Jack of Tears

The Conan rpg is D20 isn't it?  In which case you have some luck locating players through your local gaming store.  Other options would be speaking to librarians, as many libraries allow gamers to play in their side rooms or back corners; book stores, again many of these will have at least one game which playes there a month; colleges, one can sometimes locate advertisement on the bulletin boards, or they may in fact have a gaming club which caters to rpgers as well as ccgers and computer gamers.

I would start with the local gaming shops first, however, and work outword from there.

Well, I can't really help much with Short and Sweet, but if you're looking for some good fantasy I'd highly recommend the "Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R.R. Martin.  

"Bridge of Birds" by Barry Hughart is an excellent chinesse style fairytale.  

John Marco writes some excellent material.

Guy Gavriel Kay is far from new, but has written a fair number of good works.

Stephen R. Donaldson is worth checking out, particularly his first three "Thomas Covenant" books and the "Mirror of Her Dreams" / "A Man Rides Through" pairing.

Morgan Llywelyn is a tallented author

As is Susanna Clark, who wrote "Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norell" which I highly recommend for anyone who enjoys low key fantasy.

Simon Green has a number of amusing books, the "Hawk and Fisher" stories are particularly high fantasy.

But none of those are short - the "Hawk and Fisher" or "Bridge of Birds" options being the shortest you'll find there.  One can always look through yearly "Best of Fantasy and Sci-Fi" anthologies, which often have some spectacular pieces.

Hope that list helps.

I don't know ... Diesel seems a decent guy (if for no other reason that he is a rpg player and proud to admit it.) but he doesn't seem built properly to play Conan.  Arnold had the correct build for the role and despite what others have said, I always liked his portrayal.

Arnie's performance aside, however, I think you need someone with a similar body structure to properly represent the massive Cimmerian.  

The Rock might have the build to do it, but I doubt he has anywhere near the tallent.

And, on the topic in general, I don't think Diesel is going to come anywhere close to replacing Arnie.  He'll be closer to Stalone in magnitude .. which is to say he'll have a few explosive hits for which he'll be long remembered, but his overall image won't endure.

Unlike alot of people here, I really enjoyed Leonard Carpenter's conan novels.  The only complaint I had was his complete inability to create a satisfying ending.  In every book I've read he has had great buildup and decent stories .. but his endings are always terribly anticlimactic.  Perhaps it is his attempt to diverge from the norm .. but if he is doing it intentionally, this was the wrong choice.  Even so, I'd highly recommend his works, so long as you keep in mind that the ending will offer all the excitement of a rabid war elephant dieing in its sleep.

Other than that, Wagner has done some good work.  I am not a fan of deCamp.  As someone else said, I think he had the right ideas, but couldn't present them properly.  

Jordan, in my opinion, is the best modern Conan author to see print.  Out of his six (six?) books, only one was truly disappointing.  (Conan the Victorious if I recall correctly)

But, hands down Conan: The Road of Kings is the best, post Howard, Conan novel ever written.

Well, there are a handful of suppliments for the d20 Conan rpg put out by Mongoose Publishing.  From everything I've heard this material is high quality and worth the money.  Considering it is a d20 series, I doubt translating the material should be difficult.  If you look up their website, you'll find a list of currently available products.