In the beginning

I posted a review of the Larger than Life pulp adventure rules from TwoHourWargames over on my Ooh Shiny Complex blog recently. In it I identified some issues with rules that I felt needed addressing. As part of my extended testing of the rules, I thought that I would post a complete scenario on this blog, and I may continue with further adventures if I find it sufficiently entertaining to do so and I can still afford the time.

Each scenario in Larger than Life comprises several scenes, much like a film. At the end of the scenario will be a final confrontation with the villain. This brings me to a minor gripe. In Larger than Life, the villain is called the Big Bad. To my ears that is far too modern and does not give the flavour of the pulps. Therefore I shall refer to the villain rather than the Big Bad. It's a matter of taste.

Not every scene in a Larger than Life scenario will result in a figure game, and I identified in my review that the non-game scenes were actually rather sterile in terms of the mechanics of dealing with them. One of the things that the rules suggest you do is keep a journal of your character's adventures. This blog is that journal. By writing each scene up as an entry in that journal, you can bring to the game much more atmosphere and the figure games themselves will have more background. In doing so, I hope to show what can be done with the game and also to test it out.

A Larger than Life scenario, as well as being organised into scenes, revolves around clues. Each scene is based on the idea that you are looking for someone or something that will help you reach your goal. At the start of the scene you roll for what the aim of the scene is, where it will take place and how you get there. One conclusion I have come to in generating the initial entries for this journal is that the dice rolls for determining where you go and how you get there do not always make sense. Therefore, I shall not always follow them. Sometimes a particular location or approach is the logical next step, so I shall do that instead. On other occasions, the dice rolls have created interesting situations that require a certain amount of imagination to fit them in. Where this is entertaining, I have done so.

In order to have the final showdown, you need a minimum of 10 clues if your character is Rep 4, as mine is. On average, you would need 14 clues, and there is always a chance that you will not actually get the clue when you go looking for it. Therefore, a Larger than Life game can consist of a lot of scenes. It is also possible that the villain will come looking for you, which can then lead to capture, villainous soliloquoys and daring escape attempts. Will we see all of those in this one game? Who knows?

And so, on with the game ...