Hyborian Timeline / rise and fall (and rise)

[Truckle the Uncivil]

I've been thinking back and forth, and have decided I'd better not use the post-migration setting -- simply because half of the book would be rendered useless then.

I still want to reduce the "civilization density", however without wiping out entire nations. Major Pictish and Hyrkanian raids, coupled with some decent plagues, might do the trick.

The result should be, as outlined before, a handful of scattered city-states in the middle of a lot of nowhere. Essentially, travelling between two Aquilonian cities ought to be nearly as dangerous as travelling in the eastern steppes.

However, the tech level would have to remain largely the same... well I have to think about that yet.

 

[JamesMishler]

One campaign concept I've considered, in order to get around the Conan Ex Machina effect, is to place the campaign a year after Conan abdicated, and Conn (Conan's son, Conan II) takes the throne... and then disappears. Like the period during the Hour of the Dragon, all hell breaks lose in Aquilonia, and most neighboring states as well... as armies are on the march, and everyone is vying for a piece of the Aquilonian pie. This would, of course, include the Picts, and, in time (if Conn is not found/rescued/frees himself from whomever has him) the Turanians, in addition to Zingara, Nemedia, Ophir, Koth, and perhaps even Cimmeria.

Hell, maybe Conn just decided to run away, to be footloose and fancy free, like his father before him, and has to be persuaded to return to rule the kingdom his father conquered.

Everything in The Road of Kings essentially remains the same, the technology remains the same, but chaos reigns everywhere, and whole baronies could readily become depopulated, cities razed, etc. If Conn is never found/rescued (say, by the PCs) then it might turn into a 30 Year's War situation, until a new dynasty establishes itself. After all, Conan went through the old royal dynasties like a dose of salts...

That would solve the "too settled" problem and, in some cases, even the population problem.

 

[Anonymous]

Dear All,

I generally like the outline (but not the Tolkien influences) - but I think the dating systems need clarification.

You have got (excerpt):
Age of Chaos [6550 PA through 1 PA]
Age of Atlantl [1 AA through 5015 AA] (5015 AA being equal to 2015 CE)

Hang on, the current date today is only 5th September 2004 CE!!! Your saying that the Age of Atlantl ends in 11 years?!?

O.k. the above is slightly nit-picking, but CE is the world-wide designation for the period we live in now.

Lots of good stuff though.

 

[JamesMishler]

I generally like the outline (but not the Tolkien influences) - but I think the dating systems need clarification.

Understandable... it's a case of "You got your Tolkien in my Hoaward!" not being a taste everyone enjoys... (^_^)

You have got (excerpt):
Age of Chaos [6550 PA through 1 PA]
Age of Atlantl [1 AA through 5015 AA] (5015 AA being equal to 2015 CE)

Hang on, the current date today is only 5th September 2004 CE!!! Your saying that the Age of Atlantl ends in 11 years?!?

O.k. the above is slightly nit-picking, but CE is the world-wide designation for the period we live in now.

Yes, actually. I changed the calendric system used in Aerth's Aeropa. The original system measured from the ostensible fall of the Empire (AAF = After Altantl's Fall), which occured more or less around 4000 AA. However, calendar systems do not generaly measure from the *fall* of anything, they measure from the *beginning* of something. So I use the calendar based on the founding of the Altantean Empire (Atlantl, AA= Age of Altantl).

As for the Age of Atlantl ending in the equivalent of 2015 CE... yes, that is based on the Drenai timeline, at which I guesstimate the war that begins the Age of Fire and Ice occured in 2015 CE. In my Aerth campaign, magic is easily at the level of "apocalypic destruction" by 5000 AA (I guess the nearest equivalent is "nuclear winter fireballs" from HackMaster). The Great War from 5012-5015 ends in worldwide devastation and planetshift (like the Great Rain of Fire of Mystara).

Lots of good stuff though.

Thanks! Feel free to steal whatever you like...

 

[Truckle the Uncivil]

Well, maybe you've got a four-year margin of error there.
You may have heard of the "Long Count" of the Mayas, which is a pretty long reckoning, ending in the year 2011 (winter solstice, I believe).
(If you ever got into Shadowrun, you'll know about it)

I'm not too fond of intertwining different unrelated settings. Conan does not mix with Middle Earth. Bab5 does not mix with Star Trek. It's either the one or the other. What does mix is Earthdawn and Shadowrun, but those two have been designed to do so.

Personally, while I love LOTR and all things Middle-Earth, I prefer to regard this universe as a world of its own, not as our oerth.