I set up a board for the next Pulp Alley: China Station scenario, a vehicle chase through village streets, so made it more fun by adding innocent bystanders! Usually I don’t put NPCs on the board unless they’re plot points or related to the story but streets are more interesting when they’re full of life and since only the vehicles count, they’re technically just more “impassable terrain” to avoid hitting. This led to making a few little “vignettes” that hopefully give you ideas for your own board creation. This board represents a fictional Japanese tropical island between the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa) and the Amami Islands in Showa 7 (1932).
A peasant girl starts her morning with prayers at the local shrine; the miniature is clapping which is appropriate as clapping twice is part of the Shinto shrine ritual.
A beggar beside the shrine is enjoying a breakfast fit for the dead. It’s common practice to leave food and drink on family graves for the deceased, and it’s not uncommon for people to steal the unattended morsels. Shigeru Mizuki, the mangaka famous for his yokai monster stories, admitted to swiping food from the cemetery as a kid.
A country girl carrying her hopes, dreams and toiletries in a sack on her back walks through the village looking for work. If she’s lucky someone will need an extra hand doing the washing or serving meals; if she’s very lucky someone needs a full-time maid as was common at the time. Its 1932, she’s completed the compulsory four years of education, can’t afford a higher education, and so has been working since before puberty.
A street over, a mother chides her lazy daughter for oversleeping again. What’s the point to sending her to a middle school if she can’t bother to show up? How will she ever find a decent husband? Her cousin’s already married so she’ll have to look elsewhere! (Marrying within the family was still very common in the early 20th century and is still socially acceptable today)
A housewife lets her rambunctious dog out to get some exercise before she starts the day’s chores.
The okami, landlady, of an inn sees off a guest heading to work. Like most ryokans, she prides herself on feeding guests over-sized feasts for dinner and breakfast. Weighed down by the sin of gluttony, it’s going to be a long walk for to town for him…
A few familiar faces get a quick meal at a yatai stall run by the still drunk cook from two scenarios ago.
Some more cameos from beloved Pulp Alley heroes.
The longshoreman showed up for the working party but where is everyone else? He’s not moving these crates on his own and he’s not pulling the cart!
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May 20, 2025, 01:35:12 AM
April 23, 2009, 02:11:02 PM