THE RULES for FRANTIC ADVENTURE in the manner of PULP MAGAZINES, RADIO SERIALS and SATURDAY MORNING MATINEES

"Who knows what evil lurks within the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"

-- The Shadow Voice-over

"Send Lawyers, guns and money, the s$%# has hit the fan."

-- Warren Zevon

This is a very short and incomplete set of rules for mayhem, murder and Weird Horror set in the period between the 1920s and the end of the black-and-white B Movie era. Film Noir, hard-boiled novels, pulp magazines with Charles Atlas advertisements in the back, that sort of thing. It depends on a very fast pace, not worrying about details too much, and an attitude that says that heroes (and their sidekicks, dames and others in white hats) should have an advantage over thugs, punks, zombies and other minions of the Evil Overlords. It's more about creating scenes of frenetic action where Right eventually Prevails than about a fair game in which the villains win (though they may have already reduced cities to ashes etc)

The game is played with a Director, who sets up the scene and decides who goes when, according to whatever seems right at the time. This may be "I Go U Go", or according to some sequence based on the script, or on pure malevolence. Everyone will, however, get equal amounts of time on camera. The director will operate various minions, underlings, walk-on parts and others, and will try to make sure that these bit-part actors don't steal the limelight from the stars, unless he is annoyed with their egos. The director will give a talkover of what's going on, asking the players "So what do you do now?" and demanding instant reaction and movement. The director will dictate that you roll against STUNTS or SMARTS or whatever, and you'd best do it and no arguing, buddy! He's a bit nuts and probably a hop-head, but that's the business for ya --

It's all about breathless, non-stop action, so we don't care for incidentals. Raymond Chandler believed that plots more along by introducing more dead bodies, no apology or explanation needed.

Each player will have one or more heroes and up to `a bunch' of lesser mortals of lesser abilities, whose fates are of limited interest to us. Call `em extras, minions, underlings, whatever.

Heroes have 6 attributes -- between 2 (poor) and 5 (very good) -- possibly 6 for Pulp Hero types. For almost everything, roll a D6, modify if relevant, equal or less succeeds. So 'fives' do very well, `twos' fail constantly. Which isn't very heroic, I know. `Sixes' can fail by rolling a six, then rolling 4-6 on a second roll.

FISTS- close combat, with or without weapons.
GATS -- shooting with any weapon.
GUTS -- intestinal fortitude when faced with Hideous monsters or ugly men with Thompson guns
STUNTS -- because a chandelier is not simply a lighting fixture.
SMARTS -- getting wise to the game, figuring out clues and not playing the sap for anyone.
HITS -- being the amount of damage you can take, between 3 and 6 for a human, more for robots, horrific beasts, and possibly the larger sort of German.

In addition, some heroes have Special Skills, like using blow-guns or inventing amazing explosive devices out of common kitchen items, or having really nice table manners -that's mostly the 1920s English detectives, who have no access to proto-atomic weaponry and the like, and have to fall back on the martial art of etiquette.

MAKING UP CHARACTERS

More often than not, you will be able to take a basic character concept and work out some reasonable attributes and skills for them -- for instance, a private detective should be good with fists and guns, fairly smart and able to take a few blows, whereas a Mad Scientist might well be weak in everything but SMARTS, but have amazing special skills, and possibly a collection of loyal minions to supply the muscle etc.

If you want to just make some characters up for the sake of it, roll 8 D6. For every set of 1 and 6 that come up -- that's both a `1' and a `6' -- modify them to a `2' and `5'. Take the best six of the eight dice rolled. Decide which die you want to give to each attribute, depending on the kind of character you have in mind. For every `6' that came up (whether you modified it or not) take a special skill. You can randomise that if you like. The only thing to ensure is that HITS is at least 3, and should generally be close to FISTS in level, because people with tuberculosis seldom hit like Joe Louis.

But, hell, do what you like. If I wanted to write an elaborate RPG type character development system, I would, wouldn't I?

Non-heroes (minions, extras etc) have a single rating for all attributes to keep it easy. `3' would be an average gangster, Tong member, German soldier etc. Punks would be `2', enforcers, hard men, elite soldiers `4'. Only automatons, hash-crazed Eastern assassins, giant apes etc would be higher, and they'd have their own special rules. Naturally.

Each turn a hero can do three actions, others only two: these include moving, shooting, fighting hand to hand -- and the various `swinging from ropes/ leaping from cliffs / using the explosive charge hidden in the signet ring' sorts of things that you'd expect. If things get tight -- and they will -- director can cut the play down to one action at a time, but (to even things out) let the heroes have an extra turn when they need one. Keep it loose, keep it fast, don't sweat the details.

'LEGS' -- MOVEMENT: 4" per action at the walk. Add a D6" to run. Lose '/z for crossing very rough ground or significant obstacles.

"WHEELS' -- Cars and other vehicles can move at any speed up to 48", but can only accelerate / decelerate by a roll of 2D6" per turn. Each bend in the road is rated for a safe speed: for every 6" of movement above that, the driver must roll vs STUNTS to stay on the road -- otherwise there is a crash. Make up the rules for this!

`LEAD POISONING' -- SHOOTING: One shot per action with revolvers and rifles. Roll Vs GATS rating to hit.

Ranges	short	long	dice per shot	Additional mods?
Pistol aimed	8"	24"	1	-
Pistol blazing away	4"	12"	3	-2 to GATS
Shotgun	6"	18"	3 per barrel	-1 to GATS
Thompson Gun	8"	24"	6	-2 to GATS
Rifle	12"	48"	1	+1 GATS if aimed 1 action



Amazing Scientific weapons -- vary wildly
Minions etc should generally be permitted only simple, 1 shot weapons to keep it easy.

EASY SHOT -- close range, target in the open: no modifier.
OKAY SHOT -- any one of these apply: firing while moving / long range / target in cover / bad light / target only briefly visible / shooter drugged or in magical fog (etc) -1 from GATS
TOUGH SHOT -- two of these apply. -2 from CATS
REAL TOUGH SHOT -- three apply, -3 from GATS.
REAALLY TOUGH SHOT -- Aw, gimme a break here -
Worse than that is out of the question

If you hit, target gets to roll vs GUTS -- because being shot at scares some people.

Pass -- he's fine, likes to be shot at. Laughs in the teeth of danger.
Fail -- he's scared, ducks for cover or dives -- move 3" backwards or to safety. Takes an action to recover, when he can do nothing else.
5 or 6 -- hit. Extras are assumed killed, or otherwise out of action.

Heroes roll D6:

1 -- a scratch -- messed up your new mohair suit.
2,3 -- light wound -- lose 1 HITS, 1 FISTS
4,5 -- wound -- lose 2 HITS, 2 FISTS, 1 GATS
6. -- If you ain't dead, buddy, you're close -- lose 4 HITS, 3 FISTS, 2 GATS, 2 GUTS. Move at 1/2 speed if you have 2 HITS left, otherwise you are prone on the pavement.

Wounds add up like you'd expect. Of course, rolling more than your HITS means you are killed -- or at least badly hurt and facing months in bandages or at a secret clinic in Switzerland.

'FISTS'- CLOSE COMBAT:

Attacker rolls Vs FISTS. If he succeeds, opponent rolls vs GUTS.

Pass -- he's fine, dodges the blow. Laughs in the face of adversity
Fail -- he's knocked down or thrown back- move 3" backwards. Kapow!
5 or 6 -- hit. Blam! Extras are assumed killed, knocked out or otherwise out of action. 50% of them being captured alive, if you care about such things. Director may move action in the way of knock-outs, handcuffs and the runks of large Packards rather than actual death. If the villains are really trying to kill the good guys, heroes roll D6, deduct from their FISTS and GATS, but not GUTS. Again, rolling more than your highest score means you are killed -- or at least badly hurt ("if he's not in action, he's in traction").

If the attacker fails to hit a hero, the hero immediately makes his own attack. Minions etc don't get this privilege.

More than one opponent -- up to three, all can roll to hit. Victim then rolls vs GUTS for each hit.

We don't normally care about specific weapons, since heroes are two-fisted and tough, while thugs carry shivs and brass knuckles, but director can give a +1 or so if one has a clear advantage in weaponry, or has a special rule about using whips, sword-sticks, candle sticks etc -

'GUTS'- BRAVERY

Roll vs GUTS when the director says so -- when things look bad one way or another. Particularly terrifying things can be stated as 'GUTS-I', 'GUTS-2' etc, these being as often in the line of Oriental demons, wailing banshees or giant robotic killing machines as merely `surrounded by the FBI' or other minor problems.

Pass -- carry on smiling. Possibly light a cigarette or pour a Martini.
Fail -- Gasp in horror, can't move forward, but continue at -2 from all ratings until you roll and pass GUTS as an action on the next tam and get a grip, man. Maybe.
Roll of 6, or fail by 3+ points -- run screaming from the scene. Director may replace this by fainting (if female) or dying of fright with a terrible expression fixed on your face ( people with no future in this story!)

Many Weird Horror monsters use Fear as a primary weapon.

GET A GRIP!

Those that have failed a GUTS test can try to regain their manhood by testing vs GUTS -2 as an action on their next turn. If they pass, return to normal GUTS rating. Heroes can do this once of their own volition, on subsequent turns they will have to be slapped by another character in order to make the roll. Continued failure leads to sanatoriums, cheap whisky and a bad end -

'CUT'- THE `DO-OVER' RULE

In each scene, with the director's approval, the player may call for a `cut', once. This means that the immediate preceding turn is played over. If the new turn is clearly more successful for the player, director may even allow it to be done again.

THE INTERRUPT RULE

A hero may demand to interrupt the opponent's turn to, say, shoot a pistol at a man attacking himself or a friend, or jump in to punch a goon, or even to run from the vast mobs of henchmen running up the fire escape. He is allowed one interrupt per scene, but should it succeed, the director may allow him another as long as it fits within the spirit of the Pulp/High Adventure genre, not merely another actor demanding screen time -

SPECIAL SKILLS

Tough SOB: -1 from wounds against him for first two wounds.
A Real Charmer: +2 SMARTS when persuading people.
Lucky Cuss: 2 re-rolls per scene, used only for actions by himself or against himself directly.
Call me Sherlock: +2 SMARTS in connection with evidence etc.
Tommy Gunner: +1 GATS using an SMG.
Whiplash: Uses whip at GATS rating to disarm / drive back opponents within 3"
Holds his Liquor: No change in ratings while drunk.
Mack the Knife: +2 FISTS using a blade.
Femme Fatale: +2 GATS or FISTS once per episode.
Nice Girl: Opponents -1 FISTS and GATS when facing her.
Real Scary: Opponents roll GUTS -2 when facing him.
Hypnotist: opponents roll vs SMARTS -1 to avoid being mesmerised for a turn.
Fast mover: Add 3" to a running move.
Cat burglar: add 2 to STUNTS for all climbing feats.
Ace Driver: Add 2 to STUNTS for driving feats.
Crazy Inventor: add 2 to SMARTS when given a tin can and a box of matches --
Mean Drunk: add 1 to FISTS and GUTS, lose 2 GATS when he's got a skinful.
Just Nuts: add 1 to STUNTS when escaping from opponents by leaping / diving / etc
Brutal Champ: Add 1 to FISTS when he's in a public place and people are watching.
Oriental Martial Arts: Add 1 to STUNTS in close combat situation
Spunky kid: Can re-roll 1 GUTS roll per scene.
There's lots more out there -add your own!

SCENARIO IDEAS

In a darkened alleyway, three thugs attack our hero as he makes his way through the shadowy world of the city at night.

Inside an Egyptian tomb, a party of explorers is shocked by mummies rising from sarcophagi, skeletal bodyguards and a beautiful woman in the robes of a priestess of Isis -

A nightclub, a torch singer, a backroom gambling game, illegal drugs and prostitution -- and then the lights go out -

A closed train, guarded by brooding men in uniforms, steams across the open plain. Suddenly there is an explosion as the tracks ahead are blown --- and the cry of mounted tribesmen galloping forward pierces the air!

The jungle path, the creaking bridge, the howling of monkeys ceases and the silence tells of some unknown peril.

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