Roleplayer #16, October 1989
And In This Episode . . .
by Brian J. Underhill
My first copy of the GURPS
Basic Set was a boxed second edition, and it was a picture
on the back that prompted me to make the purchase. One of the hexagonal
scenes shows an Indiana Jones type character -- ancient idol in one hand,
pistol in the other -- confronting a ferocious black jungle cat. Although
being able to roleplay in any era appealed to me, it was the thought of
designing my own pulp-era campaign that spurred me on. Several
campaign sessions later, GURPS Cliffhangers was
born.
In all fairness, however, my pulp-era campaign for a few local gamers was
really only the seed of the finished worldbook. Thanks to hours of playtesting,
re-writing, critiquing and revising (not only by myself but by dozens of
very talented people), the final version of this project is ready for release.
Step by Step
The first step in designing Cliffhangers was to
take all my campaign information (weapons, vehicles, character types and
notes scrawled in my illegible hand) and put it into the proper format.
After this tedious but necessary bit of work, I started on the "atmosphere"
-- this was the fun part. I am fortunate enough to live near a bookstore
that handles the old pulp stories in both original (magazine) format and
in reprints. I spent days reading (and re-reading) pulp stories in every
genre I could find.
Next came historical accuracy. When I proposed a pulp genre worldbook, I
had no idea of the amount of historical research that would be required.
In my own campaign, I simply looked up the information as I needed it; but
in designing a worldbook, I had to provide the answers to questions that
I hadn't even been asked yet! Finding information on the Depression was
easy. Digging out the interesting details about colonization, espionage,
equipment costs, crime, medicine and so forth, proved to be very time-consuming.
Finally, we needed an adventure to capture the feel of the pulps and show
GMs how to handle a pulp-era campaign. The form of that adventure, and the
whole style of gaming described in Cliffhangers,
was set by the final name selected for the product!
Up until the middle of the second draft, the product had been tentatively
called GURPS Pulp. I wasn't terribly happy with
the name, and apparently neither was anybody else who looked at the manuscript.
Mike Ford suggested the title Cliffhangers, with
the idea of leaving the PCs in a cliffhanger situation which was to be resolved
at a later time. The idea was perfect -- it would capture the feel of Saturday
morning serials, pulp magazines and weekly matinees, and round out the entire
worldbook.
Difficulties
The biggest challenge in designing this worldbook was the abundance of fiction
(pulps, TV, radio, modern novels) and the variety therein. My original slant
was toward the archaeological/expedition type adventures. Other readers
expressed greatly varying opinions on what ought to be added. The most influential
sources (editor Mike Hurst, various playtesters, SJ himself) wanted more
focus on (are you ready for this list): Imperialism/Colonialism, Comic Books/Supers,
Gritty Street Crime, Soliloquys/Deathtraps, Science Fiction, Foreign Villains,
Horror and International Espionage. And you thought writing was easy.
What's Ahead
The "cliffhanger" concept of the worldbook inspired the forthcoming
series of adventure supple-ments, The Black Diamond.
Each book in the series will end in a cliffhanger . . . to
be resolved in the following installment! The prologue to the adventure
is in the Cliffhangers worldbook. The campaign
continues in Black Diamond Chapter One: Amazon Adventure (tentatively
scheduled for January).
Another Cliffhangers adventure, James Hurst's
Chaos in Kansas, should
hit the stores about the same time this Roleplayer does. And I've
just finished playtesting a Weird Menace piece (how does a trip to Tibet
sound?). While there are other pulp-era adventures available for other game
systems, it looks as though SJ Games will be able to provide ample scenarios,
adventures, campaigns and continuing serials for as long as you desire them.
And I hope that many of you will try your hands at writing a Cliffhangers
adventure -- if not for publication, then just for the fun
of it!
(Back to Roleplayer
#16 Table of Contents)