Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 7375935" data-attributes="member: 92305">AQUILONIA - LIFE IN AQUILONIAThe first chapter is rather long, so I won't cover it all in this one post.  I'll break it up, not only to make it more easily read but also because I probably won't read it in one sitting.The introduction to the chapter is extremely useful to a GM.  There, it describes the look of the various people that make up the Kingdom of Aquilonia.  The people don't all look alike.  Aquilonia has grown throughout the centuries by annexing neighboring kingdoms.  This rich description gives the GM details to work with in describing NPCs.  I love this kind of stuff.  In the hands of a good GM, this little section of the book will see your players recognizing ethnicity on sight.  They'll be able to tell a Gunderman from a Bossonian, and a Tauran from someone from Poitain.CLOTHINGNormally, I'd flip over this section.  Like the above, this kind of detail helps the GM describe the gameworld in vivid color.  But, I have two problems with this pretty detailed section.  This first issue is that there are no pictures.  Sure, we can do some homework and look up what a houppelande looks like, but I would sure prefer some sample pictures of Aquilonian characters in the book.My second issue is far larger, though.  The author takes the point of view that the Hyborians of Conan's time wear clothes very similar to Dark Age and Middle Age Europe.  Men wear hose and have plumed hats.  Those of the upper class have curled and scented hair, drawn back with a cloth of silver band.  This may very well be Robert Howard's intent, and many argue that his text backs up this point.  But, I prefer the unique look that has grown up around Conan in the book cover illustrations, the comics, the movies, and the video games.  The Age of Conan MMO excels with that superior Conan atmosphere that I'm talking about.  I don't picture Conan's world the same as Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings.  There's more of an ancient Roman or ancient Greek atmosphere to it, mixed with a big helping hand of fantasy.  Look at the pictures I've chose to show in this thread.  Each, to me, has a Conan vibe--and that feel is a lot different than your standard Western Middle Ages based fantasy world.<img src="http://www.mattderody.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/conan2011b.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Still, the Clothing section is a good part of the chapter in that is shows how different characters dress, depending on ethnic background and social station.</blockquote>

Verification