HYPERBOREA / Levels Higher than 12

**Posted by Glorgnok** 10/04/2023 8:40 pm

I know that in the class part of the book they say its up to you how Higher levels are done but I just want to know how you guys would do it.

**Posted by Blackadder23** 10/04/2023 10:02 pm

I would extrapolate from 1e AD&D (which is what I do in most other cases as well).

**Posted by rhialto** 10/05/2023 3:56 am

Agree, just extrapolate from AD&D.

**Posted by Vetus Miles** 10/19/2023 10:46 am

Much like our games of 1E and 2E our group rarely reaches the 5-7 range. Since I was a kid and into adulthood, it seems like bad, but usually hilarious, decisions are made which results in party annihilation.

When I was looking for an alternative to 5E which I didn’t really like. I ran across this game was totally stoked!

My buddy says “yeah buy they only go to 12.” To which I replied “yeah but it’s old school and XP is too. Besides since when have we ever lived long enough to reach even 10 lv? Like maybe once when we were kids. We are usually too busy screwing it all up and dying way before then!”

And my buddy was like, good point, let’s do it.

We haven’t looked back since. And yes we have had total party kills in Hyperborea.

Last edited by Vetus Miles (10/29/2023 9:41 am)

**Posted by digitalelf** 12/25/2023 6:39 am

I'd have levels higher than 12th and spells greater than 6th be "lost knowledge" that could possibly be discovered by the PCs... Perhaps an extremely ancient Lich guards this knowledge. Or perhaps the PCs discover a Lich so ancient it became a Demilich aeons ago, and the knowledge is a part of its treasure hoard. Of course the Game Master would need to create/convert such an entity for AS&SH.

But I'd handle levels and spells higher than RAW by adapting older editions of (A)D&D.

Last edited by digitalelf (12/25/2023 6:39 am)

**Posted by Carnby** 12/25/2023 4:46 pm

It's something I pondered a bit as I look at TSR settings I'd like to run, while Hyperborea has easily become my preferred ruleset. Do I tone stuff down to Hyperborea scale, or expand out? It's easy enough to port over the basics for levels 13+ from 1e, there's just a few points of AS&SH rules that you'll have to judge on, for instance FA is capped to 12 (3e RM pg. 19) and saves cap out at HD 17. Should those advance further, or do you leave them as-is? If you do leave them, does giving spell-casters more spells per day/spell levels tilt the balance too much in favour of casters? What about thief abilities? Should those end up capping out at 10:12, should you advance up the dice chain (to borrow a DCC-ism), or just allow for thieves that are so good at what they do it's basically supernatural? I think once you make your decisions about those, you're pretty much good to go.

**Posted by digitalelf** 12/25/2023 10:18 pm

Carnby wrote:
It's something I pondered a bit as I look at TSR settings I'd like to run, while Hyperborea has easily become my preferred ruleset. Do I tone stuff down to Hyperborea scale, or expand out?

For me, being relatively new to AS&SH, I will run at least one full campaign with the rules as is before I would introduce anything more. And even then, I would first introduce the possibility of higher class and spell levels within the campaign itself in a similar fashion to my previous post. But the whole thing is an interesting thought experiment.