Quest of the Tiki Mask, a prelude to a Pulp adventure

In the last six months or so I have become a fan of pulp gaming. I guess the inner 12 year-old in me remembers and enjoys the genre from days gone by. Plus, I can include a variety of different decades in the same game and throw in impossibly large animals and bugs. A good way to get a wide variety of figures on the table. The rules were a bit of a mixture I created using a simple spy game "Meet me by the Pots on the Edge of the Souk" from issue 390 of Wargames Illustrated and Pulp Alley. I think it went well.

Now that I have my own wargame room I can leave the 4'x4' table set up and make changes as need, including a different set if I need to. I am planning on turning this into a campaign game that should bring me through the end of the year or at least until I get bored with it. I have included a variety of factions each having the same main objective to find and control the famed Enchanted Tiki Mask of Bronze. To extend the game and in keeping with the flavor of the period, I am using a system of stunned, knocked out or gone missing for my main characters instead of killing them off. Henchmen on the other hand always seem to be killed and then recycled so that is how I plan to start.

PRELUDE
Our story begins in Polynesia where the tiki mask has gone missing from the Museé des antiquités de Polynésie. The fabled Enchanted Tiki Mask of Bronze is believed to be the icon of the great Polynesian warrior chief Haruki.

 Race Bannon, husband and wife archaeologists Etta and Dr. Milton Cornelius and Royal Geographic cartographer Benjamin Fanning have been making their way through the Japanese forest near Mount Kaimon and the Kaimondake volcano several hundred kilometers east across the East China Sea from Shanghai in search of Dr. Benton Quest. 

Dr. Quest has been missing from the explorers for more than a week. The team, including Dr. Quest, had been searching the area on a tip that the fabled Enchanted Tiki Mask of Bronze.  Dr. Quest had mysteriously vanished from their camp at the base of Kaimondake volcano four days earlier. 

Little do they know that evil masterminds Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Dr. Napoleon Zin have captured Dr. Quest and are forcing him to work on a sinister experiment they are hatching together. The project will use the mystical powers from the Enchanted Tiki Mask of Bronze.

 They are hidden in a remote costal village not far from the volcano guarded by Zin’s Samurai bodyguards.

Meanwhile a foreign spy, arriving by boat, who does not know the Tiki Mask or Dr. Quest has been captured, has been sent to confirm Zin and Blofeld have been working on a plot together. Once confirmed, he may be required to liquidate them.

 To make matters worse, a group of French Foreign Legion, led by Maj. Andrea Francois and his crazy Sgt. Eugene Olivier along with four Legionnaires have been dispatched from their base in French Indochina to find the mask rumored to be in the area and claim it back for French Polynesia.

SCENARIO OBJECTIVES

The Explorers must find Dr. Quest as their main objective. Secondary objective is to locate the Enchanted Tiki Mask of Bronze and return with it.

Evil Masterminds must have Dr. Quest utilize the mystical powers of the Enchanted Tiki Mask of Bronze to use for their sinister deeds in creating a mind control device. To track Dr. Quest's progress: Each turn I roll against Dr. Quest’s CV (spy game combat value) to determine how he is proceeding. He must complete the experiment within six (6) full turns for the device to be completed.

The Foreign Spy must confirm that Zin and Blofeld are working together. To confirm I roll against his CV if he sees them together [He must pass his CV against both Zin and Blofeld ie: 2 rolls against CV for a positive confirmation]. If he is able to confirm they are in fact working together, he must successfully roll against his CV to send a secret message back to his base and also must roll against his CV before receiving an order to eliminate them.

FFL must locate the Enchanted Tiki Mask of Bronze and be in possession of it until the end of the game to return it safely.

Stay tuned for the next installment where the action begins in the Japanese forest near Mount Kaimon.

Continue to Part One Quest of the Tiki Mask, a Pulp adventure here.