We decided to take a short break from my "Tales of Old Earth" campaign, where they have been adventuring (and for a few of the unlucky - dying) in Hyperboria for the last 10 sessions, so I broke out my Holmes/OD&D rules and had them make new characters for a short Wilderlands campaign. I have only really started reading about the Wilderlands over the past few months. I'm not one for pre-published settings, but we're digging into our old school roots and looking at things we might have missed over the past 30 years. My players are rabidly "human-centric" in there character choices... as we got to it one of them asked "can we use the AS&SH rules?"

We've played 3 sessions and the rules fit perfectly. All I had to do was swap in the crazy Wilderlands human races and port over some demi-human "monsters" from the 1e MM. I know this isn't really a big revelation, but I just wanted to share - the (original) Wilderlands is wonderfully weird, steeped in OD&D flavour, and not afraid to mix things up a bit, which is what drew me to AS&SH in the first place.

NAJones wrote:

Pandelume wrote:

My campaign, which I've started to call "Tales of Old Earth," had my players (bunch of ex-Roman legionaires and mercenaries from Gaul) transported to Hyperborea via a portal they found in the Lost City of Irem. They arrived on the Savage Boreal Coast and are currently being hunted by half-blood Picts. They have no idea where they are, the large blood-red Sun being the only clue that something is not quite right... it's been a hoot!

That's great. Mirrors the way I introduced Hyperborea in some eerily similar ways. Long story short: My players were Gaels from the Southern Hebrides, pursuing a band of Picts into the wilds of Caledonia. Eventually their pursuit led them to a ring of standing stones, a well (poorly?) timed lunar eclipse, a portal, a scene straight out of Evil Dead 2, and everyone waking to a lurid red dawn. I was even able to hide the fact that I'd transported them to Hyperborea for a few sessions because we were still using S&W as our ruleset and hadn't introduced AS&SH to anyone yet. It was awesome hearing them speculate about where/when they had been sent.

As for my favorite part of the setting, that's awfully tough for me to say. In play, everything has mostly revolved around New Pictland and eventually Khromarium. But just for sheer inspiration, the description of the Spiral Mountain Array and Mt. Vhuurmithadon makes my mind reel and sets my imagination on fire.

That is awesome! There are so many possibilities when using Iron Age Britain and other areas during that span. The horror elements it sounds like you are incorporating are really, really cool (my players love to be scared).
I have to say, seeing fellow gamers that love to use "real" history, cultures and legend and merge it with weird fantasy is inspiring to me and in many ways true to what I think (I'm still getting caught up reading) REH, CAS and HPL did. I'm sure Jeff T. knew he was doi

Reading Bloodstone right now for the first time. I love the mood, and I'm really enjoying it so far.

As a somewhat older D&D/AD&D player from the early eighties and as someone recently returning to the hobby over the past year, I'm playing catch-up with the OSR movement big-time. But I have to say the best thing so far has been the discussions I've read here and elsewhere concerning the literary classics that form the foundation of our hobby. They've reignited my passion that unfortunately faded at the end of my college years during the mid-nineties.

Hello! My name is Don and I started playing D&D when the Moldvay Basic set came out, followed by AD&D 1st edition through high-school and my college years. I've recently retired from active duty and am enjoying teaching my own kids and the kids in our neighborhood the wonders of tabletop roleplaying (they didn't know what they were missing, playing video games only). Anyway, I'm an ancient history buff as well as a huge CAS and HPL fan. ASSH, when I discovered it, has hit the sweet spot for me in terms of rules and setting. Fantastic work, Ghul - cannot wait to see more!!!