Hello to everyone in the forum.

My name is Demetri or Demetris or Demetrios (Δημήτρης in native greek) and i’m a native of Greece.

I'm a 38 years old Role Playing Gamer and Game Master (referee per the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rules).
I must note that I'm a huge fan of Robert E. Howard, HP Lovecraft &  Clark Aston Smith.

I just want to express in this post my enthusiasm for the forthcoming 3rd edition and also to share my experience with the 2nd edition so far.

I’ve been playing fantasy role playing games since 2010 and I grew up as a fan of the comic Savage Sword of Conan (the Greek version and translations that were published mostly in the 90’s).

After playing for a quarter of a year Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 and playing and gamemastering 4th for 2 and a half years I started playing Call of Cthulhu and decided I wanted a fantasy role playing game that could capture a similar feeling. Conan-like fantasy and deadly.

The Mongoose Conan was a lot similar to DnD 3/3.5 to my eyes and the later released 2d20 Conan was a little strange in playing and game rules for my tastes.

A day after my birthday in 2018 (I was 36) I got the pdf of the rulebook. Pirated I have to confess

After I skimmed it, I liked it a lot. It was a balanced mix of the Savage Sword of Conan comics and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (mostly 1st). I rolled my first test character and … then it clicked.

The character creation was smooth and fast and the rules made sense in the most part (combat was confusing but I will get to that soon).

It had the Conan’s Hyborian Αge vibe I was looking in the base setting, has a lot of room to ad my own stuff, full on Late Copper Age & Ancient Mediterranean vibes mixed with Ancient Greek Mythology & Norse Mythology and as a plus, sprinkled with Lovecraft influence.

I was in LOVE. It was exactly was I was looking for in a fantasy role playing game. I started buying the pdfs in every sale of DriveThruRPG I could until I got them all. Rulebook and each of the adventures.
When I could spend money on my hobby I tried to buy the physical book but it would get too expensive to get from the States to Southern Europe, so I printed the pdf in six booklets. One per volume to be exact.

About five months later, three of my best friends and I managed to organize a online party, roll characters and start an exploration of the AS&SH2nd world.

My friend and players of that group are George (Γιώργος), Penelope (Πενελόπη) and Evi (Έυη).

We played the first edition of Rats in the Walls. I tried to played as close to the book and the rules as possible to get it right and see exactly how it works as a game on the table.
Well virtual theater of the mind table as we played in a internet video call.

Second session … they all died by the rats. The game was brutal and unforgiving and … WE LOVED IT. It was totally different from the DnD 5th edition they were playing until then.

They loved the historical ancient world mixed in with science fiction and science fantasy in a world that they are familiar with but it has nothing to do with the history and mythology we learned in school at our younger years.

Fast-forward almost two and a half years later, we have added one person to that group, Kostantinos (Κωσταντίνος) and the players changed a lot of characters (some from early retirement, some from death). We still playing, at least once per month.

I’m a HUGE FAN of this game and I always talk about it to every game master that I meet, and it’s a great source of inspiration for me.

I have created a small facebook group named “Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea @ Greece” mostly for my players to chat and post stuff for them about our sessions, art and series for inspiration and news about the game.

Some of the stuff I have posted in that group are houserules for character creations.

Our native language is Greek (Hellenic) and i have made a list with correct names and surnames for Atlanteans, Amazonians and the other Ethnicities of the Hypeborean world (AS&SH Character Name Generator), and added some cosmetic details about the character looks, inspired and based on the pdfs (Masks by Colin Chapman) that they are in the free resources section of the official site.

The other major house-rule I have made it a translation of the Imperial to Metric wherever it is in the book.
We have no idea who much is 3lbs, but we know how much is 1.36 Kilos and we can make no sense of 3 feet and 3 inches or 36 inches but we get exactly how long is 99cm.

The last houserule I made was about the phases of the combat because noone made sense of it, due to exposure in the combat system to newest versions of Dungeons and Dragons.

I tried to make it
    -Melee
    -Missle
    -Magic
    -Move
    -Magic after move (with concentration roll)
    -Missle after move (½ distance)
    -Melee after move (half damage)

But it also confused us a lot so I dropped it and tried to play only one phase. It worked well so far and we are having lots of fun (the most important part of any game).

I tried to also made Magical Corruption houserules. The more Spells you know and you cast the more corruption you have on your body and your character gains some otherworldly characteristics, like snake eyes or talons instead of nails. Found a lot of inspiration in these forums for that.
I also played with the idea of giving more “weight” to the Animal Signs based on the year of birth. I didn’t finished those rules though and now I paused them as I anticipate the release of 3rd edition.

This game is exactly what I and my group was looking for and i’m highly excited for it’s 3rd edition and the changes that I know of, especially the new Races (Ethnicities).

Hyperboreans, I salute you. Keep rolling dice and having FUN.

Last edited by demetrisathanasopoulos (6/15/2021 11:14 am)