Ordered ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN & SORCERERS of HYPERBOREA

The above photo worked  on my little Lovecraftian heart. 
 Go here and take a look
HERE
For some months I've been contemplating this game. 

I'm both a Robert Howard and Lovecraft fiend so this game appears right up my alley.
So I've been saving for some months to get this one and I'm all in for the print edition of this one. 

According to the introduction on their website : 

ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN & SORCERERS of HYPERBOREA™ is sword-and-sorcery role-playing at its pinnacle. Play an Amazon fighter, Atlantean magician, Esquimaux shaman, Hyperborean warlock, Ixian necromancer, Keltic barbarian, Kimmerian cataphract, Pictish thief, Viking berserker, or one of many other possibilities.

I love box sets and this one's content's sound really nice. 

Product Format: 8 x 10 x 2.5-inch boxed set that includes a 252-page, 7 x 8.5-inch, spiral-bound Players’ Manual; 236-page, 7 x 8.5-inch, spiral-bound Referee’s Manual; a 22 x 28-inch poster map of Hyperborea, 6 character sheets, and 6 polyhedral dice.

This one sounds hefty and the play by play that I've read puts this game squarely in my sights. I love retroclones and I came out to ask if this one was compatible with the retroclones currently on the market? The answer I got back was a solid yes. 

The other thing that convinced me that this one might be a solid investiment was the contents of the player's hand book. 

Here you go. 

• Introduction (brief introduction to game)
• Dice Conventions (how to use dice)
• Character Creation (steps to creating a character)
• Attributes (strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, charisma)
• Races (Common, Amazon, Atlantean, Esquimaux, Hyperborean, Ixian, Kelt, Kimmerian, Kimmeri-Kelt, Pict, Pict Half-Blood, Viking)
• Physique (height, weight, age determination, etc.)
• Classes (fighter, magician, cleric, thief)
• Subclasses (Fighter) (barbarian, berserker, cataphract, paladin, ranger, warlock)
• Subclasses (Magician) (illusionist, necromancer, pyromancer, witch)
• Subclasses (Cleric) (druid, monk, priest, shaman)
• Subclasses (Thief) (assassin, bard, legerdemainist, scout)
• Alignment (Law / Civilization vs. Chaos / Barbarism; Lawful Good, Lawful Evil, Chaotic Good, Chaotic Evil, Neutrality)
• Other Statistics (armour class, fighting ability, hit dice, hit points, movement, saving throw)
• Background (secondary skills, languages)
• Weapon Skills (favoured weapons, adding new weapon skills, weapon mastery, melee attack rate / missile rate of fire)
• Money (gold, electrum, silver, copper; exchange rates; starting gold)
• Equipment (armour, shields, melee weapons, missile weapons, general equipment, provisions, religious items, clothing, livestock, tack and harness, vehicles, services)
• Spells (starting spells, acquiring spells, spell memorization, spell casting)
• Spell Tables (seven disciplines of magic: magician, cleric, druid, illusionist, necromancer, pyromancer, witch)
• Spells A–Z (over 400 spells)
• Adventure (adventuring party, hirelings, henchmen, loyalty and morale, base of operations, adventure preparation, adventure actions and procedures, non-standard action resolution, etc.)
• Time (10-second round, 10-minute turn)
• Movement (dungeon movement, wilderness movement, transportation methods, getting lost, encumbrance, etc.)
• The Encounter (encountering beasts, monsters, and men; reaction and evasion rules)
• Combat (melee, missiles, magic, movement; attack roll, combat matrix, attack modifiers, combat steps, action resolution, morale)
• Combat Actions (charge, flaming oil, holy oil / water, magic, melee, missiles, mounted combat, movement, turn undead, unarmed combat)
• Advanced Combat (Optional) (22 advanced combat actions, critical hits)
• Saving Throw (saving throws, spell resistance, item saving throws)
• Damage (wounds, death and dying, healing, falling damage)
• Special Damage (energy drain, lycanthropy, madness, poison)
• Experience Points (gaining XP, gaining levels of experience)
• Aerial Combat (rules for aerial melee, missile, spell casting, etc., covering a variety of flight methods)
• Waterborne Expeditions (vessels, weather, wind, icebergs, whirlpools, getting lost at sea, and sea encounters; naval combat is discussed, including rules for catapults, ballistas, grappling, oar shearing, and ship repair; underwater combat)
• Castles and Strongholds (castle and stronghold construction, costs, personnel, resources, and of course: the angry villager!)
• Warfare and Siege (rules for handling mass combat using a calculator system that accounts for a variety of circumstances from troop types, to locations, to PC / NPC involvement, siege weaponry, troop movements, provisions, etc.)
• Cooperative Gaming (closing advice for all participants of the game)
  
  I heard a metric ton of advice from friends saying that the players book was only 10.00 for the pdf but call me old fashioned but I want a solid dead tree edition of a book. Seriously, there have been winter's here where the power has gone down and lap tops, cell phones, tablets, etc are all useless.
  A flashlight, some glow in the dark dice, and a cup of tea then its game on.
  While I do think that the 'official game world' looks fantastic I've got my own campaign world looking right at me.
  
  Look for a unboxing photos to follow in two weeks! So looking forward for this one and don't think I've forgotten about Crypts and Things as well here. More on that later!
  
  I'd like to have gotten the adventures
  
  

And this one but money is a wee bit tight right at the moment. So reviews are going to have to wait a bit yet.