Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
GM's Closet for the CONAN RPG
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 6270263" data-attributes="member: 92305"><p><strong>CONAN-IZING THIEVES OF THE FOREST</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm starting a new Conan campaign. This one is the exact opposite of my previous one. Where the other featured Cimmerians and their clan and village, this one will focus on a large Hyborian city. Where the other was primarily wilderness adventure, this one is more traditional, with city encounters as well as journeys out into the wilds. Where before, I only allowed the PCs to be of the Barbarian class, in this one, I'll let the players pick whatever class they want to play. Where my last campaign was plot-heavy with a grim story to be told, with this one, I'm just going to create a large sandbox, plop the characters down into it, and watch what they do. The story will come from the players' interests and actions. Open world.</p><p></p><p>Messantia will be the large Hyborian city--mainly due to the fact I want to get some use out of the boxed set I purchased years ago. I've got the Argos and Zingara hardback, too. </p><p></p><p>I didn't realize the full scope at first, but Argos is turning out to be the ideal place (most versatile) to base a campaign. You've got large cities on the coast, with ports, for city adventures. The interior of Argos is quite feudal, with serfs and lords--a perfect place to set traditional D&D type fair, with the land full of caves and keeps and ruins. The ruins, all about, are from ancient Acheron and the other civilizations that have lived in the same area.</p><p></p><p>There are thick forests all around the interior and the large, wide, Khorotas River. Mountains on the border with Zingara. Deserty, hilly, broken lands on the border with Shem. Even a swamp or two. All different terrains in which to set adventures.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Then, with the port, it's not that hard to have a sea-based adventure, or travel north, up the coast to adventure in the Pictish wilds or among the red-haired Vanir. Or, go south, into the city-states of Shem, or into ancient, dark Stygia, or even farther south, into the savage Black Kingdoms.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The Road of Kings starts at Messantia and travels through the heart of the Hyborian kingdoms--again, another easy path to take the game somewhere else for a while then bring it back.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Almost all types of adventure can be had here, by using Argos as a hub.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Penumbra's THIEVES IN THE FOREST, by Atlas Games</strong></p><p></p><p>My first thought was to just plop the players down into Messantia and let them loose. As it turns out, I've got four players, and three have never played, or really read, Conan before. So, I figured I'd better modify my initial thoughts and go with something simple right at first, as a prelude to the characters reaching Messantia.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I still wanted to go with the "sandbox" flavor, but on a smaller scale. I stumbled upon the perfect adventure for my needs. Back when 3E was first published, Atlas Games, under their Penumbra banner, published a very clean, very simple little sandbox called <strong>Thieves In The Forest. </strong>When I asked the new players which character class they like to play best, they all said "thieves". So, with a thief focused campaign in mind, the Atlas adventure caught my eye just with its title.</p><p></p><p></p><p>As written, Thieves in the Forest is extremely basic introductory scenario for standard D&D. The PCs happen upon a small village that is being harried by bandits. PC do-gooders become the champions of the town by rooting out the bandits. The adventure is basically a big map, with the town in the center, and a number of encounter locations spread out along the roads, trails, and river on the map. The PCs are let loose in this sandbox with the ultimate goal of wiping out the bandits.</p><p></p><p></p><p>OK, simple enough, but I need to Conan-ize it for my game.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>CONAN-IZING A SIMPLE D&D ADVENTURE</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>My players will begin the game on the road to Messantia. I'm not going to tell them that I'm starting with this prelude adventure. So, I'll need something--some type of motivation--to get the players interested in snooping around this starter-sandbox and going up against the bandits. My plan is to set up a first encounter where the PCs meet some of these thieves on the road and are robbed. I'm not going to try to kill them. The encounter, I envision to be heavy on the roleplaying and likely, but not absolutely destined, to break out into combat. I'm going to make the bandits strong with the goal of capturing the PCs. But, if the PCs fight well or get lucky, then maybe they'll wipe out these bandits.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Likely, the bandits win, and they'll take everything of value from the PCs. I'm going to roleplay the bandits in such a way, trying to get under the players' skins. I want the players to want to take vengeance on the bandits.</p><p></p><p></p><p>In other words, the key to getting the PCs to stick around is to make it<em> personal.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Water Bob, post: 6270263, member: 92305"] [B]CONAN-IZING THIEVES OF THE FOREST[/B] I'm starting a new Conan campaign. This one is the exact opposite of my previous one. Where the other featured Cimmerians and their clan and village, this one will focus on a large Hyborian city. Where the other was primarily wilderness adventure, this one is more traditional, with city encounters as well as journeys out into the wilds. Where before, I only allowed the PCs to be of the Barbarian class, in this one, I'll let the players pick whatever class they want to play. Where my last campaign was plot-heavy with a grim story to be told, with this one, I'm just going to create a large sandbox, plop the characters down into it, and watch what they do. The story will come from the players' interests and actions. Open world. Messantia will be the large Hyborian city--mainly due to the fact I want to get some use out of the boxed set I purchased years ago. I've got the Argos and Zingara hardback, too. I didn't realize the full scope at first, but Argos is turning out to be the ideal place (most versatile) to base a campaign. You've got large cities on the coast, with ports, for city adventures. The interior of Argos is quite feudal, with serfs and lords--a perfect place to set traditional D&D type fair, with the land full of caves and keeps and ruins. The ruins, all about, are from ancient Acheron and the other civilizations that have lived in the same area. There are thick forests all around the interior and the large, wide, Khorotas River. Mountains on the border with Zingara. Deserty, hilly, broken lands on the border with Shem. Even a swamp or two. All different terrains in which to set adventures. Then, with the port, it's not that hard to have a sea-based adventure, or travel north, up the coast to adventure in the Pictish wilds or among the red-haired Vanir. Or, go south, into the city-states of Shem, or into ancient, dark Stygia, or even farther south, into the savage Black Kingdoms. The Road of Kings starts at Messantia and travels through the heart of the Hyborian kingdoms--again, another easy path to take the game somewhere else for a while then bring it back. Almost all types of adventure can be had here, by using Argos as a hub. [B]Penumbra's THIEVES IN THE FOREST, by Atlas Games[/B] My first thought was to just plop the players down into Messantia and let them loose. As it turns out, I've got four players, and three have never played, or really read, Conan before. So, I figured I'd better modify my initial thoughts and go with something simple right at first, as a prelude to the characters reaching Messantia. I still wanted to go with the "sandbox" flavor, but on a smaller scale. I stumbled upon the perfect adventure for my needs. Back when 3E was first published, Atlas Games, under their Penumbra banner, published a very clean, very simple little sandbox called [B]Thieves In The Forest. [/B]When I asked the new players which character class they like to play best, they all said "thieves". So, with a thief focused campaign in mind, the Atlas adventure caught my eye just with its title. As written, Thieves in the Forest is extremely basic introductory scenario for standard D&D. The PCs happen upon a small village that is being harried by bandits. PC do-gooders become the champions of the town by rooting out the bandits. The adventure is basically a big map, with the town in the center, and a number of encounter locations spread out along the roads, trails, and river on the map. The PCs are let loose in this sandbox with the ultimate goal of wiping out the bandits. OK, simple enough, but I need to Conan-ize it for my game. [B]CONAN-IZING A SIMPLE D&D ADVENTURE[/B] My players will begin the game on the road to Messantia. I'm not going to tell them that I'm starting with this prelude adventure. So, I'll need something--some type of motivation--to get the players interested in snooping around this starter-sandbox and going up against the bandits. My plan is to set up a first encounter where the PCs meet some of these thieves on the road and are robbed. I'm not going to try to kill them. The encounter, I envision to be heavy on the roleplaying and likely, but not absolutely destined, to break out into combat. I'm going to make the bandits strong with the goal of capturing the PCs. But, if the PCs fight well or get lucky, then maybe they'll wipe out these bandits. Likely, the bandits win, and they'll take everything of value from the PCs. I'm going to roleplay the bandits in such a way, trying to get under the players' skins. I want the players to want to take vengeance on the bandits. In other words, the key to getting the PCs to stick around is to make it[I] personal.[/I] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
GM's Closet for the CONAN RPG
Top