Recent content by Spongly

Yeah, I would say the Hyborian age is way past Tolkien's middle earth in terms of technology. If anything Tolkien's world is more like 500AD - the only armour is mail, the main weapons are swords, bows and spears, people are forever referring to "shield walls" and what have you. The Hyborian...

For adventure seeds for Swords and Sorcery... http://www.lumpley.com/oracle/4oracles.php

I played a one eyed Nordheimr scholar called Grimnir for a while (Grimnir is one of the names of Odin). He was a sort of dodgy trickster, sorcerer, shaman type of character.

Pathfinder is sort of a remake. It's based on a strange little low budget Norwegian film of the same name in which a Saami boy is forced to be a pathfinder for some Estonian (?) raiders. But the tone of the film is completely different - the original is very low kepy, filled with strange...

Mining for iron ore is rare in these kinds of cultures. Bog iron is far more likely, being easier to extract with fairly basic tools and social organisation (i.e. not needing huge amounts of centralised resources to support, feed and clothe large gangs of miners). Bog iron can be hunted for...

The main problem I have with all the setting books for Conan is that they contain too much extraneous information like details of marriage ceremonies or how many shoe makers shops there are in Tarantia, and not enough actual ideas for adventures.

The problem with any RPG line is becoming weighed down by supplements, which is why RPGs are a hard business to be in if you want continuing profits - the rulebooks are generally all you need to play the game, and supplements therefore have to be of high quality to sell in the same bulk as the...

It's actually a bit of a myth that people in the middle ages were that much shorter than modern people. Certainly in England most male skeletons average about an inch shorter than your average modern man. Also, REH stories do actually have full plate and sallets - Aquilonia and the other...

Actually medieval literature and art is pretty clear that shields were carried on shoulder straps when not in use, and even that they could be swung from that position into the hand and back again with relative speed. Bear in mind that most of the people using this equipment were trained...

The easiest way to carry a shield is to loop a belt through the handle and throw it over your shoulder. Most shields also had shoulder straps to attach it in battle as well and take some of the weight off your arm. A bow would be hard to carry on your back unless strung, and even then its...

Or you give the city guard reach weapons and make sure there are plenty of them, which nicely counters a high fighting skill and gives them huge ganging up bonuses. Also, we've been playing a long, tough campaign and I've never increased fighting past D10, and playing tactically that's proved...

Wow. It appears I actually live in "The Savage North". Friends who moved down south have been trying to tell me that for years. I wonder if this is some sort of bizarre joke, or an equally bizarre coincidence?

Savage Worlds isn't really rules light - it's fast, but fairly "crunchy" as far as games mechanics go. What it is is very easily modifiable.

I find it hard to believe how many people think Runequest combat "works well" or is fast and easy. I played Runequest for years and still have nightmares about large fights which could easily take up whole sessions by themselves. Not to mention the number of characters who sever their own limbs...

Ooh, I'll throw in on the side of SW. The reasons it's popular are: 1) It's cheap. With a tiny bit of work I've found the Explorer's Edition, which cost me around £6, to have everything I needed to run a Dark Age fantasy game, a Sci-Fi Space Opera game, as well as Conan. I've also been playing...