Age of Worms in Hyboria

[Cuindless]

For those unfamiliar with Hyboria, it is the world in which Robert Howard's Conan novels are set. It is a rather low magic, Sword and Sorcery type setting where monsters are decidedly more horrific and combat is distinctly more grim. It shares a lot of horror aspects with H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu novels, only set in a mythic age. Do any of you think that this would be a good setting to run AoW? If so, can you offer any advice? Has anyone familiar with the setting attempted this?

[MrFish]

I think it would be fun. You would have to pick another city to set it other than Cauldron, of course...I'd recommend one of the following:

Numalia
Shadizar
Kordava
Eruk
Shamballa

(material is available on all of these--though Kordava and Shadizar you'd need to purchase I believe)

Then too you'd have to remove most of the magical items and a fair number of the 'sword fodder' type monsters. It might even be more interesting with more humans than unusual racial types, since humans might have all kinds of motives and allegiances.

[Santito the Great Deductor]

I'm sure it would take some massive changes to the AP and I just don't think it will worth it.
Anyways, if you are willing to sacrifice an awful amount of your free time for it, I recommend using the Black Company Campaign Setting's variant rules for a Hyborian grim-and-gritty campaign...

[MrFish]

Depends what you mean by worth it. One of the problems with the Hyborian setting so far is that it has no adventure paths. Admittedly Conan is written in a short story style but still some pcs and dms want campaigns so they can enjoy building up characters as we all know, and D&D still does this (in my humble opinion) better than most gaming systems. Using Age of Worms might be quite inspirational.

[Cuindless]

MrFish wrote:

Depends what you mean by worth it. One of the problems with the Hyborian setting so far is that it has no adventure paths. Admittedly Conan is written in a short story style but still some pcs and dms want campaigns so they can enjoy building up characters as we all know, and D&D still does this (in my humble opinion) better than most gaming systems. Using Age of Worms might be quite inspirational.

See, I thought Age of Worms was particularly fitting to the setting since it seems to be more horror oriented than high fantasy oriented. Savage Tide might work as well because of the preponderance of pirates in the Hyborian setting, but I'm not as familiar with that adventure path.

[BlackFalconKY]

You might consider using Malhavoc Press' Iron Heroes rules for this kind of campaign. It is very low magic, and I think those character classes could survive in the AoW AP.

[MrFish]

Cuindless wrote:

MrFish wrote:

Depends what you mean by worth it. One of the problems with the Hyborian setting so far is that it has no adventure paths. Admittedly Conan is written in a short story style but still some pcs and dms want campaigns so they can enjoy building up characters as we all know, and D&D still does this (in my humble opinion) better than most gaming systems. Using Age of Worms might be quite inspirational.

See, I thought Age of Worms was particularly fitting to the setting since it seems to be more horror oriented than high fantasy oriented. Savage Tide might work as well because of the preponderance of pirates in the Hyborian setting, but I'm not as familiar with that adventure path.

I agree--you could easily put stuff from Lovecraft or Clark Ashton Smith into Hyboria and make it work well. Age of Worms certainly has a touch of both.

BTW I was thinking that a lot of elements could work with this. For instance a bandit prince with a strange court fits perfectly into Hyboria as do ancient necromancers, strange ancient ruins and horrid creatures from the misty past. If you need particular help fleshing this out just post questions and thoughts here.

[Cuindless]

So, I started my Hyborian Age of Worms campaign yesterday and thought everything went pretty well. With two thieves, a scholar and a barbarian (those are core classes in the Conan RPG), the group was fairly well balanced (one of the thieves is a combat build while the other is more of a skill-jockey build). I went against the suggestion in the AP and had the characters arrive in Diamond Lake (called "Kosmelini" in my game) instead of being from there. This mean that most of the first session was spent roleplaying instead of fighting, which is okay by me. One of the players is a hard core Robert Howard fan, and he remarked how well I captured the look and feel of Conan's world (A+ for me!). By the end of the night the characters were flat broke (having consumed too much ale and partaken of too many "disreputable ladies" from the Midnight Salute) so there they were, out looking for an ancient tomb to plunder. Enter NPC with adventure hook stage left! Starting tomorrow (after their hangovers) they're setting out for the Whispering Cairn wherein waits both riches and madness...

[I’ve Got Reach]

I don't know how the mechanics or Rogues work in the Conan setting, but let me give a piece of controversial advice before you get too deep into the story:

Consider replacing the idea that critical hits and sneak attacks are necessitated on striking "critical/vital organs" and adopt the idea that any object and/or creature can be critically hit/sneak attacked due to the strike being "spectacular". At a certain point in the path, there is no place for a rogue in Age of Worms (and that point comes as soon as the first Kyuss undead are introduced).

In my campaign, our rogue became a paladin (a sort of fantasy FBI agent, if you will). He gained the ability to sneak attack undead. In retrospect (and you may see this comming in 4e), it seems anti-climactic to not be able to deal this additional damage to your construct/ooze/undead foes.

Just my advice...

[MrFish]

I'm glad you're off to a good start. It sounds fun, and like a typical 'Conan' type beginning. (like say in Shadows in Zamboula where he starts off in a tavern barely able to pay for his room and drink)

In this kind of setting the Age of Worms should also be all the more horrifying--more Cthulhoid than just 'more weird monsters'.

[Cuindless]

I’ve Got Reach wrote:

I don't know how the mechanics or Rogues work in the Conan setting, but let me give a piece of controversial advice before you get too deep into the story:

Consider replacing the idea that critical hits and sneak attacks are necessitated on striking "critical/vital organs" and adopt the idea that any object and/or creature can be critically hit/sneak attacked due to the strike being "spectacular". At a certain point in the path, there is no place for a rogue in Age of Worms (and that point comes as soon as the first Kyuss undead are introduced).

In my campaign, our rogue became a paladin (a sort of fantasy FBI agent, if you will). He gained the ability to sneak attack undead. In retrospect (and you may see this comming in 4e), it seems anti-climactic to not be able to deal this additional damage to your construct/ooze/undead foes.

Just my advice...

In Conan, because magic is so handicapped and difficult to use, most of the time the characters run from "monsters". I plan on replacing a lot of the hordes of undead with cultists and the like, which should allow the thief's backstab ability to continue being useful.

[Blue_eyed_paladin]

That actually sounds really cool...

The horror setting fits, you've already got someone playing a Barbarian. They'd just have to get a bit more social power as they level up as well, so they end up commanding battles, getting visions from eons-dead seers (or druids), all that kind of stuff. You could just swap make Lashonna a sorceress instead of a dragon (that part always seemed a bit hinky to me).

Truly, this sounds great.
I wish I could play in something like this, but my wife won't even read anything Conan. She gets put off by the butt-spanking and "rippling thews of iron"... can't for the life of me figure out why.

[Cuindless]

Game Session Number 2 went pretty well. After a brief tussle with the starving wolves in the cave entrance, the characters burned down the spider webbing with a judicious use of lamp oil and torch. I hammed up the description of smoldering spider corpses littering the stairway down to the false tomb. As they entered, the sound of strange wind and whispers really affected the party's mood. The Scholar (aka Sorcerer) of the party put on a brave face and told the other characters that he had heard of this sort of thing in his studies (an outright lie). One of the thieves triggered the collapsing elevator trap and therefore released the swarm of acid beetles and the mad slasher. This event was greeted with a fairly horrified "What the hell are these things?!?" The barbarian rushed in to fight, and after taking some pretty serious damage, initiated the retreat. One of the thieves used the remaining lamp oil to create a fiery barrier so that the group could escape.

Once back in town, they needed a place to stay so that they could rest and recouperate. After attempting to rig the dogfight at the Feral Dog to make money, they were "politely asked to leave" by Kullen (the albino half-orc who I've replaced with a huge albino Cimmerian). They found Jalek's Flophouse and decided to find a room there. After a fight with the previous occupant, the party is now resting up and preparing to return.

All in all I'm happy with how things are going. I seem to be doing a good job of capturing the gritty violence of Conan's Hyboria while mixing in just the right amount of horrific suspense. The group seems genuinely worried about how exactly they're going to fight this swarm of strange beetle-monsters, and they are taking a great deal of time devising plans to kill and/or bypass the creatures. What really makes me happy is that this is only the beginning! Desecrated remains, necromancers and reanimated corpses await!

[emirikol]

Our AGE OF WORMS Hyborian Campaign finished last year about this time...

We played it with D&D rules (with some house rules so we didn't have to deal with the ConRPG..which doesn't review highly for our group).

Characters:
Kothian Rogue (kothians in our campaigns are very..portly)
Brythunian Slave Girl (fighter)
Stygian Ninja-Spellthief
Hyperborean fighter-warlock (spellcasters must multiclass..house rule)
Cimmerian Barbarian (of course..someone had to)
Shemite Fighter

Gods (Shemite):
Mesopotamian Tiamat (worms aspect) = Kyuss.
Destroyer of cities = Hextor
Pazuzu (the wind demon) = Vecna
Mardu the savage = Erythnul

Anyways, I set it in SHEM. We started in salt mines outside Eruk. The party began (boxed text) having been tricked by Balabar Smenk into going to the mines to clear it out. Instead they were enslaved. Prison break, yadda yadda, and they're on the move with a tip from a guard about a STYGIAN WHISPERING CAIRN nearby here with easy pickings for treasure and whatnot. Party needs supplies, can't go to town for vengeance because all they have are picks and shovels (yes, I gave them triple gold to build their characters with and then TOOK IT ALL AWAY when they were enslaved! I'm A RAT BASTARD DM! HA HA HA!). SO, you have 1st level characters, barely armored carrying whips, picks, mauls and shovels into the Whispering Cairn..LIONS ON THEIR HEELS. Only killed one character that first night. The players LOVED IT, even though we've all played adventures that started like that in the past.

Modifying the adventures from the marsh to the desert was easy btw. You just change how things look and use shifting sands instead of mud.

Monsters were changed typical non-magical Hyborian animals, more inept human-guards and I saved up the big cthuluoid tentacle-thingy-type monsters for the end battles. The only thing that was difficult was that D&D typically has an A-Z menagerie of monsters with varying abilities as a substitute for interesting combats instead (sorry guys, that's just how I feel). Normally, I'd just change their appearances. I do that often and just wing more.

We made it up to the "party" adventure (14th level?), for which I just couldn't go on. The modifications for that one just put it over the top and you really lose any concept of a 'lower magical sword and sorcery' world at that point, as all the adventures are these outrageous monsters coming at you in a continual basis. SO, rather than have to think, I ran our final scenario as "Lost Temple of Demogorgon." Set in Kush by then. God was Gullah I thnk at the end there.

INSPIRATION:
I used a lot of short stories from the books like I always do and changed some names and added some side plots. I used the "Skelos" books because they have a lot of 'good' pictures ;) Isparanna and the SAND LICH make appearances in the scenarios of course!

I also used the MARVEL UNIVERSE search website extensively for information. We used Yog and some other demons as well as a lot of names. It really filled in the blanks of this campaign.

We and I really had a good time, but I'm serious, this sucker doesn't feel at all like Hyboria past about the 14th level adventure no matter how much paint you put on it but that doesn't mean that you cannot play the remainder out with a D&D feel. Players just need to know that. If any world can absorb any amount of magic and monsters, it's Hyboria.

jh