My Weekend in Hyperborea

I spent some quality time this past weekend reading and rereading the rules for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.

I have to say. The more I read the more I like them.
For starters there is a real B/X feel about these rules I like. Simple, intuitive and easy to run.  Not that say AD&D or 3e are difficult rulesets, but there is more given to flow of play with these rules. Plus it goes for that same sweet spot of play that Adventurer Conqueror King goes after.

I also feel, in all honesty, that this is the best combination of "D&D" and "Cthulhu Myths" I have ever read.
It captures the nihilism of Lovecraft's world view extremely well and infuses it with the proper amount of horror.  Building on a world that is, as I have been taking to call it, "Older, Bolder and Colder".
I do have Realms of Crawling Chaos for Labyrinth Lord, and I think it is great.  This just has a better Lovecraftian vibe to it really.
What I like most of all is how it makes even "mundane" monsters seem weird and alien. I was rereading the Gelatinous Cube and thinking of it as horror beyond reality now, not just some stupid slime that cleans dungeons.

I have been wanting to use it for some time now to flesh out my own Hyperborea (for my own play, not publish!) and it is perfect.

Since I have been reading a ton of Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs and of course Clark Ashton Smith this is really the best rules to get after that weird, Pulp Horror.

I was looking over the rules and the classic adventures I want to run, and thought it might just be perfect.  While I would prefer to use this system, my boys are committed to AD&D proper.   I might though slip in a rule here and some monsters there.   Thankfully AS&SH is perfect for this.question for

In fact I think I know how I am going to bring this all together.
But I think that reveal might need to wait till another posting.  I am missing one key ingredient.

Though it would totally fit my need to use the older modules, bring them up to date for a post-Drizzt crowd and use my "Older, Bolder, Colder" ideas.  


Links
Unboxing
Review
Mystoerth: Hyborea / Hyperborea