I found an interesting Conan "hack" for the Original D&D system called Age of Conan. I know few, if any folks here are familiar with (or into) the OD&D game, but someone might find it interesting (the core rules can be found here). Being for OD&D, none of these rules are final, and like the core rules themselves - its all house rules!
Even if you are not interested with any of this, you might find this useful. A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming is a simple guide for gamers who want to play the older games, but got into the game in the 3.x years. Its also has good advice for folks who want to play a minimalist game unrated to D&D (e.g.: playing the Hero Quest boardgame as a RPG lit).
One thing that was not stated, is the fact that Classes are not Archetypes into themselves. When you play a Fighter (Fighting-man in OD&D), you can be a Barbarian, Solder, Noble, Thief (Thieves was not apart of the original core rules), and so on, but no one is going around calling themselves a "Fighter". As noted with the Primer, you dont need special rules to cover everything, so the benefits of a Archetype is mostly fluff. So if you want a player's Barbarian character to be more distinguished then other Fighter-types, you - as the DM - could rule that he can go into a "berserker's rage" when the character is pushed into a corner. The benefits of Nobility can go beyond even what the Conan rules would allow (contacts, influence, and such), and without having to wait so many levels for a new benefit. Simply put, the classes is just a mechanical element, and everything else is just fluff.
If you are into old-school gaming, and unique Sword & Sorcery settings, that I suggest a book called Supplement V: CARCOSA (this is a useful add-on for it). This book takes inspiration from many sources (CoC, Elric, Wilderlands, Tékumel, Gamma World, Worms of the Earth, Out of the Æons, and others). Its a stark alien world with super-evolved beasts, strange technology, dark sorcery, cthuliods (and the Mythos), and humans so secluded and primitive, they are too insignificant to factor in the plans of all the dangerous thing in the world. The races of man are a color-coded race created by an extinct race of Snake-men. Such colors are as vivid as the colors of a rainbow - and then some. They even have the alien colors from David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus (Dolm, Jale, and Ulfire). The spells are non-mechanical, and would have the caster do complex and elaborate rituals for the spell to take effect. Most of the spells are Summoning types, and a few are Warding types. This game is as "sandbox" as you can get, and a lot of background details are left up to the players to full.
I hope you guys find something useful out of all this!
Even if you are not interested with any of this, you might find this useful. A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming is a simple guide for gamers who want to play the older games, but got into the game in the 3.x years. Its also has good advice for folks who want to play a minimalist game unrated to D&D (e.g.: playing the Hero Quest boardgame as a RPG lit).
One thing that was not stated, is the fact that Classes are not Archetypes into themselves. When you play a Fighter (Fighting-man in OD&D), you can be a Barbarian, Solder, Noble, Thief (Thieves was not apart of the original core rules), and so on, but no one is going around calling themselves a "Fighter". As noted with the Primer, you dont need special rules to cover everything, so the benefits of a Archetype is mostly fluff. So if you want a player's Barbarian character to be more distinguished then other Fighter-types, you - as the DM - could rule that he can go into a "berserker's rage" when the character is pushed into a corner. The benefits of Nobility can go beyond even what the Conan rules would allow (contacts, influence, and such), and without having to wait so many levels for a new benefit. Simply put, the classes is just a mechanical element, and everything else is just fluff.
If you are into old-school gaming, and unique Sword & Sorcery settings, that I suggest a book called Supplement V: CARCOSA (this is a useful add-on for it). This book takes inspiration from many sources (CoC, Elric, Wilderlands, Tékumel, Gamma World, Worms of the Earth, Out of the Æons, and others). Its a stark alien world with super-evolved beasts, strange technology, dark sorcery, cthuliods (and the Mythos), and humans so secluded and primitive, they are too insignificant to factor in the plans of all the dangerous thing in the world. The races of man are a color-coded race created by an extinct race of Snake-men. Such colors are as vivid as the colors of a rainbow - and then some. They even have the alien colors from David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus (Dolm, Jale, and Ulfire). The spells are non-mechanical, and would have the caster do complex and elaborate rituals for the spell to take effect. Most of the spells are Summoning types, and a few are Warding types. This game is as "sandbox" as you can get, and a lot of background details are left up to the players to full.
I hope you guys find something useful out of all this!
I hope to have time to resume it someday.
