From the introduction:
Before there were Comic books there were the Pulps. Before Batman, Superman, and Captain America, there was Doc Savage, The Shadow, and Tarzan. Pulps in the literal sense are not a genre, but derived their moniker from the cheap “pulpy” paper the stories were printed upon. The stories found on those pages ranged from Sci-Fi and Fantasy to Mysteries, Romance and Westerns.
Over time, the term “Pulp Adventure” has evolved and narrowed its focus to the time between the great wars while still bearing the markings of the spectacular stories of the pulps, often where larger than life heroes would set forth to stop the sinister plot of a diabolic and mysterious villain in some exotic location.
Though the default setting for Fists & .45s! is the mid to late 1930s, the game can be used for any pulp action setting.