[RPG]: Hollow Earth Expedition, reviewed by C.W.Richeson (5/4)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12635.phtml

Christopher W. Richeson's Summary:

<i>Hollow Earth Expedition</i> provides a marvelously exciting setting for classic pulp adventure! With a quick and intuitive system and flavorful art, this is a wonderful game.

Go to the full review for more information.

[Pig with Pen]

Nice review, thank you.

Do you know any other pulp games and how would you rate them in comparison to HEX?

[C.W.Richeson]

Thanks, Pig with Pen!

Adventure! will give you much more powerful, world shaking characters. A millionaire telekinetic who runs a world spanning criminal empire would be an easy character to build in Adventure! In my opinion, and this comes from a year of playing Adventure! but not having run HEX, combat is going to be slower in Adventure! due in part to dice pool splitting and multi-step combat. So if you want much more powerful characters, slower (but still fun) combat, and an unusual sort of setting (the Trinityverse is neat, but it's definitely not right for a lot of folk) consider Adventure!.

Spirit of the Century (my review) is going to give you more of a focus on the character and their past exploits through the Aspects system. The Tagging system is going to make Academics, Occultists, and other characters that exist largely to deliver knowledge from the GM to the Player a lot more fun to play. Mooks are easy to incorporate, and combat tends to notably favor the heroes (at least in my experience). If you want a pulp game set in the 1920s with a nifty twist (characters as defenders of the era) that sports really cool, but definitely non-standard mechanics, give SotC a try!

HEX is going to give you characters that are clearly exceptional, but who are much closer to being human than either of those games. HEX wants you to feel exceptional, but it places more emphasis on the human side of things. Weird powers are, well, weird and definitely worthy of exploration and awe. The setting is fantastic. Not only is 1936 a welcome change for pulp, but the Hollow Earth is very well done and offers an incredible number of options for adventure. The system is intuitive and should be easy to teach people, and with the Taking the Average convention a lot of unnecessary dice rolling is avoided. Unlike either Adventure! or SotC, HEX has a future product lineup that will expand upon the setting and character options to make it an even more robust world. If you want a smart, fun setting then you should definitely check out HeX.

So, there are some jumbled thoughts for you!

[C.W.Richeson]

It's also worth pointing out that Bruce Baugh, one of the authors of Adventure!, worked on HEX.

[ghost-angel]

Good review. Looks like an interesting game, at least it has me interested in picking up a copy.

On another note: Pulp Hero has a ton of information on the two decades between WW1 and WW2 as well as a load of information on countries across the world. It is another good resource of information concerning the mid-to-late 1930s pulp era should one want some.

[C.W.Richeson]

Originally Posted by ghost-angel

On another note: Pulp Hero has a ton of information on the two decades between WW1 and WW2 as well as a load of information on countries across the world. It is another good resource of information concerning the mid-to-late 1930s pulp era should one want some.

Absolutely! Pulp Hero remains one of, if not the, single best pulp products on the RPG market.

[jcombos]

Thanks, Chris, for the wonderful, thorough review. I really appreciate you taking the time to take a look at HEX.

I just want to clarify one thing.

Originally Posted by C.W.Richeson

My big complaint here is that the chart states that a rating of 5 in a Skill is just average...

A Skill rating is equal to the Base Attribute rating plus the Skill Levels put into it. Purchasing 5 Skill Levels in Academics: Religion gives your character a total Skill rating of 8, which is great. He's an expert in his field.

Other than that, I really like your sample character. It showcases character generation really well.

Thanks!

Jeff

[Ozric]

I picked this book up a couple weeks ago and although I haven't actually played the game yet, I think this review is pretty spot on. The book is really well done.

[C.W.Richeson]

Originally Posted by jcombos

A Skill rating is equal to the Base Attribute rating plus the Skill Levels put into it. Purchasing 5 Skill Levels in Academics: Religion gives your character a total Skill rating of 8, which is great. He's an expert in his field.

Whoops! That makes a lot more sense, thanks Jeff!

[Dan Davenport]

Another excellent review, CWR! You have a real talent for conveying the essence of a setting, and I appreciate your in-depth look at the mechanics.

What are your thoughts on the "Ninjasaurus" aspect of the damage mechanic (i.e., stronger attacks are more likely to hit, and there's not really a way to do clumsy-but-powerful attacks)? That's my one concern about the system based upon my skimming so far, although it seems easy enough to fix.