Tropical Island Paradise - a Pulp Alley Game

Vile creatures have been spilling from another dimension. Our heroes have traveled from the desert to the swamps, seeking a way to halt the foul creatures. At last, a portal has led them to a lonely island in the South Pacific. The island is none other than R'Lyeh, the domain of Cthulhu himself.

The leagues must collect four seals, and position them at the compass points surrounding the portal.

The portal itself. Rhys had rigged up a flashing light under this!

The first adventurers onto the island trigger the arrival of a wave of brain creatures.

At the same time, the portal changed colour. Urrk!

The heroes arrive in force, making short work of the brain creatures.

At this point, it looked like we were doing really well. Brain creatures dealt with, characters making for the seals. Too easy!

Then the portal began pulsing faster. And the robot noticed something in the water.

Arrghhh!!!! It's none other than Cthulhu himself!!!

(Rhys did a superb job on this bad boy!)

As Cthulhu rose from the ocean, the land began slipping into it! The small islands are gone.

The robot, immune to the terrors from beyond, stares down Cthulhu.

Cthulhu, immune to the stares of tin contraptions, lays into the robot.

As the robot versus elder god combat unfolds, the tramp steamer captain discovers a slightly smaller boat (hidden behind some rocks???)

Glub, glub, glub. It's beginning to feel a bit crowded.

The heroes have all but one of the seals in place. The mad scientist is having trouble deciphering his.

The bosun has no such difficulties and grabs the seal, bringing it up to the portal. The portal begins flashing rapidly, all sorts of colours.

Then it disappears, taking with it the creatures. The characters who placed the seals are transported back to the swamps from the previous adventure. All but the robot are driven mad by the experience!

Oh, and there's less land too.

But there is a boat! That holds five people...

I was the tramp steamer captain and this was quite the dilemma. My one remaining character was in the boat. Who do I let go first? In the end, I picked the mad scientist. The other player promptly dropped this card!

The mad scientist, in his enthusiasm to get to the boat, stumbles and falls. Everyone else treads very carefully!

Glub, glub, glub... 

The mad scientist has one last card up his sleeve. He's wearing a phase vest. He can pick any spot on the table and move there, but he will scatter 1d6". A 1" scatter and there will be an almighty fight to see who stays in the boat.

Glub, glub, glub... Should have picked the diving suit instead of the phase vest!

Five survive, but another two (Stanley with the rope and Erich with the pistol) also go mad. Just three sane survivors (and a robot stuck in some swamp in the middle of nowhere).

That was definitely one of the best games we've played (and we've played some good ones!) Rhys did a superb job with the terrain and with the scenario and it all came down to a glorious conclusion. It'll take something special to raise the bar again!

Pulp Alley 40k Leagues

On another post, Fincas asked about how well 40k characters translate into the Pulp Alley rules. Here's a selection of my Pulp 40k leagues to give a taste of what they look like.

Mechanicus and scouts.

Imperial Guard.

Chaos cultists and space marine.

Hope that helps!

Peregrine - 250

It's been a while since I've posted any progress on the Peregrine, but I have been chipping away slowly. The main reason for the gap in posting is that painting has begun: at least a bit of it.

We now have sides well underway.

And a decent amount of work on the bottom.

But the main thing is the completed cockpit.

Love all the little details: screens, cables, switches.

RT Project - Time to Die - a Pulp Alley Game

The natives at the village said no, don't come here. A cursed place. Shah N'jatnah: 'the place stalked by death'. But what would they know? They still worship the sun and run from the thunder. An ancient and alien place like this would scare them. 

Not us though. We know what we'll find inside. A time capsule. Over fifty thousand years old. No scary stories are going to frighten us away from that.

It is looking a little more complex than we'd have liked. Someone 'misplaced' the teleport homer so we've got to wait for a ship to come and get us. And for all their hatred of the place, those superstitious natives have followed us. It looks like they want to seal us in. But it's nothing that a shotgun and a stick of TNT can't fix.

The exploration team must unlock the alien time capsule (pass three random challenges).

As they work away at the time capsule, the aliens press in, trading shots with the armed members of the exploration team.

The guard with the green carbine was taken out in the first volley of fire.

The exploration team pass the first challenge with ease (one turn), but struggle with the second (three turns!) Meanwhile, unnoticed by anyone, there is a rending of metal and up through the vent...

A hideous predator, disturbed by the intruders!

The juvenile stealer launches itself at the servitor.

Both go down and neither gets back up. The last of the aliens is shot down at the same time.

At this point it looks like mission accomplished. The explorators are still working away at unlocking the time capsule, but there is no threat to them and no real urgency to their task.

Until...

The juvenile was not alone!

The stealer spots the robot, but doesn't quite make it into combat.

Titus Thomas (expedition security) thinks about hurling a stick of dynamite, but then inexplicably decides to charge the vicious monster!

(I was playing with the Pulp Alley solo cards, and they dictated that I charge the nearest enemy: not something I would ever have chosen to do! But it did up the excitement levels quite nicely!)

Titus Thomas holds the monster while the explorators unlock the time capsule (at last!) and begin to flee with the treasure inside.

But he doesn't last long.

And where on earth is that ship?

The monster attacks again!

The explorators are able to flee, leaving the poor ad mech scout with the creature.

The monster pauses and bares it's teeth. ( A card prevented any running or combat this turn. Fortuitous for the explorators, as they could put some more distance between themselves and the stealer.)

At last! Ten turns into the game and the ship arrives.

The last the explorators ever see of the ad mech scout. The treasure is theirs. The scholars of the party have escaped. But they will need a new security complement for their next adventure!

Well, that was a cracking game! My first game with the Pulp Alley solo rules, and they worked a treat, delivering some real moments of tension and excitement. I had both the ship and the stealers arriving randomly. A d6 for each at the end of the turn. The ship arrives when when the ship dice total reaches 21. The juvenile stealer arrives when the stealer dice total reaches 7, the big one when the total reaches 14. Here are the dice!

The timing worked perfectly: the security crew had dealt with the aliens, things were looking cruisy and the big boy arrived! A great game, and a great start to the Rogue Trader project!