The Grant Building is a rundown complex in Hudson City that is rumored to be haunted (which the text neither confirms nor denies). In addition to a popular diner and a new radio station tower, the building hosts the offices of a hard-boiled detective with an interesting but not implausible “weird talent” of his own.

The Hidden City of Pranamoltar is an example of the “advanced civilization ruling an underground race of mole-men,” in some ways rather similar to the Lemuria civilization depicted in the Champions sourcebook Hidden Lands (especially given that they just took the same picture of a mole man from that book for this one). However as designed, they aren’t nearly as threatening or hostile as Lemurians, given that there aren’t that many of the elites left and given that their weird science, while advanced by 1930’s standards, isn’t *that* much more advanced than modern tech.

The Island of the Pale White Lady is a rather effective Lovecraft-style setting based on both the tribal cultures of the Pacific Islands and the primitive cult that worships a Thing Which Should Not Be. Said entity is actually a “probe” of “a hyperdimensional being completely outside Earth’s space-time continuum.” This means that it is considerably less powerful than the original being, but is still challenging even on Champions terms. Also, the text says there are other “probes” with supporting cults in other parts of the world, which means there’s no reason the story has to be used in the South Pacific if the GM needs it to be somewhere else.

K’hull Island is, of course based on King Kong’s Skull Island, and includes native jungle tribes and various dinosaurs along with the Kong clone himself, who along with the dinosaurs is effectively immortal due to the properties of the island. Unfortunately, this section does not include a write-up of Jack Black. I assume they are holding that until the release of Lucha Libre HERO.

The Laussat Plantation is an apparently abandoned structure in the Louisiana Bayou now used by a “mad scientist” detailed in a Hero Plus PDF. The text largely concerns the layout of the structure, the secret labs and its hidden dock, along with the doctor’s hired goons. This section also goes over the local environmental hazards and Cajun culture, which give a good deal more story potential than the lab itself.

The Pleistocene Plateau is its own “Lost World,” 9000 feet above sea level in the middle of a Siberian mountain range (so it ought to be visible from space, but in the Pulp Era, that doesn’t matter).

The Street of the Emerald Bird is the site of a former brothel in Hudson City’s Chinatown, and this chapter serves largely to describe the range of things one can find in the vegetarian’s nightmare that is a Pulp Era Chinatown. It also happens to be an East Coast base for the crime organization of the insidious Dr. Fang, and is presented as an example of a “third tier” base of operations.

Neos Themiscyra is the hidden refuge not only of the last Amazons but also the last Trojans (who live with the Amazons as a servitor caste, having been evacuated by them just prior to the fall of Troy). The main plot hook here is that the current queen not only believes in the feminist goddess Artemis, but thinks the goddess speaks to her directly. One of the sidebar notes gives a big hint as to why this is.

The Pharaoh Club is presented as an example of a “theme” nightclub (in this case ancient Egypt) with a built-in tie to the mob: It was a legitimate front operation but there are certain bits of evidence on the premises that the local Mafia would dearly like to get their hands on. They lost the club to a gambler and soldier-of-fortune who would be a really good Pulp hero in his own right.

Schloss Eisenwolf (Castle Ironwolf) is your classic haunted German castle, and of course it’s the Pulp Era, which means Nazi occult researchers are involved in the setting by default.

The Royal Viridian Theatre is a grand opera house in Hudson City that got turned into a movie theatre, which with Prohibition developed a secret basement speakeasy. Even in the Thirties, the illicit operation still runs, in addition to the successful theatre on the main levels.

The Temple of the Sanctified Elder actually ties in to a fictional martial art detailed in The Ultimate Martial Artist, Resplendent Dragon Kung Fu. The Sanctified Elder is implied to be the same teacher who taught the art in ancient China, or at least a descendant, and the layout of the monastery allows for various Shaolin-style tests for a PC to learn Martial Arts that would otherwise be unavailable in the setting. Even so, this piece would be more suitable for a Ninja HERO campaign, except that the author wrote in a connection to one of his major villains from Masterminds & Madmen, which could also create a reason for a PC to discover the Temple.

The Tomb of Kemtehenraau-Khanu is the final resting place of a great Egyptian mage and his equally powerful wife, who pledged to seal various evil artifacts in their tomb in the hopes that they would be able to destroy them in the afterlife. So right away you’ve got a potential reason for characters (mainly unscrupulous ones or those persuaded by unscrupulous NPCs) to go tomb-raiding. And of course, all of the traps and mechanisms in the place still work, partially because the founders trained a cult of followers to maintain the tomb and preserve it against defilers.

Xinca-Hol is the site of a lost Mayan civilization preserved mainly by the pygmy priests of the Mayan bat god, who raise and train the “Sacred Bats of Camazotz,” bats that are big enough for the pygmies to actually ride. This makes the scenario fairly bizarre even by Pulp HERO standards. In addition, there’s another tie-in to Masterminds & Madmen, which may lead to the PCs’ direct involvement with the Mayans.

After all this, there are four pages worth of brief ideas for adventure settings in other areas.

SUMMARY

I was quite impressed by Hudson’s Masterminds & Madmen, and if I don’t find this book quite as gripping, it’s still pretty good at what it’s intended to do, which is to simply present a list of appropriate adventure settings for Pulp campaigns. In that regard, since much of the text is devoted to maps and the description of settings, it’s worth recommending even for Pulp GMs who don’t use HERO System but still want a ready source of adventure locales.

Style: 3

I’m only giving Thrilling Places default rating for style, since apart from a decent cover showing the inside an Egyptian tomb, there’s no new art in the book apart from the map layouts of each setting.

Substance: 3

By the same token, there isn’t too much depth to the book, but it does do its job in presenting each setting as the starting point for any number of adventures.

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