HYPERBOREA / Adding some baddies? NPCs? PC's? to the game from classic sources

**Posted by Chartauk** 12/28/2021 11:51 am

So I added Voormis, Gnophkehs, and Morlocks( both the brutes and the mental elites), to last nights game. The PC's were exploring a desert tomb in the vein of Howards Conan, i.e. desert tombs inspired by the nations of Shem Stygia. Almost had a TPK , but they pulled it off. Throwing these Lovecraftian creatures to see who and how other GMs would use them too.

Last edited by Chartauk (12/28/2021 11:56 am)

**Posted by Jimm.Iblis** 12/28/2021 3:47 pm

Vhuurmis (spelled like so) are already in the game. Pretty much I use them like that. They are also my switcheroo monster when old mods I'm adapting call for bugbears.

**Posted by Chartauk** 12/28/2021 5:26 pm

Cool! What old mods are you currently using? I have a few of the official ones, but I am always on the hunt for ideas/monsters/treasure/ect.

I am atm going thru some old CoC books looking for monsters and spells with a Lovecraft bent. The Carcosa book and a few Carcosa websites are coming in handy. Thinking about raiding some old Talislanta books too.

Got a couple adventure ideas in my head for next weeks game. (A map the PC's found that leads to sea coast adventure. Or will they investigate the old pyramid that is made of emerald stone, that is polluting the river it is submerged in?

Last edited by Chartauk (12/28/2021 5:30 pm)

**Posted by Jimm.Iblis** 12/29/2021 5:22 pm

Chartauk wrote:
Cool! What old mods are you currently using?

I have a habit of shoehorning in the TSR 1e and Basic/BXCMI modules wherever I see an opportunity. My collection includes most of them, since you can get them all now from DTRPG. I combined Against of the Cult of the Reptile God with Anthropophagi of Xambaala for example. But mostly I use the locations for my Zothique sandbox. I've done B4 Lost City now so many times I've had to give it a rest for my upcoming post-COVID run. FrogGod/Necromancer stuff is another go-to (I'm converting monsters from Necropolis presently— mind you, conversion between these systems is a snap). And ArtoftheGenre Black Label and 13th Warlock(NSFW!) are creating some truly awesome dark adult fantasy content (think Heavy Metal magazine and 80s Italian b-fantasy) I like a lot and pairs very well with the Hyperborea setting and engine.
Anyway, a lot of this stuff still uses classic Dnd monsters and while I don't think these are inappropriate in a weird subterranea, I prefer to switch out the fairy-folklore humanoids for weird horror-/sword-&-sorcery- friendly variants. Miri nigri for kobolds, ape-men for hobgoblins, vhuurmi for bugbears; etc.

**Posted by Jimm.Iblis** 12/29/2021 5:50 pm

Chartauk wrote:
CoC books looking for monsters and spells with a Lovecraft bent

For converting CoC spells, this is useful: https://eldritchfields.blogspot.com/2020/07/mythos-spells-to-osr-quick-dirty.html

For converting monsters, there was a free 1 pg document I dl'ed from Dragonsfoot I think ages ago, but I can't seem to find a link for it. I hope it's ok to paraphrase it here:

Attributes in Call of Cthulhu that simply have no counterpart in Hyperborea (e.g., STR, POW, APP, etc) thus those things can be safely ignored and do not need to be converted.

Armor Class: Subtract CoC creature's Armor Points from 10.

Move: Depends on edition. I know the older editions it was somewhat complicated. Add two to CoC creature's Move, multiply that by 2.5, you get close to a 20/30/40/50 move rate. I know the current edition (which I don't have) does movement differently. iirc, you multiply the Movement score by 5, divide by ½ to get the Hyperborea MV.

Hit Dice: Subtract 12 from CoC creature's average CON (minimum of one). I believe the current edition has Average HP so you can divide that number by 4 to get HD.

Damage/Attack: As specified in CoC. More or less.

Special Attack/Defenses (Including Spells): As specified in CoC, but choose spells from Hyperborea lists.

Magical Resistance: As specified in CoC.

Intelligence: Subtract one from CoC creature's average INT rating.

Size: A SIZ of 1 indicates a Tiny creature, a SIZ of 2-4 indicates a Small creature, a SIZ of 5-17 indicates a roughly man-sized creature, and a SIZ of 18 or higher indicates a Large creature. Again, that's for older editions. I think if you're converting the current edition you need to divide the average Size by 5.

I guess they multiplied everything by 5 for... bigger numbers? I dunno.

Experience point values for a creature are calculated using hit dice value adjusted for special attacks and defenses, as discussed in Hyperborea Ref's Manual, Experience.

Last edited by Jimm.Iblis (12/29/2021 5:59 pm)

**Posted by Blackadder23** 12/29/2021 7:58 pm

When converting AD&D adventures, in addition to replacing humanoids like goblins and bugbears with Hyperborean humanoids like ape-men, you can replace them with human "monsters": bandits, berserkers, cultists, various classed NPC's, etc.

**Posted by Caveman** 12/30/2021 4:17 am

I did some converting and copying other folks ideas for monsters here in these forums. And Jimm.Iblis has added some (which I later convert to PDFs), if you not seen the posts, see link below.

HYPERBOREA » MMM - Mini-Monster Manual (boardhost.com)

**Posted by Chartauk** 12/30/2021 5:24 am

These all look good and are good ideas and house rules. I will check out the black label stuff. I recently got a hold of some old Heavy Metal magazines from my dad and it blew me away. Very good weird fantasy/sci-fi!
Thank you all or the links and tables. I will be posting another map with the same weird fantasy/sci-fi/Heavy Metal vibe to it.

**Posted by Caveman** 12/31/2021 7:32 am

Nao problemo or Na Tha Ra Koba...