[AS&SH] Tell me about the game

[Finarvyn]

Okay, so we've seen some of the artwork for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea and it looks pretty impressive.

Tell me about the game.
* What makes it unique?
* Why would I want to play this over another game?
* Is it a general rules set or is there a setting desinged to go with it? (Hyperborea, I would assume. )

[Ghul]

Hello Fin, and thanks for prompting me!

Nov 13, 2011 9:17:46 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

Okay, so we've seen some of the artwork for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea and it looks pretty impressive.

Tell me about the game.

It would be my pleasure.

* What makes it unique?

While Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea is traditional in design and presentation, and although its mechanics are clearly derived from 0e and 1e sources, I feel the scope of project is unique in that it presents an interesting combination of rules, character archetypes, an interesting bestiary, and adventuring and combat resolution methods, all bended with a rich setting: Hyperborea.

The classical presentation of the world's most popular role-playing game, as seen through the lenses of 0e and 1e (as well as Holmes, Moldvay, et al.), are incredibly broad in scope, touching on elements of high fantasy, sword and sorcery, sci-fi, weird-fantasy, various mythologies. It is absolutely brilliant, IMO. What AS&SH seeks to do is narrow this focus to sword and sorcery and weird-fantasy; i.e. more evocative of R.E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and C.A. Smith, and less of the high fantasy tropes of Tolkien and others.

There are about 10 races of men from which to choose, including Amazons, Atlanteans, Esquimaux, Picts, Vikings, and more. There are 4 principal classes: fighter, magician, cleric, thief. There are 18 subclasses, including the fighter subclasses of barbarian, berserker, cataphract, paladin, ranger, warlock; the magician subclasses of illusionist, necromancer, pyromancer, witch; the cleric subclasses of druid, monk, priest, shaman; and the thief subclasses of assassin, bard, legerdemainist, and scout.

The beasts and monsters of the realm are tailored to suit the Hyperborea milieu, including ape-men, snake-men, mi-go, elder things, shoggoths, and also many familiar critters from stirges to oozes, and so forth. Orcs for example, are the progeny of untoward relations engaged by Picts and demonkind.

But I would like to stress that there is not a pressing need to strive for "uniqueness" throughout the game, because I am a traditionalist who believes in the principals as originally conceived by Gygax, Arneson, et al. In effect, I have strived to design a classical game that traditional gamers will find both familiar and unique.

* Why would I want to play this over another game?

You might want to try Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea if you are looking for a traditional RPG experience with a more focused sword and sorcery component. A game that is not built to be generic to any setting, but rather is built with the assumption that the Hyperborea setting is the game's central focus. Certainly one can use the Hyperborea setting material with other rules sets, or even the AS&SH rules system with another setting, but the game is not fashioned this way.

* Is it a general rules set or is there a setting desinged to go with it? (Hyperborea, I would assume. )

Well, I suppose I've already answered this, but I will elaborate further: The AS&SH rules inform the setting, and the setting informs the rules. The setting has its own calendar system that accounts for its moon cycles (there are two moons), lands, histories, deities, and so forth, but the challenge is presenting these in such a manner as to be game useful: Brevity is important, especially when the referee is attempting to absorb and convey the material to his or her players. So, for example, a particular land description might be as brief as a few sentences to as long as three or four paragraphs. In most instances one brief paragraph provides suitable flavor when describing a desert, and island group, or a steppe region. I'm digressing a bit.

Regarding "generic" versus "setting designed to go with it," I would further say that elements of the setting (almost always in brief) touch everything from character races, character classes, monsters, items, spells, and more. Off the top of my head, take the reincarnation spell. This spell will not bring you back as a pixie or elf, because those creatures do not exist in Hyperborea, but one might be reincarnated as an ape-man or an abominable snow-man.

Thanks for asking!
Cheers,
Jeff Talanian

[Finarvyn]

Nov 14, 2011 13:53:47 GMT -6 Ghul said:

What AS&SH seeks to do is narrow this focus to sword and sorcery and weird-fantasy; i.e. more evocative of R.E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and C.A. Smith, and less of the high fantasy tropes of Tolkien and others.

An interesting perspective. I've read a lot of REH and HPL, but clearly I need to read more CAS.

The weird part kind of grabs me.

[The Fiendish Dr. Samsara]

Nov 24, 2011 19:23:14 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

I've read a lot of REH and HPL, but clearly I need to read more CAS.

Everyone needs to read more CAS. Its universally true.

[kesher]

I'll second that! I've been reading a huge collection of his lately, and he's truly a master of of Weird Fiction, very distinct from Lovecraft, though you can see obvious connections between the two.

[Finarvyn]

It's just hard to find copies of CAS's books locally. I may have to order some from Amazon, but I was really hoping to look at font size before I pay money for expensive books. My vision is getting pretty bad and I mostly read hardbacks now because of the font size.

[Deleted]

Dec 1, 2011 10:31:42 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

It's just hard to find copies of CAS's books locally.

If you can stand to read from your PC screen, here are some freebies online:

www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/

[kesher]

I'm telling you, Fin, go for a Kindle--you can adjust the font size to whatever you like, and the collection of CAS I'm reading right now on the Kindle app on my iPad is 133 stories for $1.99...

[Deleted]

Dec 1, 2011 11:29:37 GMT -6 kesher said:

133 stories for $1.99...

A fellow Kindle user wants to know the exact title of that collection?

[Deleted]

The Ultimate Weird Tales Collection - 133 stories - Clark Ashton Smith (Trilogus Classics)