Bully Pulpit Games

February Playset of the Month: Havana 1953

Steve — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:51:16 +0000

Mix rum and revolution in equal parts. Add a splash of espionage and shake well and you’ve got Havana 1953, the Playset of the Month for January!

Cuba, 1953. Havana has been called “the sexiest city in the world” and for good reason. The rhythm of the night is fueled by the rhumba beat, cocaine and the dazzling stars of Cuba. The Mob is starting to move in and light up the casinos, flush with easy money and easier dupes.

General Batista’s government rules with an iron fist behind the scenes. All the glamour of Miami only 90 miles away and with none of the rules. So why are there armed bands in the hills led by obscure guerrillas like Fidel Castro and Che Guevara?

This is another great historical playset written by Chris Bennett, and pairs nicely with Los Angeles 1936 and Dallas 1963.

Free Game February: Frost Devils

Jason — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:27:28 +0000

It’s First Free Game February Friday, and that means Frost Devils!

Nome, Alaska, 1901. There’s a gold rush on at the very end of the Earth, attracting every manner of ne’er-do-well and fiend from deranged Kuskokwagmiut to Wyatt Earp. And you, of course.

Frost Devils is a reskinning of Matt Snyder’s excellent game Dust Devils. It can also serve as a really solid and historically meticulous resource guide to Nome at the turn of the last century for any game.

Free Game February

Jason — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:49:25 +0000

It is now February, when the grim clutches of winter deaden our normally cheerful hearts. Haggard and shot though with the icy chill of bootless melancholy, we realized we had to do something to bring cheer back into our lives, and fast! And what better way to spark the fires of friendship and collegiality than to give a bunch of stuff away?

All through the month of February we’ll be uploading free stuff to the Website. Most of it will be small games and all of it comes without a warranty – this material hasn’t been playtested to the BPG standard and may be deeply weird. It’s all workable, though, and we encourage you to check it out and give it a try.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on our Free Game February offerings, which will remain available via the downloads page under the “free games” category indefinitely.

First up: Dungeon Squad 2!

FiascoCon at Endgame Oakland

Steve — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:19:14 +0000

The entire Bully Pulpit team (yes, both of us!) will be taking the corporate jet to Oakland this month for a pair of great Fiasco events at the world-famous Endgame.

On Saturday, January 14 we’ll be helping to run Improv for Gamers with Mia Blankensop, Karen Twelves, Matthew Klein and Sean Nittner. We’ll be using Fiasco as a way to demonstrate how to use improv techniques to improve role-playing games, and just based on the attendees it looks like a lot of fun.

Then on Sunday, January 15th, Endgame is hosting a FiascoCon, and you’re invited! The event will run in two sessions from 11am to 6:30pm and there are just a few spaces left across both sessions. If you’re anywhere nearby and like fun, go to the Endgame website and sign up! We hope to see you there.

January Playset of the Month: De’ Medici

Steve — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:29:36 +0000

Kicking off our 2012 Playset of the Month series for January is De’ Medici, a bit of classy Italian comedy written by Giulia Barbano and Renato Ramonda of the Janus Design collective.

Florence, 1559: a city of opportunities for men who have the guts to pursue them. Here, struggling artists find rich patrons, visionary architects create their dreams, ruthless mercenaries get lucrative contracts, and shrewd merchants become as powerful as kings.

Ever since the times of Cosimo the Elder, the bankers, the Medici, have ruled this city. Sure, way back then it was still called a democracy, but the art, the armies and the votes were all paid with Medici money. The words of the heretic monk Savonarola shook the consciences for a brief time, bringing back a glimpse of the Republic; but the Emperor and the Pope put the Medici back in charge, with Duke Alessandro.

Upon the Duke’s assassination twenty-two years ago, the merchants and lords of the city enthusiastically welcomed young Cosimo, the barely seventeen years old son of the mercenary warlord Giovanni delle Bande Nere, who had never lived in Florence. The nobles saw him as inexperienced, weak, and an easy puppet to manipulate.

They couldn’t have been more wrong.