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A fun module in the old-school spirit. Very stripped down, with hand-drawn maps, that are nonetheless rather charming. Basically a small town and mini-dungeon that could serve as a nice starting point for a larger series of adventures. The price is right, too!
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Great stuff! I had this as a kid, and bought the PDF from Paizo years ago. This PDF is a MUCH cleaner scan - everything looks really good. Very useful for your OSR game of choice, and the writeups of the old D&D writers' characters are still very entertaining. Recommended!
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Tons of great content. Really worth getting as a sort of companion to the corebook. I do with the PDF table of contents were bookmarked, though - that would make it a lot easier to use on my tablet while gaming.
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Creator Reply: |
Thanks for the review! Note that the current version of the PDF is bookmarked. |
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Pulp Fantastic is based on the Vortex rules system, as seen in games such as Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, Rocket Age, and Primeval. The rules fit the setting - 1930s pulp action hero adventures - very well. This book is also full of lots of pulpy goodness, including everything you need to make characters like Indiana Jones, Doc Savage, the Shadow, etc., background information and a timeline, rules for gadgets and inventions, creature creation rules, and a solid bestiary. Unfortunately, it also contains an absurdly large number of editing and proof-reading errors, including incorrect page references, rules inconsistencies, and amateurish spelling and grammar errors. Due to that, I really can't recommend anyone purchasing anything more than the PDF, and I'm not even sure about that. I'm actually sorry now that I bought the hardcover. When I eventually do get a chance to run a pulp game with the Vortex system, I'll probably just use the Rocket Age book (so that I have coherent and readable rules to reference at the table), and maybe plunder this for some setting info. If the publisher would make it a point to hire a decent copy editor to give the PDF another pass, I'd definitely bump my rating up to at least 4 stars, and maybe consider using it on its own.
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Creator Reply: |
These errors being addressed. I have no reason except that it was a very bad time in my life, as my wife just passed away and my mind wasnt totally on the game, for which you have my apologies. We are going over everything now with plans to upload a new pdf, and offer a discount for anyone wishing to purchase or repurchase the print version. I appreciate you letting me know of this, and I hope that the fixes will be to your liking. |
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On the plus side, it's a generally nice scan, certainly better than the version I bought several years ago. On the downside, it not only contains the existing errata, but new ones as well, as a result of some OCR mishaps. So, while it's not a bad purchase, I was disappointed.
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I used this recently as a little drop-in side quest for a city (Greyhawk) campaign I've been running. It worked great, and the price is right. Recommended.
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As a huge fan of the show, I originally bought this thinking only to plunder it for setting info and adventure ideas to use with a different system. Since then, I've become intrigued by the Cortex Plus system, and have been plotting to run it out of the book. In preparing to do so, I've come to find that the core rules, while solid, are often unclear, and perhaps not as complete as I would like, even as a fan of rules-light games. I eventually bought the Firefly RPG, which also runs on the Cortex Plus Action system, but a more, shall we say, evolved version of it, and plundered it for a few things, and now feel as though I have a solid set of rules under which to run Leverage.
Rules aside, the rest of the content of the book is fantastic. The random Job (i.e., adventure) generator is a thing of beauty, and all the Fixer (i.e., GM) advice is worth the price of the book alone. Even if you aren't interested in the Cortex Plus system, the vast majority of the book could still be of great use to you as you develop your own Leverage games using your favorite system (I could see it working very well with Savage Worlds, for example). I've seen some complaints that the episode guides at the end of the book are filler, but I prefer to think of them as adventure seeds and inspiration.
The whole book really comes off as a labor of love. If you're a fan of the show, you'll instantly recognize all the detail and references by writers who are clearly fellow fans. The PDF is fairly cheap too, so you're really getting your money's worth.
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A nice mini-dungeon for S&W (or just about any OSR D&D type game, with little to no conversion). Well organized, a few high quality illustrations, and the price is right. Give it a shot!
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Awesome Adventures is basically Fate 3.0 (based on the SRD / Spirit of the Century) without stunts. Whether that's a good thing or not depends on your preferences - personally, stunts really turned me off from SotC, so a stuntless version of those rules was a big selling point for me, as it makes character creation quicker, especially for newbies, it minimizes munchkinism, and it makes setting creation quicker for GMs, who no longer have to generate a list of stunts for their campaigns.
I also found it to be more concisely and clearly organized than SotC (which I thought had a lot of redundancy), and thus quite a bit easier to wrap my head around.
Finally, this is a setting-free rule set, as opposed to SotC, which is an early 20th century pulp heroic adventure setting. Having said that, I wouldn't quite call it "generic," as it tends to pulp-flavored, over-the-top action, regardless of the specific setting.
All this combines to make for a nice version of Fate that is ideal for pick-up games, quick setting creation, and lots of improvisation. At the price, it's hard to beat - pick it up and check it out for yourself.
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Great sandbox wilderness adventure. There's plenty written out for you, but lots of room to add your own stuff. The scan is mostly quite good. The newer ones seem to change the font a bit, but in return for clearer text that cuts and pastes properly, it's worth it. The maps of the continent and the island could be a little better, but they'll do.
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Great adventure, reviewed by many, and I don't have much to add about that. However, I'd like to second the criticism the previous reviewers criticism of the scan. The main map (on the inside of the cover) has some missing right down the middle. I would really like WotC to correct this, the way they did for the same problem with B2 - rescan the map as one large landscape page, rather than splitting it up and cropping it too short. Thanks.
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Outstanding! Lots of interesting variations on the classic vampire, guaranteed to keep your players on their toes.
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Wow, this may be my favorite JMG product yet. Ogres always had so much more potential than they were ever afforded - so many old D&D modules treated them like nothing more than big orcs or small giants. Once again, James' background in anthropology shines through, as he builds a rich cultural background for ogres that gives them real depth and motivation. Highly recommended.
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Another winner from James. I especially love the write-ups on the gnoll culture - it really breathes life into an oft overlooked monster species, and makes them much more than mere cannon-fodder.
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An excellent product, whether you're interested in James' new "Olden Lands" setting, or just looking for some new spells and monsters for your existing LL or C&C game.
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