HYPERBOREA / Introduction Thread

**Posted by Ghul** 3/02/2014 8:30 pm

Hi, I'm Jeff Talanian, and I've been gaming since 1981. I've been gaming with the same crew of guys since 1993. I got into tabletop RPG design in 2005, and I've had the honor and priviledge to learn from Gary Gygax until his untimely passing in 2008. These days I enjoy writing and developing materials for HYPERBOREA. I love attending gaming conventions such as Gary Con, TotalCon, Carnage, and North Texas RPG Con, where I get to meet and game with gamers from around the globe. Cheers!

**Posted by JasonZavoda** 3/02/2014 8:43 pm

I'm Jason Zavoda. I started wargaming in the early 70's when my older brother needed an opponent for his Avalon Hill games ,but I didn't get into D&D till TSR put out the Holmes basic set and then I was hooked. I've always been a reader of Swords, Sorcery and Weird Fantasy so AS&SH is exactly what I was looking for.

**Posted by Chainsaw** 3/02/2014 8:59 pm

Started gaming in the early 90s in middle school with Basic, then moved to 2E pretty quickly. Loved Frazetta, had the art plastered all over my room and my D&D books. We read Conan comics, thought he was the awesome and always approached the game with that world and attitude in mind. I play a ton of D&D in high school, then got away from it in college and through my 20s (women, beer, go figure). Came back in my early 30s once I had a job and was married, opting for 1E after flirting with 3.5E and 4E. When Jeff started talking about AS&SH a few years ago, I was really getting into Lovecraft, Smith, Vance and Leiber, so the concept really clicked. Been interested ever since.

**Posted by ElricS** 3/02/2014 9:15 pm

I'm Rich Spainhour. Started RPGing in 1980 with Moldvay/Cook B/X D&D, ordered AD&D 1E from the Sears catalog when the local DM told me I was wrong when I insisted that "Elf" was a Class. Been collecting, playing, and GMing ever since. I'm an avid collector of retro-clones, and I really, really like ASSH's cohesive feel and the mechanical tweaks Jeff made to the B/X/A D&D chassis.

**Posted by Ghul** 3/02/2014 9:49 pm

Welcome JasonZavoda, Chainsaw, and ElricS!

**Posted by Judge Khan** 3/02/2014 10:26 pm

Hey! I really only got into tabletop gaming about 18 months ago, but I'm finding a lot of OSR stuff a lot more enjoyable than the new stuff. Looking forward to running AS&SH once I get my life settled down a bit!

**Posted by Benoist** 3/02/2014 10:33 pm

Hi there! I'm Benoist Poiré: I've been a fan of the game from the start; helped a bit with it. I authored the Hyperborean Labs in AFS Magazine Issue 3, which were directly extracted from my AS&SH sessions.

I've been a gamer for a number of years. My two favorite RPGs are probably AD&D First Ed and Call of Cthulhu, though I like (and played/ran) many others. I'm co-owner and partner with Ernest Gary Gygax Jr. at GP Adventures, work with the same on the Hobby Shop Dungeon project which aims at bringing that megadungeon created in 1978 to print, and co-authored the Marmoreal Tomb of Garn Pat'uul of Gygax Magazine Issue 3 of which it was but the opening salvo.

Well. *Takes a deep breath* That was a mouthfull.

**Posted by Ghul** 3/03/2014 6:06 am

Welcome, Benoist and Judge Khan!

**Posted by rhialto** 3/03/2014 6:50 am

Rhialto here. Started in '78 in high school with Holmes, then 1E AD&D, then RuneQuest, Dragonquest, CoC, Traveller, etc., etc. Dropped any form of D&D until 3E came out and played a quite enjoyable years-long campaign with it until we discovered high-level play was a headache. The rest of my group dabbled in 4E or moved on to Pathfinder while I tried to tweak the latter to be more S&S-like (inspired by the Xoth Publishing series of modules). Finally gave up and went back to a more familiar system (BRP/Stormbringer) until AS&SH came out then switched over to it for my Atlantean campaign. Now running AS&SH in my homebrew Atlantis, with tweaks from Akrasia's S&S house rules and additional magic rules & spells from the old Bard games Arcanum. Keeping S&S kid-friendly is a must, since we've got a newer generation of 8 - 11 year-olds just starting (and they, rightly IMO, just call it "D&D").

**Posted by Ghul** 3/03/2014 7:04 am

rhialto wrote:
Rhialto here. Started in '78 in high school with Holmes, then 1E AD&D, then RuneQuest, Dragonquest, CoC, Traveller, etc., etc. Dropped any form of D&D until 3E came out and played a quite enjoyable years-long campaign with it until we discovered high-level play was a headache. The rest of my group dabbled in 4E or moved on to Pathfinder while I tried to tweak the latter to be more S&S-like (inspired by the Xoth Publishing series of modules). Finally gave up and went back to a more familiar system (BRP/Stormbringer) until AS&SH came out then switched over to it for my Atlantean campaign. Now running AS&SH in my homebrew Atlantis, with tweaks from Akrasia's S&S house rules and additional magic rules & spells from the old Bard games Arcanum. Keeping S&S kid-friendly is a must, since we've got a newer generation of 8 - 11 year-olds just starting (and they, rightly IMO, just call it "D&D").

That's excellent. When you have the time, I'd love to see you share some more about your Atlantis campaign here, maybe at the "campaign" forum. I play D&D with my kids, too, but I just have them using B/X. Welcome aboard, Rhialto the Marvellous!

**Posted by mabon5127** 3/03/2014 8:44 am

Name is Morgan and have been playing various board and rpg's since 1976. My uber cool mother bought me the White Box, Greyhawk, Blackmoor, and Eldritch Wizardry for Christmas. My brother introduced me to Conan but wouldn't let me read his HPL! Have played all the iterations of D&D as well as 20 years of champions and other Hero System games. I found the Kickstarter for ASSH and was introduced to a new world of weird fantasy including HPL, CAS, and others. I now have a twice a month game in Hyperborea! The older I get the more I value fun over rules. ASSH fills the need for me.

**Posted by Lord Kjeran** 3/03/2014 10:19 am

My name is Tony, and I've been gaming since Christmas Eve, 1981, when one of my aunts was badegered into buy me the 1e Gamma World RPG for Christmas. That's wild and wacky game (combined with the "Mutants and Magic" section of teh 1e DMG) has flavored my gaming ever since. So, I prefer games and settings that mix magic and sorcery: Gamma World, Blackmoor, Rifts, etc.

**Posted by merias** 3/03/2014 10:26 am

Hello all, my name is Doug. I got involved in D&D in the late 70's with Holmes, then AD&D 1e, then a looong hiatus until 2009 or so when I found S&W Whitebox and started playing with my kids. Since then I've been playing all the old-school RPGs I can find. Jeff, I played in a couple of AS&SH games at the Carnage Con last November - one of them was yours - and had a great time!

**Posted by rredmond** 3/03/2014 10:55 am

Heydee all. I started with a one-off ( ) at 10 or 11 years old (so 33 years ago, oh my) when Brian McBreen ran a game in my basement. I remember thinking how cool the game was, and he ran it all out of his head, no module, no pencils, no paper, no dice, but still I was fascinated. I didn't play for real until a year or two later with a mish mosh of D&D books, until settling on AD&D 1E as my game of choice. Played in college then had a hiatus of a decade or so, before getting back into the game. I DM for my two oldest daughters (of four, so hope to have them all playing soon) who are 9yo and 12yo, I enjoy a lot of play by post and DM and game mainly at [url=www.unseenservant.us]Unseen Servant[/url] because the folks there are so supportive of each other, I also help out with [url=www.and-mag.com]& Magazine[/url] which is a 1E focused free magazine. Anyway, me in a nutshell, glad to be here!

**Posted by rredmond** 3/03/2014 12:12 pm

Oh, and full disclosure, I'm a moderator at Unseen Servant, so there's that, and my name is Ron for those who don't frequent the Alehouse, or other less shady forum establishments.

**Posted by Benoist** 3/03/2014 1:30 pm

Judge Khan wrote:
Hey! I really only got into tabletop gaming about 18 months ago, but I'm finding a lot of OSR stuff a lot more enjoyable than the new stuff. Looking forward to running AS&SH once I get my life settled down a bit!

That is super cool, Judge Khan!

**Posted by Ghul** 3/03/2014 2:24 pm

Welcome, mabon5127, Lord Kjeran, merias, and rredmond!

Things I Worked On · **Posted by Ynas Midgard** 3/03/2014 3:34 pm

Hi everyone! I'm a Hungarian gamer in my early twenties, eager to earn his BA degree and carry on with MA (theoretical linguistics). I started gaming with D&D 3.0, then switched to Vampire: the Masquarade, later to the "new" World of Darkness line, before the OSR sucked me in. Since then, I've mostly been playing classic D&D-esque and those almost pretentiously innovative indie games. Currently running a face-to-face Vikings & Valkyries campaign once a month, and an irregular Rappan Athuk megadungeon campaign on Google Hangouts. I also regularly participate in gaming-related discussions on blogs, forums, and whatnot; I'm mostly interested in game design and theory, as well as crazy weird ideas.

**Posted by Ghul** 3/03/2014 4:03 pm

Welcome aboard, Ynas Midgard!

**Posted by rredmond** 3/03/2014 5:19 pm

Hey Ynas!
Don't you have happy beer YouTubes? I think that's you.
Mmmmm, beer.
Well here's a pint in your honor!
Cheers,
--Ron--