Pulp Matters - Cepheus Journal – Issue #008 & A Cepheus Engine Flash Gordon Pulp Style Campaign

 So last night I took night off from the regular blogging together with friends & fellow DM's. We began speaking about a 1950's style mini Cepheus Engine campaign for the after the Halloween holiday. And here's where we get into low cost solutions for such a 2d6 campaign with Cepheus Journal – Issue #008. P-O Bergstedt's Space Patrol article is perfect as an addition to a Pulp Cepheus Engine campaign. 

Where would a Space Patrol game be perfectly balanced in an alternative 1940's, 1950's or 1960's campaign?! Why where the holes of the Space Police not be able to fill all of those holes in interstellar politics?! Not at all. The opportunities would be for adventurers to slip in & take up some of the slack. And here's where Michael Brown's Thrill of the Thirties! 2D6 Adventure in the Pulp Era could help to take up some of the PC & NPC generation burden. 

The otherday there was a thread about running a Flash Gordon style original Traveller game & what supplements could be used to run it. With the Cepheus Engine nothing could be easier actually. A few minor modifications to the Clement or Earth Sector books by Independence Games. And you've got your Pulp  Space Western Frontier. 

Why would a  Mongo style planet  be so very disjointed in it's technological levels?! Well that's easy, Mongo or an appropriate Pulpy planet was artificially maintained as an elite, exclusive, and very real interstellar hunting planet. All of the signs & symbols are there. The colonists rebelled and took over. They got a taste for conquest and took over their system & surrounding systems under a Ming The Merciless. This went on for sometime even taking a Sword of Cepheus style magical or occult planet. The people of our 'Mongo style world took on these trappings ala the Late Roman Empire. Later on their ambitions knew no bounds. And they captured a much higher tech level axiom planet & it's inhabitants who were not used to the level of violence. They forced the aliens to construct a planetary drive system. The planet & its sourrounding moons became a wanderer accross the cosmos. 

And this brings us back to Cepheus Journal – Issue #008 where the cool intelligences of the Martians are gearing up their warmachine. The problem & reason is that 'Mongo our wandering star of destruction has raided Martian colonies. And this has thrown the Martians into a bit of a tail spin and they've begun raiding Earth sector colonies. The greater threat though is the 'Mongo style world'. The current rulers maintain the artificial eco system out a sense of tradition. The various uplifted animal races are at each other's throats. And Stellagemma Publishing's Games Space Patrol could give the Space Patrol outposts much needed relief. 

If your looking for a Flassshh Gordon style PC then perhaps that's going to be your characters or party. This style of campaign opens all kinds of opportunities for a rag tag party of adventurers. Perhaps a renagade commander from the Space Force by Paul Drye from Cepheus Journal – Issue #008  whose had it with the red tape & paperwork. The thing to remember about Mongo & planets like it are that they are artificially maintained & it says so by Dr. Zarcoff in the original Filmation cartoon.