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

[Water Bob]

RUINS OF HYBORIA

Despite the name of this book*, it is truly an excellent sourcebook for your Conan game. Consider it a tool for the GM. It will help you create your own dungeon-type locations, and the book is very useful in converting 3.0/3.5 D&D and/or Pathfinder adventures for use in your game.

Here's a run-down of everything that is in this tome.



*"Hyboria" is not the correct way to refer to Conan's world. The world is not called "Hyboria". The world is our Earth, in the distant, ancient past, somewhere around 10,000 years ago. Conan lives in a time when the world looked different than it does today, though the land masses and continents are similar at this time.

This part of our non-recorded history is referred to as the "Hyborian Age," named for an ethnic tribe of barbarians, the Bori, that swept from the north and overthrew the most powerful kingdom known to exist at that time, ancient Acheron. Upon the ruins of Acheron, the Bori tribes grew and prospered, creating great, civilized kingdoms--the most powerful kingdoms during Conan's life. This is why it is said that Conan lived during the Hyborian Age--literally, the Age of the Bori.

The Bori conquering Acheron will, itself, be repeated in the future when the Gauls and other barbarians cause the the downfall of the great Roman Empire. The Bori tribes are the forefathers of the Europeans. The Bori become the Hyborians, populating the great civilized kingdoms of Conan's time--all of which have blood that still flows in the French and Germans, Spanish, and British, while other races, like the Cimmerians and the Vanir and Aesir, become the Celts and Irish, and the peoples of the north in Iceland and Norway.

Thus, to refer to Conan's world as "Hyboria" is not correct. Hyboria is not the name of the planet or even an empire or kingdom. Therefore, the correct name of this book should be: RUINS OF THE HYBORIAN AGE.

RUIN GENERATOR

The first section of the book is dedicated to creating dungeon locations. There are several lists where a GM can either pick what he wants or roll randomly to "discover" his ruin. This generator doesn't just create what the place looks like. It also creates a background for the ruin. It helps the GM brainstorm on what the original builders were like, and what the place was used for when it was built. Conan dungeons are not just adventure locations. They connect with the story and "make sense" within the bounds of that story.



CULTURES & RUINS

This chapter of the book discusses various locations of the Hyborian Age and what the ruins in that part of the world would be like. Some sample ruins are provided--most of these taken from Conan stories.

So, my current game is set in Argos, right? I read the section on Argossean ruins, and I am given two sample ruins to view: Eidoran, from Marvel graphic novel, Conan: The Skull of Set. And, the ancient Acheronian ruin of Tartarus, seen in the novel, Conan And The Grim Grey God (by Sean A. Moore), and also mentioned in Conan of the Red Brotherhood (by Leonard Carpenter).



CONAN'S RUINS

Several chapters come next, each presenting in detail, the infamous Ruins that Conan has explored. These are completely detailed locations, each recorded on several pages in the book, that you can use in your game.

City of the Winged One, from Howard's Queen of the Black Coast.

City of the Ghouls, from Howard's The Hour of the Dragon.

Dagoth Hill, from Howard's The Scarlet Citadel.

Green Stone Cities. Howard mentions this "green stone" in more than one of his stories.

Gazal, from Howard's Drums of Tombalku.

The Isle of Iron Statues, from Howard's Shadows in the Moonlight.

Isle of the Black Ones, from Howard's The Pool of the Black One.

Khet, The City of Scorpions, from John Maddox Roberts' Conan The Rogue.

Kuthchemes, from Howard's Black Colossus.

Pteion The Damned, from Poul Anderson's Conan The Rebel.

Tombs & Pyramids. Since they dominate some lands during the Hyborian Age, this covers the details.

Xuchotl, from Howard's Red Nails.





EXPLORING RUINS

This chapter has notes for the GM on placing and playing ruins in his game. Adventure ideas. Cave-ins. Large section on Traps. Treasure in a Conan game. New Feats for Tomb Raiders.




MONSTERS OF THE RUINS

This is a generation system that allows you to describe creatures suitable for the Hyborian Age. The GM can roll on or pick from tables. This will create a "picture" in your mind's eye, and once you have that, you can use the rules in the book BESTIARY OF THE HYBORIAN AGE to put stats to your creation.

This system helpful when converting standard D&D adventures for use in a Conan campaign. Players may recognize a monster from playing D&D, or the monster, as-is, may not be suitable for the Hyborian Age. You can keep the D&D stats (modified for use in the Conan RPG, of course) of a monster but use this system to describe it in a totally new and fresh way.

For example, a low level D&D adventure may have a young adult dragon in it. Well, that monster is right at home in a Forgotten Realms game, but you don't think it fits well in your Conan game. No problem. Keep the young adult dragon's stats, but use the Monster Description tables to totally re-design the look of the creature. Your players will have no idea that what they are fighting is mechanically the same as the young adult dragon. They'll believe that it is a man-shaped thing with a snake for a head because that's the way you described it!

This last section of the book also contains a Bestiary of several pages presenting monsters seen in Conan's various tales.

 

[Water Bob]

SLAINE

Mongoose produced a Slaine RPG. It is d20 3.0 based, and there is a campaign that goes through four adventures:

The Invulnerable King
Teeth Of the Moon Sow
The Ragnarok Book
Way of The Horned God

I own these, and looking through them, they'd make for a good conversion to a campaign based in Cimmeria. In fact, I bought them to play in my first Conan campaign where all players played Cimmerian Barbarians from the same clan village. The game ended before I was able to adapt these Slaine adventures (though we did play that campaign for a couple of years).

 

[Water Bob]

RUNNING GAMES IN ARGOS V



THE GM CRUTCH

When thinking of Argos, think of the Hyborian Age with a strong dose of Coastal Ancient Greece. You can see that influence in the ethnic type of the people, in their technology and architecture, in their style of dress. It's not an exact copy of Greece, not by any stretch of the definition. But, there is a strong influence of a fantasy version of Coastal Ancient Greece in this part of the known world (not unlike Nordheim having a strong influence from Viking culture).





CONVOLUTED PROPERTY VIEWS

The Argosseans have a convoluted view of property rights. On the one had, mercantilism runs strong in the kingdom, and most likely because of this, Argosseans detest theft. Burglary is a sin. Thieves who steal face harsh punishments, and these types of thieves are looked at with disgust from all aspects of society.

On the other hand, Argosseans as a whole idolize pirates. Many are folk heroes. Children grow up wanting to be pirates. Many young men actually do take to the waves as a pirate under an assumed name, make their stake, and return home after a few years with enough booty to start a business. There are laws against piracy, and these laws are enforced at selective times in order to keep piracy in check. But it is not uncommon to have soldiers policing the dock to turn their gaze a different way as a pirate ship makes port to unload cargo for an Argossean fence.

And business deals, where one businessman finds a way to take advantage of another, is not considered theft. Instead, people look upon that as good business.

Characters of the Thief class, in Argos, tend to be more the type of confidence artists, assassins, embezzlers, forgers, smugglers, and kidnappers.

How's that for a rich, realistic society? It's just convoluted enough to be believed.





SOPHISTICATED ARCHITECTURE

Most homes are one story affairs. They have stone foundations, with the walls made of clay brick over wood frames. A standard design is have a rectangle with the center cut out. It's an open air atrium (called a "harbor") with the house surrounding it on at least three sides--sometimes partially on the fourth side. Several doors lead off from the harbor to different parts of the house. Often statues of some significance to the family dominates the harbor, and often this is a statue of Mitra. Columns (think Greek) and arches are common on almost all types of buildings.

The Argosseans are fairly sophisticated in that sewage runs under the roads. Towns are laid out in streets. Pipes dispense water in fountains and hand bowls and bathtubs by way of pressure boxes. Aqueducts are used in the less sophisticated cities. Under-floor heating via hypocausts keeps the building warm during the winter months.





THE LARGEST MERCHANT FLEET IN THE KNOWN WORLD

Merchants tend to hug the coast as it is somewhat safer than deep see voyages. Thus, merchants use coasters, cogs, and the like. These trading vessels are not equipped for extended sea voyages and make port often.

This is not to say, though, that larger, more seaworthy craft are not common. Merchant galleons, carracks, and caravels can embark on longer voyages and sail through almost any weather.

The maritime trading season starts in late spring and ends in the early fall. Stygian ports are temporarily open to Argossean traders during this period.





SLAVERY IS ALIVE AND WELL IN ARGOS

Most slaves are used to man the oars of both merchant and naval vessels. Other slaves are used as laborers inside the kingdom. Most slaves are taken from the lands of Kush and the Black Kingdoms. White slaves exist, but are a lot less common. Slaves are referred to as "sweats".

Slavery was a stronger institution in the kingdom's past. The average Argossean today does not own any slaves. He doesn't need them because of the strong Argossean work ethic and the Argossean philosophy of a fair day's wage for a fair day's work. Free farmers of the interior cannot afford to feed slaves. Instead, they have big families and spread the work around.

Slaves are maintained by wealthy merchants and nobles, but most slaves are used by the kingdom's institutions--the Order of Engineers, for example, maintains an entire labor force of slaves.

Slaves typically live squalid lives in cave-like warrens of rooms with no natural light or amenities of any sort except a straw mat for a pillow.

Many Argosseans tend to prefer female and children slaves as male slaves require too much work to control. Most male slaves are children who have grown up knowing nothing but slavery.

The law is that a master cannot kill a slave, even though the master has total control over a slave's life otherwise, unless that slave has tried to escape. Recaptured slaves are branded as such, if they are not killed outright.

Notable Slave Institutions: Wealthy Merchant Houses. Noble Houses. Labor Institutions. Gladiators. Merchant and Naval vessels.

Character Classes For Slaves: Slaves are typically of the Commoner class. Gladiator slaves are typically of the Barbarian class (S&P features a Gladiator class). Tutor slaves are taught to be in the Scholar class. The other classes are rare, while the Thief class , the Borderer class, and the Nomad class are just about non-existent. Characters who are captured typically multi-class into Commoner, Barbarian, or Scholar, depending on their role as a slave.

 

[Water Bob]

RUNNING GAMES IN ARGOS VI




THE PEOPLE TOIL

Argosseans have a strong work ethic. The people are apprenticed at age 8. Characters have full time jobs at age 14-15. If starting a new character, consider this (age 14 or 15) to be the youngest starting age for a Level 1 character.

The Argossean work day is 16 hours in the summer and 12 hours in the winter--essentially sun up to sun down.

Many people craft their own goods and use the front of their homes as a storefront. Otherwise, selling goods in carts or by simply hawking them on the street is commonly seen in the cities and villages of Argos. Membership in a guild can be important, but so can Reputation, as with a tutor (who sells his Reputation more than he does his actual skill at tutoring).

Women often practice two or more trades, such as a midwife who is also a weaver. And, knowing a trade makes a woman more valuable in the marriage market (which is very important to women--their goal in their young lives).

REPUTATION BONUS: Characters who have developed a thriving business receive a +1 Rep bonus.





GUILDS

The various Guilds are powerful organizations in Argos, with the rule of the King's Law behind them. Those not in the proper guild may have to pay a tariff to the appropriate guild is business is to be transacted. Argosseans are serious about their guilds, and the kingdom known for its friendly people are not so friendly when guild rules are broken.

There are annual fairs and established market days, though, when anyone can sell to the public. But, there is not enough of these to support a business.

Some guilds are men-only organizations. In others, women can become guild members upon the death of their guild husband or son.

Guilds often use secrete signs and communications forms. Some Guilds are quasi-religious organizations. For example, the Goldsmith's Guild is closely tied with the religion of Mitra.

Guild Craftsmen: Usually live in parts of the town with similarly skilled craftsmen. Often Master Craftsmen of a particular craft are all from the same family. The family establishes a monopoly on that one craft in that town. The family shares apprentices among them. Nepotism is alive and well.

Masters: A Master of a craft is a full citizen of the kingdom by the King's Law. Becoming a master is a path to citizenship, though entering a Guild as a foreigner is quite difficult. Guild Law allows Masters to open workshops, hire journeymen, and train apprentices. Many times, Guild Law restricts the number of Masters allowed to operate in a given area.

Journeymen: Once a Master has given his approval of the work of an apprentice, the apprentice graduates to journeyman status. He is called a "journeyman" because, at this stage of his career, he is to journey from town to town, working a time for different Masters, learning various techniques. A Journeyman's most prized possession is letter of recommendation from his original Master (often a family member).

Apprentices: Most apprentices live in the attic of the Master's house. Apprenticeship often starts at the age of 8 years old, and apprenticeship often lasts until the person is 14, 15 or 18 years or more old.

REPUTATION BONUS: Apprentices gain a +2 Rep bonus when they are admitted to their Guild. Guild membership is also considered an increase to social status.

Becoming a Journeyman nets the character another +2 Rep bonus.

In Argos, becoming a Master requires a Reputation 20. And, becoming master nets the character a +4 Rep bonus. Masters are typically also become town elders and city leaders.

CHARACTER CLASS: Most NPCs are of the Commoner class. They are also often non-sorcerous Scholars (in that they study their trade). The Scholar class covers any area where the character knows a great deal about a subject, thus armor smiths, traders, and glass blowers are all normally either from the Commoner class or the Scholar class.

CHARACTER LEVEL: Apprentice characters are Level 1, and this can last for many years. Journeymen characters have a minimum of 6 skill points in their craft, which means a Journeyman must be Level 3rd level or higher.





MERCHANT HOUSES

As mercantilism grew in Argos, and the kingdom became rich in trade, the Merchant Houses obtained more power. This proved to be a thorn in the side of the nobles of the kingdom, and today, this is the main reason that feudalism is dying out in the kingdom. Feudalism is still strongest in interior Argos while, in the Coastal Cities, the Merchant Houses have more power.

The Merchant Houses have followed the model set by the Craft Guilds, which came first. The Craft Guilds exist under feudalism. The Merchant Houses exist in spite of feudalism.

High ranking House members wear medallions of station on silver chains.

Members of Merchant Houses are considered to be noble, by the King's Law. But the old Noble families know that noble blood does not run through the veins of these Merchants, and the nobles of the Merchant Houses will never gain the full respect of the nobles who's bloodlines can be traced back for centuries. The leaders of the Merchant Houses claim titles as barons, counts, and even that of dukes.

Two of the three great institutions of power in Argos are, indeed, the Merchant Houses and the True Nobles. (The third leg of that tri-pod is the Church of Mitra.) All three have strong influence on the crown.

Nature of the House Merchants: Some are purely evil. Some are corrupt. Others are severely avaricious. All are deceitful and insidious people who rarely give more care to those not of their House.

The great Merchant Houses take care of their own. They are known for charity toward disadvantaged members, taking care of funeral expenses of dead members, and looking after the family of dead members. Of course, this charity is strictly within the House. Though, this is the only real charity to exist in Argos.

The Houses police themselves, work together to defend the Houses from outside powerful influences (foreign trade, the Interior Nobles, the Church of Mitra), and they even maintain small armies or guards in particular areas. They operate caravans to distant lands, and they maintain fleets of naval vessels. The Merchant Houses even have the power to invoke their House Law in many instances, replacing the King's Law. The Houses act as a Republic of small City States or kingdoms within Argos as a whole, though they do recognize the king of Argos as the ultimate authority.

 

[Water Bob]

SHIPS OF ARGOS - COG

This is a Cog. It's a vessel type that is seen off the shores of Argos and up and down the continent. It is a very common merchant vessel. Single mast. Square rigged sail. Slaves are sometimes used for the oars.

Cogs range in length from 50-80 feet. The beam is 15-25 feet. The largest of these could carry about 200 tons.

These are inexpensive ships, made of hard oak. They are not deep sea going vessels. They hug the coastline, always in sight of land. They can be rowed up rivers if the outlet is deep enough.

It's hard ship to row, though, given its design. Many cogs do not employ oars in the ship's design--it depends on the ship's purpose. Longboats are use to pull the boat into port, when needed. The oars are generally used for docking and short-distance maneuvering.

The ship requires a skeleton crew of 10-15 able bodied seamen. The vessels can have several passengers as well as fighting men to protect the ship and cargo. Total number of people aboard could run up into several dozen.

 

[Water Bob]

A NOTE ON THE SCHOLAR CLASS




If you come from a long background in D&D, then you may think of a Scholar character as a Sage--as an old, wizened man with a long white beard that knows arcane languages and has at his command knowledge that has not been spoken of in centuries.


Well, you can certainly make a character like that from the Conan RPG Scholar class. It is designed for that kind of character.


And, if you look at the class description in the core rulebook (which is written with an eye towards players playing an interesting adventuring Scholar), you will think that the Scholar class is meant for sorcerers an priests. And, that's true, too.


But, I want to show you how the Scholar class can be played in a completely different sort of way (and is, indeed, played that way in the game already as evidenced by man NPCs provided in various Conan RPG supplements).


Conan's world is full of uneducated folks. Most people cannot read and write. A character in the Scholar class is a learned character. This character knows a lot about a specific subject.


Let me draw your attention to the rule in the class description that says, instead of taking Sorcery Styles, the character can instead take Skill Focus. This allows the character to build up skills with plentiful skill points the class allows, and then take all the bonus Skill Focus feats the character gets in exchange for Sorcery Styles to build up the character's knowledge in that area.


In addition, a Scholar character can exchange any spell awards for 2 extra skill points.


This means that, if you want a character that is a Master weapon smith, then Scholar is the class that character should be. You don't always have to use Commoner for these types of characters.


Indeed, if you look through the various Conan books and supplements where NPCs are provided, often the Merchant NPCs are Scholar classed characters.


This is not a House Rule. What I am suggesting here is in the rule book, under the Scholar description. The stuff is just buried in the text with no bold header to set it apart. You've got to look for it. But, it's there.


One way to think of the Scholar Class is that it is a class that is designed to have high skills. The class gets the highest number of skill points of the six base classes (tied with Thief), and the class provides a multitude of bonus Skill Focus feats.


Scholar is the class to use if you are building an character that is a Craftsman, Professional, or some other character where its primary ability is tied to one of the skills.

 

[Water Bob]

DIPLOMACY for HAGGLE


What is the root of haggling? Negotiating, right? And, what skill is used for negotiating in the game? Diplomacy.

Although other skills can be substituted, when you want to dice the bargaining between NPC and player (instead of roleplaying it out), use Diplomacy.

Diplomacy should be one of the highest skills improved on your NPC merchant characters. That or Profession (Merchant) as that skill should be allowed to replace Diplomacy when haggling.

If you want hard rules for haggling, then look to page 17 of AQUILONIA - FLOWER OF THE WEST. It is suggested that Intimidate can also be used for haggling, if you want to haggle in that style. Sense Motive can also be used in a trading task.

 

[Water Bob]

ARGOSSEAN SCHOLARS


Argosseans revile sorcery, so any sorcerers in Argos will hide their talents.

Slaves often take the Scholar class to be tutors for the Nobles and Merchant Houses.

Free men tutors are Scholars, selling their services to any who can afford them.

All sorts of merchants, craftsmen, and professionals are classed as Scholars, where they take the Skill Focus feat in lieu of sorcery styles and gain +2 skill points in lieu of bonus spells.

Priests, of course, take the Scholar class.

Books in Argos are typically written on linen pages that are either rolled up, as with a scroll, or sewn into the binding of a book.

SPECIAL NOTE FOR SORCERER SCHOLARS: Music is considered magical in Argos. Most Argossean sorcerers use music and dancers in their spells. This is often a required component to complete the spell--especially those spells with long casting times. Sometimes, the sorcerer himself must play a musical instrument himself in order to cast the spell. Dancers are thought to bring out magic from music or to enhance the magical effect.

Bonus: Argossean Scholars who use music in their castings gain a +1 competence bonus to their Magical Attack roll. If dancers are also used, the the bonus increases to +2.

 

[Water Bob]

DECIPHER SCRIPT and LITERACY



Decipher Script is the skill used for reading (and writing). Thus, give every PC 2 bonus skill points to be used on Decipher Script (only) if the player wishes his character to be literate. NPCs do not get the extra points, though they can improve the skill.

Decipher Script is a "Trained Only" skill, meaning that a character must have at least one rank in the skill if a roll of 11+ will be possible.

The bonus skill points will provide two rank for a character who has Decipher Script as a class skill. If not, the two skill points will only provide the character with one rank in the skill.

 

[Water Bob]

SHIPS OF ARGOS - COASTER

A coaster is a generic term used for ships, like the aforementioned Cog, that are designed to sail within sight of the coastline. There are several types of vessels used during the Hyborian Age, and some are unique vessels built by a Kushite tribe, a city-state in Shem, or by a boatmaker in Argos. Collectively, these ships are referred to as "coasters".

Coasters are not normally ocean-crossing vessels, but instead are shallow-hulled ships that hug the coastline, visiting ports along their route. Their shallow hulls mean that the can get through reefs where seagoing ships usually cannot due to the latter's deep hulls.

Coasters can be oared as well as sailed, and if oars are used, then slaves are used to power them. With the oars, coasters can move upstream from the ocean to a river for a time, until the river becomes too shallow.