D&D General Reassesing Robert E Howards influence on D&D +
- Thread starter Tonguez
- Start date
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
The purists' women will lament, but honestly, I think the Roy Thomas Marvel Comics versions are superior in many cases to the original stories.
A lot of REH's stuff has not aged well, and even in the 1970s, Thomas was progressive enough to dump the racism, most of the sexism, and kept around great supporting characters that REH killed off in a single story, etc. And he essentially invented the character of Red Sonja along with Thorne and those early comics just bristle with energy and inspiration for any D&D game.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I really like the chronological approach that Busiek's run took.
Vikingkingq
Adventurer
I was going to second this recommendation. Busiek did a great job expanding Conan's supporting cast, and I agree that he found a relatively deft way to deal with chronology - something that stumped a lot of REH pasticheurs from L. Sprague de Camp to Robert Jordan.
Like all truly great characters of literature, legend and myth, Conan morphs to fit the times -- just like Superman, Batman, Spiderman and Captain America. Conan represents something that is at once enduring and immediate. There is space for Conan, even if the accouterments of the stories have to make room for modern sensibilities.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Also, the vizier narrating the stories is chef's kiss of evil viziers the ruler should 100% put to death, before he betrays the ruler. (Maybe he is put to death in a later story I haven't gotten to.)
Vikingkingq
Adventurer
I also like how there’s even a very gradual plot about him and the Prince and the prince’s mistress that loosely ties back into the main plot.
cbwjm
Seb-wejem
I'm pretty sure that he's someone from the Hyborian age, a sorcerer that survived a run-in with Conan. Now though, I'm going to need to go back and find my books to read them and find out.
Yora
Legend
Having read a lot of Howard, I actually don't think there are really that many elements from his stories that have something similar in early D&D.
There's one Conan story with an abandoned city in a desert, where the remaining residents are passed out on drugs, and there's a shadowy monster prowling in the dark passages, which I think has somewhat of a similar feel to some early D&D dungeon modules.
And one that has a ruined underground city in which the two small groups of remaining survivors are in a permanent war with each other and try to get Conan on their side to destroy the other, if I remember right.
Ruined lost cities deep in the wilderness, where some trace of the sorcerous calamities that destroyed them are still lingering is a recurring, but not exactly typical, thing in Howard's fantasy stories. But the adventures taking place in them are nothing like a D&D dungeon crawl.
But other than that, I've been seeing no real parallels between Howard's stories and 70s D&D.
There's one Conan story with an abandoned city in a desert, where the remaining residents are passed out on drugs, and there's a shadowy monster prowling in the dark passages, which I think has somewhat of a similar feel to some early D&D dungeon modules.
And one that has a ruined underground city in which the two small groups of remaining survivors are in a permanent war with each other and try to get Conan on their side to destroy the other, if I remember right.
Ruined lost cities deep in the wilderness, where some trace of the sorcerous calamities that destroyed them are still lingering is a recurring, but not exactly typical, thing in Howard's fantasy stories. But the adventures taking place in them are nothing like a D&D dungeon crawl.
But other than that, I've been seeing no real parallels between Howard's stories and 70s D&D.
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