On a side note, I’ve personally pledged for the print releases so we’ll get to take a deep dive into them when they arrive.
About the project:
The premier swords, sorcery, and weird science-fantasy RPG is back in an incredible two-volume hardback set! HYPERBOREA 3E is the newest edition of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. The game has been revised, reorganized, and reassembled, making this the finest edition to date, though retaining our philosophy of backwards compatibility.
HYPERBOREA is a role-playing game of swords, sorcery, and weird science-fantasy. It is played with paper, pencil, dice, and imagination. Participants include a referee and one or more players. The referee prepares and presents the adventure material (circumstances, challenges, quests, mysteries, etc.), and the players create player characters (PCs), including fighters, magicians, clerics, and thieves.
The heroes of a HYPERBOREA game delve dungeons filled with horrifying monsters, lethal traps, and bewildering puzzles; they explore savage wilderness frontiers and dangerous borderlands; they probe ancient ruins and investigate cursed tombs; they match steel against sorcery and sorcery against steel; and they plunder for gold, gems, and magical treasure.
Just as we did with the Second Edition of the game, subtle improvements have been made to every facet of the game: clarifications, revisions, ambiguities resolved, expansions, simplifications, and more. Each HYPERBOREA 3E volume has been painstakingly edited by George Sedgwick. Here are some of the highlights:
- New and revised class abilities for several character classes.
- Reworked monk class.
- Introducing the fell paladin, a Lawful Evil variant of the paladin.
- 12 new playable character races (Anglo-Saxon, Carolingian Frank, Esquimaux-Ixian, Greek, Lapp, Lemurian, Moor, Mu, Oon, Roman, Tlingit, Yakut). Except for the Franks, all have been mentioned in the previous editions.
- Spells less restrictive to acquire (e.g., a magician can copy a fireball spell from a pyromancer’s spell book).
- More languages.
- More spells.
- More monsters (including new illustrations by Johnathan Bingham, Skye Talanian, and Mike Tenebrae).
- More magic items.
- Streamlined combat system (runs more smoothly and quickly, but just as deadly).
All that being said, the game remains approximately 95% compatible with the previous two editions. The books will also feature beautiful new layout, fonts, and improved organization and functionality.
- Tales of Argosa: Caverns of Shennog Reviewed - Apr 17, 2025
- Castles & Crusades Reforged: Monsters & Treasure Reviewed - Apr 16, 2025
- Pathfinder NPC Core Reviewed - Apr 15, 2025
