Some Pulp Alley Musketeers

I dropped in on Bruce to play some Pulp Alley. He was keen to try out a new solo-play chart he'd created to go with the solo deck he'd bought. Basically, you roll 3d6 for each NPC unit and cross reference against proximity to enemy (different chart for each type of NPC) to determine what they do. This is an alternative to players just making the 'most sensible' move for NPCs during a solo game. Overall, it worked well.

Bruce set a lovely table. I think I snapped this at the end. The four musketeers came on on the bottom of the frame with the baddies starting at random spots (mostly on the far edge). There were four minor plot points (various articles belonging to the queen). Once a side had on minor plot point (1 point each), they could then hustle to the tavern, climb the stairs and try to convince a noble to join them (four points).

Almost immediately, two musketeers ran into a group of the Cardinal's goons in the woods while trying to rescue a lady in waiting. The musketeers sent these fellow packing but the random dice meant that one of the musketeers spent the rest of the game here dueling and buying time for the rest.

A second musketeer grabbed the queen's diary and with two minor plot points in the can, everyone made for the tavern, the cardinals' goons in hot pursuit.

A big barney in the woods tied up a lot of the cardinal's resources. One musketeer ran into the tavern and up the stairs before getting cut off by some goons. Two more musketeers jumped through the door and put the boots them.

In the end, the musketeers managed to (barely) get the noble and two minor points out the back door. There were no casualties among the musketeers and three among the cardinal's forces so we gave the game to the musketeers.

Overall, the random reaction table workers well, adding unexpected events and limiting the helicopter god effect. The solo deck was also pretty effective, penalizing or rewarding in random (and annoying) points.