Reviews: Hollow Earth Expedition Supplements

Today I want to go through some of the supplements for Hollow Earth Expedition.  Each of these adds something I think necessary and needed to the game.

Secrets of the Surface World

I won't lie. I really, really like this book.  I am reviewing the PDF at 167 pages.
Secrets of the Surface World is the guide for all characters really.  There is a lot going on *on* the Earth without ever having to go *in* to it.
Chapter 1 covers Characters. Here we have a host of new archetypes, motivations and skills for your characters.  The big add here is the inclusion of Martial Arts and Brawling skills. So now you can make your own "Kwai Chang Caine" character.  Though for me the jewels are in the Talents.  Here we have Magical Aptitude and Psychic Ability.  Personally I think these should have been in the core book, BUT I do see why they are here.  HEX is really more about science, or more often SCIENCE!, and magical powers don't really help that.  But I am sorry I just love to see magic in my games.  Don't worry, fans of Weird Science have plenty to look at here as well.   There are more Resources as well.  Flaws are also covered, but so are Severe Flaws.  These are obviously worth much more.   We are also given Mental Flaws.  Plenty of Role-playing fun with these.
Chapter 2: Supernatural Powers is why I got this book to begin with!  Yeah, I like a certain kind of game and this chapter turns HEX into that kind of game for me.  The Supernatural powers are divided up into Psychic Abilities and Magic.  The system is pretty straight forward to be honest.  Psychic abilities are divided into various talents, each one must be purchased separately.   Magic is a single talent, though there are different Traditions, and a skill.   Spells and Rituals must be uncovered or found.  Not a lot of magical traditions and spells are given, but there is enough for me to take it and run with it.
Chapter 3 Secret Societies continues where the HEX core left off.  Everything from the Thule Society to the Mafia are covered here. Like the core some NPCs are also presented here. My favorites are Aleister Crowley and Edgar Cayce. It is a great contrast to see the two different supernatural styles together.
Chapter 4 The Surface World covers more parts of the world not touched on in the core book.
Chapter 5 T. F. Arkington's Lifestyle Emporium covers more gear.  A lot more gear.
Chapter 6 Weird Science.  I said there was going to be more for the fan of Weird Science and I meant it.  Want to send giant Nazi mechs against your characters? Ok. We can do that now.  Really.
Chapter 7 Vehicle Combat continues the material from the Core book. Though more detail is given. In truth you might not ever need this chapter since the core covers it so well, but it is nice to know it is here.
Finally we end with a sample adventure Prisoner of the Reich.
All in all a satisfying book.  I can't help but think that some of this should have gone into the core book, but the magic stuff is so different than the rest thematically I see why it wasn't.   I got this for the magic, so I am pleased with that.

I have so many plans for this book.

Mysteries of the Hollow Earth

Like Secrets of the Surface World is for well, the surface world, this book is all about the Hollow Earth.  Create native characters from all over (under) the Earth.
Chapter 1 again deals with Characters.  At this point you know how this all set up.  New Archetypes include Barbarians, Beastmen, Guardians, Healers, Mystics, Natives, Outcast and Warriors.  One thing should be pretty obvious now, not only can you use this for a Pellucidar-like game, but it sets up a Barsoom game nicely or even a Conan/Hyborean Age game.  A Pulp game in a Pulp setting, how nice is that!  There are some new motivations, and plenty of new talents. There are also some new flaws.  This book feels more like a true supplement rather than a book of "left-overs"; some thought and research went into this.  I was reading through it all and mentally substituting things I had read from Edgar Rice Burroughs or Robert E. Howard.  That's a good sign.  Plus you can mix and match talents to create Panthermen, Hawkmen, Reptile-people (always a plus in my book) and dozens of others.
The pre-gen Archetypes are great.  The Amazon Warrior makes me want to play a Xena like game now.
Chapter 2 takes us back to Supernatural Powers.  We start with more details on sorcery including more modifiers.  We also are given Shamanism and Alchemy which is really cool.   This chapter plus it's twin in Secrets of the Surface World gives me no end of ideas.
Chapter 3 covers Natives. This is a great and fun chapter to be honest.  If anyone asks me why run a game in the Hollow Earth I am directing them to this.  It is an odd mix of Pulp, post-Victorian occultism and fringe science.  I love it.  I have seen other games take the same elements, but the assembly here is fantastic.  Is it the only way to do this? No, the same elements appear in many other games (Amazons, Atlanteans, lost titans...) but here it works rather nice.
Chapter 4 Beastmen covers the others living in the Hollow Earth.  Natives are largely human, beast men are something else.  The usual suspects are here; Apemen, Gillmen, Lizardmen, Molemen (natch), and Panthermen (or at least a cat-like humanoid race) but there are some great newcomers like the not often seen Hawkmen (should be more Egyptian in my tastes but hey, happy to see them) and some insectmen and the new for this genre Green Men which are more plant like.
Chapter 5 covers the Hollow Earth.  It includes some basics (healing, getting out) but mostly devoted to various locations.  Atlantis for example is here, as is El Dorado (the City of Gold), Shangri-La,  and Blood-Bay where the Pirates hang out.  That is enough to keep you going for a while really.
Chapter 6 adds a more monsters to the Bestiary.   There are more dinosaurs here (always welcomed!).  There are prehistoric reptiles that are not dinosaurs, such as the Archelon and the Plesiosaurus among others. The science geek in me appreciates the separation.  We also get a great collection of prehistoric mammals.  Giant insects, giant apes, and other creatures fill this section.  There is even a guide for creating your own creatures. Which is good, because the one monster I wanted wasn't there.  The book has plenty of pictures of Dimetrodon, but no stats.  I might have to make my own now.
We end with a sample adventure, Fate of Atlantis and an Index.
There is so much here that any half-decent GM could find hours and hours worth of game materials for their own Hollow Earth games.

Perils of the Surface World

This is a collection of adventures that takes the characters around the world.  Adventures are harder to review than games in general since the real proof in both is the playing.  Adventures only more so.  This book contains four separate, but loosely connected adventures.
Each one also contains some added crunch or rules to the game.  We get Faith and Miracles, Horror, Infection and Sanity, New Sorcery Rituals, Artifacts and Vehicles and lastly (what might be the most fun) some Martial Arts powers.
No spoilers, but if you need some ready to go adventures then this is the book you want.

AD&D 1e Players Handbook on DriveThruRPG

That's right.  The book that started it out for so many of us is now on DriveThruRPG.
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17003/Players-Handbook-1e

This is a big deal really.
Prior to this the wisdom was that the reprints would not be released on PDF.
So I supposed there is hope that some PDFs might get reprinted.  Maybe.

But in any case the Gary's Magnum Opus, AD&D, will now be available as PDF.

Also if you are playing the newest edition of the game, Unearthed Arcana has Psionics for the price of a click.
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/awakened-mystic

The days of complaining about Wizards not giving us what we want are over.

Review: Hollow Earth Expedition

The Hollow Earth has always been one of those fringe theories that always sounded like a lot of fun in a game.   I loved the Jules Verne tale "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and the movie based on it.  My exposure to the idea for a game came originally from the old Mystara campaign set, The Hollow World.  Later I discovered the "Shaver Mystery" and the Pellucidar series.
While I know there is no basis whatsoever in scientific fact for a Hollow Earth, it is a lot of fun.  I have even contributed to a Hollow Earth book myself.

So it was with much excitement that I picked up Hollow Earth Expedition.
Full Disclosure: I did write a Hollow Earth book for a different publisher.  I avoided looking at or reading this book till long after my own ms was sent in.
Full Disclosure 2: I am reviewing both the Hardcover and PDF versions of this game.

Let's begin.  What is Hollow Earth Expedition?
HEX, as it is known, is the first Ubiquity powered game on the market (as far as I know).  The setting is "Pulp-era" which I have always roughly translated as the time between the two world wars.  Others might have a more nuanced view on this, but this has served me well enough.  If gumshoes walk the streets, Indiana Jones is still working at the University and fighting Nazis and cults then this is the time.
HEX is two things to me.  It is a new game system (Ubiquity) and a new game setting (Hollow Earth).  I will deal with each in turn.

The HEX hardcover is a gorgeous book. It is 260 pages, mostly black & white (which I want to address) and some color inserts.  The PDF is set up in similar fashion.  Ok, so the interior is black & white.  You know what else is? King Kong, Bela Lugosi's Dracula, Tod Browning's Freaks.  All the movies I associate with this era are in black & white as well.  Save for Journey to the Center of the Earth and Raiders of the Lost Ark. To me, along with the fantastic art, it  really sets the stage for the story I want to tell.   So giving the book "the flip test" ie just flipping through it, it has passed well.

Chapter 1: Setting sets us up for the rest of the book.  We learn a bit about the Pulp Era, the time; it;s 1936, the obligatory "what is Role-playing" section and a brief overview on the book.  Then we get right into it with the setting.  We start off with an overview of the last 25 years or so from the character point of view.  In particular I rather like the section on what characters would know and the speed of information in 1936.  Case in point, one of the films mentioned in the game, Becky Sharp, was considered one of the highest tech films made at the time. I can look it up and learn it was a landmark of cinema. I can even watch it at my leisure.  But not everyone in 1936 saw it, and not everyone or indeed most people knew what a landmark it was.  A lot of people knew it was special. It was color after all, but that was it.
The chapter continues with some great overviews of the world post WWI with WWII looming large and frightening on the horizon.  There is enough here for a game it's own right and indeed there are many games, good games, out there that never go beyond this.  But for HEX this is stage dressing.  The real setting is yet to come.

Chapter 2: Characters covers what you expect. Character creation.  This is where we are introduced to the Ubiquity system for the first time.  Character creation is a point-buy affair like many games.  In this though they recommend you begin with an archetype in mind.   Not a bad place to start really.  To me Pulp is about two fisted action.  So, and I mean this in the best possible way there is, the characters are often well...stereotypes.  "Big Game Hunter", "Gumshoe", "Silver Screen Starlet" and so on.  This is Pulp and here it works.  Not to sound to cliched, but the difference between a character and caricature is the player.  So choose that archetype and embrace it.  We are doing more next.  Next step is choose your motivation.  This is your character's reason for adventure. Quite literally their raison d'être.  Next are your Primary Attributes.  There are the customary six and you have 15 points to spread between them.  These are very similar attributes you find in Unisystem. They are even on a similar scale. The names are different for a few, but the translation is one to one.  Ok, to be fair, there is not of a lot things you would call these and it could be said that they are the same as D&D too.  So it gets a pass, but I am watching you Ubiquity!   Secondary attributes, which are derived.  Skills, which are bought with another 15 points. The max is 5 skill levels at character creation.  Like d20 (but unlike Unisystem) skills are tied to a particular attribute. You can then choose a Talent or a Resource and then a Flaw. A Flaw gives you a Style point.  You are then given another 15 points to spend on Attributes, Skills, Talents or Resources.
I don't mean to do this much, but "point wise" this puts a starting Ubiquity character right around the same level as a starting Unisystem character.  This is good if you like to move from system to system like I do.  (NOTE: I ran a Ghosts of Albion adventure using Ubiquity characters and system and it worked great.)
What follows are archetypes and motivations.  There is a lot here really and it works well.
Attributes are next.  Attributes are scored 0-6 with 1-5 as the range of normal humans, 2 being average.
Skills are discussed at length.  Ubiquity has 30 skills with some having many specialities.
Talents are something special about your character, so aptitude in a particular skill, or a natural ability.  Resources are something you have.
The section ends with the color pages of various archetypes.  If you are short on time you can grab one of these as a your new character.  There are plenty of great choices to be honest.

Chapter 3: Rules does exactly what it says on the tin. Covers the rules.  This is where we are introduced to the Ubiquity dice.  Now normally I shy away from games that require me to buy a another set of special dice.  But these dice are the most part just d8s.  Some are numbered a little differently since they mimic the rolling of 2d8 or 3d8 on one die.  The mechanic is simple.  Roll a given number of dice (dice pool) and then each even number is a success.  So in this respect you can roll anything, d6s, d12s, flipping a coin.  The number of sides needs to be even.  The successes are added up and compare to a difficulty level.  "Easy" would be 1 success, "Average" is 2 and so on.  Impossible is anything higher than 9 successes.
How many dice do you roll?  The number of points in your Skill or Attributes + Skill.  So if I want to check the authenticity of a scroll I could use Academics.  I'll say I have a 5 in that. Let's say I am a nerdy academic type (yeah real stretch I know) and I have specialization in this, I add +1 so I can roll 6 dice.  But say my GM has set the difficulty at 4.  I would need to roll 4 or more successes in order to pass it.  If I didn't have this skill then I base it on my Intelligence and then -2.  There are other modifications to my dice pool. It's sounds difficult but it plays fast.  There are also situations where I can "Take the average"; if a situation will result in a success 50% of the time the character can take the average and succeed. There is no style or flair in this, but not everything is a deed of derring do.
Like many simple mechanic systems it does fade into the background with play.
There are also degrees of Success and Failure. So if you gain 3 successes over what is needed then that is a "Major Success".  These extra successes or failures are typically role-played.
Style Points are also gained and spent here.  Style Points can be added to pools. You gain style points in various ways.  My favorite is "bringing the treats".  Hey. Every little bit helps.

Chapter 4: Combat covers a very specific sort of ruling of the rules presented in Chapter 3.  The basic mechanic is the same, but there are other situations.   This chapter could have been folded into Chapter 3, but I see why it is seperate.

We take a brief intermission for an Example of Play.  This is rather handy to be honest to see how everything comes together.

Chapter 5: Equipment covers all the gear and weapons your character needs.  This is a pretty robust chapter to be honest.  If you never play HEX but play other Pulp games then it is worth having a look at this chapter anyway.  The costs of weapons alone is very helpful.

Chapter 6: Gamemastering details the setting.  Ah if the previous chapters were the meat then this is the...well...other meat with more gravy. Ubiquity is a fine, but a system without a setting is an experiment or an SRD.  This setting is what makes the system shine.  They could have cleanly split the book in half at this place.

Chapter 7: The Hollow Earth covers the setting in detail.  There is a great mix of all the myths, legends and stories of the Hollow Earth here.  Regardless of your familiarity with those myths there is enough here to get you going and get you playing.  Let's be honest, you have always want to hunt T-Rexes while running through the jungle with a shotgun. Suspend your logical 2015 mind and take on an adventurous 1936 mind and load up.

Chapter 8: Friends and Enemies details what is going on on the Surface World and the Hollow World.  This covers the world and presents some important NPCs and their organizations.  Yes. You get to kill evil Nazi cultists and Interior Sea pirates.  If you are lucky in the same adventure.

Chapter 9: Bestiary is our manual of monsters. We have dinosaurs (and a proper Brontosaurus, no Apatosaurus), Ice age mammals, giant versions of nearly everything, sea monsters, and killer plants.  There are no "magical" animals or monsters; no dragons, no centaurs and the like.   This is 1936 and magic has given away to reason and to science.

Another break for a Sample Adventure.

We spend the last few pages with an Appendix on Pulp Resources and Inspiration.
Lots of great resources here including books on the Pulp Adventure Era. Yes, Lovecraft is present here, but there is not much in this game that is "Lovecraftian" as it typically defined.  This is a good thing in my mind.   Books get the most treatment.  Comic Books, Movies and TV series get lists.

There is also a rather good Glossary and Index.  There is a character sheet for your use as well.

All in all a great game.  I have played it a few times and it is really, really fun.
The setting is gonzo but without the crazy.  I could have a lot of fun with this.

The game sits nicely between Unisystem and Savage Worlds in terms of playability for me.  Though I will say that HEX does everything I wanted from Savage Worlds, it just does it better in my mind.

Tomorrow I'll talk more about Ubiquity and Unisystem and how I convert between the two.

2,000,000 Page views! And Ennies.

Sometime around dinner time yesterday I hit 2,000,000 page views.

I took me about 5 years to reach 1,000,000 and less than half that to reach the next million.
Pretty humbling really.  That after all this time you all are still interested in what I have to day.   I want to thank you all.

Nothing really special planned this time, except a special themed edition of "Friday Night Videos".

Don't forget the voting is now live for the ENnies.
http://www.ennie-awards.com/vote/2015/

I did not self-nominate my self this year mostly because I didn't feel like I posted anything above and beyond what I had done last year.  Maybe next year.

For support I am throwing my votes at +Lowell Francis' and his Age of Ravens, http://ageofravens.blogspot.com/ for best website (though it should really be nominated for best blog).

I am also showing my support for +Zak Smith's "Red and Pleasant Land".  We need more strange and weird in our hobby and it is nice that something that is nominally part of our little subset of the hobby get a nod.

My Ubiquity post will be later today.

July is Ubiquity Month

This July I want to spend some quality time with the Ubiquity system.  This is a "generic" system that goes after the same sort of games and crowd that Savage Worlds and Unisystem target.
I tend to like Ubiquity a bit more than Savage Worlds, but a little less than Unisystem.

The Ubiquity System was created by Exile Game Studios for their Hollow Earth Expedition game.  It has since been used in other games by other companies.

These are the games I am going to be looking at in detail:
Hollow Earth Expedition RPG (Exile Game Studios)
Hollow Earth Expedition: Secrets of the Surface World (Exile Game Studios)
Leagues of Adventure (Triple Ace Games)
Space: 1889 (Clockwork Publishing)
Revelations of Mars (Exile Game Studios)

I am also working on a couple of NPCs to help feature some of the game rules.  A few I really want to do are Dracula and Sherlock Holmes.

When I first was getting into Ubiquity I started with Leagues of Adventure, which is like an alternate universe "Ghosts of Albion".  While in GoA magic is supreme, in LoA it is weird science and steampunk.   I like to think that every character in GoA has an LoA counterpart and visa versa.
In fact I ran my Ghosts of Albion: Dinosauria adventure under Leagues of Adventure with no problems.  I had to fudge the magic a little, but now I think I could a much better job.

I will talk more about Leagues later in this week, but suffice to say I am rather fond of it.

Hollow Earth Expedition is a game I knew I was going to love, but one I did not buy till very recently.  I was working on a Hollow Earth book for Battlefield Press and I didn't want it to enfluence me.  I am happy to say that the HEX book I picked up was both similar and very different than what I did.  It was obvious we drew from the same sources but went in different ways.

Space 1889 and Revelations of Mars were both Kickstarters I gladly backed.  I am not getting the PDFs buy am missing the hardcover of Mars at the moment.

All of these games together have given me a lot of ideas on various games.  One is one I have mentioned before, "1901: An Æther Space Odyssey".  HEX is firmly Pulp Era but LoA and Space 1889 are Victorian science fantasy.  I am going to take the median here and go with the dawn of the Edwardian Age as one of Space Exploration.  Despite the implied settings in Space 1889 and Revelations of Mars, I am likely to go more Barsoom with my my Mars; though I am leaving War of the Worlds open.

Looking forward to it! Hope you are too.

Friday Night Videos: Guest VJ Paul "Wiggy" Wade-Williams

Welcome back to Friday Night Videos!

It is my pleasure to bring you another Guest VJ.   Tonight we are honored to have Paul "Wiggy" Wade-Williams.  He will be playing videos that relate to his newest RPG book "Leagues of Gothic Horror".

So here is Wiggy.
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Hi! My name’s Wiggy (also known as Paul Wade-Williams) and I’m the creative director and a partner at Triple Ace Games. Tim has invited me to guest VJ and talk a little about the music I listened to while designing and writing LEAGUES OF GOTHIC HORROR, which launched on Kickstarter this week.

Truth be told, I’ve mainly been watching movies and listening to Gothic audio dramas while pounding away at the keyboard and watching the shadows for werewolves and vampires, but there is always time for music in the creative process. Maybe I’m a little anal, but I often create a playlist to match the product I’m working on, rather than accept whatever random tune my player throws up. Here are some of the tracks in that list.

Blue Oyster Cult — Magna of Illusion



This track is from my all-time favourite album—Imaginos. The lyrics are laden with layers of hidden meaning and weird significance—ancient prophecies, magic mirrors, alchemy, astrology, witches, magical ships! I’ve always had an interest in the occult(not to be confused with Satanism) and the entire album was essential listening—I never tire of listening to it! I love it so much there are references to it scattered throughout LEAGUES OF GOTHIC HORROR.


Sheelanigig — Lost in Transitvania



My music tastes are quite eclectic. Most of my playlist is heavy metal or rock, but nestled among the albums are 80s pop, folk, movie soundtracks, and Mongolian throat-singing. I came across this band at the Shetland Folk Festival only a few months ago and immediately fell in love with their stuff. Writing can be a boring process, even if you love what you write, and this song gave me an excuse to chair dance while absorbing the Eastern European folk vibe that transported me at least part way to Transylvania.


Ozzy Osbourne — Bark at the Moon



It’s Ozzy, the Prince of Darkness himself! This song met all the criteria when writing a book on Gothic Horror—the heavy metal I love and an atmospheric (if occasionally camp) video replete with elements of the genre. I’ve listened to Ozzy for many years, and regardless of my mood there’s always a song to suit.


The Unguided — Deathwalker



Remember I said my tastes were eclectic? Well, here’s some Swedish melodic death metal for you! I admit I am not without bias in choosing this track—the band based it on my Hellfrost fantasy setting and I was lucky enough to collaborate on the lyrics. Despite its fantasy origin, the track concerns the rising of a powerful lich and his gathering support from the undead, an apt enough topic for Gothic Horror.


Iron Maiden — The Number of the Beast



Iron Maiden, the first heavy metal I ever listened to. This track, from their third album, always reminds me of one of my favorite horror film—The Devil Rides Out. The beat is fast, hardly fitting for the creeping terror of Gothic Horror, but the content, Satanism, was perfect for writing the magic section. The track also reminds me of school (I was 12 when it came out), especially since 1982 was the date The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was published, the book that got me into gaming.


Dalibor Krigovský — Moriens Spiritum



Conveying mood to the reader is an essential part of writing. Gothic Horror isn’t slash and gore. It’s dark and moody. It reeks of decadence and decay. Capturing that unique flavour so GMs can convey it to their players in words was essential. Often I can get into the right mood without much thought—it is part of the job being a full-time author working on varied projects—but there are times when I need a boost. This track is heavy and brooding, perfect for immersing myself in Gothic atmosphere.


J. S. Bach — Toccata and Fugue in D Minor



More mood music! I’ve always loved this piece of music. Maybe I’m odd, but it immediately conjures up images of the lonely figure of Dracula (or Strahd von Zarovich) seated in front of an organ in his desolate castle or the Phantom of the Opera. It’s a very powerful and emotive piece that ebbs and flows, never failing to drag my mood along as it does so.

(ETA: This is one of my favorites as well! - Tim)

If you like the playlist and you’re interested in our Kickstarter for LEAGUES OF GOTHIC HORROR, please check it out here:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1588759266/leagues-of-gothic-horror

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Thanks so much Wiggy!

Kickstart Your Weekend: Leagues of Gothic Horror

Oh I am quite excited about this one!

Paul Wade-Williams is giving us a followup to his fantastic Leagues of Adventure with Leagues of Gothic Horror!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1588759266/leagues-of-gothic-horror/description

Already it has blown past it's initial goal and moving on into stretch goals.

It is for the Ubiquity system, which I'll be talking more about next week.

Frankly I think it looks fantastic and I can't wait to add it to my table.  I am planning on using it with some Ubiquity games I own AND I want to see how it works with Ghosts of Albion.