"The Hyborian Age" essay

Raphael

Mongoose
Is REH's essay, "The Hyborian Age" available online anywhere. I've Googled and I've surfed and I can't find it. I did find the revised version at Thusla's website and that's what I'll use if I can't find the original. I'm wanting to make an intro pack for a player who's never roleplayed and is not familliar with Conan. (Yeah, I'm that hard up for players.)

Thanks in advance.

Khristos Voskrese!
Raphael
 
Dont Feel bad, I have had a hard time getting players for Conan as well... It seems they know D&D d20 so well, and all the rules, that they dont want to change, and try something different... I was looking at doing the same thing, but was gonna make a Character creation list with information, or background dealing with the area. That way if they asked about a Zingarian, I had them a packet, with just enough info for them to make there PCs, and get a good background of there PCs homeland...
 
I'll probably do something like that as well. I can't afford to buy enough rulebooks to pass out. And my players have jobs and families and little enough time to play much less learn the ins and outs of a new setting. I totally understand though. I just want to prep them.
 
The GM best friend can Be technology... My friend, "copy & paste" have become good friends of mine...
I would suggest you use the Pocket books for the pc if you want them to have the rules. I have to may rules lawyers in my group so, I usually tell them to try and learn the world by playing in it, instead of just reading all the rules. So yeah, if you give them handout, enough to make a PC with with background info in it, you shouldnt have any complants
 
I feel blessed that I have a waiting list of players to play in my Conan campaign. None of them can afford the books, so I buy them all, and schedule times outside of the session for character updates. A friend of mine hosts a site that has its own message board. I post feats from the various materials that the PCs may be interested in.

They have learned about the world specific stuff through role-playing in it. It works well enough as none of them are overly worldly are scholarly.
 
DasClay said:
That sounds great! Im glad that you have a good amount of people to kill , i mean GM for :p

:D
Part of it is that I cap my games at 5 PCs. I can run more, but I find it’s easier to be descriptive in combat and keep them flowing smoothly with 5 as the limit. So If I expanded my play group to 7 or 8, I could boast no such ample victim selection.
 
Ah man you can do it, 7-8 is where i honestly draw the line tho... After that Is just die rolling and scratching off bad guys, with no plot... but it also depends on your gaming group. I have played in a game of D&D and it was 12 players!!! and the DM handled it very well, but he had DM everyone before in differnent game, so he knew everyones playing style and all the players had been gaming for a really long time.
 
DasClay said:
Ah man you can do it, 7-8 is where i honestly draw the line tho... After that Is just die rolling and scratching off bad guys, with no plot... but it also depends on your gaming group. I have played in a game of D&D and it was 12 players!!! and the DM handled it very well, but he had DM everyone before in differnent game, so he knew everyones playing style and all the players had been gaming for a really long time.

You know, 7-8 might be more doable with Conan. I DMed 8 in a high level fantasy (D&D) campaign, and it was just scratching off the bad guys and saying things like, "OK, these 6 attack you. Do ACs 13, 16, 17, 20, 22, or 24 hit? Ok, you take 32 damage. OK, this guy casts a fireball, DC 18 save, 32 points of damage on the miss."

Not much fun. Conan has too much flavor to let combat fall to that level. So far everyone is loving it, and those that aren't playing are dealing with it. Maybe I could gradually let some more in.
 
Well combat unlike in D&D is very dangerous, I think that is captured well in the rules, like massave dmg. and the larger weapon dmg. So I encourage my PCs to try and RP as much as they can, cause the combat is always gonna be there...
 
Hey everyone,

The only place I am familiar with this work is in the new Del Rey books; "The coming of Conan the cimmerian", and "The bloody crown of Conan". Both books have a part of the essay you are speaking of, and it's great :D

I got mine at amazon.com, I am sure you can find yours just about anywhere. Hope this helps.

Tim
 
Tim Mercado said:
The only place I am familiar with this work is in the new Del Rey books; "The coming of Conan the cimmerian", and "The bloody crown of Conan". Both books have a part of the essay you are speaking of, and it's great :D

Yeah, Tim, I had just reread the essay in Cimmerian. As it is in the Public Domain I was hoping to give it my players (all unfamiliar with Hyboria and Conan) as background reading.

Thanks,
Raphael
 
Here is a link to The Hyborian Age - Part I (up until the time of Conan)

http://www.cswnet.com/~dbruce/conan/cnbook01/cn01005.html

The site also has some marginally useful stuff concerning the Ace/Lancer Conan series.
 
Brajah said:
Here is a link to The Hyborian Age - Part I (up until the time of Conan)

http://www.cswnet.com/~dbruce/conan/cnbook01/cn01005.html

The site also has some marginally useful stuff concerning the Ace/Lancer Conan series.

The complete version of the Howard's essay (before and after Conan's Age) can be found in http://nemedie.free.fr/site/article.php3?id_article=11

And DeCamp did a mistake when he added a comment in the first part of the essay, saying that Acheron was fouded by Lemurians. He was wrong; that kingdom was built by white-skinned Stygians, descendant of the Giant Kings - persons from the same people of Thuron (The Altar and the Scorpion), Thalis (Xuthal of the Dusk), Xaltotun and Akivasha (The Hour of the Dragon).
 
Back
Top