Pulp Genre

[Robert Kurcina]

This is what I had drawn up on a piece of paper but I didn't yet get a chance to create a relationship graph.  Part of this is because I want more input from you, and the other part is that my ideas are not set in stone because this is just an initial draft.

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Playable Factions
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The League - these are the good guys. Sub-factions are allied.
The Brotherhood - these are the bad guys. Sub-factions may recruit from each other at a cost.
Fascists - these are the german, japanese, italians.  Sub-factions are allied.
Weird Menace - this is the faction to throw gonzo stuff into.  Sub-factions are unaffiliated.

• Each of the playable factions should have several sub-factions that specialize on activities at the campaign-game level. Using your example we could make The League could be comprised of these sub-factions; Society of Scientist Adventurers (USA), Academie les Fantastique (France), and League of Paragons (UK), Elan Vital (International), Veritas (International).
• For the Brotherhood these should be into super-science but applied in an occultic manner.  They don't have magic; these are all societies of mad scientists.  For naming I was thinking in terms of "color" + "thing" + "of exotic word" such as; The Black Axe of Sanaatha, The Golden Tigers of Thujil, The White Lotus of Badoom, and the Followers of the Jade Dragon of Shangri-la.  The names need some work but the idea is that each of the brotherhood sub-factions would be good at something; stealth, poisons, marksmanship, etc.
• For the Fascists they'd represent fanatics and assassins.  So they are heavily armed and highly organized but not at all secretive.  Department X (Germany), La Squadristi (Italy), The Emperor's Hand (Japan).  Department X are the most fanatic, Squadristi are the most cowardly but most organized, and the Hand have the best fighters plus ninjas.
• For Weird Menace, your strange stuff goes into here.  Radon Zombies (? Radonites ?), Yellow Menace, Mole-men, Lizard-folk, etc.

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Recruitable Factions
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Cultists - these are typically hooded secret societies
Enforcers - police, para-military, an military types
Adventurers - same as what we've already identified for Mythos genre
Rogues Gallery - cut-throats, murderers, ex-convicts of all sorts with unique skills

• The Cultists would be some non-Mythos variation of what we already have.  Most are fanatics but they have access to magic at some level.
• Enforcers are strongly organized and should be generic faces because they should be recruitable for play.  So there are good-cops and bad-cops, soldiers and special forces.  If we plan to make Troopers work then they'd come from this faction.
• Adventurers is a big list of Commons that are recruitable.  Not shown on this list are the existing Adventurer archetypes we have for Mythos.  New ones are listed far below.
• Rogues Gallery.  I have a big list of names for this.  See below.

Adventurers
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Action Girl - Marksman but SIZ 2 REF 3
Paragon - Heroic plus Leader and Tactics
Wunderkind - Elite plus Tactics
Warbucks - Campaign-level skills for increased Resource Points
Playboy - variation of Warbucks with Charm but less Resource Point benefits
Debutante - variation of Playboy with higher Charm and SIZ 2
Codger - SIZ 2, low STR/FOR/RCA/CCA but Leader 3
Plucky - SIZ 2 + high REF/MOV and low STR/RCA
Demolitions - End-game Trigger bonus specifically for bombs
Survivalist - End-game Trigger bonus.
Explorer - As Scout but higher STR and FOR and lower CCA/RCA
Double Agent - Player announces use of a Double-Agent.  Other player can take control after awarding owner 1 VP.  That sort of thing.


Rogues Gallery
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Assassin - Shoot, Fight, Brawl, REF 3 Stealthy Surefooted

Dame - Variation of Debutante with SIZ 3 and one disability.
Black Widow - Variation of Double Agent but with Poisons and SIZ 2
Commando - High Tactics and Marksman and Brawl
Battle-scarred - Elite with FOR/STR of 2 plus Stealthy
Knuckle-head - INT 1 RCA 1 but Fight
Diehard - FOR 4 plus Fight and Brawl
Burlyman - FOR/SIZ 4 INT 2 Brawl
Bruiser - STR/SIZ 4 Brawl
Meathead - FOR/STR/SIZ 4 RCA/INT 1
Mastermind - Has one disability but is Leader 3 Tactics 1


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Relationships
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The League - pulls from Adventurers, Enforcers
Brotherhood - pulls from Adventurers (at a cost), Rogues Gallery, Cultists (at a cost)
Fascists - pulls from Adventurers (at a cost), Enforcers, and Rogues Gallery
Weird Menace - pulls from Cultists, Rogues Gallery, Enforcers (at a cost)

[D Willhelm]

Looks good.

Maybe a government/military agency faction and space aliens (unless they would fit into the weird menace slot.)

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[Robert Kurcina]

Cool.  I think we're in alignment. 

The Government/Military agency was supposed to be Enforcers (Police, Military) or Fascists (Italy, Germany, Japan). 

The Radon Zombies and other space aliens were supposed to be recruitable under Weird Menace because I didn't think they'd be a player faction.  Do you intend to have enough of those figures to make them either a player-faction? Or would you want Space Aliens as a major recruitable faction so that it could include some crazier sci-fi aspects?

I was thinking that a Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon setting would have its own genre; maybe something like "Of Ray Guns and Hawkmen" or "Of Spacemen and Star Lords", etc.

[Robert Kurcina]

I've got more notes on this locally and I'll upload them once I get a better structure in place for the genres and settings. Closing this.