A few years back after discovering Todd Sanders’ latest work (Pulp Invasion), I was looking into this game designer and discovered that he had designed a game around the old Gumshoe genre.
I loved it! I searched around and I located the base game for Pulp Detective, all three expansions, the slip-cover to hold all of the boxes together (like a set of books), and the puzzle-piece playing board for the combined experience.
This game (and Pulp Invasion) came about after Mr. Sanders acquired the rights to a whole bunch of pulp magazine covers and interior illustrations. In other words, this is the real deal! These are not modern artists mimicking the pulp era styles, these are authentic pulp era pieces. And they are beautiful!
Just the facts, ma’am!
In Pulp Detective, you are a gritty private eye (or detective, or socialite avenger, etc.) who is hot on the case of some nefarious crime that has been committed. You have a day (or sometimes less!) to find the clues, solve the crime, and confront the culprit what did it!
The game is about playing your odds and hedging your bets. But more importantly, the game is about the story that takes place in your head as Betty O’Leary (Socialite Avenger) follows a lead, leans on an informant, or finds herself in a precarious situation that ends in a cliffhanger while trying to find out who kidnapped Mathilde Lancour, the missing Diamond Heiress… was it Platinum Kelly, the lady the papers call ‘an avid collector of corpses’? Or maybe it was Deuce McDuggan, the notorious underworld button man?
Honestly, the story is probably more entertaining than the game itself. And that story is possible because of the beautiful authentic pulp-era artwork, the simple one-liners at the top of the Investigation Cards (e.g., a Cliffhanger that reads ‘You’re too late!’; or an Informant that reads ‘I will tell you—but no names!’) and the fast-paced nature of the game. The theme and the mechanics meld well. Nothing in the game gets in the way of diving into the past and enjoying some cheap noir thrills!
Pulp Detective has three expansions:
- Double Cross
- Henchmen, Gun Molls, and Traps
- Adventurers, Gadgets, and Nemeses
Each of these adds more cards, more types of cards, and sometimes more dice. But each offers additional options when playing the game. They can be added individually, in pairs, or all three at once. The final releases were a slip-cover to keep all of the game boxes together, and a puzzle-piece game board to regulate the layout of the whole shebang!
Quick note: if you have all of the expansions to Pulp Detective and plan to play with all the options, I highly recommend getting the puzzle board (pictured below). This helps a lot! The slipcase is nice, but not really necessary. Also, I put together a document, available on BoardGameGeek, that consolidates all of the rules into a single, easy to navigate whole.
A Straight Line
If there is a major weakness in the game it is a lack of agency. In his games, there are very few opportunities to make meaningful choices. I have a whole other article on this issue. Other than this one drawback, the game is interesting, fun, and engaging. The imagery does a great job of pulling you in, and the mechanics never get in the way of the enjoyment of the story that unfolds.
If the game could find better ways to add agency—meaningful decision space—then it would be at the top of my list of games. As it stands, it remains middle-of-the-pack. If you like the idea of some pulp-era fun, and can deal with a lack of agency in the game, then I can certainly recommend Pulp Detective.
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