Hexaphim
Mongoose
First of all, I apologize in advance for the length of this post; this is my first post on this forum (although I’ve been lurking for quite some time now), so I thought I’d better make it count. 
Also, this thread will probably contain spoilers for The Hour of the Dragon, so be warned.
I’m about to start gamemastering a Conan campaign for my group of three players who have never played the game before (neither have I, incidentally). We’ve been playing D&D for some time, now so the basic rules should pose no real problem.
Now, from the start I wanted this to be a military campaign, at least from the start. I had some trouble figuring out just what they would be doing in this campaign; I knew I wanted to include the Tower of the Elephant somehow, and I knew I wanted it to be a finite campaign, with a climactic ending, but it wasn’t until I read The Hour of the Dragon that things really fell into place.
I am posting here for suggestions, ideas and criticisms. Be advised that I’m going to stick to Conan continuity only loosely, this might rub some people the wrong way, but neither I (nor my players) know enough about the Hyborian Age to make this a huge issue for us.
The basic premise:
The PCs are Nemedian Adventurers and start at level 6. I’m not going to force them into staying in the Adventurers; considering the things they’ll be asked to do eventually, I suspect they might take their leave.
I want to take them through the Tower of the Elephant at one point. The reason they’ll have for going their will be to steal (back?) the Heart of Ahriman from Yara. Now originally, this was pretty much where I thought I’d start the campaign, but searching the forums for earlier posts about the Hour of the Dragon made me think that it could be cool if they’d actually helped Orastes find it in the first place, only to have it stolen by Yara on their way back to Nemedia.
Later, I want them to be in Belverus when the Black Plague hits; I don’t know exactly what to come up with for an adventure there, but this might be a good time for a low-key mystery affair. One of the characters, a Nemedian Noble, has spent quite some time at the Royal Court in Belverus, so he might have a vested interest in the fate of the king and his three sons (whom the Noble may well have been friends with at his time there). This might be their first clue that there is something rotten in the state of Nemedia.
From here on out, I’m not quite sure what to do. They should definitely be in the battle on the border between Nemedia and Aquilonia. Also the sack of Aquilonia should be great fun (or not; I’m going to make it really nasty and detailed, to see what stuff the characters are made of).
My biggest problem is the ending. Granted, it’s impossible to know where the characters might be towards the end of the campaign, but if they’re still with the Nemedian Adventurers, they stand to lose the final battle something awful. Now, if they for some reason deserted, and maybe ended up fighting for CONAN in the final battle, that should be really cool. My problem here is that I don’t know how Conan would view deserters from Nemedia. One of the PCs has a history with Conan, though, as a scout in the Free Company he lead five years prior to the events in The Hours of the Dragon (I haven’t read about this Free Company, mind you, I only saw it on a timeline), so if Conan recognizes him he might let them join his battle against Nemedia. Then again, they’d pretty much be traitors.
This post turned out even longer than I’d thought, and I apologize. I’ll cut it short here and come back with more later, should I feel the urge.
(For the record, feel free to point me in the direction of Conan RPG supplements (or REH stories) with relevant material, as I have all of them; just haven't had time to read it all).
Also, this thread will probably contain spoilers for The Hour of the Dragon, so be warned.
I’m about to start gamemastering a Conan campaign for my group of three players who have never played the game before (neither have I, incidentally). We’ve been playing D&D for some time, now so the basic rules should pose no real problem.
Now, from the start I wanted this to be a military campaign, at least from the start. I had some trouble figuring out just what they would be doing in this campaign; I knew I wanted to include the Tower of the Elephant somehow, and I knew I wanted it to be a finite campaign, with a climactic ending, but it wasn’t until I read The Hour of the Dragon that things really fell into place.
I am posting here for suggestions, ideas and criticisms. Be advised that I’m going to stick to Conan continuity only loosely, this might rub some people the wrong way, but neither I (nor my players) know enough about the Hyborian Age to make this a huge issue for us.
The basic premise:
The PCs are Nemedian Adventurers and start at level 6. I’m not going to force them into staying in the Adventurers; considering the things they’ll be asked to do eventually, I suspect they might take their leave.
I want to take them through the Tower of the Elephant at one point. The reason they’ll have for going their will be to steal (back?) the Heart of Ahriman from Yara. Now originally, this was pretty much where I thought I’d start the campaign, but searching the forums for earlier posts about the Hour of the Dragon made me think that it could be cool if they’d actually helped Orastes find it in the first place, only to have it stolen by Yara on their way back to Nemedia.
Later, I want them to be in Belverus when the Black Plague hits; I don’t know exactly what to come up with for an adventure there, but this might be a good time for a low-key mystery affair. One of the characters, a Nemedian Noble, has spent quite some time at the Royal Court in Belverus, so he might have a vested interest in the fate of the king and his three sons (whom the Noble may well have been friends with at his time there). This might be their first clue that there is something rotten in the state of Nemedia.
From here on out, I’m not quite sure what to do. They should definitely be in the battle on the border between Nemedia and Aquilonia. Also the sack of Aquilonia should be great fun (or not; I’m going to make it really nasty and detailed, to see what stuff the characters are made of).
My biggest problem is the ending. Granted, it’s impossible to know where the characters might be towards the end of the campaign, but if they’re still with the Nemedian Adventurers, they stand to lose the final battle something awful. Now, if they for some reason deserted, and maybe ended up fighting for CONAN in the final battle, that should be really cool. My problem here is that I don’t know how Conan would view deserters from Nemedia. One of the PCs has a history with Conan, though, as a scout in the Free Company he lead five years prior to the events in The Hours of the Dragon (I haven’t read about this Free Company, mind you, I only saw it on a timeline), so if Conan recognizes him he might let them join his battle against Nemedia. Then again, they’d pretty much be traitors.
This post turned out even longer than I’d thought, and I apologize. I’ll cut it short here and come back with more later, should I feel the urge.
(For the record, feel free to point me in the direction of Conan RPG supplements (or REH stories) with relevant material, as I have all of them; just haven't had time to read it all).
