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Hello everyone. We were discussing this on the Paizo forums, and I thought I'd ask here to get more responses. These questions came to me after seeing Indiana Jones today, and reading several reviews that described it as being based in the Pulp era of books.
Firstly, what defines an entertainment product as pulp or based on pulp?
Secondly, could the world of Golarion, or any of the Pathfinder modules be described as pulp? Or an homage to pulp?
Thanks in advance for your answers.
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Pulp's to me have always been associated with the pulp magazines of the early 20th century. Weird Tales, Adventure, Argosy, etc.
I certainly see some of that in the descriptions of Golarian. Sword and Sorcery is obviously a big influence, and they've talked about some Sword and Planet down the road. I easily see some of Howard's Hyborian Age showing up. :-)
Besides, with Erik Mona steering the ship do you really think pulp's aren't going to somehow get in there? :-)
-Pete
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It really depends on how much of a purist you are when it comes to terminology.
Pulp, in a gaming context, is almost always used to describe games and settings based in the period between 1920 and 1950, covering the Roaring Twenties, Great Depression and World War 2. Tarzan, the Shadow, Doc Savage, etc. Indiana Jones is a homage to the original pulps, a sort of Neo-Pulp -- the Indiana Jones films quite consciously skewer a lot of the more offensive assumptions and prejudices of the real Pulp writers, though part of their brilliance is how skillfully and subtly they do this.
Of course Lovecraft was a pulp writer, and the terms Lovecraftian and Pulp Horror are almost synonymous. Sword and Sorcery is also strongly associated with the pulp, though I would argue that most of the true sword & sorcery fiction that defines the genre was created after the pulp era, during the early period of the genre paperback. Robert Howard's Conan is the only notable sword & sorcery figure to come out of the pulp era. Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser originated also originated in the pulps, but were really developed later and the classic F&GM stories are all from the 60's and 70's when Lieber began writing more novellas. Sword & Sorcery and Pulp Fantasy are again almost synonyms.
So while I would never label any fantasy or horror story as a "Pulp" story, I would label them as "Pulp Horror" or "Pulp Fantasy."
So then the question becomes "Is Golarian Pulp Fantasy?" I would say "No." but I'm willing to listen to counterarguments.
Golarian and the Pathfinder APs have many elements in common with Pulp Fantasy, particularly at low levels of play -- all D&D does, as it's one of the essential ingredients of D&D. "Burnt Offerings" can be run as very dark and gritty, and could play as pulp fantasy, but I think it lends itself more to a lighter tone, with occasional flashes of darkness, something like Labyrinth mixed with Pan's Labyrinth.
But as the tale develops, and the players rise in power, the game pulls steadily away from Sword & Sorcery, and moves more thoroughly into a High Fantasy mold, evoking Tolkien, Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks and David Eddings.
Ultimately I think that Golarian is far more High Fantasy than
If I were to visualize Rise of the Runelords as a film, it would be far more Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia (both High Fantasy) than Conan the Barbarian or The Scorpian King (both Sword & Sorcery).
I think if you want Pulp Fantasy with the D20 system, Iron Heroes is the way to go. But if you just want Indiana Jones style shenanigans, then no worries, as high fantasy is more than capable of accommodating the occasional bit of low comedy and cinematic stunt pieces (as many of the points along the APs show).