After being intrigued by the 2nd Edition, but put off due to a couple of bad sessions, I am so glad I bit the bullet and gave the 3E a shot. It's polished and reformatted in some spots, all to the benefit of the book as a whole. I especially liked the way they depicted the races and classes this time, with portrait/bust like representations for each one, giving the player an inspirational visual. Additionally, the 2-Phase combat has been streamlined into one phase, and works so much better.

In my humble opinion, this is the perfect balance between Old-School sensibilities and modern presentation, but skewing heavily into the 'old school' vein, which is a plus for me.

Fantastic Book!

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/12/review-hyperborea-players-manual.html

With the new 3rd Edition, we have some changes. First, the game is now simply called "HYPERBOREA" and not "Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 3rd Edition." Secondly, the Player's Manual and the Referee's Manual are now separate books. Much like the 1st Edition was. Only this time, they are full hardcover books.

HYPERBOREA Player's Manual

PDF and Hardcover. 324 pages. Color cover, black & white art with full color art pages.

For my review, I am going to be considering the hardcover from the Kickstarter and the PDFs from DriveThruRPG.

The book starts with the credits, acknowledgments, and dedication to John Eric Holmes, the author/editor of the "Holmes" Basic edition.

Chapter 1: Introduction this covers what this game is and what RPGs in general are. This is important and worth a read since it sets the stage for what sort of sub-genre this game covers, "swords, sorcery, and weird science-fantasy." The classics of Swords and Sorcery are covered here briefly and how they add to the feeling of this game. This is pure Howard, Lovecraft, and Smith.

Chapter 2: Character Generation covers character creation. This chapter is brief covering of what you can do with the five chapters. This also has a listing of the common "facts" known to every character. There is a section on leveling up.

Chapter 3: Statistics or the "rolling up characters" chapter. The six recognizable methods are presented here. The most common of course is Method III; roll 4d6 drop the lowest. We also have the same six attributes we have always had.

Each class has a "Fighting Ability" (FA) and a "Casting Ability" (CA) which relates to attacks. So yes, even magicians can get a little better in combat as they go up in level. It's a great little shorthand and works great. So a 4th level Fighter has a fighting ability of 4. A 4th level magician still only has a fighting ability of 1 and a cleric 3 and thief 3. Subclasses can and do vary.

AC is descending (like old school games), BUT with the Fighting Ability stat it could be converted to an ascending AC easily.

Chapter 4: Classes We still have our Basic Four; Fighter, Magician, Cleric, and Theif. Each also gets a number of subclasses. Fighters get Barbarian, Berserker, Cataphract, Huntsman, Paladin, Ranger, and Warlock. The Magician has Cryomancer, Illusionist, Necromancer, Pyromancer, and Witch. The Cleric has the Druid, Monk, Priest, Runegraver, and Shaman. Finally, the Thief has the Assassin, Bard, Legerdemainist, Purloiner, and Scout.

Each subclass is very much like its parent classes with some changes. The classes look pretty well balanced.

Chapter 5: Background This covers all the things about the character that "happened" before they were characters.

Races are dealt with first. They include Amazons, Atlanteans, Esquimaux, Hyperboreans, Ixians, Kelts, Kimmerians, Lemurians, Picts, and Vikings along with the catch-all "Common" race of man. No elves or dwarves here. Physique is also covered.

Alignment is a simpler affair of Lawful Good, Lawful Evil, Chaotic Good, Chaotic Evil, and Neutral.

Along with race, there are various languages the characters can learn/know. There are also gods here, an interesting mix of Greek, Lovecraftian, Norse, and Smith gods.

There are background skills and weapon skills. Though I misread "charcoaler" as "chocolatier," and now I want a character with this background.

Chapter 6: Equipment Or the "let's go shopping" chapter. If you missed the "to hit modifiers vs. armor types/AC" in AD&D then I have a treat for you. Weapons here are more detailed than they were in previous editions of HYPERBOREA; or at least more detailed than my memory of the older editions. Just checked, this one is much more detailed.

Chapter 7: Sorcery This is our spell chapter but it also covers alchemy. Spells are split up by character class. Spells are limit to 6th level since classes are all limited to 12 levels. Spell descriptions are all alphabetical. This covers about 75 pages.
Chapter 8: Adventure. This chapter improves over the previous editions. It covers all sorts of adventure topics like hirelings and henchmen, climbing, doors, nonstandard actions, time and movement.

Chapter 9: Combat. All sorts of combat topics are covered. Critical hits, unarmed combat, mounted combat and more. Damage and madness are also covered. The madness section is small and not really designed to mimic the real world.

Appendix A: Name Generator. Pretty useful, really, to get the right feel of the game. Afterall "Bob the Barbarian" isn't going to cut it here.

Appendix B: Lordship and Strongholds. What each class and subclass gains as a Lord or Lady of their chosen strongholds. There is a great section on creating strongholds as well.

Appendix C: Cooperative Gaming. This covers how well to play in a group.

Appendix D: OGL Statement. This is our OGL statement.

These appendices (with the exception of D) are all new.

There is also a great index.

So I will admit I was unsure about backing the 3rd Edition of HYPERBOREA. I have the 1st and 2nd Editions and they have served me well over the last few years. This edition brings enough new material to the table that it really is the definitive version of the game.

The leatherette covers are really nice and I am happy I waited for it. Since the Player's and Ref's books are now separate, I could, if I wanted, pick up another Player's book.

The art is great. There are some reused pieces and still plenty of new ones. It uses the art well and helps set the tone of the game.

This is my absolute favorite OSR game, as well as a top game overall for me and I am happy to celebrate getting my physical copies of 3rd edition in the mail with a written review. 10/10 would get eaten by radioactive Viking zombies again.

Overall I love the clarity of the rules and thoughtfulness of their presentation, the newly added art is a huge upgrade, and the classes and setting are absolutely amazing. These are the rules I want to play classic modules with, and the experience at the table is simply perfect. The creator's depth of knowledge of Sword & Sorcery fiction, and its deep integration into the setting, is seriously impressive.

A few things that jump out to me from the chapters in this book:

Statistics

• I really like the little tweaks to smooth out character attributes. A high score still grants access to incredible capabilities, but players are not kneecapped by mediocre scores. The system of tests and extraordinary feats for covering action outside of combat is smooth and easy to learn. All the impacts attributes have on gameplay are meaningful and add the right level of detail for me.

Classes

• There are 26 classes in the game, and I want to try every class, which is really rare for me - even the Bard, probably. The overall approach to class design is just awesome and every class fills its own unique role with cool abilities. The power level of this game is really tightly lined up to its Sword & Sorcery ideals and every class gets to be powerful and badass without getting on the train to silly town.

Background

• I will say that I found the presentation here around race (and the related concepts like half-blood, etc.) to be a jarring vibe at first. Reading on though, this is one of the most imaginative, diverse, and complex settings that I for one have played with. Every culture bears spending a good amount of time reading up on here and maybe Wikipedia as well. In that sense, be aware that there is a lot of nuance and complexity here related to the setting and material in the Referee's book and it might be good to ease into the amount of information you are in for here. Also beware, this section is a gateway drug to get players hooked on mythology, medieval history, and Sword & Sorcery fiction.

Equipment

• Whoever decided to include all the drawings of the weapons is a genius. This section made me 8 years old again just for a moment and that was worth the price right there. An example of the small touches in this book that add up to one of my favorite experiences ever.

Sorcery

• I love the individual spell lists for the casting classes - they really give every class its own flavor and role. The spells themselves are selected with care and are awesome without being out of control for Referees and Players to handle.

Adventure

• I finally fully understand how to use hirelings and henchmen after reading these rules. The layout and presentation of the rules is crystal clear and delivers OSR concepts in a fresh and very easy to learn package. Absolute best rules presentation of any game that I have.

Combat

• The advanced combat options are all inspired and do just the right amount to create depth to combat and make martial classes interesting without bogging down the speed of the game or interfering with compatibility when playing old modules. The combat in this game is so, so good. I happen to really like the combat matrix and descending AC so I am somewhat biased there.

2nd Edition versus 3rd Edition

• I made the decision to upgrade from a physical copy of 2nd Edition to a physical + pdf set for 3rd Edition. The rewrite of the Monk class, plus the other more minor tweaks are certainly good, but the added art and update to the presentation by splitting to two books put it over the top for me. This feels like the final version of one of my favorite games of all time

Good clean awesome classic fantasy RPG juice.

If you like OSR games, or your tired of DND5E games that are filled with nothing but 2 hour long combats with immortal player characters this is your jam right here.

My personal favorite part of this system is the subclasses available. Besides just being a fighter you can be a Berserker or a catapracht. Each one of them plays and feels differently without making the core clase (IE just a fighter) weaker. each of them provide there own seperate play experience.

Great setting and art as well. All around great game.

I've always liked AD&D, but strongly disliked how messy and disorganized it is. For me, HYPERBOREA is the perfect answer for that. Beatiful books, extremely well-organized and easy to use. There are lots of options and crunchy bits you can use or treat as optional. It has a fantastic default setting, but is integrated loosely enough that it doesn't feel weird or cumbersome to use this system outside of the world of HYPERBOREA. This will be my system of choice for enjoying the dozens of classic AD&D modules I own with my friends. Additionally, the HYPERBOREA setting is so well-presented and flavorful that I am certain we will be enjoying adventures there as well!

The art, layout, and writing are all top-notch. The author has a distinctive voice, and things are described with a flavor that we don't normally see. The author's attention to detail and passion for this project are readily apparent in the pages of this book.

I'm a notorious house-ruler, and normally I see dozens of things I want to modify when I'm reading a rules system, but there is "surprizingly" little I would want to change here. One notable exception would be that I prefer ascending armor class. Even though the option is not offered explicitly, I appreciate how easy it is to simply use the Fighting Ability as an attack bonus and convert AC values to an ascending AC system. It feels as if the author anticipated some people would want to do that and made it as frictionless as possible to do so. I feel a great sense of relief that I can finally stop writing house rules and custom systems to satisfy my preferences, and get on with the actual gaming!

If you are looking to enjoy an AD&D-like experience in 2022 and beyond, whether it be with classic adventure modules, homebrew content, or the excellently presented HYPERBOREA setting and adventures, I don't think there is anything out there that could hold a candle to the HYPERBOREA rules set.

This game is amazing and is by far my favorite OSR game. The setting is just incredible and the work the creator did to give this world such a unique feel is astounding.

Here is a review I did for this game. https://youtu.be/gG40lO9nmp8

Thanks!

I've always been a huge of Hyperborea's world and take on the AD&D ruleset, but was really put off by some of the art and layout decisions of the 2nd edition. This new edition addresses all my issues however, and I couldn't be happier with new art and the rearranging of the old. Very exciting to flip through cover to cover now!

Besides the art though, this will probably be my OSR game of choice for a variety of reasons: Humancentric setting; tons of cool classes; interesting armor, weapons, items, and spells; and tiny combat tweaks I really enjoy (like larger weapons striking first despite initiative). Most importantly though, the ease and speed of rolling up characters thanks to a quick reference of all the class's minimum stat requirements and optimized equipment packages for each class.

With a million B/X Clones to choose from, it's nice having a solid AD&D contender in the mix as well!