And Now... HYPERBOREA! Plus Character Sheet...

A Shaman I rolled up

Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, H.P. Lovecraft, these are the three main authors (among a few others) that Jeffrey P. Talanian's, HYPERBOREA, (formerly, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers Of...) seeks to emulate using a chassis that lies somewhere between B/X and AD&D.

This is technically the third edition of this game which was first published as a box set in 2013, then as a massive hardback tome in 2017. I own neither of those two editions, though, I was aware of them. By the time this game really captured my attention, the first two editions were out of print and rare. I had managed to view a PDF of the 2nd edition (back when such a thing was easier) and what stuck in my head were these cool pencil sketches... more on that below. A perfectly-bound, paperback Player's Manual, also came into existence not too long ago, which I was all set to buy, when I discovered that a 3rd edition was imminent. That 3rd edition kickstarted about a year ago, the result of which are the handsome books you see above.

Physically each book is a little over 300 pages (Player's Manual and Referee's Manual.) Both covers have this cool matte feel to them and the interior pages are cream colored, non-glossy and very easy to read. The layout is clean, well organized and full of art (some great, some not-so great.) Basically, these are nice books. (Personally, I would've preferred a single giant tome, like the 2nd Edition.)

Also pictured above is the soft-cover atlas of the HYPERBOREAN world -- which exists far into the future, is shaped like a planetary-sized hex, and orbits somewhere out near Saturn around a now dying, red sun. This is sword & sorcery for the most part, but there are elements of sword & science such as you see on the above Player's Manual cover and in the picture below. Obviously it's up to you if you want your knightly warrior to wield a ray-gun (aside from my own anomalous adventure, DATE OF EXPIRATION, it's usually not my thing) Setting aside, it's the system that I care most about...

And this system is fairly standard D&D -- classes, hit points, armor class, saving throws, Vancian-ish Magic, etc. The rules are not quite as basic as B/X, yet not as detailed as AD&D. 

Where HYPERBOREA is neither basic or advanced, is how it handles races. Here, with the exceptions of Atlantean and Hyperborean (who are technically not humans) you only play as humans. The races are as follows:

• Common
• Amazon
• Atlantean
• Esquimaux
• Hyperborean
• Ixian
• Kelt
• Kimmerian
• Kimmer-Kelt
• Pict
• Pict (Half-Blood)
• Viking
• Anglo-Saxon
• Carolingian Frank
• Esquimaux-Ixian
• Greek
• Lapp
• Lemurian
• Moor
• Mu
• Oon
• Roman
• Tlingit
• Yakut

Most of you will have a fair idea of the gist of these races (from Howard, Smith, etc.) And though there are plenty of tables to determine your character's height, weight, eye color, hair color, complexion, age, and name, your race offers ZERO actual in-game benefits, even if you're playing an Atlantean or Hyperborean. Race is merely a descriptor, fluff. This is BORING (especially after reviewing Deathstalkers) but I get it: Beware the woke twitter mob. State that one type of human is better at something than another, even in a FANTASY setting, and all Hell breaks loose. 

Of course, there's nothing from stopping you from adding Demi-Humans and/or bonus/penalties to your HYPERBOREAN game...

Classes. If you love lots of classes (and I love lots of classes) you'll be happy: 4 main classes with 22 sub-classes (some of the names though... ugh!)

• Fighter
• Barbarian 
• Berserker 
• Cataphract (Need eye surgery? Knight would be better)
• Huntsman (Hunter is better)
• Paladin (Champion perhaps? Seems like sword & sorcery has Champions)
• Ranger
• Warlock
• Magician
• Cryomancer
• Illusionist
• Necromancer
• Pryomancer
• Witch
• Cleric
• Druid
• Monk
• Priest
• Runegraver
• Shaman
• Thief
• Assassin
• Bard
• Legerdemainist (thief/magician) --who wants to say this? (how about Trickster?)
• Purloiner (thief/cleric, Cultist or Zealot is better)
• Scout

These classes are generally well designed and do pretty much what you'd want them to. Occasionally, there's a fluff ability, like horsemanship or survival, which are only as useful as the DM wants them to be. I will always prefer actual mechanics.

Classes are listed to level 12. They all have the same single saving-throw progression, staring at 16 and improving by 1 every other level to 11 at 12th level. So, even at 12th level, your saves will only hover around 50%, which is kind of rough for a seasoned sword & sorcery protagonist. Each class also receives two +2 bonuses to specific saves, which are the classic five renamed to:

• Death
• Transformation
• Device
• Avoidance
• Sorcery

Dexterity can also improve Avoidance, and Constitution and Wisdom can improve specific situations like poison and willpower, respectively. So, the saving throw system is an amalgamation, ranging from a single save to five and beyond.

Your "to-hit" bonus is called fighting and progresses logically, as opposed to the weird progression of B/X.

Armor Class is descending. Easily fixed if not your thing.

Also, medium and heavy armors offer a bit of damage resistance, 1 or 2 points.

Attribute checks, called tests are done on 1d6 and are primarily based on the classic open doors mechanic. These are things such as opening stuck doors, balancing on a beam, or swimming across a lake. There are also extraordinary feats which are based on the old bend bars/lift gates mechanic, a % roll. Tougher challenges, lower rates of success. Mental attributes do not have tests or feats as the author deems there are too many variables to consider.

The optional concentration check for spell-casters is very cool: If you take damage while casting, roll 3d6 + damage taken. If you roll under your casting attribute score (intelligence or wisdom) your spell succeeds, otherwise, not.

One thing HYPERBOREA does take from AD&D is multiple attacks per round in the form of 3/2 at 7th level for fighters. This can improve to 2/2 and 5/2 with weapon/grand mastery (depending on the weapon.) For the uninitiated, 3/2 means two attacks every other round. This was always clumsy in practice, in my experience. Just give them 2 attacks, then 3, and be done with it. Or give them a damage bonus, or both of these things. Forget the fractions.

Some other thoughts...

• Thieves are better at finding secret doors than everybody else... why haven't I seen that before? Thief skills use the d12 and they start out fairly competent. Actually, the d12 gets a lot of love in HYPERBOREA.
• Witches' are very "witchy," they brew things, make effigies, have useful familiars and actually ride brooms! -- eventually.
• Priests get more spells than any other class.
• Clerics use spells like magicians do, meaning, all spells of a level aren't available to them.
• Fighters are fairly lame, as usual, sure they get multiple attacks vs 1 HD foes, so they'll kick-ass if you're only fighting orcs (btw, HYPERBOREAN orcs are unabashedly EVIL, this game gets my vote for that alone.) Cleave/damage bonus/carry-over damage would be better, again, easy to house-rule these types of things.)
• Huntsman, Ranger, and Scout are kind of similar.
• The Runegraver seems more like a concept class that would appear in someone's zine.
• The Shaman is exactly what a Shaman should be. Very well done here.
• Assassins have to jump through one-too-many hoops to assassinate someone. I love assassins, don't gimp them.
• The Warlock is basically the Elf (designed better) if you wanted to play one.  
• Assassins, Huntsmen, and Shamans can harvest venom from slain monsters. Anyone else can try, but these classes are much better at it. Very cool, but it's a static ability that oddly doesn't increase with levels.
• Simple Alchemy rules exist to brew potions, decoctions, and poison, for most spell-casters. Also very cool.
• Tactical combat options exist, though I feel they would mostly be ignored (or abused.) Examples are shield-bash, pommel strike, two-weapon fighting. Some are cool though.

Art is important to me...

Questionable decisions were made with art in this version, which represents a step back. Thankfully, Ian Baggley's awesome sketches still remain, if not front and center, where they belong.

Baggley Barbarian

Baggley Berserker

Baggley Warlock

Baggley Shaman

Baggley Bard (coolest Bard I've ever seen)

The Monsters...

No dragons. Kind of weird, as dragons do exist in sword & sorcery, but... ok, they're easy to add. I understand not wanting D&D's chromatic dragons, but random tables to determine dragon color, breath, HD, and other abilities would have been cool, sort of a "create your own dragon" type of thing. Otherwise, HYPERBOREA has one of the best done bestiary sections out there. Good art, good write-ups, a bit of grit (these are not WoTC/Disney monsters.) Stat blocks have the perfect balance of information. I do, however, have one complaint: There are no random encounter tables. What?!? 

Nice Succubus! (But they don't drain levels or stats, why not?)

Magic Items and spells are a combination of the usual fare with new additions. Recognize this?

Round here we call this a Glaive

HYPERBOREA's a solid game which strikes a nice balance between simplicity and detail. It definitely evokes that sword & sorcery feel and if the I.P. wasn't so closely guarded (which I understand) it could easily contend with OSE as the go-to system for many. All-in-all, an excellent game with some cool ideas that make you wonder, why didn't I think of that? 

And here is the character sheet I made for it. The official character sheet is alright, but you know me... 

HYPERBOREA Character Sheet

  

Deathstalkers II: 700 Pages Of Pure METAL!

At times you crave something wild, something guttural, primal, unbalanced and unapologetic. Something with a bit more crunch and art that doesn't remind you of Nickelodeon.

Then this arrives...

Real quick: HYPERBOREA -- Nice books! Well laid out with cream, non-glossy, very readable pages. I also ordered a copy of Against The Dark Master, not because I was ever into Rolemaster, but Darkmaster looks awesome too.

But more on those games another time (especially HYPERBOREA), as my mind drifted into this dark realm...

Deathstalkers II: The Fantasy Horror Role-Playing Game, by Mike Whitehead and Joe Meyers, (C) 1999-2005.

I've owned this book for perhaps, 10 years? I saw it at the game store several times before finally pulling the trigger. It was a massive, almost 700 page tome that seemed ridiculous, but I had to buy it, if only for its sheer size and NERVE. It has since sat idle in my collection.

Now, Deathstalkers II, is an interesting game. I would describe it as Palladium Fantasy meets D&D 3.0, with a touch of Warhammer. Seriously, imagine if Palladium never happened until Kevin Siembieda played D&D 3.0 and house-ruled the hell out of it. That is exactly, Deathstalkers II.

Like Palladium, there are many races to choose from, and many of these races have sub-races, so lots of choices. There are plenty of Half-Somethings, but no Half-lings...

Races are where you get your hit points and stat generation, in fact, race is legitimately, half your character. And like Palladium, you roll a different number of dice for different stats depending on your race, for example, minotaurs roll 7d6 for strength, 2d6 for intelligence, faeries only roll 1d4 for strength and constitution, etc. You won't see any 18 strength gnomes in this game! Stats use the 3rd Edition bonus progression, and if it wasn't clear already, 3rd Edition is the backbone of this game, e.g., saving throws are: Fort, Reflex, and Will.

NOTE: This is not WoTC/Disney. If you're looking for balance and harmony among your fantasy races, you won't find it here. Perhaps explore the radiant citadel.

Races have some class restrictions, suggested alignments, and just like Palladium, a listed chance for cannibalism, which is just a descriptive stat that implies a gritty game. Most races have 0% chance of cannibalism while orcs and bestial-minotaurs (there are three types of minotaurs) take the crown at 100%, with goblyns and half-demons coming in at 75% and 70% respectively. 

Speaking of those half-demons, they are called the Antithrax. There's only one way an Antithrax comes into existence, and it's not implied like the half-orcs of old. This soulless race lives very bleak lives. The sample Antithrax picture below has hooves and a sword for an arm, but surprisingly, with all of the options in this book, there are no random tables here for rolling up your own unique demonic mutations...

Each race gets something called a Rage-Attack (which is optional) that they can use at the price of temporarily losing Constitution. It reminds me of a Capcom video game ability. For example, the Antithrax can open up a demon-pit of scorching flames around a nearby target doing 4d6 points of damage with no threat of actually igniting the victim. Fueling abilities with your stats, now that's a fascinating concept.

Below: A picture of a West-Lander Gnome. Poor little faerie. Faerie numbers are dwindling in this game world which might have something to do with the fact that eating faerie wings grants nice in-game benefits like granting extra spell castings, gaining 1d10 permanent new hit points, curing diseases, increasing ability scores, etc. You would never see something like this in a mainstream game.

Then we have the classes...

Here is a sample class chart...

And some class art. The art in this book is a cool mixture of pencils and ink. Occasionally, there's a bad piece, but overall, it's pretty damn good.

Characters all start at level 0 and each class gets a certain amount of skill points and a list of preferred skills. They all start with 3 APRs (actions per round.) You get Hit, Parry, Dodge, Initiative, and Damage modifiers, and eventually Feats and Special Abilities. If you want to improve skills or feats before you level-up, you can spend XP to do so -- another interesting concept. Also, non spell-casters can spend XP to gain particular spells. This XP will be spent in the thousands, and, for Legendary Spells, millions!

Multiclassing exists as it does in 3rd Edition D&D, but with limits. Every class has a list of Class Exits, very much like in Warhammer.

There are a shit-ton of skills and feats, some of which are wild, giving you crazy combat benefits, but with a finite number of uses before you have to repurchase the feat, another cool concept. Some stand-out Feats...

• Aggressive Assault (I-X): One use per round, roll your Aggressive Assault damage die (begins at 1d4) and multiply the result by your level, add this number to your normal damage roll. Aggressive Assault X (character levels 16+) has a damage die of 1d100! Limited number of uses before you must reacquire the feat.
• Fate (I-VIII): Allows re-rolls of attacks, saves, skills, etc. Fate VIII (character levels 3+) revives you from death back to perfect health -- one use only. One of the Half-Cat races begins with this feat. ("Do you want to live forever?")
• Mystic Assault (I-X): Similar to Aggressive Assault, but affects spell damage, range, and other properties.

There are interesting languages, a list of multiple offensive slang names for each race (such as Pech for dwarves, Stain for demons, Bull and Cow for minotaurs, Fleshy for humans, Halfbreed for a host of others, etc.) Birth Signs give your character a slight bonus. There are rules for insanity and rules for fame -- the grander your achievements, the higher the price on your head!

Combat is similar to Palladium's system, where-in you have a number of actions per round, spent, depending on what you want to do and what abilities/feats you might want to use. Melee attacks are parried and missile attacks are dodged. When you're out of actions, you can go into submissive defense mode where you can still parry (with limited effectiveness) but lose those actions on your next round, or you can take a mauling and hope your armor protects you, which... it won't. Armor is damage reduction, but not nearly enough. Shields add to your Parry score. There are many combat options if you want to use them.

There are over 500 spells in this book. Some new, some old with a different take. Magic-use is a spell-point system. You have X number of castings per day equal to half your Constitution score (keeping fractions) at 1st level and every level there-after. Some spell effects require spending multiple castings. Power Words & Ingredients reduce this cost -- pretty cool.

There are 5 dense pages of herbs and poisons, equipment lists are equally dense. Speaking of, if you want to be proficient in armor, you need to take the armor proficiency feat, regardless of your class, so you won't be wearing plate-mail for a while. Everyone starts out with fairly basic weapons and equipment and a handful of gold. Weapons are priced in the hundreds of gold pieces, e.g. a longsword is 565 GPs (Gpcs as listed in this game.) and damage is higher than you're used to, 2d6, 3d8, 3d10, 4d10, etc. Armor is priced in the high hundreds and well into the thousands. Everything has an availability score. It's a shame that D&D never used availability scores, there should be no guarantee of finding what you want in any particular town, which might give you reason to travel to the next one.

The game world is called, Arkastapha. The premise is one of lost beauty and a land ravaged by thousands of years of wars with Juggernauts -- ironclad golem-knights brought to life by dark Gods using the souls of the damned in the fires of the Dark Forge, and Demons (called Thraxians, once led by the Deathstalkers -- kind of like arch-demons, now in hibernation.) The usual monsters also exist, some with a new twist, and there are a fair number of them. Basically, think bleakness, scattered kingdoms. Points of light in a broken land. The mythology of it all is covered.

The character sheet. Standard, basic stuff. Functional. Could not find a downloadable version online. You know I'll make my own. It will require Pathfinder level complexity as bonuses come from all different directions...

There's an edge to this game that I find refreshing and mechanics that are innovative. 

Deathstalkers II: 700 pages of pure F*****G METAL!