I'm running low on adventures to feed my players and don't have the time to write them new ones. Does anyone have any third-party adventures they can link me to?
Any Free Mongoose Conan Adventures?
Started by Dantai, Aug 10 2012 11:45 PM
4 replies to this topic
#1
Dantai
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Posted 10 August 2012 - 11:45 PM
"Nothing in this article is to be considered as an attempt to advance any theory in opposition to accepted history. It is simply a fictional background for a series of fiction-stories." - The Hyborian Age
#2
EricKRod
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Posted 11 August 2012 - 02:44 AM
no free ones but i know that the last book Mongoose came out with "Adventures in the Hyborian Age" is free for download on multiple sites. Whether it's legal or not I couldn't answer, but someone scanned the whole book and I know there's a bunch of adventures in there because I and Vincent wrote seven of them.
If you already have that one, and every other book Mongoose came out with, then your out of luck. I don't think either Vincent or myself completed any adventures that weren't published at the time. We knew Mongoose was losing their right to publish the game and weren't really in the mood to write a lot of adventures that would never see the light of day. Although I know that we have one or two incomplete ones?
Sorry couldn't help more.
Eric in WA
If you already have that one, and every other book Mongoose came out with, then your out of luck. I don't think either Vincent or myself completed any adventures that weren't published at the time. We knew Mongoose was losing their right to publish the game and weren't really in the mood to write a lot of adventures that would never see the light of day. Although I know that we have one or two incomplete ones?
Sorry couldn't help more.
Eric in WA
#3
Dantai
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Posted 11 August 2012 - 11:28 AM
Yeah, Tim Bancroft of Sceaptune Games sent me the adventures he wrote for that book, but I haven't been able to find a copy for less than... a lot... and the only copy he has is for his collection. I'll keep looking. Maybe I'll relent and look for that "free" version you mentioned.
"Nothing in this article is to be considered as an attempt to advance any theory in opposition to accepted history. It is simply a fictional background for a series of fiction-stories." - The Hyborian Age
#4
Boot
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Posted 11 August 2012 - 05:38 PM
FIRST
If you comb the Conan section of the Mongoose forum (now called Other Roleplaying Games), you'll find several. Some are outline paragraphs. Others are pretty complete adventures. Most will give you a story and major NPCs/monsters. You just need to customize for your game. I've got a lot of notes on my own campaign listed there in a few threads.
For example, here is the Canyon of the Faceless Ones, Prelude to Adventure, The Dreamer of Lies, and other links from this Mongoose forum page.
SECOND
Have you played all the adventures provided in S&P? There were several free adventures published in that mag--a free download at the Mongoose site. Eric (above) wrote the last one--a quite large low level adventure in and around Turan. I think it's called To Save A Kingdom. Your group is probably higher level, but it would be easy to increase the number of enemies and exchange out for some higher level beasties from The Beastiary of the Hyborian Age or other sources. Still, there are several Conan adventures among the S&P pages--use the key at the top of the Other Roleplaying Games forum (a sticky) to find out which issues contain adventures. An adventure called The Temple of Tears, from S&P, is one that I'm using in my game.
Also note that Mongoose released two free adventures for Conan (which I think they started charging for at some point--not sure): The Black Stones of Kovag-Re and The Coming of Hanuman. You might be able to find these on the net.
Eric Rodriguez (post #2 above) and Vincent Delarge wrote a multi-part adventure called Threshold of Darkness for a magazine called Ancible, and the magazine has the adventure available, in parts, from its download page. You'll want to download issues #2-#5 to get the entire adventure.
You might also find this link helpful for NPCs.
THIRD
There are a few web sites out there with some home grown Conan adventures on them. You'll have to use your Google-fu. For example, there's stuff on Thulsa's site. Some of these are full adventures that you can download for free. Some of these are conversions of classic 1st edition AD&D adventures where you still need the original adventure, but Thulsa provides the Conan-ization. And, some of these Thulsa charges (worth it--he writes good swords & sorcery adventures) for--they're not specifically for the Hyborian Age, but they're close enough that you can customize them for your game without too much fuss. You can buy the pdf or a hard copy through Lulu. The Spider God's Bride is a great bargain, providing you 10 adventures, from level 1-10, and Thulsa provides a Conan conversion document for download on his site. Link to Thulsa's Adventure Page.
Besides Thulsa's page, keep Googling. You'll find stuff like Dr. Skull's Conan Cult.
Scribd.com is a good place to look for homegrown Conan RPG stuff. In just writing this post for you, I found The Isle of Smoking Peaks, This Article, and this Cult. I'm sure there's more if I kept looking.
FOURTH
The problem with writing your own is the time it takes. Mostly, you need a good story. It's easy to slap some stats on characters and insert some Hyborian Age monsters. If you've got a favorite short story from REH or one of the pastiches, use that as your template, slap your stats and insert your baddies--boom, you're done.
I've always thought of the Conan comics two ways. First, I enjoy reading them, but second, they are really a bunch of adventures for the Conan RPG sans the stats (that is, I can make them any level I want). There's Savage Sword of Conan, The Chroncles of Conan, and Dark Horse's Conan run that gives you tons of stories to pick from (not to mention older Conan comics that haven't been republished yet).
For example: There's a story arc that starts in The Chronicles of Conan vol. 3 and ends in vol. 4 that I think would make for a damn good campaign. I may even use it in my Conan game.
It's set around the Vilayet sea. A Hyrkanian city-state, called Makkalet on the eastern shores of the Vilayet has stolen the living god (the holy object of the Tarim religion) from Aghapur. Yildz is still king of Turan, and he sends a massed army to besiege Makkalet, led by the crown prince himself, Yezdigerd. The players, of course, will become embroiled in this cluster-joined, topsy-turvey, twisty-misty story.
This tale has it all--scheming sorcerers and priests, insight into the religion of Turan, opportunities to use one of the mass battle combat systems from the game, maybe even a chance to use the sea-battle system from the game, backstabbing NPCs, and even an opportunity to bring Red Sonja into your campaign (as this is her first appearance ever in a Conan comic).
Use each tale in this story arc as its own separate adventure. Put them together, and you've got your campaign.
Thusly:
Episode I: Hawks From The Sea, in which the players become embroiled in this mess. The assault on Makkalet as begun!
Episode II: The Black Hound of Vengeance, in which the players make an enemy of the crown prince of Turan!
Episode III: Monster of the Monoliths, in which the players switch sides in the battle! But, only to be used by the other side!
Episode IV: The Shadow of the Vulture, where the players are hunted by the most feared bounty hunter of all the surrounding territories of the Vilayet.
Episode V: The Song of Red Sonja, in which the players make an ally of the red haird sword master....or, do they?
Episode VI: The Mirrors of Kharam-Akkad, in which the players learn that part of this tale stretches back to the time of Kull!
Episode VII: The Hour of the Griffin, in which the players learn about their part in destiny.
This is referred to at the War of Tarim story-arc. Taken together, this could be a fantastic adventure for a Conan gaming group. There's lots of room, too, for events to unfold uniquely, making your Conan campaign much different from the tale told in these comics.
You'll enjoy the read (vol. 3 is where the Marvel Conan comics start getting "good" imo), and it's a great resource for your Conan campaign.
It's an epic story with that unique Hyborian Age feel. You just need to add stats to the characters already created in the story.
Oh....
I just remembered a conversion I found a while back at the RPG Archive: The Snow-Haired Woman, which is a 2nd Ed. AD&D conversion of a Savage Sword story. Check around the archive. I bet you can find more Conan advnetures.
And...
Another idea is to refrain from reinventing the wheel by using the work of other DM's. I've found a few blogs that follow Conan games. For example, this one. Take what you want for your game and throw away the rest.
FIFTH
There are some Conan RPG adventures hidden in some of the sourcebooks. For example, the last part of the Across Thunder River is a pretty well fleshed out campaign pitting the players agains the Picts. Other sourcebooks have more or less detail on adventure ideas, from adventure hooks to more complete ideas. The two box sets come to mind--both include complete adventures.
SIXTH
Lastly, look to other d20 game lines for easily convertible material to the Hyborian Age. For example, Mongoose's four part Slaine campaign is almost tailor made for an adventure set in Cimmeria. Use your imagination to convert those things that do not obviously fit in the Hyborian Age. Not free, but good stuff.
With most conversion, you've got to cut down on the number of monsters encountered. I usually replace them with human enemies. For example, I converted a low level 3rd edition D&D adventure called Scourge of the Howling Horde to my campaign that focusses on Cimmerian barbarians. The first thing I did was cut the adventure up. I put in my own homebrew made up ideas, adding a full third to the adventure, with just stuff I made up (like a chase among the branches of the Thicket Trees--a type of large tree I made up for the game).
Goblins, Bugbears, Orgres, Gnolls, Kobolds, etc....all of these types simply became humans. I partly used thieir monster stats, but converted them to humans of like level. Most of these became members of a rival Cimmerian clan, but the Hobgoblins I converted to Hyperboreans. There was also a small dragon in that D&D adventure. I kept it, changed it, and presented it in my game as a nasty Hyborian Age demon. I changed it's appearance, and instead of spitting acid, the thing would fling flem at its enemies, and this sticky stuff would continue to eat through skin and armor until it was washed off. I also gave it the Hyperborean power to make risen dead from the dead bodies. So, as my heroes were doing their good deeds in the lair of the bad guys, the dead started to get up and fight again, leading to a chase across the Cracked Lands (not unlike in the Conan story, Legions of the Dead).
We had a great time with that adventure. It became a mix of conversion and newly created ideas that sprouted from my game.
I've looked at Dungeon and Dragon magazine. I always thought Siege of the Spiders would make for a good Hyborian Age conversion set in Zamora. Many of the Game Mastery and Pathfinder adventures can be converted. I find that lower level adventures are easier to convert because the magic is kept to a minimum (even if your end result is designed for higher level characters). When converting, you've got to watch two main things: multiple fantasy monsters (especially races, like hobgloblins and orcs), and you've got to watch magical encounters (I usually throw out most and keep only the best ideas, maintaining the sword & sorcery feel instead of a fantasy feel).
My game is set in Cimmeria, so I'm always looking for adventures set in the wild. I can't use anything set in a city, unless it's no bigger than a small village. A small halfling village can easily become a Cimmerian clanholme, though. Some of the things I've purchased for my game are the Kingmaker Adventure Path, since it's mostly wilderness based. And, Sword & Sorcery's three and a half part mini-campaign called the Serpent Amphora Cycle--I'm seeing Stygian sorcery in that one. The Maze of Screaming Silence caught my eye, too, because it feels so much like one of the Conan short stories when he visited Meru and other strange places. Really, anything with vikings and/or northern/mountainous/wilderness settings are things that I look for. Penubra's Thieves in the Forest is another I bought because I can easily convert to any level of Conan play, and the adventure, with its ruins, is very easy to set in just about any part of the known world during the Hyborian Age.
Don't forget that TSR put out a Conan RPG in the 80's. If you can get your hands on these, they'd be ripe for conversion to d20 Conan, too.
SEVENTH
I had this idea for RPG campaigns a few years ago, but I've never tried it myself. I think it would work great. Pick out a console or PC computer game, then go buy the Hint Book. The good hint books show every map of every location in the game. Most older hint books can be found at used book stores for fairly cheap.
So, it gives you story and maps! And, you can populate the encounter areas anyway you see fit.
Don't forget, their have been a couple of Conan games out in the not too distant past, not to mention the Age of Conan MMO. The quest lines are listed in several places on the net for free, many with maps (so, you don't even have to buy the book). If you can find the quest/hint book, then you've got most of the work done for you. Again, just add stats.
The other cool thing is that you can take screenshots from these games and use them as visual aids during your game session as you feed your players the story, bit by bit.
This image depicting Spartacus would work for a game set during the Hyborian Age:
And, these images from Conan games would, of course, work.
You can also use fanatasy art found through Google Images and other sources, plus concept art from the various Conan games (and other games) to inspire your own story. Just select a bunch of images you like, string them together so that they could represents scenes from a visual story. Then simply write of the encounters--your inspiration from the pics.
Don't forget to do a Google Image search for "Dark Horse Conan", too. You'll find a lot of inspiration looking at covers and scenes from the comics.
If you comb the Conan section of the Mongoose forum (now called Other Roleplaying Games), you'll find several. Some are outline paragraphs. Others are pretty complete adventures. Most will give you a story and major NPCs/monsters. You just need to customize for your game. I've got a lot of notes on my own campaign listed there in a few threads.
For example, here is the Canyon of the Faceless Ones, Prelude to Adventure, The Dreamer of Lies, and other links from this Mongoose forum page.
SECOND
Have you played all the adventures provided in S&P? There were several free adventures published in that mag--a free download at the Mongoose site. Eric (above) wrote the last one--a quite large low level adventure in and around Turan. I think it's called To Save A Kingdom. Your group is probably higher level, but it would be easy to increase the number of enemies and exchange out for some higher level beasties from The Beastiary of the Hyborian Age or other sources. Still, there are several Conan adventures among the S&P pages--use the key at the top of the Other Roleplaying Games forum (a sticky) to find out which issues contain adventures. An adventure called The Temple of Tears, from S&P, is one that I'm using in my game.
Also note that Mongoose released two free adventures for Conan (which I think they started charging for at some point--not sure): The Black Stones of Kovag-Re and The Coming of Hanuman. You might be able to find these on the net.
Eric Rodriguez (post #2 above) and Vincent Delarge wrote a multi-part adventure called Threshold of Darkness for a magazine called Ancible, and the magazine has the adventure available, in parts, from its download page. You'll want to download issues #2-#5 to get the entire adventure.
You might also find this link helpful for NPCs.
THIRD
There are a few web sites out there with some home grown Conan adventures on them. You'll have to use your Google-fu. For example, there's stuff on Thulsa's site. Some of these are full adventures that you can download for free. Some of these are conversions of classic 1st edition AD&D adventures where you still need the original adventure, but Thulsa provides the Conan-ization. And, some of these Thulsa charges (worth it--he writes good swords & sorcery adventures) for--they're not specifically for the Hyborian Age, but they're close enough that you can customize them for your game without too much fuss. You can buy the pdf or a hard copy through Lulu. The Spider God's Bride is a great bargain, providing you 10 adventures, from level 1-10, and Thulsa provides a Conan conversion document for download on his site. Link to Thulsa's Adventure Page.
Besides Thulsa's page, keep Googling. You'll find stuff like Dr. Skull's Conan Cult.
Scribd.com is a good place to look for homegrown Conan RPG stuff. In just writing this post for you, I found The Isle of Smoking Peaks, This Article, and this Cult. I'm sure there's more if I kept looking.
FOURTH
The problem with writing your own is the time it takes. Mostly, you need a good story. It's easy to slap some stats on characters and insert some Hyborian Age monsters. If you've got a favorite short story from REH or one of the pastiches, use that as your template, slap your stats and insert your baddies--boom, you're done.
I've always thought of the Conan comics two ways. First, I enjoy reading them, but second, they are really a bunch of adventures for the Conan RPG sans the stats (that is, I can make them any level I want). There's Savage Sword of Conan, The Chroncles of Conan, and Dark Horse's Conan run that gives you tons of stories to pick from (not to mention older Conan comics that haven't been republished yet).
For example: There's a story arc that starts in The Chronicles of Conan vol. 3 and ends in vol. 4 that I think would make for a damn good campaign. I may even use it in my Conan game.
It's set around the Vilayet sea. A Hyrkanian city-state, called Makkalet on the eastern shores of the Vilayet has stolen the living god (the holy object of the Tarim religion) from Aghapur. Yildz is still king of Turan, and he sends a massed army to besiege Makkalet, led by the crown prince himself, Yezdigerd. The players, of course, will become embroiled in this cluster-joined, topsy-turvey, twisty-misty story.
This tale has it all--scheming sorcerers and priests, insight into the religion of Turan, opportunities to use one of the mass battle combat systems from the game, maybe even a chance to use the sea-battle system from the game, backstabbing NPCs, and even an opportunity to bring Red Sonja into your campaign (as this is her first appearance ever in a Conan comic).
Use each tale in this story arc as its own separate adventure. Put them together, and you've got your campaign.
Thusly:
Episode I: Hawks From The Sea, in which the players become embroiled in this mess. The assault on Makkalet as begun!
Episode II: The Black Hound of Vengeance, in which the players make an enemy of the crown prince of Turan!
Episode III: Monster of the Monoliths, in which the players switch sides in the battle! But, only to be used by the other side!
Episode IV: The Shadow of the Vulture, where the players are hunted by the most feared bounty hunter of all the surrounding territories of the Vilayet.
Episode V: The Song of Red Sonja, in which the players make an ally of the red haird sword master....or, do they?
Episode VI: The Mirrors of Kharam-Akkad, in which the players learn that part of this tale stretches back to the time of Kull!
Episode VII: The Hour of the Griffin, in which the players learn about their part in destiny.
This is referred to at the War of Tarim story-arc. Taken together, this could be a fantastic adventure for a Conan gaming group. There's lots of room, too, for events to unfold uniquely, making your Conan campaign much different from the tale told in these comics.
You'll enjoy the read (vol. 3 is where the Marvel Conan comics start getting "good" imo), and it's a great resource for your Conan campaign.
It's an epic story with that unique Hyborian Age feel. You just need to add stats to the characters already created in the story.
Oh....
I just remembered a conversion I found a while back at the RPG Archive: The Snow-Haired Woman, which is a 2nd Ed. AD&D conversion of a Savage Sword story. Check around the archive. I bet you can find more Conan advnetures.
And...
Another idea is to refrain from reinventing the wheel by using the work of other DM's. I've found a few blogs that follow Conan games. For example, this one. Take what you want for your game and throw away the rest.
FIFTH
There are some Conan RPG adventures hidden in some of the sourcebooks. For example, the last part of the Across Thunder River is a pretty well fleshed out campaign pitting the players agains the Picts. Other sourcebooks have more or less detail on adventure ideas, from adventure hooks to more complete ideas. The two box sets come to mind--both include complete adventures.
SIXTH
Lastly, look to other d20 game lines for easily convertible material to the Hyborian Age. For example, Mongoose's four part Slaine campaign is almost tailor made for an adventure set in Cimmeria. Use your imagination to convert those things that do not obviously fit in the Hyborian Age. Not free, but good stuff.
With most conversion, you've got to cut down on the number of monsters encountered. I usually replace them with human enemies. For example, I converted a low level 3rd edition D&D adventure called Scourge of the Howling Horde to my campaign that focusses on Cimmerian barbarians. The first thing I did was cut the adventure up. I put in my own homebrew made up ideas, adding a full third to the adventure, with just stuff I made up (like a chase among the branches of the Thicket Trees--a type of large tree I made up for the game).
Goblins, Bugbears, Orgres, Gnolls, Kobolds, etc....all of these types simply became humans. I partly used thieir monster stats, but converted them to humans of like level. Most of these became members of a rival Cimmerian clan, but the Hobgoblins I converted to Hyperboreans. There was also a small dragon in that D&D adventure. I kept it, changed it, and presented it in my game as a nasty Hyborian Age demon. I changed it's appearance, and instead of spitting acid, the thing would fling flem at its enemies, and this sticky stuff would continue to eat through skin and armor until it was washed off. I also gave it the Hyperborean power to make risen dead from the dead bodies. So, as my heroes were doing their good deeds in the lair of the bad guys, the dead started to get up and fight again, leading to a chase across the Cracked Lands (not unlike in the Conan story, Legions of the Dead).
We had a great time with that adventure. It became a mix of conversion and newly created ideas that sprouted from my game.
I've looked at Dungeon and Dragon magazine. I always thought Siege of the Spiders would make for a good Hyborian Age conversion set in Zamora. Many of the Game Mastery and Pathfinder adventures can be converted. I find that lower level adventures are easier to convert because the magic is kept to a minimum (even if your end result is designed for higher level characters). When converting, you've got to watch two main things: multiple fantasy monsters (especially races, like hobgloblins and orcs), and you've got to watch magical encounters (I usually throw out most and keep only the best ideas, maintaining the sword & sorcery feel instead of a fantasy feel).
My game is set in Cimmeria, so I'm always looking for adventures set in the wild. I can't use anything set in a city, unless it's no bigger than a small village. A small halfling village can easily become a Cimmerian clanholme, though. Some of the things I've purchased for my game are the Kingmaker Adventure Path, since it's mostly wilderness based. And, Sword & Sorcery's three and a half part mini-campaign called the Serpent Amphora Cycle--I'm seeing Stygian sorcery in that one. The Maze of Screaming Silence caught my eye, too, because it feels so much like one of the Conan short stories when he visited Meru and other strange places. Really, anything with vikings and/or northern/mountainous/wilderness settings are things that I look for. Penubra's Thieves in the Forest is another I bought because I can easily convert to any level of Conan play, and the adventure, with its ruins, is very easy to set in just about any part of the known world during the Hyborian Age.
Don't forget that TSR put out a Conan RPG in the 80's. If you can get your hands on these, they'd be ripe for conversion to d20 Conan, too.
SEVENTH
I had this idea for RPG campaigns a few years ago, but I've never tried it myself. I think it would work great. Pick out a console or PC computer game, then go buy the Hint Book. The good hint books show every map of every location in the game. Most older hint books can be found at used book stores for fairly cheap.
So, it gives you story and maps! And, you can populate the encounter areas anyway you see fit.
Don't forget, their have been a couple of Conan games out in the not too distant past, not to mention the Age of Conan MMO. The quest lines are listed in several places on the net for free, many with maps (so, you don't even have to buy the book). If you can find the quest/hint book, then you've got most of the work done for you. Again, just add stats.
The other cool thing is that you can take screenshots from these games and use them as visual aids during your game session as you feed your players the story, bit by bit.
This image depicting Spartacus would work for a game set during the Hyborian Age:
And, these images from Conan games would, of course, work.
You can also use fanatasy art found through Google Images and other sources, plus concept art from the various Conan games (and other games) to inspire your own story. Just select a bunch of images you like, string them together so that they could represents scenes from a visual story. Then simply write of the encounters--your inspiration from the pics.
Don't forget to do a Google Image search for "Dark Horse Conan", too. You'll find a lot of inspiration looking at covers and scenes from the comics.
Edited by Boot, 12 August 2012 - 01:02 AM.
#5
EricKRod
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Posted 12 August 2012 - 05:32 PM
Great job Boot! You have answered his question in far greater detail than I had the time. Very accurate also. Perhaps at the end of the summer I will see if I can finish a couple of those incomplete adventures and find someone who has a website to post them for me?
Best,
Eric in WA
Best,
Eric in WA
