Commentary On The Free OSR Resource Ben Ball's Hyperborean Encounter Tables! For The Astonishing Swordsmen of Hyperborea & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Rpg & Your Old School Campaigns

I'm always looking for new resources for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, its a sickness & illness with me. That pulpy edge that helps to define a game of AS&SH with monsters & the overall sword & sorcery weirdness of the game. Ben Ball is one of the prolific & solid writer/designer fans of the AS&SH line. He's come up with a dangerous set of encounter tables that I love over on the OD&D forums.

"Ever wanted to let your players just hex crawl all over Hyperborea? Here are the tools you've been lacking. Customized encounter tables for every region, city, and body of water listed in the gazetteer. These suckers have it all: Monsters of every kind. Weather. Natural disasters. Human encounters from individual NPCs to pilgrims and merchants to armed patrols to rival adventuring parties. THE DREADED CELESTIAL PHENOMENA (now with new horrors like "Fortean Fall", "Voice of Doom", "Seas Turned to Blood", and "White Death"). Hundreds of different possible encounters in every region!



All of the encounters fit the overall weirdness of Hyperborea with its monster infested lands & alien laden edges. The sword & sorcery themes mixed with that 'Weird Tales' aesthetic is each encounter just waiting for the players to stumble on them.
"For the most part the tables are weighted toward encounters with animals, natural phenomena, and humans - in keeping with the popular perception of what "sword & sorcery" means - but some regions are a lot more monster-ridden than others: The Aeries are crawling with mythical beasts, Sharath is thick with aliens and the undead, and if you go to Thaumagorga's Teeth, you just might meet a bunch of daemons. Keep a sharp eye out for my unique sense of "humor" too ("Tornadoes in a village always strike the lowest quality housing first." - hahaha I kill me)."



The encounters material is balanced but in a very twisted way reflected not only the author/designer's humor but the fickle nature of Hyperborea itself. There's also the fact that this set of encounters reflects my own pulpy science fantasy view of Hyperborea seen through the lens of Weird Tales. Seems as if around every corner is another crashed spacecraft or set of weirdos trying to put forward their own alien agenda or other.

Grab The Hyperborean Encounter Tables! HERE