Dicey Tales

Gruntfuttock · June 14, 2011, 08:06:20 AM

Just a heads up to any pulp game maniacs that Jeff Mejia's 'Dicey Tales #1' is now available from rpgnow. It's a pdf ($8.00) supplement for the Barbarians of Lemuria system, to allow play in the world of the pulps. The #1 tag indicates that it's the first of a range of supplements, which intend to cover the full range of pulp action – adventure, mystery, horror, western, etc. This first issue is squarely in the adventure pulp area, with two adventures, one in the South Seas and one in San Francisco, as well as the rules for guns, vehicles etc.

As I'm a total sucker for pulp gaming and as I've been impressed by BoL, I'd been looking forward to this for a while. I'm just on my second read through of the 85 pages, and it looks good.

While I can't see it toppling Two-Fisted Tales as my favourite pulp game, I can definitely see myself playing BoL Pulp and enjoying it. It looks as if it will be great for those pulp games with the dial set at 11. It's a well produced product and looks a lot of fun – I can't wait to try it. I might report back after giving it a spin with my group.

Simon W · June 14, 2011, 02:12:38 PM

Quote from: Gruntfuttock;463945I've been impressed by BoL

Cool

Quote from: Gruntfuttock;463945I'd been looking forward to this for a while. I'm just on my second read through of the 85 pages, and it looks good.

It is very good (I have a slight bias, of course)

Quote from: Gruntfuttock;463945While I can't see it toppling Two-Fisted Tales as my favourite pulp game,

Boo!

Quote from: Gruntfuttock;463945I can definitely see myself playing BoL Pulp and enjoying it. It looks as if it will be great for those pulp games with the dial set at 11. It's a well produced product and looks a lot of fun – I can't wait to try it. I might report back after giving it a spin with my group.

Great. Whilst Jeff has kept me updated with it as he's gone along, I haven't had the chance to play it. However, I'm hoping to put that right soon - a friend is going to GM it, so I actually get a chance to play a game rather than run one! (I prefer GMing, but like to have a break once in a while).

Dave · June 14, 2011, 10:54:40 PM

Quote from: Gruntfuttock;463945As I'm a total sucker for pulp gaming and as I've been impressed by BoL, I'd been looking forward to this for a while. I'm just on my second read through of the 85 pages, and it looks good.

I was looking at picking this up last weekend, but I had two questions:

1) Did you feel it was substantial enough for $8?

2) Was there enough included to differentiate Dicey Tails from Dogs of W*A*R or is there a lot of overlap? (Dogs of W*A*R is the men's adventure / Mack Bolan inspired version of BoL which I can't recommend highly enough.)

Thanks!

Gruntfuttock · June 15, 2011, 05:40:47 AM

Well Dave, as value for money tends to be very subjective, I'm not sure I can give you an answer you could trust.

For me though, I did feel I got a good buy. The layout is clear and easy to read, and the text is straightforward - no waffle. I'm not bothered much by art in rpg material, but I'd rate the stuff here as good for this sort of publication.

The two scenarios look as if they would be fun to play. The San Francisco one is rather stereotypical, but that's not necessarily a bad thing depending on the style of pulp game you prefer. A map of the museum would have been nice, to set the opening scene if nothing else, but art costs money and its ommission isn't a real problem. The second scenario, set in the South Seas is better, being more open is design, so more easily adaptable to how you want to run it. There is far more here to get your teeth into (if something doesn't get its teeth into you first!) Again a map of the island would have been nice, and a map of Gamboa Station, where the game starts would have been a plus, as PCs might want to use this location as a 'home town' in future stories.

Sad to say I haven't picked up Dogs of W*A*R, so I can't compare the two products. However the supplement clearly states:

"The rules in both the firearms and the vehicle sections appearing in Dicey Tales were taken almost directly from the BBG publication Dogs Of W.A.R written by Simon Washbourne, and are used with permission. They have been slightly modified to better emulate the flavour of the Adventure Pulp genre, but otherwise, they are an attempt to insure a uniform set of rules for firearms and vehicles in the BoL system."

So that may be a dealbreaker for you.

Personally I feel I got my eight dollar's worth and was impressed by Dicey Tales. It's written with a real love for the genre and reading it makes me want to start playing right away.

Hope this helps.

Dan Davenport · June 15, 2011, 02:08:50 PM

I tried unsuccessfully to get a review copy, so I ended up buying it out of curiousity.

Based on my initial scanning, I'm at least slightly disappointed. As in Barbarians of the Aftermath, the psychic powers are both basically retreads of magic spells and are completely freeform, neither of which feel very "pulpy" to me.

There are rules for low-key superpowers, but the "1d6 uses per day" rule seems awfully contrived, with no in-setting justification.

Dave · June 15, 2011, 03:48:17 PM

Quote from: Gruntfuttock;464227Personally I feel I got my eight dollar's worth and was impressed by Dicey Tales. It's written with a real love for the genre and reading it makes me want to start playing right away.

Hope this helps.

Certainly does - thanks for your input. I will probably hit up RPGnow this evening, if only to encourage Dicey Tales #2. Any help getting my BoL/Day After Ragnarok campaign going is probably worth the gamble.

Gruntfuttock · June 15, 2011, 04:33:30 PM

Dan - I can see your point, but for me, magic and psychic skills are not that central to a pulp game. Not that they may be for you either of course, but with free-form systems I'd expect those areas of the rules to be a bit more 'tool kit' than hard and fast - therefore I didn't mind what you see as the lack in this area.

As implied with the S&S version BoL, I see magic and psychic skills as more the preserve of Villains and NPC rather than the PCs. Therefore I'd expect the GM to work out in advance the effects he needs for the NPCs in the game.

But I grant you, that does work against a player wanting to cloud men's minds like The Shadow and finding they have to do a bit of work with the free form system rather than having a spell list or similar.

Dan Davenport · June 15, 2011, 04:56:29 PM

Quote from: Gruntfuttock;464323Dan - I can see your point, but for me, magic and psychic skills are not that central to a pulp game. Not that they may be for you either of course, but with free-form systems I'd expect those areas of the rules to be a bit more 'tool kit' than hard and fast - therefore I didn't mind what you see as the lack in this area.

As implied with the S&S version BoL, I see magic and psychic skills as more the preserve of Villains and NPC rather than the PCs. Therefore I'd expect the GM to work out in advance the effects he needs for the NPCs in the game.

But I grant you, that does work against a player wanting to cloud men's minds like The Shadow and finding they have to do a bit of work with the free form system rather than having a spell list or similar.

I'd agree with that. I might monkey with the cost of powers to give a character like the Shadow just the abilities to cloud minds and go invisible, and I'd probably allow psychic points rather than the arbitrary 1d6/day use.