How To Run Adventure!
By Craig Oxbrow
“The demand was for constant action; if you stopped to think you were lost. When in doubt have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand. This could get to be pretty silly but somehow it didn’t seem to matter.”
— Raymond Chandler, The Simple Art Of Murder
Adventure!: Tales of the Æon Society is White Wolf Game Studio’s “Storytelling game of pulp action”, a roleplaying game of daring heroes, dastardly villains, strange lands, amazing mysteries and death-defying excitement inspired by the heroes of the 1920s and 30s. While the pulp magazine was a medium and not a genre, Adventure! draws on the distinctive genre that was home to characters like Doc Savage, The Shadow and novel series such as John Carter, Warlord of Mars and Tarzan. Partially science fiction, partially fantasy but largely set in the present, featuring larger-than-life heroics and villainy, the pulp action genre was the direct precursor to the first superhero comics, and the antecedent of over-the-top action-adventure fiction and film from James Bond to Die Hard to Star Wars, as well as directly influenced work such as the Indiana Jones series.
Rather than being a generic pulp action game, Adventure! comes with a specific setting. This is the third in the Trinity Universe series of games, a prequel to Trinity and Aberrant. It is set during the formative years of the Æon Society, explorers or the paranormal and solvers of mysteries, a major power group in both later periods, and the first recorded appearance of the setting’s two (or maybe three) possible advances in the human race.
A pseudoscientific explanation is offered for the various paranormal phenomena and superhuman abilities manifesting in the pulp action genre. This “unified field theory” of the paranormal ties the game loosely to the Trinity Universe, but those who want a truly generic pulp action game are invited to ignore it and can do so without significantly affecting the rules.
While the pulps and their spin-offs such as comic books and matinee serials reached their heyday in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the default setting for Adventure! begins in 1924, five years before the Wall Street Crash. This is a more prosperous and optimistic era in much of the world, although there is still plenty of danger and unrest to fuel series, and some of the terrors of later decades are already present. The 20s were chosen as an escapist setting, whereas the 30s were a time more in need of escapism.
Like Trinity and Aberrant, Adventure! uses a streamlined variant of White Wolf’s Storyteller System, where nine Attributes such as Strength and Intelligence are rated from one to five in the human scale, and a variety of Abilities such as Pilot and Firearms, linked to the Attributes they are most often used with, are rated from zero to five. To determine success or failure, combine the relevant Attribute and Ability, roll that many ten-sided dice and every die that produces a result of seven or more indicates a level of success. Various modifiers give or take dice, and the Storyteller (Games Master) is encouraged to give bonus dice for good ideas and descriptions of actions.
The players’ characters, referred to as the Inspired after the effects of the aforementioned pseudoscience explanation, are suitably larger than life. While they are hardly powerful compared to the more extreme superheroes, they begin at a heroic level. A starting character can be skilled in a wide variety of fields, a world-class expert in several, or specialise to the point of superhuman feats in a few chosen areas. It is entirely possible to create a starting character, with no experience, who can legitimately claim to be the World’s Greatest in any of the abilities covered, and who is still quite capable in other areas.
Players’ characters fall into three categories depending on the source and type of their powers, although these are not entirely exclusive in the setting and Storytellers may choose to allow crossing over of powers. Mesmerists are the antecedents of the Psions of Trinity — psychics, with a variety of mental powers. Stalwarts are more physically superhuman, an early variant of the do-anything Novas from Aberrant, but far less powerful. Daredevils, finally, are human, but blessed with the sort of extraordinary skills and unexpected good (and bad) luck that human heroes in the adventure genre regularly display.
The powers of Mesmerists and Stalwarts, and the “powers” of Daredevils, are presented as a grab-bag of special abilities called Knacks. The Shadow’s ability to Cloud Men’s Minds is a Psychic Knack, while the early Superman knocking people through walls is reflected in a Stalwart ability. Daredevils have a mixture of uncommon heroic abilities and narrative points that seem to work in their favour. For instance, the player of a Daredevil martial artist is well advised to take Untouchable, the uncanny ability of unarmed heroes to avoid being gunned down by armed thugs in combat. Personally, I would let an unarmed combat Mesmerist or Stalwart take that one as well, since almost all such heroes seem to have it.
All characters have an Inspiration rating, which determines the number of extraordinary things they can do in a scene. Most Mesmerist and Stalwart Knacks are powered by it directly, and it reflects their reserves of power, but Daredevils’ abilities are not powered by Inspiration. Instead, they use it almost entirely for its second effect in the game.
Dramatic Editing is one of the rules that marks Adventure! out as a heroic action game. Powered by Inspiration, it enables players to edit and complicate scenes to their characters’ advantage. This gives the players control over the kinds of lucky escapes and strange developments seen in the genre. The system explains it in depth. “I remembered to pack my snakebite kit” might take a single point, while “Ah, but this is Professor Dixon’s submersible car!” could take five if the Storyteller allowed it at all. Daredevils generally have more Inspiration to spend on Dramatic Editing, reflecting the superhuman heroes’ reliance on their powers while the human heroes have to turn situations to their advantage more.
Other rules throughout the system model the style of the genre. Rules for Extras reflect the nameless goon syndrome we have all seen. The extra dice to encourage descriptions have already been mentioned. Characters with a high Wits attribute allow their players to give the Storyteller ‘feed lines’ for one-liners.
Adventure! appeals to me as a self-confessed pulp action fan. I have been ever since Raiders Of The Lost Ark excited, scared and delighted me when I was eight. As a result, I have played a lot of pulp games. Adventure! is the one I feel best captures the pace and style of the genre, and its writing clearly reflects the sense of fun that modern tributes to the genre often do. The setting information is a wealth of story hooks, references to real-life mysteries and in-jokes about pulp adventures, full of enthusiasm for the genre and encouragement for Storytellers.
There is plenty to do in Adventure! Because the genre is so diverse, it is a good idea to find a focus of some kind. Even exploring the breadth and depth of the setting can serve as such, if the players’ characters have good reason to explore.
As well as a focus, I would suggest agreeing with the players on a “weird level” for the game. While the setting includes mad scientists building floating cities, intelligent gorillas, haunted houses, resurrected Pharaohs and possibly a Hollow Earth full of Neanderthals and barbarians, this might be a little too high a weird level. Equally, a game of Daredevil private investigators with just a hint of the esoteric, while keeping the wild action scenes of the genre, might work well. It worked for Sam Spade after all. Personally, I pitched my game around the Raiders level - fast action, hair-raising stunts, and very occasional unexplained phenomena. One of the player characters wearing a Rocket Man style jet pack is about as weird as it generally gets. The floating cities were kept off-screen, although the mad scientist did invade Rhode Island with an armada of zeppelins supported by pirates in fighter planes at one point...
Another suggestion is to be highly aware of the style of the genre, and also of modern tributes to it. I have so far run Adventure! for an academic year, and ran one or two ‘serials’ in each of three ten-week terms. I gave them suitably melodramatic titles, and gave each ‘chapter’ a title as well. I started each session with a recap, and ended each with a teaser for the next part of the story. For example:
Armies Of Armageddon, Chapter Four: Peril In The Skies!
When last we left our heroes, Rocket Man was plunging two hundred feet to the earth, injured and out of control! The team race to his rescue, but they won’t arrive before impact! Will he survive?
I generally ran the game with the awareness of cliché that modern tributes to the genre display. I always made sure that my villains’ warped ideals have a point, however flawed their logic. None of them is as devoted to villain tradition at the expense of common sense as Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers films. Likewise, the players will, from time to time, follow the example of Indiana Jones and shoot the lunatic with the scimitar.
Finally, most advice for Adventure! could apply to all action-adventure roleplaying games. Keep things moving. Follow Chandler’s advice if stumped. Encourage the players to take part beyond merely reacting to your stimuli.
I would particularly advise preparing stories with a loose structure. I prepare heavily for some games, but for Adventure! if I have some idea of how four or five scenes hang together and a few alternate ways to move the story, I can run a session.
That said, with Knacks, Dramatic Editing, encouragement for creativity on the part of players and assorted other rules, Adventure! could easily be used for any genre that the pulp adventures influenced. I hope to run 60s Spy Adventure! soon, and have also seen swords and sorcery and Star Wars conversions. The setting information and advice create a great pulp action game, but the style and flair of the pulps is still alive today and the rules can tackle any setting with that style.
In all, with its clearly displayed love of the genre and infectious enthusiasm for gaming, Adventure! is a lot of fun. What more can you ask for in a game of pulp action?
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