Pulp City is a super hero game:
http://www.pulp-city.com
It presents users the opportunity to play heros or villains in a generic metropolis city on some alternative earth. As such it is not based on Marvel or DC universe, but does provide the look and feel of a super hero based world, where super heros and villains are common place in the world.
The game is set with each super hero or villain to have a playing card to represent the statistics of the model. Each models statistics are grouped into 3 groups of 2 stats each, plus a number of hit points. The stats represent the models ability to melee, shoot, run, take damage, activate and his mental ability.
As can be seen by looking at the cards, this is a very abbreviated version of Statistics compared to other super hero systems such as Hero System’s Champions.
In addition, each model has unique skills and team abilities that make it a special super, which in this world is called a Supreme.
When characters have a special item, this is represented to the player by a resource card, which provides the player with all the relevant information regarding the item or resource.
Privateer Press introduced the concept of cards for each unit and since then many miniature game companies have adopted this system. The advantage of this, is that players don’t have to keep their rule book so immediately at hand to play and compare their units when engaging and during game play.
Now we played a scenario that had each player playing a super hero/villian each, but this game can also be played simply by two people, one person playing one team, and the other playing the other team. By having multiple players, who must share activation points this introduced a very strong RPG group versus group component that could either be a good thing or not depending on how you are approaching this game. As a miniature game player, I found this taking away from the aspect of the game that I came to look at, while talking with a friend who came to the game by RPG, he found it refreshing and enjoyable to have to negotiate and talk with his fellow players to achieve the team goal (or individual goal if your agenda is different from the team).
Speaking of activations. This is an alternating activation game, where each side takes turns activating one of his teams models for one action before turning it over to the other side. To do this, the model takes one activation from the team pool of activations to accomplish his action. Each model has a maximum number of activations that he/she can do each turn. What this means though, is that most models will not use their maximum number of activations since the team pool isn’t large enough to do this. This is where the difference between an RPG group and a miniature player will see how the game plays. A team of players must negotiate among themselves to see who gets the activations that turn, while a single player will simply make his own tactical choice to achieve his team goal.
This unique dynamic will be what makes of breaks this game system.
The models are fantastic. How can you not appreciate a cigar chomping guerilla holding a 50 caliber machine gun, or any of the other unique models sculpted to fit this unique universe.
I suggest that you try out this game.
