Pulp Alley: Return to the Island of the Crocodile God (Warning! Pic Heavy!)

[warrenpeace]

I apologize in advance for the number of pics in the next 3 posts. I understand that the usual posting method these days is to post one or two images in a post, followed by a link to a blog. But I don't have a blog yet, and want to share this. Also, please forgive me for not spelling German and French words correctly, particularly for not using the appropriate marks and accents. So here goes...

Last year I tried a massive Pulp Alley scenario called Island of the Crocodile God with 8 players. That was too much. I cut it down to 5 players, with 4 players handling small scientific teams of 4 characters (1 leader, 2 sidekicks, 1 ally) and one player handling "The Island," which consisted of a mastermind group (of mostly native gangs and some animals) and a Terror group. The Terror transferred 3 slots to the mastermind group, and the Terror itself didn't come on until later in the game.

The scenario was run twice at Enfilade, the annual historical miniature convention for the Pacific Northwest in Olympia, Washington, USA, the last weekend in May. Terrain, except for the mats and 5 acquarium pieces, was built by my friend Jeff. I painted 6 of the figures, and Jeff painted the rest. The game was run with a deck of 86 fortune cards, which had to be reshuffled once. The scenario was run again at home last Sunday for our core group of 6, partly because I didn't have time to take photos at the convention. The scenario was not time limited, and I controlled the appearance of the major plot point, the arrival of the Terror, and the cliffhanger ending as GM.

Here's how it looked:

View from the north:


View from the west (the pots under the crocodile jaws are plot points):


View from the south (the piles of skulls are plot points):


View from the east:


View from the British start position:


View from the German start position:


SMUG - Southern Methodist Universities Geographic, aka "the American team"
Left to right: T-Bone Pickens, Professor Howell Cobb, Sixgun Sally Ford (leader), Old Nate (ally)


SAND - Societe Archaeologique de Notre Dame, aka "the French team"
Left to right: Professor L'Heureux, Amelie Vinh Hoa (leader), Capitaine Laforce, Rene (ally)


BATS - British Archaeology and Tea Society, aka "the British team"
Left to right: Grenadier Singh, Beanie Malone (leader), Professor Summerleigh, Old Winston (ally)


GERM - Gesselshaft fur Erdkunde und Reichs Museum, aka "the German team"
Left to right: Elke von Pottsdorf, Feldwebel Steiner (ally), Erwin von Pottsdorf (leader), Professor Rudolf


On the morning before Enfilade our group went out to the Olympia farmers market. There was an attractive young woman there with a booth advertising that she would write poems for a reasonable fee. I figured that I should support the arts. So I commissioned a poem. I told her about the game, and especially about the exploits of the British bulldog Winston the previous year. Here's what she came up with:

 Set in Saturnian jungles,
the players dance
 at the reptile party

 Bats fly from dark caves,
the temple looms
 at the mountain top.

 An island ruled
by the crocodile god,
 giant of ancient
origin, the keeper
 of the gates
  to freedom.

Conquer the divine,
 the tenuous bridge
of rope; as a bull-dog,
 unafraid, takes hold
  of the game.

-M. Seven Bremner
Olympia, WA May 2017

[warrenpeace]

There was 1 gang of 5 crocodiles at the ford, and 7 gangs of 5 natives each, all dangerous brutes. The natives and animals could not shoot. No more than 2 gangs could attempt to ambush each team. The sidekick leading the natives (mastermind type league) could reform 1 gang of natives for each 3 gangs removed by rolling a success with might, placing the reformed gang within 6 inches of the leader's hidden position. He could do this only twice during the game. There were two ally level animals, a leopard hiding at the crocodile head, and a big python hiding on the southern rock outcrop over the two piles of skulls.

The mastermind group started with the initiative and had "higher purpose," so did not lose the initiative until one of the scientific teams achieved one of the 7 minor plot points. The sequence was: The Island player declared an ambush, the gang rolled its 1d6 against the character's cunning, and invariably lost, and then the character rolled one cunning die to see how many inches away the ambush was spotted, which determined whether or not the character could respond to the rush by shooting. (We have a background in colonial wargames, and this was designed to have a colonial feel to it.)

The ford, log bridge, and rope bridges were perilous areas.

Here's how it looked:

A gang of natives breaks cover to rush the lagging Professor Summerleigh:


They reach him, and the situation looks bad:


Then other members of the team, here Grenadier Singh, rush in to help fight off the natives (this fight ultimately put Old Winston down and out, a result quite different from Winston's performance as a sidekick in the earlier expedition before the Great War):


The Germans had the unique experience of having to fight their way across the river against a gang of crocodiles:


The Americans had a comparatively easy time crossing the slippery log bridge:


But the French had to fight their way across a rope bridge:


A gang of natives tried to chase Grenadier Singh onto the other rope bridge, but were tripped up by a peril and slipped and fell into the river (the hits took the gang down to two figures, which causes the gang to be removed):


The first 4 minor plot points were mostly scooped up by the leaders of the respective teams (Professor Rudolf grabbed the 1st one for the Germans), and they needed a bit of skill to climb the cliffs. These activities triggered ambush attempts by the animals. Sixgun Sally Ford sensed the ambush of the leopard in time to avoid those massive teeth and claws:


Meanwhile, her sister leader, hardened jungle fighter Amelie Vinh Hoa, was successfully ambushed by the high finesse of the big python (results in unopposed attack). Unfortunately for the snake, Amelie shrugged off the hits:


The native gang that put French ally Rene down and out, continued on by rushing the British leader Beanie Malone. This helped delay the British. They barely came down from the high rocks for the rest of the game, being content to snipe and lob grenades at the French until they were able later to snag a plot point from the down and out Professor L'Heureux. Things look tough here for Beanie:


So ended the first phase of the game.

[warrenpeace]

With the initial 4 minor plot points taken, the French and Americans went after the remaining 3 minor plot points in the two central temples and on the pointed rock topped by skulls. Sixgun Sally Ford grabbed one from the four-faced temple, but had an extremely perilous area created by fortune card where she had enterred. Then Professor Howell Cobb used his might to top the rocky peak and solve the mystery in that pile of skulls:


Achieving the 6th minor plot point caused the water in the pond to start draining out. First 2 baby giant crocodiles emerged from the dropping pond water and ran away squeaking and squealing:


As the water level dropped, a giant translucent blue sphere appeared, resting on a jade colored rock that had two faces carved in the sides. While her big brother and Professor Rudolf were tangling with the native chief, Elke von Pottsdorf was the first to leap onto the slippery faces of jade and begin to study the mysterious blue sphere:


T-Bone Pickens and Professor Rudolf jumped onto the rock to help solve the major plot point. Ultimately the Germans and Americans would share the information. Unfortunately, the squeaks and squeals of the baby giant crocodiles had attracted the attention of mama. With a roar a gigantic crocodile came rushing onto the scene from the direction of the ford:


It was Elke's real baptism of fire that she was the last to solve her bit of the major plot point, so she was still on the rock to face the wrath of the giant crocodile:


Old Nate, Rene, and Old Winston had all been knocked down and out. The only ally still in action was Feldwebel Steiner. He had been knocked down 6 times, and had recovered 6 times! But when he rushed the giant crocodile to save Elke, he was knocked down for the 7th time. And this time he disappeared into the muck at the bottom of the pond:


Badly wounded Erwin von Pottsdorf finally managed to recover and back away from the formidable native chief. His sister Elke at last was able to dodge away from the giant crocodile. With her back against the rock, she thought she was a goner when the terrifying giant again moved in her direction. Inexplicably, the monster rushed past her, heading up onto the temple clearing. While the baby giant crocodiles dived back into the pond after the remains of Fedwebel Steiner, the chief didn't like his odds facing both of the well armed von Pottsdorfs, and he prepared to dash back into the jungle:


The French were already starting to decamp, seizing a discovered native canoe, after having lost Professor L'Heureux to one of Singh's grenades. The British picked up the last minor plot point from the down and out Professor L'Heureux. Amelie and Capitaine Laforce were in such a hurry that they didn't notice that the Pofessor wasn't with them, and they were too busy fighting off another canoe load of natives to check for him:


Amelie and Capitaine Laforce beat the last native gang and shoved the other canoe into the opposite bank. As they made their escape downriver, they learned to their horror that Professor L'Heureux was not with them. Amelie was heartbroken, but it was impossible to turn the heavy log canoe around:


The British also decided that prudence was the better part of valor, and they scrambled for the rope bridge, hoping to reach the native canoe that the French had shoved into the opposite bank:


Meanwhile, Professor Rudolf, Professor Howell Cobb, Sixgun Sally Ford, and T-Bone Pickens all piled into native canoes discovered along the west branch of the river. Little did they know, but those two small palm trees on the south side of the four-faced temple would be their salvation:


The gigantic crocodile charged the two canoes, and in the process smashed the two small palm trees into flying splinters. This absorbed enough of the crocodile's energy that it cost 3 inches of movement, hanging the huge beast up on the bank, with its snapping jaws in the line of fire of four well armed and desperate characters:


This seemed to be a suitable cliffhanger ending to me as GM. So per my call, the resulting sensation of gunfire confused the monstrous beast enough to cause it to turn away, thus ending the scenario, and allowing the scientists to escape with the knowledge of the "Faces of Jade" and the "Eye of Zheng He." They have also learned that there is another copy of this wonder somewhere in the north of Indochina or the southwest of China.

The French had one reward card, but were missing their Professor. Perhaps the von Pottsdorfs will find him and rescue him during their own escape from the Island. The dastardly British had two reward cards. The Germans had three. The Americans had five, but two were Red Herrings, so they really ended in a tie with the Americans. Elke von Pottsdorf, having fought the giant crocodile and survived, will next appear as the leader of her own league.

[soldado]

Fantastic, that looks like loads of fun.

Lovely terrain and figures, wish I had space for such a set up.

great writeup too

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Really lovely looking game, Pulp gaming at it's best!   

[marianas_gamer]

Great board   :-*Fun sounding game. I would love to have played. Nice work!!
LB

[Sterling Moose]

Excellent AAR and stunning layout.  I have the rules, really must get round to a game sometime.

[whomever1]

Outstanding! I hope you kept track of that poet, because your write-up needs to be redone in iambic pentameter.

[DavyJones]

Great table and figures. Really enjoyed reading the AAR. 

[Traveler Man]

Outstanding is the word!  Great terrain set-up and a cracking good story worthy of poetry.

[pistolpete]

Fantastic AAR, loved reading it.  Really captures the game action with lots of pulp feel.  Your terrain is inspiring me to get back to work on mine.  Looking forward to reading the next one.  Only 1 question - why 2 sidekicks but 0 followers?  Seems like 1 sidekick, 2 followers is more typical.

[Elk101]

Cracking set up. I particularly liked the river crossings. Are the bridges made from place mats?

[warrenpeace]

I felt that Allies and Followers wouldn't last long, and couldn't really carry the action. I thought they would have been more vulnerable to the native gangs, and would have been little help in solving the plot points (they don't do well with perils) or fighting the giant crocodile. I wanted leaders and sidekicks to be left at the end to try a big group fight against the giant crocodile. As it was, all 4 of the allies in the game were down and out by the end, and 3 of them had been lost very quickly against the native gangs.

Since this was an intro game, and I wanted all the players to have characters that lasted a bit longer, I used the "Company of Heroes" league perk for all the scientific teams. The first time I ran the larger 8 player game on this table I had six characters per player. That was way too much. With a multi-player game, it seems advisable to reduce the number of players to 4 or 5, and reduce the number of characters each player controls to 2 or 3 or 4.

And, to keep the players in the game, I think it helps to make the characters a little tougher. In last year's big game there was a giant cobra and a giant python, both Terrors. Needed power to fight them. In future games I'm going to play around with the Duo, Company of Heroes, and the perk that allows 4 sidekicks (forgot the name). We usually have a lot of players here, so I can't make each league too big.

Another Pulp Alley game at Enfilade used a different approach. There were 6 players, but each player controlled only a sidekick and two allies, basically half strength leagues. That game played pretty well, but my two allies were knocked out quickly by perils, leaving me to play the rest of the game with just a sidekick.

The rope bridges were made from strips of bamboo sushi mat, chopsticks, and string.

[Duke Donald]

Great terrain and report!

[northtroll]

Looked like a fun game! Wish i could have gotten into at Enfilade. Lovely set up!