Review & Commentary On The free Bi-Ethnic Characters of Hyperborea Phamplet By Ben Ball For the Hyperborea Rpg

 When it comes to the Hyperborea Rpg, I've been lacking in cohesion with the OSR game itself. And over the last couple of days I find myself drifting back to her. Why?! The most recent reason is the newst download from that creative ball of OSR Sword & Sorcery fire Ben Ball. If you haven't heard of Ben it's becasuse he mostly stays to the background even though he's the author of  'Beneath The Comet'. Among the Hyperborea rpg community Ben is well known. And one of Ben Ball's most recent rpg additions to Hyperborea is the free Bi-Ethnic Characters of Hyperborea.

For the Hyperborea rpg and setting this is a very important addition to the game of Sword & Sorcery. Why? Because of the fact that it's now possible to have more customized racial options to the Hyperborea rpg game. 
And this is a big part of the setting. While 'Old Earth' withered away the human race crossed over to Hyperborea after the Green Death. This makes it possible to add in unique pocket cultures to the expansive Hyperborean setting and even to add even more options for player's PC's. 
Bi-Ethnic Characters of Hyperborea is a nice little short and sweet additon that allows the DM to have more options for NPC's. Mixing & matching human types might not seem like a big deal. When you've got players who are constantly asking what happened to Ixian group that migrated to area 'C' of Hyperborea it's nice to have options. 
The set up here in Bi-Ethnic Characters of Hyperborea is simple you have several human style racial mixatures that allow one to have other genetic variations  such as hair, eye, etc colour. Doesn't seem like much but it adds a world of difference when you've got Roman, Keltic, etc. all interacting on a huge floating disk in space. Having additional PC & NPC races for PC's is a Lovecraftian god sent and one that comes as a welcome. 

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