Hollow Earth Expedition is a 1930s pulp-adventure game focused primarily (though not exclusively) on adventures in a primeval land at the center of the earth. It’s pretty standard lost-world stuff, and the although the designers have made some effort to soften the problematic elements of the genre* there’s really only so much you can do without either intentionally subverting it or altering it beyond recognition.
The game runs on an engine called Ubiquity, which uses a count-successes die pool mechanic, and because every even die result is a success you can use pretty much any dice to roll for task resolution.
Character generation begins by choosing an Archetype (or creating one, if none of the book’s archetypes appeal to you). These are the sort of stock characters you might expect to find in this genre: action types like the big game hunter or the soldier; academics like the archaeologist or the eccentric scientist; accidental adventurers like the movie star or the ordinary traveler whose trip went horribly awry. I’m going to go with the Doctor, who might be a certified MD or a nurse or even somebody with a lot of practical experience and a mentor but no formal training; the main thing is they know how to treat injuries and diseases. I’ll figure that out as I go through the process.
Now I need a Motivation. Why am I crawling around the jungle in the center of the earth instead of playing golf and hitting people’s knees with little rubber hammers? Was I recruited for an expedition? Did I wind up here as a result of a travel disaster? What keeps me going on this journey well outside my assumed comfort zone? I’m going to assume it wasn't my idea to come here, but now that I’m stuck with these people I have a responsibility to try and keep them healthy until we can all get home. That’s pretty clearly Duty.
Now we begin doing things with numbers. There are six Primary Attributes, and I have 15 points to distribute among them: Body, Dexterity, Strength, Charisma, Intelligence, and Willpower. The average human rating for each is 2, and if I start by putting two points in each I’ll be able to put a 4 and a 3 in my most important attributes. Intelligence seems like an important attribute for a doctor, so that’ll get my 4, and I think Dexterity is a good candidate for the 3. That gives me the following spread:
Body 2, Dexterity 3, Strength 2, Charisma 2, Intelligence 4, Willpower 2.
Next it’s time to figure Secondary Attributes, which are all either static or derived from the primaries. First off is Size, which defaults to 0 if you’re an adult human. Move rating is the sum of Strength and Dex, in my case 5. Perception is Intelligence plus Willpower, so 6. Initiative is Int plus Dex, or 7. Defense is a little more complex and breaks down into a general rating, a passive rating (when you can’t dodge and only your basic toughness applies) and an active rating (when your toughness is irrelevant and dodging is all you can do). Your Passive Defense is the same as your Body score (2), your Active Defense is the same as your Dexterity score (3), and your General Defense is the sum of the two minus your Size (5). Your Body score is also the same as your Stun rating (2), which is the amount of damage you can take in a single hit without being knocked loopy for a round. And finally Health, which is your overall capacity to handle punishment, is Body plus Willpower plus Size, or 4. Another character who should try to stay away from violence, I see.
Now I get another bundle of fifteen points to spend on Skills. Skills link to Attributes, and the sum of the two ratings gives you the basic size of your dice pool for thing-doing (excluding any modifiers for situation, equipment, etc). I can spend up to five points on any one skill, so I’ll have to train at least three, but the list is 30 items long, so there’s a lot of stuff that I won’t be able to train in at all. Medicine is kind of mandatory, of course, but I don’t know that I’ll need to go all the way to five ranks when two will get me to the level of a competent G.P. Let’s buy 4 (for an overall rating of 8) and revisit if we have points left over at the end. Empathy (which like Medicine is Intelligence-linked) is a valuable doctor skill, let’s throw a couple of points into that for a rank of 6. Science skills have to be bought as individual specialties, and a couple of ranks in Science: Biology would be entirely appropriate. A hospital, military or public-health background would provide the basis for a couple ranks of Bureaucracy (also Intelligence, so a rating of 6), not that I would expect to have much use for it in the Hollow World. That leaves five points for non-professional skills: hobbies, stuff I learned in the military or even earlier in my school days, that kind of thing. Survival covers hunting & fishing experience; that deserves a point (+ Intelligence = 5), likewise Firearms (+ Dexterity = 4). I’ll add a couple points to Diplomacy to cover for my mediocre Charisma (2+2=4) and spend the final point on pharmacy, which shows up on the list as Craft: Medicine (+ Intelligence = 5).
Next I can buy either one Talent or one Resource. Talents are inherent qualities of the character, whereas Resources are external advantages that the character has access to. I’m assuming this campaign is starting in the center of the earth, and Resources seem to be of little use when you’re cut off from home. I’m going to give him the talent Iron Will, to better reflect his persistence in the face of unfavorable conditions (which will be explained later under Finishing Touches). That will boost his Willpower to 3 (and necessitate some recalculations, but we’ll update the numbers when we write up his statblock.
Then I have the option to take one Flaw. Flaws don’t provide any counterbalancing advantages during character creation, but they do provide an avenue to earn Style Points that I can spend for bonus dice during play. I’m not thrilled with the choices on the list, but I still want to use this part of the system somehow. I decide on Lame, an old leg injury that couldn’t heal properly and now reduces my character’s Move rating by 2. Any time this reduced mobility causes trouble for the character (like being unable to outrun danger), I’ll get a Style Point.
After that, the game gives me fifteen Experience Points that I can spend on Attributes, Skills, Talents or Resources. These spend differently than the points we used for buying those things earlier. Boosting an Attribute will cost 5 XP times the rating I’m buying, so for instance bringing Strength up to 3 will cost the entire 15 XP. Boosting a Skill only costs twice the rating you want, and specializing in some aspect of a Skill you already have costs 3 points. A Talent or a Resource will cost the whole 15. I’m ready to blow the whole sum on one improvement; there’s a good argument for boosting Strength to claw back some of that Move reduction from my Flaw, but there’s a lot of items on the Talent list that deserve a second look. I settle on Alertness, which provides a +2 to Perception and hopefully will let him get a couple of steps ahead of danger before that bum leg gets him killed.
Finally, it’s time for Finishing Touches: name, background, physical description, etc. I have to admit I’m a little stumped here. The skill set I’ve put together suggests a couple of possibilities: a respected (but not renowned) specialist with a successful consulting practice and a country-club membership, or perhaps an experienced country doctor with some background in the military or as a public health officer, or maybe a doctor from a minority community who knows how the system works because he’s been fighting it for so long. I think I can make that last one work:
Dr. Charles Sumner Thornton graduated from Howard University Medical School in 1917 and soon afterward joined the Army Medical Corps as the United States entered the Great War. After the war he worked both in segregated hospitals and in Black community clinics, always underfunded, spending half his time trying to drum up money to keep the institutions functioning, often just successful enough to keep the doors open and the pilot light on. He wed Louisa Thomas in 1921, but he put so much of himself into his cause that he had nothing left for the marriage until it was too late to save it. That was over a decade ago; he knows better now than to inflict his personality on one woman “till death do us part.” And he found his way into this mess by doing a favor for an Army buddy who hinted that it might bring the kind of returns that could endow a hospital. Charles let his hope, his frustrations and his loyalty override his misgivings; it’s a decision he increasingly regrets.
Dr. Thornton is a couple of inches over six feet tall and is built fairly thin. He walks with a pronounced limp due to a knee injury he suffered over ten years ago (“I did something stupid,” is all he’ll say when asked about it) and uses a cane. He keeps his hair Army short, though nowadays he’s got some grey and a lot more forehead than he did back then. He wears a neatly trimmed mustache. Back home he usually dresses professionally in a suit, often with a lab coat; for this expedition he brought outdoorsman’s gear.
Now, since I gave Dr. Thornton both a Flaw and a background, I will most likely start the game with 2 Style Points—the point for the background is at the GM’s discretion, though.
The rules don’t seem to cover starting equipment (or cash on hand for characters who don’t buy an income-providing Resource), so I’m going to assume our doctor was able to put together a basic kit for traveling with an expedition, and that rations, tents, and so forth have been provided by the organizers. To do his job he’ll need a surgeon’s kit and at least one first aid kit. A personal basics kit includes toiletries, and this is a man who understands the importance of hygiene in the field. He’ll also carry a flashlight, a Swiss army knife and a pair of binoculars. For personal defense he’ll add a .32 automatic (with a holster) and switch his ordinary cane for a sword cane. Each adds two dice to an attack roll and inflicts lethal damage. That’s not quite $80 worth of gear, which doesn’t seem too outrageous.
All right, then, let’s sum him up in a stat block:
Charles Sumner Thornton
Archetype: Doctor
Motivation: Duty
Primary Attributes:
Body 2, Dexterity 3, Strength 2, Charisma 2, Intelligence 4, Willpower 3
Secondary Attributes:
Size 0, Move 3, Perception 9, initiative 7, Defense 5 (Passive 2, Active 3), Stun 2, Health 5
Skills: Bureaucracy 6, Craft (Medicine) 5, Diplomacy 4, Empathy 6, Firearms 4, Medicine 8, Science (Biology) 6, Survival 5
Talents: Alertness, Iron Will
Flaw: Lame
Style Points: 2
Gear: Binoculars, first aid kit, flashlight, personal basics kit, surgeon’s kit, Swiss army knife
Weapons:
.32 automatic pistol (2L damage, 50’ range increment, Average speed, 8 round magazine)
Sword cane (2L damage, melee range, Fast speed)
*By which I mean mostly (but not exclusively) the racism. And the sexism, but mostly the racism. The “civilized heroes exploring a primitive world” trope that this whole game is hung on springs right out of colonialism, and while making room for people of color to be the civilized heroes is certainly a step up from the source material, it doesn’t really address the core issue.
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