Which is the BEST published Conan adventure?

[Supplement Four]

Of the adventures publishes for Mongoose's Conan RPG, which do you think is the best?

Could be published in a magazine, like S&P, or it could be a stand alone published adventure. (I'm only asking about official Conan adventures, not stuff that can be converted or is a generic adventure.)

Opinions?

 

[Spectator]

DArn, I thought Sutek has beaten the Mongoose team hands down. Too bad your looking for MGP stuff only.
My gripe with MGP is that they are mucho "Railroad" and even more non-sensical. I think the worst ones came from Black Kingdoms.

So far the best one is from Vincent von D's "Across thunder river" involving the pictish sorceress.

 

[Clovenhoof]

I think he's asking about adventures that have been specifically written FOR Conan, not necessarily published by MGP.

What's that about Sutek?

 

[Supplement Four]

I think he's asking about adventures that have been specifically written FOR Conan, not necessarily published by MGP.

Correct.

What's that about Sutek?

I didn't understand that, either.

 

[Bygoneyrs]

What do you guys think of the following one: "Conan RPG: Shadizar City of the Wicked Box set"? I am thinking about picking this up myself, and wanted to here what some of you thought about it?

Penn

 

[Clovenhoof]

As far as I know, that's not an adventure.

 

[Demetrio]

There is an adventure in it, which is rather spoilt by the ludicrously high levels of the npcs listed. Otherwise its quite good.

For me the best adventure I've seen so far is the extended one: Betrayer of Asgard. Though Xoth has published some excellent adventures of which I especially like The Necromancer's Knife

 

[flatscan]

I ran the adventure from Shadizar: City of Wickedness. It was simply awesome. The PCs are thrown to the wolves right from the get go and as such get mixed up in great sword & sorcery mayhem. Tower of the Elephant was a lot of fun too if you don't mind ignoring Conan canon, but almost completely a site-based dungeon crawl. I would avoid Lurking Terror of Nahab like the plague. I ran that one a year ago or so and neither the players nor myself cared for it. Recently spoke with Eric Rodriguez and he said what Mongoose published for Lurking Terror was actually a rewritten adventure due to Mongoose feeling Eric & Vincent's first take on the story was too complex. Apparently the original version of the story is in Adventures in the Hyborian Age, can't remember the name, but the one that takes place in Zamora.

Currently running the mini-campaign in Across Thunder River. It is superb. We've only gone 4 sessions into it and the tension level at the table is high. Another one that throws the PCs to the wolves from the get go. Great stuff.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Oh, I'd so like to play an expedition into Pictland. I'm trying to get our group to that area. Unfortunately we are _very_ far away from there now (and we play campaign, not episodic style).

 

[Hervé]

I would avoid Lurking Terror of Nahab like the plague. I ran that one a year ago or so and neither the players nor myself cared for it. Recently spoke with Eric Rodriguez and he said what Mongoose published for Lurking Terror was actually a rewritten adventure due to Mongoose feeling Eric & Vincent's first take on the story was too complex. Apparently the original version of the story is in Adventures in the Hyborian Age, can't remember the name, but the one that takes place in Zamora.

Yeah, only that Lurking Terror was written by Bryan Steele... I think the adventure you are referring to was Dark Dens, wasn't it? The new version is The Thing That Lurks, also set in Shadizar.

 

[VincentDarlage]

Yeah, only that Lurking Terror was written by Bryan Steele...

The original was written by me, then it was rewritten by Eric Rodriguez. Even that was considered too complex (since the story was not linear and did not railroad people so much), the story was completely rewritten by Bryan Steele which kept only Eric's title. Nothing else remained. In the original (and in Eric's revision), Nahab was a Zamorian cult, not a Corinthian city.

 

[VincentDarlage]

Of the adventures publishes for Mongoose's Conan RPG, which do you think is the best?

I liked "Heretics of Tarantia."

My opinion, though, is probably of little use since it is also really the only one I ran by another author (I almost never use pre-written adventures; I think I have used five or six in the past 25 years).

Out of the ones I have written, I like the one in Across the Thunder River the best. Those which appeared in S&P I like also. Those were written based on actual games I played (after I played them). I won't go into the reasons here, but I dislike the adventure which appeared in Shadizar. I am glad (and a little surprised) a few of you enjoyed it, but I personally cringe when I see it.

 

[Supplement Four]

How about a little filter on the original question... :shock:

If you were going to run first time Conan players, not familiar with the universe, though a beginning level, published adventure, which would you choose?

So, you'd need something that begins at level 1, like Across Thunder River or Trial of Blood, but it doesn't necessarily have to be as long as those. It could be very short, like Black Stones of Kovag-Re.

Given those parameters, which would you choose?

 

[Spectator]

I think he's asking about adventures that have been specifically written FOR Conan, not necessarily published by MGP.

What's that about Sutek?

Sutek has made several awesome homebrewed adventures/ conversions that I totally dig. Unfortunately the do not qualify as "published by MGP."

 

[VincentDarlage]

So, you'd need something that begins at level 1, like Across Thunder River or Trial of Blood, but it doesn't necessarily have to be as long as those. It could be very short, like Black Stones of Kovag-Re.

Given those parameters, which would you choose?

I haven't seen Trial of Blood, but I would avoid Black Stones of Kovag Re. Too railroaded and it just doesn't make sense. It has so many plot holes it was unplayable for my group. First, it starts out with the players being captured for an unknown reason. My group killed the guards sent to capture them. End of adventure.

We retried it later after I explained they needed to be captured (we were playtesting it, after all). They accepted the "offer" to help their captor, but as soon as they were let out to begin the investigation, they turned around and snuck back into the building and killed the jerk who captured them and tried to force them to work for him. End of adventure.

My players are just too Conan-like to submit to being forced to do anything by anyone.

Later, when the lord sends out troops to kill the PCs (even though he had reason not so send the troops instead of the PCs), the whole thing made even less sense. I gave up, and rewrote it as a Pictish adventure and fixed the major plot problems.

Having not seen Trial of Blood, of your choices, I would pick the one in Across the Thunder River.

 

[Jacek]

So, you'd need something that begins at level 1, like Across Thunder River or Trial of Blood, but it doesn't necessarily have to be as long as those. It could be very short, like Black Stones of Kovag-Re.

Thunder River. Must be my sentiment for Howard's story.

Sutek has made several awesome homebrewed adventures/ conversions that I totally dig. Unfortunately the do not qualify as "published by MGP."

Haven't seen them yet. Where can they be found?

 

[The King]

I liked "Heretics of Tarantia" very much too.
I don't own the 2E adventures/campaigns yet.

What is this talk about Sutek's adventures? How is it I never heard of them?

 

[throrII]

I have not run Lurking Terror of Nahab yet, but I own it. It manages to be convoluted and railroading all at the same time. I have severely re-written it to make it playable, based losely on Howard's fragment story Snout in the Dark.