Indy adventures in Hyboria?

J-Star

Mongoose
Last week I watched the Indiana Jones trilogy on DVD; it had been a while and I'd almost forgotten how those films set a new standard for action adventure... and I started wondering how well the Indy saga might be adapted to Hyboria and the Conan RPG.

For the character, high levels of either barbarian or borderer seem likely, depending on if the character is a Conan-eqsue barbarian or a civilized adventurer. At least a few levels of thief for locating and acquiring treasure and dealing with traps, and possibly a few levels of soldier for raw combat ability. Scholar may or may not be appropriate for knowledge skills but I figure that would be better represented by a high intelligence and thus bonus skill points. The character archtype we're talking about is a quick-witted, tough-as-nails action hero after all. Signature gear would include light armor, probably leather but possibly a mail shirt in the Hyborian Age. The whip is possible for trip attacks and swinging over chasms and what not, but equally likely in Hyboria is the trusty broadsword the Brawler feat.

As for the adventures, the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark would fit perfectly, IMHO, in the Pictish wilderness. Temple of Doom could easily be set in Vendhya or even the Black Kingdoms, where several montrous deities are worshipped and dark sorcery is performed.

The main plot of Raiders might also work, with some tweaking. I figure the expansionist Turanians, the evil-cult-led Stygians, or even the Hyperboreans would fill the role of the evil empire. The Ark or a similar object could possibly fit in the Hyborian Age. I could see the climax of Raiders occurring in a Howard-esque story. Due to it's darker side, a Hyborian version of the Ark wouldn't necessarily have to belong to a good diety such as Mitra.

Last Crusade would probably hardest to adapt but I figure a creative GM could do it. The Grail doesn't really fit Howard's vision but even Howard did hint at some form of magical healing in Xuthal. So with a really good background story it might be possible to introduce a mostly "good" magical item into Hyboria.

Here's one possibility I just pulled out of the air... perhaps Ibis is in fact of Stygian origin and was driven out by the priesthood of Set. Perhaps in ancient times the priest of Ibis were indeed able to discover the secret of magical healing, before they were driven out and their talisman was lost. Since then the priests have spent ages trying to rediscover it, and now perhaps Kalanthes or a similar character (filling the role of Henry Jones :wink: ) has discovered it and needs help retrieving it from the deserts that Stygia used to claim, before the Stygians themselves or perhaps the Turianians get ahold of it.

Oh, one other thing, Indy's friend Sallah (played by the same actor who played Gimli in LOTR) would be perfect as a Meadow Shemite solider.

So yeah, that's my thoughts on adapting the Indy saga to the Hyborian Age. Thoughts or comments anyone?
 
Good thoughts. I always considered the IJ series good for inspiration, but I agree the plots could be 'ported wholesale.

Other movies that I think lend themselves well to Conan are the Mummy and Mummy Returns and the 13th Warrior.

Azgulor
 
Azgulor said:
Other movies that I think lend themselves well to Conan are the Mummy and Mummy Returns and the 13th Warrior.

Azgulor

YES! Those are 3 of my all-time favorites. The Mummy movies are pretty much the same genre as Indy, and they would fit perfectly in the sands of Shem or Old Stygia. I watched the 13th Warrior a couple weeks ago and the Wendol seriously reminded me of the Picts, and the Northmen could easily be adapted as Cimmerians or Nordheim.

Back to Indy... if you were to "port" Temple of Doom to Conan, what sorcery styles and spells would you give Mola Ram? I can think of one definite requirement... DRAW FORTH THE HEART! Tortured Sacrifce feat seems likely as well, and some form of hypnotism. How would you define the sacred stones in game terms? They definitely demonstrated some magical properties in the movie. And... are there stats for giant crocodiles in any of the Conan RPG books published so far? :twisted:

The more I consider Raiders of the Lost Ark the more I could see it fitting in Conan; an Old Stygian city buried under the sands of Shem, hiding a vessel, sought by the modern Stygians or Turanians, that holds trapped ghosts or demons, lethal to those foolish enough to try to harness their power!

Last Crusade I still think would take some tweaking or creativity.
 
If you're not already aware of the background of 13th Warrior check out the book by Michael Crichton Eaters of the Dead. He gives a nice afterward explaining why he wrote the book. Basically the first part is an only slightly edited version of Ibn Fadlan's account of the Vikings and the rest uses the genre to tell the "true" story of Beowulf.

Also, the Wendol, in the book, are a pocket of surviving Neandertals.

Rapahel
 
Raphael said:
If you're not already aware of the background of 13th Warrior check out the book by Michael Crichton Eaters of the Dead. He gives a nice afterward explaining why he wrote the book. Basically the first part is an only slightly edited version of Ibn Fadlan's account of the Vikings and the rest uses the genre to tell the "true" story of Beowulf.

Also, the Wendol, in the book, are a pocket of surviving Neandertals.

Rapahel

Yep. Haven't had a chance to actually read the book but I'm aware of its premise. In terms of porting the movie to the Conan RPG, I still think the Wendol fit well as Picts.
 
I think that if you are trying ot create an Indy-type character he would be various levels of Scholar(primary) and Borderer. If you watch the films, the poor guy really doesn't know how to fight in melee and his ability to do so at all relies on surprise, the reach of the whip and a lot of luck. He does have a vast arry of knowledge and skills, and a Scholar class would suit this the best. Give him a higer than average DEX and CON to make him more durable and give him a couple of feats to enhance the same.

As far as running and creating trap-based adventures, the new GM Guide 2 has some really great ideas. Check that out at you local game store.
 
I have to disagree. I've seen the movies many times, and while surprise and luck are often involved in the melee scenes, Indy is a decent fighter with his fists and his whip. He's also a pretty good shot with a pistol though that doesn't exist in Hyboria, which is why I think the broadsword would be a good choice weapon if you are adapting the character to the Hyborian Age. I don't think the Conan RPG scholar really fits what Indy is all about, even with high Dex and Con. I think borderer-thief, with high intelligence and knowledge skills, is more appropriate. Keep in mind that I'm specifically discussing an adaptation of the character for the Hyborian Age, not a direct "port", so he could even be a barbarian-thief if you wanted to make him more Conan-like.

BTW, the GM Guide 2 you're referring to... that's a D&D book isn't it? I've pretty much sworn off D&D books.
 
it's hard to define what Indy really is with DD (or Conan) classes. He definitly has some scholarship and dabler feats because he gladly use occult powers when he knows how to use them.
He travelled a lot, so some nomad levels would be good too.
 
Well, since Indy served in WWI, I'd say he has to have at least a level or two of soldier. Definitely followed by levels in Scholar. For further enhancing his fighting ability, I'd say levels in Borderer and/or Soldier. Although given the opening "treasure rescue" of Raiders and being viewed occasionally as a grave-robber, a few levels of Thief might be in order as well.

Best guess:
Soldier/Scholar/Thief

Azgulor
 
Indy served in WWI? I've watched all 3 movies too many times to count and I've never seen or heard any references to that... unless it was in the Young Indiana Jones adventures or whatever that was. If that's the case than at least a few soldier levels would apply.

The King's right; it's really hard to define Indy in terms of character classes which is why I prefer the idea of adapting the basic character concept to the Conan RPG. I think some combination of borderer, soldier, and thief would be most effective, w/ high intelligence, knowledge skills, and as The King pointed out the Dabbler feat. Levels of scholar aren't inappropriate, just the not approach I personally would take.
 
J-Star said:
Due to it's darker side, a Hyborian version of the Ark wouldn't necessarily have to belong to a good diety such as Mitra.

I did exactly this two or three years ago in my Cthulhu-campaign. The Ark was supposed to be much, much older than the Jews and indeed an artifact from the Atlantean Age, where a deity Mitor was revered - a kind of proto-Mitra, in roughly the same way like REH's Mitra is a prototype of the Jewish / Christian God. Signs and Runes on the Ark which were commonly believed to be a kind of archaic Hebrew spelling JHW, were in reality Atlantean spelling Mitor. The characters actually never saw the Ark itself, just photographies of the signs (mysteries should remain mysteries) - it was probably better for the world, because the characters were German secret agents / members of the occult part of the SS - some kind of anti-Indiana Jones (in fact I was partly inspired by the movie).

Hyborian Age and Cthulhu are wonderful for crossovers!
 
J-Star said:
Indy served in WWI? I've watched all 3 movies too many times to count and I've never seen or heard any references to that... unless it was in the Young Indiana Jones adventures or whatever that was. If that's the case than at least a few soldier levels would apply.

Actually, a little bit of both. In Raiders, Indy's response to learning that people from the Dept. of Defense want to meet with him is "I already served." The Young Indiana Jones adventures had Indy fighting in WWI as an under-age soldier if I recall correctly.

Azgulor
 
Azgulor said:
In Raiders, Indy's response to learning that people from the Dept. of Defense want to meet with him is "I already served."

Azgulor

Dang! I've seen Raiders so many times and I never picked that line up!
 
Azgulor said:
J-Star said:
Indy served in WWI? I've watched all 3 movies too many times to count and I've never seen or heard any references to that... unless it was in the Young Indiana Jones adventures or whatever that was. If that's the case than at least a few soldier levels would apply.

Actually, a little bit of both. In Raiders, Indy's response to learning that people from the Dept. of Defense want to meet with him is "I already served." The Young Indiana Jones adventures had Indy fighting in WWI as an under-age soldier if I recall correctly.

Azgulor
You are correct if I am not mistaken Indy was a spy in Belgium and he then met up with Lawrence of Arabia....
 
Azgulor said:
Other movies that I think lend themselves well to Conan are the Mummy and Mummy Returns and the 13th Warrior.

Azgulor

Funny you should mention that - I was planning a Conan campaign for the office that was based heavily on the Mummy films!
 
From Crichton I have been thinking about Congo. There are many interesting elements in it for a Conan story: a lost city in the deepest jungle of the black kingdoms, a trail full of perils but worth risking it, for at the end lie the fabled diamond mines of an ancient king, oneiric revelations, an unsuspected and deadly threat awaiting in the dark, some sort of ultra-violent hyborian apemen, bred in antiquity to develop the trait by the king's men. Could be a great story for a group with a scholar.

Still need to think how to adapt the part of the talking gorilla being returned to the jungle.
 
How about instead of a gorrilla, a (quasi-?) tamed man-ape that has learned to communicate via grunts and gestures?

Per the RPG, "scholars occasionally travel to these mountains and attempt to train man-apes but because of their high inteligence such training always risks breaking down"...

Now c'mon, it wouldn't be a Conan-twist if an ally didn't become an enemy in the climactic end-battle would it?

Azgulor
 
Voltumna said:
From Crichton I have been thinking about Congo. There are many interesting elements in it for a Conan story: a lost city in the deepest jungle of the black kingdoms, a trail full of perils but worth risking it, for at the end lie the fabled diamond mines of an ancient king, oneiric revelations, an unsuspected and deadly threat awaiting in the dark, some sort of ultra-violent hyborian apemen, bred in antiquity to develop the trait by the king's men. Could be a great story for a group with a scholar.

Still need to think how to adapt the part of the talking gorilla being returned to the jungle.

Maybe the "original" Indiana Jones is of interest to you: Allan Quatermain, created by Sir Henry Rider Haggard. One of the classic novels is "King Solomon's mines" where Quatermain is searching for the diamond mines of the biblical king deep in 19th century Africa.

P.S.: The Quatermain-movies are only a very bad imitation compared to Haggard's original novels. Another Haggard-classic is "She" about a millenia-old witch queen reigning in the African jungle - both novels are great stuff for RPGs.
 
Azgulor said:
How about instead of a gorrilla, a (quasi-?) tamed man-ape that has learned to communicate via grunts and gestures?

Per the RPG, "scholars occasionally travel to these mountains and attempt to train man-apes but because of their high inteligence such training always risks breaking down"...

Now c'mon, it wouldn't be a Conan-twist if an ally didn't become an enemy in the climactic end-battle would it?

Azgulor
In one of his short stories ("Rogues in the house") there is a man-ape named Thak about which is a grey ape serving as a kind of house body guard for a noble. Howard then wrote some lines about the origins and the intelligenc of the being.
It is common to have some semi intelligent apes in Africa-like civilizations but in his Hyborian Age Howard writes about the decline of these Northern civilizations after the Cataclysm. Men stops to evolve and regress to an ape-like state only surviving in the mountains. Hence we encounter those creature in the Kezankian Mountains (Zamora) but also on the Eastern Shore of the Vilayet Sea.
There are also some talks of white apes in the Northern range (in the glaciers beyond Nordheim and Hyperborea).

Returning to "Afro-apes" I believe there is some myths about them in older African civilization (Congo, Mali, etc..). In fact there is a game about these myths which is called "Dark Continent, Adventure & Exploration in Darkest Africa" from New Breed (www.darkcontinentrpg.com) and which takes place in the Victorian Area but could easily be converted to any period.
 
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