#RPGaDay: Day Fourteen - Best Convention Purchase

There's nothing quite like Nazi-eating dinosaurs.

My best convention purchase took place at GenCon in 2007. I had an interest in the ENnie Award winners that year, and a few of the titles I'd worked on were included on that particular list. Of all the ENnie Award-winning games I picked up, there's only one that I've pulled down and read again and again over the past seven years. It was the single RPG I didn't pack in a box when we left Rhode Island for California; instead, I put it in my backpack so I could read it on the way.

That game is Hollow Earth Expedition (affectionately referred to as HEX) by Exile Game Studios. It is, hands down, the best convention purchase I've ever made... and I've made quite a few.

I love just about everything about it, from the system to the flavor of the setting to the way it captures pulp so very, very well. The interior illustrations are entirely representative of the content, and the cover art is beautiful. All in all, it sparks my imagination, but it also leaves me guessing. It provides plenty of options, but doesn't straight-jacket me into using them all.

I've run a game or two of HEX since I bought it, though I've always made the mistake of running it at work. In the end, I've had trouble getting everyone to sit down at the table at the same damn time. Welcome to the world of video game production, especially during those busy periods when we all have a million things to do. I'm unsure if I'll be able to handle running anything but one-shot games at work, to be honest. But I'm digressing, aren't I?

Anyway, I'd really like to get a game of HEX running for the long term the next time the pulp bug bites me. Until then, I'll keep Hollow Earth Expedition handy. Maybe Exile will even release the long-awaited Revelations of Mars so I can send my players to the red planet.