[HEX RPG] : Influence of Real Hollow Earth Theories

To be honest my main attraction to HEX, rather than the game per se, is the fact that it has acted as a gateway drug for me to get into the wild and woolly world of 'genuine' Hollow Earth theories!

There is a mine of adventure ideas and wacky theories out there that can serve as inspiration for a great many games (not just HEX itself).

~~The Acrobatic Flea at Heropress.net

Dear Readers--

This post was inspired by a comment made by The Acrobatic Flea at his wonderfully geeky Aetheric Journal HeroPress that his main interest in the Hollow Earth Expedition RPG was the excuse to get into the real "Hollow Earth Theories" and use them as inspiration.

I must confess that I had similar motivations. One source of encouragement was the wonderful nonfiction book on the history of such theories by David Standish called Hollow Earth : the long and curious history of imagining strange lands, fantastical creatures, advanced civilizations, and marvelous machines below the Earth's surface.

In particular I have a burning desire to see some of Richard S. Shaver's Deros in action. According to Shaver, Atlanteans created robot races to do their menial tasks. When the Altlanteans left because of the hostility of the Sun's radiation even in their underground caverns, they left the "robots" to fend for themselves. Some of the robots went to the surface and became humans. Others remained in the underground caverns. Deros (short for "Detrimental Robots") went crazy and began using Atlantean technology to kidnap, torture, and eat humans on the surface as well as the few remaining non-crazy "robots" called Teros. The Deros used mind control beams to implant thoughts and cause problems on the surface world (like the classic Influencing Machine such as the Air Loom of James Tilly Matthews. The Deros also used flying saucers.

Other claims of Nazi bases in the Hollow Earth, and Nazi UFOs are also food for thought.

Such ideas would of course mean changing the setting of the HEX game from the 1930s to post-World War II. I myself didn't care for the Thirties period and would have prefered a more Victorian or Edwardian time frame with a Boy's Own Adventure style - the idea of an Atomic Horror/Atompunk style HEX campaign is one that I have been working on for awhile.

Imagine not just Hollow Earth and Secret Societies - but also real aliens, pretend aliens, Nazis, Commies, Hitler's Brain in a Bottle, atomic testing, conspiracies galore, Secret Cold War explorations, attempts to control Atlantean UFO storage facilities and automated factories etc.

The habit of Alien craft crashing into the Earth could be explained by interference with Atlantean anti-gravity carrier waves still bathing the Earth's surface. Our own rocket technology may be too primitive to be affected by the normal level of such waves. The presence of Atlantean craft in close proximity could also explain the suppressive effect on electrical apparatus recorded in UFO literature. The obsession of some UFOs with Atomic Testing may have to do with testing occuring near transition points into the Hollow Earth and not with benevolent concern for Earthlings.

Any GM who isn't inspired by at least some of these theories should have their dice taken from them and the rulebooks confiscated.

Yours Sincerely,
Mild Colonial Boy, Esq.