Greetings - recommendations needed

O

Oake

Mongoose
Hi everyone!

My first post here and its a little cheeky as I'm already asking for help :wink: I recently got hold of the pocket version of Conan rpg ready for starting a campagin with a group of friends. Very pleased with it as well. I'm also about half way through reading "The complete chronicles of Conan" (compilation of Howards works) but i feel like I need more background info and some help about the campaign setting. So heres my question; which of the other books in the Conan rpg range would you consider essential or very helpful for somebody starting up a new campaign?

Between work and family im a little limited for time, so the less I have to create myself the better :lol: I was thinking that "Road of Kings" and "Ruins of Hyboria" would probably be a good start but thought I'd better ask for some advice before I order anything.

If it helps, the sort of campaign i intend to run with them will be fairly open, giving the players ultimate choice over where they go and what they try to do, with adventures largely being introduced as rumours or offers of work which they then decide whether or not to follow up.

Many thanks!
 
I don't have the Ruins, so I have no idea if it is of any use. However, Road of the Kings has a good, albeit short description of all the nations of the Hyborian Age. I heartily recommend acquiring it. If you plan to stick the campaign in a specific city or nation, some specific sourcebooks like Stygia, Serpent of the South or Shadizar, the City of Wickedness might be useful. The nation sourcebooks are however quite short, lack good maps and full of editing errors. In my opinion, they are not necessarily worth the money.
 
Thanks for the reply. I'm not certain which nation im going to set the campaign in yet so an overview of each - from Road of the Kings - sounds just what I need.

Any more advice greatly appreciated.

Oake
 
If you need some background and you don't know very well the world, Road of Kings is definitively the first book you should buy. I don't have the pocket RPG, but I believe there's no bestiary in it. If your game will include some weird elements (a few monsters, sorcery, and so on), and even if it has some typos, I think you should also buy the Scrolls of Skelos. For the third one, it depends really of your style of play, rule-heavy or not ? Urban or in the wilds ? What kind of characters and levels for your PC's?
 
Welcom to the Forum. Oake! In addition to Rok and Riuns, I would recommend Conan: the Compendium. It has a couple of Adventures, and City writeups for Khemi and Numalia. One of the adventures is set in the Westermarck, the other is an adaptation of The God in the Bowl by REH. That should get your group started up with a minimum of prepwork on your part. You'll also need Across Thunder River, if you play the Pictish adventure. I also like the three class books: Hyboria's Fiercest, Hyboria's Finest, and Hyboria's Fallen.

MP
 
Thanks everyone for the welcome and further replies! It seems like Rok is on my shopping list for sure, and as for the others they all have their attractions. The Skelos book would be nice (I'm certain one of the group atleast will wish to play a sorcerer). As somebody mentioned, there is no bestiary in the pocket edition. Ive heard about a new bestiary being published later this year, but is there anything of the like out at the moment?
 
They are a some monsters and demons in the Scrolls of Skelos, some animals and monstrous Humanoids in Road, as well as some other creatures in Ruins. The regional books have often fewer creatures in them and there is a list of animals in the Tales of the Black Kingdoms campaign, but there's no such thing as a D&D bestiary out now.
 
Oake said:
Between work and family im a little limited for time, so the less I have to create myself the better :lol: I was thinking that "Road of Kings" and "Ruins of Hyboria" would probably be a good start but thought I'd better ask for some advice before I order anything.
Click to expand...
I think you hit the point. These are the 2 most important books.

If you don't have time to prepare yur adventures, Mongoose's scenarios are worth the purchase.
 
Ruins of Hyboria that good huh? aint picked it up yet.

I reckon Across Thunder River was really good, even for games that aren't set in pictland, Scrolls of Skelos is only for high level magical stuff really, does have some cool spells you could base a game or two on but worth getting later down the track I think. Ive found the Hyborias F's set really useful, not just from a GM perspective but the players find it good for fleshing out their characters too. Tito's the "stuff" book is just a novelty, and Pirate Isles was cool, if your doing a pirate campaign.
 
Road of Kings, Ruins of Hyboria and Thunder River are definitively the best books of the Conan range, although the latter won't be of any use if you don't plan to include pictland adventures in your campaign (that would be a shame, though...)
 
Thanks for all the advice. I've ordered a few books direct from Mongoose so now its a test of my patience, cant wait to get hold of them. To give me something to get on with though I bought a .pdf version of Tales from the Black Kingdom from drivethrurpg. Only read through the first adventure there so far but I think its fantastic! Plenty of detail and still scope to add in my own things when my group are ready to tackle an adventure of that level.
 
If you are going to run Conan, you should get the full book and not just the pocket guide, that way you'll have all the creatures from the main book.
 
The AE version has a bestiary in it? I had no idea at all, none of the online details for either of the books mention this. If i'd have known I would have certainly got the full book. I just thought that the pocket version was cheaper because it was in paper-back :( I dont suppose theres anywhere online I can download or view the details for the creatures and stuff from the AE book?
 
Oake said:
The AE version has a bestiary in it? I had no idea at all, none of the online details for either of the books mention this. If i'd have known I would have certainly got the full book. I just thought that the pocket version was cheaper because it was in paper-back :( I dont suppose theres anywhere online I can download or view the details for the creatures and stuff from the AE book?
Click to expand...
That's why I told you in what books you could find other creatures or animals. And that's why I didn't buy the pocket RPG too. Perhaps someone who own both books could explain to Oake what other things were left outside the pocket one ?
 
Yes it would be handy to know what else is missing from the pocket version, and how many creatures are there in the hardback book? I've got chance of getting a 2nd hand copy of the hardback, in which case I'd probably sell the pocket version on ebay to recover the cost but do you think its worth the effort?

Thanks

Oake
 
I'd buy the Hardcopy, and keep the Pocket. That pocket is quite handy for players, or if you aren't running the game it'll light your load.

In the Hardcopy, there are 3 common thugs, 20 animals plus variants, 13 demons and undead, and three templates.

Road of Kings contains additional animals and a couple monsters, as well as Shadizar, and a few like Aquilonia.
 
Thanks for the info. I just got hold of the Conan compendium yesterday and Ruins of hyboria and for most of the monster/npc stats it simply says "refer to Conan the Roleplaying Game for stats" so it seems an essential buy for lazy people like me :wink: Have to say im very impressed with the books ive read so far.
 
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