Category: Modern Pulp
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Manhattan Redlined, 1930
There are already some NYC entries in the “Thrilling Cities” series. However, I recently came across an academic website that provides all the historic maps drawn up by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) between 1935 and 1940. https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/ The HOLC was a New Deal federal agency created to maintain home ownership in the Great…
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Weird Pulp: Burgundia
In the search for Weird Pulp inspiration my eye fell on Burgundia, a setting created by Keith Haney. For the outlay of $17.99 I purchased the Burgundia Campaign Setting. For my money I got a 170-page pdf published in 2021 but most recently updated in September 2023. Burgundia describes itself as a “Fantasy Noir” supplement…
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Game Like Murder Hobos
When Tigers are Hunting is a collection of pulp stories by William Wirt about a band of mercenaries mainly operating in the Orient. These particular stories were published in quick succession in 1928-29. They are thus spot on for World-spanning Pulp set in 1930. I was alerted to them by Vintage Pop Fictions, a key…
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Three Pulp Flavours
There was the sound of a scuffle, then a horrible gargling noise, and the beating of hands and feet upon the sands. “Fini!” de Grandin remarked nonchalantly, dipping his hands in the water and cleansing them of some dark stains. “You …?” I began. “Mais certainement,” he replied matter-of-factly. “I slit his throat. What would…
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World-spanning Pulp
In the Northern Hemisphere, as the nights draw in, the aged gamer’s thoughts might turn to adventures in more exotic climes. When not engaged in Proustian reverie, The Project likes to offer solutions. This, however, is more a meditation on an issue yet to be resolved. Weird Pulp is based in New York, 1930 because…
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Game Like El Borak
Even great men go awry. Bob Howard made a horlicks of Three-Bladed Doom featuring Francis Xavier Gordon, aka The Swift, aka El Borak. Small men, of course, often go wrong: 180 completely forgot the tortured development of the story. That let him in for some extra effort. On the other hand it laid to rest…
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Mean Streets
It looks like a war zone right in the middle of the city. The huge hotel now has graffiti, broken windows, massive destruction, a truck in the swimming pool, and it was the site of a death: the body of a man, believed to be a looter, was found at the bottom of an elevator…
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Ultimate B*llocks
Bonjour everyone! Don’t worry. Everything is bon! We stopped the terrorists. Team America: World Police (2004) Rollicking roleplaying set in the modern era can work, but is trickier than most other historical periods. The satire has to turned up to 11 or the whole enterprise can become grossly, even offensively, uncomfortable. It is a fact…
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Howardian Hardboiled
R.E. Howard wrote in multiple genres. From a gaming perspective, the less said about his comedy output the better. 180 flinches at the mention of Sailor Steve or Breck Elkins. Neither have his hardboiled efforts won too many fans. The real masters of hardboiled pulp, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, became two of the greatest…