D&D General GM's Closet for the CONAN RPG

XAMOXIS' CLEANSING





Here's another Mythras adventure that I think would make a good Conan adventure. The blurb says:

Upriver from Meeros, Dianthe Kalos and her wealthy family controls the small city of Tithys. Recently, Dianthe has come into knowledge of the whereabouts of the fabled treasure known as The Cleansing. She is looking for keen adventurers to retrieve it for her.

But she is not the only one interested in The Cleansing: a vengeful goddess, a warband of panthotaurs seeking retirbution, and a sinister cult of shaman-assassins also want it. The race is on to uncover the mysteries of the Flooded Temple and secure this powerful magic item - or die trying...

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I bet this one would fit well in Argos, Aquilonia, or Nemedia. The shaman-assassins? I'm in! The panthotaurs? Lots of choices with them. Make them something normal--Nemedian cultists. Make them a cabal of shape-shifters. Or, maybe make them the last of a dying species from ancient Acheron.

The magic item? You'll have to Hyborian Age this carefully. Remember, sorcery is rare and usually evil in Conan's time. But, "The Cleansing" does sound intriguing.

MYTHIC BRITIAN LOGRES





This is a setting supplement for the Mythras RPG, so it's not that helpful for a GM running a Conan game. But, if there are any adventures ever written for this setting, they'd probably be worth a look. Historical settings are very easily translated to the Hyborian Age.

PRIMEVAL THULE



Another game that can be mined for Conan adventures is Primeval Thule. On the one hand, the setting uses non-humans, so those will have to be converted to humans (probably of different races). But, on this hand, the game has a Pathfnder version, which makes mechanics an easy conversion.

One of the main influences for Primeval Thule is Robert E. Howard's Conan and Kull stories. Atlantis is part of the game world. So, the tone and atmosphere of the adventures should fit will in a Hyborian Age game.

Here are two adventures to consider.

A ghostly ship on the Sea of Mists, a frozen wreck in the Thousand Teeth, and the legend of a mad archmage who defied the icy doom of Nimoth—this is the tale of the forgotten Tower of Viondor. An Atlantean wizard of unparalleled inventiveness, the legendary Viondor refused to abandon his home when the glaciers surrounded his stronghold. The archmage and his tower were swallowed by the ice . . . or were they? Now, two centuries after Viondor was last seen, a map leading to his refuge from the eternal winter of Nimoth has been found in the bony clutches of a long-dead sea reaver. What secrets of power and magnificent treasures lie waiting there for the hand bold enough to seize them?

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Sounds to me like this one might be set up north, in Vanaheim. An Atlantean wizard? Hell, keep that. Instead of two centuries, old Viondor was last seen during Kull's lifetime! His stronghold was iced over during the Great Cataclysm!

Once every dozen generations, the Yellow Moon rises over Thule. This rare alignment is sacred to the cryptic god known as “the King of the Stars” and its delusional followers, the Golden Ones. Most people believe that this wandering cult is made up of addled fools and harmless dreamers and addled fools. But now Night of the Yellow Moon draws near again, and the time is at hand for the Golden Ones to earn their god’s favor by converting or killing all in their path. For the “King of the Stars” is none other than Hastur the Unspeakable, and the heroes must put an end to the cultists’ rampage before they invoke unimaginable catastrophe!

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Going by the cover, I think I might look to set this one in Vendyha or Kosala.

BEASTS & BARBARIANS

B&B is an all-human game world where the atmosphere and tone would fit well with a game set in Conan's Hyborian Age. But the rules have to be completely replaced as Savage Swords it not compatible at all with Mongoose Conan.



There are gladiators in the setting, and a supplement that might be useful in a Conan game detailing a city of thieves (it's called Jalazar - The City of Thieves).

There's been a few adventures written for the game, like The Amulet of the Dogskull. Here's the blurb for that one.

It all begins with a theft in the night, and the jewels of a rich lady.

But there is no honor among thieves, and this crime will lead the heroes on a restless hunt beyond the Godaxe River, only to discover that something ancient and evil lurks behind a door that no one should open!

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Why is Zamora coming to mind?

RUNNING GAMES IN ARGOS III


The People and Education

-- Most people in Argos are illiterate. Often symbols, runes, and pictograms are used.

-- There are no formal schools or academies in Argos. Children are taught according to their parent's means.

-- Wealthy merchants and the nobility will use educated slaves or hire tutors to educate their children. Almost all of the nobles and most of the wealthy are literate. It's one of the things that separates the classes.

-- Those finding Guild acceptance are educated to that guild's standards as part of the training.

-- Acolytes of the Church of Mitra are taught to read and write.

-- Because of the cosmopolitan nature of the kingdom, many Argosseans speak several languages, especially that or their kingdom's neighbors: Zingaran, Aquilonian, Ophirian, Shemite, even some Stygian is often spoken.

-- Sometimes, arrangements can be made to have children educated by the Church of Mitra. When the Church does this, it is done not only to serve the people but also to spread the Mitran faith.

-- Some military or naval positions have some education, which is more likely among officers.

RUNNING GAMES IN ARGOS IV



ARGOSSEAN WOMEN

-- See the "Chastity" post up-thread.

-- Women outnumber the men in Argos.

-- Women are charge with traditional Hyborian female tasks in cooking, baking, sewing, weaving, spinning, cleaning and the like. But, Argossean are also trained at arms and are expected to help hold the homestead against intruders.

-- When creating Argossean women characters, roll attributes normally but lean towards putting the higher rolls into INT, WIS, and CHA rather than the physical stats to reflect the differences between men and women.

-- It is not often, but some Argossean women do become respected blacksmiths, merchants, and have other traditionally male professions as well as careers in writing, music, mid-wiving, painting and other roles. Usually, there is some special circumstance, like a husband, brother, or father dying, leaving the female to run the family business.

-- Urban women tend to be pigeonholed more often that rural women. Many Guilds will flat-out not accept women as members.

-- Peasant girls at 8 years old begin to learn sewing, cleaning, tending livestock, from their mothers. At harvest, peasant girls join their brothers in the fields.

-- 8 year old girls of the craftsman or merchant classes are apprenticed outside the family, usually to a woman, but sometimes a man. They learn a trade in this fashion, but most find husbands before the apprenticeship is over.

-- 8 year old noble women are fostered out to other noble homes where they learn sewing, embroidery, manners, music, and other skills. But, the main goal of every young woman is marriage.

-- Women are under the control of their fathers until they marry. Peasant women have more freedom of choice in who they marry, but usually have no (or small) dowry. Aristocratic women are subject to arranged marriages.

MIDGARD


Another setting to watch for adventures that can be translated to Mongoose's Conan RPG. It uses Pathfinder rules, so mechanical conversion is relatively easy. You'll have to take out the more fantastic elements of the universe and the non-humans.









Blurb:

What lies beyond the western shores of Midgard, past the boundaries of civilization and into uncharted waters? If you believe the old sea legends, brave explorers will find mysterious islands full of beauty and horror, and rich treasure guarded by unknown gods.

Some say that out there among the waves, a sea-king lies in chains; and a goddess of memory and time weaves dark intrigues that reach everywhere—even deep into the lands we know.

Written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Journeys to the West takes your players on epic voyages of discovery. Within its saltwater-crinkled pages you’ll find:

8 lost islands to explore
5 completely new adventures from level 1 to 10
10 new monsters including the coral ooze, dragon eel, and son of Talos
8 NPCs and dozens of adventure hooks
27 new spells to bend time or master the sea, plus 4 new domains and 4 new magic items

Sail beyond the horizon and into undiscovered realms with Journeys to the West!

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If you wanted to flesh out a Conan game on the Western Ocean as a Barrachan Pirate, Argossean Seaman, Zingaran Freebooter, Red Brotherhood Reaver, or even as the captain of a ship crewed by the savages of the Black Kingdoms (as Conan did with Belit aboard the Tigress), then this might be a good book to Conan-ize for your game.

THE LOST LANDS


There are several adventures set in The Lost Lands. Some of the largest dungeons ever created, like Rappan Athuk, find their homes in these lands. Many are published under the Sword & Sorcery label. Most are written for Pathfinder.

Now, hold onto your axe...take a breath...and look at this:



NORTHLANDS SAGA COMPLETE

This book is supposed to be TOTALLY AMAZING. Set in a fantasy, Viking-themed part of the world, the book is almost 800 pages long! Pathfinder rules.

Can you say Vanaheim! I'm sure you could set it in Asgard or even Cimmeria or northern Hyperborea.

You could spend your entire Conan campaign up in the frozen north! Forget about the civilized Hyborian lands.

Here's the blurb:

Where raging storms sent by malevolent spirits of the Ginnungagap howl from the Far North and bury steadings and towns alike under several feet of snow, while unnamed things of tooth and shadow hunt those who dare to emerge and brave the cold. Where the blood of fighting men and women sings in harmony with the death cries of the spear-din, and the clash of wood and steel when the shield walls meet. Where enchantments older than the race of Men linger in barrow fields and primeval forests waiting to ensnare the unwary or the foolish. This is the realm of the Norns, where they measure and cut the threads of a mans wyrd. This is the Northlands.

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It's basically a giant campaign sandbox with a ton of adventures. And, I understand that the adventures are intelligently written, include lots of roleplaying (not just monsters and dice rolling), and are steeped thick in the Viking-inspired fantasy atmosphere.

Yeah, sounds a perfect fit for red-bearded Vanir.

Almost 800 pages of game book. Over 150 pages of maps and player handouts. A giant Viking-inspired sandbox game setting. Tons of adventures that star at character level 1. Definitely, you could spend years of your gaming life just playing through this thing.





One of the developer/writers at FGG (who publishes the book) said this about the Northlands Saga Complete:

I think part of the concern about the book (other than the pure price point) is that people are assuming it's a reproduction of a historical viking world with a leavening of textbook monsters. It's much more than that; all of the adventures are caught up in Norse mythology, but with a Conan-esque, sword and sorcery underpinning. The only one I didn't really like was unfortunately the first one in the series. I think I fixed it for S&W, and I assume it works well as written with PFRPG, though I can't speak to it one way or the other. I just felt like that adventure didn't work at a beer-and-pretzels level, which IMO is a required foundation for a more old-school feel, even if your players build from there into something richer. The second half of it is quite exciting; it was the first half that didn't entirely jibe for me.


All the other adventures have a strong old-school structure: a location-based desperate situation, then a nice sandbox, then a follow-up assault to kick the enemy's ass on his home turf after the sandbox, etc, on toward heroism. None of the adventures feel like "Okay, we're vikings, let's do viking stuff according to history." I haven't read any of the other Viking modules that people listed, but I can definitely say that there's a creative avenue taken on this one that distinguishes it from just "I know lots about Vikings."

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The book features 11 adventures, taking characters from level 1 to level 20. You can add in the four previously published Northlands adventures, too, if you like.

CONVERSIONS TO THE MONGOOSE CONAN GAME


Keep an eye out. There are lots of single adventures out there that may make for good conversion to the Conan RPG. Historical adventures usually work well, and most fantasy game universes where the players races are only human. Low level adventures tend to have less fantastic magic in them. Adventures made for Pathfinder or d20 3.0/3.5 are about the easiest conversions that you're going to get, mechanically speaking.

With games with completely different mechanics, you'll simply have to replace any tasks and NPC stats with Conan rules. It's not that hard--just time consuming. You don't have to make an exact conversion. You're just looking to use the idea--the scenario--in our Conan game. I often merge ideas and shape them when I'm Conan-izing an adventure.

From the old AD&D game, don't forget Lankhmar (makes for great city adventures in Zamora or Messantia and elsewhere. Al-Qadim has some excellent adventures that you can set in Shem. You could set The Horde, from the Forgotten Realms, in the Hyrkanian steppe. The old Basic D&D Desert of Desolation series could be a Conan story akin to Howard's Black Colossus tale, where a powerful warloard rises up in the deserts of Shem, and you are part of the army sent to meet it.

Here's a couple of ideas....







THIEVES IN THE FOREST

I bought this one for my game set in Argos. It's a site based adventure. Low level, and pretty simple. An old temple is the base for a band of thieves. There's several standard fantasy encounter locations in the forest that PCs could bump into while searching for the thieves' den.

I haven't Conan-ized this adventure yet, but in looking through it, I think it obvious that the temple will be a desecrated shrine to Mitra. I'll turn the fantasy encounters into something more appropriate for Conan's world. Instead of a nest of bugbears, I might turn those into desperate escaped slaves. I might just throw out some encounters altogether, as a Conan adventure should have more of a story rather than be just a string of random combat encounters. Some other creature in the game could become an encounter with hillmen from the nearby Red Hills. If a monster kinda fits into the Hyborian Age, I'll keep it--but not too many of them. In this adventure, there is a nest of harpies. I think I'll keep those, but they'll be the most fantastic creature I keep in the story.







MAIDEN VOYAGE

Another Penumbra adventure. Those guys published a lot of stuff I eye to convert to Conan. Again, this is a low level adventure. I like those because the high fantasy is kept to a minimum. The adventure contains maps for two small ships. The Albers is a small, one-masted ship. This fits extremely well within the Hyborian Age as the sea technology in Conan's time was not that advanced. Pirates ships of the 1700's are not a good model for ships in this game. Think more along the lines of the ships from the time of the Spartans and the tale of the 300. Hyborian Age ships are somewhere between that and the later pirate vessels that we normally think of for pirates in an RPG.

Note the Hornet, from the 2011 reboot movie, Conan The Barbarian. It's a small ship, and that one is fairly advanced, with a V-shaped hull and a couple of masts, for Conan's time. Sea vessels in this game are not big. Many are made to just hug the coast. The vast majority have only one or two masts. Look at comics like the Savage Sword of Conan and see how ships are depicted.

There are some dock encounters in the adventure that will bring the docks alive for the players. And, there's a card game that the players can learn--I like those sorts of things in my game.

You've got a Ghost Ship, rumors, and superstitious pirates. Lots of Conan fun to be had here, and it's different than your typical land adventure. You can use this adventure as a spring board to go up and down the Western Coast (or across the Vilayet), run into the Red Brotherhood, visit Tortage and the Barrachan Island, land on islands, fight Picts, go broadsides with Shemite merchant vessels, and just be more mobile for land based adventures north or south on the Western Coast.

Plus, the adventure is written for d20 3.0 D&D, so it's an easy mechanical conversion to the Conan RPG.







Grim Tales is a d20 based game (easy conversion to Mongoose Conan) that focuses on high adventure and low magic. The Seven Saxons is one of the few adventures designed for the game.

This adventure is high level, and it is set in Britian in the Dark Ages. The Romans are gone. British Picts roam the land. And, the Norsemen raid the shores in their longboats.

Historical and historical fantasy adventures like this, especially the ones that are d20 based, are some of the best adventures that you can find to convert to our beloved Conan RPG. This adventure features a dragon, but the fantasy elements are kept at a minimum. Conan has fought many a deadly beast. And, you don't have to call it a dragon. Call it a wyrm or a drake. Robert Jordan's book, Conan The Magnificent, sees the mighty barbarian in the Kezankian Mountains hunting a fire-breathing creature that he calls a "drake". What's in this adventure could be the same, and, if you like, describe it more like a dinosaur. It can be one of those creatures that somehow survived the cataclysm--a beast from an age past.

This is an excellent adventure for a Conan party of all Vanir, Aesir, Cimmerians, or Hyperboreans. Of course, if you want a mixed party that has set out from Zingara's capital, Kordava, than that will work, too!









MESOPOTAMIA

Another historical fantasy supplement. This one is a setting book, which we don't care about (except for the stuff we steal for our own personal visions of the Hyborian Age), but this also has adventures in it that you can set in Shem or Stygia.

A city of unspeakable antiquity, buried for centuries beneath the desert sands, has been rediscovered deep in the accursed desert known as the Red Waste. Dare you enter The City That Worshipped a Thousand Gods, seeking the treasures and relics of its Hierophants? Explore ancient ruins, temples and dungeons of the lost city of Ibnath, and the perilous wilderness areas that surround it. The Ziggurat of the Ghoul-Queen awaits!

Destroy the Cult of the Pit Worm Yhath! It's a d20 3.0 book, and it includes expanded desert rules. There are 10 related short adventures. You can even use the ideas in this book to create new Conan character classes for your game.







THE SPEAR OF LOHGIN

Also a d20 3.0 adventure. Easy to convert. It's for level 4-6 characters. The blurb reads:

An ancient curse threatens the land of Milandir as a callous madman awakens an evil long left undisturbed. The populace of a once-proud bastion of honorable knights rises from death to oppose the force that struck them down.

The players are thrust into a drama involving the lands of both the living and the dead, as they seek to fulfill a prophecy and stop an unspeakable horror from being unleashed upon the innocents of the world. Can they stop a malefic intelligence that once consumed ten times their number?

Welcome to Arcanis, the world of Shattered Empires.

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Doesn't that just sound like a good Conan adventure? Besides those things that you fight, the NPCs in this adventure are all human. This should be an easy conversion.

FANTASY TO CONAN - CONVERSION NOTES



LOW LEVEL ADVENTURE

When I'm Conan-izing an adventure that was written for D&D or some other game universe, I look for low level adventures first, and I prefer adventures written for d20 3.0/3.5 or Pathfinder. I like low level stuff because those tend to use less fantastic magic--stuff that I will throw out. And, I'm not just talking about spells. I'm talking about fantastic creatures, lots of humanoids, magical traps, talking statues, mirrors that take you to another plane of existence, jars that trap your soul, and so on.

I may keep some of the magic--and I'll make that some unique, powerful thing of sorcery. But, my general goal is to minimize the magic, and the magic-users, in order to get closer to that Hyborian Age feel.

Why I prefer d20 3.0/3.5 stuff is obvious. It makes for an easier conversion to the d20 3.0/3.5 based Conan game. But, it's not a 1-1 conversion. There's still work to be done. You've got to come up with Dodge and Parry AC. Convert to Conan classes. Switch equipment, like Conan armor, which has an Armor Value. And, you've got to remove the fantasy. A D&D Ranger will lose his magical abilities and probably transfer to the Borderer class in Conan.

My point being: Even d20 3.0/3.5 or Pathfinder source material requires conversion work.



DO I NEED THIS ENCOUNTER?

The next thing I ask myself when Conan-izing an adventure is, "Do I need this encounter at all?" D&D adventures tend to have a lot of encounters just for the sake of having a lot of encounters. I believe a good Conan adventure should have less total encounters and more story-driven encounters. "Does this encounter advance the story?" That's another question I ask myself.

If the answer is, "No," then I'll just take that encounter out of the game.



CAN I MAKE THE ENCOUNTER WORK WITH HUMANS?

The next thing I do, if I am keeping an encounter, is see if I can re-imagine the situation at hand as a human-based encounter. If I'm looking at a bunch of goblins in a cave, I might change those into bandits, using the cave as their wilderness base. Maybe there's a hobgoblin or two among them. Maybe the encounter shows a bugbear or an ogre, too. These become the higher level bandits. The leaders. I might even multi-class them. A sole bugbear or ogre might be a champion fighter or an emissary from the band of thieves living in the city--and now, the players discover that the bandits and the city thieves are working together, selling information to each other about caravans, using each other as fences.

Take inventory of the types of humans that are likely to populate the part of the Known World where you have set this adventure. My current game is set in Argos. So, I've got all kinds of humans that I can use to replace non-human encounters in adventure modules: Escaped slaves or gladiators. Zingaran spies. Merchants and their paid mercenary body guards. Shemite caravan passing through. Plus there are rival Merchant Houses, rival Nobles, and the Church of Mitra vs. any other cult.

Don't forget Commoners. They go up to level 10, and they can serve all sorts of roles in the game. What if those four random skeletons that are supposed to pop out when the PC pass the downed tree become four young Commoners--a group of boys out to have fun by messing with travelers. They decide to shake down the PCs as they pass, asking for a silver a piece. How will the PCs handle this?

In a D&D game, the PCs would just set to work on the skeletons and then move on. But now that we've Conan-ized the encounter, it's a much different scenario--more story based. If the PCs kill these boys, how will that set them when the PCs face the rest of the townspeople? What if one boy is the son of the Merchant where the PCs buy and sell equipment? What if the boys are actually being paid by the bandits to scout the road for juicy scores?

Isn't that more interesting that just a quick encounter to fight four skeletons?

Instead of Commoner boys, make the 4 skeletons become 4 Acolytes from a demon cult, out at night prowling for victims that they can drag back to their sanctuary to be sacrificed--an act that must be done before the moon becomes full.

Use your creativity. Consider the power structures in your game. Who makes the world go around in that part of the world? Do that, and you'll change a rather usual D&D encounter into something memorable that fits well in your version of the Hyborian Age.



MAGIC AND SORCERY AND TREASURE

I automatically throw out 95% of the magic seen in a standard D&D adventure. I don't care about +2 swords or boots of levitation. If I do anything at all, which is not often, those will become normal swords and boots made of higher quality. The game has three levels for garments: Base Quality, Merchant Quality, Noble Quality. These things can be sold in the game. The +2 sword can become a normal sword with a polished chrome blade and a jewel in the pommel, making the sword a lot more than a basic sword. The boots are made of Zingaran leather--top quality--and a PC may want these for himself, if they fit.

I throw out scrolls and potions and magical rings. They either disappear from the adventure (likely) or they get transferred into some form of simple treasure (not often). A +1 pendant of protection becomes a 50 sp value silver necklace with the symbol of Mitra on it. Or, I may present a mystery--the PCs find a key with no markings on it. It leads to a locked door in the city that opens the ancient crypts. But, at this point, the players have no way of connecting the key to that door. It will be a mystery that bugs them for a while. :wink2:

I always look hard at the traps, too. Many times, in a D&D adventure, the traps are magical in nature. Get creative about these and turn them into non-magical traps. The Ruins of Hyboria supplement book is a great resource to use when converting D&D dungeons. There's an entire section in that book devoted to traps--all of them non-magical. That book can help you in many ways when Conan-izing an adventure written for another game universe.

What you want to do is think MUNDANE. Turn the magical stuff into its mundane version, or throw out the magic altogether.

Reduce treasure drastically. A typically D&D adventure sees a party of characters enter the dungeon penniless and exit it rich enough to buy their own castle. That shouldn't happen in a Conan adventure. People don't get rich by raiding dungeons, and the dungeons of the Hyborian Age don't have piles of coin and treasure sitting around on tables or in chests.

You can give your players some rewards in the form of treasure, but keep it light. Don't allow them to get enough to change financial circumstances. Just give them enough so that they can have the coin for the next night's stay in an inn, or to have their armor repaired. Give them a bronze bicep band or a bolt of cloth. Maybe a single ear-ring. Try to give them "things" rather than coins. People don't leave money lying around in the Hyborian Age. It's like the Dark Ages--there's not a lot of wealth to be found.

If you don't give them a lot, your players will fond over every little thing they get (after an adjustment period if they just came from a D&D game). The book I just mentioned, Ruins of Hyboria, has a section of unique and interesting treasures that the characters can discover during their travels. And, the book Barbaric Treasures, has pages of mundane items that Conan characters can find, here and there, to keep them in wine and song. (Barbaric Treasures is also an excellent resource for creating caravan loads--use this in conjunction with the caravan rules presented in the Shem - Gateway to the South supplement.)



WHAT DO I KEEP?

It sounds like I totally delete everything that a D&D adventure brings with it. So, why use published adventures at all? Why not just make everything up from scratch for your game?

Well, first, I don't delete everything. But, I do change a lot of the adventure. Conan-izing often requires a lot of work. But, I find that interesting D&D scenarios can still be quite valuable. First, there's site maps. And, the ideas in the adventure serve as a spring board for creativity. It is easier to edit something that it is to create from scratch. Like writing stories, it is easier to take a story already written and alter it to your tastes than it is to stare at a blank page and fill it up with interesting detail. So, D&D adventures serve as short-cuts and GM time-savers, in that respect, even though the conversion process can take a great deal of time.

I'll keep anything that fits my sense of what should "be" in the Hyborian Age. Everything else is either changed or deleted.

I keep sorcery to a minimum, but I do keep some sorcerous stuff, if the adventure calls for it. Think of the sorcery you saw in any of the three Conan movies. It's there. It's powerful. But, its not in each scene. Low level Sorcerers don't walk the streets of the city and throw small spells for no reason. Conan sorcery is not about Web, Magic Missile, and Levitate. The sorcery section in the Conan rulebook shows a different kind of power. So, I endeavor to stay true to the Conan sorcery rules, using the spells in core rulebook and other books in this rpg series as examples. I may make a new spell that works something like Web, Magic Missile, or Levitate, but it will be a unique spell that only that sorcerer has learned. You won't find it scrawled on scrolls and left for anyone to find.

The same goes for creatures. Conan has fought his share of heinous beasts. I will leave some of the monsters provided in the conversion module intact. But, I'll throw out those that don't fit the Hyborian Age. I'll keep a wyvern, but I'll throw out an gelatinous cube. I'll keep zombie, but I'll nix a piercer. I might replace a hell hound with a regular wolf. I might allow a dragon, even, but I'll describe him as a dinosaur and remove his wings and spells (and it won't be able to speak, of course).

I try to thin out the monster encounters, deleting them altogether or changing them to human encounters. Or, replacing them with mundane animals. A big umber hulk might be replaced with a large mastodon that is pissed off it is changed to a column. Or, a Dire Wolf might become a saber-toothed tiger.

The whole idea, of course, is for your players to never suspect that they are playing any game other than one set in the Hyborian Age.