“Careful!” whispers the old rogue, snatching at the arm of Luscila and pointing just in front of her now-arrested stride. With a deft prod of his walking staff, he trips the hidden plate in the floor, jumping back at the last second as a deadly, poisoned dart zips in front of their faces to impale itself in the opposite wall. Luscila clutches at her pearls and gasps.
“A trap. A very clever one,” chimes in Delilah from behind, cleaning her horn-rimmed glasses thoughtfully, “Perhaps using the steam of the hot springs nearby.”
“Yeah well I couldn’t give a damn,” comes the gruff voice of Travis from the shadows. Walking into the light, fluffing his sweated-through tank top in the stagnant air and glancing around apprehensively, he mutters, “let’s just get the prize and get out of this creepy place.”
The rogue takes a few tentative steps forward before turning around to address the others. “We’re almost there. You wait here, I’m going to find the antechamber. Don’t…move.” He walks gingerly to the other side of the cavernous, hewn-stone chamber, shuffling and hopping at intervals to avoid dangers only he can see. “Almost there,” he repeats the mantra to himself under his breath, “almost…th-“
The floor rumbles menacingly as dust and debris begin to fall from the ceiling. From somewhere deep beneath them the adventurers hear the rhythmic clicking of clockwork as the ground underneath them begins to open! Splitting down the middle, the entire floor begins to slide outward underneath the walls, revealing a deep, yawning crevasse, bubbling below with superheated magma. The deadly glow illuminates the razor sharp spikes slowly descending from above, mere inches from the party’s heads…
Will our intrepid adventurers escape!?
Find out in the next exciting episode of
Thrilling Adventures!
This Powered by the Apocalypse role playing game is for everyone who’s ever watched pulp adventure scenes like the one described and thought, “I want to do that!” Whether you wished you could play the dashing hero clambering up dangerous bluffs; or the plucky kid who miraculously manages to escape from the villains; or the fortune teller who discovers deep and ancient secrets of the occult that No Man Should Know – you can do it all here.
The idea behind Thrilling Adventures! is to re-create the atmosphere of those pulp adventure movies we all love; so the characters, the moves, and the setting are designed to create a sense of danger, excitement, and drama.
It’s easy! Grab a few players, two 6-sided dice, some pencils, and the rulebook. One player is the Director and in charge of keeping the scenes moving, acting out the parts of non-player characters, and generally keeping the “movie” together. The other players are the Adventurers; they each choose a playbook (which are basically archetypal characters like “Movie Star” or “Kid”), make a few quick decisions about their character, and they’re good to go!
Once characters are created, the group sets scenes and uses the mechanics of the game to act out those scenes. They could be fleeing pursuers through the streets of Bombay, having a mid-air gun battle on a zeppelin, cautiously probing the depths of an ancient temple, or any number of other scenarios you can imagine! The movie you create is entirely up to you, and the mechanics of Thrilling Adventures! are here to help.
What sets this system apart from a lot of other RPGs is its accessibility. There’s no need for everyone at the table to know the game; as long as the Director is familiar with the rules, everyone else can just relax and tell a fantastic story. Rules are simple and built-in to the Playbooks themselves, which means no referencing charts, or looking up spells, or dealing with that most annoying of all mechanics: encumbrance. Plus, because the Adventurers roll the dice when necessary, the Director can focus on creating the fiction, not rolling for hits.
Tell your story, do some amazing stunts, make some moves from your Playbook, and you’ve got everything you need to have the next great thrilling adventure!
The playbooks for Thrilling Adventures! include all of your favorite archetypal characters from pulp adventure films. You might choose the Inventor, who’s a whiz with gadgets and thingamabobs; or the Schmo, whose answer to most problems is at the end of his fist; or the classic Treasure Hunter, with the ever-present fedora and bullwhip. Each playbook has specialized moves that make your adventurer do the things they do, and do them with panache–or fail spectacularly.
There’s also a unique “Bonds” system, where at the beginning of the movie you decide how you’re related to each of the other adventurers. It’s possible one of them knows a dark secret about you, or perhaps another is your ward. These bonds not only establish a connection that creates fun and dramatic scenes; but also can be “pushed” via the in-game mechanics, in order to deepen the bond. After a few sessions, you may find you have a lifetime pal in another adventurer–or a rival! Either way, you’re sure to be an important part of one another’s epic story.
tolleSpiele Games! 