Miniatures provide lots of entertainment

There are games you love at first look, and Pulp Alley is one of those for me.

Pulp Alley is a skirmish rules set which takes gamers into a world populated by the likes of The Shadow, The Spider, The Bat, and numerous other pulp characters from books and radio.

I have to say Pulp Alley became one of my favourite miniature games about the time I got to the rules section for creating your own 'league'.

"Beyond the general basing rules and a smidgen of common sense, it is up to the individual player to decide what model best represents their character."

A read through of the rules leaves you with the sense this game was crafted out of love for the genre, and apparently that is the case.

"Dad (David Phipps) has been writing rules since he was a young kid. Whenever he wanted to play a certain time period or genre, from Napoleonic to Sci-Fi, he would just make up the rules. Although these early rules were just for his friends, some are still used by other players today," explained Mila Phipps.

"Originally Dad set out to create a follow-up to some modern skirmish the rules he designed for Ambush Alley and this pretty quickly developed into Pulp Alley. The mechanics for our Pulp Alley have a very broad scope. I remember us using cowboy miniatures for the first few play-test games of Pulp Alley, but to Dad 'westerns' are very much part of the pulp world.

"Dad is a crazy pulp/serial fan. That is where all the inspiration for the Pulp Alley mechanics actually come from. While reading some old pulp or watching an early serial, I can vividly recall him shouting out, 'That's how it has to work!' Then off he would go to write another part of the rules or to rewrite something.

"We use the word "pulp" to describe the full scope of genres that were covered in the old pulp magazines - sci-fi, fantasy, adventure, westerns, detective tales, mythos, horror, mysteries, war stories and so much more.

Like a number of miniature skirmish games, Pulp Alley does not have a dedicated miniature line supporting its rule set.

Instead gamers paw through their often extensive collections of miniatures, find some they feel fit the pulp hero genre, and then they create their own game characters based on a formula from the rulebook. In the case of Pulp Alley the rules for character creation are pretty straight forward, so the task is not overly daunting.

"Your Pulp Alley characters have different skills and abilities to make them unique. Some characters may be career soldiers, g-men, mad scientists, intrepid explorers, brash adventurers, or dangerous gangsters - it is all up to you.

Since you get to assign different dice values to a range of abilities, and select 'perks' from a rather good list, you can customize a character nicely.

Given the setting my first thought was to create a 'league' lead by The Black Wolf. Yes there was a level of good old ego involved in wanting to play a character I created in book form, The Black Wolf having appeared in two published books to-date.

As luck sometimes has it, there is actually a Black Wolf miniature from Zombiesmith Games so that avoided having to match a mini to a created character.

The Starling was obvious as a sidekick. Now there is no Starling mini, but a Trencher Commando from Warmachine was a female, with a spy glass and rifle, perfect for the character based on a sharp-shooting sniper.

Next up was the Copper Fox as an 'ally'. A sort of female Wolf, getting by on her wits and fighting skills, while keeping her identity hidden behind a mask. A Heroclix Question character with a repaint was an ideal miniature.

Doc, a supporting character always ready to patch up The Wolf well away from hospital lights was next. An extra Blackwater Gulch doctor mini was perfect, with a black bag in-hand. The top hat had to go, but a bit of filing turned it into a bowler easy enough.

The only thing missing was a healing skill.

Sgt. Liam MacGregor was another ideal supporting character, and I found a mini of a guy in a suit, pistols in hand. Check out the game at www.pulpalley.com

If anyone is interested feel free to contact [email protected]