Ancient Atlantis

I have seen a lot of interest on the boards regarding Kull and Atlantis. Realizing that Mongoose does not have the license for that setting, it probably will not happen for awhile at least.

I have been hoarding a series of RPG books from the late '80s. They are published by Bard Games (Rest in Peace). If you are interested in running ancient Atlantis, you should check them out. They are available on eBay from time to time and on your favorite used game web sites. There are three books in total:

1.) The Arcanum - Complete RPG system
2.) The Lexicon - Atlas of the Lost World of Atlantis
3.) The Beastiary - Creatures and Beings from the lost world of Atlantis

Like anything else, there is much conversion and editing work to do but I find them to be an oustanding base to start with. Magic was much more prevalent in Atlantis versus Hyboria and it may require a different magic system than the current Conan system. The Arcanum can give you some interesting concepts to try.

I also have the Twighlight of Atlantis that is published by Avalanche Press. It is more of a historical look at Atlantis and focuses more along the lines of the Greek mythos. Not much of value here other than the cover which is worth checking out :twisted:

Hope this gives you a starting point. Look forward to hearing other GM's views and sources for Atlantis and Kull.

HLD
 
Sounds very interesting. Are you attempting to convert their rules to the CONAN RPG rules, and if so, how much effort do you think that entails?

Atlantis is a fertile area full of promise for RPG development, but I know nothing of Howard's Kull character (save the hideous flick with Kevin Sorbo. :shock: :roll: )I am familiar with the eccentric writings by Ignatius Donnelly as well as the original literature called "Critias."
 
It sounds pretty interesting, it would be something awesome to play with, but as another RPG. I wouldn't use it in my Conan campaign, though.
 
I am planning to convert it over to Conan RPG at the appropriate time. There is plenty of material being published by Mongoose to keep my group interested and busy exploring Hyboria. At some point, they will encounter a time warp and be swept away to ancient Atlantis (or posssibly Archeron but that is another topic). I think the Conan rules will work perfectly for Atlantis with the exception of the magic system. That will take some work. I think Atlantis lies somewhere between the Conan rules and the D&D rules. I plan on converting the Arcanum system over to Conan for spellcasting and would envision a good 2-3 weeks of part- time work.

There are also far more creatures in Atlantis than in Hyboria. The cataclysm destroyed many species of beast. A good time to consider a change is if you feel your party is tiring of fighting primarily other humans (as interesting as the seperate races are, they still are humans). The Bestiary contains over 100 pages of creatures to use. The good news there is that there are some existing tools to convert standard d20 stuff to Conan. Also, you only need to convert what you plan to run.

HLD
 
High Lord Dee said:
Magic was much more prevalent in Atlantis versus Hyboria and it may require a different magic system than the current Conan system.
Is there really anything that indicates that Howard's Atlantis was a high-magic setting (as it's often portrayed in other sources)?
Kull was an Atlantean, and he was a barbarian, not unlike Conan.
 
Atlantis fell long before Archeron was even a thought. Archeron is depicted as an ancient land ruled by powerful sorcerors. Most of the Kull stories involve sorcery as the primary element of evil in the stories (check out any Savage Sword of Conan and see if you get the distinct feel that sorcery is much more of an element than in the Conan stories).

The good news is that since Atlantis has not been developed, you can run it any way you would like as long as it makes some sense in relationship to Hyboria. If you are looking for more background information on Kull and Atlantis, check out the following link and let me know what you think:

http://www.dodgenet.com/~moonblossom/kull.htm

HLD
 
I don't know your style of game, but if none of your players has active access to Atlantean magic in a time warp campaign, I wouldn't bother about a new magic "system", but only describe the effects.

Maybe it would be interesting for your group not to expereince a time warp, but a kind of remembrance along the various reincarnation stories by REH, e.g. the James Allison stories. I did this in a 2 or 3 sessions and it was a real good time we had.
 
Since we are on the subject of Atlantis, I provide a few links to texts which may be of interest to those researching the subject for potential application to a KULL or CONAN campaign. The first is the most famous and has a wealth of useful details.

Plato's "Critias" (incomplete, but great for descriptions of the isle and inspiration for some PC/NPC names): http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/criti10.txt

Plato's "Timaeus": http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/tmeus11.txt

Ignatius Donnelly's "ATLANTIS: THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD" (an eccentric work but popular in its day): http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/8ataw11.txt

* * * * *
There was a special on the History Channel (USA), hosted by former "Cheers" actor Ted Danson, which mentioned Critias and had computer animations of the island and city, but the show soon thereafter turned off into a strange and twisted path, dealing little with Atlantis.
 
René said:
I don't know your style of game, but if none of your players has active access to Atlantean magic in a time warp campaign, I wouldn't bother about a new magic "system", but only describe the effects.


Good point and one that I had not thought of. However, I will probably take the time to develop it. I tend to be a perfectionist DM and would be concerned that somehow, a situation would come up that I had not prepped for. :shock:

Maybe it would be interesting for your group not to expereince a time warp, but a kind of remembrance along the various reincarnation stories by REH, e.g. the James Allison stories. I did this in a 2 or 3 sessions and it was a real good time we had.

Another good idea. The only way I would move them into Atlantis is if I felt it was time for a break from Conan and still felt they wanted to continue developing their characters. There was a cool story back in the Marvel Conan the Barbarian series where Conan stumbled across a time warped area and encountered Alexander the Great. Can't remember the exact details but it left an impression on me. Lot's of options.....

HLD
 
Yogah of Yag said:
Since we are on the subject of Atlantis, I provide a few links to texts which may be of interest to those researching the subject for potential application to a KULL or CONAN campaign. The first is the most famous and has a wealth of useful details.

Plato's "Critias" (incomplete, but great for descriptions of the isle and inspiration for some PC/NPC names): http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/criti10.txt

Plato's "Timaeus": http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/tmeus11.txt

Ignatius Donnelly's "ATLANTIS: THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD" (an eccentric work but popular in its day): http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/8ataw11.txt

* * * * *
There was a special on the History Channel (USA), hosted by former "Cheers" actor Ted Danson, which mentioned Critias and had computer animations of the island and city, but the show soon thereafter turned off into a strange and twisted path, dealing little with Atlantis.

These links are based more on the real world view of what Atlantis was believed to be. If you like this version, than check out the Twighlight of Atlantis d20 module from Avalanche Press. Lots of historical references. There are other historical modules from Avalanche that you could tie in (i.e. Egypt, Pirates, etc.) but I found them to be rather mundane.
 
René said:
Maybe it would be interesting for your group not to expereince a time warp, but a kind of remembrance along the various reincarnation stories by REH, e.g. the James Allison stories. I did this in a 2 or 3 sessions and it was a real good time we had.

I mentioned this idea a very long time ago on the board but never had a chance to do it. Have to see if I can fit in somewhere in the future....
 
High Lord Dee said:
These links are based more on the real world view of what Atlantis was believed to be. If you like this version, than check out the Twighlight of Atlantis d20 module from Avalanche Press. Lots of historical references. There are other historical modules from Avalanche that you could tie in (i.e. Egypt, Pirates, etc.) but I found them to be rather mundane.

What did you think of Avalanche Press' Celtic Age and/or Little People?
I was wondering how this compares to the Slaine material.
 
Yogah of Yag said:
High Lord Dee said:
What did you think of Avalanche Press' Celtic Age and/or Little People?
I was wondering how this compares to the Slaine material.

I have to admit that I never really read the Celtic stuff from Avalanche although I did buy it. I will take a look at it soon. I also have to admit that I enjoyed reading the Little People material but did not really feel that it brought much to role playing games. Disappointed. Do you have the book?

HLD
 
High Lord Dee said:
There was a cool story back in the Marvel Conan the Barbarian series where Conan stumbled across a time warped area and encountered Alexander the Great. Can't remember the exact details but it left an impression on me. Lot's of options.....

HLD

Go look fot the Conan comic "what if... Conan walked the earth today."
It's fun to read! :wink:
 
[/quote]

Go look fot the Conan comic "what if... Conan walked the earth today."
It's fun to read! :wink:[/quote]

There were actually two Marvel What If's that featured Conan. One of them had him battle Captain America which will always be a classic in my book. The other one had him battle Thor.

HLD.
 
High Lord Dee said:
There were actually two Marvel What If's that featured Conan.

Actually, there were at least four What Ifs that featured Conan. In one, he did not fight any superheroes, then he tangled with Captain America in the sequal to that first one, then he battled Thor in his next appearence in that comic, then he battled Wolverine in the last one.
 
[/quote]Actually, there were at least four What Ifs that featured Conan. In one, he did not fight any superheroes, then he tangled with Captain America in the sequal to that first one, then he battled Thor in his next appearence in that comic, then he battled Wolverine in the last one.[/quote]

I think you are right about the C.A. story. It may have been a two issue series. I do not recall the Wolverine story though. Was that in the newer resurrection of the What if series?

HLD
 
High Lord Dee said:
Is it worth picking up? If not, who won?

HLD
He ends up switching places with Conan so that Conan is on the Blue Area of the Moon during the Dark Phoenix crisis (making "Crom" the last word to be spoken before Dark Phoenix consumes that universe because Wolverine isn't there to take her down), and then Wolverine ends up making time with Red Sonja because he kicks her butt in a fight rather easily.
 
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