Campaign Construction Using OSR Resources With The Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Rpg System

Some of the material that Greg Gorgonmilk has been posting on G+ has me thinking & debating with my players & co dungeon masters about science fantasy especially the concepts of mixing sword and sorcery with planetary science fantasy. This was something that's fairly commonplace within games such as Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea.But this conceit also lurks in other OSR systems especially in the backgrounds of certain Lamentations of the Flame Princess resources. So one of my players wanted to know why we weren't using my Warlord of the Outer Worlds campaign. Well it was made for XYZ OSR retroclone system. So port it over Eric. Well there's lots of work that needs to be done to it. And that's when we got down to business. Here's what we brought to the table and why.
 Set Up & OSR Construction
So right off the bat is the fact that we needed a base system and resource that could easily be downloaded and used by the players ie something that's free and everyone likes. Hulks and Horrors has some great resources for generating hulks, wrecks, ruins and monsters. The game is also free and easily obtainable.

1. There are some solid star ship generation rules in H&H and the game's portability over to D&D based games is a huge strength in the players opinions. 
2. Decent PC generation options including the Surveyor's Guild 
3. Its free for download

Carcosa also reared its head during the conversation today because of several different resources within its pages. Carcosa was brought up by the players and they wanted it included ASAP.

1. The Sorcerer class is one thing that we decided on including for the NPC's 
2. A huge swath of random robots, energy weapons generation and alien technology tables also a must. 
3. The random Lovecraftian spawn tables to keep things unexpected and decidedly deadly. 
4. The icky non PC rituals and rites because they bug the hell out of the some gamers(apparently not these)
   This is also a really excellent hex based resource based on Lovecraft with a dark evocative core that captures the struggles of a wicked based planetary setting. This is an adult based product so consider yourself warned.

 Narcosa has to be included in there because of the sheer weirdness factor and the fact that its an unofficial add on for Carcosa and works well with the rest of the material that we were planning. Inter solar system drug smugglers and wizards are a must. The sheer volume of creativity of Narcosa is in because of its connections to the other products on the table.  This is especially true of Lusus Naturae

from Neoplastic Press. Narcosa could simply dismissed as another sexual organ monster fest which misses a few points. This book has one of the best random monster generators going and these monsters would all port very easily to any OSR game. These are both adult based products and professionally done so very much worth your time.

 They all easily work with three other books in the mix here Bandits and Battle Cruisers is one of my all time favorite OSR sci fi books and has tons of resources for a science fantasy based game. And to augment the OSR vibe is Warriors of the Red Planet which has some great monsters, tech, huge swaths of random tables for ruins and much more.

 

Finally to round out this whole buffet of OSR goodness is the Star Ship From Hell. You plug this product into the rpg system you want to use. The Starship from Hell is a one to one system for generating a star ship wreck or star ship adventure location from the ground up. You provide the rpg system so this makes it easy to use with your favorite OSR engine.

Plugging These OSR Resources Into The Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Rpg System

  Not all of Earth's extra solar terra-formed moonlets  are still within the reach of those who live in the shadow of Jupiter. Some have been borne away by the Borea Winds and reside within the ancient skies of Hyperborea. Dead sky ships hang in ever decaying orbits and many wizards hunger for the arcane secrets and techno sorcery artifacts that are aboard these vessels.  Adventurers and fools from Hyperborea seek to trod in these places. But the damned do not give up their secrets willingly. For there are  things waiting  in the darkness hungry, dangerous and eternal.

“The skies are haunted by that which it were madness to know; and strange abominations pass evermore between earth and moon and athwart the galaxies. Unnamable things have come to us in alien horror and will come again.”
― Clark Ashton Smith
But on the surfaces of these moonlets of the infernal far worse alien things wait and watch Once every seventy years they become visible in the skies of Hyperborea. Wizards bide their time and send only their strongest warriors, most able bodied apprentices, and stout fools to explore these products of almost god like Ancients  There are ruins and palaces that have been frozen in time for centuries as the forbidden magicks that preserve them were used  as war came to the shores of these worldlets. Sometimes these fools and outlaws come back baring prizes beyond the ken of man, sometimes these brave men and women come back 'changed' and 'altered' and sometimes they don't comeback at all.

More To Come Soon.