Another weird fantasy/sci-fi RPG bundle - Hyperborea 3E

[ffutures]

Launching in about an hour, a new edition of a game that has been in previous bundles, set on a dying world and drawing inspiration from all the usual Weird Tales etc. suspects.

Hyperborea 3E

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Hyperborea3E

This new Hyperborea 3E Bundle presents the new 2022 Third Edition of Hyperborea, the sword-and-sorcery FRPG from North Wind Adventures. This vividly dangerous, edge-of-the-world campaign setting takes inspiration from the weird fiction of Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Michael Moorcock, and many others. Capturing the spirit of the original AD&D 1E and John Eric Holmes blue-box D&D rules sets, Hyperborea is compatible with old-school retro-clones such as OSRIC and Swords & Wizardry.

The isolated Land Beyond the North Wind is a flat hexagonal realm hemmed in by the mystical boreas. In the unchanging scarlet radiance of a bloated, dying sun, roiling seas spill eternal over the world's rim. In this land of perpetual decay, heroic cataphracts, pyromancers, runegravers, purloiners, legerdemainists, and sublunary Gnoph-Yikks delve dungeons and ruins, explore frontiers, and plunder gold and treasure.

In the vast geography of D&D retro-clones Hyperborea is, fittingly, an outlier. The game focuses on a pulpish sword-and-sorcery experience, where mighty-thewed heroes and heroines match steel against sorcery as they plunder treasure and magic in a decaying world. Though built in the traditional way (3d6 rolls for the usual six attributes, Fighter-Magician-Cleric-Thief), all player characters are human (no dwarves or elves), from an array of offbeat subclasses, flavorful cultures, and religions drawn from ancient, primeval, and Mythos sources. There's a lot of the Mythos in Hyperborea, befitting its foundational inspiration, the Hyperborean cycle of Clark Ashton Smith.

Hyperborea designer Jeffrey Talanian started his game design career working with no less than Gary Gygax, on the Castle Zagyg line Gygax published through Troll Lord Games under his "Trigee Enterprises" imprint (2005-2008). In 2008 Jeff started North Wind Adventures to publish his own modules such as Charnel Crypt of the Sightless Serpent. In 2012 he published the First Edition of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, and, over the next decade, built out its support line in a sequence of successful crowdfunding campaigns.

We presented the 2017 Second Edition of AS&SH in March 2021. This new Hyperborea 3E Bundle presents the two-volume 3E rulebook (2022), atlas, and introductory adventure from the successful July 2021 Hyperborea 3E Kickstarter (1,678 backers, US$172K). Third Edition reworks character abilities, makes spells easier to acquire, streamlines combat, and adds many races, monsters, magic items, and languages. The layout and artwork are new, and the text has been completely re-edited for clarity. (And all older 2E AS&SH material remains compatible with Third Edition!)

We provide each title complete in .PDF. Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these ebooks have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their devices.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) of this Hyperborea 3E offer goes to the charity designated by Hyperborea designer Jeffrey P. Talanian, the Millstone Wildlife Center. Millstone Wildlife Center provides rehabilitation services for injured or orphaned mammal wildlife in the state of New Hampshire. These services include medical treatment, rehabilitation, and release of mammals brought to the center, as well as educational outreach programs for students of all ages.

The total retail value of the titles in this new Hyperborea 3E Bundle is US$49. Customers who pay just US$12.95 get all five titles in our Hyperborean Collection (retail value $49) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete 333-page Hyperborea 3E Player's Manual and 317-page Referee's Manual (retail price $12 each), plus the free 3E Character Record; the beautiful color Atlas of Hyperborea (retail $5); the introductory 3E adventure The Late Trapper's Lament (retail $10); and, pulled in from our March 2021 Hyperborea 2E Bundle, the Referee's Screen (retail $10).

 

When the second edition was on offer I said "I'm really not in the market for this sort of setting at present, but it does look like you get quite a lot for your money. It looks like it's written as a relatively low level campaign setting - only human characters and the highest level mentioned in the descriptions of the modules is Level 7 - which means that by and large player characters won't be unstoppable killing machines, at least at first. This is probably a good idea for a swords and sorcery campaign, where there needs to be an occasional chance that characters will actually be killed."

I think that this still applies.


I think it's time I ask again if people are finding these posts useful - I get to download freebies if I want them, but if I'm annoying people I can live without.

LATER - Thanks to everyone who commented - it looks like people are finding this stuff useful, so I'll continue.

Comments

[lilfluff]

I find them useful, while most of them aren't bundled I'm interested in it's still handy to be able to keep an eye on what's going on without having to remember to do a weekly check in. Humble Bundle I've got an excuse to check in as part of my regular on hours web browsing because of the occasional tech book bundles. Not so much Bundle of Holding and for a while they're I was learning about bundles I would have been interested in a week or two after they were over.

[original_aj]

I get the emails from them notifying me, and the first thing I do is load up DW to see what you've said about it. Our tastes don't always align but it's certainlky useful to me to see what you're saying since I respect your opinion and you have access to see the content rather than just the sales blurb.

[vincentursus]

It's been a while since I actually bought something based on one of these posts, but they're often interesting to read.

Don't stop them on my account.

[dragoness_e]

Well, I see these announced via James Nicoll's DW too, but he doesn't elaborate on what the heck the Bundle is all about. So, please do keep with the announcements; sometimes I see something I choose to buy.

[jcfiala]

I like hearing what you think of various offers, honestly.

[aota]

I like them. I've bought several of the ones you have pointed out. It is also good to hear your opinion on them too.

[vivdunstan]

I find them helpful and have bought quite a few things after seeing your posts. So thumbs up and thanks from me.