Using the Conan fiction as a campaign?

[quigs]

I'm currently starting a Conan campaign with 4 players and am going to be using the Conan stories (fictions) as adventures. Basically pulling out events, NPC descriptions and even quotes here and there. Then stat up the monsters/adversaries as I see fit for the group's level.

Has anyone tried this before? How does it work in the long run? Any tips or suggestions for me?

I have already run the Cimmerian Barbarian in the group through "Legions of the Dead" as a solo adventure and am running the Hyrkanian Thief player through "Tower of the Elephant" tonight, again, as a solo.

As you may have guessed, Conan is not actually in this campaign, the players are taking his place.

 

[Strom]

Sounds like a really cool way to game within the Conan RPG. Everyone I play with has read the stories so it's not as attractive to them - they want to create their own stories. 8)

 

[Castel]

Well, Conan stories are a great inspiration for all sorts of adventures in the Hyborian world...

I myself will be using the REH stories and PCs interacting with Conan...
Not in the actual base story but in a sub-plot that interacts with Conan´s adventure...

I think that most Conan Adventures are for the "Chosen One" (aka conan), but if properly adapted they will work for most PCs...

I really depends of what you want...

Conan Comics also work nicely...
On the other day my GM gave us a game inspired in a comic... Pirates, slaves, Spiders... a very good adventure indeed, we ended up getting enslaved (my Noble really didn´t like that), we´re free now, but we are in Stygia and have no ship to go back to Zingara...

In the long run i think that there are so many Conan stories out there that some of then can be used for good adventures, if properly adapted (If you´re going to use REH material, you may find that part of it isn´t easelly adaptated to regular PCs, it goes for a more epic game)

Good luck to you "Quigs"

 

[Finarvyn]

I agree -- it's a great way to grab adventure ideas as long as your players haven't read the stories. Just remember that the adventures may or may not quite follow the storyline; don't fall into the trap of railroading players to make the story end up right. If you just use the characters and situations as prompts, the campaign should be fine!

 

[quigs]

Yeah, I hate railroading too. And none of them have read any Conan material aside from what they saw in the movies, which I won't be using

I'm going to have to do some work to filter out the more epic Conan stories and place the PC's in something similar, yet manageable. That's why I chose to do a solo adventure for their first level, to see how the stories work as adventures, and to see what they enjoyed and didn't enjoy from what I ran them through.

Once I've got that from my players, then it should be easy to piece together a campaign using the fiction, whether its REH, DeCamp, Jordan, or from the comics (which are amazing btw).

The characters (NPC's) are what I truly want to use from the fictions. Some of them are fantastic villains while others can truly be a boon to the PC's.

I appreciate your comments people!

 

[Auggie]

Sounds like a nice "What If?"-type of Conan campaign. Please keep us posted on how it goes

 

[Mark Dunder]

If you make Conan an NPC, you can keep any storyline going. Just have him show up when you think he's needed. Make him real tough, just like he is, and when your players are getting whupped by an animated stature, have Conan save their butts. If they manage just fine, have him show up looking a little sad he missed the action, and then have him give them praise. Works like a charm, believe me, I've done it several times.

 

[Flecha]

Obviously, if you are using the Howard stories, you will play the best adventures that can be played on Conan! But I don't find any fun at all in eliminating Conan from them. I think that having him around is the funniest thing. In my current campaign the PCs live in or around Velitrium, most of them working as soldiers or so, and Conan works as a ranger, so they don't see him much. In fact, he hasn't appeared on-game yet, always out there, hunting picts.

Of course, I'm going to use myself one tale, Beyond the Black River, for the players to play through...

 

[Evil_Trevor]

Now, I havn't posted for a couple of weeks due to pressure of work and the like but I have been planning on using Conan as an opponant rather than as a crutch for the party I find having the 'NPC' bail out the players means either the players have botched up or I havn't thought my game through and have made it too tough...

Did that my first time out as a g.m. First encounter with four first level dnd characters, they all died, horribly. end of game. Might be 'Gritty and realistic' but as a game is very unsatisfactory, no plot or character development (unless you have my unoffical sourcebook the complete corpses handbook)

Playing some of the stories such as the Jewels of Gwalhara with Conan as 'competition' could be a real blast

 

[Mark Dunder]

Playing some of the stories such as the Jewels of Gwalhara with Conan as 'competition' could be a real blast

Strange, after all these years, I never thought about using Conan as an opponent... hmmm. Could be a lot of fun!

 

[quigs]

Wow, Conan as an opponent definately be interesting! I really like putting my characters in the spotlight, which I think they enjoy too, so I'll probably not be using Conan in any of the stories/adventures as a helpful NPC. Now if my gaming group does something unexpected, or say takes the side of the opposing army that Conan normally did, then they may catch a glimpse of him cleaving through their troops, or their bellies

That would be something!

 

[René]

I'm currently starting a Conan campaign with 4 players and am going to be using the Conan stories (fictions) as adventures. Basically pulling out events, NPC descriptions and even quotes here and there. Then stat up the monsters/adversaries as I see fit for the group's level.

Has anyone tried this before? How does it work in the long run? Any tips or suggestions for me?

I have already run the Cimmerian Barbarian in the group through "Legions of the Dead" as a solo adventure and am running the Hyrkanian Thief player through "Tower of the Elephant" tonight, again, as a solo.

As you may have guessed, Conan is not actually in this campaign, the players are taking his place.

Unfortunately I let my players read all the original stories so they get the Hyborian feeling (with the exception of A witch shall be born - which was the main story arch from level 7 to 13: at level 7 they rescued a girl who was pregnant, some years later they were confronted with a demon bastard woman who was at the end reveiled as the daughter of the rescued girl - it was a great time for aahs and oohs :wink: )

 

[rfsdata]

It works well in our campaign. We rarely make the same decisions Conan made anyway.

 

[quigs]

Well I ran the 1st level thief through The Tower of the Elephant. He loved it. The lions were killed by Taurus, and he was taken care of by the spider. PC was smart though, he killed the spider after being reduced to 4 Con, and stuffed his bag with as much jewels and coins as he could. His words to me were "If I'm dying, i'm dying rich!". Luckily the secondary damage was only 1 Con so he survived. He went downstairs and met Yag-kosha, who explained his plight. After hearing all that stuff he didn't even want the Heart for himself Took the jewel to Yara, bing bang boom, runs outta the tower as it collapses with his bag full of loot.

Buys a shop in Arenjun, and a nice female slave to run his new bowyer/fletcher shop, along with one of those warhorses that are bred in Zamora, and he's all done Then it was off to drinking and whores.

He loved the setting, and the story, and thinks this will be the best campaign in a long time for us. Good news eh?

 

[urdinaran]

... and stuffed his bag with as much jewels and coins as he could...
... Buys a shop in Arenjun...

I thought the Rule of Impermanence was supposed to make all that loot disappear. Please don't tell my players, they don't know yet, tee-hee...