What Time Period Are Your Games?

[Nyarlathotep]

I just wanted to get a feel as to when GMs were setting their games - during the career of Conan as an adventurer or in the post-King Conan era?

 

[Krushnak]

i've set my game around 120-150 yrs after the reign of king conan. really allows me to make changes to the world if i want without actually screwing with the stories.

 

[Dpetroc]

King Conan error, with significant changes to what he accomplished. Most of my current players haven't read much Conan so I can use all the classic stories in my games.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

I usually tend to place my games in the King Conan era - actually a year or two after he's just ascended the throne.

Part of the reasoning behind that though, is that the vast majority of the time my players prefer to be in places like Zamoria, the Black Kingdoms, Stygia, Shem, etc.

They are far from the action occuring in Aquilonia - although there is a ripple effect that originates from the event, and depending on how well and how long games occur - that ripple effect works in reverse.

 

[Streamweaver]

Conan has been king for a few years at the time of the game I'm running.

 

[rgrove0172]

Same here, Conan is currently King.

 

[Axerules]

Conan is still an adventurer, but very tough and well-known: he is 36 (I use The Dark Storm Chronology) and left Xuchotl (and Valeria) for Keshan. He will take the throne of Aquilonia in a few years. I feel that I have more freedom at this time, and I plan my players to be embroiled in Aquilonia's civil war later.

They are far from the action occuring in Aquilonia - although there is a ripple effect that originates from the event, and depending on how well and how long games occur - that ripple effect works in reverse.

Nyarlathotep, I like that. My players met a few characters who knew Conan, his actions also have side-effects that I try to show in my games. One example: they saved Khoraja's king from an assassination attempt by a Stygian relative of Kutamun (the Stygian noble ally of Natohk in Black Colossus) and heard about Conan "the throat-slitter", the barbarian general of the Khorajan army, by talking with the Zaheemi and some other survivors of the battle of Shamla Pass.

 

[Auggie]

When I started our campaign a few years ago, the first game session was the day Conan became king of Aquilonia

 

[Hervé]

In my campaign, Conan is still an adventurer and Yezdigerd has yet to ascend on the throne of Turan.
I don't like too much the idea of using Conan as a NPC(and I don't use it at all in my campaign), and most of the places he visited during his adventuring life have been utterly devastated by his passage. With Conan as King, a book like Ruins of Hyboria becomes rather obsolete, most of the places described in the book being destroyed or forever changed.
I want my players to explore Kutchemes or Xapur and face the dangers of these places by themselves. I don't want them touring Hyboria wondering on Conan's exploits.
It's my Hyboria. My players are the heroes, not Conan...

 

[rgrove0172]

Where Conan's exploits are concerned I choose which ones he actually took part in and consider the others, where I have player interaction planned for instance, as mistakenly credited to him by those pesky Nemedian bookworms. If I want my players in stead of Conan to spoil the Tower of the Elephant, they they do. etc. Conan just got all the press!

 

[kintire]

I'm with the "Conan as King" group. I have a fairly Conan-savvy group som I can't pinch the original plots too blatantly anyway.

 

[Majestic7]

My campaign started from the defeat of the Nemedian army and Xaltotun in the Hour of the Dragon, so I'm in the King Conan era. All the stories written by Howard have happened in the world, so if the player characters,for example, go to Xuthal, they will find the lost city in the condition following visit of a certain Cimmerian.

 

[Axerules]

I don't like too much the idea of using Conan as a NPC (and I don't use it at all in my campaign), and most of the places he visited during his adventuring life have been utterly devastated by his passage. With Conan as King, a book like Ruins of Hyboria becomes rather obsolete, most of the places described in the book being destroyed or forever changed.

• If you consider all the pastiche material as canon, yes. I consider only what REH wrote as canonical. In my Hyboria Conan only visited the places and encountered the people from REH stories, so there's a lot of pastiche material (including some in Ruins, like Pteion) that can be used in game (one example: I GM'd the old TSR adventure based on R Jordan's Triumphant). I discard what I don't like in the pastiches and use what I like (a character, a plot, a monster...) for my players adventures. Don't forget that REH only wrote something like 20 stories.

• All the places and people Conan encountered are not destroyed or killed. Olgerd Vladislev was an opponent for my PC's: he did not die in REH's story. And my players have only heard about some of Conan's deeds (they are now 10th/11th level) without meeting him. After a few months (in real life) of gaming my players asked me: "Why don't we hear people talking about Conan ?". I answered: "Because you have not visited the same places as him." And when it happened, then they heard about him and met a few people who knew Conan.

It's my Hyboria. My players are the heroes, not Conan...

• You're right, Conan used too often as a NPC could overshadow the PC's. That's why I think they will probably never meet him, or perhaps only during a short cameo.