Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea! An epic OSR PbP Campaign

About the adventure

The heroes of a HYPERBOREA game delve dungeons filled with horrifying monsters, lethal traps, and bewildering puzzles; they explore savage wilderness frontiers and dangerous borderlands; they probe ancient ruins and investigate cursed tombs; they match steel against sorcery and sorcery against steel; and they plunder for gold, gems, and magical treasure. HYPERBOREA is a “flat earth” realm hemmed in by the mystical boreas (“North Wind”), and under the scarlet light of a bloated, dying sun, its roiling seas spill eternal over the world’s rim. This world is in a perpetual state of decay and is populated by disharmonious men and women, hostile monsters, and weird, alien beings. This system is an OSR style game, very reminiscent of AD&D. This is an asynchronous Play-by-Post Campaign. Players will utilize Discord channels for both in-character and out-of-character responses and will use Roll20 for tracking meta-game elements such as maintaining the character sheet and rolling dice and such.

Additional Details

How to prepare

Players will be expected to respond in a timely but reasonable manner and the GM will utilize a Google calendar for maintaining response times. Combat and social encounters will obviously be micromanaged by the GM to some extent if a player cannot respond in a timely manner with sufficient notice. Players will be charged weekly but no charge will accrue if a Player requires an extended absence and is able to provide fair reasonable notice (based on the circumstances of course --- emergencies happen). Roll20 will not be used for tactical movement or such (although will be used for some visual aids but the majority of those will be through Discord). Think of Discord as being your "in-character" narrative responses and Roll20 as being your character sheet and dice rolls. In Roll20, you roll the dice for your attack ("roll 1d20+mods") but in Discord you "swing your blade at the villain's head after having feinted his attack". No prior knowledge of the system is necessary. Character creation will be done during Session zero and will be transferred afterward to Roll20. Experienced and beginning gamers will quickly intuit the rules if they are not already familiar with them.

What I provide

a bag of holdings worth of resources from North Wind Adventures and a number of other sources...

Gameplay details

Session Zero is for character creation and reviewing campaign themes and can be separate Voice meetings with each Player in Discord as needed. Players will be expected to respond in a timely but reasonable manner. Combat and social encounters will obviously be micromanaged by the GM to some extent if a player cannot respond in a timely manner with sufficient notice. Players will be charged weekly but no charge will accrue if a Player requires an extended absence and is able to provide fair reasonable notice (based on the circumstances of course --- emergencies happen). Roll20 will not be used for tactical movement or such (although will be used for some visual aids but the majority of those will be through Discord). Think of Discord as being your "in-character" narrative responses and Roll20 as being your character sheet and dice rolls. In Roll20, you roll the dice for your attack ("roll 1d20+mods") but in Discord you "swing your blade at the villain's head after having feinted his attack".

Content warnings

(none)

Safety tools used

Aftercare
Breaks
Debriefing
Open Door
Session 0

How will character creation work

Session Zero is for character creation and reviewing campaign themes and will be separate Voice meetings with each Player in Discord. Exceptions can be made as needed.

Players can expect

• Find a game to join solo or search for a professional game master for you and your friends/coworkers/family.
• Book your session and wait for the Game Master to approve you.
• If you don't have a blast with your first game, your next game is on us.