What kind of adventure do you prefer for a Conan game?

[The King]

This is not a poll; I'm just very interested to know the sort of scenario/campaign you played/run/would run for the Conan RPG.
Good old "Dongeon Crawling" with visit of old isolated ruins, a lot of interaction and intrigues at the courts or epic one changing history of the Hyborian continent as Conan did (even if it stays at a small scale)?
In other words do you use the Conan game to play differently as you do with other fantasy RPG?
Thanks.

 

[Mayhem]

It lends itself well to adventures that require abilities other than out-right monster bashing, since PCs are so well equipped with skills.

And due to the plethero of races, and the relationships between them, there is a richness to Conan characters that makes intrigue plots very attractive.

With very little useful magic, mystery plots are much easier. Players have to get out and ook for clues instead of casting a few divination spells.

In a standard fantasy world, Orcs vs humans is usually a clearcut choice. In a purely human conflict, which side to join is not usually so clear-cut. One side might be wearing guard uniforms, but that doesn't make them the good guys - their opponents might be bandits, but they might equally be heroic freedom fighters rising up against an unjust lord.

Also, given the innate mystery involved with the supernatural, it lends itself very well to games in which fear of the unknown monster is just as important as battling the monster itself.

This is harder to do in D&D, since players will generally try to deduce what the creature is, and when they have done so (or think they have) they lose all fear of it.

I'm planning an "alien"-esque scenario in which the players hunt and are hunted by a solitary, fast moving, stealthy critter in an underground maze. In D&D, they would soon say (eg) "Oh, its just a choker". In Conan, they will be ignorant and therefore fearful right until the end...

*******

Before somebody says it, yes, you can run all those sort of plots in D&D. In truth, I usually do, disdaining high-level, high magic monster fests. So I won't be changing my style, but Conan plays to that style much better than most rulesets (except WFRP, maybe).

 

[EricKRod]

I kind of like humans being the main adversary and sometimes the main antagonist. There is nothing like a campaign where the "bad guy" is simply an evil man, corrupted by darkness and who simply seeks domination of all around him.

Of course you have to throw in a monster every now and then to add the "supernatural" spice and flavor to the game. Overall, I like the in depth background, detailed characters and npc's with a little "Epic" thrown in every now and then.

There's no monster alive that does evil better than a man.

Eric in Vegas

 

[Evilschemer]

I just finished my 10th session. So far I've run 2 stories and have started a third.

The first story was mostly "dungeon crawl" with a dash of politics as the PC's had to break into the tower of a Merchant Prince. Lots of getting past traps followed by fighting guards.

The second story was an expedition to a lost island. Unfortunately, I added in a "save the world from an impending Lovecraftian event" angle that I now wished I hadn't done. Mostly, it was outdoor exploring and fighting dinosaurs and ape-men, followed up by a show-down with a Man-God in the heart of a mountain.

My feedback from that story was to have more fights with people and less monsters (dinosaurs). The players want Conanesque intrigue with colorful NPC adversaries.

So, to oblige, this third story is a trek across Shem to find the Lost City of Nur. They've already angered the King of Asgalun who has sent a unit of cavalry to hunt them down. Last night was a great fight against the cavalry amidst a grove of trees on the prairie. Eventually, the cavalry unit had to withdraw but will return later.

I'm following through with my promise for more human adversaries.

 

[The King]

Before somebody says it, yes, you can run all those sort of plots in D&D. In truth, I usually do, disdaining high-level, high magic monster fests. So I won't be changing my style, but Conan plays to that style much better than most rulesets (except WFRP, maybe).

As EricKrod write in his post, this is probably due to the fact that many antogonists in Conan are often humans (be they sorcerors or princes). Monsters are rare and almost never in numbers. When you play a war between two nations, this is men versus men.
So when suddenly the ennemy is a monster, then the suspense is teasing as the players knows it is necessarily an powerful one but as it is unknow they will probably try to gather information first before (some king of investigation not unlike WFRP).

 

[The King]

I just finished my 10th session. So far I've run 2 stories and have started a third.

The first story was mostly "dungeon crawl" with a dash of politics as the PC's had to break into the tower of a Merchant Prince. Lots of getting past traps followed by fighting guards.

The second story was an expedition to a lost island. Unfortunately, I added in a "save the world from an impending Lovecraftian event" angle that I now wished I hadn't done. Mostly, it was outdoor exploring and fighting dinosaurs and ape-men, followed up by a show-down with a Man-God in the heart of a mountain.

My feedback from that story was to have more fights with people and less monsters (dinosaurs). The players want Conanesque intrigue with colorful NPC adversaries.

So, to oblige, this third story is a trek across Shem to find the Lost City of Nur. They've already angered the King of Asgalun who has sent a unit of cavalry to hunt them down. Last night was a great fight against the cavalry amidst a grove of trees on the prairie. Eventually, the cavalry unit had to withdraw but will return later.

I'm following through with my promise for more human adversaries.

exactly. In Conan RPG players have more opportunity to play a political role or to have a military say. Instead of monster slayers, they can become some kinds of "VIP" because most interactions are with powerful people. (This is exactly the same in the Conan stories, where he almost always deals with kings, princes and generals.