2006: Hollow Earth Expedition

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

The year 2006 was a good one for Pulp Action roleplaying games. Spirit of the Century from Evil Hat Games delivered high Pulp Action in which Doctor Methuselah’s time-zeppelins assembled over the skies of Europe to rip open a path to a new future, Gorilla Khan, conqueror of Atlantis, marshals his armies to take all of Africa, and the threat of Fascism looms over the whole world. It would go on to win several awards, as did the other Pulp Action roleplaying game released in 2006. Hollow Earth Expedition from Exile Game Studio did not necessarily focus on high concept, over the top threats to world peace, democracy, and the social order. Instead, inspired by the works of Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, the theories of astronomer Edmond Halley, and the oeuvre of Doug McClure, Hollow Earth Expedition concentrated upon the one theme and wanted to take you down and in. Down and into the interior of the Earth to lands where dinosaurs still roamed, eighteenth century pirates sailed the azure seas, and Amazon warrior women, ape men, and the vestiges of Atlantis could all be found. This was the Hollow Earth, a subterranean realm full of secrets, lost civilisations, and adventuring potential, whether that was making fascinating new discoveries or preventing whatever perfidious plans that the Nazis had of their own!

Hollow Earth Expedition starts by conflating a bit of polar exploration history by presenting the actual diaries from the Andrée-Strindberg-Frænkel Arctic balloon expedition of 1897. In our timeline, it would fail within months and the remains of the expedition members would be found on Kvitøya in 1930. The true diaries tell of how the expedition found itself off course and diverted into a wonderful tropical paradise where monsters roamed the land and its members accepted by a local tribe, before ultimately deciding to try and return home. Similarly, the fate of another polar explorer, Roald Amundsen, who disappeared in 1928 aboard a flight looking for missing crew members from General Umberto Nobile’s Italia air ship, will be revealed in ‘The Hollow Earth Expedition’, the introductory scenario at the back of the book. The North Pole is not the only known entrance to the Hollow Earth. Others include the South Pole, volcanos such as Mount Snaefell in Iceland, the region which would one day become known as ‘The Bermuda Triangle’, and even the fabled city of Shangri-La. What is interesting about the description of the Hollow Earth is that it is not described in terms of geography. This is not to suggest that it is not described at all, but rather that Hollow Earth Expedition focuses upon what might be found there in terms of peoples, threats, and other dangers rather than places, whether that is the Loch Ness Monster or other cryptids, or even flying saucers.

What Hollow Earth Expedition does tell the reader is how to get in and some of the best known routes; the extreme nature of its cosmology and geography, for example, it is constantly lit by its own Sun, so it is always noon, and Earth’s magnetic fields are disrupted, so radios and compasses do not work; and the strangeness of time with no day and night, and time also passes slowly than on the surface. Descendants of Romans, Mayans, Ancient Egyptians, and more can be found in the Hollow Earth, as can signs of the now lost Atlanteans and their civilisation. The possibility of discovering ancient Atlantean technology is one reason explorers enter the Hollow Earth and several examples of Lodestone, a piece of orichalcum which points towards the nearest source of metal, Telepathic Communicator, and more. The ‘Friends and Enemies’ chapter populates the Hollow Earth with native peoples such as Cargo Cultists, Noble Savages, Cannibals, Amazons, Pirates, and Beastmen (including Apemen, Lizardmen, and Molemen), plus creatures like dinosaurs, cave bears, giant apes, kraken, megalodons, rocs, sabre-toothed cats, and even giant sloths and unicorns! More details about the Hollow Earth can be found in Mysteries of the Hollow Earth.

Nor does Hollow Earth Expedition ignore the surface world. This is treated as recent history that a Player Character might know. First from twenty-five years ago, then ten, then five, and lastly a year ago with the default year for the roleplaying game being 1936. It does not delve too deeply into the Desperate Decade of the nineteen thirties, but does pay particular attention to the clash between Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, and Fascism, and gives a decent gazetteer of the world’s nations at the time. Of course, apart from the actual Hollow Earth, Hollow Earth Expedition is a historical roleplaying game, but the emphasis is more on what someone in 1936 might know rather than what we know in 2006 with the benefit of historians and hindsight. As it makes clear, Hollow Earth Expedition is not a roleplaying game of strict historical realism. Instead, history is there to provide backdrop and reason to adventure rather than to educate the players.

A Player Character in Hollow Earth Expedition has an Archetype, Motivation, six Primary Attributes, Skills, a Talent or Resource, and possibly a Flaw. There are fifteen Archetypes—Academic, Adventurer, Celebrity, Criminal, Doctor, Engineer, Explorer, Hunter, Missionary, Moneyman, Occultist, Reporter, Scientist, Soldier, and Survivor—which give some idea of what the Player Character is rather than any mechanical benefit. His Motivation, whether Duty, Escape, Faith, Fame, Greed, Love, Power, Revenge, Survival, or Truth, will drive the Player Character to act and gain him Style Points when roleplayed. The six attributes are Body, Dexterity, Strength, Charisma, Intelligence and Willpower, and typically range in value from one to five, but can go higher. Similarly, skills range from one to five, but can be higher, especially when specialities are selected. A lot of the Talents provide an attribute or skill bonus of some kind, whilst possible Resources include Allies, Artefacts, Contacts, Fame, and the like. Flaws are optional and not quite so prominent in the book, but include Blind, Deaf, Dying, Absent-Minded, Illiterate, and Overconfident. When a Flaw comes into play, it will also earn a Player Character a Style Point.

To create a character, a player assigns fifteen points to Attributes and then another fifteen to skills. A Specialisation costs half a point. A player selects a Talent or a Resource and can select another if a Flaw is taken too. The process is not difficult, but it is slightly fiddly, primarily because a player has so few points to spend. This also leads to a tight, quite restrained, and focused character type who is relatively component in a few skills. They are also mundane characters. Heroic, but mundane. The nearest Talent that Hollow Earth Expedition gets to being exotic is Psychic Sensitivity and whilst the roleplaying game does give a brief treatment of them in background, neither psychic phenomena nor spiritualism, magic, or sorcery really play a role in the Hollow Earth Expedition. What this means is that a player cannot create the equivalent of Doc Savage, The Shadow, or the like. For that, both Game Master and player are probably better looking at Spirit of the Century.

Name: Henry Brinded

Archetype: Academic Motivation: Truth

Style: 2 Health: 5

Primary Attributes

Body: 2 Charisma: 2

Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 4

Strength: 2 Willpower: 3

Secondary Attributes

Size: 0 Initiative: 6

Move: 4 Defence: 4

Perception: 7 Stun: 2

Skills             Base Levels Rating Average

Academics               4          4 8 [4]

(History)                  4          1 9 [4+]

Art                             4          1 5 [2+]

Diplomacy        2          1 3 [1+]

(Etiquette)               1          2 4 [2]

Empathy        4          1 5 [2+]

Gunnery        4          1 5 [2+]

(Artillery)                 1          1 6 [3]

Investigation           4          1 5 [2+]

Linguistics               4          3 7 [3+]

(Deciphering)         1          1 8 [4]

Pilot                          2          1 3 [4]

Talents

Total Recall

Resources

Wealth 1

Flaw

Hard of Hearing

Alternatively, a player can pick one of the pre-generated sample Archetypes included in the book. There are twelve of them and they consist of Big Game Hunter, Dying Moneyman, Field Biologist, Fortune Hunter, Imperilled Actress, Intrepid Reporter, Jungle Missionary, Lost Traveller, Mad Scientist, Occult Investigator, Rugged Explorer, and Snooty Professor. These come complete with a background and roleplaying notes. They are also done in full colour on the roleplaying game’s colour inserts, its only use of colour.

Mechanically, Hollow Earth Expedition uses the Ubiquity System and was the first to do so. It is a simple mechanic. If a player wants his character to undertake an action, he rolls a number of dice equal to double the Attribute or the Skill Rating. Every even result counts as a Success. The difficulty of a task determines how many Successes are needed, ranging from one for Easy to six or more for Nigh Impossible, with an Average Difficulty requiring two Successes. Modifiers will add or subtract from the player’s dice pool. If necessary, the Game Master can also determine how well or how badly the Player Character did, depending upon the number of Successes rolled. A critical failure occurs if no Success are rolled. In general, a player will be rolling a big handful of dice for his skills, especially for his character’s best skills. Further, a player can use any dice he likes or get away with just using six-sided dice.

Alternatively, Exile Game Studio also manufactured its own Ubiquity Dice. These are eight-sided dice, coloured white, red, and blue, numbered from zero to three, depending upon the colour of the die. The white die counts as a one-die, the red die as a two-die, and the blue die as a three-die. To use those, the player adds up the value of the Ubiquity Dice equal to the number of dice he needs to roll and the total result is the number of Success achieved. For example, to have Henry Brinded make a Linguistics skill roll, his player has to roll seven dice. Instead, with Ubiquity Dice, his player rolls two red dice and a single white die, adds the numbers rolled up and that is the number of Successes. Of course, rolling a handful of dice is simple, but the Ubiquity Dice are elegant. However, Hollow Earth Expedition was published in 2006 and Ubiquity Dice are very hard to find twenty years on.

In addition, the Ubiquity System does offer another pair of options to reduce dice clutter. One is to ‘Take the Average’. If the average number of Successes that a particular dice pool can generate is equal to or greater than the task Difficulty, the Player Character automatically succeeds. This both reflects the Player Character’s general skill level and eases speed of play by cutting out unnecessary dice rolls. The other option is for large dice pools of more than ten dice in which case the player will ‘Take the Average’ for the first ten dice and roll the rest.

A Player Character has access to Style Points. These are awarded for good roleplaying such as to a Player Character’s Motivation or Flaw; supporting the game out of game, such as keeping a game report; and even for hosting and providing snacks! They are spent to buy Bonus Dice, to Boost a Talent, and Damage Reduction. If a character has run out of Style Points, his player can ask for Chance Dice. These increase his dice pool, but also increase the Difficulty of the task involved, increase the number of possible Successes that can be rolled, and increase the possibility of failure, but not those Critical Failure, as more dice means a greater chance of rolling at least one Success. It feels like the Player Character is being a hero, pushing the envelope, pushing himself to succeed where others might fail…

Combat uses the same system of dice pools. Initiative is determined by the number of Success rolled and each combatant gets an attack action and a move action per round. An attack action can be a standard attack, but can also be aim, auto fire, block, called shot, and so on. The attack is resolved by an Attack Rating, which includes the attacker’s Attribute, Skill, and other modifiers, rolled against the defender’s roll of his Defence Rating which consists of his Passive Defence, Active Defence, and Size, and includes modifiers for cover, wounds suffered, and armour worn, Armour makes a target harder to hit rather than reduce damage, but if the Attack roll is successful, any Successes generated beyond the Difficulty number do count as extra damage. Damage can be lethal or non-lethal. If a defender suffers more damage in a single blow than his Stun rating, he is stunned and loses his next action, but knocked out if he suffers more damage in a single blow than double his Stun rating. Damage can also knockback or knockdown a defender. If a defender’s Health is reduced to zero by nonlethal damage, he is knocked unconscious, but disabled if the damage is lethal, and he will die if lethal damage lowers his Health to ‘-5’. The combat rules do account for massive size differences, such as facing a dinosaur (and the example of play includes a big game hunter going after a Tyrannosaurus Rex), but advises that it is better to use brains rather than brawn when dealing with them.

Hollow Earth Expedition includes an extensive list of equipment that might be found on both the surface world and in the Hollow Earth. Alongside this is the inclusion of some ‘Weird Science’ gadgets. The rules count these as Artifacts and in order for a Player Character to have one, perhaps because he is a mad scientist, he must have the Artifact Resource. This Resource ranges from Artifact 1, a useful item such as a lucky watch to Artifact 5 and a legendary and

extremely powerful, like a drilling machine. A rare and highly useful artifact, such as a jet pack is Artifact 2, whilst a one-of-a-kind and incredibly useful artifact like a mind control ray is Artifact 3. At starting level, a Player Character scientist or engineer is unlikely to be equipped with more than an Etheric Disturbance Monitor (which detects psychic powers), Spectrovision Goggles, or even a Jet Pack. What Hollow Earth Expedition does not include is rules for building such devices. If the Player Character does have access to bigger devices, at this stage of play, starting out, they are likely to be included for narrative effect rather than something that he possesses. (Full rules for weird science and gadgeteering appeared in Secrets of the Surface World.)

The advice for the Game Master covers genre conventions such as making the heroes larger than life, the villains villainous, and the good use of a cliffhanger or deathtrap. Alongside this, there is advice specific to Hollow Earth Expedition, including ‘Evoke a Sense of Discovery’, ‘Keep It Moving’, ‘Things Are Not Always as They Seem’, and ‘Make the Era Live’ as well as a look at its conventions. These are that ‘Getting In Is Always Easier Than Getting Out’ of the Hollow Earth, ‘Guns Don’t Kill Dinosaurs: People Kill Dinosaurs’, and that when asking the question, ‘Is it Science or Magic?’, it is likely to be the former than the latter, though some still do believe in latter. Notably, the advice covers fostering good communication with the players and talking about everyone’s expectations. The advice also covers campaign length and construction, how to handle and portray villains, and is backed up with some story seeds and campaign ideas. The advice is really very good, looking at both the broader nature of the Pulp genre and at the specifics of the lost world sub-genre, and it certainly has not dated. It would work as well in a contemporary roleplaying game as it did in 2006.

In addition to describing and populating the Hollow Earth, the roleplaying game also provides the Game Master with some allies and enemies from the Surface World to populate her campaign. They include secret societies, exploration societies, and government agencies. The Terra Arcanum was originally set up to guard Atlantean secrets and shepherd humanity, but has since developed into a network of puppet masters and powerbrokers in the mode of the Illuminati, whilst the Thule Society is a cult of militant Nazi occultists. The exploratory societies are the familiar National Geographic Society and Royal Geographic Society, whilst the government agencies are U.S. Army Intelligence and Secret Intelligence Service or MI6, in particular, Section Z, which investigates foreign occult activity. All six are accorded a lengthy write-up and details of both a notable NPC and a generic NPC. All six also feel more than suited to the genre and the two-fisted heroes of Hollow Earth Expedition are definitely going to want some Nazis to punch!

The Player Characters get a chance to punch some Nazis in ‘The Hollow Earth Expedition’, the introductory scenario in Hollow Earth Expedition. There is good advice on how to get the Player Characters motivated according to their Archetype, but what they will be doing is joining a U.S. Army Intelligence sponsored mission aboard an airship being sent after a secret Thule Society which it thinks is searching for advanced weaponry from a lost civilisation at the North Pole. It is a cracking little adventure, getting the Player Characters into the Hollow Earth in smart fashion, showcasing some of its dangers and wonders, revealing a secret or two, and putting them face to face with the Nazis. The roleplaying game is rounded out with a good bibliography and a glossary.

Physically, Hollow Earth Expedition is a great looking book. It is well written and actually an engaging read, but what really stands out is the artwork. Or rather, what really stands out is the blank and artwork. This is not to say that the colour artwork of the book’s colour inserts is poor. In fact, it is very good, capturing that vibrant colour of the cover of pulp paperbacks. However, the black and white is superb, again and again evoking a sense of wonder about the world, both the Surface World and the Hollow Earth.

Hollow Earth Expedition is a roleplaying game in a hurry and that is the cause of its problems. It really wants to get the Game Master, her players, and their characters into the Hollow Earth as fast as it can. Which is good. However, it rushes the reader into the rules and character generation without a lot of explanation. It is there, but a bit more explanation would have prepared the reader better. It also has to straddle two worlds—the Surface World and the Hollow Earth, when really it wants to focus on the Hollow World. Which it does. So, it leaves a lot of character elements behind, especially in terms of Talents and Resources, when the Player Characters reach the Hollow World. In a pulp action roleplaying like Hollow Earth Expedition, this means that some Player Characters are going to feel underpowered. There is also very little in the book on the occult or weird science and given that these are mainstays of the Pulp genre, their relative absence is notable. Lastly, players wanting high Pulp Action are going to be disappointed. Hollow Earth Expedition does deliver on both the Pulp and the action, but very much at the lower end of the scale. Lastly, for the Game Master wanting more ready to play and use content, Hollow Earth Expedition is lacking. Hollow Earth Expedition does give all of the elements, but as a setting, the Hollow Earth Expedition Game Master is going to have to put a lot of effort in to create the Hollow Earth as a realm that her Player Characters explore and adventure . However, if she does, then she will definitely make it her own.

Hollow Earth Expedition was released at the ebb of the d20 System. It would win the Silver Medal for Best Cover Art at the 2007 ENnie Awards and be a Finalist for Roleplaying Game of the Year in the 2007 Origins Awards. Its Ubiquity System would go on to be used in roleplaying games such as Desolation, A Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy from Greymalkin Designs and the version of Space: 1889 from Uhrwerk Verlag under its easier to pronounce Clockwork Publishing label.

Hollow Earth Expedition is not perfect and it is not the perfect pulp action game. There are elements missing from it to be an all-encompassing treatment of the genre and the Player Characters are likely to feel underpowered. However, it is not meant to be an all-encompassing treatment of the genre and does not try to be, and the fact that its Player Characters feel underpowered shifts it to a ‘Lost World’ roleplaying game of not quite ordinary men and women thrust into action in a land of wonder and discovery. As a pulp action roleplaying game, Hollow Earth Expedition is very much punching above its weight, but the Ubiquity System is solid, the writing is great, and the artwork excellent, and all together, they invoke a delightful sense of awe and wonder about the Hollow Earth and what might be found there.

Hollow Earth Horror

To date, Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos, Chaosium, Inc’s supplement of Pulp action set during the nineteen thirties for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition has been supported by not one, but two campaigns. The better known of these is The Two-Headed Serpent: An Epic Action-Packed and Globe-Spanning Campaign for Pulp Cthulhu, a campaign in the traditional sense of Lovecraftian investigative horror. It presented a world-spanning conspiracy, which took the heroic investigators from Bolivia, New York, Borneo, and Oklahoma to the Belgian Congo, Iceland, and Brazil—and beyond! The other campaign is A Cold Fire Within: A Mind-Bending Campaign for Pulp Cthulhu, which although like The Two-Headed Serpent is set in New York and takes place in the nineteen thirties, is very different in tone and scope.

A Cold Fire Within: A Mind-Bending Campaign for Pulp Cthulhu takes place in 1935, ‘technically’ never leaves New York State, and focuses on investigators with Psychic abilities—using the optional Psychic ability rules from Pulp Cthulhu—or have an interest in Parapsychology. It takes two works of fiction as its inspiration. The first is ‘The Mound’, the horror/science fiction novella ghost-written by H. P. Lovecraft for Zealia Bishop, which tells of a mound that conceals a gateway to a subterranean civilization, the realm of K’n-yan. The second is Sinclair Lewis’ alternate history satire, It Can’t Happen Here, in which populist demagogue Berzelius ‘Buzz’ Windrip is elected President of the United States and with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force imposes totalitarian rule similar to the Germany and Italy of the Desperate Decade. Against this febrile background, the campaign draws links between the fringe science—whether Parapsychology or Occultism—and the fringe politics of the period.

Campaign set-up is supported by six pre-generated Investigators. They include a diverse range of backgrounds, from a Russian Cult Leader, an African American female Mechanic/Aviator, and a female Investigative Journalist to a Hispanic ex-Soldier, a female Scientist, and an Explorer. Only two of them have Psychic Talents, but the campaign can be run with the optional Psychic Talents rules from Pulp Cthulhu or without. It also adds a new Investigator Organisation, The Open Mind Group, a hero organisation whose members are fascinated by the possibility of powers of the mind—whatever their source. In general, the organisation is apolitical and politely asks members who are overtly political to refrain from discussing their views or leave.

The structure of the campaign, over the course of five of its six chapters, is linear. It takes the Investigators from New York City upstate into New York state’s Catskill Mountains, and from there, it takes a turn for weird as it plunges deep into the bowels of the Earth and across the sybarite and immortal remnants of the K’n-yan Empire. It begins with a missing persons case, a fellow member of The Open Mind Group approaching the Investigators because Brendan Sterling, her husband, has gone missing. He has a greater fascination with the outré than she does, and this has led him to participate in experiments in past-life regression. Investigating Sterling’s disappearance will first lead them to his links with various populist fringe political movements and then to the scientists who associate with them. Unfortunately, no sign of him has been seen either, and following him will lead the investigators upstate and into the Catskills. From there, the path literally leads inexplicably into the depths and the strange realms of the Empire of the K’n-yan. By now the Investigators will have already encountered some strangeness, most notably their  suddenly being cast into space and having to find their way back—being chased by some very strange cats—and ghosts haunting the halls of a centre for parapsychological studies in what is arguably one of the most bizarre encounters in Call of Cthulhu. These and similar encounters hint at the things to come in later chapters—far below the surface.

What lies below is the remains of the K’n-yan Empire, its immortal survivors divided between indolent sybarites residing in the mouldering towns and plantations, their buildings a combination of gold and weird science, and religious fanatics out in the surrounding wilds. Often cannibals and evilly indifferent, they are not perhaps the worst that the Investigators will encounter for there are surface dwellers other than their quarry down here and some of are looking to re-establish the K’n-yan Empire… It is here too that the Investigators will learn perhaps of the ultimate aims of the campaign’s antagonists and just what they will have to do to stop them. The culmination of the campaign itself is a suitably over-the-top drive further into the depths of the Earth to confront the villains of the piece and prevent their plans. The sixth chapter takes the campaign in an even more radical direction and can be run at any time in the campaign once the Investigators have sufficient means and motivation—even in the middle of other chapters.

As a campaign, A Cold Fire Within does something different. There have been plenty of scenarios for Call of Cthulhu which deal with the Science Fictional aspects of Lovecraft’s Cosmic Horror, but not a campaign. It is very much not a campaign of Lovecraftian investigative horror in the eldritch sense, but rather one of fringe science—or ‘Science!’ and fringe theories ranging from Theosophy to the Hollow Earth. A campaign which sees one ancient subterranean scientific empire attempt to rise again, aided by zealous surface dwellers, as the power and influence of Fascism grows and spreads on the surface world. However, as linear and as straightforward as the campaign is, and as solid a hook it provides to pull the Investigators into its events, the Keeper will need to work hard to keep the players and their Investigators on track and motivated. Especially to the point in the campaign where they learn what is really going on and then have a few more options in what they can do. The Keeper also has a lot of NPCs to portray, there being quite a large cast given the relatively short nature of the campaign. If the campaign misses an opportunity, it is perhaps the chance for a flashforward to see the consequences if they fail to stop the antagonists’ plans—this is only hinted at in the conclusion.

Rounding out A Cold Fire Within: A Mind-Bending Campaign for Pulp Cthulhu is a set of four appendices. These collect the campaign’s handouts and maps for easy copying by the Keeper, new tomes and spells, new skills and psychic power, and K’n-yanian Equipment and Vehicles. The new skills include Lore (K’n-yan) and Language (K’n-yan), and Science (Parapsychology), whilst the new Psychic Powers are Dematerialisation and Telepathy. The section on K’n-yanian Equipment and Vehicles details all of the devices and artefacts which the Investigators will discover in the subterranean world of the K’n-yan and any Investigator with a mechanical bent—especially if he falls into the Grease Monkey archetype—will undoubtedly want to tinker with and repair. Lastly, the six pre-generated Investigators are given.

Physically, A Cold Fire Within: A Mind-Bending Campaign for Pulp Cthulhu is a slim, full colour hardback. In keeping with the other Call of Cthulhu titles, the book looks superb, the layout is clean, the artwork—whether black and white, two-tone, or full colour—is superb throughout, though the cover is not necessarily as eye-catching as could have been. The maps are excellent throughout though, although perhaps the campaign could have benefited from better maps of the Catskill Mountains, New York state, and New York City.

There is a Science Fiction genre called Planetary Romance—best typified by the Barsoom-set of stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs—in which much of the story’s action and adventure takes place on exotic alien worlds, noted for their distinctive physical and cultural backgrounds. Now A Cold Fire Within is not set on another world, but it is set in another world, one which also has distinctive physical and cultural backgrounds in the form of the differing groups of the K’n-yan. Further, A Cold Fire Within is a Science Fiction campaign, involving as it does ‘fringe’ science and strange technologies, but of course against a background of Cosmic Horror. What this means is that A Cold Fire Within is a campaign of ‘Inner Planetary Horror’, one which both proves the existence of fringe science and to the horrific applications it can be put to. 

Rocket's Red Glare!

There is something just so cool about strapping on a jet pack, putting on a be-finned faceless helm, grabbing your Mauser C-96 automatic pistol, and once dressed, leaping into the air on a jet of flame. Whether it is the Republic serial, King of the Rocket Men or its graphic novel adaptation from Innovation Comics, or the late Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer, both the comic book and the movie, the “rocket man” is one of my favourite Pulp action archetypes. It is so iconic of the two-fisted, Pulp action genre that it appears again and again in numerous Pulp genre RPGs, so it is no surprise that it gets a supplement all of its very own for Triple Ace Games’ Daring Tales of Adventure line. True, Daring Tales of Adventure: Rocket Rangers is a short supplement at just ten-pages, but it includes just about everything that a GM needs.

Triple Ace Games’ Daring Tales of Adventure line is a series of mostly scenarios leavened with the occasional supplement – like this one – that are set against a pre-World War II background of two-fisted, heroic action. They are written for use with Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s Savage Worlds, which handles Pulpy, slightly cinematic action rather well, but Rocket Rangers is available not just for Savage Worlds, but also for the Ubiquity System, which makes it compatible with Exile Game Studio’s Hollow Earth Expedition.

Rocket Rangers presents the story of how with US government backing, Professor Alexander MacDonald developed the technology behind the rocket-packs that enable the wearer to fly and how they were used to equip the Rocket Rangers Corps which operated during World War II and beyond. Commanded by Colonel William “Goat” Gruff, the handpicked and highly trained members of Rocket Rangers Corps are organised into squads of eight, each squad being deployed on fast strike missions, usually deployed in bombers and transports. Arriving near the target, the Rocket Rangers would either jump out of their transport or be dropped from their bomber to fall almost to the ground before igniting their rocket-packs and leaping back into the air. Although the use of the Jetpacks allow cruising at high altitude, their limited fuel supply usually means that the Rocket Rangers have enough to perform their current mission, but no more and thus need to find their own way home.

Highly trained, strongly motivated patriots, and upright, moral characters, each squad consists of Commander, Heavy Support trooper, Medic, Scout, and Technician. The Technician not only doubles as the mechanic for his squad’s equipment, he also handles all of its demolitions needs. Given their role as a fast strike unit and the low load capacity of the rocket-packs, the Rangers travel lightly armed, usually only a handgun or an SMG. Indeed, even the Heavy Support trooper does not carry anything heavier than a Browning Automatic Rifle.

In addition to describing the formation of the Rocket Ranger Corps, Rocket Rangers also gives the rules using their rocket-packs in a game, complete stats for all of the positions in a Rocket Ranger Corps squad, and an enemy to fight. In keeping with the period setting of the supplement – primarily World War II, and the classic Rocket Man sub-genre, it is no surprise that this enemy consists of the Nazis. In particular, SS-Raketentruppen (SS-Rocket Troops), which with the outbreak of war would be reformed as the 1st SS Totenkopfraketentruppedivision (SS Death’s Head Rocket Troop Division).

Unlike the Rocket Ranger Corps, this unit is not kept secret, it first having been seen at the Berlin Olympics of 1936, and unlike the Rocket Ranger Corps, this unit goes into battle using advanced weapons, most notably, their “Gyro-Jet”-like Raketengewehr or “rocket rifle” and “electricity rifle” or Spannungsgewehr. Stats are given for both of these weapons, a typical SS-Raketentruppen trooper, and Doctor Werner Schmutzig, the inventor of Germany’s rocket-pack technology.

Rounding out the supplement is a sextet of adventure seeds. These, just like the rest of the content in Rocket Rangers, are the same between the two versions of the supplement for Savage Worlds and the Ubiquity System, except that is, for the last scenario seed. In the Ubiquity System version, the last scenario seed gets the Rocket Rangers to the Hollow Earth, whereas for the Savage Worlds version, several Daring Tales of Adventure scenarios are suggested as being suitable for being adapted to a military style campaign.

Given that Rocket Rangers focuses on a “Special Forces” hit-and-run style American unit, it is no surprise that it is suitable for use with Weird Wars: Weird War II, Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s setting for Savage Worlds that combines World War II with weird science and the occult. In fact, it is a perfect plug in. The supplement also makes suggestions as how its contents can be shifted back from the 1940s to the 1930s, the GM using the material to run a more Pulp Adventure style game, or even as an aside, to use the material in the Victorian era, with Red Coats as Rangers rather than Americans. In this way, the contents of Rocket Rangers could be used in conjunction with Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s Space 1889: Red Sands.

Our sample is perfect for a Pulp style campaign set during the 1930s. Jimmy’s Uncle Albert used to do work out his family’s barn and when his chores and homework was done, and sometimes even when they were not, Jimmy would go out and help him. Whatever Uncle Albert was working on, it involved a lot of bangs and whooshes, and Jimmy was pretty sure that involved a rocket of some kind. Jimmy had always been fascinated by anything that flew and was happy to help out. Whoever wanted Uncle Albert’s project wanted it bad enough to blow up the barn and seriously injure him, but Jimmy managed to get away with his Uncle’s latest invention. Currently he hunts for whomever it was who attacked his Uncle, armed with a pair of guns he got from his Uncle’s attackers and a store of rocket-pack fuel that his Uncle had elsewhere.

Jimmy “Kid Rocket” Coltrane
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d4, Strength d4, Vigor d4
Skills: Fighting d4, Healing d4, Notice d6, Piloting d8, Repair d6, Shooting d4, Stealth d4
Charisma: 0
Pace: 6 Parry: 4 Toughness: 4 (+3/+1) Bennies: 5
Hindrances: Loyal, Stubborn, Youth
Edges: Ace, Luck, Two Fisted
Gear: Helmet (+3), flying suit (+1), rocket pack, paired Walther PPKs (Range: 10/20/40, Damage: 2d6–1, ROF 1, Semi)

Similar shifts in setting can be made with the Ubiquity System version of Rocket Rangers. It is already compatible with Exile Game Studio’s Hollow Earth Expedition which is set during the 1930s, both on and under the surface of the Earth. Rocket Rangers includes one suggestion as to how the American unit it describes could be brought to the Hollow Earth and the enemies it presents are Nazi villains, and since there are Nazis already in the Hollow Earth… Lastly, Triple Ace Games has its own Victorian era RPG, Leagues of Adventure, which describes itself as “a rip-roaring setting of exploration and derring-do in the late Victorian Age!” So more than suitable then.

Physically, both versions of Rocket Rangers are well done. A nice touch is the use of fully painted miniatures as illustrations, these figures actually having inspired the supplement’s additional, Patriotic rule about carrying and planting the Stars & Stripes to inspire members of Rocket Rangers Corps. Of course, the source of the miniatures is mentioned at the end of the supplement. If there is an issue with both of the supplements it is that they both need an edit and a fact check – Yale is not in Boston, but Connecticut!

At its heart, Rocket Rangers is a wargaming supplement, one describing a unit best suited for use with Savage Worlds’ skirmish rules. After all, the use of miniatures as illustrations does more than imply the fact. Yet there are plenty of roleplaying elements in there too, so a Rocket Ranger Corps squad could easily be run as a roleplaying party performing small scale operations. Plus, the supplement includes a suitable enemy to fight and there is a companion piece available for both rules systems in the form of Elite Nazi Units. Short and sharp, Daring Tales of Adventure: Rocket Rangers has everything you need to strap on a rocket-pack and launch your Rocket Rangers game.

Apes and Dragons, Oh My!

Last year’s award-winning All For One: Régime Diabolique from Triple Ace Games – it won the award for the Best Roleplaying Game at the recent UK Games Expo – marked a new direction for the British publisher. In particular it marked a switch in rules systems. The majority of its publications – some of which I have had the pleasure of editing – are written for use with the slightly cinematic, slightly pulpy Savage Worlds, of which there will be a new edition this year, but the new RPG, a combination of magic and horror set in the swashbuckling age of romance, adventure, and derring do that is seventeenth century France, uses the Ubiquity System. First seen in Exile Game Studio’s Hollow Earth Expedition and since used in Greymalkin Design post-apocalyptic fantasy, Desolation as well as the German version of Space 1889 from Uhrwerk Verlag, the Ubiquity System is again pulpy in feel, with relatively straight forward mechanics designed for fast play.

Triple Ace Games continues in this direction with its next RPG, Leagues of Adventure. Subtitled as “A Rip-Roaring Setting of Exploration and Derring Do in the Late Victorian Age!”, this is yet to be released, but whilst at UK Games Expo, we did get a taster with Plateau of the Ape Men & The Dragons of London. This combined an introduction to the Ubiquity System with two adventures – one short, one long, and six example characters. Essentially enough for a group to play through both adventures and get a feel for what the game promises once it is released.

The rules are covered in just four pages, highlighting the relative simplicity of Ubiquity System. Dice pools are rolled to gain successes, each even result on the dice being counted as a success. What this means is that any dice can be used, and you could even flip coins, to roll for actions. Of course, Exile Studio does its own dice for the Ubiquity System, but it is possible to get by with a handful of ordinary six-sided dice. Of course, it is all a matter of the number of successes rolled. A task’s Difficulty determines the minimum number of successes that have to be rolled for someone to achieve it. Any successes rolled above that improve the result. The rules also allow a character to “Take the Average,” meaning that if the average number of successes that he would roll is equal to, or greater than a task’s Difficulty, then the player does not have to roll. In addition, every player character has Style Points, which are spent to add bonus dice, boost the level of some Talents, and reduce damage. They are gained for pursuing a character’s Motivation and playing to his Flaw, for being heroic and being in character, as well as for out of game actions, such as writing gaming reports, hosting the game, and so on.

The first scenario is short, and if not sweet, at least combative and mechanical. It casts the player characters as members of the Society of Aeronauts, currently aboard an experimental flying machine traversing the continent of Africa. With a snap or two of a giant monster’s jaws, the machine and her crew are sent plummeting towards the ground and thus find themselves marooned on the titular “Plateau of the Ape Men” high above the jungle. Running to just four pages, the short scenario can be completed in an hour or so.

The second scenario is much meatier, being a fuller affair some fifteen pages in length. As its title suggests, “The Dragons of London” is set at the heart of the empire, the capital awash with news of its streets being awash with plagues of rats, a theft of a manuscript from the British Museum, jewellery store thefts, electrical power cuts, a most vicious attack upon cab driver, and more. The player characters are hired by a curator at the Natural History Museum to track down a mythological beast that he believes to have once been in his possession and now loose, to have been possibly responsible for the death of the cabbie. The adventure mixes monster hunting, weird science, and mystery into a suitably frothy mix with an emphasis on pulp action. So in keeping with the genre then. The adventure should take a session or two at the very most to play and provides a much wider scope for player action.

The six provided adventurers are a gluttonous Big Game Hunter, an aloof Consulting Detective, a female Hard-Working Reporter, an ex-military Explorer, a Crackpot Antiquarian, and a Pioneering Aviatrix. Obviously, some of these are better suited to one adventure than the other, with each scenario suggesting those suitable, such as the Crackpot Antiquarian and the Pioneering Aviatrix for “Plateau of the Ape Men,” whilst the Big Game Hunter, the Explorer, and the Hard-Working Reporter for “The Dragons of London.” Most of the characters are well designed, the Consulting Detective being particularly Holmesian, and most are familiar enough types that they should be easy to play. Of the six, the Crackpot Antiquarian feels the least interesting and has the weakest feel. It should be noted that should the GM already possess a copy of Hollow Earth Expedition, then he can take inspiration from the player characters given in Plateau of the Ape Men & The Dragons of London to create his own or at least help his players create their own.

Physically, Plateau of the Ape Men & The Dragons of London is well produced and for the most part clearly written, becoming a little cluttered in dealing with the investigative aspects of the second scenario. As to the RPG Leagues of Adventure, it looks to be a less strait laced approach to the genre, mostly obviously dispensing with the Victorian attitudes towards women and taking a more enlightened view of the world. That though is an impression and we will have to wait until the release of the RPG.

With luck, Triple Ace Games will make this available to download or have it on show at their next convention appearance. I am looking forward to seeing the full game and will give it a review when it appears. In the meantime, check Plateau of the Ape Men & The Dragons of London as soon as you can.

Ten by Ten – Free Too

Technically, there are no reviews here at Reviews from R’lyeh this week. This is for good reason. For the last week I have reading and reviewing the releases for this year’s Free RPG Day. I managed to get ten done and they are now all available to read at RPG.net. Hopefully, you will have been able to pick some of these up yesterday, or if not, will able to download them direct from their respective publishers.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten: The Waking Dead

Black Crusade: Black Chains

Castles & Crusades: 2011 Quick Start Rules

Dragon Age Quickstart Guide

Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition - Domain of Dread: Histaven

Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Adventure Starter

Hollow Earth Expedition: Free RPG Day Adventure 2011

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: We Be Goblins!

Savage Worlds Test Drive Rules & The Wild Hunt

Tunnels & Trolls: Rescue Mission