geoffrey - Rangers get their first spell, a 1st level Druid spell, at 7th level. Oh, and even though by 12th level they can use 3rd level spells, they never get more than one slot at each spell level. So a 12th level Ranger has only six spells: Druid - 1/1/1 and Magician 1/1/1.
The Wanderer - You can get the 1st edition in PDF for $10 (which is quite a deal considering what you get).
Last Edit: May 17, 2017 17:59:44 GMT -6 by foxroe: added another thought
I like that the "basic" version of the game is built into the rules. The four core classes are presented, then there is mention that the subclasses are up to your referee. Also, rules for most tactical options in combat (dodging, parrying, disarming, shield walls, etc.) are pushed to an "advanced" section so they can be safely ignored if that's your thing.
Does the AS&SH ranger get to use spells at higher levels?
Yes (Druid and Magician spells), but the Ranger is limited to knowing only a spell per slot, if you follow me. They don't have access to all of the Druid spells all of the time, and they don't have spell books (they learn Magician spells through meditation and ritual).
For example, an 8th level Ranger can cast one 1st level Druid spell and one 1st level Magician spell per day. Once the player declares what spells those are, that's it. They can't switch to a different spell on the following day - it will always be whatever spell it was that was chosen for that slot. They can't learn another 1st level spell until they get another "slot". Spells end up being more like "class abilities" rather than traditional spells.
Am I making sense? I'd quote the rule, but my computer is being weird about copying and pasting from the PDF.
Oh, and they're "sworn enemy" bonus, instead of applying to humanoids and giant-kin, applies to Elder Things and such.
My vote is to hold off on raiding the Clinic for now, and do 1 and 2. If we get nowhere with that, just move on to 3...sorry Sharron.
((OOC: I agree))
Sharron is a bit peeved (punching her mattress a little harder... might need a new one...), but she knows that without a ship and some extra guns, she'll have a hard time finding Janet. She agrees to the plan (#1 and #2) as it's unlikely that Janet would have been kept at the clinic after her abduction.
Mother, ever the capitalist, will "call around" (maybe through some Merchant service contacts) and see if there are any prospective (lucrative) cargoes destined for Bastinadi. Also, she'd like to "hit the docks", so to speak, and use her Streetwise skill to dig up any dirt about any ships that regularly fly to Bastinadi.
Some things I really like about them: - No extraordinary strength scores or bloated bonuses - Core four classes with optional sub-classes (but they're too cool not to use... I love how the Ranger is treated) - Most character class abilities use d12 rolls in place of the usual d6 or d%... more love for the twelve-sided Platonic solid! - A soft level cap of 12 (there's that number again!) - Weapon mastery (like specialization from AD&D), but no "proficiencies" - For non-Fighter classes, the weapon choices are initially restricted, but then any class can select a non-standard weapon at higher levels (so, Mages with swords) - Spell descriptions aren't too long or too short and follow the Holmes convention in formatting (level, range, duration) - Non-combat actions not covered by a class ability are covered by the Str/Dex/Con "extraordinary feat" d% tests, or just a simple d6 roll - 10 second combat rounds - Single simplified attack matrix that uses "fighting ability" rather than separate matrices for each class (kind of like OD&D) - Descending AC! - Single saving throw target based on level; class gives bonuses for different save types (like S&W) - Initiative is d6, but ties are resolved by comparing Dexterity scores (all monsters have Dex stats); there's also an optional rule for "reach" - Tons of optional combat actions and tactics with simple rules - Flaming oil rules that distinguish between lighting a puddle of lamp oil and the use of "Greek fire" - Simple unarmed combat rules - Scaled natural healing rules rather than a fixed rate for everyone (gain back a HD worth of HP per rest period) - Poison variants (similar to AD&D) - Simple aerial, water-borne, and siege combat rules (like OD&D)
I was going through the three rule sets and comparing and contrasting the various treatments of the basics, developing proof to support my theory, but I had to stop. It was rather boring, and, well... preachy. So I tossed out a couple hours of "work".
In the end I think, Mr. Talanian wrote a great set of old-school rules that hit the sweet spot between OD&D and AD&D. So, it really doesn't matter which edition it steers closer to. After all, I think we would both agree on the similarities that exist between all three games.
Well, my first impression of the game was much the same as yours; that is, AD&D + Holmes: sub-classes, extra spells borrowed from AD&D, slightly more granular combat rules (with the use of dexterity in tied initiative rolls), equipment list that uses denominations other than gold, the % tests for attributes, Holmes-like spell descriptions, etc. Even reviewers say "it's basically AD&D". But I feel those codifications are merely inspired by AD&D, and not just picked whole-cloth. To me, the AS&SH rules feel more like Jeff's house rules for his OD&D game. Also, BTB AD&D has it's rules spread out (and not thinly) across three hardbacks; Jeff's rules fit into two "pulp magazine" sized (well, slightly smaller), ring-bound soft-covers - and really, the core of the rules fit into just the short Vol. III section.
When rereading the books, I noted that the Acknowledgements in the Players' Handbook state
"Game rules and conventions are informed by the original 1974 fantasy wargame and miniatures campaign rules as conceived by E.Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson."
That got me into the "original rules" frame of reference as I was reevaluating the AS&SH rules.
I agree with you though, AD&D is definitely OD&D+Supplements (squared).
EDIT: Of course, I suppose that it could be looked at through either lens. I just feel that the rules are too simplified to be strictly an AD&D "retro-clone". Just my opinion of course, which is worth about as much as the paper I just wrote it on.
Socrates Drankit, a venerable alchemist of Griez. Abcbnyr, a bard who speaks only in "a-b-c-b" rhyme. <== been thinking about using this for a PBP game.
I've been (re)reading the AS&SH rules* (in particular, Vol.III) and I have to say, they're growing on me more and more. They're very elegant. They present the familiar codex of D&D in a more modern manner, while maintaining the varietal charm of the original rules (i.e. different dice for different rules, roll high/ roll low, look-up tables, etc.).
Which brings up another point I'd like to make: The game is often compared to AD&D, but the similarity is only superficial IMO - as a rule set it is much more akin to OD&D + supplements, with just a salt-and-peppering of Holmes and AD&D.
*(I blame blackadder23 and his Hyperborean Encounters thread. )
Sharron retires momentarily to her cabin, puts together a make-shift punching bag using her mattress, hangs it from the overhead, and proceeds to beat the shaving-cream out of it in frustration.
"The good news is, Bastinadi is non-industrial, so we should be able to pick up some cheap cargo and off-load there at a profit. There may be a shipment of mechanical parts or aluminum we can spec. And there's a Scout base. And a gas giant." Mother offers with a child-like smile.
((OOC: Frank - Is Jack gone as a "party member" or will you be using him as an NPC?))
Last Edit: May 15, 2017 18:09:55 GMT -6 by foxroe: redundancy
Hyperborea is roughly over 2700 miles from flat side to flat side (115 hexes x 24 miles).
One degree of latitude on Old Earth is approximately 69 miles.
Therefore, that's about 19.5 degrees of Old Earth latitude from Vhuurmithadon to a flat edge of Hyperborea.
That means that Hyperborea (the entire hexagonal plane), on Old Earth, extended down to the northern isles of Canada, half of Greenland, just about Scandinavia, the northern coast of Russia, and the northern tip of Alaska.
That's quite a bit of curvature (assuming you don't accept the notion that Hyperborea is flat... silly sages ), and could easily account for the relative perception of Helios's rising and setting behavior, with Hyperborea spinning and wobbling around the Sun just as Old Earth does.
A bit of unnecessary "science" for a fantasy RPG perhaps, but it helps me envision (or fools me into thinking) how things work in Hyperborea.
Well, here's the "official" word from Ghul over at the Hyperborea forums:
The first thing to keep in mind is that the Gazetteer is largely presented from the viewpoint of sages from Khromarium, so there are cases of "unreliable narrator" at work, but not to a degree that it is intended to screw over the referee. As far as concavity goes, the idea is that the great ice sheets spawned by the Ashen Worm depressed the much of the central landmass, so that the plains and deserts interior to the coastline appear to dip. In the real world, this phenomenon is observed in Greenland. In truth, the entire "plane" of Hyperborea is flat with interior continental portions of concavity, leading the sages to suppose the entire world dips down, despite the awesome rise of the central mountain range of the Spiral Mountain Array. Notwithstanding, while I was developing the setting, I did a fair amount of research on horizons and flat planes, and I came to learn that even a flat horizon is not going to yield much more to the human eye than a convex horizon would.
Soooo... second rotational axis it is!
However, I think in my version of Hyperborea, I'll go with a convex surface (but include the mentioned "depressions"). Need to do some more math...
And that mammoth is totally spider food too; or maybe a spider "host". I'm picturing the spider birth scene in Stephen King's The Mist... only about 20 times worse.
Speaking of Stephen King... I noticed that he was a Copper supporter for first edition. Surely he is not the Stephen King?
In the books, the "flat" world of Hyperborea is said by scholars to actually be slightly concave... could it be that this is supposed to be *convex*? Certainly if the continent (crust and all) was ripped from the north pole of Old Earth, it would present that shape (assuming no geological deformation occurred during the transition)? If this is the case, then there would be no need for the second axis of rotation - sunset would simply be the fact that Mt. Vhuurmithadon and the Spiral Mt. Array are blocking the viewer's line of sight to Helios.
In trying to wrap my head around the crazy orbital dynamics of the solar system of AS&SH (yeah, yeah, I know... it's just a game), I jotted down some notes and made some calculations that may be useful for some. Bear with me... it's been a while since my college astronomy and math courses. Hopefully someone who is really into this stuff can double check my calculations and assumptions. I'm just relying on basic Kepler laws here...
Hyperborean spin ================ Since Hyperborea is flat, in order for the ecliptic path of Helios to work how it does, the realm must be roughly parallel with the plane of the solar system. In order to account for total darkness/sunlight during 1/13 of the Hyperborean cycle, Hyperborea must be tilted on its central axis (the axis would pass through Vhuurmithadon, perpendicular to the plane of Hyperborea). This axis would "wobble" in synchronization with the Hyperborean cycle such that the face of the realm leans in toward Helios during the summer, and away from Helios in the winter. Since Helios never rises more than 25 degrees above the horizon, the axial tilt must also be about 25 degrees.
However, Hyperborea must not revolve around this axis. If it did, then there would be 6 years each of total darkness and sunlight, with Helios just appearing at different heights in the sky during the lighted years. In order for Helios to dip below the "horizon" for part of a daily revolution, Hyperborea must be spinning on another axis that is not quite parallel with the axis which dictates its tilt relative to the sun. Don't try to think about it too hard, you might hurt something (I'm pretty sure I did).
How far is Hyperborea from Helios? ================================== Some math...
Orbital period (T) = 13 years = 410240376 sec
T = 2*pi*sqrt(a^3/u)
a = semimajor axis length for an elliptical orbit (or the radius for a circular orbit <- using this since the math is easier) u = gravitational constant based on the combined mass of Helios and Hyperborea u = G(m1+m2) = 6.67384 × 10^−11 [units=m^3/(kg*s^2)] u = 6.67384x10^-11 *(1.99x10^30+insignificant mass) ---> I'm making the assumption that the Sun won't lose much mass... u = 13.28x10^19
therefore, a = 827,045,361 km from sun
This puts Hyperborea's orbit just beyond Jupiter and about 600 million km from Saturn.
Where's Jupiter? ================ Ganymede (now one of Helios' planets) is Jupiter's largest moon. It is likely that during the evolution of the Sun into a red giant (Helios), Jupiter was consumed/destroyed, but Ganymede survived to become the innermost planet of Helios. Assuming Ganymede follows roughly the same orbit as Jupiter (778,400,000 km from the Sun), it is a mere 49 million km from Ganymede to Hyperborea, which is slightly further than the present distance between the Earth and Venus. Since Ganymede is about half as wide as Venus, it's about half as big/bright as Venus (when viewed from the Earth) when viewed from Hyperborea.
How "big" is Saturn? ==================== Based on the above calculations, Saturn would appear about twice as big/bright from Hyperborea as it does from Earth today.
How "big" is Helios? ==================== Scientists predict that the sun will expand to about Earth's orbit in its red giant phase - that's about 300,000,000 km wide, or well over 200 times its current size.
More math...
d = 2*arctan(2*r/2*D) = angular diameter (apparent width) r = radius of object = 150,000,000 km D = distance to the object = 827,045,361 km
d = 20.6
The sun's angular diameter as viewed from Hyperborea would be about 20 degrees; if you make both fists, extend your arms out fully, and put your fists together, this would be the apparent width of Helios as viewed from Hyperborea!
Last Edit: May 13, 2017 9:05:05 GMT -6 by foxroe: typo
Hunting party of 15 bowmen and 10 dogs, led by Karpok. They haven’t bagged any game yet. ... Hunting party of 13 bowmen and 12 dogs, led by Karpok (the same party, minus a couple of casualties and plus a couple of dogs?) They haven’t managed to bag any of the plentiful game.
They were beset by another small group of Crab-men-worshiping Esquimaux "hunters" (most likely looking for sacrifices or slaves). They lost a couple of men and a few dogs, but they decimated they're attackers and commandeered the other party's dogs (and sleds). All the war-cries, barking, and gurgling blood scared off the deer.
Last Edit: May 13, 2017 1:39:46 GMT -6 by foxroe: spelling, -2
I threw this together for my own use, but thought I'd share. It's a "quick start" cheat sheet for beginning players that just covers the four core classes. Print double-sided on legal-sized paper (8.5"x14") and fold in half. Enjoy.
No spikes on the armor and no modern spikey hairdo's, I'm good. The hammer is a bit over sized, but this piece of art has the old school focus and it looks good and has the right vibe IMO.
But to be really "old school", at least one of the characters needs to be portrayed as meeting an unfortunate end...
Henry can use his J-o-T for that. (Didn't we try that before?)
Hacking the system's data feeds to dig up some more information?
Mother tried a few post back, but she doesn't have JoaT or Computer.
Sharron doesn't have a hand computer.
I would prefer to not get the local authorities involved. Whatever the clinic is involved in, it's been going on for at least 5 years, so it's possible they're already bribing the authorities.
Last Edit: May 12, 2017 18:28:57 GMT -6 by foxroe: emphasis
Can Mother use the ship's computer to check for any public records on the clinic? She would be looking for the original purchase/funding of the clinic and possibly the architectural drafts.
Last Edit: May 9, 2017 19:06:38 GMT -6 by foxroe: spelling, -2
Hunting party of 13 bowmen and 13 dogs, led by Illotroi. These goggle-eyed degenerates haven’t bagged any game. Hunting party of 13 bowmenn and 12 dogs, led by Phaleor. These scabrous mongrels haven’t bagged any of the (clearly plentiful) game either.
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