Horror Elements in Conan

[High Lord Dee]

There have been so many comparisons of Howard to Lovecraft that I am going to borrow the d20 stuff from a friend of mine to review. I was never a big Lovecraft fan so I am doing this half-heartedly.

I do think that Howard did have a tremendous element of horror. I am definitely going to use it in my campaign. Considering the toughest sell that I see with my players is why they want to adventure in a predominently human dominated world, I want to make the non-human encounters as terrorizing as possible.

I just picked up the WOTC Heroes of Horror source book. Some pretty good stuff in there that I will probably elect to use if I do not find something better.

Looking for other ideas and recommendations. Thanks.

HLD

 

[B_Steele]

I hopefully touched on that a great deal in Lurking Terror of Nahab.

I hope it meets your Horrific expectations...

Bry

 

[Seeker]

Hi.

Yeah, I agree that Howard had a great talent for horror.

As well as the supernatural elements in his Conan stories, he also wrote excellent horror stories like Pigeons from Hell, The Horror from the Mound, Dig Me No Grave, Wolfshead and The Thing on the Roof.

Any of these could be adapted as plots for Conan RPG.

Other suggestions:

1) PCs are mercenaries in a lonely keep on the Corinthian border. One by one, their comrades are being slain by an shadowy stalker that slays by moonlight. Clues to this demon can be found in the crumbling temple nearby but the creature is already on their trail .....................

2) In Khitai, the PCs are investigating an old ruin as a possible Outlaws hideout. Fighting off the priests who live there they are confronted by the creature they worship. A lovely woman approaches them, draining their will before she drains their blood........

Lovecraft tended to stick to the Tentacled Gibbering Cosmic Horror type of monster where Howard tended to use other types - Witches, Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies etc. Conan scenarios can use both types in my opinion.

Howard tended to build up the horror with shadowy glimpses, hideous slithering sounds and NPCS staggering up to the PCs before collapsing with no mark on them.

Conan games should be like this not just hack and slay the monster. Hope this helps.

 

[Raven Blackwell]

Both of them were good enough writers to know to slowly reveal the horror- to let the fears of the reader- or PCs in this case- create a more horrible picture than their mere words could express. To paraphrase Lovecraft- the fear of the unknown is the greatest fear there is.

Check out the "Conan and Cthulhu" thread somewhere down the lost there for more ideas of marrying Lovecraft and Howard's work.....

 

[The King]

Moreover Raven has also created a great thread with sorcery spells and mosnters from the Lovecraft mythos.
She's so modest she doesn't mention it but the whole material is well worth a sourcebook.

 

[VincentDarlage]

I was never a big Lovecraft fan so I am doing this half-heartedly.

My advice: If you are going to do it, don't do it half-heartedly. The best successes come when you feel passionate about something.

Mongoose also has OGL Horror, which may have some ideas for you.

However, I have found the best inspirations have not been game sourcebooks, but short stories, novellas, novels, visual art, music, song and movies. I feel the best games are derived from these sources, not from other games.

If you want to add horror to your game, read horror stories, listen to scary music, watch horror movies until you are inspired. Then you can go after it with a whole-heart.

 

[High Lord Dee]

I was never a big Lovecraft fan so I am doing this half-heartedly.

My advice: If you are going to do it, don't do it half-heartedly. The best successes come when you feel passionate about something.

Mongoose also has OGL Horror, which may have some ideas for you.

However, I have found the best inspirations have not been game sourcebooks, but short stories, novellas, novels, visual art, music, song and movies. I feel the best games are derived from these sources, not from other games.

If you want to add horror to your game, read horror stories, listen to scary music, watch horror movies until you are inspired. Then you can go after it with a whole-heart.

I meant Lovecraft not horror elements. I just was never a big fan of the Tommy gun and a plethora of huge, slimey tentacled things over and over. I do feel that I have an open mind though and will try to adapt the best of breed horror elements into my campaign.

HLD

 

[BigSteveUK]

Firstly don't be dissing Lovecraft or the world of CoC or I am going to Cthulhu your ass.. :lol:

Warning...I am completely biased.
I have been involved in RPG for sometime and when played properly CoC is one of the best rpg on the market (excluding the D20 version…yuk). The depth of the world, the background and the things that lurk in the dark are brilliant, original and the foundation for half the horror books and films that exist to day. People like Poe and Lovecroft are horror.

The problem is most people turn their CoC sessions into the 1920’s version of D&D, right there is a scary things, quick get grenades (fireballs), smg’s (+2 Longsword) etc….yawn. Have they even read a Lovercraft story & have they heard of the Police.

The most important thing when introducing horror, is build it slowly, keep the players off balance, make them dread what they are looking for, not easy I grudge. But if you read Howard or Lovecraft, take an extra look at the descriptions of what happens when characters in the book meet stuff, that their small minds can’t comprehend. Even the mighty Conan has ran for his life on more than one occasion and sometimes he didn’t even see anything he just felt it.

Stops ranting and takes a breath,

Steve

P.S To be fair there is a lot of tentacles in Cthulhu,

 

[The King]

Well if you don't like Lovecraft I can advise you Bram Stocker's novel (Dracula) which is also quite easy to fit into any setting.
You can also give a try to Graham Masterton whose horror novels take place in the modern area but which draw heavily on (modified) mythology.
For instance, his novel "the djinn" could very well make a kind of sequel to Howard's God in the Bowl.

Conan always think of rosted beef but he also should try squids. :wink:

 

[Raven Blackwell]

Moreover Raven has also created a great thread with sorcery spells and mosnters from the Lovecraft mythos.
She's so modest she doesn't mention it but the whole material is well worth a sourcebook.

Yeah but there's copyight issues here- I am sure Mongoose would object to me publishing a book using ther system without them getting the majority- not just a piece- of the pie. 8) Lovecraft however has been dead so long that he's free domain to anyone who wants to loot his literary corpse......

 

[René]

The most important thing when introducing horror, is build it slowly, keep the players off balance, make them dread what they are looking for, not easy I grudge. But if you read Howard or Lovecraft, take an extra look at the descriptions of what happens when characters in the book meet stuff, that their small minds can’t comprehend. Even the mighty Conan has ran for his life on more than one occasion and sometimes he didn’t even see anything he just felt it.

A few months ago I was lucky enough to scare the sh.. (I know, bad language, sorry) out of my PCs with this method. They never really saw the horror, but knew it to be out there somewhere, they heard it, they smelled it, they saw footprints - but even today they don't know more. It was a very satisfying session for all of us. Only drawback is that you can't do this often, else you possibly overuse the effect and it gets boring.

 

[René]

Try for REH's horror stories Namelss Cults by Chaosium Press (I think) - it's a very nice collection!

 

[toothill man]

conan and CoC is a marrage made in gibbering hell 8) they do support each other well

 

[The King]

Moreover Raven has also created a great thread with sorcery spells and mosnters from the Lovecraft mythos.
She's so modest she doesn't mention it but the whole material is well worth a sourcebook.

Yeah but there's copyight issues here- I am sure Mongoose would object to me publishing a book using ther system without them getting the majority- not just a piece- of the pie. 8) Lovecraft however has been dead so long that he's free domain to anyone who wants to loot his literary corpse......

It could be called anything that isn't copyrighted, like "the memoirs of Thoth-Amon". :wink:
I know you don't want to be published anyway but I would be pleased to have it signed from you. :lol:

 

[Raven Blackwell]

"The Tomes of Utalis" is the working title of the Lovecraft work I've done so far- the concept being that all the entries made by me or anyone else on the 'Conan and Cthulhu" forum were actually scattered pages of some previously unknown Hyborian-style Lovecraftian tome.

I may however come up with a compromise- I might write it up as shareware and then ask that people who download it donate 5$ or one hour to charitable works. Then I could feel good about releasing the work- it would create a little positive change in the world. 8)

As for the copyright issues- I mean the Conan system itself is likely copyrighted. [Right Vincent D?] Thus I couldn't publish any statistics using the system- if I charged a single cent for it that is. For private entertainment purposes- where no mobey is exchanged in the transaction- copyright doesn't usually apply. This is why fan-fiction is legal- so long as you don't get a cent for it you can have anyone's charcters do anything you want...

 

[toothill man]

as am a beaver scout leader which takes what 3hrs a week minium of my time does that count :?

 

[argo]

"The Tomes of Utalis" is the working title of the Lovecraft work I've done so far- the concept being that all the entries made by me or anyone else on the 'Conan and Cthulhu" forum were actually scattered pages of some previously unknown Hyborian-style Lovecraftian tome.

I may however come up with a compromise- I might write it up as shareware and then ask that people who download it donate 5$ or one hour to charitable works. Then I could feel good about releasing the work- it would create a little positive change in the world. 8)

As for the copyright issues- I mean the Conan system itself is likely copyrighted. [Right Vincent D?] Thus I couldn't publish any statistics using the system- if I charged a single cent for it that is. For private entertainment purposes- where no mobey is exchanged in the transaction- copyright doesn't usually apply. This is why fan-fiction is legal- so long as you don't get a cent for it you can have anyone's charcters do anything you want...

Good news for you, Conan is OGL. That means that yes you can use game mechanics and stats in yoiur own work and publish it for profit. Couple things you need to know though:
1: If you use OGC from another source you must include the OGL in your work and your work itslef also automatically becomes OGC which means other people can use it in their own works
1b: allong with the OGL you must include specific and detailed credits of all the sources of your borrowed material
2: certain things are exempt from the OGL as specified in the OGL itself. Most importantly is material labeled as "Product Identity". Product Identity is the creative "fluff" type material as opposed to the game mechanics. The Name "Conan" is Product Identity for example and off limits.
2b: if a mechanic is a wholy origional work it may be designated as non-OGC and is therefore off limits. In the case of the Conan RPG this refers to the character creation and level advancment rules, those you can't use or refrence.

You can find the complete and unabriged OGL on the last page of your copy of the Conan RPG. You can find the desigantion of what is and isn't OCG on the first page. You can learn more about the OGL and how to be an OGL publisher at WotC's FAQ page.

And as always: IANAL, if you really intend to publish you should consult a lawyer before taking the final plunge.

Hope that helps.

 

[Raven Blackwell]

I'd likely just 'publish' it shareware and avoid all the legal hoopla. Also argo don't forget that I draw information- including the names of the monsters themselves- from Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu game and that isn't OGL as far as I know. The opening quotes on the monster's entries are drawn from short stories of the Mythos. While most of the authors of those stories are likely dead long enough to make them public domain it'd be a bad assumption just to copy them wholesale. Robert Bloch for example was still alive as of several years ago and even if he has died since then it takes a long time [twenty five years?] for a work to become public domain- if the heirs don't opt to renew their rights. I think the Tolkien family still holds the rights to The Lord of the Rings for example. If I ever publish it will original works. I think I'm good enough to do that.

Besides IMHO, it's not worth paying money for- it's just translating other people's works......and no, toothill you can't use preexisting charity work to pay for Tomes should I ever compile it. It has to be in addition to what it is already done. 8)

 

[The King]

I may however come up with a compromise- I might write it up as shareware and then ask that people who download it donate 5$ or one hour to charitable works. Then I could feel good about releasing the work- it would create a little positive change in the world. 8)

I like this one considering man is a kind of parasite to the earth. Would you consider an earthquake charitable? :twisted:

 

[Raven Blackwell]

I may however come up with a compromise- I might write it up as shareware and then ask that people who download it donate 5$ or one hour to charitable works. Then I could feel good about releasing the work- it would create a little positive change in the world. 8)

I like this one considering man is a kind of parasite to the earth. Would you consider an earthquake charitable? :twisted:

Why- is it in your power to trigger one for me? :twisted: