King (Kong) Conan

Melkor

Mongoose
So I was watching the movie King Kong while I was flipping through The Pirate Isles book I bought the other day, and it got me thinking...

Two great tastes that go great together.

A wealthy merchant has got it in his head that he can capture and bring back some gigantic beast from an island somewhere (or even recover something else from the island if you don't want to create an exact copy of King Kong).

The PCs are part of the ships crew hired by the merchant, or they are hired by the merchant to actually carry out the mission. It would be easy to do the 'rescue the damsel in distress' angle.

That being the case, the Pirate Isles seems to cover all of the ship information I need, but other than that book, I only have the Atlantean edition rulebook, and Tower of the Elephant.

  • What other books would be useful to plan a campaign like this ?

    Anything dealing with giant insects ? Dinosaurs ? A giant ape ? What about the savages that inhabit the island ?

    Any thoughts on what island I could use, or if not, where (geographically) I should put the island ?

    Any ideas on what could happen on the journey to the island ?

    Any ideas on interesting plot hooks to throw at the characters while they are on the island ?

Thanks!
 
You are 100% correct. When I watched the Kong remake all I could think is Howard, Howard, Howard.

Ruins? Check. Evil tribespeople? Check. Giant ancient beast? Check.

Its just too bad Adrien Brody isn't a square-cut maned, blue-eyed, 250lbs of pure muscle Cimmerian.

As for books, I don't think you need anything else. Maybe Ruins of Hyboria could help but I don't even have it yet so couldn't be sure. I think you have everything you need to make an excellent Skull Island. Just take the Grey Ape in Atlantean and add a few thousand lbs of death and you'll be good to go.
 
It's definitely a cool idea! I'd put it somewhere south of the Pearl Islands and have the party leave from Vendhya, Iranistan or even Zembabwei. If the party sails from the Hyborian lands then they would go around the Fires of the South. So if you were to follow my suggestions then Tales of the Black Kingdoms might be useful.

Hope you don't mind if I borrow this one for future use.
 
strombani said:
Hope you don't mind if I borrow this one for future use.

Heck no!
Borrow away - just be sure to report back whatever you use.

If you don't mind me asking, what are the Fires of the South ?
 
Excellent! I have been using the free stuff in Signs and Portents 30, 29 and 27 and I'll be looking at 26 later. It talks about man apes in one of those, number 27 and 26 has an article as well. I think taking one of those and adding a little bulk would make a great King Kong type.

Instead of an island I plan to put my big ape in a valley in the Border Kingdom or perhaps in the Pictish Wilderness.

As for the Fires of the South the Hyborian age map download shows them as the extreme south end of the Black Kingdoms. A string of volcanoes along the southern end of the continent. At the bottom of this page are the downloads from Moongoose with the map:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/series.php?qsSeries=7

I believe the Servants of Bit Yakin came from somewhere in that region. Anyway a ship could sail from Hyborian Ports and after much adventure find an island down that way.
 
Melkor said:
  • What other books would be useful to plan a campaign like this ?

    Anything dealing with giant insects ? Dinosaurs ? A giant ape ? What about the savages that inhabit the island ?

    Any thoughts on what island I could use, or if not, where (geographically) I should put the island ?

    Any ideas on what could happen on the journey to the island ?

    Any ideas on interesting plot hooks to throw at the characters while they are on the island ?

Thanks!
You might find the following useful in answering some of your questions, The World of Kong : A Natural History of Skull Island
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/14...104-1936902-7248706?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
 
OK, I borrowed the concept of a giant man ape. I put him in the Border Kingdom up near the Cimmerian border. It will be a mountain valley that the big fellow can't get out of because he's grown too large. The ancient temple will be a Valusian or an Archeronian ruin. I may only use the Kong substitute. But I may have some sort of fading tribe that worships at the temple drive the PC's into the valley.

Thanks again for the idea, I was going with a sorceror's tomb guarded by a summoned beast for the adventure at first and was not satisfied. I like this better. I'm debating now what other creatures to put in the valley, mammoths, bears and possibly sabretoothed cats.
 
I would say that Ruins of Hyboria would be an almost critical aid in running a King Kong-inspired adventure. In addition to dinosaurs, it's got bug swarms. Making an ultra-beefy ape man, especially with the Signs and Portents magazine, would be easy.

Note that the "monster retrieval" plot doesn't have to be a giant ape. Almost any critter that's big and feirce enough could qualify. If you want them to be damsel snatching it's a little harder to justify though.

I'd recommend more plot complications if you were to run that kind of adventure. Especially if they are fans of the movie, the players likely know exactly how the plot will go. You could have the native tribesmen form hunting parties to hound the PCs and protect their totem. Have the PCs compete against a rival group to capture the beast. For a really wild, require the PCs to smuggle the captured beast through one country to another. If they catch it in a valley in Hyperborea and they need to get it to Nemedia, what if the Hyperboreans won't let them by? Imagine trying to sneak a giant, pissed off ape all that way.
 
there are two D&D modules that could help with that the isle of dread
which i think would be perfect for conan and the isle of the ape
 
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