Justice, Inc. (role-playing Game)

''Justice, Inc.'' is a role-playing game published by Hero Games in 1984 that simulates adventure stories that appeared in the pulp magazines of the 1930s.

Description

''Justice Inc.'' is a role-playing game in which the players take on the roles of fictional adventurers in the 1930s similar to Doc Savage and Allan Quatermain. In keeping with the pulp theme engendered by Fu Manchu and The Shadow, a vein of the supernatural runs through the game, and can be turned to horror similar to '' Call of Cthulhu''.

The game system was adapted from the superhero role-playing game ''Champions'' previously published by Hero Games, although superhero "Powers" are toned down to "Talents".

Publishing history

Hero Games published the superhero game ''Champions'' in 1981, and subsequently published a number of expansions and adventures for it. In 1983, Hero published a role-playing in a completely different genre, ''Espionage!'', that used a toned-down version of the ''Champions'' superhero rules. Hero followed this in 1984 with ''Justice, Inc.'', a game that also used the ''Espionage!'' rules system. The two-volume set was written by Aaron Allston, Steve Peterson and Michael Stackpole, and includes a rulebook and campaign book. The campaign book contains a discussion of the pulp genre, the "Empire Club" campaign setting, a timeline of real-world events of the 1920s and 1930s, and several pulp adventures.

''Espionage!'' and ''Justice, Inc.'' were the first non-superhero applications of the point-based game system that had been developed for ''Champions''. The generalized point system would eventually be published as the multi-genre Hero System, following in the footsteps of Chaosium's ''Basic Role-Playing'' System, but preceding ''GURPS'' as a generic game system.

Two supplements were published:
* '' Lands of Mystery'' (May 1985), a critically acclaimed sourcebook describing how to design and run "Lost World" adventures, like those found in the fiction of Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard.
* '' Trail of the Gold Spike'' (August 1984), an adventure set around a Colorado gold mine.

Both were written by Allston, and also included statistics for ''Chill'', '' Call of Cthulhu'' and '' Daredevils''.

Unlike several other products in the "Hero" line, ''Justice, Inc.'' was not revised or republished in the decades after its release. However, Hero Games finally published a ''Pulp Hero'' genre book that covers much of the same ground at the end of 2005.

Reception

In the December 1984 edition of ''Imagine'' (Issue 21), Paul Mason stated, "If you like the Champions rules system, and want a campaign set in the era of the pulps, then ''Justice Inc'' will be perfect for you. Otherwise I'm afraid I can't recommend it over its competition."

In the January–February 1985 edition of ''Space Gamer'' (No. 72), Allen Varney commented, "''Justice Inc.'' is fundamentally solid work, and certainly adaptable to a ''wide'' spectrum of pulp-era melodramatics. If your players want lots of variety in one campaign, this is your game! I realize it's a close call, but I'd say that with this publication, Hero Games probably has the strongest roleplaying line on the market."

In the January–February 1985 edition of ''Different Worlds'' (Issue #38), Russell Grant Collins gave this game an average rating of 2.5 stars out of 4, saying, "this game is pretty good, although it is marred by a few typos and suffers from incompleteness."

In his 1990 book ''The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games'', game critic Rick Swan called this game "perfect for ambitious referees who enjoy mixing Indiana Jones with H.P. Lovecraft, or Sherlock Holmes with little green men." Swan concluded by giving this game a rating of 3 out of 4, saying, "Although hedesigners ... bit off a bit more than they could chew — it's unlikely, for instance, that the horror version of the game will make anybody give up '' Call of Cthulhu'' — the clean rules and attention to detail make ''Justice, Inc.'' far and away the best of the pulp-era RPGs."

Other reviews

*''Shadis'' #28 (1996)

See also

* '' Justice, Inc.'' - the pulp magazine story that inspired the game title

References

External links

Pulp Hero
Pulp Hero section on Hero Games' official web site



Hero Pulp Web Site
Dany St-Pierre's fan site


by Paolo Marino


Supplement review by Kevin Mowery on RPGnet

{{Hero System

Hero System
Historical role-playing games
Role-playing games introduced in 1984
Pulp and noir period role-playing games