If anyone from Atlas Games wants to step in here and correct me, I will be most happy.

This morning, I had an interesting conversation with a mate of mine, Kevin Anderson, and he suggested that we (and by that I mean everyone interested) start a net project wherein we create our own.

I am more than happy to host anything we come up with on the Genocide Lounge, of course, with full credit to authors. With that in mind here are a few ideas of my own to get the discussion started.

Pulp Definitions

By Pulp I mean the time period between 1933 and 1939. Two –fisted action where square jawed heroes (and plucky heroines) combat the rising Nazi (and Nippon) menace. But that is not all; secret societies, a hollow world, dinosaur inhabited lost plateaus, criminal masterminds, even dread Cthulhu all await either discovery or defeat during this time.

If anyone takes exception to this definition, please feel free to argue the case.

The Nazi Menace

There have been a few explanations behind the Nazis rise to power in Secret War terms, here are the ones that I remember:

The Architects of the Flesh: The Nazis were puppets of the Buro or maybe even the Purifiers.

Civil War within the Ascended: personally, I am not sure about this. Such a civil war would fester beneath the surface for decades, even centuries. I doubt that it would ever erupt into a World War. Having said that it is certainly possible given the right explanation.

Ancient Egyptians: Kevin suggested that maybe the God Kings of Ancient Egypt have awoken and are making there bid for world domination once again, acting through their fascist puppets. This also opens the possibilities of alien conspiracies and other fun stuff.

Demons!: Maybe a new faction takes control of the Nazis. My personal favorite for such a group would be the demons. They are very much the tools of the Secret War, used and abused by all. It would be nice to give them a “voice” within the war. This would certainly explain the often-reported Nazi fascination with ancient relics. Maybe they were collecting bound demons.

Other Weirdness

The Netherworld: This is obviously the Pellucidar or the Hollow World. Maybe the portals open into a hard to reach area of the Netherworld that is inhabited by mysterious “mole men” and other strange beasties. Whatever the situation you can be pretty certain that the Nazi Thule Sorcerers will make great use of the strange properties of this new world.

Lost Worlds: This juncture seems to be littered with undiscovered cities inhabited by strange albino apes, lost civilizations and dinosaur-haunted plateaus seem. I have two explanations for this.

This Juncture has the strange ability to be shaped like the Netherworld; this can be done either consciously or unconsciously. If an explorer is absolutely certain that he will discover a lost city then he has a better than even odds of doing so.

Kevin suggested that portals exist all over the juncture that allow individuals to travel directly back in time to another prehistoric juncture, maybe even to another dimension. The explorer believes that he has discovered a lost city inhabited by peaceful folk who might have discovered the secret of eternal youth deep in the South American jungles, but he has in fact traveled through a portal that allows him to the visit the city that existed on that site a thousand years previously.

Anyway, that is enough from me for now, I think. Is anyone else interested in collaborating in this project? To begin with I think we should collect as much homebrew material as possible as well as deciding what official material is suitable for the juncture. Once we have sorted that out we can start thinking about creating other stuff such as Juncture specific shticks, archetypes and tech.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers
Dave

The Genocide Lounge, Home of the Feng Shui FAQ, Sundered Sky, The Rune
Encounter Exchange and much more
http://www.genocidelounge.com
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"Demons!: Maybe a new faction takes control of the Nazis."

This gets my vote- although with a slightly different take on it. The Nazis were obsessed with the occult- historically they even sent archaeologists looking for a race of aryan giants from which the Teutons were supposed to be descended. Let their interest in the occult flower into demonology. Rather than being controlled by demons, they are another faction attempting to use them for their own ends. This was also a time of medical advances- so let the Nazis attempt to graft demon organs onto humans. Instead of abominations you have wild-eyed madmen with demon claws. The collection of 'subjects' for these experiments can be a good hook. Even the top-ranking Nazis can be in on the act. Add a dash of conspiracy- Hitler really died in an accident but the Nazi high command now have an immortal Demon-Hitler to act as a figurehead.

"Other Weirdness"

All good.

"Lost Worlds: This juncture seems to be littered with undiscovered cities inhabited by strange albino apes, lost civilizations and dinosaur-haunted plateaus seem. I have two explanations for this."

I have another- most journeys of discovery in films like this have a tunnel somewhere- so the exlorers either find a short stretch of Netherworld connecting two junctures and disconnected from the rest of the Netherworld, or stumble into an 'island' of Netherworld away from the rest.

"To begin with I think we should collect as much homebrew material as possible as well as deciding what official material is suitable for the juncture."

Go for it. Anything at my site http://clik.to/chthonic is fair game. It badly needs updating.

"other stuff such as Juncture specific shticks"

Demonology! Bind demons into your very flesh! Pick up Creature Powers at the expense of Derangement!

"archetypes"

We already have Indy... How about Biggles?

"tech"

Jules Vernean rockets anyone?

Sounds like good stuff to me!

"Go for it. Anything at my site http://clik.to/chthonic is fair game. It badly needs updating."

Cheers, I'll be pillaging it all shortly.

"Demonology! Bind demons into your very flesh! Pick up Creature Powers at the expense of Derangement!"

Great!

"How about Biggles?"

The Velocity Addict from Golden Comeback?

The Velocity Addict from Golden Comeback?>

Could work. Although the Addict is more anarchic. Maybe a Gentleman archetype? Broad skills base, specialises in one combat skill or intrusion or driving. Perhaps Cowardice http://chthonic.150m.com/feng/schticks.htm as a unique schtick?

IMO Atlas needs to stop it with the $$$ few and far between hardcover releases and do more cheaper MORE OFTEN softcover releases.  

I am hearing FS mentioned more and more often lately, I think the rise in Asian action films lately (or asian-like ie Kill Bill) is really generating interest, but every one I know is skipping the hardcover mainbook and buying the softcover ones off ebay (there is almost always some up) for like 1/3rd of the price.

If they want to actually generate some cash on this game we need 2-3 releases a year.

They should also bring something out for late August, early September to tie in with the American release of Hero.  ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299977/ )

This movie is gunna be big like crouching tiger.

Actually, I have something of a reply to myself.

Feng Shui came out in 1996, why don't you Atlas guys put out an "update book" since its 2004 and move the secret war ahead to 2064, 2004,1858, 77 weave crazy secret war fiction with current events (handover!) and any historical stuff that happened in those 8 years into the 'meta-plot' maybe change the dynamic a bit.  Then you could go ahead and change faction strengths, alliances, add new factions, open a new juncture.  Then just blast away with Fu Paths, Weapons Schticks Archtypes etc.... you know the drill.

Can you guys add stuff from the CCG still? Cause I recommend that. :)

One of my faults as a professional is that I get defensive and agitated when folks tell me to do things I'm already doing. This is a fault of mine, and not something you all should stop doing. :-)

Please note that Iron & Silk, Friends of the Dragon, and Blowing Up Hong Kong are all softcovers released within a year of each other. Right now, the FS schedule is plotted to release 4 books a year -- it's a cheaper, faster release schedule that's been in the works since last year.

Blowing Up Hong Kong is set in the current year (2004) with notes for 1996.

We aim to please.

I like to think one of the reasons Feng Shui is being talked about a bit is because we've adopted a regular production schedule (or something like it), after a couple years of erratic releases.

Though I'm crazy excited to see "Hero," myself, the FS release schedule is plotted out too far in advance to take advantage of Hollywood's release schedule, most of the time.

word,
Will
Atlas

// Psst if your in my Feng Shui game in Ann Arbor dont read further this includes spoilers to what I got planned -BC

My gamers are encountering Nazis, and I set it up more along the lines of Them versus the nazis. Since because the players have been Very successful in their endeavers so far they havnt really had a chance to stop the one thing I always and every one can agree to hate: Nazis.

Pretty much I rigged it up where i dropped subtle hints to the existance of another faction but no one investigated it, now that I am ending a chapter in my game with a critical shift (Nazis take over Contemporary, well modified a bit since the players have been furthering the feng shui sites in Japan , HK, and West Coast) I got the Nazis taking over half a juncture, Ascended are pretty much kicked out and rumors of another juncture gate opeing up.

I been a fan of the old Captain america stuff and boy, the party going to have an interesting time. Also when I asked if the nazi theme was ok or not with the players (a few are jewish) they said in Unison: YEAH KILL ALL THE NAZIS!

So pretty much I am planning to Suck them into the 1930's but not have them find their way out for a while.

We shall see how it goes.

I love pulp, and have some things of my own collected/created both for use in FS proper and for some vaguely defined idea I have of using FS rules in a pure pulp setting. In the canon junctures, I'll be bringing in Nazis (and Neo-Nazis) through a plot arc involving secret, long-abandoned superbases in Germany, where the Neo's and the PC's race to find them all, the Neo's planning to use what they find to start the 4th (or 5th, 6th, they're never to bright) Reich. There will be occult items, superweapons, and good old fashioned Tigers and Me-262's stashed away in the bases (which more or less existed in real life, and in even more grandiose style in legend). Then to tie things in with the old guard, eventually the secret Nazi retreat in Antarctica will be learned of, and there'll be a sub race to get there between the PC's and Neo's. If things go according to plan.

In this light, I have started rating WWII era weapons in FS terms, I can provide that once I work it up in an electronic version. Some stuff still needs to be quantified, but I have most guns done.

My only difference would be in my timeline for pulp, I'd call in anything 1920-1945 (although of course the juncture itself needn't last that whole range). That's pretty minor though.

At one point I was working on a secret history of the world according to FS paradigms. It was before SotW, so that wasn't included in my original thinking, but it didn't differ too much in how I perceived the real history of the world through a secret war filter. I had to think a bit before I could come up with the background story to explain the first half of the 20th century, but basically the Ascended lost control for a while, and when they were distracted in one direction, a new group of sorceror-types (more wannabes than real sorcerors though), akin to the Lotus, arose in Germany. I don't think this differs too much from your demonology explanation of their rise. I explained the pulp/WWII-era Japanese as twisted equivalents to the Hand.

Anyway, look forward to this.

Chris

Also, 'The Night Mayor' by Kim Newman. The dream-world where most of the book takes place is pure noir, which may be a little late for the juncture we are talking about, but is rife with tommy-guns, gumshoe detectives chasing (possibly supernatural) crime bosses, etc.

The pulp age is a great idea, rich with material. I'll happily contribute anything i come up with - luckily i'm awaiting a bunch of HG wells novels and i'm gonna dig out my Jules Verne stuff too.

Film-wise (as this is a movie game after all) we've already thought about indy and biggles, we should put the mummy and it's sequel in there too, Allan Quartermain (King Solomon's Mines) and a bunch of stuff like The land that time forgot, Journey to the centre of the earth, the time machine and more.

I'm off to search out high adventure!

I ask because by bringing the subject up and offering up your website it appears that you are defacto 'project leader' so i guess we should look to get some common goals sorted - especially as no-ones posted on this thread for days and i was beggining to wonder if lots of people are just brewing up ideas or are waiting for a plan of action to appear before putting forth any input.

To be honest ideas have flowed here, on the FS mailing list and at RPG.Net... I have a game or two to prepare here (Dark Continent, very nice game about the victorian exploration of Africa) plus some rewrites to do on Sundered Skies.

Give me a week or two and I'll get back to this project.

I don't actually think of this as *my* project more as a community project... I am wondering if I should set up a Yahoo group for it.

I think a yahoo group or similar will work nicely, plus make it a community work as you say rather than people like myself (with little net-experience or patience) harranging you to host our random thoughts on your site.

Best of luck with your write-ups, Dark Continent sounds fun (I noticed the victoriana on your site, i'll be back to check it out when i'm not at work - i love Holmes and i've just started picking up Flashman, Raffles and others).

I'll set up a Feng Shui Pulp mailing list today!

This isn't meant to stop anyone discussing the project elsewhere (such as here), but it does nicely archive stuff and allows us to share files etc...

Anyway, here you go:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/fspulp/

I find the Nazis overkill as a bad-guy, where the nebulous "Red Menace" is far more subtle and easier to work with, not to mention all the post-war themes.

do remember that indiana jones is in the 30's..lol

the 20's wouldnt quite have nizais yet, i dont think...but whatever you feel like doing is obviously up to the DM

personally, one thing that always sticks with me, is that the 20's in america was during prohibition... (as far as i can remember from american history class)

granted that might not prove exciting game material, but it can lead into some cool stuff... like for instance Elliot Ness and the Untouchables... or various mobs (not mafia, different connotation, lol)...

instead of people thinking indiana jones for pulp era, we really need to think about dick tracy..lol

My campaign will start in 1937, but I have pretty much included as many guns and vehicles from the 1920-45 period as I could find, as I mentioned in a previous post. I stopped WWII military vehicle conversions to FS as that is now when GK will kick in. If a Sherman gets involved at the roleplaying scale I'll whip up stats as necessary. The main German tanks were done beforehand though.

For 1920's pulp, you can't really do better than Chaosium's "1920's Investigator's Companion". I was re-reading it over the weekend, and it's an awesome piece of work. From there you can then go as purple as you want into the pulp world. (Edit: actually all of Chaosium's 1920's sourcebook stuff is awesome - I have the Cairo book too)

Right now I'm doing some re-reading so I can develop The Shadow (I know he's done, but he violates a few assumptions of my campaign as he's currently writen), The Spider, a retired G-8 and His Battle Aces, and probably Dusty Ayres and His Battle Birds. Doc Savage is a bit too super for what I have in mind.

Slight off topic, but I recently discovered www.otrcat.com and purchased some pulp radio CD's of MP3's at awesome prices - over 230 episodes of The Shadow, plus the Harry Lime's (Thrid Man), Peter Lorre, Charlie Chan, and Fu Manchu. I'm eagerly awaiting their arrival and will let people know how they rate.

Chris

There was a yahoo group for the pulp 'project', but it seems to have petered out.

I quickly learned that playing real-life do-gooders made for a nice change of pace from the Dragons and their retinue. I need to bring Ness back at some point, I think.

i definately agree, though of course trying to take real historical figures and implanting them into current groups in FS would be silly... or at least weird..lol

For example, getting an opportunity to play Charles Babbage as a mustachioed Evil Genius with Designs on What Man Was Not Meant To Know would be a blast. But back to Feng Shui. With Ness (Maverick Cop written all over him), his melodramatic hook could easily be that he's haunted by the fact that his work made him lose his family.

I'll try and get round to something soon.....

I've got to stick up for Nazis though (Wow, thats a weird sentence to type) as baddies. OK, maybe the red menace/ world revolution side of things can provide more mystery, but i veer more towards adventure/action and for that what could be better than a luger-waving, monocled, heavy-accented Nazi nutcase in funny trousers? Oh, and as socialism rose around the world in the 20's, so did national socialism. Therefore, you could (if you wanted) have Nazis in the twenties.

I hadn't thought about Dick Tracy though, i suppose because he's an American comic strip hero who never really had the popularity in England of say, Batman. I'm not gonna watch the Warren Beatty film for inspiration either.....

dick tracy wasnt really that bad of a movie..lol

another movie, might be things that mimic that era (gangs of new york, i think)

stuff like that.... course, 20's and pulp, actually have little to do with each other...lol

i havent seen any flappers in many pulp movies... though things like The Phantom, and possibly the shadow might work..lol

personally i use such great helpful works as D6 Adventure, and white wolfs Adventure!

"course, 20's and pulp, actually have little to do with each other"

So Call of Cthulu was a figment of collective imagination? Pulp is a broad genre, the 30s and Nazis are by no means the only, or most important elements of that.

My ratings were pretty much based on look and what few stats are available; since so many of these came in different configurations, feel free to add or subtract pep or wreck based on whether a hardtop, convertible, or limo (etc.) is being used. I've included notes on alternate configurations where known.

Edit: I should also mention that my pep ratings for cars ended up being tailored to working only within the pulp era, to give a bit of spread across the values. To use these in a modern setting, subtract 1 from pep for vehicles with a listed pep of 0 to +2 and subtract 2 from those with peps of 3+. Motorcycles and the heavy vehicles are ok.

I'd recommend searching the web for pictures to get an idea of how these cars look, or picking up a cheap guide to classic cars.

I'd be interested in hearing what people think.

Chris

PS Those radio show CD's I mentioned in my previous post have arrived and are damn cool. They won't work in my DVD player (because it won't read files with names >8 characters, but it's fine on my computer. The sound is iffy on some, but there's not much that can be done given how old these are and how haphazard their preservation has been. Useful as inspiration for scenarios and mood, and as background sounds.

Chris

Your vehicle list is fantastic!

I have since added to the rifles listing as well, mainly separating out some carbines and getting better information on some of the 19th century models (particularly the French).

If a webbook for the pulp juncture does get worked up, it'd be nice to get pics matching all or some of those vehicles; if I were a player rather than a GM, I'd make my pick on look rather than just stats (those Frazer Nash Chain Gangs just rock).

Chris

I have a generic background file for converting FS to a pulp genre, although there's nothing to revolutionary there, just ideas on careers, fashion, PC hooks, etc.

Chris

All that really matters is which looks coolest and most in tune with your character. Especially since they're all equally effective against mooks.