Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 2nd Shelf
The Second Shelf: Villains & Famous Real People
Heroes are nothing without villains, at least not in a Pulp environment (though it’s also true of most other forms of gaming). Each of them has to be distinctive and interesting and challenging in an entirely different way, requires their own personal style, their own flair, their own Gimmicks.
Villains tend to be less iconic than heroes, and so most pulp villains are not nearly as well-known as the most famous pulp heroes. That is a double-edged sword – it gives the GM more scope for creativity but it means that it is harder to draw upon existing genre characters for inspiration. Arguably, then, it is even more important to have a villains’ shelf than it is to have one relating to Heroes.
If it weren’t for the villain functioning as the engine room of the plot, however, their important would be overwhelmed by the major NPCs. These come in two flavors: the Famous Person from Real Life who is appearing an adventure, and the important recurring character with which the PCs interact regularly, i.e. the supporting cast.
Mike’s advice is to always treat the supporting cast as though they were heroes in their own right – but to a lower standard for one reason or another.
There are a couple of NPCs in the Adventurer’s Club who are more than a match for any given PC who is on their own – but they each suffer from at least one (and usually several) fatal flaws. The one is that they don’t cooperate with each other as well as they do with the PCs, which in turn is not as well as the PCs cooperate with each other. On top of that, they are aging. One, probably the most powerful and famous of them all, of the Action Man archetype, has already been forced to hang up his spurs and hand the baton over. Nor is he the oldest of them, but Investigator-types don’t need to be as physically active.
The more strongly-defined you make a featured NPC’s personality, the more they will grab the spotlight unless the GM makes it his business to prevent it.
Take the recently- (and reluctantly-) retired adventurer we mentioned, Doc Storm, our Homage to Doc Savage. When the campaign started, the PCs took on assignments that were too small for him – he had bigger fish to fry. Before too long, he started throwing more important missions their way because he had been adventuring for a long time and had built up a significant rogues’ gallery that kept him perpetually on the hop. Outside circumstances soon forced him to rely on the PCs keeping the world in one piece while he got involved in the often-dirty world of Washington Politics. Eventually, he achieved his goals – but he needed the PCs help to do it. In the good old days, he could have done it all alone, but those days were done.
Doc went from dominating any scene in which he appeared to being an important character – but one who was, in many ways, less directly significant to events. He functions now as an enabler, a plot delivery vehicle, and someone who takes care of the day-to-day stuff so that the PCs are free to handle the bigger problems.
The character has been handicapped to make him less significant than the PCs. Everyone in the room still quietens down when he speaks – but slowly but surely he is transitioning from an adventurer to just another staff member.
So the second category of NPCs should be handled using the Heroes shelf. That leaves the first – people like Churchill and FDR and Elliot Ness and Himmler and Goebbels and the Prime Minister of Canada (who hasn’t yet actually appeared in an adventure).
The problem is that everybody recognizes these characters, and they will instantly recognize it if your delivery is off, even just a little. To bring these characters to life, you need to understand them, to know who they are.
Villains and Significant NPCs – the subjects of the second shelf of the Essential Reference Library.
Relevance to other Genres
Heroes are Heroes, and Villains are Villains. Does anyone out there seriously think that Fu Manchu couldn’t make a good James Bond villain? Or be a good model for a D&D villain? Or Blofeld a good Pulp Villain?
The same holds true for significant NPCs – they can function as role models for important NPCs in genres which are temporally out of step with their real lives. If you wanted an inspiration Dwarven Leader, stiff-necked and unyielding (no matter what the pressure), you could do a lot worse than to ‘res-kin’ Winston Churchill. There were a lot of famous people alive and active during the pulp era – sometimes it seems like there were more of them then than at any other point in recent history simply because these people’s names and fame have (mostly) survived the test of time.
Of course, ‘famous’ can include the infamous, too….
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 Image credit: freeimages.com / m s Shelf IntroductionThis shelf contains two sections: Villains and Famous Real People from the Pulp era. Villains deals with the forces of Evil, the antagonists of a campaign. Some of the reference sources listed in the Heroes section will also be relevant. Much of the content of this section could also have been placed elsewhere; for example, an item on the Mafia could go here, or it could go in the Crime section. Resources focused on the Nazis could go here, or could go into the ‘famous real people’ section, or in the Germany section, or into one of the Fringe Science/Occult sections, or – in some cases – could even belong on the Weaponry shelf. And some of them have ended up in all, or almost all, of those places. Where we felt a resource was most useful for the generation of Pulp Villains, we tried to put it in this section, unless there was some other focus to them that made another section especially relevant. If the focus is on individuals, it tended to get moved to the other section of this shelf. We have also included Antiheroes in this section. Famous Real People deals in a great many individuals who might be encountered in a Pulp campaign and who are sufficiently interesting or important to get right. We’ve used a very flexible definition of “famous” – Mike and Saxon recognized all but one or two, and Blair knew them all. We could have included a lot more people. Anyone who became famous in the 1940s was almost certainly running around somewhere in the 1930s, whether that be Rommel or Ella Fitzgerald or Bob Hope or Ernest Hemingway or Pablo Picasso. There’s at least a reasonable chance that some of the most famous people of the 50s were also active in this era – if you look in the right place, you would find Richard Nixon or Elizabeth Taylor (born in 1932) or Frank Sinatra or John Wayne. We have (for the most part – there may be a ring-in or two) restricted ourselves to people who were actually famous in the pulp era on the grounds that there is more likely to be material of relevance to a Pulp Campaign contained in books and documentaries about those individuals. It’s still a very long list.
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Villains & AntiheroesPerhaps surprisingly, there are no “For Dummies” entries in this section. Prices and Availability were correct at the time of compilation. |
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Books about Villains & Antiheroes
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037. Rick Lai’s Secret Histories: Criminal Masterminds – Rick LaiThis volume does for villains and antiheroes what “Daring Adventurers” does for the good guys – collect a bunch of non-canonical essays and material and publish it all in one place. Possibly more useful to the GM for that reason. |
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038. Masterminds and Madmen – Rob Hudson [Pulp Hero sourcebook]Pulp Hero, for anyone who doesn’t know, is the Hero System variant for the Pulp Genre. This supplement lists five masterminds, four organizations, and dozens of individual villains. Available from Amazon: http://amzn.to/1MGN8Ki Also available from Hero Games is a Book+PDF deal and PDF only offer; however the PDF costs about the same as a second-hand physical copy, while the bundle offer gets you a new copy of the book AND the PDF for only about 50% more. The supplement is useful for character concepts and ideas generation even without knowing the game system, but requires Hero System 5th edition and possibly also the Pulp Hero sourcebook to get full value from the product.
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039. The Complete Idiot’s Guide To The Mafia, 2nd Edition – Jerry CapeciYou don’t have to investigate the history of the “Families” deeply to realize that, like the Yakuza, they started out as something completely different to their popular perception and evolved; you can’t even say that they were corrupted by power, as they continued to fulfill their traditional roles as mediators, brokers, and facilitators even during their most notorious periods. In fact, the more you look into that history, the more fascinating the dichotomy between “family” and “crime family” becomes. There are two editions of this book; the newer has more copies available at a lower price, so that is the one we have linked to. |
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Documentaries About Villains and AntiheroesPrices and Availability were correct at the time of compilation. We have not applied the availability criteria with the same rigor to Documentaries. Unless it was somehow noteworthy, we have neither looked for, nor linked to, Blue-ray versions. Unless otherwise noted, a straightforward copy-and-paste of the title should reveal such if those are your preference. |
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040. Chronicle Of The Third Reich (4 episodes of 60 mins)This documentary series contains fresh perspectives and previously unseen footage that can change your entire perception of the events surrounding Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 40s (they did Mike’s). The first half of the series (pre-war) is more relevant to the Pulp GM than the second, which deals with the regime during the War years. Purchase Options: Amazon US: $10-11 http://amzn.to/1R3gQoO Amazon UK: Import from US (Region 1) very few copies in stock £13 http://amzn.to/1OYuKHi Amazon Canada: limited availability, CDN$20 http://amzn.to/21ZckQb |
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041. Churchill and the Fascist PlotThis documentary was produced by Channel 4 in the UK and is “The compelling story of how Winston Churchill and MI5 hunted down a group of British fascist aristocrats plotting to bring down the government and forge an alliance with Adolf Hitler”. Unfortunately, it appears to have never been released on DVD. Some search results suggested that it may be available through Netflix, so we are listing it here anyway. |
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042. Churchill’s TraitorsThe story of Semphill and Rutland, who are believed to have become Spies for Japan between the World Wars. You can read more about the documentary in which is too comprehensive to adequately synopsize and too well-written to ignore. Although this documentary appears never to have been released on DVD, it seems to be available through and is well worth the effort. |
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043. Italian Americans (Part 3: 1930-1945)The only reason only one episode of this excellent series is recommended is because it was broadcast at an odd time in Australia and as a result, we missed the first two. The series documents the Italian immigration wave into the US at the start of the 20th century and the impact that the new ethnic group had on the developing nation – it was not always what conventional history and Hollywood would have you believe! It’s arguable that America would not be the country it is today without their contributions, both for good and ill. Amazon US: DVD Set: reasonable quantities at a reasonable price http://amzn.to/1RXpEjG Amazon UK: Plenty of copies but rather more expensive at £17.99 http://amzn.to/1PTf9cH Amazon Canada: A reasonable number of copies at a reasonable price relative to most of the Canadian DVDs that we have looked at http://amzn.to/1SzHO8H |
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044. Paddy-WhackedThe story of the Irish-American Gangster. A lot of people seem to think that all the real gangsters were Italian. This documentary from the History Channel will soon show them how wrong that opinion is. Amazon US: plenty of copies at good prices: http://amzn.to/20U22ji Amazon UK: a more limited range of US import copies for £24 or more: http://amzn.to/1S8m3ka Amazon Canada: A limited number of copies but also at a reasonable price for a change: http://amzn.to/1WDjCYL Amazon also lists a book on the subject written by the star of the documentary, under the same name, at very cheap prices. |
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045. The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler (3 parts)This three-part BBC documentary is an attempt to understand, and explain, how Hitler became so beloved by the German people prior to, and during, World War II. Anything you GM that is set in period Germany will be less effective if you haven’t watched this. Unfortunately, not everyone will get to do so – but never fear, we’ve got you covered! Amazon UK have a few copies and more from other vendors at reasonable prices http://amzn.to/1NwtcLf and also have it on streaming video http://amzn.to/23VO6Fv. But if the DVDs run out and streaming video doesn’t float your boat, there is a further option below. Amazon Canada don’t have the DVD at all. So move on to the final solution below. THE BOOK is something that none of us have read, so we can’t list it as an unqualified recommendation. But, that caveat aside, there’s wide availability and if it’s half as good as the documentary series, well worth the effort – especially if you can’t access the documentaries. Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1TX3Dlv, Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1slQs4u, and Amazon Canada: http://amzn.to/1qqeev4. |
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Famous Real PeopleThis section is a little different to most. Rather than focus on books we knew (because we haven’t read biographies of all of these people), we instead had a brainstorming session – several, actually – to list all the people we thought were famous enough in the period and interesting enough from a Pulp-GM point of view to be worth listing. Where we knew of a biography that we could recommend, and that met our availability criteria, we ticked that box and moved on; where those thing were not the case, we moved to a second stage of research. In stage two, we looked at as many biographies as necessary until we found one that we could recommend. The criteria were:
Don’t read anything into the sequence in which the books are listed; at one point the list was sequenced alphabetically by the name of the Famous Person. Then some things turned out not to be available, and there was some revision, and a few people dropped off our radar or vice-versa. It’s now thoroughly semi-randomized. Prices and Availability were correct at the time of compilation. |
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Books about famous Real PeoplePrices and Availability were correct at the time of compilation. |
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046. Tesla: Man Out Of Time – Margaret CheneyBiography of one of the most dramatic public figures of his era, and the best biography of Tesla Mike has read (of about 4). Note that this book has been published with at least 4 different covers; this is neither the best nor the worst of them. |
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047. J Edgar Hoover: The Man And The Secrets – Curt GentryAuthoritative and fascinating; lengthy, but with more than enough content to keep the pages turning. |
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048. The Man From Mars: Ray Palmer’s Amazing Pulp Journey – Fred NadisPalmer was the early editor for the pioneering Science Fiction magazines in the 40s and 50s, Lots of ideas to steal herein. |
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049. Lindbergh – A Scott BergNothing much more needs to be said about this entry, really. |
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050. Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes – Donald L. BarlettThis is our preferred biography of a man who defined “rich eccentric” for Americans, but who was also an adventurer, thrill-seeker, and aviation pioneer. Nothing much to write about, then. |
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051. Citizen Hughes: The Power The Money and the Madness by Michael DrosninThis caught our attention while gathering links. It’s another book about Hughes, but one that uses source materials not available to Barlett and which may be useful as a supplementary read. We haven’t read it, but anything with new sources further illuminates a story, or even completely rewrite one. |
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052. FDR by Jean Edward SmithA controversial leader during the great depression who was more than capable of political skulduggery to get around inconvenient public opinions, such as the Lend-Lease act and the New Deal. Then came the War. America’s first-and-only five-term President, Commander-in-Chief throughout the Pulp time period. That pretty much makes him the epitome of what this section is all about. |
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053. Maverick Marine – Hans SchmidtSmedley D. Butler was a United States Marine Corps Major-General, the highest rank in the Corps at the time, and by the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. In 1933, he told a congressional committee of an alleged coup attempt led and financed by a group of wealthy industrialists to overthrow Franklin D. Roosevelt and install a Fascist regime with himself as their figurehead. The other alleged participants denied involvement and the media rubbished the story, but the final report by a special House Of Representatives Committee confirmed at least part of it. This is his Biography, written decades after his death. |
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054. Churchill – Paul JohnsonOur recommended choice for US audiences who only want a quick drop-in and don’t expect lots of international jet-setting in their campaigns. |
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055. The Last Lion – William Manchester (Volume 3 with Paul Reid)For those who can use a more substantial biography, the first two volumes of the three volume set, “The Last Lion,” are our recommendation, but Volume III is the one that most people will be most interested in reading.
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056. Mussolini: The Rise And Fall Of Il Duce – Christopher HibbertThere are lots of histories that will give you the facts of Mussolini’s rise to power and downfall; this book brings one of the most controversial leaders of the 20th century to life on the page. |
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057. Hirohito and the making of modern japan – Herbert P. BixA comprehensive, Pulitzer-prize-winning biography. |
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058. Perdurabo, Revised & Expanded – Richard KaczynskiBiography of Aleister Crowley focusing on the more accepted perspective of the man, colored by the controversies of his beliefs and life. We think that to get the full picture of your range of campaign options for using Crowley, you should also consider the book below. |
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059. Aleister Crowley: The Biography: Spiritual Revolutionary, Romantic Explorer, Occult Master, and Spy – Tobias ChurtonFocuses more on an exaggerated view of Crowley as an agent of Britain during the First World War, building him up to a figure of almost Bond-like proportions – which may even be the truth – but a necessary focus on non-esoteric activities makes this an excellent 2nd part of a 1-2 punch on the subject. Neither is complete without the other. |
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060. Neville Chamberlain: A biography – Robert C. SelfAt 573 pages, this is probably more comprehensive and definitive than the typical pulp GM requires, and at the prices quoted by Amazon, is probably more expensive than is justified – but it is by far the best choice that we could find. |
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061. Stalin: New Biography Of A Dictator – Oleg V. Khlevniuk, translations by Nora Seligman Favarovthis is a well-balanced and researched biography of Joseph Stalin and represents an ideal source for GMs who want to portray him without ideological bias and hysteria. |
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062. Stalin – Edvard Radzinsky, translation by H.T.WilletsIf on the other hand, you want Stalin & the Communists to be the font of (almost) all non-Hitlerian evil, this is the biography for you, portraying Stalin as even more calculating, ruthless, and blood-crazed than you ever could have imagined. |
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063. East To The Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart – Susan ButlerThere are dozens of widely-available biographies of Amelia Earhart but there are few that are as well-balanced in their portrayal of the aviation pioneer and her political and social beliefs and influence. And those are the things that will come out in conversations. |
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064. Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea – Robert K. MassieThis might seem to be a strange volume to include in this section of Biographies, given that the book is ostensibly about the role of the battleship in winning World War I, but, to quote from the Amazon description, “Ultimately, the distinguishing feature of Castles of Steel is the author himself. The knowledge, understanding, and literary power Massie brings to this story are unparalleled. His portrayals of Winston Churchill, the British admirals Fisher, Jellicoe, and Beatty, and the Germans Scheer, Hipper, and Tirpitz are stunning in their veracity and artistry.” That makes it essential for any GM wanting to include those individuals as NPCs in their game. Furthermore, it is invaluable for any PCs with a Naval Military background, especially British or German. |
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065. Scandalous Women – Elizabeth KerriBrief bios of famous women, some from the pulp era. |
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066. The Last Celt: A bio-bibliography of Robert Ervin Howard – Glenn LordRobert E Howard was famous for taking the pulp genre in directions no-one expected – westerns, barbarians, Asia, pirates, etc – and this is one of the best biographies of his life, replete with period detail. The paperback’s cover plays on Howard’s creation of Conan, unlike the hardcover (pictured), but only the paperback falls within our pricing guidelines. Despite this, if you want the hardcover, there are copies available. They just aren’t cheap. Note that the “stripes” aren’t there in the real cover, these are an artifact of the process of shrinking the image in size that were too difficult to get rid of in the time available. |
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067. Lovecraft: A Biography – L Sprague deCampA controversial biography of what is arguably the most famous horror writer of the early 20th century. If there is weird supernatural stuff in your campaign, this is an expert who your characters might consult/encounter. However, it is worth noting that Lovecraft was obscure to the point of being anonymous until after his death, and that he went to his grave believing himself a failure as a writer. If you want to use him, you will have to bend history. |
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068. HP Lovecraft: The Mysterious Man Behind The Darkness – Charlotte MontagueNot that there is anything wrong with a GM bending history to his will! Although we know the deCamp volume listed above, this work is more recent and actually has better reviews. Choose for yourself; you will have to reinterpret events enough that either would be a serviceable choice, anyway. |
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069. Amy Johnson: Hessle Road Tomboy – Born and Bred, Dread and Fled – Dr Alec Gill MBEBiography of one of the most famous aviatrixes (after Amelia Earhart, of course). This book is available in three formats: Kindle http://amzn.to/2c13sV6, Black and White (and affordable) http://amzn.to/2cOnmsw, and Color (rather expensive) http://amzn.to/2c72GJt. |
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070. Showman: The Life Of David O. SelznickBiography of a legendary Hollywood producer who was integral to the development of the movie industry, following his life from a nobody to expansive creator to paranoid negotiator with a fear of failure. |
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| In addition to the locations you might expect, there are also some books that may be relevant in the Nazi Occultism section. | ||
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Documentaries about Famous Real PeopleThe usual caveats apply (see above). |
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071. Menzies & Churchill at WarAustralia, as part of the British Empire, was automatically called in when Britain declared war on the Nazis. This Australian production tells the true story of the dark days of 1941 when Australian Prime Minister Menzies battled with Winston Churchill over the strategic direction of the Second World War with the fate of Australia hanging in the balance. For any GM with an Australian PC on their hands, this has a great introduction to the society and tone of life Down Under prior to World War II. To be honest, when this was listed, we didn’t hold out much hope that it would be available at all, never mind in all three markets that we are checking – but there it was: Amazon US: Very few copies at a fairly high price ($30+): http://amzn.to/1YEXtro Amazon UK: Very few copies at about the same price (£24+): http://amzn.to/1SXaEQz Amazon Canada: Two copies available at absolutely ridiculous prices (CDN$125+): http://amzn.to/1Sqbacl and http://amzn.to/1S86dWF respectively Alternatively, you can find it on “Watch Everything Online” (appears to be free): Or, you could download it from Enhance TV (may not be NTSC) AU$20 (about US$15.60 / £10.80 / CDN$19.80) |
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072. Prince Philip: The Plot To Make A KingThe inside story of the dynastic tensions surrounding the marriage of Prince Philip to Queen Elizabeth II, including the behind the scenes romantic intrigue of Lord Mountbatten who intended Philip to be his tool for manipulating the throne. While the finale plays out post-WWII the story itself is very much part of the background of the pulp era, and the whole thing reads like a pulp plot (with romance subtext on the side). Available on DVD http://amzn.to/2bq9BA9 from $11.27 or streamed through Amazon Video http://amzn.to/2bX9VD7 for $2.99. |
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073. The Real American: Joe McCarthyRecommended because the events that were instrumental in forging the personality and obsession of McCarthy took place during and prior to World War II (and are absolutely pulp-relevant), when he was instrumental in exposing corruption and overspending by defense contractors. Unfortunately only Amazon US had heard of this documentary, and even they had no copies available. Fortunately, it is currently available through youTube and is also listed through this stream aggregator as available from multiple other sources: . |
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Afterword by Mike
Pulp villains tend to be Bond villains, straddling the line between over-the-top four-color super-villainy and the more humble villains of Sherlock Holmes. But even the ordinary characters that populate your game world should be larger than life, more extreme than mundane. Their trials and tribulations will be more extreme, and there is always room for a little melodrama. We’ve listed biographies for a number of famous and infamous people of the period, and many more who could have been listed but who were either too obscure, too mundane, or too-easily researched using Wikipedia.
In our world, these colorful characters were all larger-than-life; in a pulp world, they should still be exceptional in their place within history and at the center of events, but they should also set the standard by which every NPC is measured. And if a real person is not dramatic enough, not extraordinary enough – that’s when to rewrite history on the small scale.
In a pulp universe, characters can be famous, or extraordinary, or both – but those should be your only options. Even your eminently-forgettable characters should be so extraordinarily mundane that they become noteworthy for simply exemplifying their role – your ordinary cop is either a crusading gang-buster (just not as good at it as the PCs), a corrupt weasel, or a drunken incompetent, who may or may not be in search of redemption.
In a pulp universe, there should be no forgettable characters.
Next week: The Third Shelf – The World and its more ‘Ordinary’ Places!
- The Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others) Pt 0: The Front Desk
- Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 1st Shelf
- Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 2nd Shelf
- Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 3rd Shelf
- Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 4th Shelf
- Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 5th Shelf
- Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 6th Shelf
- Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 7th Shelf
- Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 8th Shelf
- Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 9th Shelf
- Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 10th Shelf
- Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 11th Shelf
- Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 12th Shelf
- Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 13th Shelf
- Essential Reference Library for Pulp GMs (and others): 14th Shelf
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December 9th, 2016 at 1:07 am
[…] to the TV & Documentaries section entry under the same name (Entry 044, 2nd Shelf). […]