Pulp VENUS Package: Detective

Detective

The Detective VENUS (Venturers, Experimenters, Navigators, and the Unusually Skilled) package represents the base skills necessary for a variety of different character types. Players wishing to truly engage with the archetypal, evene clichéd nature of the pulps should consider one of the following sub-types for their Detectives:

• Armchair Detectives rarely leave their own homes to solve crimes, instead making astonishing deductions on what is described to them by witnesses; Nero Wolfe is the patron saint of this sub-type.
• Defective Detectives overcome personal handicaps to solve crimes; the blind Holmes contemporary Max Carrados and Seekay – a disfigured prototype of the later pulp hero Richard Benson, the Avenger – fall into this category, as do modern detectives like Adrian Monk (and, arguably, Inspector Clouseau).
• Genteel Detectives come from money and belie their abilities with dandyish vanity, affected manners, and fancy clothes; representative characters include Albert Campion, Nick and Nora Charles, Lord Peter Wimsey, and, arguably, Hercule Poirot (though he would place himself in the next category).
• Great Detectives combine astonishing prowess with frequent arrogance and often more super-heroic abilities and adventures than their peers; Sherlock Holmes, Solar Pons, Phrynne Fisher, and Nick Carter fit this archetype.
• Hard-Boiled Detectives are as quick with their fists as their wits, usually solving mysteries more sordid than their peers; the Continental Op, Sam Spade, and Philip Marlowe form the holy trinity of these heroes.
• Occult Detectives find themselves embroiled in either genuine or counterfeit supernatural activity (thus making them one of the few detective sub-types to appear in Weird Tales); Carnacki, John Thunstone, and Jules de Grandin were some of the most prominent Occult Detectives of the pulp era with Dirk Gently and L Lawliet being more modern examples.

Regardless of sub-type, the key qualities of all Detective characters are their intelligence and discernment.

• Bonus Attributes: +2 dice Smarts.
• Bonus Skills: +2 dice Notice; +3 dice Investigation and Streetwise.
• Bonus Hindrances: player’s choice of Arrogant (Genteel or Great Detective sub-type), Bad Luck (Hard-Boiled Detective sub-type), Clueless (Disabled, Genteel, or Great Detective sub-type), Delusional [Disabled or Occult Detective sub-type], Doubting Thomas (Occult Detective sub-type), Elderly (Armchair or Occult Detective sub-type), Enemy [Major] (Great Detective sub-type), Habit [Major] (Great or Hard-Boiled Detective sub-type), Obese or Ugly and another Minor Hindrance (Armchair or Disabled Detective sub-type), or a Major physical Hindrance (Blind, One Arm; Disabled Detective sub-type).
• Bonus Edges: Investigator 

Essie Davis in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries