A few weeks ago Doug, John and Keith came over for a four player game of Pulp Alley.

We were trying out something a little different, a Pulp Alley Dungeon Crawl with hidden terrain. At the start of the game all areas apart from the four starting areas were covered up and revealed as characters explored new areas.

John’s league started by descending the spiral staircase in the round room. There was one potential exit. To pass a closed door way a card was drawn and depending on the symbol either the door was unlocked and could be passed through, it was locked (meaning you had to pass a challenge but no harm would come if failed), it was trapped (meaning you had to overcome a peril and took damage if you failed), or there was a dungeon denizen in the next area.

Doug’s league choose the earthen tunnel to enter the dungeon and quickly had the secret door at it’s end opened.

My league entered via one of the two main stone staircases. My league was led by Aldipho Tharlett a Drow Sorceress with Danger Sense, Untouchable and Fey Magic (Cursed Presence). She is in the middle of the shot. Alfonso (a sidekick and the muscle) and Lucky (the hound) are scouting up ahead and a second sidekick Luvile (a second sidekick and sorceress) is seen having just descended the stairs.

The scenario was a simple smash and grab scenario with five plot points, one of which was a red herring and one that was the major plot point. The gradual reveal of the terrain added a great additional dimension to the game. I had set it up very quickly in the hour before everyone turned up, so I could not remember where the doors where and which rooms were connected!

There were a couple of doorways that were very fiercely contested throughout the game and whose control changed hands several times. Each player created there league before the game and brought there own miniatures along. It was interesting to see that two players were fielding ‘Aragon’ from Lord of the Rings… obviously twin brothers and all leagues had chosen to bring a dog along, although all dogs were not created equal. More about Keith’s fierce hound Foo Foo latter!

This was a bit of a test, proof of concept game so not all of the terrain was painted (sin of sins), but luckily it was grey and did the job.

Doug and Keith smile wryly over the luck that the Fates had dealt that evening.

Most of the dungeon has now been revealed. Some of the terrain was never revealed as characters did not get to explore it before the end of the game. The dungeon was inhabited by three types of denizen Vampires (Level 3), Skeleton Pirates (Level 2) and Zombies (Level 1). The yellow tokens are potential spawn points. At the end of each turn a card was drawn for each point and if the symbol was fire or lightning a new denizen was placed of the level indicated by the level of the challenge. Denizens were all ‘Monsters’ so the Horror rules were in play with much ‘Freezing’ and running on ‘Blind Panic’.

As I said earlier, there were a couple of doorways that were very hotly contested and which changed hands several times during the game. This was one of them!

My leader, lucky the hound and a sidekick are all held up and savage by Foo-Foo Keith’s killer pet as we try to make a break for the main treasure vault.

Aldipho breaks away and makes it inside, she has made a start on solving the puzzle when she is forced to break off to defend against Keith’s leader.

A skeleton pirate shuffles into action.

At the end of six turns, fortune had favoured Aldipho and her league. She had managed to discover the major plot point fairly early on and despite several desperate scraps, she had managed to hold on to it, giving me 4 victory points for a major and a minor plot point. The other three leagues I believe pocketed a minor plot point each.

However Critter of the Match goes to Foo-Foo from Keith’s league. In over a decade of playing Pulp Alley, I’ve never thought of that combination. 4D8 for an Ally…. Inspired!

If you’ve not tried Pulp Alley, click here to check it out. There are free downloads available of the rules and the card deck’s so you can try it out for free before deciding if you want to buy a copy.