Cities of Hyboria

That book is supposed to come out THIS month (August) and, if page count is not sure yet, I do not think this is a good sign for the products schedule....so "cities of hyboria" is still a latecomer?
Maybe September or October?
 
May be Mongoose doesn't have time to change such little things because they're currently proof-reading it.
 
Based on the write-up, can I assume it is a "random encounter" book, or "random district/ward" book, rather than a write-up of important cities of the Hyborian Age?
 
throrII said:
Based on the write-up, can I assume it is a "random encounter" book, or "random district/ward" book, rather than a write-up of important cities of the Hyborian Age?

That's my impression as well.
 
Too bad. I was looking forward to this book.

I have no intrest in a random encounter/random ward generating book.

I was really hoping for something more in line with Ruins, that it would be 160-odd pages, with 20 or so famous Hyborian Age city writeups(similar to Aghraphur, Khemi, and others written up in S&P); rules based on those write-ups, so I could create my own cities using the same mechanics; a few random ward/random encounter (structures) write-ups; and mechanics similar to what is found in Pirate Isles for trade and caravans (in place of sea-borne trade).

Oh well, I'll just keep doing what I've been doing: making it up on my own.
 
I was hoping for a sourcebook about Hyborian-age cities. I don't have any interest in pre-generated city encounters.
 
As I proposed the idea for this book two years ago I proposed a description of the major cities of the Hyborian Age, like those we can see in the regional books, that is with a map and all the major features, plus some game specific info.
For instance Sabatea wasn't included in the Shem sourcebook (or better: edited out) for space reason (you know the 96-pages limit when Mongoose began to publish only hard cover books) and I would like it to be included in such a book even if this city is now only a legend (but the whole stuff was written by Vincent).
 
The King said:
As I proposed the idea for this book two years ago I proposed a description of the major cities of the Hyborian Age, like those we can see in the regional books, that is with a map and all the major features, plus some game specific info.

This is what I'm hoping for. Whole, complete cities a GM can drop into his game. A map, plus description of major features. Sure, even some city-specific encounter charts.

I want to read about specific cultural influence in the various parts of the world. For example, Zamora's cities more closely resemble city-states or duchies rather than cities unified under one king. The city governors have great power within their own domains (as much as the king will let them have), and each city tends to have its own culture, separate and a bit different from other places in the kingdom. The vast majority of Zamorian cities are walled.

Major sections of a book like this would interest me the most if it included...

1. I'd like to see some specific cities from Conan's travels described in detail, including history, major NPCs, and any other appropriate game details associated with that city.

2. Then, I'd like to see a chapter that includes a few generic cities/towns/villages appropriate for different parts of the known world. These would be interesting (generic doesn't mean boring!) places a GM could plop into his game quickly and easily. I'd want maps and description and an idea of appropirate settings for the generic city.

3. Finally, a chapter that servers as a "city generator" would be nice, that GMs can use to build their own cities. Maybe generic geomorphic maps can be assembled in un-ending ways to create unique cities. Cultural touches could be made on them to bring in the atmosphere of the city's environment after it is created.

Put that all together in a book, and I'll be one happy camper.

That book would find a lot of use in my game.
 
The King said:
Good ideas. Ideed, I think this book as a sort of companion to Ruins of Hyboria.

I'm hoping not for a Ruins type book, as I don't find Ruins that useful (and it's not quite what I describe above).

But, one thing I think every Conan book should have in it is an adventure. Yes, I think a small adventure, using the material in the book, should be included with Cities.
 
Supplement Four said:
The King said:
Good ideas. Ideed, I think this book as a sort of companion to Ruins of Hyboria.

I'm hoping not for a Ruins type book, as I don't find Ruins that useful (and it's not quite what I describe above).

But, one thing I think every Conan book should have in it is an adventure. Yes, I think a small adventure, using the material in the book, should be included with Cities.

Personally I almost never use published adventures, and consequently never buy them. Putting them into a supplement book is, to me, a huge waste of space and making me pay for misplaced content I don't want to get what, to my mind, should be setting/core material.
 
Supplement Four said:
The King said:
Good ideas. Ideed, I think this book as a sort of companion to Ruins of Hyboria.

I'm hoping not for a Ruins type book, as I don't find Ruins that useful (and it's not quite what I describe above).

But, one thing I think every Conan book should have in it is an adventure. Yes, I think a small adventure, using the material in the book, should be included with Cities.
Not as a ruins type book but as a companion (as I wrote), that is using one for urban adventures and the other for outdoors's.
 
Vortigern said:
Personally I almost never use published adventures, and consequently never buy them. Putting them into a supplement book is, to me, a huge waste of space and making me pay for misplaced content I don't want to get what, to my mind, should be setting/core material.

One of the things I like about the brilliant D6 Star Wars game is that an adventure was usually included in each source book that highlighted the details of the book.

I love to take pre-published adventures and make them my own. If you follow my campaign as I post it in the And So It Begins... thread, you'll recognize Kovag-Re, especially at the beginning. But, it's sure not going to look like that module in a session or two. I've plotted out an entire campaign, taking the characters from 1st to 4th or 5th level or so.

I put a lot of work into it, but it's not as much work as it would have taken me to write the entire thing from scratch. Generally, I adjust/add/delete story elements but let the bare tacs of the adventure alone. They're going to fight "this". I figure why "this" is a really cool thing to do. The module provides "this", and I provide the rest. Together, the adventure is a customized story for my group.

Using pre-published adventures this way is a heck of a time saver.

Plus, there are scant number of Conan adventures in existence. Conan is more about "atmosphere" and "story" than a typical D&D adventure. Conan isn't one fight encounter to the next--there's a heck of a lot more narrative with a Conan adventure.

Or should be.

For this reason alone (not just that I use them and it makes life easier for the GM) I vote for more adventures designed specifically for Conan.

And, if I can see a short one in each and every sourcebook, I'll put in a huge two-handed vote for that option to start occuring with Conan books.
 
I like published adventures, even if (as most GMs I guess) I never run them as written, but rather pick a plot here, an encounter there and so on to make my own soup. I always thought that many brains have more ideas than just one...
 
The debate concerning whether one uses adventures or not is one thing. But as I, and many others, do not and don't want to buy them I think they should be kept as a seperate material/item. That way only people that want that content are having to pay for it.
 
Based on this thread, is it safe to assume that none of us are really thrilled with how "Cities" was put together, and that we really all wanted something different?
 
throrII said:
Based on this thread, is it safe to assume that none of us are really thrilled with how "Cities" was put together, and that we really all wanted something different?

I'm not sure we really know how "Cities" was put together, do we?
 
Quote from this website:

The perfect companion to Ruins of Hyboria, this book provides several fully detailed city-based encounters that can be played throughout the Hyborian Kingdoms. Each is laid out to be run after just a glance of a few moments, ensuring a Games master is never caught off balance whenever his players choose to go somewhere unexpected – keep this book near your gaming table, and your players will marvel at detail you have worked into your campaign!

It is a city based encounter book.

Not a write-up of important Hyborian Age cities, a la Signs & Portants.

Not a system to generate Hyborian Age cities.

Not a system to facilitate caravan trade (as Pirate Isles did for sea-based trade).

So, yes, we have a pretty good idea of how the book is 'put together', content wise.
 
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