Recent content by Doc Martin

Another thought from my personal experience - don't despair. I was really excited about the combat system but then felt rather deflated after our first session where keeping up with the CAs and CMs felt clunky and counterintuitive. However, we persisted and by session 3 or 4 myself and the...

I'm in my fourth Conan/Hyborian campaign using some sort of version of Runequest and I agree that it is an excellent fit - never come across a game that severs limbs so satisfyingly! One alteration I have made with MRQ 2/Legend is when the PCs are fighting mooks/minions, rather than use the...

I had the idea (or maybe I got it from somewhere, can't remember - that's fatherhood for you) that the Stygian god Thoth was a god of knowledge and as such not seen as a malign threat by other nations. Therefore temple/libraries of Thoth were tolerated in cities outside of Stygia. In one...

You might also get your hands on Del Rey's edition of 'Bran Mak Morn' that brings together most of Howard's 'wierd history' Pictish stories. Not quite the same as the Hyborian vision but a good source of inspiration. Also, 'Tigers of the Sea' (Howard with some finishing off by other authors) has...

Willowhugger, Bohran sounds like a great character and his ambitions certainly sound like a good catalyst for adventure. Just a thought - make sure the players are able to find out what is going on and what Bohran is like - I constantly find myself as a referee thinking up interesting plots and...

Welcome to the forum Willowhugger; some thoughts on your questions: 1) Have you read 'Bran mak Morn' and 'Tigers of the Sea' by Howard? Pseudo-historical rather than Hyborian age but they have lots of scary barbarians in them. There's a great scene in one story where the hero comes across a...

I'm with those posters who have 'mature' themes in their games but leave the detail of it to the player's imagination. There are some good reasons for this: 1) It's how Howard dealt with it and therefore true to the spirit of the source material. 2) It avoids embarassment (grown men sat around...

More Stygian goodness: http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/ Go to the 'Atlas of the Valley of the Kings' and select 'Maps and Plans' - you will not be disappointed.

You may be right Caz; I came across TROS after I had started running my Hyborian campaigns with my RQ homebrew so I probably won't change. One of my gaming group keeps threatening to run TROS so I will find out how it plays at some point. Reading TROS (the free download) it strikes me that it...

While I am at it, any of you running campaigns in Shem, Turan and Hyrkania might find the following useful: http://www.turkishhan.org/homebase.htm (scroll down the page for each site for a floor plan) http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/texts.html (translated historic texts - rather...

I've run or am running 3 campaigns in the Hyborian Age using increasingly homebrewed Runequest with strong dashes of Herowars/quest and Elric. I have made several fairly strong changes to the system: Grouping skills in categories (Combat, Missile, Dexterity, Perception, Stealth, Manoeuvre...

The subject says it all really - post a link to a website with plans, images, useful historical/cultural details etc. I'll start with Stygia: http://www.charlesmiller.co.uk/fla/index.htm The 'Temple Plans' pages in particular.

Can I add my recommendation of Flashman to the growing list - damn funny, as politically incorrect as it comes, but also fantastic adventure/action stories. I would suggest reading the lot as inspiration for the sort of adventures an outsider can get into in strange lands - and, as ever, there...

'Pathfinder' - not the recent nonsense but the original Norwegian film released in 1987: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093668/ A must-see for anyone gaming in the frozen north - and it separates out simple barbarians from wicked savages - they killed his dog, damn them! Also a handy tip on...

Strom mate, can't speak for anyone else but I wasn't criticising your style of play, sorry if it came across that way - just saying that games based in the Hyborian world could be played in other ways. I think I once ran a session of Hyborian gaming without blood being spilt but 'improvised...