Locations
Ah yes, the pulp era: when things were innocent, when good guys were more likely to be seduced by evil through threatening loved ones than by appealing to their nonexistent “dark” sides, when bad guys were really bad, and when there was no room for negotiation. It's the era of the movie serial, the pulp stories, and the early comics.
I was exposed to a few Cubes over on CubeTutor.com that were very artistic in nature. They had unbalanced colors with unusual themes to give a new feel. After rereading the rules to Hollow Earth Expeditions (an RPG set in the 1936 world with a hollow earth populated by dinosaurs and rife with Atlanteans, Nazis, and fun!) in the last few weeks, I was bitten by this idea to make a flavor-based Cube. What better subject than one that resonated with pulpish charm?
What aspects of this era inspire me? Well, the pulps are all about adventure out there, in the ice-bound regions of the world like the poles or Tibet. They are set in the deserts, particularly Arabia and Egypt. They are set in the far jungles of Africa and Central America. They are set in the caves and underground areas. And of course, many are established in alternate places like Mars, the moon, or a hollow world under the ground. The heroes are battling against the elements as much as their foes. Volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, diseases, and more populate these tales.
And what makes a hero? Consider some of the great heroes: John Carter, Tarzan, Conan, Flash Gordon, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Doc Savage, Zorro, the Phantom, and Buck Rogers. They are the bigger-than-life characters who endure to this day with direct legacies into superheroes, movies, comics, and video games. It is an era of big heroes and bigger villains: melodrama and serials.
The characters in these worlds were reporters chasing a story, hunters trying to locate bigger game, explorers trying to uncover strange new vistas, academics searching for strange and forbidden knowledge, warriors fighting for justice, detectives cracking the case, and a lot more. It’s the era of pirates and dinosaurs, of archaeology and spiritualism.
The next place I looked was at the nasty conditions that followed. In went Hurricane and Earthquake, Fissure and Ice Storm, Flood and Sandstorm, Fissure and Aftershock. With these exotic locales combined with deep weather problems, I began to look for pulp elements to flavor the Cube—in went Pirates, Barbarians, Nomads, and more.
But the single most important element was the traps. The traps from Zendikar block included many that I think made a lot of sense in my pulp world. I didn't include them all, but most of them are in. The adventure aspect of the world feels very H. Rider Haggard, and thus, I pushed those elements in the Cube. (Not just him with Allen Quartermain either; one common story in the era is of explorers in a pyramid hitting traps of countless age.) I also added cards like Sandstone Deadfall, Pit Trap, and Trip Noose.
One of the key things I think is important about the Pulp Cube is how things are hinted. For example, did you ever read the book Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne? (Here comes a plot spoiler of a book that’s more than a hundred years old.) For most of the book, these explorers are heading down the caves in Iceland, right? Then, near the very end, they see a giant humanoid creature from a distance—just one creature (plus a skull), and that's it. But that little bit is enough to truly create a lot of questions. (End spoiler.)
That's the pulp era: a hint of something. So instead of having scads of nasty monsters, we have a few. There’s just one Dragon (Shivan Dragon). There’s just a single Sphinx. There’s one Unicorn, and so forth. The best examples are Demons. Demons have been in European myth and legend for centuries. And they had a presence in the pulps, too. But the pulps are less about demons than other things. Other than Tombstalker and Demon of Death's Gate, there are no Demons. Instead, we have the hint of them with cards like Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Revelation, and such. Perhaps Possessed Nomad counts.
I wanted a banner Vampire to represent the horror pulps of this age. Baron Sengir seemed to be the best trope for it. So I added in two other Sengirs as well to flesh him out a tad. But again, that's it. You don't encounter huge warrens of vampires—one is enough! There is a pulp-horror vibe here, but a lot of pulp horror of the time was different than expected. Many of the common horror tropes of today (such as zombies) were not codified (or that common actually). Pulp-era horror is my favorite genre, and there are a ton of writers, such as F. Marion Crawford and Algernon Blackwood, who are writing stuff that doesn't resemble the tropes of horror today. I mean, you have a horror story the entire plot of which is a man discovering that his wife is actually his sister. That's it—no gore, no slashers, no undead, no ghosts, nothing.
However, one final horror-related theme (also seen a lot in fantasy pulps) is the concept of people sacrificing folks at altars of power to demon, gods, eldritch forces, or the like. I had to include cards such as Dark Ritual, Sacrifice, Carnage Altar, and a lot more. And again, Conan is just as likely to stop this crap as an antiquarian in a Lovecraft story. It's a massively common trope of the era. I also included a lot of cultists and witches to flesh this aspect out, too.
Remember that there are enough pulp elements and dangers with things like Vampire Bats, a Brood of Cockroaches, or a Fog of Gnats. Another theme is dealing with disease and corruption. We have Pox, Exotic Disease, and other cards that match the dangerous physical conditions of the places these folks were exploring. (Many classic pulp stories, such as Conan, have him just fighting humans and a giant beetle and a giant centipede or something, with little true monsters in the tale.)
I also focused on sea-pulp adventures and then on researching, dangerous lore, and such. For benthic pulps, again, I wanted just a taste. So we have one Leviathan, one Kraken, and such. Sunken City is a great choice, as are cards like Treasure Hunt.
Again, we are pushing that dangerous-information path. Pulps regularly had hidden secrets that had to be found in dusty libraries, antiquated maps, and more. There was a seditious quality to knowledge. As such, in leap Archivist and Hapless Researcher and others. Layered on top is stuff like Forbidden Alchemy and both Fatal Lore and Forgotten Lore.
White was the hardest color to flesh out. Sure, it has some peaceful folk, but there are also a lot of ways to save people. So I included a few things, such as Witch Hunter and Alaborn Zealot (check out that art, man). But still, at the end, things like Spare from Evil and Altar's Light hit us up. But it still has fewer cards than the other colors.
My Top 10 Pulpiest Cards would include Narrow Escape as well as Rocket Launcher, Treasure Hunter, Big Game Hunter, Ghost Town, and Predator, Flagship.
And, of course, once you get started, you could add in things like card-draw (Tidings, Omen), more Fogs (Heavy Fog, Moment's Peace), counters (something generic like Dismiss), more life-drain (Death of a Thousand Stings), or things like Avoid Fate, Giant Growth, or Wheel of Fortune. Consider Fear or Damnation, Pacifism or Arrest. You could add counters with Increasing Savagery or Decree of Savagery.
Some of my cards were chosen for art, some for mechanics, and some for name. And a few combined all three in a rich panoply of flavor-fueled beauty (such as Birds of Paradise).
So would you like to see my (not-that-developed) Pulp Cube? It's not balanced for casting cost or color or creatures vs. noncreatures or any of that. It's just going to be fun! It's over at CubeTutor.com: That link is to the visual spoiler of the Cube. Just enjoy it. (The full list is below too.)
Anyway, I can't discuss all of the cards individually, but if you want to know why I chose a certain card or three, just ask away!
See you next week,
Abe Sargent
