Saturday, July 5, 2014

Slicing Deeper Into The Free OSR Source book Swords of Athanor As Fodder For The Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea Rpg


Savage Swords of Athanor is a science fantasy campaign setting and rules supplement for Swords and Wizardry. Athanor is a dying world with crumbling ruins, lost technology, dinosaurs, and ancient slumbering evil. Savage Swords of Athanor includes: new character class (the Rogue); modified spell lists and rules for magical mishaps; new races; a wilderness map, encounter charts, and key; and new monsters and items. This supplement includes material presented in the Savage Swords of Athanor blog, compiled, cleaned up and expanded as well as new material.
Grab Your Copy Right Over
HERE
Right under the archive material is the sourcebook for download.

I've been looking into running a possible sword and planet setting made for the sword and sorcery retroclone Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea. There have been several times when I've used the game as a game engine to run several old school Mars campaign adventures. Today, I looked into the writings of Doug Easterly, namely his Savage Swords of Athanor setting. A classic old school sword and planet setting from back in 2009 and I was thinking how fantastic this free setting would work with Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea as an rpg engine. The setting is well done, concise, and easy to convert to your favorite retroclone!
 There is a ton of material that can easily be adapted to the AS&SH, this includes new races, spells, items, etc. all in the traditional sword and planet vein with a pulp spin. Given the setting's sword and planet spin the book is a bit humanoid heavy which makes it a perfect resource for AS&SH.
Savage Swords of Athanor

The fact that its available free is an added bonus and it was originally intended as an addition for Swords and Wizardry. The author does a nice job of setting out the material and keeping the source book moving. There's plenty of trouble for PC's to get into with this setting and a campaign might a short three or four session affair could last for years.
 The Swords of Athanor book  fits very well with the variety of  PC options for AS&SH and there are number of ways that this might be played. With a bit of work a teleport gate from Hyperborea might drop a party right into the middle of the setting. The AS&SH boxed game could be used to run the complete Swords setting easily. There could be a two way system of gates from Hyperborea to Athanor and perhaps beyond.
There are even counters for Anathor and a ton of maps for even more expanded play on the blog . And while the charm of Hyperborea is its setting. The expansion of even more OSR action is one of my favorite appeals for the game. Grab a copy, some friends, your AS&SH box set and let's make Athanor another option for your old school sword and sorcery games. One of my favorite parts? The inclusion of dinosaurs for that added bite for your games! 

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