Scene when there has been a
clear result. If there isnt one, make one up.
The villains can get into a car and roar away.
The heroine can be suddenly kidnapped while
standing behind the wall where her player has
placed her for safety from pesky gunshots
wargamers do that sort of dull, careful thing to
protect their Characters sometimesor the
hero can be sapped from behind. This is a traditionally useful trick, as the lights go out and
he awakens for the next Scene tied down for
the Chinese Rat Torture, or locked in the hold
of a South Seas freighter, or somewhere else
suitably disconnected from the original Scene.
He can simply wake up in the same alley with
a headache, but theres no Scene to work with
in that.
Astounding Tales!
63
THE END: The Big Finale

Youve done a good nights work, Marge.
You killed Rudy just as much as you did Flavin, or Hank. Rudy had decent stuff in him.
You forced him into the game, but Hank was
turning him soft. You killed Hank.
I wish Id killed you, too, she whispered. By God I wish Id killed you too!
Leigh Brackett, I Feel Bad Killing You, 1944
This is where it all comes together, whether it

makes much sense or not. This isnt a country manor
mystery where everyone sits down at a table to review
the clues and reveal the killer; its a chance for the final
piece of explosive mayhem, with as many parties, people, planes and cars and express trains as you can manage involved. Its also the moment when you have to
wrap things up in a thrilling-yet-still-satisfactory way,
which means that it cannot merely collapse into a mass brawl or huge firefight that goes on
and on until everyone is maimed. Not that I am against those thingsthats crazy talk!
But you have to sort out the winners from the losers, the good from the bad, the villain who
falls in a hail of gunfire from the G-men from the Evil Overlord who escapes through a
secret passageway to threaten us all again. So it may be useful to have a deus-ex-machina
(thats Latinask Big Luigi what it means) to help finish things nicely. Could be a wagon
full of Chicago cops, could be a company of Gurkhas, could be one of those San Francisco
earthquakes you hear about. But it has to end BIG!
CHEAP TALK AND LIES

You see, my dear Red Finger, we know your methods. We knew you were
spying on our plans. So very openly we talked, that you would feel sure that
we did not suspect your presence. Your caution lulled, you have revealed
yourself. But, all the time, little Yamikoto in the closet was concealed,
awaiting you.
In other words, Ciano put in, we baited a trap for you, and you
walked in quite blithely. Too bad.
Arthur Leo Zagat, Red Fingers Murder Messenger, 1938
When I run a game with a bunch of players, I like to have a final momentlike the
last page of a storywhere each one gets to tell what they did, what they were actually trying to do, what actually did happen, stuff like that. Keeping the role straight is part of this,
and a good liar can tell a version of the story that beats the pants off what you saw actually
happen. Give out prizes, cheap cigars, drinks all round. My friend Matt Fritz came up
with some kind of plastic bowling trophy tops that look like Oscars, sorta. It all adds to the
fun. Youll be glad you did.
Second Edition
64
SECTION VI : SAMPLE CHARACTERS
This list features a very random mixture of fictional character Profiles, of real people,
generic Pulp archetypes and stereotypes. They may be used as is when in the heat of Action, or adapted when creating scenarios. Ive included some well known characters from
Pulp Culture, and intend no infraction of trademarks, copyrights or intellectual propertyI
just want to offer the chance to use well-loved characters in what amounts to fan fiction
gaming. Feel free to use them as you want. The specific SKILLS, especially, are open to
change.
Some types will come in military, or paramilitary units, with officers, NCOs, etc,
though you can organise these anyway you like. Me, I think people come in sixs and
twelves, but somebody else might disagree.
Where a Profile has a mark under HITS, such as 3 (1), it means that, if played as a
Leading, Secondary, or Bit Part character, the 3 HITS applies, but as a Supporting Cast
extra, they fall over on 1the first hit.
The Director is free to make photocopies of this section of the rules, so as to provide
easy character sheets for each player. It may be a good idea to fix these copies to index
cards, and to copy also the definitions of the relevant Skills to the same sheet for easy reference.
PULP HEROES
Sam Spade P.I.
FISTS GATS GUTS STUNTS SMARTS HITS
Sam Spade
Effie Perrine
5
3
4
3
5
5
4
4
4
4
4
4
SKILLS
Tough SOB, Call Me Sherlock
Nice Girl
Spade is the hero of The Maltese Falcon, memorably played by Bogart in the film version of
Hammetts book. Effie is his chipper Girl Friday. Armed with a pocket full of pistols taken from punks,
dames and others, Spade is a San Francisco PI whose client list is full of suspect characters.
Philip Marlowe
5
SKILLS
Tough SOB, Mean Drunk
The classic White knight private investigator, who drinks too much and whose principles bother
him.
The Shadow
The Shadow
Margot Lane
Harry Vincent
Cliff Marsland
"Shrevie"

6
6
6
6
6
6
3
3
4
4
4
4
5
4
3
4
5
3
4
5
4
4
4
5
4
5
3
4
5
4
Astounding Tales!
SKILLS
Two Gun Kid, Hypnotist
Nice Girl
Call Me Sherlock
Tommy Gunner
Wheel Man
65
Star of Radio and Magazines, "The Shadow," as remarkable a hero as he was, couldn't be everywhere at once, so he enlisted several agents to help him to battle crime. "Harry Vincent" was his most capable and indispensable operative and "Cliff Marsland" was recruited from the "underworld" to work on
cases where Harry Vincent couldn't go. "Moe "Shrevie" Shrevnitz" owned a cab and was a skilled driver.
He appeared in both the Pulp magazine and on the radio show."
The Shadow is probably too strange and powerful to be played by a mere actor, and should probably be controlled in small doses by the Director.
Doc Savage
Doc Savage
Monk
Ham
Renny
Johnny
Long Tom
Pat
7
5
4
6
4
3
4
5
5
4
4
4
4
6
7
5
4
5
4
4
6
6
4
4
5
4
4
5
7
5
5
5
6
6
5
8
5
4
5
4
4
5
SKILLS
See note!
Tough SOB
Flashing Blade (cane sword)
Crazy Inventor, Boxer
Crazy Inventor
Crack Shot, Packs a Punch
Doc has absurdly high scores in every department. What this means is that he counts as a 6, and
when he takes negative modifiers or receives wounds they merely bring him down to a mortal level: i.e if
he had to take a GUTS-2 Test, hed count as 7 2 =5, and roll for 5 or less.
Docs Skills include Crazy Inventor, Tough SOB, Acrobat and Real Charmer.
Doc Savage is the ultimate Pulp heroonly a step shy of his successor, Superman in many ways
and has so many skills its hard to know where to begin. So I wont. Read the books! Doc is at the peak
of human intellectual and physical abilities, Monk is an expert chemist despite looking like an ape, Ham is
a dapper attorney, and Renny is a talented engineer with really big fists. Johnny is a tall, skinny archaeologist, Long Tom a short, pallid electrical genius. Patricia Savage is Docs beautiful, dangerous cousin
who is clearly the one youd least want to tangle with!
The Spider
FISTS
5
GATS
6
GUTS
5
STUNTS
6
SMARTS
6
HITS
6
SKILLS
See below
NOTE: The Spider CANNOT fire at the police.

Richard Wentworth, millionaire criminologist, is the ultimate enemy of the underworld. Though
considered a dangerous vigilante by the authorities, he is sworn to uphold the law. Assisted by Jackson,
Ram Singh, and Nita Van Sloan, he stays one step ahead of the police while hunting the criminals he has
sworn to destroy!
Spiders FISTS GATS GUTS STUNTS SMARTS HITS
SKILLS
Team
Nita Van
3
5
4
4
5
5
Crack Shot
Sloan
Jackson
4
5
5
4
3
5
Crack Shot, Tommy Gunner
Ram Singh
6
4
4
5
3
6
Wheel Man, Mack the Knife,
Martial Arts, Tough SOB
Nita is tough as nails, VERY brave, VERY smart, and can shoot the eyes out of a gnat at 100
yards! She's as much a right hand "man" to The Spider as Tonto is to the Lone Ranger. Jackson was Sgt.
Second Edition
66
to Capt. Richard Wentworth (AKA The Spider) during the First World War. He's capable and obviously
a good man with weapons. Ram Singh is the Spider's giant Hindu Servant. He's the team's driver, expert
with a knife, big and tough, and a formidable "hand to hand" combat opponent.
The Phantom
The Phantom is really a comic-book rather than authentic Pulp period figure, but the movie was set
in the thirties, and I like him. Not to be confused with
SKILLS
The Phantom
5
5
6
6
5
5
Tough SOB, Fast
Devil (wolf)
5
6
5
4
4
Fast
The Phantom Detective

Socially prominent, superbly dressed crime-fighter in evening clothes and a little mask!
The Phantom FISTS GATS GUTS STUNTS SMARTS HITS
SKILLS
5
5
5
5
5
5
Exquisite Manners,
Call Me Sherlock
Lord of the Jungle

Jungle Lord Skills Set: Tough SOB, Fast, Mack The Knife, Acrobat, Crack Shot (bows, not guns)
Swings through trees. Speaks to animals. ERB Inc. will sue me if I say any more. Add native followers and helpful apes, lions, etc. The Pulp Era was full of near-Tarzans, male and female, young and
old. You can rename them Ki-Gor, Bomba, or Sheena, if you like they have no vigilant IP owners!
The Ape Man
The Beauty
The Jungle Queen
Ape Man Jr.
The Funny Chimp
The Big Elephant
FISTS GATS GUTS STUNTS

6
5
6
6
4
3
5
5
4
4
5
6
4
4
5
6
3
3
6
(3x) 5
4
2
SMARTS HITS
SKILLS
4
6
See SKILLS list
5
5
Fast, Nice Girl
4
6
Fast
4
6
Fast
3
3
Lucky Cuss, Acrobat
2
12
Bloody Great
Elephant
Indiana Jones
The best 1930s hero of the last thirty years. I often dress like Indy, though we are seldom mistaken for one another. This is a mix of the cast of three films.
SKILLS
Dr. Jones
5
4
5
6
5
5
Bullwhip, A Real Charmer
Dr. Jones, Sr.
4
4
5
4
5
4
Crazy Inventor
Marion
4
3
5
5
4
4
Nice Girl, Packs a Punch
Willie
3
3
3
4
4
4
Heroine Scream, Hell Cat
Short Round
2
2
4
5
4
3
Spunky Kid, Acrobat
Prof. Marcus Brody 2
1
2
2
3
3 Baffled, Absentminded Professor
Dr. Elsa Schneider
4
3
5
4
5
4
Femme Fatale, Two Faced
Sallah
Astounding Tales!
Tough SOB
67
THE LAW
The FBI
SKILLS
Special Agent
5
5
5
4
5
5
Crack Shot, Call Me Sherlock
Field Agent
4
4
4
3
4
4 Tommy Gunner or Wheel Man
J. Edgar Hoover
2
2
2
2
6
4
Errant Knight
Its the G-men. Mr. Hoovers finest. Melvin Purvis and company.
American Cops
FISTS
Precinct Captain
4
Keen Detective
4
Jaded Detective
4
Crusader
4
Tough Irish Cop
5
Beat Cop
4
Rookie
3
GATS
3
4
3
3
3
3
3
GUTS
4
5
3
5
5
4
3
STUNTS
3
4
3
3
2
3
2
SMARTS HITS
SKILLS
4
4
Call Me Sherlock
4
4
A Real Charmer
4
4
Mean Drunk
4
5
But Nuts, Boxer
3
4
Tough SOB or Boxer
2
3 (1)
2
3 (1)
They are fat, corrupt, and eat a lot of doughnuts. Except for the honest ones and crusading cops.
British Bobbies
Note: that British policemen only carry guns when specially issued, which is almost never.
SKILLS
Superintendent
4
2
4
3
4
5
Call Me Sherlock
Ambitious Detective
Tired old Detective
Veteran Sergeant
Patrol Constable
Young Copper
4
4
5
4
3
3
2
3
2
2
5
4
5
4
3
4
3
2
3
2
4
4
3
2
2
4
A Real Charmer
4
Mean Drunk
4 Tough SOB or Boxer
3 (1)
3 (1)
Devotees of British crime fiction understand that these men almost never solve a crime, but may
offer some support in the cuffing and carrying away department.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)

Mounties only shoot in the last resort. There is (evidently) never more than one of them per province.
Sgt Preston is a Canadian Radio and TV hero, able to mush his dog team (led by Yukon King)
SKILLS
Sergeant Preston
5
5
6
5
5
5
Call Me Sherlock
Yukon King
5
5
4
4
4
Real Scary, Fast
The Silver Corporal
4
5
6
4
5
5
Fast
Other Mounties
4
3
4
3
3
3
Wheel Man
across oceans and deserts. Other dogs are simply, well, dogs. I am told that the original scripts were
taken from the Lone Ranger, with the names changed. The Silver Corporal is a bantam-weight Montana
cowboy, prone to fits of the Code of the West when it comes to ladies, whose specialization seems to
have beenbizarrelyto use his sleeping bag for escapology.
Second Edition
68
ARMIES AND NAVIES

The Navys Here!
Salty Old Captain
4
3
4
3
4
5
Keen Young Ensign
4
3
4
3
3
4
Petty Officer
5
3
5
4
4
4
Sailor
4
2
4
3
3
3 (1)
Marine
4
4
4
3
2
3 (1)
SKILLS
Naval Skill Set
Naval Skill Set
Tough SOB
Naval Skill Set: Choose From--Crack Shot, Tough SOB, Flashing Blade, Exquisite Manners,
Hothead
Its the Navy. Any Navy. The Royal Navy, the USN, German Seebattalion, whichever. The Yangtse
Patrol. Wooden men and Iron ships. Steve McQueen (although he comes later).
French Foreign Legion

Martinet Colonel
4
3
4
3
4
5
Gallant Young Officer
4
3
4
3
3
4
Brutal Sergeant
5
3
5
4
4
4
Legionnaire
4
3
4
3
3
3 (1)
Spahi or Chasseur
3
2
4
3
2
3 (1)
SKILLS
Military Skill Set
Military Skill Set
Brutal Champ or Boxer
Cavalry
Military Skill Set: Choose From-- Crack Shot, Tough SOB, Flashing Blade, Exquisite Manners, Hothead
Cavalry: +1 FISTS on horseback, +2 if charging into contact this turn.
The best regiment of Germans in the French Army. Romanticised out of all proportion after WW I,
the Legion was the subject of films, novels and comic books. Et pourquoi pas?
Soldiers of the Empire

SKILLS
Gruff Commanding Officer
Military Skill Set
Heroic Young Officer

Sergeant Major
4
5
3
3
4
5
3
4
3
4
4
4
Military Skill Set

Tough SOB or Boxer
Highlander
3 (1)
Guardsman
3 (1)
British Line infantry
3 (1)
Sikh Line infantry
3 (1)
Ghurka Infantry
Cavalry Trooper
4
3
3
2
4
4
5
3
3
2
3 (1)
3 (1)
Cavalry
Military Skill Set: Choose From-- Crack Shot, Cold Blooded, Tough SOB, Flashing Blade,
Exquisite Manners, Hothead
For King and Country, what?
Astounding Tales!
69
The US Marine Corps
Tough CO
Gunny
Leatherneck

SKILLS
4
3
4
3
4
5
Military Skill Set
4
3
4
3
3
4
Military Skill Set
5
3
5
4
4
4
3
4
3
3
3 (1)
Military Skill Set: Choose From-- Crack Shot, Tough SOB, Flashing Blade,
Invading a beach near you, for freedom, apple pie and the United Fruit Company.
The US Army
Gruff Commanding Officer
Drill Sergeant
Doughboy
Rocket Corps
Cavalry Trooper

SKILLS
4
3
4
3
4
5
Military Skill Set
4
3
4
3
3
4
Military Skill Set
5
3
5
4
4
3
4
4
3
3
3 (1)
4
3
4
4
3
3 (1)
3
2
4
3
2
3 (1)
Cavalry
Military Skill Set: Choose From-- Crack Shot, Tough SOB, Flashing Blade, Exquisite Manners, Hothead
Uncle Sam wants these guys.
Evil Germans!
Herr General
3
3
4
2
4
4
Officer
4
4
5
3
5
5
Feldwebel (Sergeant)
5
5
5
3
3
5
Elite Troops
4
4
4
4
3
3 (1)
Garrison Troops
3
3
3
3
3
3 (1)
Cavalry
3
2
4
3
3
3 (1)
Hitler Youth
2
3
4
3
3
2 (1)
Zeppelin Truppen
4
4
4
4
3
3 (1)
Gestapo Agent
3
3
3
3
5
5
Ilse (The She
4
4
5
4
5
5
Wolf)
She Wolf Trooper
3
4
4
4
3
3 (1)
Scientist/Occultist
3
3
3
2
5
3
SKILLS
Military Skill Set
Military Skill Set
Brutal Champ
Cavalry
Cold Blooded
Femme Fatale
Absentminded Professor
What can I say? Movie Nazis, all jackboots and monocles. And thats just the children.
Second Edition
70
THE BORDERS OF TARTARY

Red Russians!
FISTS GATS GUTS STUNTS SMARTS
Kommissar
3
3
3
3
5
Evil Russian Officer
4
4
5
3
3
Thuggish NCO
5
3
5
3
3
Pathetic Conscript
3
2
3
3
2
Elite Russian Soldier
4
3
5
3
3
Chekist
3
3
3
3
5
Cossack Trooper
2
2
4
3
2
Heroine of the USSR
3
4
5
4
4
HITS
4
5
4
3 (1)
3 (1)
5
3 (1)
4
SKILLS
Real Scary
Military Skill Set
Brutal Champ
Real Scary
Cavalry
Tough Broad, Femme
Fatale
These are wicked Bolsheviks, both brutal and intoxicated most of the time. Early in this period they
are opposed by Heroic White Russians, who are just as drunken and brutal, sometimes more so.
White Russians!
FISTS GATS GUTS STUNTS
Mad Priest
3
3
3
3
Cruel Officer
4
4
5
3
Thuggish NCO
5
3
5
3
Pathetic Conscript
3
2
3
3
Elite White Soldier
4
3
5
3
Cossack Trooper
2
2
4
3
Kalmuck Tribesman
2
2
3
3
SMARTS
5
3
3
2
3
2
2
HITS
4
5
4
3(1)
3(1)
3(1)
3(1)
SKILLS
Real Scary
Military Skill Set
Brutal Champ
Cavalry
Fast, Cavalry
Military Skill Set: Choose From-Crack Shot, Tough SOB, Flashing Blade, Exquisite Manners, Hothead
Heroic White Russians, paragons of tradition and virtue. Actually, they are hard-bitten, drowning
in vodka, and as vicious as the Reds. You can have whole units of the officers, desperate nobles with nowhere else to go.
The Mad Baron of Mongolia

Baron UngernSternberg
White Russian Officer
Mongol Shaman
Disaffected Japanese
Levies/POWs
Tibetan Bodyguard
Mongol Tribesman
Cossack Trooper

SKILLS
5
3
7
3
2
7 Lucky Cuss, Drunk/Addict
4
2
3
2
3
2
2
3
2
3
2
3
3
2
6
2
3
2
5
3
4
5
2
3
2
3
3
3
4
3
3
2
3
3
2
Astounding Tales!
3
2
3 (1)
2 (1)
3 (1)
3 (1)
3 (1)
Military Skill Set

Braggart
Fast, Cavalry
Fast, Cavalry
Cavalry
71
Military Skill Set: Choose From--Crack Shot, Tough SOB, Flashing Blade, Exquisite Manners,
Hothead
Baron Ungern-Sternberg was a psychotic Russian aristocrat, whose devil-may-care courage and
murderous charisma led him to a brief career of conquest and massacre in the 1920s. He relied heavily
on the fortune-telling of his shaman, and his own ability to take damage without caring. His army consists
of some loyal Tibetan guards, a lot of unhappy Russian levies and Austrian POWs, and some Japanese
regulars who regret the whole thing.
Chinese Warlord
SKILLS
Warlord Himself
3
3
3
3
5
3
Cold Blooded
Brave Officer
4
3
6
5
4
3
Military Skill Set, Martial Arts
Useless Officer
2
2
2
2
3
2
Drunk/Addict
Brutal NCO
4
3
4
3
3
3
Brutal Champ
Big Sword Man 4
2
5
4
2
3 (1)
Unpaid Conscript
2
2
2
2
2
2 (1)
Mongol Tribesman 2
3
3
3
3
3 (1)
Fast, Cavalry
Regular Cavalry
3
2
3
3
2
3 (1)
Cavalry
Military Skill Set: Choose From--Crack Shot, Tough SOB, Flashing Blade, Exquisite Manners,
Hothead
Chinese armies consisted of 80% useless, unwilling men and 20% crazed fanatics with executioner
swords. More or less. Mongols are superb irregular horsemen (as are Tibetans, etc).
Dinosaur Hunters
Roy Chapman Andrews
Tough Palaeontologist
Elderly Palaeontologist
Chinese Escort Troops
Chinese Labour Corps
Mongol Tribesman

SKILLS
4
4
5
3
5
4 Real Charmer, Tough SOB
4
4
5
4
4
3
Tough SOB, Wheel Man
2
2
2
2
5
2
Crazy Inventor
2
3
2
2
2
2 (1)
2
2
2
2
2
2 (1)
2
3
3
3
3
3 (1)
Fast, Cavalry
The American Dragon Hunters of the New York Museum of Natural History made several
expeditions into Mongolia in the 1920s, facing bandits, communists and warlords. They were seeking fossils, rather than living dinosaurs, but still
Veddy British Heroes, What?

Biggles & Friends
SKILLS
Biggles
5
4
5
4
5
5
Flyin Fool, Lucky Cuss
Algy
4
4
6
4
3
4
Just Nuts
Ginger
4
4
5
4
4
4
Flyin Fool
Bertie
4
3
5
4
2
4
A Real Charmer
Biggles was the heroic pilot invented by Captain W.E. Johns, and entertained British boys through
several decades. He and his chums are brave, resourceful and can fly anything.
Second Edition
72
Jeeves and Wooster
SKILLS
4
3
5
4
7
5
Exquisite Manners
2
1
2
3
2
3
Lucky Cuss, Errant Knight,
Sucker For A Dame
Jeeves
Wooster
These are PG Wodehouses best known creations. PGW was the funniest writer of the twentieth
century bar none, and his 1920s world of ferocious aunts and upper-class twits, though not Pulp at all, is
too much fun to ignore. Wooster is the idiotic young man with too much cash, Jeeves is the brilliant valet
who ensures that all is resolved in the end. Its difficult to conceive of anyone less suited for action adventure than Bertie Wooster. Fortunately his valet is a man of many talents.
Smith & Co.

Nayland Smith
Dr. Petrie
Karamanieh
FISTS
5
4
3
GATS
4
3
3
GUTS
5
4
5
STUNTS
4
3
3
Sir Lionel Barton
SMARTS HITS
SKILLS
4
6
Call Me Sherlock
3
4
4
4
Doll Face
3
Sax Rohmers Fu Manchu was opposed by Smith and Petrie, rather a cut-rate Holmes and Watson.
Karamanieh is a beautiful middle Eastern woman, the escaped slave of the devil doctor, who marries the
dim-witted Petrie.
Hercules Poirot
SKILLS
M. Poirot
2
2
3
2
6
4
Real Charmer, Call Me Sherlock
Capt.
4
3
4
3
2
4
Sucker For A Dame,
Hastings
Errant Knight
Miss Lemmon 3
4
5
4
5
4
Feminine Intuition
Agatha Christies small, dapper Belgian detective and his friends. They are not really Pulp
characters, and Poirot has no discernable action hero skills. Hastings is a likeable idiot. Miss Lemmon,
the secretary, is the most capable of the three in most respects. I like to play this up.
The Saint
Socially prominent, superbly dressed crime-fighter with pencil-thin moustache and Saville Row
Simon
Templar

5
5
5
5
5
5
SKILLS
Exquisite Manners,
Call Me Sherlock, Real Charmer
suitsa popular character originated by Leslie Charteris.
THE VILLAINS
(From The Maltese Falcon)
Dashiell Hammetts full house of classic Villains. Miss Wonderley, AKA Bridget OShaughnessy, is a much hotter tomato in the novel than the movie version, where she is merely pleasant-looking.
Joel Cairo is feeble yet sinister, and Gutmans good manners conceal little of his menace.
Astounding Tales!
Kasper Gutman
Miss Wonderley
Joel Cairo
Wilmer Cook
FISTS
2
3
2
2
73
GATS
2
4
2
2
GUTS
4
4
2
2
STUNTS
1
4
3
3
SMARTS
5
4
3
2
HITS
4
3
3
3
SKILLS
Snappy Dresser
Femme Fatale
Squeamish
Cold-blooded
Dr. Fu Manchu
FISTS GATS GUTS STUNTS SMARTS
Dr. Fu Manchu 5
5
7
6
6
Fa-Lo-Sueh
4
4
6
5
5
Bodyguard
4
3
5
5
3
Brave
3
2
3
3
3
Minion
2
2
2
2
2
Tong Gangster
3
3
4
4
3
HITS
6
5
4 (1)
3 (1)
2 1)
3 (1)
SKILLS
Hypnotist
Vamp
Brutal Champ, Martial Arts
The Devil Doctor disappears suddenly and inexplicably when death or arrest seem the only
choices. All other Oriental Overlords (Wu Fang, etc) follow his model.
Assorted Gangsters
The Mob
Mob boss
Accountant
Torpedo
Enforcer
Gun Moll
Hoodlum
Slugger
Punk
FISTS
4
2
5
4
3
3
4
2
GATS
4
2
5
4
3
3
2
2
GUTS
4
2
5
4
3
3
3
2
STUNTS
2
2
4
4
3
3
3
2
SMARTS
4
5
3
3
4
3
2
2
HITS
SKILLS
5
Real Scary
3
Gun Shy, Squeamish
4
Gangster Skill Set
4
Gangster Skill Set
3
Hell Cat
3 (1)
3 (1)
2 (1)
Gangster Skill Set: Choose From-- Crack Shot, Wheel Man, Tough SOB, Shotgunner, Cold
Blooded, Tommy Gunner, Bomber, Boxer, Pick Pocket, Mack the Knife, Real Scary, Hell Cat.
Crime syndicate gangsters in the classic Capone/Luciano/Jimmy Cagney mould. The more dangerous hoodlums can pick from a wider variety of SKILLS than shown here.
A Selection of Other Pulp Villains of a Lesser Sort

French-Canadian Villain
Eskimo
Swarthy Foreigner
Cannibal
Cannibal Chief
Pirate
Pirate King
Hired Assassin (gun)
Hired Assassin (knife)

SKILLS
4
3
3
3
4
4 (1)
Mean Drunk
3
3
4
3
3
3 (1)
2
4
3
3
3
3 (1)
3
3
3
3
3
3 (1)
Fast
4
3
4
3
3
4
Fast
3
3
3
3
3
3 (1)
4
3
4
3
3
4
Flashing Blade
3
5
4
3
4
3
Crack Shot
4
4
5
4
3
Mack the Knife, Acrobat
Generic villains from central casting. The cannibals could also be head hunters, or African tribesmen, its hard to tell. And who can tell if swarthy foreigners are Turks, Arabs or Italian guys from Jersey working at union scale? Pirates? Long John Silver pirates? Can they pass for Mexican banditos?
Second Edition
74
HOLLYWOOD ESSENTIALS
The Movie Crew
FISTS
3
4
4
3
2
Von Schnitzel
Roxy Smothers
Zelda (Script Girl)
Joe (Camera Man)
Herman (Clapper)
GATS
1
4
5
2
1
GUTS
2
4
5
3
2
STUNTS
2
3
5
3
2
SMARTS
3
5
5
3
3
HITS
3
5
5
3
3
SKILLS
Real Scary
Vamp
Nice Girl
Fast
Gullible
This group is our invented Hollywood crew consisting of a mad German director with a huge ego,
his suicide blonde starlet, and the crew. Zelda is actually a US treasury agent when she takes her glasses
off, and has ratings to match. Roxys a STAR, dahling.
Romantic Arabs
Handsome Sheikh
Villainous Relative
Huge Henchman
Heroic Princess
Bedouin Tribesman
FISTS
4
4
5
3
3
GATS
4
3
3
4
2
GUTS
5
3
5
5
3
STUNTS
5
3
3
4
3
SMARTS
3
3
2
4
3
HITS
SKILLS
5
Flashing Blade
4
Mack the Knife
5
Brutal Champ
4
Heroine Scream
3 (1)
Cavalry

All are rated as Cavalry, and FAST on horseback. They may also ride camels, at the normal
Pounding Hooves speeds. Huge Henchman does not get these advantages, as hes already a FISTS 5,
and doesnt ride very well.
These are the sort of Hollywood Arabs associated with Rudolf Valentino in The Sheikh. He has to
have a treacherous uncle or cousin, who employs a huge bodyguard. The princess can be either innocent
yet feisty or more sophisticated. The tribesmen enjoy massive charges across the desert, or shooting from
ambush. They can be Mongols or Afghans, if the script calls for it.
The Cavemen
Chief
Shaman
Champions
Angry CaveMom
Warriors
Women & Kids
Cave Babe
FISTS
4
2
4
5
GATS
4
2
4
4
GUTS
5
2
4
5
3
2
2
3
3
3
3
3
4
STUNTS SMARTS HITS

4
4
4
4
5
4
4
3
3
4
3
3
3
3
4
2
3
3
3 (1)
3 (1)
4
SKILLS
Real Scary
Native Magic
Brutal Champ
Tough Broad
Doll Face
Cavemen move 6 basic move, no penalties. They are armed with spears and clubs, and can push
rocks down from high places. Native Magic is about anything the Director wants it to be, with a lot of
chanting and dancing, and possibly ritual sacrifice of captured outsiders. I cant say if it works you
decide!
These are classic Hollywood/Robert E Howard cavemen, either Neanderthaloid or just Extra in
bad wig. There should be a Leader, a Shaman, 2 or 3 big Warriors/Hunters as Champions, and a lot
of ugly men, women and children. Additions include Angry Cave Mother, who resents all this nonsense
Astounding Tales!
75
(whatever it is) and one or more genetically improbable young women of unsurpassed beauty.
The Troglodytes
Archers
Spear/swords
FISTS
2
3
GATS
3
-
GUTS
3
3
STUNTS
5
5
SMARTS
3
3
HITS
1
1
Move 6, no penalties.
The Troglodytes are small, nimble and hostile to everyone. They can move up and down cavern
walls without penalty. Individually puny, they make up for this by ganging up on opponents, and there are
lots of them when they band together. Mine look suspiciously like plastic goblins.
The Cimmerians
Barbarian Queen
Muscled Hero
Champions
High Priest
High Priestess
Savage Princess
Warriors
Women/Children

5
3
5
3
3
5
5
4
5
5
3
6
4
4
4
4
3
3
2
2
3
4
4
3
4
2
5
4
4
4
4
4
6
5
5
5
3
3
3
3
2
3 (1)
2
3
3
3
3
3 (1)
SKILLS
Femme Fatale, Hell Cat
Tough SOB, Flashing Blade
Flashing Blade, Crack Shot
Native Magic
Native Magic
Packs a Punch, Doll Face
Native Magic is about anything the Director wants it to be, with a lot of chanting and dancing, and
possibly ritual sacrifice of captured outsiders. I cant say if it works you decide!
Can you say Conan? (If you are a lawyer, I cant) Blond, Bronze-Age people with muscles and
nice teeth, the Cimmerians are classic fantasy barbarians with axes, spears, swords and maybe wristwatches.
THE INNOCENT PASSERS-BY (etc, etc...)
Old alcoholic
2
1
3
2
2
2
Ex-Army Doorman
4
3
4
3
3
4
Bartender
4
2
3
3
3
3
Torch Singer
2
2
3
4
4
4
Chinese Laundryman
2
1
2
3
4
2
Street Kid/Newsie
2
2
4
4
3
3
Bad Girl
3
3
3
3
4
3
Nasty Punk
3
3
2
3
2
3
Reporter
2
2
3
3
3
3
SKILLS
Mean Drunk
Tough SOB
Directors Choice
Directors Choice
Directors Choice
Directors Choice
Directors Choice
Brutal Champ
Directors Choice
And what else? More Pulp heroes? The Black Bat? More P.I.s like the psychotic
Race Williams, or Spillanes Mike Hammer? Ancient Ones from the Cthulhu mythos, and
their Batrachian allies? Your call!
Second Edition
76
SECTION VII : SCENARIOS
"That obelisk has stood for a thousand years, surviving earthquakes, storms, and civil war."
(Matt Fritz, Director of the Jungle Scene.)
"I run up and knock it over."
(The Phantom )
"Okay, down it goes."
(The Director)
The Crystal Skulls of Atlantis, HistoriCon, 2003
Scenario #1
This is a multi-sided affair between competing players,
in which the Director controls at least the Yeti, and possibly
the Cavemen as well, and players take one each of the
contending parties.
The Background: South East Asia, 1937. Those
occultists/anthropologists of the SS seek out a lost tribe of blond, Aryan cavemen in the
jungles where China and French Tonkin merge. The French Foreign Legion send a patrol
to rescue a young and beautiful woman from the clutches of unknown tribes. The Chinese
warlord wonders who encroaches on his territory, and whether he can get spare tires for his
Rolls Royce. The cavemen seek to propitiate the divine Yeti with a human bride. What
else ya want? American archaeologists with dynamite? Okay.
The Set Up: The map is mostly jungle, although a stream winds through part of it, allowing one party to enter by steam launch. The centre of the board is the home of the cavemen,
and if you can manage 2 or 3 rock formations, complete with caves, all the better. There
are three areas of tall grass, high enough to hide in.
All parties except the cavemen start at the edge of the board, wherever seems appropriate, although the Chinese and French ought to be opposite one another, as the imaginary
border runs across the board in some highly debateable manner. The table can be any size,
although a board large enough to have terrain beyond the central cave area is to be preferredalthough since its mostly jungle and long grass, this does not have to be massive.
The sketch map is only a general guide, but is proportioned for a 4 x 6 table.
The Yeti is Somewhere in hiding, as per the Directors wishes, and will appear
when he deems the moment right.
The Cast
The Yeti, who expects a nubile young maiden to be delivered for his matrimonial
delight.
The
Yeti
FISTS
4 (x 3 dice)
GATS
2
GUTS
5
STUNTS
5
Astounding Tales!
SMARTS
1
HITS
10
77
A Tribe of Cavemen, consisting of a Chief, a Shaman, 3 Hunter/Warrior Champions,

10-12 other cavemen, an Angry Cave-Mom, and a number of women and childrenand
one of the women looks remarkably like Raquel Welch. (See the lot among Sample Characters, above).
Cavemen move 6 basic move, no penalties. They are armed with spears and clubs,
and can push rocks down from high places.
A Captive French Woman, Mlle. Mireille Mondieu, of considerable allure to Yetis,
cavemen, and other male hominids. Mireille is 22, tres charmant, and tougher than she
looks.
SKILLS
Mireille FISTS GATS GUTS STUNTS SMARTS HITS
2
Nice Girl, Packs A Punch
A Party of German Scientists from the Reich Occult Bureau, accompanied by an

escort of 10 burly Soldaten in 1-3 vehicles.
Von Skarr
FISTS
3
GATS
3
Scientists (2)
Officer
Ilse, The She Wolf
Gestapo Agent
3
4
4
3
3
4
4
3
3
3
4
3
5
4
5
5
3
4
5
5
Gun Shy
Tough SOB
Femme Fatale
Cold Blooded
Feldwebel (Sergeant)
Soldaten
5
4
5
5
3
4
4
4
Second Edition
3
3
5
3 (1)
Brutal Champ
GUTS STUNTS
3
3
3
5
5
3
SMARTS HITS
5
5
SKILLS
Real Scary
78
This party consists of Von Skarr and 2 other scientists, Ilse, the leather-clad She-Wolf
of the SS, a classic Gestapo Agent, an Officer, a Sergeant, and 6-10 soldiers. NCOs and
other ranks have rifles or SMGs. Others have pistols, although Ilse might have an SMG.
Patrol of French Foreign Legionnaires, made up of an Officer, a Brutal Sergeant,
and 12 soldiers, plus the captive womans sister, Yvette. They arrive on foot or by river
launch. (Directors call, depending on what his budget will allow!)
Officer
4
3
4
3
3
4
Brutal Sergeant
5
3
5
4
4
4
Legionnaires (12)
4
3
4
3
3
3 (1)
Yvette
2
2
4
3
4
4
SKILLS
Exquisite Manners
Brutal Champ or Boxer
Nice Girl
A Column of Chinese Warlord Wu-Hus Soldiers, including the Warlord himself

(in a Rolls Royce, Packard or similar outrageously out-of-place automobile), a bodyguard
of 6 Big Sword Society fanatics, and as many useless unwilling Conscripts as you can
muster (10-100!). For character Profiles, see the Warlords Soldiers among the Sample
Characters, above.
An American Archaeologist in a fedora, and his Father, the boy, Short Round, his
Egyptian friend, Sallah, and a Dame in a beat-up old truck. See the Indiana Jones list
among the Sample Characters, and make your own choice from Marion or Willie for The
Dameor make up your own.
Plot Points
This is a Put them in together and see what happens scenario.
1) The Germans have been sent, as part of Himmlers Mad Science programme, to
seek out a mysterious tribe of blonde primitives, make contact, and bring a breeding pair
back to Berlin for further study. They are led by the evil Doktor Von Skarr, supported by
the SS
She-Wolf known only as Ilse. They are ruthless in the extreme.
2) The Foreign Legion are led by the gallant Capitaine Galante, whoas soon as the
beautiful Yvette came to him with news that her sister Mireille had been abducted by apelike primitives, knew that he must immediately lead a patrol out and bring her to safety.
3) The Chinese are under the command of the infamous Warlord, Wu-Hu. This is his
land, and he does not want foreigners to invade itunless they have money, in which case,
he might be their friend.
4) The Cave people are an astonishing survival from Neolithic times, and it is amazing that they live on in this wild land. They credit the magic of their Shaman, together with
regular provision of brides for their local Yeti, who is As a God to them. Unfortunately,
they are almost out of potential brides. Rather than give up his beautiful daughter
Neeeeeeeela, the Chief, Urrrrrrrrga, has sent warriors to bring in an outsider woman. She is
strangely attractive, and yet the sacrifice must be made.
5) Indiana Jones (or Oregon Brown, or whichever non-IP-infringing name you
prefer) is here upon discovering that his arch-nemesis, Von Skarr, has a dastardly scheme
afoot, Involving well, whatever it is, it cant be good!
Astounding Tales!
79
6) The Yeti is a simple soul, and appreciates that every so often the little apes bring
him one of their females, who smell nice but break easily.
This scenario will more or less play itself, although if the Cavemen are controlled by
a player, he needs to be someone who wants to role play for fun rather than victory!
Scenario #2
The Background: Norway, 1942. The Germans are working on the atomic bomb, using the heavy water production
plant at Vemork. Glider borne Commandos have landed
and attacked the facility with the help of Norwegian Resistance Fighters, and both groups are trying to outrun their
German pursuers. Heroic British aviator Biggles is working undercover with a pass from the Gestapo (Damn! What
were they thinking?) Colonel Von Stahlhein, his nemesis,
is after him. Algy, Ginger and Bertie fly in an unmarked
plane to save their chum, but crash. Two are taken prisoner, but Ginger escapes to find Biggles. Leni Riefenstahl
is making a propaganda film, Snows of the Teutons. Dozy
Austrian Garrison Troops perform their duties, while Elite
German Soldiers sneer at their slovenly Allies. Meanwhile, Jeeves and Wooster have
definitely made a wrong turn at Albuquerque. All this and more!
The Set Up: This scenario needs a fjord. If you have one, you are in business. If not, you
need a 2 x 4 or larger table featuring enough water surface for a boat and perhaps a seaplane, plenty of rough terrain with steep rocks and some cliffs, and lots of conifers. The entire fjord is rimmed by high cliffs. There is a German camp, where Algy and Bertie are being held captive. Leni has set up her camera on a particularly high spot with good observation all around. At the far end of the board, the returning Commandos will appear at one
corner, while the Norwegian resistance fighters will come in at the other. A turn later they
will each be followed onto the board by pursuing Germans.
The following map is proportioned to represent anything up to a 4 x 6 table top.
The Cast
Leni Riefenstahl and her film crew.
Leni Riefenstahl
Eva Blond (The Star)
Grauben (Script Girl)
Hans (Camera Man)
Herman (Clapper)
FISTS
4
2
2
3
2
GATS
4
2
2
2
1
GUTS STUNTS SMARTS HITS

5
4
5
4
3
3
2
3
2
2
3
2
3
3
3
3
2
2
3
3
SKILLS
Real Scary
Femme Fatale
Nice Girl
SPECIAL RULE: Grauben is actually an MI 5 agent when she takes her glasses off, and has ratings to
match. The Director will remove her from Lenis list and hand her over to an Allied player, who will use
this profile:
Second Edition
80
Grauben
(as MI 5
Agent)
FISTS
4
GATS
5
GUTS
5
STUNTS
5
SMARTS
5
HITS
5
SKILLS
Nice Girl
British Commandos1 or 2 parties, each with an Officer, NCO and 6 soldiers.

Stealthy elite Royal Marines in woolly hats, with Sykes-Fairbairn knives, ready to
stalk sentries for the sheer fun of it. The officer may wear a kilt, or carry a longbow, a
claymore or otherwise indicate British eccentricity.
Officer
FISTS
4
NCO
Commandos
5
4
GATS GUTS STUNTS SMARTS HITS

4
5
4
5
5
5
4
5
4
4
4
4
3
4
3 (1)
SKILLS
Exquisite Manners or
Mack The Knife
Tough SOB or Boxer
Tommy Gunner
Norwegian Resistance Fighters, 1 or 2 parties of 4-6 each, under one Leader.

Blond, Nordic, heroic. Must speak in a strange accent possibly learned from
Abba (who were neither Norwegian nor connected with WW II).
Cell Leader
Fighter
Female Fighter
4
3
2
4
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
4
SKILLS
4
Moves 6 (Skis), Bomber
3 (1) Moves 6 (Skis), Tommy Gunner
3
Moves 6 Skis), Hell Cat
Jeeves and Wooster, whose Profiles appear in the Sample Character lists, above.
Biggles, and his friends Algy, Ginger and Bertie (see the Biggles Sample
Characters list).
The Nazis
Austrian Garrison Troops, a squad of 10-12 who are holding Bertie and Algy
Astounding Tales!
81
prisoner at the Nazi Camp.
A German General in a staff car or similar, with driver and orderly.
Von Stalhein, the Smart German, in a staff car with a driver and two SS men.
One squad (1012 men) of German Soldaten per Allied party (i.e 2-4 total). You
may substitute motor cycle patrols, or even a half-track or armoured car, for a squad of
infantry. The terrain doesnt favour vehicles, but they look threatening, and can career off
cliffs for entertainments sake.
The General
Officer
NCO
Soldaten
Garrison Troops
Gestapo Agent
Von Stalhein

3
3
4
2
4
4
4
4
5
3
5
5
5
4
3
3
4
5
4
3
3
4
5
4
3
3
5
3
4
3
3
4
4
3
3
5
5
4
3 (1)
3 (1)
5
5
SKILLS
Exquisite Manners
Tough SOB
Brutal Champ
Baffled
Cold Blooded
Real Scary
Starting Positions
1) Algy and Bertie have been captured when their plane crash-landed beside the
Hamspanner Fjord. Biggles and Ginger come to rescue them, equipped with any of the
following: a sea plane (either on or off the board), flare guns, Gestapo ID, Webley revolvers, and nun outfits for themselves and their comrades. At the same time, the survivors of a
Commando raiding partywith their Norwegian resistance chumsare escaping after
damaging the Nazi heavy water plant above the fjord, with crack German troops in pursuit.
2) Meanwhile, sinister-yet-beautiful Nazi film documentarian, Leni Riefenstahl, is
shooting film for her epic Snows of the Teutons in the region, and is excited to have the
chance to film British Commandos receiving their just punishment at the hands of heroic
German soldiers. Leni is up on the cliffs, filming.
3) Jeeves and Wooster, comic characters from PG Wodehouse (who was himself
interned by the Huns) are simply lost, Bertie still insisting that they are in Sweden, or
perhaps Switzerland. Driving a totally unsuitable sports car, they can appear at any edge
that isnt mostly The North Sea.
4) The Austrians are at their camp, drinking beer, eating sausages and sort-ofguarding the two Allied flyers.
5) Biggles (in German uniform, with RAF uniform underneath) can be anywhere on
the board at the start. He is seeking Ginger, who the Director will place in concealment,
and role-play him until Biggles comes within Psst! distance.
6) Von Stalhein, is in a staff car with a driver and two SS men. He will arrive on any
turn after the first.
Plot Points
1) Biggles must try to rescue his pals, despite the efforts of the Germans. However,
since Biggles is the hero, they should not succeed in this aim! Von Stalhein, in particular,
has been following Biggles through several books now.
2) Leni will shoot film, but intervene to aid the Third Reich by means of her
Second Edition
82
Triumphant Will and trusty Luger.
3) The Commandos and Resistance Fighters enter on Turn 2, making for the fjord
where a British vessel disguised as a local fishing boat will arrive on Turn 6 (or whenever
seems right to the Director). Both groups need to be on that boat!
4) The Germans want to stop them, as well as Biggles! Roll for each party of German pursuers on Turn 3. Roll 1 D6: 1-3=The Jerries arrive now; 4-6=They arrive next turn.
One group will start at Entry Point 1, the other at 2.
5) Jeeves will try to persuade Wooster that they ought to take that fishing boat to
England, despite the probably poor restaurant facilities aboard.
SECTION VIII : NOTES, APPENDICES, AND OTHER BODY PARTS
Astounding Titles!
Alright, youre thinking about creating a scenario. Maybe its your first, and maybe
youve already done enough times that you need new inspiration. Where to begin?
Well, why not with the title? When you have a Pulp title, youve already got a lot of
to work with! Below is the Title Generator which can help you get a name for your adventure. It doesnt have to be a sensible name. It just has to be Pulpy.
First, roll a D6, reading 1 as 2. This is the number of words (2-6) in your title.
Now, roll 2 D10 (0-9) reading one as the tens place, the other the units, and do this once for
each number of words in your titles. If you dont own Percentage Dice, or even regular D6
PULP ADVENTURE TITLE GENERATOR

1. voodoo
6. eye
11. monkey
16. black
21. gold
26. mystery
31. slave
36. mummy
41. shrine
46. spider
51. snake
56. secret
61. gypsy
66. ruby
71. machine
76. castle
81.t emple
86. road
91. madness
96. massacre
2. curse
7. queen
12. terror
17. white
22. child
27. horror
32. mask
37. monster
42. gangster
47. shadow
52. mob
57. lost
62. ape
67. emerald
72. tomb
77. mountain
82. desert
87. tide
92. scream
97. skull
3. blood
8. savage
13. gun
18. swamp
23. fear
28. adventure
33. king
38. dungeon
43. lion
48. scorpion
53. hawk
58. revenge
63. enemy
68. death
73. phantom
78. jungle
83. storm
88. blaze
93. corpse
98. fool
Astounding Tales!
4. return
9. god
14. blade
19. a colour
24. flame
29. master
34. day
39. robot
44. tiger
49. woman
54. plane
59. bandit
64. golem
69. damned
74. island
79. prison
84. hurricane
89. fire
94. ring
99. sinister
5. ride
10. emperor
15. kiss
20. silver
25. fortune
30. treasure
35. night
40. zombie
45. falcon
50. doom
55. ship
60. raider
65. diamond
70. murder
75. tower
80. ghost
85. key
90. water
95. crime
100. steel
83
dice, hell, just point at random. Its not like I care. Consult the table, and find the word
youve rolled up. You may change words into plurals, adjectives or similar, or replace the
word with a synonym (e.g. pit for tomb, dagger for knife, etc). Where it says A
colour, you can use any you like. You may discard one word and roll again. You dont
have to use all your words. You are allowed as many conjunctions and minor words as you
like to make the phrase sound like something you might see on a billboard, or on the front
cover of Dime Jungle Detective or Spicy G-Man Tales.
Example: I roll a 3, and so roll my percentage dice three times. I get 68-death,
34-day, and 78- jungle. Huh? So I put them together as Jungle Days of
Death (rather than Day of the Jungle Death or Death Day in the Jungle. But its still
weak. So I decide to discard Day and roll again. I roll 67-emerald, and this gives me
The Emerald Jungle of Death!, which sounds exactly like the sort of thing Id plunk my
quarter down for.
You can play this for your own amusement, or with friends, voting for best name,
until you fall out in bitter acrimony and never speak again. Fun times!
Now that you have a title, all you have to do is make sure all the elements in it appear
in some fashion in your scenario outline. So, in this case, check your props box for enough
of a Jungle to be intimidating, and populate it with dangerous people, creatures, and
mystery. What intrepid heroes do you want to visit your Emerald Jungle of Death? Why
should they go there? Are they actually going to look for Emeralds, or just be let loose in
Green Hell? Who is the Villain? The Jungle must be related to his nefarious schemes, so
what are those?
Conflict is the source of all drama and action, so make sure theres plenty of it built
right in to the situation! Naturally, you can concoct anything you like, so long as its fun,
fast, and furious!
Remember, its YOUR movie, so roll those cameras!
DESIGNERS NOTES
Typing this up on a battered Smith-Corona portable, taking alternative swigs of black
coffee and cheap Rye, I figured Id make a few comments. First off, as miniatures games
go, this is very loose and unstructured. I dont care about time scale or ground scale or
union scale or anything like that. Im not interested in the difference between Thompson
machine guns and the snazzy Bergmann types used by ugly men in Europe and Asia. I
dont want to explain at length that a truck full of oranges cannot usually catch a speeding
Stutz Bearcat, but if it does, it can probably push the roadster off the edge of a convenient
cliff. I just want a fast game thats fun to play and lets you use your imagination. It
requires a Director, which is just an excuse for Von Stroheim-type megalomania, but since
the actors arent being paid, well, he has to behave. At least, a little. The rules are kept
simple. Dead simple. I could go into more detail (although I have at least indicated that
being shot with a .45 is more likely to get you dead than a .22), but what the hell. Maybe
Ill write some optional rules. Maybe youll throw that in yourself. Maybe a pony will
come in first with my money riding on it. Simple rules mean fast play. Fast is good. You
want slow, the door is over there. Dont let it hit you... on the way out.
Second Edition
84
ALTERNATIVE PULP IDEAS
VICTORIAN ADVENTURE has a great deal in common with Pulp in that it features a lot
of humans with period technology facing Martians, cavemen and monsters of wondrous
types. I feel that the key differences are largely of tone (Victorian adventure sounds like
Basil Rathbone speaking for Conan Doyle, Pulp sounds like Humphrey Bogart talking for
Raymond Chandler), and the fact that the Bellbuckle Steam Carriage Mk III doesnt work,
while the 1934 Chevrolet usually does. My own Victorian alterations largely consist of
using more appropriate termsmy stat line reads FISTS-GUNS-GUTS-FEATS-WITSHITSand in having a lot of improvised devices employing steam, clockwork and brass
thingummybobs that often prove unreliable. Aside from that, its all about the scenarios.
And, if pressed, we cant be shooting a movie, so we must be putting on a stage melodrama.
COMIC BOOK WORLD WAR TWO is the war that I grew up with, based on films
where the Germans used M1948 Patton tanks (painted grey with huge crosses on the side),
and screamed Achtung! Spitfire! when attacked by British planes, where Captain
Hurricane (a giant British officer in The Valiant who dealt with enemy artillery by bending
the barrels, and where AFVs were easily dealt with by dropping grenades into the nonlocking hatches. For my American friends its the Sergeants Rock and Fury, and episodes
of Combat. Everyones a hero (at least on the Allied side) and the enemy consist of jackbooted Nazis and nameless cannon fodder.
SIXTIES SPY ROMPS of the Bond/Matt Helm/Man From UNCLE varietythe breezy
adventures with evil geniuses and young women in bikinis and high boots rather than the
gritty Le Carr sort of espionage taleare well suited to Astounding Tales! Really, the cars
are faster and sleeker, and amazing devices can be miniaturized to fit in ones hand-made
Chelsea boot-heel. But how different is that from the stuff Doc Savage was doing in the
1930s? Doc never met anyone called Pussy Galore, thats all.
FUTURE PULP is my term for modern day or near future adventure of the comic book
or cinematic variety. This can be anything from alien invasion, and post apocalyptic struggles, to those well developed females who steal archaeological treasures in massive quantities. My own special field of interest is the little-known banana republic of Santa Ebola,
where all negative images of Latin American jungle dictatorships combine with frequent
extra terrestrial intervention. Ive felt little need to add a lot of extra rules, since I regard all
modern firearms in a general, fuzzy way as being light plastic versions of older models. Its
not like these people hit anything, anyway.
CHAINMAIL BIKINI is my working title for a cheesy sword and sorcery variant of
AT!, basedin a non-IP-infringement sort of wayon the works of Robert Howard, Edgar
Rice Burroughs, Fritz Leiber, C.L. Moore and their followers and copiers from the 1930s
through the present day. The essence of this sort of fantastic fiction is quite distinct
compared with the post-Tolkien school that has generally come to dominate the fantasy
field. Its short on elves and dwarves, long on mighty thewd barbarians, barely clad
dancing girls, evil sorcerers and astonishingly stilted dialogue declaimed in a sub-medieval
Astounding Tales!
85
manner. And thats whats great about it!
The real changes required to play sword and sorcery are partly in terms of having at
least a framework for dealing with magic (which is mostly the purview of the bad guys) and
emphasising close combat of a limb-lopping, massive-blows style rather than missile shooting. Heroes may get 2 or 3 FISTS dice rather than the usual single die.
This is a project that Id like at some timebut not this weekto develop into a
game of its own, Crom willing.
A WORD ON GENRE
Thats a French word, and Mickey Spillane hates it. Me, I dont care. Noir (nwarh)
is also Frenchit means black if you didnt knowand stems from a school of cinema
where, despite having high-faluting colour technology available, everything was shot in
very stark black and white, with deep shadows; have a look at classic movies like The
Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity or Touch of Evil. Recently the Coen
Brothers workMillers Crossing and The Man Who Wasnt Thererecreate the style
exactly. This film noir style extends to storylines that feature tough talk, bad faith and twotiming anyone who can be two-timed. No back left un-stabbed. Sometimes theres a hero,
a white knight on the Chandler model, sometimes everyone is mired in moral quicksand.
Some people call the written stuff noir also, though everyone doing in the inter-war years
just called it hard-boiledany French they knew was from the Western front in 1918 and
had to do with Mademoiselles from Armentires.
Pulp simply refers to the cheap pulpwood paper that popular low-end magazines
were printed on up until the 1950sas opposed to the slicks that went for a more prosperous audience. Pulps were done on the cheap, with fantastic, gaudy cover art and a lot of
short stories and brief novels in tiny print inside. There were all sorts of Pulp magazines
westerns, detectives, jungle adventure, gangsters, spicy, sports, tales of the Orient, love
-story, aviation, war, fantastic, shudder, with names like Black Mask and Dime Detective. Writers like Dash Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ray Bradbury and E.E. Doc
Smith began their careers as Pulp writersalmost everyone with a typewriter in North
America tried to get published in the pulps, often under many names and in different genres
than youd expect; whats a baseball story by Robert E. Howard like? Is Conan at the plate
yet? Will anyone collect the western stories of L. Ron Hubbard? Are there any unpublished H.P. Lovecraft ranch romances? Most Pulp writers used aliases, and many authors
named on the cover were actually several different people taking turns to knock out The
Spider or The Shadow.
Theres a British school of thrillers from the same period that have pretty much got
lost under the genteel murders of Agatha Christie and the wonderful Dorothy L Sayers.
Leslie Charteris The Saint was urbane, yet deadly. John Buchan (The Thirty Nine Steps)
was a master of chase scenes, while towards WWII Eric Ambler began to write dark, brooding spy novels. But the popular stuff, written at amazing speedwhich shows, badlyis
by Edgar Wallace, Dornford Yates, E. Phillips Oppenheim, Sax Rohmer and Sapper. Its
more on left hooks than bullets, fast sports cars and railway carriages, and often has a nasty
streak that sits badly on the polite manners of the heroes. Somehow, to modern eyes, a
Second Edition
86
tough PI in Los Angeles can get away with a mean streak of what wed call anti-Semitism,
homophobia, racism and sexism better than a man with an Oxford education. But thats just
the modern world looking back, and theres no percentage in playing critic. Its better to
poke holes in everyone equally. As Dr Fu Manchu would tell you.
And theres adventure stories aimed at a juvenile audience, which is sometimes deliberately statedBoys Own Paper, etcand sometimes not. Tarzan and Doc Savage almost certainly had a younger audience than The Continental Op, and you can usually tell
from the tone of the writing whats what. Biggles, intrepid British aviator over four or
more decades, he was always the boy for me.
So, whats all this got to do with Astounding Tales? First off, its OK to paint all your
figures and scenery in black and white. Just use a pearlescent white for the neon signs.
That was a wise-crack. Wise-cracks are important. Though actually, its not such a
terrible idea.
Astounding Tales! is more to do with the Private eye/jungle tales/Yellow Peril/high
adventure end of this spectrum than it is to do with bug-eyed monsters from the planet
Mongo. Theres no reason why Earth should not be invaded by strange and malign creatures using these rules, but youll have to work on it. I suppose you could do Robert E.
Howard-style swords-and-sorcery, or wild west, or Saturday serial science fiction, but there
are a lot of games out there that cover those topics. But, do what you like.
READ any old Pulps you can find, in original or reprint form. There are plenty of cheap
reprints of Doc Savage and the Shadow, at the very least. Look for Chandler, Hammett and
a few others in the mystery aisle of your bookstoreor Buchan, Wallace or Charteris if you
like the English style. Second-hand bookshops are often the best for this stuff, as it is considered dated by the publishing industryfools!! In recent years the Fu Manchu novels
have been collected in four omnibus volumes, while several anthologies of mostly crime
stories have appeared (e.g. Pulp Action and A Century of Noir).
Modern novels in the Pulp style vary from Barbara Hamblys Bride of the Rat God
(which has a pure Pulp plot) to Max Allan Collins superb Nathan Heller, PI series, which
starts with True Crime and deals with actual people and events from the 1930s onwards.
Tom Bradbys The Master of Rain is a thriller set amongst the corruption of 1925 Shanghai,
as is Bartle Bulls The White Russian (AKA Shanghai Station). Paul Malmonts The
Chinatown Death Cloud Peril features actual period Pulp writers in the midst of the
adventure.
Pulp Culture, by Frank M. Robinson and Lawrence Davidson (1998), is a big, glossy
book of magazine cover art, with a fascinating linking text. It has a back cover illustration
showing two Chinese assassins landing on G-8s biplane in mid air, which is just what we
like to see.
Don Hutchison, a Toronto enthusiast, wrote The Great Pulp Heroes, a survey of
characters from Doc Savage and the Spider, through Operator 5 and flyer Dusty Ayres, to
obscurities like Tarzan knock-off, Ki-gor. Highly recommended. Hutchison also compiled
two books of Yellow Peril tales (Its Raining Corpses in Chinatown and More Corpses) and
Scarlet Riders, Canadian Mountie stories.
There are, of course, all sorts of non-fiction books about gangsters, cars, weapons,
Astounding Tales!
87
historical events and such-like.
WATCH classic (good or bad) movies on Channel 109 at 4 in the morning. Go to the
video store and look for anything with Cagney, Bogart or Edward G. Robinson. The Big
Sleep (1946) is one of my favourite films of any genre. Youll probably have to seek out a
specialist mail order dealer for Saturday morning serials and B-movies. More recent films
that Id recommend are
The Indiana Jones trilogy. The Young Indy movies were made for TV and are too
darned educational for their own good, but still worth a look.
Other more recent films include The Mummy, its sequel, and The Scorpion King
(which is hokum of the highest order), The Phantom, and The Shadow, from the 1990s, and
2003s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
Mobsters, Hoodlum, Millers Crossing, The Man Who Wasnt There, Chinatown, The
Newton Boys are excellent period pieces. See Big Trouble in Little China for Pulp feel in
the present day, and O Brother Where Art Thou? for the fun of it.
Anything with zombies.
WEBSITES to peek at
The Pulp Net will find pretty much anything Pulp-related. http://thepulp.net/
The Pulp Gallery is all about garish covers, like the ones on the this fine publication.
http://www.tupics.com/member/pulpgallery/welcome.html. Another such site is Pulp
Magazines at http://www.mogozuzu.com/pulps.htm
Jess Nevins Pulp and Adventure Heroes of the Pre-War Years will tell you all
about the characters themselves. http://www.geocities.com/jjnevins/pulpsintro.html
FIGURES AND STUFF
I use 25/28mm figures, so I know about them best. Im not saying you cant use
anything else. I just cant comment on anything else.
PULP FIGURES are the work of ace two-fisted sculptor Bob Murch. So far he has made a
variety of excellent figures for his China Station localeUS navy, tong members, German marines, Chinese warlord soldiersplus sets of Sinister Spies, Dangerous Dames,
gangsters, Neanderthals, adventurers, rocketeers and Pulp heroes whose names have been
changed.
Visit http://www.pulpfigures.com/
COPPLESTONE CASTINGS by the excellent Mark Copplestone feature three lines that
you might want to look at. Back of Beyond is mostly about Central Asia in the 1920s,
with Bolsheviks, Chinese, savage archaeologists and the always-popular Yetis. A new
range as I write, known as High Adventure, adds things like dogsleds, Amazon explorers,
bears andwait for itpenguins. Damn, that curdles the blood! Lastly, Return to Darkest Africa adds to the huge range he began with The Foundry. And watch for Mad Dogs
With Guns written by well, ME (with major contributions by Roderick Robertson.)
Visit http://www.gisby.org/copplestone.htm
Second Edition
88
CASTAWAY ARTS are an Australian company, who come to our notice for their excellent
French Foreign Legion and opponents, and also the only known 28mm model of the Ark of
the Covenant, carried by priests (although Gerry speaks of making a party of Germans in
carrying poses).
Visit http://www.castawayarts.com.au/
STEVE BARBER MODELS have a line of 25mm gangsters and G-men, which are a little
smaller than the present styleI mount em on a penny, then glue that to my usual steel
washer base, to add height, like elevator shoes. They also have a range of cavemen.
Visit http://www.sbarber-models.clara.net/main.html
IRON WIND METALS are the current incarnation of venerable US fantasy figure maker,
Ral Partha. For our purposes, look at the twenty figures of cops, gangsters and adventurers
that my catalogue lists as DM 01-20 (miscellaneous), which are presently available at
shows but not on the IWM website.
RAFM are a long established Canadian company whose Call of Cthulhu range (from the
sinewy hands of Bob Murch) feature not only nameless creatures from other worldsas
youd expectbut useful 1920s humans from cops to escaped lunatics. The character sets
are usually variants on the same persona in the three stages of beginning character, experienced, and completely insane.
Visit www.RAFM.com
THE FOUNDRY have huge and vast ranges from ancient times to cyberpunk, but most
useful for our purposes are the Darkest Africa range, Colonial India (for Pathans and Indian
troops) WW2 for those pesky Nazis andthis may just be meTrojan Wars and European
Bronze Age for Atlantis and Conan types.
Visit http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/
EUREKA, also from Australia, specialize in the unusualthe weird. If you want 20s
flappers, cultists in robes (my favouriteswhats a game without cultists?) and all sorts of
mostly Victorian oddities of steam and bicycularity, this is the place to go.
Visit http://www.eurekamin.com.au/
BRIGADE GAMES are the US importers for several fine lines, but are especially noteworthy for their own ranges of WWII Pulp Horror, gangsters and adventurers, as well as
WWI figures and vehicles for Europe, Africa and the Middle East fronts. Uniquely, Lon
Weiss offers a Pulp era Caribbean Empires line with US Marines, Nicaraguan Rebels,
Haitian zombies and Jivaro head hunters. Brigade are strong on all sorts of zombies,
various experiments by Nazi scientists, and vampire-fighting nuns.
Visit http://www.brigadegames.com/
OLD GLORY also have massive ranges. Probably for our purposes the WW1 range (with
downed pilots of several nations!) and the deliberately Hollywood natives from the pirate
Astounding Tales!
89
and Africa lines are of most interest.
Visit http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/
The related WEST WIND company makes an excellent range called Gothic Horror
mostly Victorian-ishwith zombies and werewolves, Yetis, mummies and cultists.
Visit http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk/index.asp
RLBPS is Bob and Ann Bowling, US dealers in British miniatures, who carry Copplestone,
Steve Barber, Honourable Lead Boiler Suit and others. Good people.
Visit http://www.rlbps.com/
North Bay Games and Hobbies, the finest game store in the frozen Arctic, supplies
Canadians with Copplestone, West Wind, Old Glory and others. Recommended service.
Visit http://www.nbgamesandhobbies.com/
In a larger scale (35mm) GRAVEN IMAGES has interesting ranges including Cliffhanger,
Gtterdmerung and Disturbia miniatures. The Cliffhanger line includes Emperor Ming
and Flash Gordon, Mongo trooper, Officer of Ming's Guard, Frankenstein's Monster and a
Large Rearing Deep One. Gtterdmerung offers lots of WWII Russian and German zombies as well as an SS Officer levitating with the Spear of Destiny! Disturbia has nightmarish Nazis and several interesting figures of a voodoo persuasion.
NORTH STAR's Project X range is 1/48th scale, but offers more WW II zombies and figures in power armour that, given the size of some 28mm ranges, might still fit in with the
others.
WARGAMES FACTORY produces multi-part hard plastic figures in 28mm size. Pulp enthusiasts will find bargain priced zombie hordes, Zulu warriors suited for all sorts of jungle
warriors, Roman legionaries to garrison lost cities, and strange retro-future shock troops in
suitably Germanic style.
Visit www.wargamesfactory.com
AUTOMOBILES for this period can be found as die cast models, ranging from very
cheap to collector grade expensive. I try to compare potential purchases to a 28mm figure,
since scale is often a bit questionable. While 1:64 is closest to most 28mm figures, the
issue is whether it looks acceptable. I have a lot of vehicles by Lledo (Days Gone By
line) which are 1:64more vans with advertising than anything else, which I usually paint
over, and some cheap toys bought second-hand. Replacing the ugly wheels with better ones
(RAFMll sell you a pack) and a paint job does the trick. Matchbox Models of Yesteryear vary in scale from around 1/40th to 1/55th, and I use them as I see fit (because the
bosss Packard ought to be big). Recently, Sloppy Jalopy has made some metal trucks in
kit form in 1/48 scale, slightly over scale, but useable.
AIRCRAFT are easily found in 1/48th scale plastic kits, and are often a little under scale
Second Edition
90
to fit the boxes (this is how the toy industry works). More sturdy and substantial are the die
cast metal planes; I thank Dave Markley for the Grumman Goose he let me have. Occasionally die cast planes in 1/60th scale can be found. Again, scale is largely in the eye of the
beholder. Toy planes from WWII are availablemostly fighters but with a P-38 that
screams Experimental plane from 1938under the brand name New Ray. These are
cheap and made in what amounts to a plastic die cast style.
Perhaps the least expensive alternative, but with the widest possible choice, are the
beautifully designed card stock Aircraft models sold on line by Fiddlers Green (https://
www.fiddlersgreen.net/shop/category/name/Between+the+Wars.html). While a wide
assortment from every era is offered, the Between the Wars line is especially useful for
Pulp Gaming. Models are very inexpensive, easy to assemble, and look great. Each comes
in three scales, any of which can be adjusted to perfectly match your miniatures.
Boats, buildings, and very much more are also available and are well worth a visit!
BUILDINGS often have to be scratch built, although O Gauge model railway items
can be found that workthe doors are usually a bit massive, but otherwise they look good.
Ive seen whole 1920s period American skyscrapers in this scale, which look impressive
indeed. The rarer S Gauge is ideal to use with 28mm figures, but, well, rare. Steve
Barber Models has a resin cast speakeasy over a hardware store. The largest range of selfassembly card stock Buildings for the first half of the 20th Century, Mean Streets, and
Mean Sets (interiors), are available from The (Virtual) Armchair General.
RULES
So why would we discuss other sets of rules? Because there are some good ones, and
its not as if you were committed to one set for every game forever.
Theres not as much in the way of rules for Pulp as there is for Victorian Adventure.
In the 1970's there was some interest in the fantasy end of Pulp. Royal Armies of the
Hyborean Age, by Lin Carter and Scott Bizar was published by FGU in 1975. John Carter,
Warlord of Mars Adventure Gaming Handbook was released by Heritage Models, Inc. in
1978 with the copyright held by ERB's estate. Primarily a miniatures rules set, it had RPG
elements as well, as did SPI's 1979 board game John Carter. Warlord of Mars. TSR's
Warriors of Mars; The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature was strictly a miniatures set of
rules and the first of the lot in 1974. These are, sadly, now found only in the collections of
older gamers. My thanks to Joe Gepfert for this information.
Chris Peers Contemptible Little Armies rules for WWI have been followed by his
lists and variations for 1920's Central Asia, Back of Beyond. These provide for a fairly
traditional wargame between units, together with some character-oriented material. Chris
knows his period very well, as always. The rules are fast, enjoyable, and fairly bloody.
Savage Worlds by Pinnacle Entertainment is a broad-era set that covers everything
from pure fantasy to two-fisted adventure. Ive not played them, but what I have seen looks
good.
Rugged Adventures, available as a download from the Pulp Figures website, is an
in-development set from Bob Murch and Kurt Hummitzsch. Ive played with the designers
a number of times, and recommend it for fast-paced action with a number of units per
Astounding Tales!
91
player. Their "China Station" games are a marvel to behold and play in.
To Be Continued By G.A.S.L.IG.H.T. is from the creators of the popular
G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T, and requires those rules. Oriented towards creating an ongoing 12episode serial, the writers, Chris Palmer and Buck Surdu, show an evident love for the
B-movie genre.
.45 Adventure by Rich Johnson of Rattrap Productions is a fairly detailed set of small
-scale skirmish rules supported by Richs enormous enthusiasm. The basic rules have been
followed up by two supplements so far (Dragon Bones and Amazing War Stories) and a
growing range of character figures. Thumbs up!
Whats the difference between Pulp and High
Adventure?
Pulp wears a sharp snap-brim fedora.
High Adventure wears a battered fedora.
20
Why are there no points values in Astounding

Tales!?
Points values are for sissies. But, I
have put in some prices in good old greenbacks so you can buy a machine gun, or balance twenty eight pygmies against a twofisted pilot with a joke on his lips.
What about tournaments? Competitions? Championships?

Tournaments are for lawyers and accountants. Scuse me while I spit.
Do you really think that a Thompson sub-machine gun should count the same as the
Bergmann MP 1918 Machine Pistol?
I dont really think about it at all.
You dont put much emphasis on sizes of units, either. Why is that?
Two Packards pull up, each with a driver and three gunsels.
Thats eight men, if you park the cars, six if you dont. But maybe
they have friends out there in the dark cityfriends who might show up
at any time. And how many head-hunters are out there in the jungle as
our expedition advances along the creeper-infested trail? And how many
zombies arise from the graveyard as the moon eerily shines across the
stones and crosses? Ya got me. Only the Director can tell, and only
then as the plot demands. You dont want your ace detective and his
Second Edition
92
dangerous dame bumped off by a swarm of bees/rats/Bolsheviki/honest-yet
-un-dead citizens of Smalltown, USA simply because you put out too many
of them, do you?
My Character shot at a figure that popped out from cover just a few feet away. So that
should have been roll vs. GATS, right? But the Director said that the target was in shadow
(-1), that hed just appeared (-1) and that he was giving an extra 1 because the figure had
the face of my dead brother and I was shocked at that. Is that right?
Dont get on your high-horse, Mr Smarty-pants. Hes the Director
this time round. Youll get him when you take the chair and the oh-sopretentious beret he was wearing. Still, I think he has a nerve assuming your aimd be off when you saw the face of your long-deceased
brother. Howd he know even if you liked your brother?
If a figure is tied properly, how long does it take for him to escape (Bound & Gagged,
pg. 45), assuming that tying a victim properly uses ropes, as opposed to handcuffs?
They don't. That's if they aren't genuine heroes. In that case I'd say
that after an hour's hard work they can escape on a STUNTS roll. Fail
three times (one per hour) and it's clear that it's not going to happen
.
GATS modifiersare these cumulative? Or do I simply take the worst situation listed in
that row (Shooting, pg. 36)? E.g. if I am running, and my target is flying, am I at -2 or -4?
It's cumulative. The example below the modifier list shows how it
works.
Once you choose your Fighting Style, how long does it last (Close Combat, pg. 39)? It
says you can't change it for the same battle. Is a battle one scene? Or is a battle one
close combat fight with another figure?
Good question! I think it should mean that if you start out simply
punching peopleas one does in a bar fightyou can't suddenly start
trying to kill them. So, it's for the whole scene unless the bad guys
(being bad guys) start cheating and trying to really hurt our heroes.
Does that make sense?
In Serious Business (pg. 41), under result 6, it says Again, rolling more than your
HITS score means you are killed." What rolling again is this talking about?
It means that if you don't have four hits left, you are dead when you
get this result. My use of "Again" before the word "rolling" may have
led you to think there was another roll sorry! (Authors Note to
self: Absinthe only after the days writing.)
What is a Penguin's STUNT value (Dangerous Creatures, pg. 61)? It is missing from the
chart. For the record, I merely noticed the blank space.
Astounding Tales!
93
I had to look this up in my original manuscript. It's '2. We'll blame
Patrick for that one!
(Editors note to self:
Opium now before breakfast, and before work.)
What were you drinking when you thought up all this stuff?
Dont rightly recall.
Pour me another one.
Oh, and if you want to ask more damn fool questions, share your
own ideas, or just join the hub-bub of discussion and snappy repartee,
visit the Official Astounding Tales! Yahoo! Group at
http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/astounding-tales/ and tell them you
want to see man about a black bird.
Second Edition
94
Astounding Tales!
95
Scott Wolf Larson

Robert The Shiv Minadeo
Chris The Razor Vaughn
James Jungle Jim Stuht
Patrick Ripping Yarns
Connor
Joseph Joey The Juice
McGuire
Richard Dick The Ink
Brooks
(Editor The Heliograph,
Savage & Soldier)
Matt The Mongoose Kelland
James The Mouser Ferich
James Old Blighty Cockburn
Stacy & Michael
Ham & Eggs Weaver
Charles Ol Heathen Decker
Allan The Deer Hunter
Finney
Glenn The Goodies Bianchi
David The Iron Mammoth
Drage
Jeff The Warsaw
Strangler Wasileski
Jamie The Gent Mathews
Ross Checks In The Mail
Maker
Rupert Mystery Street
Cullum
David The Producer

Merrick
John Stool Pigeon Kantor
Joseph The Joeverfiend
Gepfert
Chuck The Sleeper Couch
Tom The Tolono Terror Reed
Mitch The Pitch Mitchell
Otto The Enforcer Schmidt
David Mad Musser
Bill Gunga Din Johnson
Jeff Last Stand Baumel
John The OFM Carroll
Mike The Flyer Fliger
Clif Crusader Castle
Randy The Snipe Giesick
Steve Dum-Dums Moeller
Bob No Hoper Hart
Niels The Dane Kragh
Matthew The Kid Slade
David Never Forgets
MacRae
Randy Genghis Fung
Second Edition
96
Feeling Dissatisfied? Empty Headed?

Suffering From Irregular Gaming?
Then Read
Astounding Adventures
Magazine!
Have you played the Scenarios in AT2 so many times

you dont need to roll the diceyou already know the outcomes of all 2.7 Zillion permutations? Are you sicker of the
same Characters than you are of two week-old post Thanksgiving turkey? Do you find yourself uninspired,
out of sorts, and that one eye is getting unaccountably bigger than the other?
Then you need the fast, fast, fast relief that can be found only in the pages of AA! In every issue
are whole new, ready-to-play Scenarios, full of pulpy goodness, written by a host of certifiables from
around the world who live to write this stuff! Every issue contains new ideas, characters, and even new rules
to keep your Astounding Tales! as exciting and inspiring as that first jolt of absinthe at breakfast! Scenarios
include pre-generated Character lists, suggestions for miniatures to use, sets to make, resources, and even
full color maps. Laid out in Pulp Magazine form, each issue also comes with period advertising (though
some may worth a closer examination), full color covers and period art, freely looted and combined from
the archives, and rules patches that allow use of the same Scenarios by players of .45 Adventure, To Be
Continued... by GASLIGHT, and Rugged Adventures. And every issue comes fully inspected and
approved by AT2 author Howard Whitehouse, himself.
So dont be just another pretty face, be a Director bringing intrigue, plot, action and thrills to your
regular AT2 gaming group, old friends, or just your fellow inmates at the Asylum.
And, remember that new authors are
actively invited to submit their own
Scenarios for possible publication in
subsequent Issues. Fame, honors, and the
attention of Super-Models await!
So, when youre starved for new ideas and
inspiration, dont forget
Astounding Adventures Magazine

Issues #1 and #2, plus future
supplements, are all available from
www.thevirtualarmchairgeneral.com
No Subscriptions, No Publishing
Schedule!
(Just printed when we need the money!)
Each Print Edition of Astounding Adventures! Is priced at $20.00,
All PDF Editions on CD: $15.00 each.
Domestic Postage: $7.00 Overseas, Canada & Mexico: $14.00
Buy AA#1 along with AA#2 as PDFs at the same time and subtract $5.00 from total cost!
PDF Editions without CD directly from TVAG via E-mail are postage free.
(Postage charges for PDF E-Mail Editions added by TVAGs Shopping Cart
are fully Refunded)
And while waiting in your Fortress of Solitude for your books to arrive,
activate your Difference Machine and visit us at
http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/astounding-tales/
To learn the latest developments, and share your own adventures!
Astounding Tales!
97
Available From TVAG Publishing!

SCIENCE VERSUS PLUCK,
or TOO MUCH FOR THE MAHDI
The Sudan Campaigns 1881-99:
A Victorian Wargame
By Howard Whitehouse, Esq.
At last, after almost 20 years, the long
anticipated Second Edition of this classic
Wargame is ready to order from TVAGand it
has never looked better!
Professionally printed in two volumes, an
Umpires Manual and an Officers Manual, each
measuring 8.5 x 11, with full color covers and
spiral bound, SvP comes complete with 4 card stock Cheat Sheets and a page of full
color printed game markers.
But not only are the rules in the best physical form yet, so are the contents! With
many major and minor changes and improvements, SvP shows the benefit of years of play
testing and continuing development by the Author. Together, both volumes total over 150
pages of rules, tables, and period illustrations, with extensive historical background
information, timeline, and more.
The Umpires Manual contains the complete rules, plus Designers Notes explaining
The Gentle Art of Umpiring and with tips on Free Kriegspiel to make even new players
at home with the innovative procedures and something of the spirit of the game. There is
also an extensive example of play illustrating the Battle of Abu Klea, plus sections on
Uniform information for painters, and complete organizational data for all Mahdist forces
and their British/Egyptian opponents.
The Officers Manual contains only those portions of the actual rules that Players
will need to command, plus the actual writings by many of the famous Soldiers who fought
there giving their advice on how to Fight the Fuzzy-Wuzzy!
Science vs Pluck is available at choice Conventions from RLBPS, and directly from
TVAG in its Print Edition for $35.00, plus U.S. Domestic Postage of $7.00, $10.00 to
Canada and Mexico, and $14.00 for Overseas via Global Priority Mail. The rules are also
available as PDFs on CD for self-printing at $15.00, plus $6.00 Postage (Domestic), and
$8 (Overseas), or Postage free if requested by direct E-mail to the buyer.
Second Edition
98
Astounding Tales!
99
The perfect accessory for Pulp Gamingyour own city! Recently

redesigned and improved in many ways,
Mean Streets is still growing and will
soon fill an entire 8 x 5 table top without
a single repetition.
Designed for 28mm figures and
proper scale trucks and autos, there is
enough here to keep your Characters
jumping from one adventure to another indefinitely.
Each of the 17 current different Mean
Streets Sets is a 10 square, full color card stock model for self assembly which
combined with others will make a Full Block 47" long and 14" wide. The line is
complete with the eponymous Streets, Alleys, and Sidewalks in a wide variety of styles using photographic
textures. A collection of authentic period advertising,
recruiting, political, movie, burlesque, and other posters
and more, from 1920 to 1950 are also available.
Mean Streets may be bought in printed form at $15.00 to $20.00 each, with
accessory sets from $2.00 to $12.00. PDFs of all are available from $10.00 to as
little as $1.00 and sold on CD for self printing, or delivered by E-mail to save
postage. Special discounted Sets of Buildings, Streets,
Sidewalks and Alleys are available to create approximately
30 x 30 playing areas, just the ticket for an evenings Bank
robbery, Untouchables style Warehouse raid, or just a little
rub-out between friends.
For full details and many more photos, please visit the
Mean Streets pages at TVAG.
Second Edition
100
From the outside to the inside, Mean

Sets completes the 28mm environment for Pulp
Fiction gaming. Inexpensive but highly
practical room and building interiors for
Gangster/Detective, Horror, and Pulp roleplaying games from TVAG.
Each Mean Set is a full color, card
stock model for self assembly and is modeled
after the classic Hollywood movie "sets"-rooms without ceilings and one or more walls
so that figures may be easily moved and players
can actually see the action at eye-level!
Extra features include a mix of printed
rugs, tile and hardwood floors, period art, posters,
advertising, and self-assembly furniture. Fifteen
Sets include The Private Investigators (P.I.s)
Office, The Cheap Hotel, The Italian Restaurant,
The Garage, the Speakeasy/Bar, the P.I.s
Apartment, The Illegal Brewery, The Small Town
Bank, Night Club, Casino, Warehouse, Drug
Store/Barber Shop, The Old Farm House, and the Big Shots Entry Hall, as
well as a Set of build-it-yourself furniture in card stock.
Many more designs are in the works, from a sunken wrecked Freighter,
to a Haunted House, Egyptian Tomb, and even a Zeppelin!
Mean Sets may be bought in printed form at $12.00 to $18.00 each, or
as PDFs for just $10.00 each, no matter what size. Available on CD for self
printing, or delivered by E-mail, to save postage. For full details and many
more photos, please visit the Mean Streets pages at TVAG.
Astounding Tales!
ASTOUNDING TALES! 2nd Edition

Quick Reference Sheet
Decide sequence of play as The Director orders. Each figure gets two Actions per turn.
MOVEMENT:
Lose for crossing rough ground or major obstacles (detected by passing SMARTS).
Legs
Creeping 2 (opponents must
pass SMARTS to detect; modify for
darkness, etc.)
Walking 4 (can shoot)
Running 4 + 1 D6 (can shoot)
Wheels
Cruising: All vehicles can move 10 per Action, slower if necessary.
Corners and curves reduce speed by 1 D6.
Speeding: Move 5 D6, corners and curves slow it by the highest D6 of the
roll. Corners count as 2
Hazards, curves as 1.
Racing: Move 7 D6, corners and curves slow it by the two highest D6.
Corners count as 4 Hazards, curves as 2. )
HorsebackWalk 6, Trot 9 (lose 1 D6 on rough ground), Gallop-12 (not over rough ground)
FISTS (Man-To-Man Combat)
Match figures one-on-one. Attacker can add extra figures to outnumber an opponent where possible with up
to 4-1 odds.
Attacker strikes first, and rolls vs FISTS. If he succeeds, opponent rolls vs FISTS to parry (a roll of 5 or 6 is
always a hit). If attacker misses, opponent (not Supporting Cast) strikes back immediately. Supporting Cast are out
of the game if they fail their To parry FISTS roll. Supporting Cast fighting one another simply roll vs FISTS to hit
en mass, and roll saves vs FISTS en masse.
PASS=Dodge the blow. FAIL=Hit! Roll 1 D6 per success and check the appropriate table below.
Brawling Modifiers
+1 to FISTS for Brawling Weapons (brass knucks, ball bat, iron pipe, bottle, etc),
+1 to FISTS for anyone with a positional advantage, such as being higher up or behind a wall, etc.
D6 Roll
1, 2
3. 4
5
6
Brawling Table
Result
Effect
Ouch!
Youll pay for that, Buddy! (No real effect)
Knocked Down Lose 1 HITS, 1 FISTSGet up and fight next turn
Decked!
Down for all of next turn, get up the turn after. Lose 2 FISTS & 2 HITS
Knocked Cold! Lose 3 FISTS, 3 HITS, and wake up in Jail/Hospital/Alley next day.
Serious Business Modifiers

+1 to FISTS for long bladed weapons (fixed bayonets, swords, spears, etc) in first round against opponents
without them. If they survive, its an even fight after that.
+1 to FISTS for anyone with a positional advantage, such as being higher up or behind a wall, etc.
D6 Roll
1
2, 3
4, 5
Result
Scratched
Light Wound
Serious Wound
Critical Wound
(If you aint dead,
youre damned
lucky!)
Serious Business Table

Effect
Got a blood stain on your hand painted silk tie (no effect)
Lose 1 HITS and 1 FISTS
Lose 2 HITS, 2 FISTS, and 1 GATS
Lose 4 HITS, 3 FISTS, 2 GATS, & 2 GUTS. Move at 1/2 speed if you
have 2 HITS left, otherwise you are prone on the pavement. Again,
rolling more than your HITS score means you are killed or at least
badly hurt (If hes not in action, hes in traction).
WEAPONS DATA
WEAPON
RANGES
Short Long
WEAPONS DATA
# Of
Dice
Per
Shot
SPECIAL MODIFIERS
WEAPON
RANGES
Shor
t
Long
# Of
Dice
Per
Shot
SPECIAL MODIFIERS
Pistol
24
None
BAR*
12
48
-2 to GATS, -1 if on Bipod
Pistol (blazing way)
12
-2 to GATS at more than 3*
12
48
-3 to GATS (-1 if on Tripod)
Broom Handle
Mauser
12
Light Machine
Gun*
12
48
15
Shotgun
18
3 per
barrel
Heavy Machine
Gun*
-4 to GATS (no modifier on

Tripod)
Grenade
12
See Special Weapons Rules
Tommy Gun
24
Carbine
12
36
None
Bow
12
Arrows may be poisoned
Rifle
12
48
None
Javelin/Rock/etc
12
None
* Inaccurate, but scary. If you miss, but still roll equal to or less than your basic GATS, the target must react as if hit
but not woundedducking for cover, hitting the dirtand recovers next turn, missing one Action. Jams: Any Auto-
matic Weapon that scores more 6s than 1s and 2sin one burst Jams. Roll of 1-3 in the next turn
clears it. If twice as many 6s rolled as 1s and 2s, its Jammed for the rest of the Action.
SHOOTING: One shot per Action. Roll against MODIFIED GATS. If the D6 is less than or equal to the
modified GATS, theres a chance for a hit. If GATS falls to 0, roll for a 1, allowing another roll each vs original
Shooting Modifiers
Aimed Fire (took a full Action first) for single pistol, rifle, carbine, and bows ONLY
Firing while moving / long range / poor light / target in light cover or lying down
Firing while running / bad light / hard cover/ shooter drunk / running or flying target
1
2,3
4
5
6
Try Harder!
Near Miss!
Light Wound
Wound
Blam!
+1 to GATS
-1 to GATS
-2 to GATS
Lead Poisoning Table
Hes fine, likes to be shot at. Laughs in the teeth of danger.

No Effect. Take an action on his next turn to recover. Test GUTS.
Lose 1 HITS, 1 FISTS. Hit the deck. Recover on next action.
Lose 2 HITS, 2 FISTS, 1 GATS. Take a dive. Recover on next 2 actions.
Lose 4 HITS, 3 FISTS, 2 GATS, 2 GUTS. Move at 1/2 speed if you have 2 HITS
left, otherwise you are prone on the pavement.
Optional Powerful Target Rule: Roll 1 D6: 5,6=Automatic Kill.
Lead Poisoning Table Modifiers

Bows and small guns (.22s, etc), but natural rolls of 6 always count as listed
Aimed shot w/pistol, rifle, carbine or shotgun
Shotguns at short range, large calibre rifles, or heavy machine guns (etc) at any range
-1
+1
+2
GATS to confirm the hit. Below 0, no chance of a hit.

Pass
No Problem. Carry on.
Fail
Nervous: Cant move forward, drop back to any cover within 3. Deduct 2 from all
ratings until you Get a grip, Man. Maybe.
Terrified: Run screaming from the scene. Females may resort to fainting
Fail by 3+ points
GUTS: Test vs GUTS when wounded, when a friend is hit, when Director says so.
GET A GRIP!
Those that have failed a GUTS test can try to regain their manhood by testing vs GUTS 2. Takes one action.
PASS=Return to usual GUTS. One try only.
FAIL=You leave for good.
INTERRUPTS/DO OVER
Once per Scene at Directors discretion (may allow wait in ambush, etc).

Astounding Tales 2nd Ed

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Astounding Tales 2nd Ed

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Ivn de la Osa Navarro (order #6361768)

The Second Edition

SPICY HORROR STORIES and DIME MYSTERY MAGAZINE

By Howard Masked Avenger Whitehouse

Astounding Tales! Second Edition

Bar Stool Ramblings to the Second Edition

Bound And Gagged, Traps

An Introduction To The World of Pulp

Gaming The World of Pulp

SECTION III : Screaming Wheels

Emergency Braking Table, Swerving Table

Automobile Crash Table

SECTION IV : It Came From The Sky!,

Shooting Aboard An Airship Table

AircraftKnights Of The Air, Aircraft

SECTION I : So How Do Ya Play Astounding

Whatll I Need? Sets, Props, Cast, &

Making Up Characters Rolling Up Characters

Off The Rack

Shooting At Planes Table

Female Characters Good/Bad Girl

Rocketmen, Untrained Rocketman Table,

Comic Characters Skills List

Examples Of Character Creation

Setting Up The Game

The Opening Scene

Bullet Hits on Robots Table, Nazi Science

SECTION II : Camera! Action!

What There Are No Rules For, Ending a

Pounding Hooves Horseback Riding,

The End The Big Finale, Cheap Talk &

Special Weapons, Exotic Skills

SECTION VI : Sample Characters

SECTION VII : Scenarios,

2) Biggles Defies The Swastika

Wounds Lead Poisoning Table

Optional Wound Location Table,

SECTION VIII : Notes, Appendices, And

Fighting Styles Tables, BRAWLING TABLE

SERIOUS BUSINESS TABLE,

Alternative Pulp Ideas

Guts & Supporting Cast, Get a Grip!

A Word On GenreRead, Watch, Websites

Cut!The Do Over Rule,

Figures And Stuff

Frequently Asked Questions

Orders & Communication,

Barstool Ramblings For The Second Edition

The (Virtual) Armchair General

Astounding Tales! is all about characters. Well,

More often than not, you will be able to take a

Basic Character Costs By Type

3) Off The Rack

Required to make payoffs

Hell Cat or Nice Girl

3 Rolls on the Skills Table*

2 Rolls on the Skills Table*

1 Roll on the Skill Table*

* May choose (instead of roll) SKILLS for an additional $25 each.

Double barrelled Shotgun

EXAMPLE: Bobs Gang start with a $1000 budget.

Cost Fists Gats Guts Stunts Smarts Hits

He buys an accountant Off the Rack

Cost Fists Gats Guts Stunts Smarts Hits