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The Pulp Dungeons take you back to the early days of gaming. Pulp Dungeons are generic adventures that are adaptable to any game systems. Fools and Their Money is Adventure 2 in Pulp Dungeons Series 4: Two Sides of the Coin. The dungeon is presented in a single digest-sized 32-page book.

Fools and Their Money offers a party the chance to go on a slumming, urban dungeon (aka sewer) crawl with a sentient magical item as their guide. The party is led into the dungeon with a promise of treasure and a quest for revenge. The dungeon also presents several large scale encounters where the players are vastly outnumbered. The 32-page book also allows for a well-detailed dungeon.

The mechanics of the Pulp Dungeons are presented in a straightforward fashion using common monsters that are described in terms of hits of damage inflicted and hits of damage sustained, with one hit being the equivalent of an average sword hit. Random events are presented as checks on a d6. Magic is presented with an emphasis on the effects rather than spell mechanics. The mechanics of the Pulp Dungeons work easily enough. The only limitation is that no value is given for an attack ability. Apparently, it is assumed that gamemasters are using a system that bases attack ability on number of hit dice (e.g. AD&D). If anything, the monsters used are a bit anemic - a pack of timber wolves comes across more like feral poodles. Alternatively, because the monsters used are standard fantasy creatures (elves, goblins, skeletons, etc.), a gamemaster may easily substitute the monsters and mechanics of his favorite game system. A GM will also want to adjust the numbers of opponents encountered to suit the numbers and abilities of the player characters.

Unfortunately their are a number of things about this dungeon that just don't work. Each encounter is introduced with a full-page fictional account that does little more than duplicate the description of the encounter. What's really aggravating about this dungeon though is that it has nothing to do with Adventure 1 in this series. A single magical item is a slim pretext for linking a series. This is the only complete series of the Pulp Dungeons that I have read, and it is a real disappointment. The some of the best dungeons produced by TSR and Judges Guild were series, such as the Giant and Slaver dungeons, where the players were led through a series of related dungeons that create a unified context and allow the players to gather clues and enemies leading to a grand finale. Pulp Dungeons has missed a real opportunity here. Their other series can only be better.

Fools and Their Money is an ok dungeon, but don't expect it to have anything to do with the Adventure No. 1 in this series - Treasure Most Magical.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Fools and Their Money
Author: James M. Ward Category: Dungeon Company/Publisher: Pulp Dungeons Cost: $4.95 Page count: 32 Playtest Review by Jeb Boyt on 01/09/98. Genre tags: none	The Pulp Dungeons take you back to the early days of gaming. Pulp Dungeons are generic adventures that are adaptable to any game systems. Fools and Their Money is Adventure 2 in Pulp Dungeons Series 4: Two Sides of the Coin. The dungeon is presented in a single digest-sized 32-page book. Fools and Their Money offers a party the chance to go on a slumming, urban dungeon (aka sewer) crawl with a sentient magical item as their guide. The party is led into the dungeon with a promise of treasure and a quest for revenge. The dungeon also presents several large scale encounters where the players are vastly outnumbered. The 32-page book also allows for a well-detailed dungeon. The mechanics of the Pulp Dungeons are presented in a straightforward fashion using common monsters that are described in terms of hits of damage inflicted and hits of damage sustained, with one hit being the equivalent of an average sword hit. Random events are presented as checks on a d6. Magic is presented with an emphasis on the effects rather than spell mechanics. The mechanics of the Pulp Dungeons work easily enough. The only limitation is that no value is given for an attack ability. Apparently, it is assumed that gamemasters are using a system that bases attack ability on number of hit dice (e.g. AD&D). If anything, the monsters used are a bit anemic - a pack of timber wolves comes across more like feral poodles. Alternatively, because the monsters used are standard fantasy creatures (elves, goblins, skeletons, etc.), a gamemaster may easily substitute the monsters and mechanics of his favorite game system. A GM will also want to adjust the numbers of opponents encountered to suit the numbers and abilities of the player characters. Unfortunately their are a number of things about this dungeon that just don't work. Each encounter is introduced with a full-page fictional account that does little more than duplicate the description of the encounter. What's really aggravating about this dungeon though is that it has nothing to do with Adventure 1 in this series. A single magical item is a slim pretext for linking a series. This is the only complete series of the Pulp Dungeons that I have read, and it is a real disappointment. The some of the best dungeons produced by TSR and Judges Guild were series, such as the Giant and Slaver dungeons, where the players were led through a series of related dungeons that create a unified context and allow the players to gather clues and enemies leading to a grand finale. Pulp Dungeons has missed a real opportunity here. Their other series can only be better. Fools and Their Money is an ok dungeon, but don't expect it to have anything to do with the Adventure No. 1 in this series - Treasure Most Magical. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average)