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!

Swamp Things - a Pulp Alley Game

A quest to prevent an ancient evil from another realm. From the sand to the swamp. We come in search of a mystical door to take us to the portal where another dimension threatens to irrupt into ours. 

Rhys put together all the terrain and monsters: a fantastic looking table.

Strange figures stand as guardians at the outskirts of the swamp.

Hideous grubs surround the crate.

Something lurks in the water.

Adventures and scientists question the swamp guardians. Apparently, their advice was not entirely reliable. Fishy even!

The leagues head into the swamp. After the 'friction' of the last game, we managed to keep the peace with each other (largely because Rhys kept throwing all manner of inventive evils at us). The first of which were the blue 'tentacle plants'. Anyone with range of the tentacles had to pass a random peril or be grabbed by the plant.

The tramp steamer's sidekicks skirt the swamp and attempt to decipher the strange seal (minor plot point).

The other leagues decide that 'through' is much simpler than 'around'.

They then decide that 'around' is much wiser than 'through'.

This was the big reveal! A hideous fish-monster that dwarfed even the robot.

And even more trouble!

Hideous critters everywhere!

The robot goes down.

The bosun closes in on a major plot point. He had to make it through the quicksand (random peril), then resist the mesmerising shimmer of the purple plant in front of him (random challenge) before he could even attempt the plot point.

But that's what heroes are made for, and the bosun tiptoes through the quicksand, averts his eyes from the plant and grabs the seal.

As he does so, a portal appears on the table.

From there, the game becomes a mad scramble as players try to get their characters through the portal before they get chomped by the fish monster!

I got three of my tramp steamer crew through, Mark got three of his mad science league,and Andrew managed to slip five of his adventurers through!

What awaits us through the portal? Tune in next time...

Sun, Sand, and Savage Creatures from Another Dimension - a Pulp Alley Game

With our Pulp Alley sci fi campaign done, we're pressing on with new things at the club. Rhys volunteered to run a Cthulhu campaign for us. This game was quite the novelty for me: I think it was the first time I've played a game of Pulp Alley that I wasn't running. It made a nice change!

An ancient evil is rising and we need to stop it. A set of seals are crucial to that task. We're all here in the village of Ash-Shatt to find the seals. I ran the tramp steamer crew, Mark took the mad scientist and Andrew ran his rocket troopers. Rhys was in charge of the nasties (which he did a lovely job painting).

Doctor Veruckthaar, mad scientist, grabs the first seal.

As he does, an unearthly piping begins. Ever character must pass a challenge when they activate, or all they can do is move towards the piper!

My league, the tramp steamer crew, decide they quite like the sound of pipes!

When the next seal is grabbed, a snakeman and his cultists appear!

While we're still trying to deal with snakemen and cultists, the next seal unleashes a hideous tentacle.

Amidst the chaos, Dr Veruckthaar manages to grab the major plot point, unleashing an unspeakable terror!

By the end of the game we were still dealing with cultists and tentacles and squishy things, but we had only managed to grab four out of five seals. Mark won, with the major and a minor plot point to his name. Andrew and I snagged a minor plot point each. Rhys was a bit bewildered at our enthusiasm for killing each other rather than the horrors from another dimension. Are we not gamers and friends, I say?! What else would we do?

The game was lots of fun. By the end of it we were on tenterhooks every time a plot point was passed: waiting to see what fresh horrors Rhys would unleash on us.