Which authors will you use

[Rhianni]

Is it just Howard or will you use all of them?
Howard had a good amount of matieral but then Lin Carter and L. Sprague De Camp write stories some based upon Howard's notes and De Camp's name comes on the cover of the first book. After that you get into the more present day books by Jordan, Green, Perry and another half dozen. Each one adding to Conan but also in a way diluting him.

 

[Anonymous]

At present the plan is for the core game to be entirely based on Howard's books, rather than use any of the pastiche material. Though some of it is pretty good, the quality is certainly variable and it does indeed dilute Howard's original vision.

For a pretty good argument for avoiding the pastiches entirely (though it is maybe occasionally over-critical) see http://www.donherron.com/conan_vs_conantics.html

 

[Ian Sturrock]

PC behaving inconsistently again, blah blah, I have yet again ticked all the appropriate boxes for it to keep me logged in forever *and* log me in automatically, maybe it'll work this time. :x

 

[Mythos]

As a GM and player who enjoys a well planned metaplot I intend to use the Ace editions, along with a limited number of pastiches, as my primary source of Hyborian background.

While it is true that de Camp and Carter did dilute the purer material with their editing and additions, all the material that they had a hand in was geared toward creating a single consistant timeline that covered the life of Conan. Along with their material I also intend to use the stories by Wagner, Anderson and Offutt. Their additions have been so far the best efforts to add to the history of Conan.

This combination of material will allow me to build up a list of events that Conan had a hand in, or were menitioned in his adventures. I have no desire to have my player be members of Conan's adventure group or to be directly influenced by his actions. what I do want to do is to have a consistant world background that develops as the players travel through out the various countries of the world. For that purpose I am using the ace editions.

 

[Rhianni]

Luckily (or sadly) I am the only one in our group that has read any Conan stories. This gives me a little free reign as to what to slip in and out without the players knowing.
Howard, Lin Carter, and De Camp seem like good material. I gathered from the article though that the later two are Conanatics and will not be used in the roleplaying books?

 

[Old Bear]

Luckily (or sadly) I am the only one in our group that has read any Conan stories. This gives me a little free reign as to what to slip in and out without the players knowing.
Howard, Lin Carter, and De Camp seem like good material. I gathered from the article though that the later two are Conanatics and will not be used in the roleplaying books?

As a big time Conan fan I have always considered Sprague de Camp and Carter to be extensions of Howard himself. My opinion about some of the stuff since isn't suitable for family viewing though. Being as in many cases Sprague de Camp and Carter finished off Howard stories, it's safe to say that they are bound to have a degree of influence.

 

[Ian Sturrock]

Being as in many cases Sprague de Camp and Carter finished off Howard stories, it's safe to say that they are bound to have a degree of influence.

Well, not on the core game -- I've been using either the unedited Howard material or in a small number of cases the unfinished stories, rather than the de Camp and Carter material. This should allow those who are Howard purists (and there are a fair few of us about :wink: ) to know they can use all the material in the core book. The more interesting de Camp and Carter material might well make for a good supplement or two, though.

 

[Mythos]

The more interesting de Camp and Carter material might well make for a good supplement or two, though.

By that I am assuming you mean the stories written about Conan after he becomes king.

 

[Ian Sturrock]

By that I am assuming you mean the stories written about Conan after he becomes king.

And others, potentially -- there are some pretty good monsters and NPCs introduced by de Camp and Carter.

 

[Old Bear]

The more interesting de Camp and Carter material might well make for a good supplement or two, though.

By that I am assuming you mean the stories written about Conan after he becomes king.

Don't forget that Sprague de Camp and Carter contributed City of Skulls in the Lancer release of Conan. They are so synonymous with Conan, especially Sprague de Camp that i tend to think of them as his love-children.

We are having intense discussions at Mongoose Hall presently about how these two stand in canonical terms.

 

[Mythos]

We are having intense discussions at Mongoose Hall presently about how these two stand in canonical terms.

Some good material about the Conan chronologies can be found at the following;

http://www.barbariankeep.com/chron.html

 

[Rhianni]

Perhaps it can be looked at from this angle....
Is there enough Howard material alone to support a game lisence? Rulebook. A few setting/kingdom suppliments. etc.

How much time will it take to look up facts to be sure that info is Howards and not someone elses before it goes in a book and would it be worth it?

 

[Old Bear]

Perhaps it can be looked at from this angle....
Is there enough Howard material alone to support a game lisence? Rulebook. A few setting/kingdom suppliments. etc.

How much time will it take to look up facts to be sure that info is Howards and not someone elses before it goes in a book and would it be worth it?

I think Ian (Sturrock) has found plenty that is 'pure' Howard. I'm just one of those people who feels that Sprague de Camp and Carter did credit to the character and helped advance the whole story.

 

[Ian Sturrock]

I think Ian (Sturrock) has found plenty that is 'pure' Howard. I'm just one of those people who feels that Sprague de Camp and Carter did credit to the character and helped advance the whole story.

Well, there's definitely enough in just Howard to do the game that way if we wanted to.

For me, de Camp and Carter did sterling work in keeping Conan in the public eye, but I dislike their edits of Howard and I really dislike the way they treat religion in the Hyborian Age, missing Howard's essentially existentialist stance on the whole issue -- which is pretty cool and unique for a fantasy RPG setting, incidentally.

I always felt their portrayals of Conan tended to descend into cliche too. Again this varied hugely, but there's a fair bit there that pushes the 'big dumb barbarian who thinks with his broadsword' idea of Conan which is distinctly non-Howard-like!

That said they were fairly competent world-builders and a number of their ideas about the Earth of the Hyborian Age do seem to fit pretty well with the original Howard. A lot of them don't, though, and they do seem to miss a fair few obvious extrapolations of Howard that would work really well. There's also the point that Howard consciously and self-admittedly left huge chunks of the world as effectively blank slates -- areas that were unknown to and largely unexplored by the civilised folk of the Hyborian Kingdoms. These can be a godsend of the GM as much as they were for Howard -- not too much need to adhere to a canon or any other consistency other than an internal one. If you want to add a new Black Kingdom where the people are cannibals who worship dragons and are superb slingers, there's nothing to stop you setting a whole adventure there without even letting the players know precisely where it is on the map. . .

 

[CJF]

I think another point that should be considered is that Howard himself was sometimes inconsistent with his writing. 'The Vale of Lost Women' is a good example; compared to other Conan stories it's downright terrible. Howard's characterisation of Conan in this story seems totally at odds with the Conan in his other yarns. I also think it's the source of the notion perpetuated by later pastiche writers that Conan was some sort of demon-killing machine. All of a sudden demonic and supernatural foes went from being terrifying entities to simply more carcasses for the meat grinder. Luckily there are few of these contradictions in Howard's work.

 

[Ian Sturrock]

I think another point that should be considered is that Howard himself was sometimes inconsistent with his writing. 'The Vale of Lost Women' is a good example; compared to other Conan stories it's downright terrible. Howard's characterisation of Conan in this story seems totally at odds with the Conan in his other yarns.

Yeah. I agree, generally. There are good aspects even to that story, but generally it's not one I was keen to re-read to see if there were any insights into the Hyborian Age I'd missed the first time! If we accept the standard chronology, though, Conan had just lost Belit at the time of the VoLW -- and any character changes could be attributed to that. I don't think that's necessarily what Howard meant, but it's not a bad retrofit!

 

[Old Bear]

Yeah. I agree, generally. There are good aspects even to that story, but generally it's not one I was keen to re-read to see if there were any insights into the Hyborian Age I'd missed the first time! If we accept the standard chronology, though, Conan had just lost Belit at the time of the VoLW -- and any character changes could be attributed to that. I don't think that's necessarily what Howard meant, but it's not a bad retrofit!

He'd been with the Bamulas (sp?) for some months though by then, so I'd have assumed someone as tough as Conan to be over it. Judging by his attitude to Olivia, he's feeling a bit better. :wink:

 

[elforcelf]

I would love to see all of the other writers work in book with their ideas and other ideas that can or can not be added by the G.M.Like how to add more d20 to it.To add more Cthuthu;etc,elforcelf.

 

[Mongoose TC]

I would love to see all of the other writers work in book with their ideas and other ideas that can or can not be added by the G.M.Like how to add more d20 to it.To add more Cthuthu;etc,elforcelf.

OK, I know I'm from Nepal but I've no idea what the hell you are talking about. If you mean are we going to put in conversion rules into Conan so that you can flood Hyboria with all sorts of nasties, then I'm afraid you will be disappointed.

I have been talking to the development team about this matter and they would rather saw off their own legs with a meat cleaver. Our treatment of Howard's creation is very precise, and even if we wanted to destabilise Hyboria with a heap of new monsters, the license holders might have something to say about it.

 

[elforcelf]

What I was talking about was a options book mostly with all of the stuff done by non-Howard writers,Plus some d20 stuff options,and Cthulhu stuff which Howard himself approved of.Do you need a new meat cleaver? elforcelf.