Other game supplements

[The Warlord]

I'd like to get a comprehensive list of what supplements/rulebooks DMs have found useful in their Conan games. Gygax's Necropolis? Nyambe (that african game)? Ancient Kingdoms? Etc.

I know this may have come up before individually, but I think it'd be cool if we all could have one point of referance for these other books.

 

[Sutek]

Maybe it's an indication that I'm either unimaginative, easily satisfied or lazy, but damn near every Mongoose book seems perfectly enough for me. I'm only now starting readin g the original Howard stuff, but I get that my party ought to be facing massive crocodiles and savage picts more than fireball wielding sorcerers. All of thier supplements seem to capture what I picture for Conan just fine.

 

[sbarrie]

I converted a Lejendary Adventures module called "The Enclave" for use with Conan. ($1.50 in the used bin of my LGS)

http://shop.rpg.net/product_info.php?cPath=14_86&products_id=21623

I suspect most fantasy adventures designed for 1st level characters have the right level of magic to be converted to Conan. You then have to remove the magic items, set it in Hyborea, and tweak the monster level.

Come to think of it, "Three Days to Kill" by Penumbra would probably make a really good Conan adventure.

I've also used Flying Buffalo's Citybooks and their "Maps: The book of Cities". They're nice pre-d20 generic material. The Citybooks do have locations with elves, halflings and magic items for sale, though. The mapbook is very nice, with most locations usable in Hyborea.

 

[The King]

I'd like to get a comprehensive list of what supplements/rulebooks DMs have found useful in their Conan games. Gygax's Necropolis? Nyambe (that african game)? Ancient Kingdoms? Etc.

I know this may have come up before individually, but I think it'd be cool if we all could have one point of referance for these other books.

Ancient Kingdoms is probably the best of the three.
I heard the adaptation of D20 Nyambe isn't very pretty because Orcs and elves and halflings and dwarvers were included, nothing to do with Howard. Nyambe is adapted from the Imaro novel trilogy by Charles Saunders. Reading this is highly recommanded.
Necropolis is probably a fantasy setting too where you'll need fireball, times stop (that is: powerful spells not to be found in Conan RPG) to get rid of the opposition.
For my part I would suggest many sourcebooks for Elric / Stormbringer RPG (by Chaosium) as this setting deals a lot with demons without the flashy spells of DD.

 

[sbarrie]

Ancient Kingdoms is probably the best of the three.
I heard the adaptation of D20 Nyambe isn't very pretty because Orcs and elves and halflings and dwarvers were included, nothing to do with Howard. Nyambe is adapted from the Imaro novel trilogy by Charles Saunders. Reading this is highly recommanded.
Necropolis is probably a fantasy setting too where you'll need fireball, times stop (that is: powerful spells not to be found in Conan RPG) to get rid of the opposition.
For my part I would suggest many sourcebooks for Elric / Stormbringer RPG (by Chaosium) as this setting deals a lot with demons without the flashy spells of DD.

I was looking forward to "Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra", but the PDF preview sadly shows Egyptian Elves, Egyptian Halflings, Egyptian Dwarves...

I'm looking for a copy of Necropolis (either version) If you remove the "kick down the door, loot the room" parts of Gary Gygax's stuff, the rest is usually pretty salvagable. (But then I have decades of experience rewriting Gary Gygax adventures)

 

[cornelius]

Old Bear ( Mongoose guy ) has a page or two on his site giving conversion notes for using Necropolis in Conan and there was a forum post giving a link to a site with conversion notes for Ancient Kingdoms : Mesopotamia ( sorry can't remember the site off hand but look for the threads with AK:M in the title ) .

 

[The Warlord]

Maybe it's an indication that I'm either unimaginative, easily satisfied or lazy, but damn near every Mongoose book seems perfectly enough for me. I'm only now starting readin g the original Howard stuff, but I get that my party ought to be facing massive crocodiles and savage picts more than fireball wielding sorcerers. All of thier supplements seem to capture what I picture for Conan just fine.

Sutek, I agree the mongoose stuff is simply the best. However, until all the other sourcebooks are out, I find it interesting to see what other companies have to offer. Having heard of Imaro, and the similarities to Conan, I'm curious to how the Nyambe rpg looks, and what it has to offer for adventuring in the 'dark continent'. Sadly, a poster didn't give it a good mark, which is cool. saves me $$$.

Also supplements like Torn Asunder, may be useful to some DMs. I just think it'd be nice if there was one place to look with a comprehensive list of all the stuff (junk) out there.

 

[Jason Durall]

Having heard of Imaro, and the similarities to Conan, I'm curious to how the Nyambe rpg looks, and what it has to offer for adventuring in the 'dark continent'. Sadly, a poster didn't give it a good mark, which is cool. saves me $$$.

You might check out http://www.nyambe.com/ which includes a free adventure and a 100-page lorebook for the d20 system, also for free.

 

[Anonymous]

Jason, that site seems to be down.

 

[thulsa]

Old Bear ( Mongoose guy ) has a page or two on his site giving conversion notes for using Necropolis in Conan and there was a forum post giving a link to a site with conversion notes for Ancient Kingdoms : Mesopotamia ( sorry can't remember the site off hand but look for the threads with AK:M in the title ) .

This is the URL for the conversion notes for Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia: http://hyboria.xoth.net/adventures/mesopotamia_conversion_notes.htm

There's also some NPCs from the adventure converted here in this forum:
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4106

And a writeup of a Conan campaign using the book:
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4003


- thulsa

 

[The King]

... Having heard of Imaro, and the similarities to Conan, I'm curious to how the Nyambe rpg looks, and what it has to offer for adventuring in the 'dark continent'. Sadly, a poster didn't give it a good mark, which is cool. saves me $$$.

Also supplements like Torn Asunder, may be useful to some DMs. I just think it'd be nice if there was one place to look with a comprehensive list of all the stuff (junk) out there.

You can find many reviews of lots of books on www.rpg.net.

 

[Trodax]

The Citybooks do have locations with elves, halflings and magic items for sale, though.

That magic items are sold and bought may be as it may, but that now elves and halflings have hit the market is a bit too much if you ask me. :lol:
Sorry, couldn't resist.

Anyways, what about all the Call of Cthulhu stuff? I've never played the game (just read everything by Lovecraft), but I've heard that the adventures are great. Would any of the classic campaigns (Masks of Nyarlathotep, Beyond the Mountains of Madness etc.) be importable to a hyborian setting?

 

[Ralph]

Jason, that site seems to be down.

There's a dot, or comma at the end of the link that needs to be removed.
It'll work fine then.

 

[Jason Durall]

Jason, that site seems to be down.

Original link fixed, but repeated here for emphasis: http://www.nyambe.com/

 

[Sutek]

I'd also now reccommend taking a look at the new Libris Mortis by WOC just for the skeleton and zombie templates. I'm not well versed in Conan source material, but for some reason a lumbering elephan skeleton or a pair of zombie lions feels borderline appropriate. If you use the less magickal templates, a lot of the stuff in there could be very fun and idiomatic in a Conan campaign.

 

[Faraer]

Ron Edwards's Sorcerer & Sword book for his Sorcerer RPG has been mentioned in this forum, but not this thread. I'd recommend it to any GM to help transfer sword & sorcery to roleplaying.

Surely there are more Howard-compatible RPG books than have been mentioned here. TSR's Lankhmar products or Green Ronin's forthcoming Thieves' World RPG are quite useable resources for the urban thievery end of Hyborian Age storytelling.

 

[sbarrie]

I saw Thieves of Lankhmar, read the cover proclaiming it an "Official Game Adventure", and bought it thinking I could transplant the adventure to Hyborea.

Thieves of Lankhmar cover

It turns out that it's actually a sourcebook with two short (and not very creative) adventures in the back. That sort of soured me on the whole Lankhmar line.

---
Aren't the skeleton and zombie templates in the Monster Manual? I know I've created other skeletons and zombies long before Libris Mortis was printed.

But yeah, a skeletal elephant would make a great weird opponent, as long as the general rule of only one weird/supernatural opponent per adventure is kept.

 

[Iron_Chef]

I was looking forward to "Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra", but the PDF preview sadly shows Egyptian Elves, Egyptian Halflings, Egyptian Dwarves...

That is the LAMEST thing I have ever heard. Why, oh why, must EVERY d20 fantasy world include all D&D playable races? It's ridiculous. I will NEVER buy any setting that does that. Imagine the controversy if Green Ronin's "Testament" had included biblical elves, dwarves, halflings, and orcs? LOL.

I want HUMAN ONLY settings. That's why I like Conan. Sure, there's a few playable hybrids (such as Spawn of Dagoth Hill, Salome, etc.), but these are few and far between and are still basically HUMAN. You can't play monsters or non-humans out of the book by the rules without GM-approval. That's why Conan and HarnMaster are such cool RPG systems in my book. I hate elves, pixies and all that Tolkien/fairy tale stuff. If I wanted that, I'd play Lord of the Rings. Where is the originality and realism in game world design these days? Hardly anywhere. :evil:

 

[Anonymous]

im thinking of converting tsrs jarlthe frost giants lair for conan adventure
all you really have to do is ditch the white dragon it could take place in the mountains between cimerria and vanahiem the ogres could just be another ancient race allied to the giants

 

[The King]

That is the LAMEST thing I have ever heard. Why, oh why, must EVERY d20 fantasy world include all D&D playable races? It's ridiculous. I will NEVER buy any setting that does that. Imagine the controversy if Green Ronin's "Testament" had included biblical elves, dwarves, halflings, and orcs? LOL.

I want HUMAN ONLY settings. That's why I like Conan. Sure, there's a few playable hybrids (such as Spawn of Dagoth Hill, Salome, etc.), but these are few and far between and are still basically HUMAN. You can't play monsters or non-humans out of the book by the rules without GM-approval. That's why Conan and HarnMaster are such cool RPG systems in my book. I hate elves, pixies and all that Tolkien/fairy tale stuff. If I wanted that, I'd play Lord of the Rings. Where is the originality and realism in game world design these days? Hardly anywhere. :evil:

Dwarves and giants belong to northern mythology (Germany, Viking and Celts). It can be good at small dosis but I prefer human setting too. Perhaps includind some pre-human and mysterious civilizations.
Then Iron Chef you should like the setting of the Young Kingdoms (Stormbringer).