Pulp Alley at RECRUITs

[BaronVonJ]

Pics were taking moments before I yelled "get your drinks off the table!".

[pauld]

Whoa - that is a really good table

minis are great too

it must be fantastic playing on scenery like that

[War In 15MM]

A really great board.  Beautiful stuff.  I really liked the rocket pack on the ground; at first glance I thought it was diver's gear.  Very nice.  Please tell me how it was done.  Thank you.  Richard

[BaronVonJ]

Just an old GW space marine jetpack out of the bits box. Metal washer, cork "rock" & jetpack. Nothing to it.

[Ssendam]

Looks amazing ...

So an 8 player game with 5 or so figures on each side?

How long did it take to play?

Did you alter any of the standard rules to make it work better? I can't get my head around moving one figure from your force at a time with a game that big, it sounds a bit disjointed?

Did you have any encounters (monsters/wild animals) and if so, how did they fit into the rounds/activation?

(I'm looking at a 4 player game which is as much versus the environment as each other and trying to figure out how it will work)

[marianas_gamer]

Great looking game and encouraging to see all the younger gamers. It reminds me of the encouragement I got from older gamers when I was a young punk in the 70s who had read a couple of Featherstone books and was intrigued. 40 years later.... hope that happens with them too.
LB

[War In 15MM]

Excellent job.  Thank you.  Richard

[d phipps]

So an 8 player game with 5 or so figures on each side? How long did it take to play?

I got to see several turns on Friday, and I think that was the 7-player game. Just guessing, but I think they probably played for about 4 hours.

Did you alter any of the standard rules to make it work better? I can't get my head around moving one figure from your force at a time with a game that big, it sounds a bit disjointed?

As far as I could tell, it was straight Pulp Alley mechanics. I think there were a few factors that really held it together --
1. The Pulp Alley mechaincs are designed to play fast, so they didn't get bogged down.
2. The player with Initiative (whoever it happened to be at the moment) really helps to keep the game moving by almost acting as a mini-GM.
3. Most importantly, Jaye is a seasoned veteran of BIG table games and plays with 6-8 players on an almost weekly basis. The extra work he did before the game, laying out the backgrounds and goals for each league, really helped hold everything together.

Did you have any encounters (monsters/wild animals) and if so, how did they fit into the rounds/activation?

This sort of stuff easily fits into the turn sequence as Perils, either from the Fortune Cards or pre-planned -- which is how he handled the big monster on top of the mountain.

I'm looking at a 4 player game which is as much versus the environment as each other and trying to figure out how it will work.

The peril and plot point mechanics in Pulp Alley are intended to cover environmental dangers and encounters. Please let us know if you have any other questions.




Dave
Pulp Alley

[BaronVonJ]

Friday was 7 players, Saturday 8. All were done in the 3 hour allotment by players who had never played the game, and few who had never wargamed. A testament to how great the rules are.
RECRUITs is special kind of con. As the name suggests, it is geared toward bringing new (younger) players into the hobby.
-J

[Ssendam]

Thanks for the response.

I'm not sure how the perils are used in place of an encounter ... I see how they work, but some locations will have a creature and the idea is that Combat will ensue rather than a test.

[BaronVonJ]

You can model it however you want to suit your taste. You want it more to be a major encounter that the characters must fight? Give the creature stats. Want it just to be a peril (pit of snakes) do it that way.

[Ssendam]

If it's an encounter then i guess i just play it as another player controlled by me? For initiative then every player will nominate the creature "faction" to go first? I guess that's not a bad thing; I need to play test a bit.

[d phipps]

If it's an encounter then i guess i just play it as another player controlled by me? For initiative then every player will nominate the creature "faction" to go first? I guess that's not a bad thing; I need to play test a bit.

In our upcoming Perilous Island campaign book, we handle encounters both ways -- just depending on the scenario/situation.

Resolving an encounter as a peril works really nice for quick and/or less-violent stuff. For example, maybe you have a character encounter a bouncer as he tries to make his way back-stage at a nightclub.

And in one of the Perilous Island scenarios, involving living-dead, some encounters start out as perils -- and if the challenge is failed, then a model is placed on the table.


Ssendam, your idea of running the encounters as a GM controlled 'league' also works very well. FYI --- in non-GM'd games, we usually activate the non-league characters at the end of Action Sequence, after all other characters have activated.



There are lots of ways to do this and none of them are wrong. Its just a matter of picking what works best for your players and the scenario at hand.



HAVE FUN

[syrinx0]

Looks like a really fun game. The additional pictures on the Baron's blog for the Pulp Alley leagues are fantastic. So for that matter are the other campaigns.

Will the upcoming campaign book include the set up (leagues and plot points) that the Baron ran? That looks like it would make a great introduction to the game.  I just received my copy in the mail, so I am still working my way through what is included.

Thanks,
Tom

[BaronVonJ]

I'm not affiliated with the game. Just ran one.
-J