New to running Conan...

[CassieCaine]

Hi everyone! As the subject says, I'm new to running Conan. So new, in fact, that my group hasn't even made it all the way through character gen yet. I never knew there was any more to Conan besides the first movie until I heard about the MMO, and was delighted to find out how rich of a world setting it is and how fun the stories are the read. I was thinking how much I would love to run a tabletop game in this world, and was even more delighted to find out that I wouldn't have to make up rules for it!

But now, my new friends, I am stuck. There are a lot of books in the catalog, and I sadly do not have the money to purchase all of them. When you were just starting out, which books did you find the most useful? (Aside from the core book, of course.) Which books did you wish you had, but didn't? I'm thinking of picking up the Player's Guide and Bestiary first - are these books really useful, or would I be better off with purchasing adventure modules (at least at first)?

Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[Yogah of Yag]

Welcome!
In my opinion, all you really need are the original stories of Robert E. Howard (the creator of Conan), and the core rulebook. (I have the "Atlantean" or previous edition, so I can't attest to how good the 2nd, or current edition is, though.) Everything else is gravy. DelRey has a 3 volume paperback set of REH's stories that I highly recommend. The original tales are a blast to read, and your players should also read them too to get the 'feel' of Conan and his ancient world. :wink:

Vol. 1

Vol. 2

Vol. 3

 

[KemperBoyd]

Seconding Yogah's idea of reading the original stories.

Also, Return to the Road of Kings, Secrets of Skelos and the three books from the Hyboria's series are really good. They are practically the only books I bring to the gaming table any longer.

Pirate Isles is a must if you are going to run pirate adventures and Ruins of Hyboria is a great but not necessary book. The rest of the books are not necessary but I bought them still

 

[Hervé]

Aside from the core rulebook, some books might prove useful for a start.

The (return to the) Road of Kings is a nice atlas of the hyborian world, and Ruins of Hyboria describe many mysterious settings from the Conan stories ripe for adventuring.

Across The Thunder River is a good campaign sourcebook in the Pictish Wilderness.

For a lighter approach go for ready to play modules like Tower of the Elephant or Heretics of Tarantia.

The Bestiary and the Players Guide are nice but wouldn't be my first pick.
As the rules are pretty much complex I wouldn't recommend rules supplements (as the Hyboria's Series or the Secrets of Skelos book mentioned by Kemperboyd) as early choices. You'll get enough crunch in the rulebook for a start...

And of course, like Yogah stated, read the original novels!

 

[Yogah of Yag]

Addendum:

One word of caution: beware of the maps in the RPG books. They are not especially accurate if you are a perfectionist, but they are serviceable. The author/ REH historian Dale Rippke has made maps which he feels are more in alignment with REH's stories. They are out there in the ether someplace.

 

[Ichabod]

Ignoring specialized material such as Pirate Isles or Across the Thunder River, since those are highly campaign dependent, from a GM perspective, I'd look at where your strengths and weaknesses are.

If you have no problem stat blocking up opposition, than Bestiary isn't likely to be any more helpful than stealing ideas out of an old Monster Manual. If you can quickly put together a quick explore the unknown adventure, Ruins of Hyboria is less important. If you either don't care much about religion or know what you want to do with it, Faith and Fervor isn't important.

That being said, I'd probably look to Road of Kings and/or Return to the Road of Kings to help knowing the world in more detail, Scrolls of Skelos and/or Secrets of Skelos for more fleshed out sorcery. I referenced Hyboria's Fallen a lot more than the other Hyboria's F*'s, but you might want to find out which mechanics they flesh out (Fiercest does man vs. nature, Fallen expands social skills, etc.) to see if anything seems important to implement. I'm not real up on the Player's Guide, but I don't recall it being that useful, at least to players. Our GM thinks it's more suitable for GMs.

For players, other than scanning through feat lists, the core book is referenced way, way more than everything else combined.

Summarizing top general choices, though none are strictly necessary:
1. Return to the Road of Kings
2. Secrets of Skelos
3. What you need the most help with mechanically

 

[Hervé]

Mongoose is publishing a free online magazine, Signs & Portents. Most contains Conan features. Look for the sticky at the head of this forum for an Index of the Conan issues.
Here's Mongoose S&P link:
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/series.php?qsSeries=13

Hope you'll like your stay on this forum. Welcome, pal!

 

[Clovenhoof]

Yeah, just use the core rulebook for crunch. When I want to attract new players to Conan I show them the Pocket Edition and tell them this is all you need to play. Everybody likes that.

 

[KemperBoyd]

As the rules are pretty much complex I wouldn't recommend rules supplements (as the Hyboria's Series or the Secrets of Skelos book mentioned by Kemperboyd) as early choices. You'll get enough crunch in the rulebook for a start...

I like the Hyboria's series because of the fluff

It has neat little details on how for example soldiers from different nations kit themselves out and good ideas for multiclassing characters. The Secrets of Skelos gives basically a load of nice items and new spells and tips on how to run sorcerers as enemies to the players, which is very good.

 

[Hervé]

I keep on thinking that there's enough rule material in the core rulebook for a start. The Skelos and Hyboria's Books are excellent, but more suited to advanced gaming. I would say: get the rulebook, pick up a ready to play adventure (Tower or Heretics are the best for me) and start playing. If your players like it, go for Road of Kings, and next get the books that seem more in your group style...

 

[flatscan]

Get the 2nd edition of the main rulebook and make sure it's the 2nd printing. If it is, it comes with an adventure and plenty of critters and antagonists listed in the back. You'll have plenty of material for a first adventure with it. After that, if you want to create your own adventures I'd purchase Ruins of Hyboria, Bestiary of the Hyborian Age, and Return to the Road of Kings and the upcoming Cities of Hyboria book. But you know, if I were just starting out GMing this game I'd be severely tempted to purchase and run the Trial of Blood campaign that Mongoose recently published which will take your PCs from 1st to 12th level or so, and forget about those other books (except for the main rulebook of course) for the moment.

 

[Brisco]

To begin with, I would get the core rulebook and Trial of Blood. This contains enough adventures to keep the game running for months. In that time, find what you and your players are interested in and then get the relevant regional books and adventures.

I bought everything I could get my hands on (and none of them are useless) but those two books offer the best value for money if you're just getting started.

Happy Trials,
Brisco.

 

[Hervé]

Trial of Blood is sure a nice campaign, but if you're new to Conan and D20, I would advice some "rules training" on smaller stand alone adventures before running this quite long campaign...