Justice Inc.: The Roleplaying Game of the 20's & 30's Author: Aaron Allston, Steve Peterson, Michael Stackpole Published in 1984 by Hero Games Boxed game containing 2 booklets (96 and 89 pages). ISBN: - Price: Out of Print |
The first real contender for "generic" system in the 80' was the Hero
System (even if FGU had a stab at it, too, using a set of more-or-less-
compatible rules in many of their games).
Justice Inc. was the Hero
System instantiation for Pulp.
The game did not have a large success, so even if a couple of supplements
appeared for it, it slipped into obscurity pretty soon.
This is actually
a pity, because it was a fine attempt at the genre, even if many perhaps
would object at the fairly crunchy nature of the rules.
The game was sold in a boxed set, containing a rule manual (96 pages) including anything you really needed to know in order to play. This manual and the box had the same picture for cover, a pretty good color image by Brain K. Hamilton. The inner illos were b/w drawings, of varying quality.
The other booklet was the Campaign Book, (sporting an amusing, but horribly ill-executed picture including a lot of Pulp personalities). This is at once a sourcebook (with the usual timeline, notes on money and law), a guide for the GM (with hints and tips about staging the game, and notes on the different types of pulp, including Spicy Stories and westerns), and an "adventures" section containing a full-fledged "adventurers' club" setting and four adventures of varying length and detail.
The system was a streamlined version of the Champions/Hero System rules.
This means that most of the "tweakable" stuff was not included, but the
basic mechanics (OCV/DCV, stun and body damage, turn etc.) are all there.
The game has a short but interesting list of "weird powers" (like
Hypnotism and "Aura Reading"), and can work well even if you do not have
access to any other hero rulebook. The only exception is the use of gadgets:
if you fancy a "Doc Savage" character, you need Champions.
Apart from this, you will find most of what you may need inside, including an abstract but workable system fro vehicle chases and combats. There is also a brief "bestiary" including some normal animals plus standard "horror" creatures like vampire and werewolf.