Adamant Entertainment, 2004

Reviewer's Bias: I purchased this product expressly for the Random Adventure Generator.

I purchased this product as a 33 page PDF. It is very well laid out with small story segments to create a "pulp-era" feel to the rules. Artwork is appropriate to each section, adding to the atmosphere.

The book starts out with a discussion on what elements make up the old pulp stories (and that there is no such thing as a "pulp genre"). The book moves on to discuss heroes and sidekicks, then villains, henchmen, minions and mooks.

The book offers a nice timeline of events during the 1930s to help capture the time period for games played during that era. It is a nice touch but not necessary for sword & sorcery campaigns.

The final part is my favorite part – the Random Adventure Generator. Based on the master plot formula used by Lester Dent (creator of Doc Savage), this section offers a generator to create adventures. Each section of the generator also has examples to show its use.

For me the best thing about the book is the Random Adventure Generator – which is especially good since that is the reason I bought the text. I tried out this generator and it worked wonderfully for my own personal Conan the Roleplaying Game adventures. It is clearly laid out and the generator has plenty of options – without constraining the adventure, really. It is clear but vague at the same time – which is perfect for my adventure needs.

The generator begins with a table for the villain, which includes such types as the Femme Fatale, a Murderer, a Mastermind, an Alien Invader, the Ruler of a Lost Civilization and so on. For my last game I rolled an Occultist, which I defined as a Darfari Witchdoctor.

Next comes two tables for The Fiendish Plot. The first table delineates what is going to happen and the second delineates who it is going to happen to. The first table has results like Manipulate, Sell, Acquire, Rule, Attack, et. al. The second table has Building, A Woman, A Lost World and Innocent Victims (as well as many others). I rolled Steal (from the first table) Jewels (from the second). I defined this to mean the villain was trying to steal a mystical black diamond from the PCs.

The next table is the main location. I already had a location in mind, so I skipped this table on my last game, but I have used it before. It just has a lot of locations on it, some of which are pretty interesting, such a Lost City or a Secret Base.

With those elements in mind, the generator proceeds to the first act (out of four). The Hook is rolled. I rolled Bizarre Occurrence, which is just something unexplained happening that interests the PCs. I decided one of the PCs would wake up and everyone not a PC or a named NPC around was dead – and in the PCs hand was a strange black diamond, which has appeared for no known reason.

Next, roll for the supporting NPCs for the game. Roll 2d4 for the number, then roll on three tables to get a description of the NPCs. I came up with 5 on the 2d4 and here were my resulting descriptions:

1. Clumsy, violent business owner

2. Weak, unlucky assistant

3. Beautiful, neat henchwoman

4. Sloppy, hard-boiled occultist

5. Lucky, weak-willed kid

I have to figure out where to put them into the plot, and I did. Some were good guys and others were bad guys. The first one became a Shemite caravan master leading the caravan the PCs had hired to take them to the Black Kingdoms. The second one was his assistant. The henchwoman became the handmaiden of a Keshani queen. The sloppy occultist became a Stygian interested in the PCs for his own reasons and so on.

After the NPCs are generated, the text moves to the Action Sequence, rolling for a type of action (such as a chase or a fight), how many people are involved, a setting, and complications. I rolled that in the first act there would be an armed fight with lots of participants (5+ per PC), so I had the Villain's tribal army of Darfari attack the caravan after the hook. The complication I rolled was that a new action sequence would be generated because of the first one! So I had the henchwoman arrive with Keshani troops. She was not interested in the PCs but was opposed to the villain and his Darfari. This was another armed fight, with some participants (3-4 per PC) with environmental concerns. I made the Keshani mounted and made the surrounding terrain high grasslands (preventing some tactical moves in D20, such as five-foot steps).

Next we roll for a Plot Twist. This includes such things as betrayals, greater villains, hidden plots and so on. I rolled another bizarre occurrence. When it became obvious that the Player Characters would die with all these foes fighting each other, I had one PC fall unconscious, pick up another black diamond from the ground and, in an unholy voice, proclaim "death", which slew everyone unnamed. This helped to move the plot into Act II.

The remaining acts simply involve rolling for more action sequences and plot twists until a plot unravels and is playable. It is simple and fun.

The PDF book has a rule for gloating – the propensity for the villains to spill their plans out to captured heroes. I thought that was a nice touch.

There really wasn't anything bad about the PDF. It states its purpose and then accomplishes that purpose. It is short, sweet and to the point.

This book was exactly what I was looking for in the Random Adventure Generator, which has turned out to be a huge time-saver in coming up with exciting sword-and-sorcery style adventures. Even the sections I didn't need were well-written and interesting to read – and gave me ideas for S&S games I may well have not thought of on my own. I love to read old pulp stories from any genre and I foresee this book getting a lot of use from me no matter what sort of game I might run, be it Conan the Roleplaying Game or Cyberpunk.

Overall I give this book an unqualified recommendation. It is exactly what I was looking for and it is exactly what it states itself to be. Even if you are not into gaming but are a writer, this book can help out by providing a basic skeleton plot for some pulp-style short stories.