My Conan modification // Campaign thread

[Clovenhoof]

Thanks Aholibamah - but I don't write on the REH forum so that must be someone else. ^^

Anyway, here's more of what happened:

The two fugitives, Venise and Lin, left the city early in the morning, led by their guide whom they had paid 15 silver in advance, rest due upon arrival, and they headed out west.

Cut to the other group:
Let's recall: the three escapees - a Pirate, a Thief and a Pit Fighter - had hired a Hunter to help them get out of the city. That worked, more or less. After several hours of marching, they chanced to reach a small campfire set up by a Barbarian, who invited them to share camp and food.

During the night, the Thief secretly left - he didn't bother trying to rob the others, since he knew full well they didn't have much. The next morning, the Hunter took his pay, since he had taken them out of the city, and went north. (This is just how I wrote out the characters whose players had left the group).

However, they then spotted a cloud of dust approaching from the city -- apparently, the local Lord had not been amused by part of his city being set on fire, and sent riders after them.
So the remaining travellers took to their heels -- the Barbarian quickly realized that the riders would probably not ask for ID, so he ran along. They had a considerable head start, and when the riders arrived at the camp, they had to decide what to do with the three sets of tracks: north, west and south, and eventually split up.

Of course it would be only a matter of time until they'd catch up. However, the next thing that happened was that this group caught up with the other group - after all, they were both heading west. At this time, the Pirate could not run any further. The other fugitives, however, came to a similar conclusion as the Barbarian, and besides, they had also committed a crime in the same city, so it might be they were wanted as well.
So in short, all of them decided to set up for defense on a nearby hill -- all save the second group's hired guide, who took to his heels and fled when nobody was paying attention. (He was just an NPC and I didn't feel like controlling him in battle as well, rolling up fights between my NPCs)

So they got ready for battle. Not that there was much to prepare, or a lot of time for it. The Barbarian advised to aim for the riders, not the horses:
"Dead horse is cover. Live horse is big pile of panic."
When the riders approached, they were first greeted by some sling bullets and thrown hatchets. It did not drop any of them, however.
Then the two groups clashed, and fierce combat ensued (first melee round: charges and readied actions. The riders did have Mounted Combat but not Ride-By Attack.)

Some players tried to unhorse some riders, and I wasn't sure how to handle that rules-wise. In the end I went for a simplified Grapple procedure.

Everyone fought to their best, but it was a tough and dangerous fight nonetheless -- most characters took damage, all except the new Thief to be precise. Eventually, it became clear that the walkers were gaining the upper hand.

Then something peculiar happened: the Pit Fighter, having pushed a rider off his horse (with a running jump), after killing said rider, swung himself on horseback and fled the scene although he was nearly unscathed.
At this time, there was only one rider remaining, and when he realized that, he spurred his horse and went after the flying fugitive. The rest of the new-formed party, however, did not take up the pursuit because they were exhausted. They caught their breath, tended to their wounds, and took possession of the horses.

They then discussed their options. The Barbarian was able to tell them that there were forests in the west, and the sea to the south, so they changed their original plan and turned south (the Pirate wanted it so badly). They just went a little bit further that day, covering their tracks, to get away from the battlefield, then set up camp for the night.

Meanwhile, the two riders' horses were also getting exhausted, and finally the Pit Fighter stopped and - surrendered. He obeyed the orders of his pursuer (who at the time had like 3HP left), lay on the ground, and did not resist getting tied. He then had to walk in front of the rider as they marched/rode back to the city.
There he was led before the city Lord, who - still reasonably outraged - in a memorable display of self-control did not lop off the arsonist's head outright, but had him cast in chains in the deepest dungeon.

The rest of the party continued south next day. They still covered their tracks so they made slow progress. Only pretty late did they come to the place where the other guy had surrendered, and found tracks leading northeast, back to the city

Again the party briefly discussed their options, and came to the conclusion that they were neither obliged nor inclined to return to the city and try to rescue the pit fighter, since his actions had been entirely random and rather stupid all the time.
So they continued south. After about ten more days of uneventul travel, foraging for food and water, they arrived at the next city, a rather small one but not unfriendly. All the time they had walked on foot because most of them could not ride. There they sold off the captured horses and bought a pair of mules instead (why they did not keep some horses as PACK animals I did not understand, but who am I to judge?)

With almost 100sp each, the adventures considered themselves quite rich, and went to the inn.

And that is as far as we got last night.

Evaluation and Debriefing:
I was happy with all players _except_ for the pit fighter. Again he did something totally random and stupid. And the player seemed to kind of expect ME to build him a golden bridge out of it. (The character said to the lord he was sorry (!!) and asked for pardon (!!!).) But that's not gonna happen. I am not the players' personal sideshow clown. Now he'll just have to face the consequences of his actions -- in short, that character is history.

I offered the player to make a new character, who could join the party in the new town. Yesterday he said he wanted to do that, today he said he didn't want to play anymore. Good riddance, I guess.

 

[Krushnak]

campaign sounds good so far except for the pit fighter. i had a player like that in my game who did some utterly stupid things and when they didnt go his way he stopped playing and reckons its the systems fault. i guess theres just always gotta be one of em around or something.

 

[Aholibamah]

It's hard sometimes for players to understand the TOUGH LAW aspect of playing in an older game. In my current game my pcs were horrified to hear that some admired NPCs had taken part in overseeing the garrotting of certain prisoners during a recent civil war. They were actually pale and trembling. I stopped the game and quietly explained to them that it was actually slightly more merciful than hanging--it seemed sadistic because of the strangling directly by human hands with a rope and a bar of wood but in fact hanging sometimes required similar assistance. They asked about beheading and I said that without a skilled headsman it could easily turn into butchery. I finally pointed out that it was a common sort of punishment and that it was not meant to be torture--that their characters probably had commonly heard of such things and even seen them.

Unfortunately a lot of players are used to a society that seems to be without consequences--people insult authority and get away with it so why shouldn't they in the game? They don't realize that in Hyboria for instance might makes right, period. You have to be tough and ready to run, distract, intrigue or kill to sidestep that fact.

As for the pit fighter--was that stupidity or inexperience? I can kind of see him quitting--not so much because of you as because the others weren't going to rescue him, that would suck.

It would be pretty hard without that to have him continue--frankly if he didn't have some kind of wild and crazy (and hopefully effective) escape he was as good as dead.

However it doesn't sound like your pit fighter ruined any aspect of your game, on the contrary it sounds like a realistic and harrowing chase.

 

[Clovenhoof]

They don't realize that in Hyboria for instance might makes right, period.

I tried my best to make this clear to them _before_ the game started. The PCs started jailed up and sentenced to death in the arena. They had to fight in the arena, and even if they won (they did) they just were led back to their cells to fight another day, until they die. No parole, no pardon.
The image I wanted to convey is the image that a human life is worth _nothing_ in this world (although its annihilation may provide for ample entertainment).

As for the pit fighter--was that stupidity or inexperience? I can kind of see him quitting--not so much because of you as because the others weren't going to rescue him, that would suck.

We asked him OOC what that was about - and he said something like "just acting on a whim". He is an inexperienced roleplayer, so I was willing to be patient. He just would have needed to try _anything_ - the guard only had 3HP left so even a punch in the face would have knocked him out. But he went like a lamb to the slaughter. I can't have a god descend from the heavens and smite his captor with firebolts from his eyes and cracks of lighting from his arse.
And I don't blame the others at all for not going after him, neither IC nor OOC. Beginner or not, he can't have possibly expected them to come after him.

The thing with this bloke is, he may even be good roleplayer material, but not for this style of roleplaying. From my assessment, he is more the narrativist / storyteller type. That's well and good, but not in my game. For example, in the second session he was like "I enter a house and there I find some clothes that fit me.", to which I replied "Um, not exactly.. you enter a house alright, and there the housewife does not take nicely to a 6-foot tall naked guy standing in her hallway, and gives you a hiding with her broom.", to which he had the nerve to reply "No, she's at the market, there's nobody home."
At which point I snapped "If YOU want to GM, you are welcome to open a group, but here and now _I_ lead the game and I told you what happens."
As you see, I write "player empowerment" in very fine letters in my game. I know this is modern and a trend, but I prefer my players to _ask_ rather than try and _tell_ me what happens in the world.

P.S.: Oh and no, he didn't ruin the game... luckily. I can't see how that simle setup could have been ruined, anyway. But maybe it's better if he isn't around when the plots get more complicated and he would be able to ruin the game...

 

[Aholibamah]

It sounds like he didn't get the etiquette of gaming either. This can be innocent in a way but some players do kind of take fantasy to an extreme...

One of my players for instance said at the start of the game "I have lots of daggers strapped to various areas of my body right?" and I told her (nicely) "No. Cause you never bought them. If you want some next time you find someone selling daggers you can buy them."

I think your guy there had trouble understanding that it is only HIS actions that he can dictate--everything else is done by you. Ah well. Anyway it still sounds like a fun campaign. One thing I particularly like is the barbaric/dark ages feel to it, everything sort of only quasi civilized.

 

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

THose all do sound intruiging in concept. I feel that one of the reason I got the Conan RPG was (beside being a fan of Hyboria) the lack of Demi-humans and classical monsters in the system.

As far as the world you are creating, that does sound 8) However, can you not just place the campaign in an early age of hyboria... Seems as though it would work just as well...

Perhaps one or two civilized lands would exist, namely Khitai and Stygia, the rest are still in developement...

Just an idea...

 

[Clovenhoof]

As far as the world you are creating, that does sound 8) However, can you not just place the campaign in an early age of hyboria... Seems as though it would work just as well...

Kind of like that, yes.... actually, I meanwhile have decided to use a _later_ age of Hyboria, so to speak. Much, much later... in short, not 20.000 years before our time, but _after_.

So the game world is essentially our world 20.000 years from now. This is in accordance with Howard's belief that cultural development is circular, and civilizations will always fall back to barbarism sooner or later.

(My players don't know this yet, by the way, but they are going to find out sooner or later)

At the time of our game, the end of the most recent age of high civilization lies around 1000 years back. The biggest/most powerful civilized entities are city states in the vein of greek Poleis.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Yibbieh, I finally took the time to draw a revised map for my game. ^^
As I mentioned above, we also play on our Earth -- but rather than 20.000 years before our time, it's now 20.000 years after. ^^

The synopsis is that mankind almost completely destroyed itself during the 21st century (destroying the environment, depleting all fuel reserves, and waging wars over the remaining resources... sounds familiar?), and the few survivors fell back into barbarism trying to save their naked lives. With changing climate, major migrations took place, especially in Europe. Today's ethnicities re-evolved to the races of the Hyborian age (for simplicity's sake). The climate first got hotter and very hostile, but without futher human interference, it stabilized on a more agreeable level after several thousands of years. With the environmental pressure relieved, mankind could once more develop civilizations. But these also fell again, and so now there are just a few civilized cities surviving in an otherwise savage world. We are talking about a worldwide population of maybe one to two hundred million people.

So, I drew a map based on real-world maps, but with differeent sea levels (so the continent isn't recognizable at first glance), and the terrain types changed to their potential natural vegetation (I happen to have such a map in my old atlas).

I placed the various races as follows:
- Hyborians: around the Black Sea (which is now called the Blood Sea). Aquilonia is a now a city on the Krim, Argos is on the Bosporus, Koth in Anatolia, and so on.
- Zingarans are on the southwestern coast of Anatolia.
- Cimmerians are currently placed in the Carpathians, but I'm considering to relocate them to the Caucasus.
- Nordheimir are in Northeast Russia and possibly in Scandinavia, if the penninsula isn't too frozen by then.
- Hyperboreans are also in Northern Russia.
- Zamorans are sort of a gypsy people living near the major rivers Volga and Don. I suppose I'll do without a City of Thieves like Shadizar [in a city of thieves, who do the thieves steal from, and what=].
- mostly all of Europe west of the Carpathians is primeval forest, and consequently inhabited by Picts.
- Hyrkanians / Turanians roam the area east of the Ural river and the Hyrkanian Sea.
- Shemites are still in Mesopotamia.
- most other easily identifiable races are also still where they are now, like Iranistani, Vendhyans, Khitans and so forth. Stygia will be Egypt but maybe extending to the Jordan vale (just so they are a bit closer to the Hyborian regions).

The PCs have met in a city near the Ural, and now fled from there to another city by the Emba river, which will lead them to the Vilayet, pardon, Hyrkanian sea, and from there most probably further to the west..

If I ever get my scanner to work on this computer, I'll scan in the map I drew and post it here.

 

[Damien]

Just popping in to say that I'm much enjoying your game session recounting, Cloven. It's a very creative idea and seems like it's working well for you. So far it appears that it would certainly be worthwhile to bind it all together as a full campaign journal once the game is finished. Fun reading.

The absurdity of your 'pit fighter' player gave me a good laugh. I just can't imagine sitting down to this type of game and, in the midst of combat, saying 'I flee, flee for my life!' And certainly not then thinking "what do you mean they aren't going to come save my cowardly behind?"


One thing I'm curious about here is - are you using more primitive weapons as a staple for your setting? In a world without a lot of major centers of civilization and learning, it would certainly be more difficult to find anyone capable of working iron into steel, or even working with bronze. Metalworking and similar 'medieval, late migrations and classical era' technologies sort of require a civilization. So as I've been reading your campaign progress, I keep imagining the gear and weapons as very primitive - stone, heavy leather, some bronze and a little iron. But I could be totally off the mark there.

 

[Clovenhoof]

One thing I'm curious about here is - are you using more primitive weapons as a staple for your setting?

Good question! Indeed I thought about it. Eventually I decided to somewhat restrict the tech level, taking some historical cultures and developments as orientation, as well as considering the resource situation.

For example, north of the Black Sea lies the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, world's largest deposit of iron ore. There are also plenty of forests and even brown coal deposit nearby to supply fuel. So the tribes in this area have access to all things you need to make steel. However, they can't dig mineshafts, so they can only use what they can dig up on the surface.

To make a long story short: most races will have access to iron working, but the supply is limited and their are also certain limits to their workmanship. This means that available weapons will be mostly spears, axes and similar weapons that can be made out of a relatively small amount of iron.
There are only few smiths capable of forging blades longer than a short sword, and these will be very expensive (Conan already has a pretty good reflection of that, but maybe I'll take it even further). So you can't expect to be able to buy a sword in any town you enter, and usually they will only be made to order anyway.

I ruled a silver piece to weigh ~2g, so 125sp (Conan listed price for a broadsword) are about half a pound of silver. Maybe I'll take this even further. If you want to handle these things realistically, steel is a lot more expensive than iron (the difference being the carbon content). That's why historical axe-heads are made largely of iron, with a rather narrow steel edge welded to it, or why traditional "kobuse gitae" katanas have a spine of iron instead of being made of pure steel.

Anyway: some regions will rely mainly on bronze, for example the Picts because they don't have the knowledge, and some others because they don't have the resources needed to make iron weapons. Kushites may even be restricted to stone.

As for armour, this again is limited by material requirements and tech level limits. For example, they can't make large single iron plates, so Plate Armour is simply not available at all, while bronze Breastplates may be available (which is heavier and doesn't protect near as good as iron armour).

The most massive iron armours available are Scale Hauberks and comparable armour, for example as the types seen here:
http://www.geocities.com/normlaw/page9.html

Note that the previous civilization was more advanced, so some superior weapons and armour may be found as relics if you're lucky. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to have superior contemporary weapons (read: Akbitanan), but probably relic weapons are the way to go.

So as I've been reading your campaign progress, I keep imagining the gear and weapons as very primitive - stone, heavy leather, some bronze and a little iron. But I could be totally off the mark there.

Well, most tribes are past the stone age, but bronze is still pretty common, and iron is scarce and valuable, so you're not at all off the mark there. ^^

 

[Clovenhoof]

Today's session was very unproductive. The players were just too silly, it was as if they'd had a clown for breakfast. So we only played two hours (and they were fooling around most of that time).

So what happened: they continued their way to the coast of the Hyrkanian Sea, and there in the port city, they planned their further advance. Listening around in the taverns, the Pirate managed to gather some information, among other things about a buried temple at the southeastern shore. And what did they do? Said it was too far out of the way and they didn't want to go back to the desert, so they skipped the temple.

It could have been worse -- I hadn't done a lot of prep work, and wasn't even quite sure about _what_ they would find there, so I wasn't too mad at them.

They continued to listen around and, because I had my Ruins of Hyboria book handy, told them some vage rumours about the Isle of Iron Statues. As soon as I said "The locals avoid this island" they were all about going there. They did not hear anything about the statues, not even that they exist.

Since they were determined to go there, they managed to hire a fisherman who'd take them there with his boat, and was willing to pick them up after three days, for a rather stiff fee (40sp for the party and their two mules).

So they made it to the island, and spent the first afternoon setting up a camp at the beach. Only at the next morning they headed for the central plateau where the ruins were supposed to be. They found them alright (early afternoon) and it took quite a while until they dared to approach and enter the Great Hall.

They saw the statues, and of course were expecting them to come alive. Which did not happen - yet. They searched the hall and, since I had not the heart to tell them they didn't find crap, I let the Thief discover an overgrown mural at the far end of the hall. She also found several drains in the floor (I had placed these there just to make them a little nervous -- they immediately associated "drains" with "blood").

We broke off here. Next time they will remove the vines and stuff. By way of the mural, they may either find an entrance to an underground level - if I can come up with a good idea what they'll find there. Or they'll find some clue about the moonlight. Either way, if they stay until nightfall, they'll see what happens when moonlight touches the statues...

Tiny problem for the players: those statues have whopping 6 HD, and I placed several dozen statues in the hall. The party is still 2nd level. They were _warned_ that the island is very dangerous. They probably wouldn't even be able to take out a single statue (what with a Hardness of 8...). I suppose that fleeting clouds would be the only thing between them and TPK.

 

[Vortigern]

Well, I suppose that depends on whether you want to reinforce the lethality of the setting... or spare their feelings? Perhaps you could have them confined to the original grounds of the temple ( where the walls were ) so that the group can run back to their camp and get away once they start losing the fight? I'd imagine such golems are not terribly fast?

The key to them knowing it's time to run would be the description of how little effect they blows are having on the metal statuary I'd think?

 

[Clovenhoof]

First off, I don't want to kill them. As a matter of principle, I don't kill PCs, players get their PCs killed. Currently they can't really know in what danger they are, so it would be unfair to have them surrounded by killer monsters with no way out.

I'd imagine such golems are not terribly fast?

The key to them knowing it's time to run would be the description of how little effect they blows are having on the metal statuary I'd think?

They are pretty effing fast! 40ft base speed. So the players can't outrun them. They are easy to hit (DV 12 or so) but they have a Hardness of 8, which cannot be halved by AP or bypassed by Finesse, and of course they are immune to Critical Hits.
They aren't incredibly strong though, and will not move away too far from the hall, because they want to be at their places when the moon disappears.

Since only two of the PCs have the Strength to do _any_ damage (and then only in onesies-twosies), it would probably take hours to take out just one statue. They may have a better chance if they just try to trip them and run away. But all in all, they'll probably have to be saved by the clouds, considering the overwhelming odds. I can only hope they get smart and don't return until they are strong enough to take on the statues.

 

[Aholibamah]

How about this...(btw I love that particular story) have a typical REH thing happen--another group arrives to investigate the place while they are somewhere else in the complex. They hear HORRIBLE SCREAMS and such and realize the statues have activated. This might prompt them to flee if they are smart.

 

[Krushnak]

have the statues slowly come to life as they are bathed in moonlight reaching their fully charged status when the moon is at its highest point and then have them slowly power down and return to their positions. this should allow the pc's to get a few swings in, realise they are horrendously outclassed and let them flee. if they dont then tough cookies but if they do they could just return during the day if they are brave enough and set some traps up for the statues(mainly thinking pits and trip ropes).

 

[Style]

Evaluation and Debriefing:
I was happy with all players _except_ for the pit fighter. Again he did something totally random and stupid. And the player seemed to kind of expect ME to build him a golden bridge out of it. (The character said to the lord he was sorry (!!) and asked for pardon (!!!).) But that's not gonna happen. I am not the players' personal sideshow clown. Now he'll just have to face the consequences of his actions -- in short, that character is history.

I can't believe you're holding characters accountable for their actions. What the hell kind of sadistic DM are you? :x

 

[Clovenhoof]

I can't believe you're holding characters accountable for their actions. What the hell kind of sadistic DM are you? :x

Yeah, I'm a monster.
Seriously, I've always been rather generous towards my players, but I also make a point that their PCs are responsible for their own actions. I'm more than willing to let a player whittle out a blunder here and there, but if the crap piles too high, I simply refuse to alter the entire universe just to clear their records.

By the way, the player in question has eventually quit the group a while after. I don't like to say "good riddance", but I can't say I'm too sad about it.

 

[Style]

I took my players to the Isle of Iron Statues tonight. I used this:

How about this...(btw I love that particular story) have a typical REH thing happen--another group arrives to investigate the place while they are somewhere else in the complex. They hear HORRIBLE SCREAMS and such and realize the statues have activated. This might prompt them to flee if they are smart.

Phenomenal session. I was really pleased with how it went. None of the players had read the story, which helps, plus I added my own twists any way. Everything went off flawlessly.