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Maps » AS&SH-PG Campaign Maps » 9/09/2022 11:00 am

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Hey Zak, is the high res unkeyed version of your Khromarium map available somewhere?  I'd love to use it for an upcoming game.

Literary Inspirations » The Godblade » 7/18/2022 3:38 pm

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From DMR Books, written by the frontman of Eternal Champion, The Godblade is a short Conan-esque novel about a loincloth-clad warrior, Rænon, and his band of hired mercenaries, on a quest to forge a sword capable of killing an insane god.
Ok, if there's a scale between trash and pulp, The Godblade is probably leaning way too close to the trashy side for some.  Don't take a drink at every mention of 'massive bosom' unless you're prepared for a rough morning.
But if that doesn't dissuade you, it's a pretty fun book with a very fast pace, exciting action, some really weird monsters, and surprisingly rich world-building.  J. Tarpey is himself an amateur blacksmith and the whole idea of using blood and ashes in the forging of their blades is an appropriately heavy metal take on the trade skill.  The book has a hand-drawn map (really wish more books provided that) and in its short 160 pages the party manages to trek across half the map and get tangled into a war involving about a half dozen kingdoms.
Fans of Eternal Champion's music will find lyrics from their songs peppered liberally throughout the prose.  Surprisingly, that didn't come off as contrived to me.  I know Tarpey's been working on this for a long time - there's a prologue to the story in the first Sword of Steel anthology, which was actually published before their first Armor of Ire album by a few months, so it definitely feels like the songs and story came together in tandem rather than being derivative of one or the other.

This is definitely not going to be a classic included in some future Appendix N, but I still appreciate seeing new swords & sorcery fiction being written.

General Discussion » Roll20 Character Sheet » 7/18/2022 3:13 pm

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Well hey guys.  Yeah, I haven't been around in a while.
The Roll20 sheet I made started out as a copy of the Swords & Wizardry sheet.  I haven't updated it in a couple years because I stopped using Roll20.  I spent some time working on a Foundry ruleset but it never got to a state I liked it.  So I'm not sure I can be much help.

The Tavern » Online Game, Mondays 7pm-10pm EST » 9/07/2021 7:42 am

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That's great, cool to find you here.  Sending you a PM with the game details.

The Tavern » Online Game, Mondays 7pm-10pm EST » 9/06/2021 7:52 pm

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Hey Phil.  Were you in my game at the library in Atlanta a few years ago?  Only got to run a couple sessions before I moved, but I'm pretty sure we had a Phil.
My online game is now running Tuesday nights, 8 EST.  The guys are in Xambaala, tangling with rival criminal elements.

Maps » The Brazen Bull Dungeondraft Map » 8/14/2021 10:05 am

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I'm running a Hyperborea game online using FoundryVTT.  My players have been investigating missing persons at the docks and learned of a certain lotus den, so I've prepared the Brazen Bull map for the game.
Figured some others here might want to make use of it.

number cube roller

Adventures » One shot con game recommendations ? » 7/09/2021 2:25 pm

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Charnel Crypt would be great for a one shot.  I'd also recommend Ghost Ship.  I ran it at Gary Con a couple years ago, starting the party out in the desert just arriving at the site of the dungeon.  The players were all brand new to Hyperborea and it went over very well.

The Tavern » Online Game, Mondays 7pm-10pm EST » 2/10/2020 8:40 pm

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Looking to start up a new campaign online.  I've got a couple players committed and need a couple more.

I hope to run the game mostly just with voice and video, although I'll use Roll20 minimally for dice rolling and sharing some pictures (not messing around with automation, mapping, tokens, etc.).  The game will be mostly homebrew content, although I probably steal every idea I have anyway so don't bring out the pitchforks if you recognize something.

The game will run weekly for 2 to 3 hours and I hope to keep a fast pace going.
If you'd like to join us, let me know.

Adventures » The Lamia's Heart » 12/07/2019 6:41 pm

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Since moving to Miami I've started up a new group at the rec center, so I'm running some level 1 modules once again.  We've just completed Rats in the Walls, having relocated it to the docks of Xambaala, and over the two sessions (about 8 hours total) of play, there were multiple opportunities for me to drop some hooks into Lamia's Heart.  A statue recovered beneath the Silvery Eel had to be fenced (a helpful merchant warned the party that it represented the old religion of the slaves, long since outlawed and stamped out in Xambaala), so Garros Imports was a helpful resource.  And the party's purloiner spent some time at the Temple of Rel, where he heard some rumblings of some intrigue involving the principal parties of the Heart.
Now the player of the purloiner really liked the idea of the Temple of Rel/thieves' guild mashup and was quick to pay his dues.  So I'm contemplating how best to flip the adventure around a bit so that the player characters are hired by the Temple of Rel rather than Tull Kamtose.
Anyone have any ideas?  I could have Garros in possession of the heart by some other means and the Temple just wants it, so they hire the PCs just so the party's purloiner can prove his merit, but that is a bit too straightforward and also leaves no reason for the decoy.
Of course, tie-ins to the caravanserai or a particular lotus den would be nice as well.

Campaign » The Atlanta Campaign » 4/01/2019 9:52 am

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Spoilers: Rats in the Walls, The Brazen Bull, Anthropophagi of Xambaala
(and apologies to Chainsaw for liberally ripping off his format - his campaign's been great fun to follow and it helped me organize my notes)

I recruited a few players through the local Meetup groups and scheduled our first game at the Georgia Beer Garden in midtown.  None of the players had played AS&SH before, but two had grown up on 1e and they all picked it up quickly.  Although Xathoqqua taunted my hopes that my GM screen would arrive in time for the game (it arrived at the Atlanta hub on Saturday, but no delivery made), I did pick up a Players' Manual at Gary Con which helped for referencing.  Between the art on that, the main book, and Glynn Seal's beautiful map that I laid out on the adjacent table, AS&SH makes an impressive display.

Session 1: March 31st 2019

Player Characters
Ted S: Archeleos, Atlantean Magician, lvl 1
Philip K: Dis Yeil, Half-Blood Pict Scout, lvl 1
Aaron N: Chodios, Ixian Necromancer, lvl 1

Synopsis: The party quells a mutiny aboard the Berg Breaker on the voyage to Xambaala. At the Silvery Eel tavern, they are hired to take care of a rat infestation, which leads to the discovery of an ancient shrine beneath the tavern. They fight through giant rats and animated skeletons to slay the rat-daemon queen, though two companions die in the battle.

Enemies Overcome
Mutinous sailors: 6
Giant rats: 13
Skeletons: 4
Gnagana: 1

Treasure Won
Kthulhu idol, +1 shield+1 halberd, 250 sp, 280 gp, periapt of health, pearl necklace

Deaths
Khano: face chewed off by gnagana
Rhen: eviscerated by gnagana

Begin Date: IV - 18, 576 CE (Tempest)
End Date: IV - 22, 576 CE (Tempest)

Mutiny on the Berg Breaker: The adventure began with the party as passengers aboard the Berg Breaker en route to Xambaala. With low supplies and the captain's health failing, some of the sailors

The Tavern » Atlanta, GA » 3/26/2019 7:57 am

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Great, thanks for spreading the word Handy

The Tavern » Atlanta, GA » 3/26/2019 7:24 am

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I am starting up a new AS&SH campaign at the Georgia Beer Garden in midtown Atlanta.  The plan is to play every other week on Sundays from 1pm-5pm.  I've got 3 players so far and am looking for a couple more.  If we've got any Atlanta members who'd like to join in, let me know.

General Discussion » DCC Lankhmar » 3/18/2019 8:13 am

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Goodman Games ran a kickstarter last year for a setting book and adventures based on Fritz Leiber's stories.  Although the print release has been delayed, the pdfs were released to backers a few months ago and I finally got the chance to look over them a little.  The city guide for Lankhmar in particular interested me as a useful tool for fleshing out Khromarium.
The city guide gives a brief history of Lankhmar.  The city has stood for over a millennia, with the current inhabitants having settled around the ruins of ancient towers and stone temples.  They paid homage to the inscrutable gods depicted there and the city has been able to flourish.  In Hyperborea, those ruins were the old city of the Hyperboreans and the temples introduced the barbarian races to the worship of Xathoqqua.
After the history is a description of the government and guilds of the city - only a handful of the nearly 100 trade guilds are named, leaving plenty of room for development.  There is a section on Crime and Punishment which uses DCC's Luck attribute - I'd change this to a Charisma check.
After this it gets into descriptions of the eleven districts of the city.  Each is given a short description, a few notable landmarks, and an Interesting Events table to spur some adventure seeds.  This is all system neutral and would only need swapping out of some religion and culture names to fit into Hyperborea.
There is a 6 page folio of important characters from Fritz Leiber's stories statted up for DCC which is the least useful section for an AS&SH game, but it's a pretty small portion of the book.
Lastly, there are lots of tables for creating neighborhoods, streets, and buildings in the city which should be useful in any large city setting.
I've been reading over Rats in the Walls and Other Perils and Lankhmar complements it perfectly to fill in the docks around the Silvery Eel or the neighborhood of that dilapidated building of the Brazen Bull, and any entanglements with the Thieves' Gu

Convention and Game Day » Gary Con XII (2020) » 3/13/2019 1:49 pm

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Yeah, I called a half hour too late and they were already sold out, so I'm on the waiting list.

Convention and Game Day » Gary Con XI (2019) » 3/12/2019 9:21 pm

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That's cool that you got to play with Bjorn.  I met him and his dad the first day there and my roommate for the con recounted how Bjorn had defeated him in Car Wars last year.  Good to see new adventurers joining the ranks.

Convention and Game Day » Gary Con XI (2019) » 3/11/2019 7:49 pm

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No, we only did the green diamond mine dungeon.  That filled a good four hours.

Comic Books and Graphic Novels » Armies & Arn's Revenge » 3/11/2019 10:09 am

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Thanks for this recommendation!  It arrived over the weekend while I was at Gary Con so I've only just read the first story but this is some seriously good Hyperborea inspiration.  That creepy dead city with its strange, foreboding architecture would be a perfect adventure setting.

Convention and Game Day » Gary Con XI (2019) » 3/11/2019 9:47 am

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Well, Gary Con XI is in the books.  It was a great convention and I enjoyed meeting some of the forum folks there.
I ran one AS&SH game, Ghost Ship of the Desert Dunes.  I had a couple of players who were brand new to AS&SH and one of them went directly from my game to Jeff's booth to pick up a book, which is about the best praise I could ask for.  I also had quite a few people ask me to run another session, which unfortunately I did not have time to do.  We need to get more AS&SH games on the books for next year though for sure.
I don't remember what crazy plan was being pitched at this moment, but our reactions are great.

General Discussion » Introduction Thread » 3/11/2019 9:38 am

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Hey freejon, welcome to Hyperborea.
For finding a game, keep an eye on the Tavern on this forum.  You can also join the AS&SH group on MeWe if you're into social media.  Someone there was recruiting for a new campaign on Roll20 last week and might still have openings.  And Roll20 just recently updated AS&SH to be a listable game, so you can search for listings there.
Hope you find something soon.

General Discussion » Roll20 Online Gaming Tools » 2/04/2019 6:22 pm

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Hey, just gonna bump this to let folks know that through the wonderful AS&SH MeWe community, the Roll20 character sheet I created got a major upgrade by Rom Elwell.  There are now attack rolls built into the weapons section that show the AC hit and damage done, saving throws got individual rollers per category incorporating the class bonuses, and the gems & jewelry section of the inventory is now expandable.  It's a pretty great improvement and I appreciate the additional help.

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