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And they are fighting Nazis and dinosaurs … need I say more?
HEX is chock full of Pulpy goodness from the first page, complemented by incredible artwork that really highlights the sense of wonder.
The game uses a beautiful core mechanic - the Ubiquity system - that is elegant, simple and versatile. Attributes and Skills are rated, usually, from one to five. To resolve an action roll dice (of any shape) equal in number to the total of the relevant Attribute and Skill and count the even numbers as ‘successes’. If you get more successes than the target number - or your opponent’s role - you succeed. (In combat, the amount you succeed by is also your damage score).
There is also a system of “style” points (which are similar to hero points/drama points/bennies in other games) that really encourage role-playing a character’s flaws (as they allow extra die rolls when most needed to pull your fat out of the fire).
There is a genuine feeling in HEX that anything goes - you can tell any sort of story in the genre from masked crime fighters on the streets of New York to rugged exploration of a Lost World … and it all fits in the setting. There is a whiff of Von Daniken and the Stargate mythos in the secret history of the Hidden Earth; teasing glimpses and clues of a greater mystery. However, Exile must be praised for not going the “metaplot” route and straight-jacketing Gamesmasters into following the party line. They give you the ingredients, then say: go and cook up your own meal.
There are only two or three typos in the 240+ hardback book, which is pretty spectacular for an industry not known for its diligent proofreading.
However, if there is a flaw with the book, it could be the order the information is presented. Sometimes concepts - particularly in the background - are mentioned in passing before they are properly introduced. They could have done with moving the glossary - or something similar - up to the front; for instance the first mention we find of the mysterious material orichalcum is the write-up of an ‘orichalcum detecting artefact’ … but at that point there is no explanation of what it is or why anyone would want to detect it!
I do feel that HEX needs more scene-setting material upfront (besides the introductory story) and an insight into the genre conventions and tropes before getting into the crunch of the rules. It is a pet peeve of mine having to plough through pages and pages of rules before getting to the fluff that gives the flavour of the game.
Therefore a lot of assumptions have to made about the background while you are reading through. It’s one thing not to over-detail a setting, but rather drop suggestions to stir the imagination - and HEX has more ideas and hooks per page than most games - but a more definitive idea of how Exile felt the game should play out would have been useful.
Overall, HEX is a well-designed and well laid-out book with an elegant game mechanic that supports an awesome setting … and you get to fight Nazis and dinosaurs!
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