Cool new stuff: 13th Age Bestiary 2, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2E, Symbaroum: The Witch Hammer and Conan RPG

A number of new games have started filling my "to be read" shelf. If you didn't know about the following, here's a head's up:

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2nd Edition

My print copy arrived last week, and after unpacking the monster I have to say it's a really impressive package. The original boxed set was very nice and retro, but this beast will hold it's own at the table, clocking in at an impressive 608 pages with a full color map insert. Everything you liked about the 1st edition --plus a lot more-- can be found within, but this time in a weighty tome that almost dwarfs Zweihander in size. Almost. I'm keeping the two together on the shelf right now, they make Hero System 6th look like a slim economy system when placed next to each other.

Symbaroum-Karvosti: The Witch Hammer

Symbaroum is a fascinating Swedish fantasy RPG in the vein of "simple rules, dark classic fantasy" with some impressive art and design. The second major campaign book is now out, and honestly, this is one of the few "packaged world setting" books I will likely run exactly as presented....one day, when I get around to it. Like the other tomes, this one is a mix of campaign setting content and modules, written in a sort of open-world style that I really enjoy.

If you're on the fence about Symbaroum, I'd liken it to a cross between Zweihander, Beyond the Wall, and Grim Dawn, but with better art design and a slick, modern system.

13th Age Bestiary 2

13th Age remains my favorite D&D alternative. When I am not running a D&D 5E campaign it is probably because I am running a 13th Age campaign. The new Bestiary 2 only enourages such campaigning because it is chock full of amazing monster adaptations and evocative ideas for your own games. Like the first Bestiary, but even cooler.

Conan: Adventures in an Age Undeamed Of RPG

I hardly feel like this one needs pimping, but now that I have a physical copy in hand and have had some time to explore it, I feel compelled to offer my support for a very well designed and researched RPG. Conan was my primary gateway in to fantasy fiction and gaming, right behind Tolkien, and evidence of Howard's (and Carter, de Camp, Nyberg, Wagner, etc.) influence in my own gaming and fiction preferences is obvious. I also (fair disclosure) wrote some books for the Mongoose edition....so seeing Modiphius make such a fine book is really fantastic, and I can't wait to give this iteration a spin.

I had a chance in 2005 to write for Mongoose. I did Tales of the Black Kingdoms, and the second and third books in the Messantia Adventures set. Some of my Black Kingdoms content somehow showed up in their Return to the Road of Kings release, too. Writing for Mongoose was an interesting experience.....but the  pay was not bad, honestly. Tales was commissioned based on a book idea I pitched (I was quite happy to dive in to it). Messantia Adventures was a request....the author dropped from the project (or moved to another) after writing book one, and so I was asked to write the system material (book 2) and adventure (book 3). It was....tough, I'll put it that way...as I hated what he had done in book 1 (it had little that I felt was distinctly genre-appropriate, and was not written to be engaging), and disliked what was required of book 2. Writing social combat rules that were instructed to be in volume 2 when I felt they were not appropriate for Conan as a genre was hard, but I had a lot of fun working up the adventure in book 3. The final boxed set had a great set of cards, some not bad art, but as I recall some map errors that only lamp-shaded the problems Mongoose had with product quality, errata and typos. Tales had issues too, albeit less so than Messantia....odd typos, some changes to the adventure I didn't really follow, but overall wasn't that bad. Plus it had one of the best covers in the line, I felt.

OHMAGERD Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers 2nd Edition PDF Just Arrived

Just discovered an email with my complimentary code for the PDF of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2nd Edition.....which means, at last, that the hard cover is not too far away!!!

Verrrry excited for this. Will definitely be running a campaign in the ASSH2E rules soon......

If you don't have it yet and want the PDF, looks like it's on sale for $12.75 right now. At 622 pages it's a steal! If you stake your corner of the OSR on AD&D 1E and Robert E. Howard's influence on gaming, then ASSH really is a must-have.

ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN & SORCERERS OF HYPERBOREA 2nd Edition Kickstarter

It's in the wild! The Kickstarter to produce the hardcover 2nd edition of this amazing pseudo-retro-clone is now available. If you're wondering what it is, AS&SH is a rule set derived from AD&D 1E, with some interesting rules modifications for clarity and efficiency similar to the way Swords & Wizardry tweaked OD&D, making for an experience both familiar and new. It's core conceit is a "What if Gygax had based AD&D on all the non-Tolkien fantasy in the Appendix N" sort of approach, and the result is a great rule system with an elegant core setting in Hyperborea that is easy for GMs to flesh out. The modules for this game have all been great as well, and the entire game fits my own style of gaming really well.

Converting AS&SH's Rats in the Walls to 13th Age

Rats in the Walls for 13^th Age

In thinking about ways to use the modules for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea I realized I could—assuming that my group won’t experiment with a cool OSR ruleset—just convert the modules to some other system that holds everyone’s interest. 13^th Age has been bandied about, so hey, why not?

Rats in the Walls is a short introductory module published by North Wind Adventures. You can get it here, The details below provide specific necessary mechanical conversions of monsters to 13^th Age to run the module for a party of 4-5 level 1 PCs.

Alternatively, this provides a range of entertaining giant and possessed rat stats for any old low-level 13th Age game you'd like to drop them in!

Kiloplo Vheez

Level  2 Caster [humanoid-hyperborean]

Initiative +4

AC 18; PD 13; MD 15; HP 36

Battle Axe +7  vs. AC ; 9 damage

Burning Hands +6 vs. PD (all adjacent and engaged foes); 7 fire damage

Sleep  +7 vs. MD (up to 75 HP of nearby enemies targeted); target falls unconscious (Save 16+ ends)

Web +7 vs. PD (up to 3 nearby targets); each target is immobilized (save 16+ ends)

Giant Rat Mooks

Level  0 Vermin [animal]

Initiative +5

AC 16; PD 14; MD 10; HP 5

Filthy Gnawing Attack +5  vs. AC ; 3 damage; on 16+ target must make a save vs. disease (save 11+) or succumb to wasting disease; each day make a new save; two saves and the PC recovers. Four failures and the PC dies of the disease; take a cumulative -1 modifier to attacks and skill checks for each failure).

Big Boss Rat

Level  1 Vermin [animal]

Initiative +5

AC 17; PD 15; MD 11; HP 27

Filthy Gnawing Attack +6  vs. AC ; 5 damage; on 16+ target must make a save vs. disease (save 11+) or succumb to wasting disease; each day make a new save; two saves and the PC recovers. Four failures and the PC dies of the disease; take a cumulative -1 modifier to attacks and skill checks for each failure).

Daemon Rat

Level 3 Vermin [fiend]

Initiative +6

AC 19; PD 17; MD 16; HP 95

Disease-Ridden Bite +8 vs. AC; 21 damage; on 16+ target must make a save vs. disease (save 15+) or succumb to wasting disease; each day make a new save; two saves and the PC recovers. Four failures and the PC dies of the disease; take a cumulative -1 modifier to attacks and skill checks for each failure).

Rat Summoning Each round roll a D6. If you roll equal to or under the Escalation Die number then 1D6 giant rat mooks arrive to assist the daemon rat.

Other Notes on converting the module:

Skeleton Halberdiers

Use the Skeleton Warriors from 13th Age, but one of them has a +1 Halberd (large weapon that deals 7 damage).

Magic items Notes

Most magic items in the module can be used as-is (such as the potion of healing and potion of cure disease). A potion of invisibility grants the imbiber invisibility for 1 hour, but he is revealed the moment he attacks or casts a spell.

Difficulty Class Notes:

Anytime an extraordinary feat of strength or other action is called for, the GM can assume a DC 15 for the challenge to succeed. It is suggested that to stick to old school tradition that the GM grant a win in cases where keen investigation/observation on the part of the PCs would reveal secrets and clues without needing a roll.