‘Pulp’ is a genre word, like ‘comic book’, that many people use to define one aspect of a wider genre. Most people think of Indiana Jones punching out some Nazis and grabbing some golden idol. The pulps have much more to offer, ranging from the beginnings of masked heroes like The Shadow, to the hard-boiled PI. This may be one of the reasons why a pulp game has not taken root in the gamer community. When one player wants to adventure around the world and raid tombs, another wants to be a shadowy vigilante, and the third wants to be a barnstorming air ace, the kitchen sink approach of other games can make cohesive adventuring difficult. Exile Games, a young company out of Seattle, has taken its shot at making its mark in this genre. Hollow Earth Expedition is more narrowly focused than other pulp games, but does that make it better?
After the usual opening fiction and “What is Roleplaying?” section, the game kicks off with an overview of the world circa 1936. It’s a decent enough primer for those that don’t have a pulp library to wash over, and there are even a few sections that cover stuff overlooked elsewhere (like the different Isms fighting with each other).
Character creation is next. The system is a segmented point buy; 15 for attributes, them some for skills, and so on. The game borrows from various sources, but here it strikes me as mostly similar to the new World of Darkness, with a few secondary traits, as well as Talents and Resources. Resources are things your character has, like mentors and gadgets, whereas Talents are more like feats. The majority of the Talents have something to do with combat, which makes sense as this is an action game. I would have liked to seen a few more that emulated genre conventions, like the Knacks in Adventure!, but I think those can be easily ported over. One of the things I liked was the many combat Talents for non-combat characters. These include thinks like switching the attribute used in combat (Instead of Dexterity, using Willpower, for example) to allow for different styles of fighting, and designating non-combat skills as ones that offer Defense bonuses for using them. This way, characters can use those soft skills for some benefit, like taking pictures of the T-Rex or literally dancing around opponents. The section ends with a few full-color templates, suitable for out-of-the-box playing. Another interesting note is that all the NPCs in the book have their equivalent rating as a Mentor or an Ally listed nearby.
The rules and combat run quickly. It’s a dice pool game of stat +skill. Successes are determined by how many evens you roll on whatever size even-sided die you choose to roll. Alternately, choose odds, high, low, or whatever math makes successes easy to count up. The company has released it own set of dice to lower the handfuls of dice the system required. Another thing the system does is allow players to Take the Average, rather than roll. This both speeds up the narrative as well as keeps things moving quickly with the NPCs.
The book does a good job of being a well-made starter book with some definite room for supplements. This won’t be the only book you’ll ever need, but if you’re looking for a good, fast pulp system, you could do a lot worse. If you are already are happy with your Favorite Pulp System, there might not be enough here to warrant a jump.
Pros:
Throw Me The Whip: The system moves very quickly. The crunch is almost all front loaded. Taking the Average is a great way to handle the actions of NPCs quickly but leaving the option open to get more detailed.
This IS History: While there are interesting characters detailed in the book, there are no signature characters or metaplot. If you want your players to be the first to discover the Hollow Earth and fight off evil interlopers, go right ahead.
There’s A Kid Driving the Car: This is Exile Games’ first release, and it’s obvious they are very excited. They are active on the forums and willing to discuss everything from rules questions to their favorite pulp movies.
Cons:
Fly? Yes. Land? No.: While the rules are well-thought out, complete rules for building your own weird science gadgets and artifacts are coming in another supplement. Until then, there are a few examples that you can use to gauge what your players come up with.
I Had It In My Hands: If you don’t invest in the Ubiquity dice, you will be rolling a lot of dice. Most starting characters will have somewhere in the 8-10 range for their area of expertise.
If Only You Spoke Hovitos: Some of the social advantages seem to be less useful in the Hollow Earth than on the surface. While you may be a millionaire industrialist, piles of cash aren’t going to help you negotiate with the natives. Since the focus on the game right now is escaping the Hollow Earth, players and GMs might have to stretch to make sure players taking these advantages don’t feel cheated.
The Bottom Line: A solid start from a young company.
Great for: Anyone sick of D20 but not into Forge games, fans of Adventure!, anyone with a crush on a Lost cast member
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