What your favorite Conan story?

[DaveNC]

Beyond the Black River is my favorite.
Honorable mentions : Red Nails, Hour of the Dragon, Black Stranger

[Hervé]

It's really difficult to answer...

Red Nails ranks among my favourites too, but Black Colossus, Hour of the Dragon, Queen of the Black Coast, Frost Giant Daughter and many others are not far behind...

[treeplanter]

I alway had a problem with The frost giant daughter, sure it short and sweet but Conan killing 2 Frost Giant on one his very first adventure seem a little unrealist to me lol

[Spectator]

I've always been quite partial to 'Rogues in the House', myself. Though I note that no one else has included it, so perhaps its just due to the fact that it was the first Conan story I read some 25-odd years ago.

Yeah "Rogues" and "God in the bowl" are actually up there in terms of favorites. The Mystery who-dun-it aspect was an Ace in REH's sleeve that he surprisingly used very little!

He could have been a great detective writer, IMHO.

[VincentDarlage]

He could have been a great detective writer, IMHO.

Although he did write some detective stories, he personally despised the whole detective genre and didn't enjoy writing mysteries, IIRC.

[Style]

Off topic, but I really enjoy his westerns. I hear his boxing stories are great as well, although I haven't gotten around to reading them quite yet.

[VincentDarlage]

His Westerns have the ring of reality to them; I also enjoy them.

I have read his boxing stories and love them as well; you can see their influence in Hyboria's Finest with the Brawler option (which references some of the boxing stories in the Iron Man optional rule description).

[Hervé]

Treeplanter wrote:

I alway had a problem with The frost giant daughter, sure it short and sweet but Conan killing 2 Frost Giant on one his very first adventure seem a little unrealist to me lol

That's the current game system that makes it 'unrealist'. Using the rules, a young level Conan would never be able to cope with two Frost Giants...
So much for power leveling based systems being right for Conan gaming...

As topic seems to deviate from Conan only stories, I enjoy also the horror stories, especially Pigeons From Hell.

[Demetrio]

Only if you assume the young Conan was dramatically lower level than his 40 year old counterpart. If you think he was about 8th level at the time of Frost Giant's, it's less of an issue.

And you've actually the same 'problem' with any system because an older, more experienced BRP Conan is going to have melee attacks well in excess of his younger counterpart.

[Hervé]

After second thought, I think you're probably right about both statements.

Vincent, who's far more knowledgeable in both Conan and D20 than I am, ruled that Conan is 9th level at the time of Frost Giant's Daughter.
http://www.enworld.org/Inzeladun/conan/conan09.htm

Raised with the Marvel comics, I placed the story as one of the earliest ones, prior Tower of the Elephant, when Vincent places it just before The Queen of the Black Coast, when Conan, bored by civilized nations, take a trip back to the northern lands.

[Demetrio]

I actually had it as an early story too, I'm just not certain that rpg character progression and Howard (or any novelists) character progression can be tied together for any system - the demands are too different.

[treeplanter]

Hum, according to most Mongoose supplement Conan is a level 2 barbarian/1 rogue in the tower of elephant time. So in the FGD he would be à 2nd barbarian.

My conclusion are that frost Gian are overpowered in the RGP

ok this isn't really interesting anyway

[VincentDarlage]

Vincent, who's far more knowledgeable in both Conan and D20 than I am, ruled that Conan is 9th level at the time of Frost Giant's Daughter.
http://www.enworld.org/Inzeladun/conan/conan09.htm.

That chronology was based on L. Sprague de Camp's, which I now disavow. The current chronology would place FGD as his first recorded adventure (taking place not long after Venarium).

[Hervé]

It seems that Roy Thomas chronology is better than De Camp's one (actually, it's what I've been thinking all along, not being a huge fan a LSdC).

I'm still convinced that Thomas is underestimated and that Conan popularity today wouldn't have been the same without him.

So, that makes a 2nd lvl Conan handle two frost giants at a time. Hmm, I'd like to see how you rule that under the D20 engine...

Yeah, I know, I'm such a bitch sometimes...

[treeplanter]

Well maybe they had just one HP left?

[Spectator]

Well maybe they had just one HP left?

OR....
Conan got incredibly lucky with his MD rolls against the wussy girly-man Frost giant.


"Yah Hanz, die Frost giants manhood was uber frozen and small"

"Yah Franz, dey vere obviously not Austrian Frost Giants, Like AHHHnold"

"Yah Franz, jew kan say dat again, definitely not like AHHHnold."

[Demetrio]

So, that makes a 2nd lvl Conan handle two frost giants at a time. Hmm, I'd like to see how you rule that under the D20 engine...

Only if you think he must have been second level - which I don't for the good reason that by the age of 15 Conan was already thought highly of by his chiefs (as we know from his conversation with Balthus). the problem arises from a desire to shoehorn a literary creation into a game structure as I say.

[Hervé]

Only if you think he must have been second level...

If Conan is 3rd level by Mongoose standards at the time of Tower of the Elephant, then we can rightly assume he's about 2nd level at the time of Frost Giant's Daughter. It's one of the earliest stories, the only fact we know before this is the Battle of Venarium.

...which I don't for the good reason that by the age of 15 Conan was already thought highly of by his chiefs (as we know from his conversation with Balthus).

It's more probably because the chiefs sensed the huge potential (translate huge stats) of the brat than a reference to his warrior experience (translate level). After all, Conan was really young at the time and pretty much inexperienced (most of the novels starring a "young" Conan shows him rather naive and inexperienced, but dangerous anyway, just like a wild cat...)

the problem arises from a desire to shoehorn a literary creation into a game structure as I say.

Especially if the said game structure is totally rigid and power levelling based.

Oh no, I'm ranting against D20 again!...

[Demetrio]

If Conan is 3rd level by Mongoose standards at the time of Tower of the Elephant,

If...

I'd put his 'level' higher at that time myself and I think attempts to 'level him up from 1 to x through his published adventures', while often cleverly thought out, start him too low and finish him too high.

We also have to consider exactly what a 'frost giant' is in Hyborian terms. Personally i'm not thinking D&D Frost Giant or anything like (and I'm quite sure you're not either).

[Krushnak]

After all, Conan was really young at the time and pretty much inexperienced (most of the novels starring a "young" Conan shows him rather naive and inexperienced, but dangerous anyway, just like a wild cat...)

nothing about that says he couldnt be a lvl 6 barbarian already. he's an experienced warrior when he's in shadizar but not very experienced with the world outside of the north.

In d20 game terms i would have descirbed his fight as him being either in Crimson mist or Fighting madness, power attacking with his broadsword in two hands and getting off either MD or a couple of lucky crits.