Starting with Pulp Alley

[6mmfan]

I've been reading up on Pulp Alley and I am looking for advice on where to get started. I want to get the rules, cards and one of the scenario books to begin with. I'm mostly going to be playing solo so I'll pick up the solo deck as well.

Looking through my collection of 28mm, I have some stuff which I think will cross over and I'm mostly short on figures

- Wild West figures (Chinese, Mexicans, cowboys) along with a Mexican town
- Darkest Africa/East Africa with Big game hunters, German Colonial and various Natives and Arab slavers.
- Lots of jungle and a native village
- Fantasy skirmish figures and a 3D dungeon (Catacombs)
- lots of other fantasy bits including a mine railway, ruins, stone circles and other bits I've forgotten about.
- sci-fi trader town and various miners, mutants, cops marines

I'm lacking a lot of 20th century buildings in 28mm so I mostly want to stick to what i have initially, but I find making terrain one of the most enjoyable aspects of the hobby so who knows!

Do the scenario books have certain scenery and figure themes? I'm guessing they do, so could someone let me know what these are? Any suggestions of where to start?

[joroas]

Great start.  The scenarios are usually written on a theme, but that doesn't matter. Reset them in any period you want with your figures and scenery. As you're playing solo you don't have to worry what others might think. The game is the game no matter it's setting!

[joroas]

Take a look here for some ideas.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2389082191325448
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1020118438031771

[Henry Lauder]

I've played mostly solo Pulp Alley for years - it's my go-to game these days. So easily adaptable to any setting - I play all sorts of settings including Old West, Australian Bushrangers, Post Apocalyptic, sci-fi and your classic 30s adventures (be it in Africa, South American jungles, foggy London docks) - whatever! It sounds like you are well set to get going with creating some interesting leagues. Just make sure to get yourself the Solo Deck - and maybe it's expansion. Playing the solo rules gives a really good game - with loads of twists and turns. Well worth the investment.

If you are into making cards most are available through PDF but the decks Dave sells are very nice and very reasonably priced. As Joroas says, the scenarios are themed - but easily reimagined in another time or place to the original setting - although the rules include a number of basic scenarios that can be adapted to any setting. Looking forward to hearing how you go!

[joroas]

Chris Abbey at Sally4th has a number of free character cards and a new book is forthcoming if you want some pre-made leagues.

https://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/epages/950003459.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/950003459/Categories/Pulp_Alley_Gaming_Accessories/Pulp_Alley__Free_Character_Cards

[6mmfan]

Great info everyone. I've done the whole printing my own cards for other games and I've found that its not worthwhile. After paying for printing and laminating/sleeves it is almost as expensive and a pain the ar*e.

I'm also after info on the 3 scenario books and what they contain eg settings, figures and scenery, if anyone has them?

Perilous Island
Tomb of the Serpent
The Lost World of Lemuria

[joroas]

Dave Phipps is very hands-on with this game, his Facebook site is littered with scenarios and videos. worth a watch, he also replies to posts on there.

Perilous Island is a Victorian Land That Time Forgot, Gwangi adventure.
Tomb of the Serpent is an Egyptian Mummy adventure
The Lost World is a kind of Fantasy/SciFi adventure

All of these could be relocated anywhere with your available figures and scenery. A bank robbery is the same from Robin Hood to Al Capone. A prison break is as easy to set in Egypt as in China. A getaway vehicle can be a stage coach or a jet aircraft. Think outside the box.

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=54250.0

[Dangerboy]

I'm also after info on the 3 scenario books and what they contain eg settings, figures and scenery, if anyone has them?

Perilous Island
Tomb of the Serpent
The Lost World of Lemuria

Perilous Island and Tomb of the Serpent are each divided into three chapters, with the action moving closer to the final setting as the campaigns advance. The early chapters have a variety of globetrotting settings: a Mexican desert camp, an Indonesian port city, an airfield in Casablanca, a Texas carnival, a forest in the Netherlands, etc. The locations don't matter as much as the components for the plot points, such as having a plane as the major plot point for the characters to escape on in the Final Flight scenario. Not at all a comprehensive list, but I would start with a variety of tents and camp scatter, a good supply of crates and boxes, enough buildings for an outpost or small village, desert scatter, and some forest or jungle scatter terrain. And of course, a plane. You will eventually need other elements, but those can come later.

The Lost World of Lemuria, on the other hand, takes place entirely on the island of Lemuria. The setting strongly reminded me of the 1961 movie Atlantis, the Lost Continent, with a mix of Greco-Roman and Victorian sci-fi. If you've never seen it, you can take a quick look at the trailer:



You can get away with mostly forest or jungle scatter, though there is an arena battle and a festival in a village, plaza or castle setting. You'll also need machinery, especially pipes, tanks and the like.

There are a few pieces of terrain you may need to come up with, like a giant wall or a haunted mansion, but looking at your list it seems you have enough terrain (or at least something you can adapt) to jump into any of the three campaigns. Hope that helps!

[blacksoilbill]

I've found the Pulp Alley Youtube channel useful for terrain ideas.

I've waiting for the China Station Kickstarter, but I've already started working on terrain. (Jungle Rescue is the first of the China Station scenarios.

I'd agree with everyone else though, you can use your own terrain and figures for whichever setting your running. Sometimes you need to think how a big set piece will translate into your particular setting.

[joroas]

Because Dave only produces one game the support he provides is second-to-none. There is masses of stuff he has produced on his site!

[NickNascati]

I play mostly solo as well.  I’ve found that the Vice Alley and Tomb of the Serpent campaign books are the easiest ones to re-skin for different eras.

[6mmfan]

Thanks for the information so far. There is a truckload of pulp ally youtube videos for me to watch now.

I've already started converting Frostgrave cultists and adding guns and ammo pouches. I dont have a plan yet but I figure you can't go wrong with cultists in a Pulp setting!

Cheers
Kieran

[joroas]

Absolutely!

[Idle Doodler]

I'll echo everyone else and hail the flexibility of Pulp Alley. It actively encourages you to frame the abstract character abilities as whatever you want them to represent.

Perilous Island actively lists and provides suggestions for reworking the 1930s campaign into space opera, old west, victorian sci-fi, pirates & swashbuckling or spy-fi tales.

From experience, the Tomb of the Serpent book works particularly well translated to a fantasy setting. Here's a solo game I played using one of the adventures, reskinning a haunted mansion as a dungeon.

[warrenpeace]

Wild West, Darkest Africa, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi, are all great settings for Pulp. You already have terrain and figures, so just make up the character ratings and abilities and away you go.

I borrow figures from a friend sometimes. He has collections for samurai, ninja, & peasants, with plenty of terrain and peasant huts, so I ran a couple of Pulp Alley scenarios based on his figures and terrain. I'll be running another one with a big pagoda and some bamboo groves. I'm hoping to borrow his Dark Ages and ancient Greek figures for Pulp Alley games too. My own painted stuff is mostly for early 20th Century.

Basically any person or object or archane knowlege that anyone would search for can be the focal point of scenarios or campaigns.