Rattrap Productions LLC

Introduction to Rattrap
.45 Adventure
Gloire
Fantastic Worlds
Broadsword Adventures
Thrilling Expeditions

Rattrap Productions LLC produces a series of games we like to call Narrative Adventure games. That's a fancy name for a simple concept. Our games combine some of the best aspects of miniatures games, roleplaying games, and board games to produce an exciting and fun experience for the players. And, you can use whatever miniatures, paper cut-outs, or counters that you want because these games do not require Rattrap only pieces.

What do we mean by Narrative Adventure?
A Narrative Adventure game is one in which the player takes on the role of one to a handful of heroes or villains. But rather than players setting up point values for each side, a scenario is picked or designed and players take the figures that are appropriate for it. Then, when the game begins, they seek to solve puzzles and avoid traps all the while battling each other or a game master. A Narrative Adventure game is about the story and not the battle. Players should play their characters as they are supposed to act and not do what it takes to win. It's more exciting to have the hero drop the idol and race to save his friends than for him to race off the board, leaving them in the foul clutches of the villain. The Gargoyle and the Jade Hood

Aren't Miniature Games Expensive and Time Consuming?
The games are illustrated with lots of miniatures on 3D terrain; from scratchbuilt to store-bought. But whereas some miniature games can be daunting from the sheer number of figures required, our games can be played with as little as one figure per player. And, like a board game, the space required is minimal. The majority of the scenarios in the books are designed to fit on a space no larger than a small kitchen table, just 2 ft. by 2 ft.

And if miniatures are just not your thing, the games can be played without them. We've got some paper miniatures for our .45 Adventure game that you can use. And there are lots of other companies already producing generic paper figures that you can use as well.

And even the 3D terrain can be replaced with simple 2D maps. We are producing a few and there are many companies already producing hundreds of them.

In short, we are producing games that can appeal to many different players, from miniature gamer to roleplayer to board gamer.

.45 Adventure: Crimefighting Action in the Pulp Era is a tabletop miniatures game of two-fisted action set during the era of the pulp magazines. Players can take on the roles of colorful heroes or unscrupulous villains. With Tommy guns, Heaters, and Gats they can fight their way through the minions of crime or seek to control the world.

This book contains all the rules necessary to play; customizable heroes and villains, rules and ideas for creating scenarios, and two sample scenarios to help you get started.

We've also realeased several supplements for this game, so that you adventures can take you out of the city to the sands of the Gobi Desert with Dragon Bones: Adventures in the Gobi Desert. Or you can seek to stop the mad creations of Nazi Germany on the battlefields of World War II with Amazing War Stories: Pulp Action in WWII.

And to expand the scope of your games, there is also The Gargoyle: Death Soldiers of the Jade Hood. More new archetypes for your fight against crime as well as a campaign system so that your heros and vilains can grow in power as they progress from one game to the next. And when all else fails, you can always turn to the genius creations of your local mad scientist with Super Science Tales: Terror of the Metal Menace.

All of our rulebooks are offered in both print and PDF versions. You can check out all the titles for .45 Adventure at the Rattrap Store.

If you are new to the world of Rattrap Productions, check out our FREE downloads. You'll find a demo version of the rules there along with enough scenarios and characters to get a good feel for the rules.

Gloire: Swashbuckling Adventure in the Age of Kings is a new and complete adventure miniatures game based on the proven mechanics of the .45 Adventure pulp-style rules. Gloire is swashbuckling adventure, like the stories of the Three Musketeers, Dr. Syn and the Scarecrow, and Scaramouche. Players can control master swordsmen, nobles of the court, highwaymen, military heroes, spies... in all more than two dozen character profiles are included in the rules.

The game takes care to capture the elegant artistry of the swordfight, while retaining fast play that keeps players involved. But the game is more than combat! The emphasis on scenarios and encounters found in .45 Adventure is retained in Gloire, making games stories of their own rather than mere brawls. Special rules for dueling provide players with an opportunity to satisfy their honor with worthy foes during the course of a game.

The Gloire scenario The Waylaid Messenger won a coveted Battle Streamer at Historicon 2006, and is included in the rulebook, along with two other scenarios designed to get players involved in the game right away.

The first supplement for Gloire is Under the Black Flag: Swashbuckling Adventure on the High Seas (winner of a theme award at Cold Wars 2007). Now you can add raid the Spanish treasure galleons or seek to impose order on the rowdy ports of the Caribbean. Or maybe you prefer to travel through the unexplored woodlands and jungles of the Americas or protect you new colony from local natives to foreign powers. If so, be sure to check out Among the War Parties: Adventures in the Early Americas.

Gloire was written by Pete Murray, based on the rules created by Richard A. Johnson

All of our rulebooks are offered in both print and PDF versions. You can check out all the titles for Gloire at the Rattrap Store.

If you are new to the world of Rattrap Productions, check out our FREE downloads in the Speakeasy forums. You'll find a demo version of the rules there along with enough scenarios and characters to get a good feel for the rules.

Fantastic Worlds: Pulp Action in the Far Reaches of Space is a miniatures game system based around the mechanics developed for .45 Adventure. This game will take all the pulp action you're used to and move it out to strange new worlds or into the far future. Now you'll be able to recreate the adventures of characters like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and John Carter!

This rulebook will contain all the rules necessary to play, including archetypes for characters like Star Commander, the Traveller, or strange aliens.

Fantastic Worlds is being written by Marc Anderson, based on the rules created by Richard A. Johnson

All of our rulebooks are offered in both print and PDF versions. You can check out all the titles for Fantastic Worlds at the Rattrap Store.

If you are new to the world of Rattrap Productions, check out our FREE downloads in The Speakeasy forum. You'll find a demo version of the rules there along with enough scenarios and characters to get a good feel for the rules.

Book Cover Broadsword Adventures: Savage Tales of Fantasy brings the Rattrap rules first introduced in .45 Adventure to the world of fantasy. Now you can recreate your own favorite fantasy setting on the tabletop or use Rattrap's own evolving world of Tauren.

A Bit About the Rules
Like all our game systems, Broadsword Adventures focuses on individual heroes and the villains and creatures they face. Rather than having scores of nameless models, the rules focus on players controlling just a handful of personalized characters and minions. As your characters are wounded, their stats start to drop. A powerful, but wounded, barbarian warlord can suddenly find himself overwhelmed by numerous small hits.

The rules contain over 30 different archetypes for players to create their heroes, villains, and minions. There are also rules for creature generation so players can begin testing their characters against all kinds of fiendish creations. Finally, the main rulebook contains five sample scenarios so that you can get a feel for the game before going out and creating your own tales of adventure.

The World of Tauren
The world of Tauren has been created especially for Broadsword Adventures. It is a world of pulp fantasy, where heroic adventurers, bandit chiefs, and powerful sorcerors seek power, wealth, and glory. You will not find elves and orcs and the other creatures of high fantasy here (though you can certainly add them using the archetypes). But there are enough differences in the warring nations of men to provide plenty of variety for your players.

We'll be expanding this world with future releases and providing plenty of scenarios to help you build up a rich and exciting game experience.

With Thrilling Expeditions: Valley of the Thunder Lizard we introduce a new direction for some of our supplements. The Thrilling Expeditions series of supplements will be heavy on scenarios with at least one scenario for each game system. These scenarios should provide you with plenty of ideas for your own games. Each of these books will include some new rule additions, but most of these rules will be specific to the supplement’s environment.

The first book in this series is Valley of the Thunder Lizard. Players will now be able to play big game hunters in a lost valley populated with creatures from before the rise of man, or pirates going ashore on an island where Neanderthals battle Saurians, or time traveling tourists suddenly stranded in Earth’s distant past.

This book does not attempt to cover all the prehistoric creatures currently known. Instead, there are more than 20 different archetypes, split between dinosaurs and mammals. There are some rules for creating variants of the included archetypes for those players who wish to add juveniles, dwarf versions, or, if truly adventurous, giant versions. In addition, there are archetypes for prehistoric humans and a fictional, evolutionary offshoot of the dinosaurs, called Saurians. These two races will have the normal character build options (though not as many choices) as the character archetypes from the other books so that players can run games of cavemen battling dinosaurs or Saurians.

All of our rulebooks are offered in both print and PDF versions. You can check out Thrilling Expeditions at the Rattrap Store.

If you are new to the world of Rattrap Productions, check out our FREE downloads in The Speakeasy forum. You'll find a demo version of all the rule sets there along with enough scenarios and characters to get a good feel for them.