A few years back I was wandering through various campaigns on Kickstarter (as I am wont to do) and I saw a pair of images that were right up my alley. The images were sci-fi but of the old 1930s to 1950s variety. The sort of images that invoke some of my childhood heroes!
Pulp Invasion! I read the description of the game and saw that it was a solo affair. I decided to get two copies: one for me, and one for my friend, Steve (Steve loves solo gaming). I started getting the expansions, too. I stopped, but that is another story (see below).
This game (and Pulp Detective) 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!
Engage the hyperdrive!
In Pulp Invasion, you are a Free Captain, a sort of trader and mercenary who roams interstellar space. However, you are no ordinary Captain! In secret, you are an agent of the Intergalactic Council, an arm of the government of the peaceful Intergalactic Alliance. Your mission—to seek out a series of Super Weapons being developed by the races of the Cosmic Hegemony. If you cannot locate the Super Weapons in time, the Hegemony will invade the Alliance. Only you stand in the way of war!
In this game you will select planets to explore. You will encounter resistance controlled by one of the alien races, and sometimes discover odd locations on the planet that can impact how the resistance must be dealt with. You only have so many resources (in combat, science, and diplomacy), and engaging with these enemies will likely use up. Of course, the threat could be evaded, but that has its own risks. Assuming you can deal with the threats, you can then search the planet for a super weapon.
The game can be fun and engaging in much the same way that Pulp Detective can: the stories that the game tells can roll out like a B-movie in your head. If you are a fan of old sci-fi, this can be a beautiful look at the artwork of the era, as well as an interesting way to spend a half-hour to an hour in a universe of your own creation.
Pulp Invasion has four expansions, all as numbered ‘X’ releases (X1, X2, X3, and X4). These expansions add new alien factions, new exploration cards, landing teams, spaceships, bridge crews, allied factions, and even a map of the galaxy. A slipcover was also made to hold these boxes together. In all, a beautiful display!
There is an issue with the cards in the X2 expansion; the size of those cards is slightly off (enough to make shuffling near impossible); if you want to play with that expansion, you will likely need to sleeve your cards. This is why I stopped collecting this game. I did return to it, and now I have the whole set.
Quick note: if you have all of the expansions to Pulp Invasion 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.
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 Invasion.
Side Note: the game has you collecting two different symbols (one that looks like a key, another that looks like a circuit board) that appear at the bottom of some cards; those symbols can be spent later for advantages. The rules tell you to set those cards aside when you get them. I found that having tokens for them worked better. I made some originally from old card-stock coins from other games with the appropriate images pasted on them. Recently, I had had some friends over at Etsy 3D print me some instead (TransForm3d3DPrints). I really like how these turned out!
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