End-of-Week Conan Score! (6/12/15)

I love library book sales! My county's library system has a massive sale a couple times a year at the large main branch, and I always try to get there for at least a quick glance over the tables. And I usually find some treasure hidden there. 

For instance, the annual summer sale just happened to be held this week, when I'm off between jobs. Low and behold, as I stopped by and perused, my eye fell upon the beauty pictured above: a collection of Howard tales, a book club edition from 1977. 

(It's not shiny cause it's awesome, it's shiny cause someone covered it in plastic!)

Cover artist is Ken Kelly, of course. For a long time I mistook his work for that of Frazetta. As it turns out, that was for good reason: Kelly is the nephew of Frazetta's wife! So Kelly had access to study Frazetta's work pretty directly.

The book also has some interior art from Conan's Weird Tales days:

THAT'S RIGHT, you didn't read that wrong: this bad boy was edited by none other than Karl Edward Wagner!

And don't let the title fool you, there's more inside than Howard's great "Red Nails":

And check out the sweet map of Hyboria:

Just thought I'd share! Have you ever had a sweet score from an old book sale? 

Have a great gaming weekend, all! 

For good or ill, I'm heading into the Hyborean Age!

I did it, folks. With just over an hour to spare in the campaign, I finally decided to dive in and become a "King Level" backer for the Conan board game Kickstarter, by the relatively unknown company known as Monolith. How could I resist, when the game is now "the most successful board game in Kickstarter history"?

 

I know, I know. The game's original goal was "only" $80,000, but is now over $3.2 MILLION! On top of the core game, it has about a million stretch goals and add-ons that need to be delivered, and it's all supposed to happen by October of this year! Wowy wow wow, right?

 

Let's hope this doesn't become the most dramatic crash and burn in Kickstarter history, eh? But hey, I'm nothing if not an optimist. Me and 15,622 backers (and still counting for the next 45 minutes or so until the end of this thing, as I write this) couldn't be wrong, right?

 

The paraphrased words of Arnie's Conan come to mind:

“Crom, I have never prayed to you before. Valor pleases you, so I bid big on the Conan board game Kickstarter. Grant me one request: let this Kickstarter deliver on its promises! And if you do not listen, then to HELL with you…and please help me get a refund!”

By Crom, that's quite a Conan Kickstarter!

Have you seen this Kickstarter for an epic Conan-themed board game? Their original goal was $80,000 but they've raised over $1 million! And there's still 19 days left to go in the campaign!

 

Does anyone have any intel on the credentials of the company behind this effort? Are they legit? Should we put Erik Tenkar on alert (in case this is a "bum" Kickstarter in the making)?

Damned Barbarians!

Now, anyone who's been visiting my blog to read my infrequent posts should know that I have a relatively young campaign going called Tales of the Wanderers. I'm using a S&W Complete/Flame Princess hybrid rules set for it. There has been a bit of dimension hopping going on already, with characters starting off from Greyhawk's Oerth and Dragonlance's Krynn. Yes, a kender walked on Oerth for a short time, but alas he has now returned to his homeworld. His player had come to me to let me know that he has had a long-standing yen to play a monk character, and this was made possible after I aquired the S&W Complete rules (I had initially been using only the Lamentations of the Flame Princess deluxe box set rules). So the kender left our ongoing storyline, to be replaced by a monk.

The players characters are now on the world of Golarion, the default setting for Pathfinder. I find the setting fascinating, from the nations to the history and the gods, and at the moment found it more appealing than Oerth, Faerun, Krynn, or any other prepublished setting. Perhaps this is because I've done a lot of recent gaming in those worlds, and because at least one of my players has read a good bunch of novels based in Faerun. I felt like Golarion was new ground, and could be easily tweaked and reshaped into my own image. And I absolutely need a published setting to help me provide details for the campaign, because I just don't have the time to create my own world from scratch. But I am taking many liberties with the setting.

Anyone interested in knowing more about the goings on in the campaign can read the adventure log at Obsidian Portal.

Now, all that said, I want to stress that I really love what I've created with my players for the Tales of the Wanderers campaign. I like how I've blended S&W and LotFP, I like my smattering of house rules for the campaign, I like the characters my players' enthusiasm and the characters they are using. I have lots of ideas to throw at the players. Yeah, everything is good.

And of course, along comes the serpent in the garden. The serpent's name is Barbarians of Lemuria (referred to as BoL from here on out). You see, I have a weakness for swords & sorcery. Most of my roleplaying experience may be with epic or high fantasy, the default mode of Dungeons and Dragons-style gaming, but I love my Conan, my Elric, my Fafhrd and Grey Mouser, etcetera. So when I heard rumors of this BoL game, I had to seek it out.

I acquired a copy, and quickly I was ensnared! The system is simple and is well suited for games that aspire to capture the swords & Sorcery feel. I recommend checking it out.

But now I am eager to finally do a campaign set in Hyboria, something that has been gnawing within me forever! And though BoL has a the built-in Lemuria setting, it can easily be used for a game set in Conan's world.

Damn you, Gamer ADD! Damn you, "new shiny"!

So, here's what I'm currently planning. I am thinking of starting a campaign called "With Steel and Spell: Adventures Across Hyboria" using the BoL system. It will serve as a "side campaign" of episodic adventures, just like Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. This campaign will be a quick and easy game for those times when my players and I, for whatever reasons, are not prepared to delve into our main campaign. There are nights when some or all of us are not up to the demands of the more structured Tales of the Wanderers game (we may be exhausted from a hard day's work, I may not have had time to prepare materials for a session, etcetera).

That's where BoL comes in! We can still use our game night for gaming, but without worrying about the more serious campaign. So, that's how I am trying to contain the BoL beast, through compromise and not outright denial! Repressing one's urges is never good, right? Especially urges of a barbaric nature!

Questions for the masses:

Has anyone else out there recently been hit with a bout of Gamer ADD, and if so, how did you overcome/appease it (if you were able to do so at all)?

Has anyone had any experience with BoL, such as actual play? If so, please share!

Conan Rakes in the Gold Pieces!

I know I'm a bit late to the party with this, but just in case you hadn't heard, a painting of Conan by the recently late, always great Frank Frazetta sold for $1.5 million! I find it thrilling that a piece of fantasy artwork could garner that sort of cash! Good job, Frank. You're sorely missed.

Hilarity: Conan the Musical

Has anyone seen this yet?

Somewhere, Robert E. Howard weeps...