PulpFest was founded on the premise that the pulps had a profound effect on American popular culture, reverberating through a wide variety of mediums — comic books, movies, paperbacks and genre fiction, television, men’s adventure magazines, radio drama, and even video and role-playing games. The summertime destination for fans and collectors of vintage popular fiction, art, and related materials, PulpFest seeks to honor the pulps by drawing attention to the many ways such magazines have inspired writers, artists, film directors, software developers, and other creators over the decades.
Last year, PulpFest introduced a gaming track. Many of the themes found in the world of modern games resonate from the pulps and the stories published in those magazines. There are games based on Conan, the Cthulhu Mythos, space operas such as Doc Smith’s Lensman series, westerns, mysteries and, of course, the pulp heroes. Role-playing games, or RPGs, are especially noted for quick action, cliff-hangers, and adventure.
It is quite appropriate that games will be returning to this summer’s pulp convention. Both TSR Hobbies — the original publisher of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS — and Wizards of the Coast — the company that popularized the collectible card game genre with MAGIC: THE GATHERING — served as the publisher of AMAZING STORIES. The first continuing science fiction magazine, its ninetieth anniversary will be feted at PulpFest 2016. The convention is working with several Columbus-based gaming groups and individuals to develop our gaming track. They will also manage our games for members who want to explore this aspect of the pulps.
The Columbus chapter of the Ohio Pathfinder Society will run RPGs dealing with weird tales, ancient ruins, and murder mysteries set in a fantasy world based on the Pathfinder RPG. Another Ohio group, Rogue Cthulhu, will be running role-playing adventures based on H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos and other weird tales set in the 1920s. This year, we’ll be adding the FELLOWSHIP OF THE WHITE STAR game system, which utilizes a semi-historical setting of 1905 – 1914 Earth. Join the Fellowship in their fight against the evils plots of Rasputin, Imhotep, Dracula, Baba Yaga, Emilio Aguinaldo, Arthur Evans, Jack the Ripper, and the Six-Fingered Hand.
The PulpFest gaming track will also feature board and card games that will be set up for people looking to find some new and interesting entertainment at the convention. FORTUNE AND GLORY is an exciting board game in which you are an adventurer crossing the world in search of lost artifacts, like many of the heroes of ARGOSY, another magazine that PulpFest 2016 will be saluting. Additionally, we’ll have ELDRITCH HORROR, a board game featuring a band of investigators fighting the influence of Cthulhu around the globe, plus CTHULHU DICE, ELDER SIGN, and ZOMBIE DICE. Other board games loaded with cliffhangers, science fiction, aliens and mysteries will also be available at the convention. We’ll have games that can last from twenty minutes to several hours and are planning to have prizes available for our game-playing members, depending upon support from gaming companies.
The PulpFest 2016 gaming track will begin at 10 AM on Saturday, July 23, and last until 10 PM or thereabouts. All games will take place in the Clark Room, located on the second floor of the Hyatt Regency. There will be eight tables set up where a variety of board games, card games, and role-playing games will be presented. Watch for the PulpFest PLAY banner outside the entrance to our game room.
The only requirements to play games at PulpFest 2016 are a PulpFest membership, your imagination, and a desire to have a good time. So if you enjoy pulps and you enjoy games, PulpFest will be the place to be. You can join us at the beautiful Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio, beginning on Thursday evening, July 21, and running through Sunday afternoon, July 24. Click the registration button below our home page banner to learn how to register for “Summer’s AMAZING Pulp Con,” also known as, “Summer’s FANTASTIC Pulp Gaming Con.”
(FORTUNE AND GLORY, THE CLIFFHANGER GAME — designed by Jason C. Hill and published by Flying Frog Productions — is a fast-paced game of high adventure, vile villains, edge-of-your-seat danger, and cliffhanger pulp movie action. Players travel the globe in search of ancient artifacts, fending off danger and villains at every turn in a quest for ultimate reward. So strap on your adventure boots and goggles, fire up the engines on the seaplane, and grab some extra ammo for your revolver … the Nazis already have a head start and in this race for fortune and glory, there’s no prize for second place!)
