What to get first?
- Thread starter zozotroll
- Start date
Depends on your needs. Return to the Road of Kings and the Bestiary are must haves for a Conan GM. Lot of great options in the Player's Guide as well as naming charts, a day in the life of info, and other goodies. If you're having trouble coming up with adventure material, either of the campaigns: Trial of Blood and Betrayer of Asgard would be good buys. Again, depends on your needs.
Twin Agate Dragons
Mongoose
If you want player options consider the following:
Player's Guide
Hyboria’s Fallen: Pirates, Thieves & Temptresses
Hyboria’s Fiercest: Barbarians, Borderers & Nom
Hyboria’s Finest: Nobles, Scholars & Soldiers
Warrior’s Companion
Player's Guide
Hyboria’s Fallen: Pirates, Thieves & Temptresses
Hyboria’s Fiercest: Barbarians, Borderers & Nom
Hyboria’s Finest: Nobles, Scholars & Soldiers
Warrior’s Companion
Dark Mistress
Mongoose
Yeah have to agree, it depends a lot on what you are looking for. Stuff like PC options? Info about the world? Magic? Adventures? Of course it is kinda hard to go wrong with any of the stuff.
Sutek
Mongoose
All you really need is the main 2nd edition rule book. Get Return to the Road also if you plan to run a detailed geographical campaign, but you may nt need it unless you have real big conan fans to contend with. There's lots of basic info on the world in the rule book. Then, I'd suggest the Bestiary, and maybe the Secrets of Skelos book for expanded magic.
The "Hyboria's F" books that TD suggested are awesome, but (a) aren't second edition and, most importantly (b) probably tough to find.
The "Hyboria's F" books that TD suggested are awesome, but (a) aren't second edition and, most importantly (b) probably tough to find.
David St-Michel
Mongoose
I personally bought only the 2nd edition book for starters.
Instead of buying anything else, I borrowed my friend's Conan novels (Conan the Cimmerian, Bloody crown of Conan and ...Savage Sword of Conan, I believe?). I read those back-to-back-to-back.
THAT helped me a whole lot in getting the "Hyborian" feel. I'm an old-fashionned AD&D player, and have been one for about 15 years now. I've gotten used to wizards, sorcerors, orcs, elves, dragons flying in the sky...
To actually read the books really puts things in perspective. Magic is DANGEROUS. It's like handling a poisonous snake with one arm tied behind your back. It MIGHT work, but don't make a single mistake.
Monsters are just that ; mosntrous. What few times Conan actually faces down a creature that isn't human, it's a match for the ages. He dosen't just chop through rows of kobolds; he barely manages to escape with his life against most of those nasties.
Then, after the first few months in my game, I bought Return to the Road of Kings. It is a magnificent piece of work that gives a bucketload of info about each specific country ; religion, standing army, system of government, sights and special things.
I'm planning on getting the Bestiary afterwards.
Instead of buying anything else, I borrowed my friend's Conan novels (Conan the Cimmerian, Bloody crown of Conan and ...Savage Sword of Conan, I believe?). I read those back-to-back-to-back.
THAT helped me a whole lot in getting the "Hyborian" feel. I'm an old-fashionned AD&D player, and have been one for about 15 years now. I've gotten used to wizards, sorcerors, orcs, elves, dragons flying in the sky...
To actually read the books really puts things in perspective. Magic is DANGEROUS. It's like handling a poisonous snake with one arm tied behind your back. It MIGHT work, but don't make a single mistake.
Monsters are just that ; mosntrous. What few times Conan actually faces down a creature that isn't human, it's a match for the ages. He dosen't just chop through rows of kobolds; he barely manages to escape with his life against most of those nasties.
Then, after the first few months in my game, I bought Return to the Road of Kings. It is a magnificent piece of work that gives a bucketload of info about each specific country ; religion, standing army, system of government, sights and special things.
I'm planning on getting the Bestiary afterwards.
VincentDarlage
Mongoose
zozotroll said:
They are still largely compatible with 2nd edition. I still use them with my 2nd edition games.
zozotroll said:
Not really. 2nd edition is more of cleaning and tweaking than total rewrite. Basics are there but things are changed a bit.
And yes if you want physical copies might be worth getting them while you can since they aren't printed anymore. Alternatively if you don't mind PDF versions drivethru.com has them available as PDF files as well.
As Dark Mistress stated, it depends on what you're looking for.
Basically, you wouldn't need anything more than the rulebook and Return to Road of Kings, which is the most indispensable book of the line.
Or you could be like me and the other die hard fans and buy every book...
On the contrary of some other posts, I wouldn't advise the Hyboria's F books as a first choice, unless you're already quite familiar with the system. They might be a good choice if you're already into D20 and looking for more crunch, along with the Warrior's Companion. If you're not familiar with the rules, I'd advice to digest the basic rulebook before going further.
Secrets of Skelos is good if you want to delve deeper into sorcery, but keep in mind that Sorcery is mostly for bad ass NPCs in the game.
The pictish sourcebook, Across the Thunder River remains one of my favourite books of the entire Conan range.
I'm not a huge fan of the Bestiary, as most foes in Conan will be humans. Conan is not a player vs. monster game like D&D even if both systems look familiar.
I also found the Player's Guide desperately hollow, though it seems many people here liked it.
If you're looking for adventures, I'll advice to run one or two short adventures before running a long term campaign like Trial of Blood or Betrayer of Asgard. Heretics of Tarantia might be a good choice for a start, as well as Tower of the Elephant, especially if your players aren't familiar with the novel.
Don't forget to check the Signs & Portents magazine, which you can download freely from Mongoose's site. You'll find an index by Strom on this forum posted as a sticky.
Be also sure to check Thulsa's site for a wealth of material and adventures
at:
http://hyboria.xoth.net/index.htm
Basically, you wouldn't need anything more than the rulebook and Return to Road of Kings, which is the most indispensable book of the line.
Or you could be like me and the other die hard fans and buy every book...
On the contrary of some other posts, I wouldn't advise the Hyboria's F books as a first choice, unless you're already quite familiar with the system. They might be a good choice if you're already into D20 and looking for more crunch, along with the Warrior's Companion. If you're not familiar with the rules, I'd advice to digest the basic rulebook before going further.
Secrets of Skelos is good if you want to delve deeper into sorcery, but keep in mind that Sorcery is mostly for bad ass NPCs in the game.
The pictish sourcebook, Across the Thunder River remains one of my favourite books of the entire Conan range.
I'm not a huge fan of the Bestiary, as most foes in Conan will be humans. Conan is not a player vs. monster game like D&D even if both systems look familiar.
I also found the Player's Guide desperately hollow, though it seems many people here liked it.
If you're looking for adventures, I'll advice to run one or two short adventures before running a long term campaign like Trial of Blood or Betrayer of Asgard. Heretics of Tarantia might be a good choice for a start, as well as Tower of the Elephant, especially if your players aren't familiar with the novel.
Don't forget to check the Signs & Portents magazine, which you can download freely from Mongoose's site. You'll find an index by Strom on this forum posted as a sticky.
Be also sure to check Thulsa's site for a wealth of material and adventures
at:
http://hyboria.xoth.net/index.htm
Unless I am brotaly surprised by the rules I will eventuialy all the books. I dont run many pre-written adventures, but do mine them extensively for things to use in mine.
I played quite a lot of 3.5, and still like the system. I only quite playing when my DM had to move because of a job. Hate when that happens.
I know some complain about the complexity of D20 in general but....I played Rolemaster for 30 years, after that DnD is no big problem.
I played quite a lot of 3.5, and still like the system. I only quite playing when my DM had to move because of a job. Hate when that happens.
I know some complain about the complexity of D20 in general but....I played Rolemaster for 30 years, after that DnD is no big problem.
It's fine to say, "In our campaign, we usually fight humans." Much like when I start ranting about the soldier class, I try to include some remark along the lines of, "Of course, the class is fine if combat is the only thing you ever do in your campaign."
It's presumptuous to think that's the way everyone's games work.
It's presumptuous to think that's the way everyone's games work.
Most of the enemies in my game are humans. But the Bestiary is great for those encounters that aren't. This is not a historical game but one of sword & sorcery. To say you don't need beasties in a Conan game is frankly off genre. Sorcerers like Yara and Thugra Khotan have beasties protecting their treasures and doing their bidding. Ghouls roam the wilds along with grey apes and dragons. You don't want to throw them at the PCs every encounter but at least once an adventure (preferably part of the climax) you should add a weird element in there. YMMV.
While I don't think it is all that deep of a book, the Player's Guide is a good 2nd or 3rd book because it lists all the stuff you can find in other books while giving the basics to start as pretty much any class.
Return to Road of Kings was a HUGE help in my roleplaying for my first character and I thoroughly recommend that. It is all background, no rules to digest so it is just plain good to get deeper into the background.
From there, Hyboria's Feircest and Secrets of Skelos are excellent sourcebooks for both players and DM's. Fiercest is easily the best Hyboria's F line, with rules for herbalism, feats of might, survival etc and goodies for some of the most common classes (well, barb). Secrets is just full of sorcerous goodies for nasty NPC's and players alike, as well as more nasties, some interesting background on cults, etc.
Return to Road of Kings was a HUGE help in my roleplaying for my first character and I thoroughly recommend that. It is all background, no rules to digest so it is just plain good to get deeper into the background.
From there, Hyboria's Feircest and Secrets of Skelos are excellent sourcebooks for both players and DM's. Fiercest is easily the best Hyboria's F line, with rules for herbalism, feats of might, survival etc and goodies for some of the most common classes (well, barb). Secrets is just full of sorcerous goodies for nasty NPC's and players alike, as well as more nasties, some interesting background on cults, etc.
