Daring Adventure Tales
Daring Adventure Tales
“Two-Fisted Globe-Trotting Adventure!”
Setting Notes
Daring Adventure Tales is the basic setting for this Adventure Street Omnibus sourcebook. Players can explore lost worlds, solve puzzling mysteries, don mask and cloak and avenge crime on the mean streets, and save the world for democracy.
Pulp Examples
The Shadow
Doc Savage
Secret Agent “X”
Justice, Inc.
Helpful Clichés
Big Game Hunter
Explorer
All-American Athlete
Inventor/Gadgeteer
Gentleman Spy
Spy
Ace Reporter
News Photographer
Agency Detective
Costumed Vigilante
Vigilante
Private Investigator
Scientific Detective
Foreign Legionnaire
Military Veteran
Marine
Sailor
Ship’s Captain
Escape Artist
Stage Magician
Bon Vivant/Dilettante/Socialite
Sample Character
Jackson Dare
Rugged Soldier-For-Hire (4)
Fearless Outdoor Survival Guide (3)
Beer-Swilling, Cigar-Chomping Tall Tale Teller (2)
Lucky Shots [] [] []
House Rules
Why No Magic Rules?
Players may be surprised to find that magic rules are not included in the basic setting, Daring Adventure Tales. This is because in the classic adventure pulps of the 1930’s magic makes almost no appearance. What is first taken for evidence of the supernatural is nearly always shown to have reasonable explanations.
Magic does make appearances in other genres of the pulps, and Strange Western Stories and Weird Crime Report both contain a set of rules for emulating pulp magic in Risus.
Why No Weapon or Vehicle Rules?
Risus tends to emphasize story over mechanics. Combat is designed to be fast, and additional rules covering weapon types and damage modifiers are unnecessary. Risus combat, which can be anything from a high school debate to a running firefight among rival street gangs, is predicated on two concepts: combat is essentially wearing an opponent down in order to gain an advantage and “to the victor go the spoils,” i.e., the winner gets to decide the loser’s fate.
Again, this fits ideally with the spirit of the pulps. Combat is fast and furious, with incredible feats of derring-do, and occasionally, little regard for reason (how else could you get 11 shots out of a six-shooter without reloading?). However, there is not much detail in the narration of the combat sequence (one possible exception is in the Air Pulps, where the types of engines and machine guns were described in almost excruciating detail).
Vehicle rules follow the same rationale. The fewer the rules, the quicker the action. Personal vehicles can be created using the “Sidekicks and Shieldmates” rules from the Risus Companion. Players can spend one die from their 10-dice limit at character creation to cerate a three-dice vehicle (car, plane, boat, jet pack, whatever). A good example of this is found in Ripping Air Yarns with the sample character, “The Phoneix.”
If necessary, GM’s may assign dice to a vehicle during the course of a sequence in order to help play out the scenario.