Pulp Alley AAR – The Gate Beyond the Stars Campaign – The Star Vampire scenario part 1

We played a Pulp Alley-game in club last week, a continuation of our home-brewed campaign. I wrote the scenario and this first post will describe that. Next post will be the AAR.

The scenario:

A portal to an unknown dimension has opened over the sleepy New England town of Little Solberga. By a strange coincidence a couple of leagues were in the town licking their wounds from the earlier encounter with a strange meteor. It is rumoured that some of the leagues hold a very low profile due to some unfortunate shooting at members of law enforcement…

By what is probably not a coincidence, there seem to be an awful lot of cultists in the town and as a portal opened over the centre of the town they started to try to invoke a creature from beyond time and space – a Star Vampire.

Special rules:

- Board - 3’x3’. A small town in New England with houses spread over the board. No perilous areas.

- Cultists - Two cultists per player is placed on the board as per the rules for plot points. Each cultist is a minor plot point and is considered extremely perilous as they are surrounded by a vampiric aura. When a cultist-plotpoint is taken it is not lost when a character falls.

- The Star Vampire – The cultist succeed in summoning the Star Vampire, a major plotpoint. It flies from the gate over the town and lands in the middle of the board and then flies 4+1d6” in a random direction.

The Star Vampire is surrounded by a major vampiric zone that sucks the life-force from all living creatures in it. The area 3” around the Star Vampire is extremely perilous and every creature that enters it any time (for example when the star vampire moves by and the character is hit by the aura) will have an immediate peril. As usual characters will also have a peril when they activate and also when they try to solve the major plotpoint.

At the end of each round the star vampire moves 1d6” in a random direction and it will then attack the closest character with vampirism, sucking his/her lifeforce – that means another peril on that character.

- Lesser Vampiric Zones – The prayers of the cultists call forth lesser vampiric zones. Each cultist has a 1/3 chance per round (at the start of the round before heroes activate. Even on the first round) to call one forth. The zones are 3” diameter, extremely perilous and are placed around the summoning cultist. The zones move 2+1d6” in a random direction at the end of each round. They move through walls, houses etc.

The Star Vampire buds a lesser vampiric zone at the start of each round.

Each league places one zone anywhere on the board (but at least 6” from a board edge) before the leagues are placed.

Moving into a zone or activating in one gives an automatic peril.

Zones that are at least 50” off the edge of the board are immediately removed

- A character that has taken a plot point gets the power to eliminate Lesser Vampiric Zones in LOS. This is an action and is resolved by drawing a random challenge. If it is passed the zone is eliminated. This is a one-shot thing – if you miss the challenge you will have to draw a new challenge next try.

An eliminated Lesser Vampiric Zone gives the league 1 Tip to be used in later scenarios.

This scenario is heavily influenced by the excellent scenario and AAR Hildegaard’s Horrible Hex by Rags. Check it out.

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