Influence of Conan on D&D

[Erekose]

I've been involved in RPG (and D&D in particular) since I was 15 years old - about 27 year now!?! - and over that period I have been an avid reader of a certain type of fantasy novels.

Principally, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, David Gemmel, Fred Saberhagen, David Eddings, Jack Vance, Roger Zelazny (and yes Tolkein), as well as the Thieves World Anthologies.

However, I had never read any Conan! A couple of years ago, as a birthday present I was given "The Complete Chronicles of Conan: Centenary Edition". As I was just at the end of my PhD I shelved it as I was suffering from "reading fatigue" and have now only just finished reading it.

All I can say is "wow". While it is clearly a product of its time it has all the elements that make a fantastic fictional world with a great central character. More than this, for many of the stories they read almost exactly like D&D adventures! At least in terms of tone, episodic nature, and the central character gradually becoming a dominant person in the world.

It's ironic that it's taken me so long to get to this insight, but as Conan was recommended reading in the 1st Edition DMG, IMHO you can clearly see how it shaped D&D.

Needless to say I have now bought, "Conan's Brethren", to fill out my knowledge of other REH characters!

 

[amerigoV]

Your post is timely for me. I have been considering reading some Conan as well. I have been watching some cheesy movie/TV Conan stuff lately (Tamara and Conan the Adventurer TV series) and thinking I should check out the source material.

 

[invokethehojo]

Just got that book for my birthday. I have heard so much about how Howard built such a fantastic world with hyborea, and I must say I was never much of a tolkien fan, so I'm very interested. I want to write a good barbarian setting, hopefully this will help.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I believe Mr. Gygax had listed Conan/Robert E Howard as one of the big influences on the creation of D&D. I think a lot of the early modules definitely had a Conan influence on them.

 

[Smoss]

Love the original un-edited Robert E Howard stuff. Such great energy. And his friendship with Lovecraft and their sharing of a universe and ideas.

Of course, one DOES have to read it through a filter - knowing it was written for a pulp magazine (Appeal to the teen boy hormones!). And the racism (Unsurprising for the time period unfortunately).

But I got a LOT of inspiration from the setting. And a lot of thought from the writing style (How to make my own writing better).
Smoss

 

[pawsplay]

Love the original un-edited Robert E Howard stuff. Such great energy. And his friendship with Lovecraft and their sharing of a universe and ideas.

Of course, one DOES have to read it through a filter - knowing it was written for a pulp magazine (Appeal to the teen boy hormones!). And the racism (Unsurprising for the time period unfortunately).

But I got a LOT of inspiration from the setting. And a lot of thought from the writing style (How to make my own writing better).
Smoss

I don't think the racism is that bad. The characters themselves are quite racist and there are some pretty broad stereotypes, but there are good and bad folk of many races and colors, as I recall.

 

[Mark CMG]

Wizards can sure get powerful at high levels but can also be destroyed by steel.

 

[Puggins]

I don't think the racism is that bad. The characters themselves are quite racist and there are some pretty broad stereotypes, but there are good and bad folk of many races and colors, as I recall.

Those were mostly later writers who tried to soften the edge. Howard's original stories generally portrayed non-caucasians as wicked, sub-human, amoral or all three. Love the material to death, but the racism and misogyny is there in spades. As others said, you read it through a filter.

 

[amerigoV]

Those were mostly later writers who tried to soften the edge. Howard's original stories generally portrayed non-caucasians as wicked, sub-human, amoral or all three. Love the material to death, but the racism and misogyny is there in spades. As others said, you read it through a filter.

So this setting would work best using F.A.T.A.L. ?


What....?

 

[pawsplay]

Those were mostly later writers who tried to soften the edge. Howard's original stories generally portrayed non-caucasians as wicked, sub-human, amoral or all three. Love the material to death, but the racism and misogyny is there in spades. As others said, you read it through a filter.

Oh, no you didn't!

I don't read non-Howard Conan.

It's only fair to warn you: I have both volumes of the complete Howard Conan, and they are large books.

Look, the man had, shall we say, unexamined attitudes, and something like "Black Canaan" is a crazy little story with race issues, but these are not sociological treatises. Plus, the guy was a thirty-year old living in Texas pre-WWII, and his attitudes definitely softened as he became a grown man, including the period of time in which he wrote some of the really great Conan stuff. Conan wasn't even written until REH was in his late twenties. I've read Howard's Conan, cover to cover, and I'm here to tell you they are great stories, and while an older, non-dead Howard might have eventually felt some embarrassment over some of his works, the man has never written anything I would consider shameful. He was a stark writer on stark subjects.

Oh, and on the misogyny thing... by the standards of his time, Howard was a radical egalitarian who championed women's intellectual and moral equality. In "People of the Black Circle," we meet a noblewoman who is fully Conan's co-protagonist in the story.