Thrill of the Thirties! 2D6 Adventure in the Pulp Era

Pulp fiction (often referred to simply as "pulps") were stories published in cheap magazines from before the turn of the century to the 1950s. The term “pulp” didn’t describe a genre; it was simply slang for the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. Such works were descendants of the 19th century penny dreadfuls and dime novels, and the direct ancestor of the comics. Although the pulps boasted some of the most respected writers, they were best known for their (for their time) exploitative and sensational subject matter. Yet they offered escapist entertainment during that time in history “between the wars,” when political and financial upheaval would soon explode into the worst war in history. The pulps featured a wide variety of genre fiction, including but not limited to adventure, science fiction, mysteries and detective stories, romance, war, the occult, horror, and sports.

Now players using the 2D6 system can get in on the action. Thrill of the Thirties! is an RPG supplement based on the Mongoose 1st Edition 2D6 OGL system (which is itself based on The Original Science-Fiction Roleplaying Game first published in the 1970s) and adapted to create heroes and adventures suitable for a pulp campaign. Designed to take a back seat to Referee and player creativity, the rules include a variety of adventuring careers using a now-familiar lifepath and skill-acquisition mechanic; tables for quickly creating strange societies to befriend or fight; rules for improvised weapons; a streamlined Aging mechanic; a selection of vehicles appropriate to the 1930s; a discussion of ways to incorporate strange abilities (a la The Shadow); and a brief world timeline from 1929 to 1939.

***UPDATED EDITION: New format, with a few extra goodies such as an expanded discussion of pulp superheroes and an expanded world timeline.

The 1930s were a thrilling time. Make them more so with Thrill of the Thirties!