Conan's RPG map Not Equal Stories in Comics???

[Apollo's Will]

Greetings everyone

My first post after I got renewed interest in Conan, and discovered the RPG. I have of yet not received my books for the game (ordered them for a few days ago), so perhaps my question is answered in the RPG book, but I’m impatient

I have tried to follow Conan’s path from the Comics on the Map that is downloadable from your site (http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/pdf/conanmap.jpg), and I’m troubled. First of all, some of my locations from the stories are of course only estimated, but some of them, seem to not fit well together at all. Beneath are two examples, that have giving me a lot of trouble.

The comic “Conan the Barbarian Issue 7, The Lurker Within”

Actually it is already on the first page. Conan is traveling on The Road of Kings, and it is written: “that one stands at last almost within earshot of many-towered Numalia, second greatest city of Nemedia”. If we take a look at the map, we can see that Numalia is no where near the Road of Kings. The shortest distance would be around 200 miles. Conan is good, but not that good .

The comic “Conan the Barbarian Issue 13, Web of the Spider-god”.

The story starts out in a desert of Corinthia, and it is said "somewhere east of Ophir", indicating that Ophir is close. For those that don’t know the story, Conan gets mugged; and the thugs rush away, because they are "too close to the Zamorian border... to rest, till we're safely back in camp". So Conan is close to Ophir and the Zamorian border, indicating that the only place can be in the southern end of the Corinthia’s desert. But then the troubles start. The thugs also mention Yezud as close by. Yezud is about 800 miles away from where I first estimated the location to be. Hmmm…next, later in the story, Conan actually arrives to Yezud. Yezud have in this story been mention as being on the border of Corinthia and Zamorian, but again, on the map it is far from the border.

I must admit I lean to follow the stories in the comics as more correct than the map, but I’m guilty as charge in not having read any of Robert E. Howard’s books. So question is, where did the Mongoose’s map origin? How correct can I assume it is? Are the comics far away from Robert E. Howard’s stories? Anything else you can add to help me?

Again, greetings to you all, and I will properly be a common visitor on this board, to find help to answer my questions. Hope I will not be too troublesome .

 

[mthomason]

I think last time this was brought up, the answer was something along these lines:

There's so many references that can be used, from so many sources, that if they were all used there would be contradictions. Therefore it was necessary to be selective over which sources were used to create the map.

One problem is that every author involved over the years has had their own take on things, and they don't all tie up. In a similar way, we now have Mongoose's take on things, which does it's best to be true to as many original sources as possible.

 

[mthomason]

Of course, if you're GMing your own game you're free to disagree with the map and make changes. It's your game, after all.

 

[Apollo's Will]

*Nods*
Yes, I believe it is time for an apology. I had checked the map and compared it to a handful of the comics’ stories, and than just said, “heck the map is wrong”. Then I in rush jumped in here to get an explanation.

After I wrote, I did what I should have done first; A search on the World Wide Web. I found tons of essay, maps and discussions, saying exactly what you, mthomason, just have uttered.

Sorry, for asking, before actually searching for the answer a little bit more.

Now, I will go back and start making a map of my own

Thanks for your time, Mthomason and sorry for using the space and time here on the board.

 

[mthomason]

sorry for using the space and time here on the board.

That's what it's here for! To waste... just see how much we waste it in the other threads

And welcome to the boards, btw... I kinda forgot my manners earlier

 

[VincentDarlage]

Much of the map is derived from Howard's stories first, then other stories printed in short story form third, then stories printed in novel form third, followed by comics last. Sometimes it just boils down to which one was published first.

The placement of Yezud comes from L. Sprague de Camp's "Conan and the Spider God", which also describes a completely different spider god and describes the city differently than in the Marvel Comic.

The comic continuity is the least favoured reference. The new Dark Horse series of comics completely ignores the old Marvel continuity, for example. Since the story in Conan #7 is a re-telling of Howard's "The God in the Bowl", only Howard's short story (which is at variance with Thomas' adaptation on several points) is considered for map purposes. I am sure the Dark Horse series will invent its own Yezud and place it where they find it convenient simply because Howard never said where it was. Which comic series gets precedence?

Anything at variance with Howard's original stories are discarded, such as Roland Green's walls around Messantia (Howard explicitely says there are no walls around Messantia) and, from the Marvel Comics, certain other elements. A good example is from The Savage Sword of Conan, Vol. 1, No. 119. It describes a clan of people in Cimmeria that inexplicably breaks all the known facts about Cimmerians. These 'Cimmerians' ride horses, keep slaves, abuse women, celebrate holy days of Crom, use magic and build castles. That clan has been ignored for purposes of the RPG, even though they appeared in the comic.

 

[GregLynch]

Anything at variance with Howard's original stories are discarded, such as Roland Green's walls around Messantia (Howard explicitely says there are no walls around Messantia)

Amen to that, Vincent. I explicitly ignored everything Roland Green wrote when I was writing Messantia. I figured that if he couldn't be bothered to read Howard he didn't deserve to be a reference.

 

[VincentDarlage]

LOL! I ignored his Pict story when doing Across the Thunder River as well!

 

[chinger_spy]

Don't worry about it too much. The maps in Conan products have trouble relating to the text they're printed next too a lot of the time!