Saturday, June 18th is Free RPG Day ‘11 and with it comes a slew of new and interesting little releases. They can usually be divided between tasters for new games that will be released at Gen Con this forthcoming August and support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera. In general, the tasters for the new, “hot” games are highly anticipated and on the day itself, in high demand, but come the day, it would be remiss of us to ignore the less-in-demand titles. Many of these it should be made clear, are worth your time and effort to make it to your friendly, local gaming store to get hold of a copy. One such title is Hollow Earth Expedition: Free RPG Day Adventure 2011, provided by a stalwart supporter of the event, Exile Studios, whose popular pulp action RPG goes where only Doug McClure has gone before. The scenario this year is entitled “Trapped in the Aircraft Graveyard.”
Unfortunately, the bad news about Hollow Earth Expedition: Free RPG Day Adventure 2011 is that it is not complete. The adventure is itself complete, but not the support. What is missing is a fourth ready-to-play player character. Which is a problem for something that is meant to support four players and a GM, though if the GM has a copy of the Hollow Earth Expedition to hand, creating another character is not really an issue. Further, if the GM happens to be creating a character bring the required number up to a quartet, he might as create another to replace one of those given, the Lost Traveller. Considering that the adventure is all about getting the player characters to the Hollow Earth, having a character already suited to being there back on the surface of the Earth feels more than a little out of place, especially given the complete absence of background or detail for any of the characters. That though, is a problem that has beset all of Exile Studio’s Free RPG scenarios. All it would have taken is a sentence or two to provide a hook for each player character, and in the meantime, the Intrepid Reporter makes a worthy addition. Plus the following makes for a suitable fourth character.
| Archetype: Pilot for Hire | Motivation:Greed |
| Style: 2 | Health: 5 |
| Primary Attributes | |
| Body: 3 | Charisma: 4 |
| Dexterity: 3 | Intelligence: 3 |
| Strength: 2 | Willpower: 2 |
| Secondary Attributes | |
| Size: 0 | Initiative: 6 |
| Move: 5 | Defense: 6 |
| Perception: 6 | Stun: 3 |
| Skills | Base | Levels | Rating | Average |
| Brawl | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Bureaucracy | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Con | 4 | 1 | 5 | 2+ |
| Craft (Mechanics) | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2+ |
| Aircraft | 6 | 3 | ||
| Firearms | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Gambling | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Gunnery | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Pilot (Aircraft) | 3 | 4 | 7 | 3+ |
| Transports | 8 | 4 | ||
| Streetwise | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Survival | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
Talents
Charismatic (+1 Charisma)
Reckless Pilot
Resources
None
Flaw
Addiction (Alcohol)
Gripes aside, “Trapped in the Aircraft Graveyard” is a return to form for adventures for Hollow Earth Expedition for Free RPG Day. It is about getting the player characters to the Hollow Earth rather than having an adventure like last year’s “A Nightmare at the Museum,” which was entirely set in New York.
As ever, what you get with a Free RPG Day scenario from Exile Studios is a condensed version of the Ubiquity mechanics used in Hollow Earth Expedition. They are clearly explained and easy to understand, and all the GM has to do is add dice, provide the characters – included those provided and those that need providing – and get going.
The scenario opens with the characters aboard a Ford Tri-Motor, taking a flight from Chicago to Dallas. As expected, the trip goes awry when the aeroplane is caught up in a storm, a storm that takes a turn for the worse and flings the tiny aircraft into a strange new world and strands everyone aboard on a mysterious island. If the passengers are to get back to normality, they are going to need to co-operate, not only in the repair of their downed transport, but also in dealing with the island’s natural dangers. This is in addition to dealing with whatever it was that got them there in the first place!
It is a pity about the flaws in “Trapped in the Aircraft Graveyard” because it is a decent little adventure that should provide a session’s worth of play. As I said last year about “A Nightmare at the Museum,” it would be nice one year at the least to have a scenario set entirely within the Hollow Earth rather than one concerned with getting the characters there. Otherwise, this is a decent variation upon the introduction to Hollow Earth Expedition.
