The Game Mechanics FAQ

The Hollow Earth Expedition (HEX) roleplaying game has been in existence for about five months now officially, and there are many elements of the game system that have aspects to them that make the players, and GMs, think a little bit. This Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page is designed to answer some of the commonly asked questions about one of the more necessary HEX game elements - the Game Mechanics and rules.

Game Mechanics Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I find the rules on Encumbrance? I can't seem to find them.

The Encumbrance rules for the game can be found in the HEX rulebook, on page 128.

One thing I've noticed is that very few of the combat-orientated Sample Characters have sufficient Strength to use their weapons without the -2 penalty. What's going on?

Jeff Combos wrote: "Aha! I wondered when this question would come up. I intentionally did some unorthodox things with the Sample Characters to make them cooler and show off the types of characters that can be made. I expected to get some questions about it once people became more familiar with the game, but let me assure you that the Sample Characters are legit, even if I didn't fully explain it on the character sheet.

"First of all, I did include some fun Flaws that are not listed elsewhere in the book. For space considerations, I couldn't include as many as I wanted in the Characters chapter, so I snuck some fun ones in on the Sample Characters. This was to show some examples of Flaws that you could come up with on your own.

"Secondly, I included some non-standard weapons. The Big Game Hunter has a modified Winchester rifle. As one of the forum members so cleverly pointed out, it's the same model that Teddy Roosevelt used. I'm working on rules for modifying weapons and equipment which will show up in Secrets of the Surface World, but basically, he has a more expensive rifle that has a damage rating of 4L but a STR requirement of 2.

"The Fortune Hunter is carrying a 12-gauge shotgun with slug ammunition. I wish I could have put that on the character sheet, but there just wasn't space and I didn't want to clutter the sheet.

"The Mad Scientist has the only weapon that's a bit off. His Stun Rifle is basically a weird science buffalo gun. Those rifles should have a STR requirement of 3, but I figured that part of being an Artifact would be changing that. As I work more on the equipment mods, I'm not sure you'd get that for free, so I suppose we'd have to say that he modified the weapon before he made it into and Artifact. <g>

"In any case, I hope that explains what I was doing there. I wish I could have explained it all in the book, as I think it's all wickedly cool, but I figured I'd get to tell anyone that asked about it. And now I have."

How does one handle Skill defaults in the HEX game system? For example, what if I'm trying to Brawl but don't have the appropriate Skill, or want to decipher an ancient text, but have no levels in Linguistics?

The rules for Unskilled Skill use are covered in the HEX rulebook, page 48. As a general rule, a character may use a Skill in an unskilled fashion using the Attribute as the raw value, but suffers a penalty of -2 (that's dice) to the Skill use. Thus, if a character with an Intelligence of 4 wanted to use Linguistics Skill unskilled, which is based on Intelligence, he would be able to roll 2 dice even though he is unskilled.

Note that the Specialized Skills (i.e., Academics, Art, Craft, Pilot, or Science) cannot be used unskilled at all.

In the case where a character has to make an Unskilled roll, what happens when the character has an Attribute of 3 or 2? In this case, the character has to roll 1 die, given the -2 penalty for being unskilled, but how does one make the roll in the latter case, when the character has to roll 0 dice? There is no chance of success at all, or is there?

While the basics of this have been mentioned, there is more to it than that. You can always spend Style points to get bonus dice on a roll (even if your dice pool starts out in the negative). If you're out of Style points, you can take some Chance dice, which are bonus dice that increase the difficulty of the action based on how many you take.

For example, the character has an Intelligence of 3 but no Linguistics Skill. Therefore, his default with this Skill is 1. That's not going to help him decipher the controls on the weird Atlantean device before it turns his fellow explorers into piles of ash.

He only needs 2 successes to find the "off" button and free his friends, but it's more than he can roll with 1 die. He's out of Style points, so he takes four Chance dice, which increases the difficulty by 2. He now has 5 dice to roll, but he needs 4 successes. Not the best odds, but at least now he has a chance. His character, making his best guess, starts madly punching buttons trying to turn off the device and save his friends...

I'm having some trouble understanding the Called Shot rules. Can you explain these to me?

The Called Shot rules (see HEX page 119) do have somewhat of a learning curve. The Example of Play in the book (HEX , pp. 138-141) includes the use of Called Shots, but here's a simple example that will hopefully clear some of it up.

Character A has a total Attack Rating of 8 with her firearm and is shooting at NPC 1, who has a Defense of 4. If Character A shoots normally, she would roll her 8 dice and compare the successes against NPC 1's Defense roll of 4 dice.

If she tried to do a Called Shot, she would reduce her Attack Rating by her target's Defense (lowering it from 8 to 4), but every success she rolled would be an automatic hit; NPC 1 would not be able to roll his Defense to reduce the damage.

An astute reader would notice that, assuming average values, the amount of damage in either case would be the same (i.e., average Attack of 4 against average Defense of 2 yields 2 hits; average Called Shot of 2 would also yield 2 hits). Where Called Shots become an asset is when the attacking character has the Accuracy Talent, which reduces Called Shot penalties. If character A had Accuracy 1, her Called Shot Attack Rating would be 6 instead of 4, yielding an average damage of 3. Increase the Accuracy Talent level, either with Style Points or through Experience Points, and, well, Annie get your gun!

Special thanks to Jeff Combos, Melissa McNally, M. Sechin Tower, and the folks on the Hollow Earth Expedition (HEX) forums for their help in the compiling of this FAQ information.

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