If you ever wanted to check out the Ubiquity System or Exile Studio's pulp game Hollow Earth Expedition then check out this news:

https://www.facebook.com/ExileGameStudio/posts/215065425284777

The download link is only good on 02/14/2013.

EDIT:  Here is the corrected download link...
http://tinyurl.com/hexpdf

*BUMP*

Today's the day...

Got my copy.  Be sure to scroll down the comments to the correct updated link to the free pdf.

So is this game any good?

Just glanced at it. Successes based on even/odd rolls? Kinda interesting.

Quote from: Kaz;628083So is this game any good?

Just glanced at it. Successes based on even/odd rolls? Kinda interesting.

It's very, very good.

The system bugs me a bit conceptually in certain areas, but the setting is pure gold. It's worth getting for that alone. If you like the system, so much the better.

Warning: If you DO like the setting, you'll end up wanting Mysteries of the Hollow Earth.

Thanks for the heads-up. Can't beat free.

From a quick scan-through:

• HEX is definitely an attractive product. Great color and BnW art, solid layout. Its appearance definitely evokes the style of the pulp genre.
• The setting and historical background looks pretty solid.
• Nice bestiary

On the downside (in my opinion, of course):

• Dice pools... blech. Mitigated some, it seems, by buying their specialty dice. Otherwise you're rolling a fistful and counting successes.
• Perk/Flaw system... blech. Some people love them as a tool to customize their PCs; I can't stand them. (Flaws being more annoying to me than Perks).
• Story-crafting: just skimming HEX left me feeling like I'd been beat over the head by a 'story-now' agenda. Story-structure, cliffhangers, plots/subplots, assembling a cast. (I lean more to the belief of story being a result of play - after play has completed - than telling a story in the middle of sessions).

In short, for me, I think HEX would make great inspirational material to use with another system.

Yes thanks very much Awesome.

I've been having a lot of fun playing HEX. The system is okay, really quite light and fast moving. My only criticisms are that for a pulp game, unarmed combat is just woefully ineffective and the skills too narrow. But hey, what system doesn't have it's weak points?

We've been playing HEX for a couple of years and I'd say both the setting *and* the system have been great fun. In play, we haven't felt the mechanics were lacking - combat is perhaps a bit dangerous for a pulpy game but liberal use of style points makes up for it. That is, when you need it the most you can make sure your action has a better chance of success. I like that better than being awesome all the time.

HEX is probably one of my favorite RPGs, both setting and system. HEX is the first and only Dice Pool mechanic that I actually like. Even without the Ubiquity Dice, you are on average only ever going to roll between 4-7 dice, with 4-5 being more common. Having the special dice really makes things even easier.

This, along with Space 1889 are the two games I WISH I could play more of...

Quote from: Kaz;628083So is this game any good?

Just glanced at it. Successes based on even/odd rolls? Kinda interesting.

It plays well, a little on the gritty side compared to its contemporaries.

The only thing I don't like is:
1) Compared to other games bennies/fate/action points, style point don't do a lot. So you have to give a lot of them out to make them have a noticeable impact.
2) Attack accuracy and damage are sort of conflated, meaning you seldom see things like a t-rex actually missing with a poor roll. A poor roll with some huge attack like a t-rex typically means it just does less damage. I prefer resolution that allows for powerful attacks that can (and frequently do) miss entirely.

I normally don't like dice pool systems, but HEX/ubiquity is good for a dice pool system in that it skips over the gimmicks that tend to break or over-complicate other dice pool systems.

Quote from: Caesar Slaad;6282442) Attack accuracy and damage are sort of conflated, meaning you seldom see things like a t-rex actually missing with a poor roll. A poor roll with some huge attack like a t-rex typically means it just does less damage. I prefer resolution that allows for powerful attacks that can (and frequently do) miss entirely.

That's exactly the issue with unarmed combat. It's not that throwing a punch (which should in in-genre) does less damage, the punch it does not even land.

Didn't get it, don't really care. The only thing with "Hollow" in the name I think is awesome is D&D's Hollow World.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;628622Didn't get it, don't really care. The only thing with "Hollow" in the name I think is awesome is D&D's Hollow World.

You probably wouldn't like it anyway, Pundit. Bruce Baugh has a writing credit in it (1 of 7 writers).

Hollow Earth Expedition is great fun. I ran a short series of adventures with it.

The highlight I always remember best was when the ex-soldier PC and the jungle guide PC intentionally caused the stampede of a herd of triceratops at a Nazis base in order to breach the outer defenses.

While that was happening the barnstorming pilot PC and mad scientist PC were flying in an old WW I vintage 2 seat biplane against "modern" 1930's German fighters over the base. Of course the mad scientist had replaced the rear facing machine gun with a lighting gun he had invented...

All of that because they knew the Germans had some way out of the Hollow Earth.

I didn't notice anything too jarring about the combat rules when I ran it.