Game: Two Fisted Tales
Publisher: Spectre Press
Series: Two Fisted Tales
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 5th, August 2003
Reviewer’s Rating: 7/10 [ Good ]
Total Score: 9
Average Score: 3.00
Pulp fiction is a sort of super genre that encompasses many smaller pulp genres. There’s sci-fi pulp like Flash Gordon and Buck Rodgers, there are westerns, detective stories like Sam Spade, Tarzan, and even superhero stories like the Shadow. Two Fisted Tales does itself proud by being a complete pulp RPG that supports all of these sub-genres and more. It’s not the different types of pulp that Two Fisted Tales copes with but different scope within them. You can play a gritty game where the heroes are pretty much run of the mill people, an escapist game where the heroes have a distinct edge, a fantastic game where the heroes are nearly better than perfect (let’s use Tarzan as an example again) and even games where the heroes are at an amazing level of competence and power. This scaling of power level is simply achieved through altering the amount of Hero Points players have to spend on their characters.
Character Generation is given a flying start through Templates. All characters start out with a Template but players are later free to shuffle points back and forth to ensure the numbers fit their character concept. By starting off with Templates GMs are able to easily rule out inappropriate characters and swiftly set the initial scene. Further more, Two Fisted Tales takes the time to present some teams. A “team” is a handy excuse for the characters being and working together. The different templates each have a different amount of Hero Points available. The more powerful templates have fewer Hero Points and the weaker templates have the most Hero Points to spend. Hero Points are the important equaliser for the roleplaying game. If you don’t want to reduce some of your ability scores from the Template’s default in order to increase other abilities then spend your Hero Points. Sample templates include Brawler, Cowboy, Feisty Heroine, Flying Ace, Magician, Professor, Scientific Detective or an Everyman.
The ability mechanics offers the usual candidates for the character sheet, measures for mind and muscles alike. The luck attribute is unusual in that it allows the player to have a small stack of playing cards. These cards can be used at their face value (aces as ten, face cards as multipliers or tens) to enhance dice rolls. Luck cards can also be traded for hints or lucky breaks in the game or even to buy a timeout if the GM is running a scene on the click. This latter example is a mixed blessing for the players since it is likely to encourage the GM to run more scenes on the clock. This extra bit of tension suits pulp genre as well. More unusual than even the card dealing luck ability is the weird ability. Weird measures how much (and if) the character stands out from the crowd. The weird ability also sets the maximum and minimum levels for the other abilities. A normal person will have an ability range between 4 and 16. If you want to set an ability to 20 or even 0 then you’ll need to achieve Weird 20 first. At the level, the game system describes you as a freak of nature. If you’re playing a superhero style game then the 20 limit can be exceeded.
Specialities and Masteries are something of an alternative to skills. Specialities narrow down abilities and provide a bonus to dice rolls. There’s the Brain ability that measures the character’s education and academic prowess. There’s the Science speciality that’s associated with Brains, it’s written as Brains (Science). It provides +4 to any brain-based science rolls and in this example, if the GM allows it, will be enough to let the character enjoy the Gadgets shtick. There aren’t any Luck, Weird or Status specialities. Masteries take this further. To benefit from a Mastery you need to have the required Speciality. We’ll be able to continue our example; with Brains (Science) speciality on the character sheet, we’re able to purchase the Brains [Physics] Mastery. Our scientist is a physicist. I think this system works especially well in a pulp setting since the heroes and villains tend to be defined and remembered for what they did well and not which skills they were missing. In game mechanics terms these heroes will be as good as most people in areas they’ve no particular focus in (rolls will be taken from their vanilla ability score) and much better in those areas they want to be good in. In psychological terms, this also works well since there is no long list of empty/zero skills on the character sheet.
Shticks (spelt schtick by Two Fisted Tales (either is correct, I just prefer the former)) are those narrow and unusual focuses that don’t really fit in the main ability/speciality/mastery set. These shticks include magic, martial arts, gadgets and hypnosis. They might be narrow subject areas but they’re bread and butter of many pulp novels and its good that they’re included here in the basic system. The 166-paged PDF has spell lists in it, a wide sampling of gadgets and special tricks a martial artist or hypnotist can do.
Combat can be as quick or as detailed as the GM wants. There’s a basic set of rules which flow quickly and effortlessly given some fairly safe assumptions; that’s its a close quarter fight, no one’s in hiding, everyone’s dodging and trying to hit someone else. If more advanced rules are called for then they’re there. The advanced system plugs directly into the basic and covers firefight complications, driving and more sophisticated melee techniques. The ability for luck cards to reduce the amount of damage is significant in combat; a decent set of cards should allow a hero to shrug off otherwise deadly wounds. This isn’t a bad thing; it keeps the game going and suits many of the genre stories.
Two Fisted Tales offers more help for the GM than just a slick combat system. There’s a large chapter as a Game Master’s Guide. There’s real and helpful advice on creating the pulp feel and for GMs in a hurry, there are tables that’ll quickly produce NPCs and locations. This section looks at some of the plot conventions of the genre. Villains liked to set up deathtraps (ideal for the cliffhanger in a novel series) and so there are rules for these. Similarly, villains in pulp novels liked to send coded messages to henchmen (ideal for the smart hero to decode) and Two Fisted Tales is one of those rare RPGs with rules for cyphers and codes.
There’s a nice touch with experience points in this system. Typically pulp stories didn’t have their characters improving. Flash Gordon never learns Doctor Zarkov’s rocket science. However, since the pulp fiction of the 30s came in instalment the readers would discover that a hero could do something the first time it becomes an issue. We might only discover that Doc Savage is a proficient diver in the second book of his adventures. In Two Fisted Tales you can hold back Hero Points and not spend experience awards straight away. If your character encounters something for the first time – a chance to dive, for example – then the Hero Points can be spent then and there and that means your character has always been able to dive. This is the cheapest way to ‘advance’ your character. If, however, your character nearly drowned because he couldn’t swim or had to hire a diver because he wasn’t able to explore the wrecked ship himself then diving has been an issue before and you can’t pretend he’s always been able to dive. In this latter case, if you want to dive, then your character will need to find a teacher, put in enough practice and then pay more points. I love it when a system suits the flavour of the game and I don’t think I’ve seen an experience point system so thematically crafted before. It’s a big thumbs up for Two Fisted Tales.
This is an easy PDF to read. There’s an on-screen version and a print version. There are thorough bookmarks, stacked into collapsible lists and internal hyperlinks in the document. The detailed contents page is up front (where you need it on a PDF) and the entries there are hyperlinked. You only need to click on the topic that you want and you’re there. There are enough illustrations in Two Fisted Tales, notably every character Template comes complete with a portrait illustration and this really does help picture the character. The PDF pages are in landscape view; short but wide and this allows for a four columns layout. The four columns work pretty well, you shouldn’t find the pages lagging as you attempt to scroll the document and there’s no clutter. Sometimes, though, the four columns don’t best complement tables. The ability tables are presented in a separate PDF file, as is the Christopher Shy front cover and character sheet.
Two Fisted Tales is quite an ambitious RPG – but you’d never notice and this is a mark of success. The game achieves the difficult task of covering the entire pulp “super genre” with an elegant set of mechanics and game advice. I do think it’s necessary to have had some exposure to the pulp genre though, if not from any books, then through the movies; Flash Gordon, The Shadow or Doc Savage. The chances are you’ve read some books that could be considered pulp though; Lovecraft horror or even Sherlock Holmes stories (both published in magazines initially) are both examples. If you’re a fan of pulp fiction then you should feel that Two Fisted Tales does the genre justice.
