1985: Conan Role-Playing Game

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

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In 1984, TSR, Inc. published CB1 Conan Unchained!, the first appearance of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian in roleplaying. It would be followed the same year by CB2 Conan Against Darkness! And then in 1986 by RS1 Red Sonja Unconquered. All were written for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition—though with some adjustments to accommodate the specific style of Robert E. Howard’s pulp fantasy and all were inspired by, but not based upon the films which had been released in the previous two or three years. Off the back of the strength of CB1 Conan Unchained! and CB2 Conan Against Darkness!, TSR, Inc. would develop the Conan Role-Playing Game. Like CB1 Conan Unchained!, it was written by David ‘Zeb’ Cook, an avowed fan of Conan, and that showed in much of the detail and flavour of the roleplaying game. That said, mechanically, it was a radical departure from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition of CB1 Conan Unchained! and CB2 Conan Against Darkness!, owing more to TSR, Inc.’s other licensed roleplaying games from the previous year—Marvel Super Heroes and The Adventuresof Indiana Jones Role-Playing Game.

Like those other roleplaying games, the Conan Role-Playing Game came as a boxed set, and it is one that nicely appointed. Behind the striking cover, can be found a thirty-two-page ‘Rule Book’, a sixteen-page ‘Reference Guide’, a four-page ‘Master Reference Sheet’, a forty-eight-page ‘The World of Hyboria – A Collection of the Hyborian Studies by Professor Ervin H. Roberts’, a four-page ‘Character Folio’, and a large poster map of Hyboria, plus two ten-sided dice and a crayon to fill the numbers in. The ‘Rule Book’ dives straight into explaining what a roleplaying game is, oddly using ‘Cops & Robbers’ as an example, when you really wish that Conan was being used instead, and then into Player Character creation.

A Player Character in the Conan Role-Playing Game is defined by Talents, representing his physical abilities, skills, and knowledge. These are divided into six Talent Pools—Prowess, Fighting, Endurance, Knowledge, Perception, and Insight. A tenth of the total value of the Talents in a Talent Pool will define the General Talent value for the Talent Pool, covering every other skill within a Talent Pool that the Player Character does not have. A Player Character can also have one or more Weakness, but will definitely have a Story. This is his background which starts with his Country and his Parents, and the following form that the player has to fill in:

“____________ (Character name), the ____________ (Sex) of ____________ (Father) and ____________ (Mother), was born in the land of ____________ (Homeland). ____________ (Character name) grew ____________ (Appearance). As a youth, ____________ (Character name) learned ____________ (Talents) and ____________.”

The character creation process is simple. A player decides on his character’s name, as well as those of his parents, chooses a Homeland from the given list, and then assigns thirty-five points to his Talents. No more than five points can be assigned to any one Talent, the Player Character must have one Talent from each of the six Talent Pools, and one point must be assigned to his father’s Talent. He can gain another five points to assign for each Weakness he selects.

“Thellius, the Son of Gaenus and Hygira, was born in the land of Iranisatan. Thellius grew up lithe and wiry, but with a broad smile. As a youth, Thellius learned the songs his father taught him and to perform, but fell into what his mother called wicked ways.”

Prowess – 1
Acrobatic – 3, Climbing – 4, Movement – 1
Fighting – 1
Brawling – 3, Sword – 3
Endurance – 1
Damage – 4, Stamina – 3, Will – 3
Knowledge – 1
Lockpicking – 4
Perception – 1
Observation – 3, Minstrel – 4, Pocket Picking – 3,
Insight – 1
Danger Sense – 3, Personal Magnetism – 4

Weaknesses
Gambler, Weakness for women

The Player Character creation process is simple, but underwhelming. There is no example of the creation process, and whilst a sample character is provided, it is in the ‘Character Folio’ and not the ‘Rule Book’, and is of Conan himself and not a starting character. Similarly, the NPCs named and given stats in ‘The World of Hyboria – A Collection of the Hyborian Studies by Professor Ervin H. Roberts’ are extremely experienced NPCs. The primary problem though, is there is no guidance on how to create a character that fits either the setting or any kind of a role. So, no guidance on creating a warrior or a thief or a guide or a healer… In fact, when it comes to the thief, let alone Conan himself, there is no Stealth skill. At this point in the roleplaying game this leaves a fundamental question unanswered and that is, “How do I create Conan in the Conan Role-Playing Game?”

Mechanically, the Conan Role-Playing Game is a percentile system used in combination with a ‘Resolution Table’. A ‘Resolution Table’ that looks more like a graph. The vertical axis of the ‘Resolution Table’ runs from one to one hundred and represents a player’s dice roll. The horizontal axis is the ‘Talent/Differential’ row and runs from thirty to minus thirty. The results are banded from top to bottom, White, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red, each band representing a complexity. A result in the White band is a failure, Green is easy complexity, Yellow is moderate complexity, Orange is hard complexity, and Red is difficult complexity. To have his character undertake an action a player rolls the dice and compares the result of the roll on the vertical axis of the ‘Resolution Table’ versus the value of the Talent his character is using on the ‘Talent/Differential’ axis. If the rest is in the right band, his character succeeds.

The colour band into which the result of a test falls can also be used to be determine the quality of the outcome. Examples suggested include NPC reactions, degree of a language understood, damage inflicted in combat, advantage gained in combat, damage blocked in combat, falling damage, the effects of poison, and more. Although the ‘Resolution Table’ looks complex and more like a mathematical exercise, in combination with the various modifiers for the different situations and just a single roll for all of them, it is actually surprisingly flexible in its application.

For example, Thellius is performing in a tavern and wants to impress the daughter of a merchant. This will use his Personal Magnetism Talent. His player has already made a Talent Test using Thellius’ Minstrel Talent. The result was Orange, so the Referee grants a +2 bonus to his Personal Magnetism Talent. This will shift it along on the ‘Talent/Differential’ axis of the ‘Resolution Table’ from four to six. The Referee has already decided that the situation is ‘Friendly’ on the ‘NPC Reaction Result Table’ as it is in a tavern. Thellius’ player rolls the dice and gets a result of eight which is in the Red band! This is a very good result and on the ‘NPC Reaction Result Table’ indicates a ‘Generous’ rection. The merchant’s daughter definitely catches his eye and raises a glass to him.

Combat also uses the ‘Resolution Table’. Before it begins, the participants roll to determine if anyone is caught off-guard using either their Animal Reflexes Talents or General Prowess rating. The better the roll, the more Advantages a player generates, either one, two, three, or four. These are compared against their opponents and the combatant who has the most left over afterwards gets a free combat action for each one. Combat takes place in five-second combat rounds and initiative is determined by rolling a single ten-sided die and adding the highest of either the Animal Reflexes or Movement Talents or the General Prowess value. It is possible for a Player Character to take multiple actions in a round, but this requires a test against his Animal Reflexes Talent or General Prowess value and a Red result. Otherwise, he cannot take multiple actions and is at a penalty to his actions for this round and the next! So, in general, a combatant will either attack, defend, move, cast a spell, or wait, at least until either Animal Reflexes Talent or General Prowess value increases. When his character makes a mêlée attack, the player declares an Aiming Point on the body of his character’s opponent. Combat modifiers shift the ‘Talent/Differential’ up and down, and then the Fighting Talent of the defender is deducted from that of the attacker. The subsequent roll will determine not only if the attacker successfully strikes, but if he does, how much base damage is inflicted. This can be modified by the weapon used, for example, a javelin or tiger claw has a ‘-1’ penalty, whilst a flail has a ‘+1’ bonus. In most cases, weapons that inflict more damage have a penalty to Initiative.

Damage inflicted then, is roughly on a scale of between one and seven points, is deducted directly from a Player Character’s Damage Talent. If the Damage Talent is reduced to zero or less, each time the character takes damage after this, his player must test his character’s Damage Talent using its current value. If the result is Red, the Player Character remains conscious, but falls unconscious if the result is Orange, Yellow, or Green. If the result is White, a failure, then the Player Character dies. However, armour does stop damage, the amount depending upon what is being worn on each location and whether a shield is being carried. In addition to inflicting a base four points of damage, a Red result on the attack also inflicts a specific wound to the location targeted, typically a stun effect against which the player will need to make a General Prowess Test.

The Conan Role-Playing Game does allow Player Characters to use magic, whether that is as a sorcerer, witch, wizard, or shaman. However, it is not recommended as it takes a great deal of time and effort to learn and it can have deleterious effects upon the practitioner. Simply having a magic-related Talent, whether that is Alchemy, Information (actually being a seer of some sort), Mind Control, Natural Magic, Physical laws, Summoning, or Transformation, only indicates an aptitude. The would-be practitioner has to spend months of game time in study. Then, there is a cost to pay, but the cost is not necessarily financial, it can be personal. Every time a Player Character magician gains a magical Talent or a Spell, he gains one or two continuing effects. One is a magical Weakness, including Animal Aversion, Disfigurement, Endurance Loss, Madness, and Nocturnal. The other is Obsession, a Weakness that is treated like a Talent which when the practitioner is tempted by even greater magic, is forced to test and if the result is Red, he must do everything in his power to obtain the new magic. The Conan Role-Playing Game does not include any spells by design, intending the Referee and her players to create them and define their effects and where they can be learned. For experienced roleplayers, this is unlikely to be an issue, but new players will find this unhelpful. On the whole, much like the source material, magic is intended to be used by the antagonists rather than the protagonists.

In addition to the rules for magic, the ‘Rulebook’ also covers movement, hazards such as falling, fire, and drowning, gives details of what life is like in Hyboria, interaction with NPCs, and rewards for the Player Characters. The latter includes Fame Points, which can be earned for heroic and savage deeds, annoying a major NPC, improving a Talent above twenty, and so on, but can be lost through acts of cowardice, stupidity, betrayal, and so on. Successful Talent use during an adventure will earn a Player Character up to ten Talent points to assign, and for originality and good roleplaying, the Referee can award Luck Points. These can be used to reroll a dice roll, to reduce the damage taken from an attack, and as means to perform incredible feats of luck. This works by the player expending as many of his character’s Luck Points as he wants, the number determining the column on the ‘Talent/Differential’ axis of the ‘Resolution Table’, and then rolling. If the result is Red, he succeeds. There is no mention of Luck Points before this.

The advice for the Referee on creating and running adventures in Hyboria is decent and there is also an adventure included at the back of the ‘Rulebook’. This is ‘The Tower of the Elephant’, based on the short story by Robert E. Howard. As in the story, it starts in a tavern where there is chance for some revelry and a fight before sneaking into the nearby tower to steal the ‘Heart of the Elephant’, a fabulous jewel in the possession of the evil sorcerer, Yara. It is a short affair, offering only a single session’s worth of play and its set-up is completely wrong for the Conan Role-Playing Game. The first problem with it is that it follows the plot of the short story fairly tightly and does not give a lot of options in terms of what the Player Character can do. The second problem is  that it is not designed to be played using any Player Character created using the rules in the game and it is not designed to be played by a group. Instead, it is designed to be played using the stats for Conan himself given on one of the character folios, who is a more experienced character. As a one-on-one, short scenario, it is adequate, but given that there is no scenario included for a group of new created Player Characters, it is anything other than fine.

Of the other items in the box for the Conan Role-Playing Game, the ‘The World of Hyboria – A Collection of the Hyborian Studies by Professor Ervin H. Roberts’ is a good gazetteer, introducing Robert E. Howard and Hyboria, the latter as if it was written down in an academic’s notebook, complete with annotations. It includes quite detailed descriptions of the various lands, their peoples, towns, and cities, and there is a decent bestiary too. Several NPCs are also detailed as are various gods, cults, magical items, and ruins and their lore. This is all solid background material that the Referee can develop for her game. The map is good too.

The ‘Reference Guide’ gives explanations for all of the roleplaying game’s Talents and Weaknesses before providing some of its charts and tables, including the ‘Randon Hit Location Table’, the ‘Combat Modifiers Chart’, the ‘Resolution Table’ a second time—the primary one is on the back of ‘Rulebook’ where it is in colour, an ‘Equipment List’, a ‘Specific Wound Chart’, a ‘Jewel Table’, a list of the ‘Principal Hyborian Languages’, and a ‘Talent List’. The tables are all useful, but they seem placed in a random order which makes their use not as easy as they should be. There are more tables on the ‘Master Reference Sheet’, which covers everything else, including NPC Reactions, a synopsis of the possible results, the combat sequence, and more, including a quick guide to being a Referee.

There is a neat, even decent set of mechanics at the heart of the Conan Role-Playing Game, good enough that they were later redeveloped as the ZeFRSRules—short for ‘Zeb's Fantasy Roleplaying System’, as the author is known as David ‘Zeb’ Cook. Yet the Conan Role-Playing Game almost goes out of its way to make the learning and using of the rules as awkward as possible. This begins almost immediately in the ‘Rulebook’ where there is no explanation of the core rules and how they work, the ‘Rulebook’ going from character creation to combat, leaving the reader none the wiser. Instead, there is an explanation of rules, roughly two paragraphs long under ‘Action Success’ on the third page of the four-page ‘Master Reference Sheet’. What this means is that the Conan Role-Playing Game, which is designed for ages ten and over, an introductory roleplaying game that is effectively hiding its rules. Add to this, the lack of an example of play, no example of character generation, no example beginning characters, and no beginning scenario for beginning characters or even multiple characters, and it is clear that the Conan Role-Playing Game is not giving proper support to either the Referee or the player.

Yet on the plus side, in addition to the very serviceable rules, the means of creating a Player Character using the form on the character sheet is a neat touch as it asks each player to think about his character in terms of his story and tying him into the world of Hyboria. The background description of the world is not bad either and to be fair, the adventure, ‘The Tower of the Elephant’, is actually reasonable enough for a one-one-one, single session’s worth of play. The problem with it is that is either not suitable for the roleplaying game on its own or it is simply not enough.

Physically, the Conan Role-Playing Game is well presented. Everything is of good quality, the layout is tidy, and the internal illustrations, all by Jeff Easley, are excellent.

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The Conan Role-Playing Game was reviewed by Mike Dean in ‘Game Reviews’ in Imagine Adventure Games Magazine No. 29 (August, 1985). He began by saying that, “With the recent influx of RPGs based on specific books, films and TV series, it is not all that surprising that we should eventually be presented with the CONAN® RPG. Along with the trend for this type of RPG has also come the unfortunate tendency for such games to be written in very simple English. CONAN RPG is no exception, and although it can be argued that the style encourages younger players and enables them to grasp the concept of the game more easily, one cannot help but feel that one is being talked down to by the authors.” He was also critical of the magic system in the Conan Role-Playing Game and the effort required both in game and out, adding, “…[I]t is almost as if by making magic difficult to pursue the authors are hoping that no-one will want to.” He concluded, “In conclusion, this game has some interesting concepts but is lacking in certain respects, notably the magic system and the slant towards the younger gamer.

Pete Tamelyn reviewed the Conan Role-Playing Game in ‘Open Box’ in White Dwarf Issue 69 (September, 1985). He was critical of the layout and organisation, saying that, “I get the impression that there were quite a few bugs in the systems as well because there is a 4 page ‘Reference Sheet’ included which makes several significant changes to the rules. ‘Last minute errata sheet’ might have been more appropriate.” Despite this, he awarded it an overall score out of seven out of ten and finishing with, “It's a great shame. With a bit of care it could have been a very good product. Most of the errors are essentially cosmetic and even with them I still prefer it to AD&D. Hopefully TSR will produce a second edition – after they’ve tightened up on their quality control.”

It was reviewed in ‘Game Reviews’ in Different Worlds Issue 45 (March/April, 1987) by Edwin King, whose initial description was that, “The Conan RolePlaying Game is a great piece of hack & slash fun that can reawaken the enthusiasm of the most jaded role-player.” Although critical of the limitations of the scenario, he was positive in his conclusion. “Essentially, it is worth the effort to overlook the organizational problems and occasional lapses in clarity in the rules. If you can enjoy the freedom of using an easily-learned rules set that leaves plenty of options, Conan is great. It makes a pleasant break from more detailed fantasy campaigning and it is certain to have its players rereading the Conan stories in search of inspiration.” He awarded it three stars out of five.

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The Conan Role-Playing Game has an experimental quality to it in combining a very simple system that gives the players a lot of freedom in terms of what they can create and play with a resolution mechanic that is surprisingly elegant and flexible and can cover most situations. It is unlike any other roleplaying game from TSR, Inc. of its era and as a development of the earlier Marvel Super Heroes and The Adventures of Indiana Jones Role-Playing Game, it could have been the basis of a system suitable for a variety of genres. Yet despite its production values, the Conan Role-Playing Game hides this mechanical simplicity behind a ragged organisation, poor explanations of the rules, and a lack of support for the player in terms of examples and advice. There are moments where the author’s love of Robert E. Howard and Conan the Barbarian does shine through even its poor organisation, primarily in the sourcebook and the rules for magic, but even this cannot stop the Conan Role-Playing Game from failing to live up to its potential.

1984: Conan Unchained!

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary, and the new edition of that, Dungeons & Dragons, 2024, in the year of the game’s fiftieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

In 1985, TSR, Inc. published the Conan Role-Playing Game, the first of five roleplaying games to be based on the Conan the Barbarian stories of Robert E. Howard. Which means that it is forty years old in 2025, but this was not the first foray into the archetypal Swords & Sorcery genre by the publisher. After all, the Conan the Barbarian stories had always been an influence upon E. Gary Gygax, TSR, Inc., and Dungeon & Dragons, with stats for Conan actually appearing in Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes for the original version of Dungeons & Dragons, which was published in 1976. That though, was unofficial, whereas his appearance in two modules for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition was official. CB1 Conan Unchained! and CB2 Conan Against the Darkness! were both published in 1984 and both were designed for Player Characters of Tenth to Fourteenth Levels and to be played by the four pre-generated Player Characters included in each module, which of course, included Conan amongst their number.

Behind the eye-catching image of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan, CB1 Conan Unchained! provides not only a scenario set within the Hyborian Age, but also an introduction to the setting and the rules to run the scenario using Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition. Although the image from the cover was taken from Conan the Barbarian, which was only released two years before, CB1 Conan Unchained! does not use any more images from it and it is not based on its story. Rather, CB1 Conan Unchained! takes its cue from the short stories by Robert E. Howard—‘Queen of the Black Coast’, ‘Red Nails’, and the unfinished ‘The Hall of the Dead’. It is from these stories that Conan himself and two of the three other pre-generated Player Characters come from. Besides Conan, they include Nestor the Gunderman and Valeria of the Red Brotherhood, whilst Juma the Warrior is inspired by later comics. All have weapon proficiencies and secondary skills, whilst Conan has a special ability which means he is very rarely surprised. Conan himself is a Thirteenth Level Fighter and a Seventh Level Thief, Valeria a Tenth Level Fighter and a Ninth Level Thief, Juma a Twelfth Level Fighter, and Nestor the Gunderman a Fourteenth Level Fighter.

One notable addition to all four Player Characters is that of Luck Points. This is the first of several new rules in CB1 Conan Unchained! Conan has twelve of these, Nestor and Juma have ten each, and Valeria has sixteen! These are included because, “Conan is sometimes able to do things beyond the range of the AD&D rules. These impossible actions are part of Conan’s special abilities. It is important for characters to be able to do the same things, so they are given Luck Points.” However, they are not spent by the player per se, but by the Dungeon Master. She is told to encourage the players to have their characters perform “…[H]eroic, amazing, or impossible feats…”, with a player expected to describe what his character is trying to do and the Dungeon Master then adjudicate the cost without the player being told how many Luck Points his character has left. For a single Luck Point, a Player Character can make an extra attack in a round, automatically hit an opponent, climb without falling, leap a chasm, and so on; whilst for two Luck Points, he can knock out a person with fist or weapon, spring back from a trap just in time, and climb while carrying another person; and for three Luck Points, do something heroic beyond the scope of the rules. They cannot be spent on a roll that has already been made, on a Saving Throw, or a Fear Check. Some opponents also have their own Luck Points.

To account for the lack of the Cleric Class in the Hyborian Age and thus the lack of healing magic, a Player Character always heals a single Hit Point per day and Hit Points equal to half the Player Character’s Constitution if he rests for a whole day.

The other major addition is the Fear Factor to found in certain creatures and monsters as well as magic effects and reflect Conan’s own instinctive reaction to the unnatural and things that defy explanation. Whenever a Player Character fails a Fear Check, he is struck dumb momentarily or flees for his life, until he overcomes his fear or is hurt again. Sources of Fear include monsters, spellcasters, and unusual magic items or situations and have a Fear Statistic ranging between one and ten. When a Fear Check is required, the Fear Statistic is multiplied by the Player Character’s Wisdom and the resulting value is rolled against on percentile dice. Succeed and the Player Character is unaffected, but fail and he is filled with fear.

There can be no doubt that the inclusion of Luck Points and Fear Checks are radical changes to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, that certainly in the case of Luck Points take the roleplaying game far beyond what it is normally expected to do. In fact, what the inclusion of Luck Points highlights is that as much as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition is pitched as a roleplaying game of heroic adventures and fantasy, it is actually not as heroic as it could be. Arguably, the fantasy of Conan the Barbarian and the Swords & Sorcery genre is pulp fantasy, but if that is case, then given the fact that Dungeons & Dragons is inspired by Swords & Sorcery, what Luck Points show is that Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition cannot do Conan-style, Swords & Sorcery as written without them. And since they encourage roleplaying in a particular style, they are actually the first roleplaying mechanic to appear in Dungeons & Dragons! (As opposed to Inspiration, which appeared in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition in 2014!)

In fact, the inclusion of Luck Points in CB1 Conan Unchained! is not only a highly radical design choice for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition and TSR, Inc., but also a very modern one. Top Secret: An Espionage Role Playing Game for 3 or more players, ages 12 to adult, published by TSR, Inc. in 1980 included an optional rule for Fame and Fortune Points which enabled a Player Character to overcome a fatal wound. It would be James Bond 007: Role-Playing In Her Majesty’s Secret Service, published in 1983 by Victory Games, that developed the concept fully as Hero Points that could be used to adjust skill rolls, shrug off wounds and even death, and enable the Player Characters to be more heroic. However, in The Adventures of Indiana Jones Role-Playing Game, published by TSR, Inc. in 1984, only offered Player Points, which can only be spent to reduce the severity of a Player Character’s wounds or injuries. It is incongruous that in two roleplaying products from the same publisher and the same designer—David Cook—released in the same year, it is a scenario for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition that is given Luck Points.

If the Luck Points are a good addition, Fear Factor, less so. It is not so much a case of CB1 Conan Unchained! not needing a mechanic for handling fear, but rather a question of whether or not it needs a specific new rule for handling fear. Could not the Saving Throw mechanics of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition be used instead? That said, the Fear Check mechanic is simple and fast.

One other change that CB1 Conan Unchained! makes is to classify its scenes into several types. These are normal, random, and plot encounters. Normal encounters are those typical of an adventure, such as exploring a ruin or attacking a pirate ship, whilst random encounters are there to spice up the action. Plot encounters are scenes in which the Player Characters have to act through with only a limited number of choices in how they can act. The Dungeon Master is advised that they be handled with care lest the players feel forced in their characters’ actions. Unfortunately, ‘plot encounters’ like this were not well received at the time and are still looked at with some disdain, though more so in the case of DL1 Dragons of Despair—which came out the same year as CB1 Conan Unchained!.

The introduction to the Hyborian Age in CB1 Conan Unchained! is short, but informative. It highlights how the countries and peoples of the Hyborian Age are formed of different individual groups, each easily identified and with different attitudes and behaviours. The latter means that is often possible to identify someone in the Hyborian World just by their actions. Steel weapons are available, but armour is rarely more than chain or scale. Monsters like those of Dungeons & Dragons are very rare, with giant beasts and demons, elementals, giants, and golems being common. Magic in the Hyborian Age is practiced, but rare, confined to summoning, illusions, charms, and death spells, so greatly feared. Magical items are even rarer and invariably dangerous to those who wield them, though this does not stop sorcerers hunting for both them and dusty tomes of magic.

The scenario on both sides of the narrow Sea of Vilayet and opens with the adventurers as mercenaries in the employ of the Khan of Turan, hired to put down a rebellion by Kustafa, the governor of a city who has refused to pay the taxes that are due. However, a strange magical attack by darkness and shadows finds the army they were part of destroyed and the adventurers on the run. This is the first of the scenario’s four Plot Encounters, the second following close on its heels as the Player Characters are captured by the Mongel Horde-like Kozaki nomads who plan sell them to Stygian slavers. The problem with this Plot Encounter is that the Player Characters have to be captured for the scenario to proceed and given that this is at the beginning of the scenario, they have a lot of Luck Points to spend. Now the nomads do use lariats to capture them, but it is possible for the players to burn through an awful lot of their characters’ Luck Points before that happens and this is right at the start of the scenario.

The Player Characters are not expected to escape, but to prove themselves worthy of being one of the Kozaki and then over a series of events make themselves popular, and eventually, challenge the hetman of the group. There is a good mix of events and encounters to throw at the Player Characters throughout this process and they are given plenty of opportunity to prove themselves. There is even an encounter when a rival to the post of hetman attempts to assassinate a Player Character who looks like he is vying for the position. Of course, it also possible for the Player Characters to escape, but it is not nearly as interesting as what the scenario presents. Whether or not the Player Characters escape, or they become part of the Kozaki, they will in the third Plot Encounter of the scenario run into a female NPC. She will reveal herself as Costhiras, the mistress of the Khan of Turan, who was visiting the city that he sent the army that the Player Characters were part of to recapture it after it rose in rebellion and stopped paying taxes. She tells them that Kustafa, the governor of the city did not do this willingly. He has fallen under the influence of Bhir-Vedi, an evil sorcerer who searches for her still—and to enforce that fact, she is attacked by an Invisible Stalker that instant!

Costhiras begs for the Player Characters to help her and offers to guide them to The Citadel of Bhir-Vedi (or they can follow her if she was snatched by the Invisible Stalker). Either way, this leads them to travel with a band of pirates lead by a somewhat tiresome pirate captain (though he does fight with a sword blade attached to the steel cap on the stump of his wrist and if desperate, can fire it on a spring), but eventually the Player Characters will get to the other side the Sea of Vilayet and the entrance to The Citadel of Bhir-Vedi. There is a short maze-like cavern to navigate before coming upon Bhir-Vedi’s tower, a fairly standard sorcerer’s tower by any measure. There are a fair number of traps to avoid, mostly requiring a check to see if the Player Characters are surprised before they can spend Luck Points, and there is the strong possibility of them being captured after being put to sleep and then waking up to find themselves chained atop the tower ready to be sacrificed to some god or other by Bhir-Vedi. Hopefully, they will have retained enough Luck Points to break their chains (or at least make a Bend Bars/Lift Gates roll)! And after that? Enough points to kick Bhir-Vedi off the top of the tower!

Physically, CB1 Conan Unchained! is disappointing. It looks good, with good art and cartography, but the editing is poor with names constantly changing and inconsistent descriptions.

—oOo—

CB1 Conan Unchained! was reviewed by Steve Hampshire in the ‘Game Reviews’ section of Imagine No. 24 (March, 1985). He said, “The module itself also has some uniquely ‘Conan’ features. Normal AD&D monsters are almost totally replaced by various human opponents and potential opponents. Surprisingly, some of these are good enough to challenge Conan! The plot is simple and rather derivative, but it takes in some interesting settings and encounters. For most part it plays well, despite niggles like a ship that keeps changing its name, and monsters using their useless wings to fly into attack.” He concluded his review by saying, “The mood of this module is different form the normal run of AD&D material, and the players and referee really need to get into the swing of the thing. It helps if one is familiar with the Conan books or film. This scenario is good for introducing the characters, but stronger plotlines will be needed of there is to be series.”

Rick Swan reviewed CB1 Conan Unchained! in the ‘Capsule Reviews’ in The Space Gamer Number 73 (March/April, 1985). Of the new rules—the Fear Factor and Luck Points—he said, “D&D purists may freak, but the rules work and add to the heroic feel of the setting. Fans of R.E. Howard will happy to know that Cook has approached the source material with considerable respect and that Conan Unchained is generally consistent with the Hyborian world we all known and love.” However, he added that, “The basic problem is that Conan isn’t a particularly good choice for the D&D system. Compared to most D&D settings, Conan’s world is pretty barren. There’s no magic or interesting settings to speak off, and the adventure is nothing special (the characters are captured by slavers, negotiate their freedom, and rescue a fair maiden from a nasty castle).” He concluded that, “Conan Unchained can be played as part of a regular D&D campaign without Conan and associates, but what’s the point? There are plenty of better roleplaying modules available from TSR and elsewhere. Conan and D&D go together like peanut butter and tuna fish – it can be done, but you can bet there’s going to be a funny taste.”

—oOo—

CB1 Conan Unchained! suffers from several problems. Most obviously, if you going to play it, who plays Conan and why would you want play anyone else? Second, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition does not feel right for it and is not right for it, as evidenced by the inclusion of Luck Points which enables the heroic feats that Conan calls for and which Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition is not designed to do. In fact, what it highlights is how staid the design to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition was by 1984. Third, how poorly plotted it is. The adventure does not really start until the Player Characters get captured, so why does that have to be played out and the players waste their characters’ Luck Points? Then the sequence with the pirate captain is tedious, designed to barb the Player Characters into action. The plot really is most straightforward. Yet there are flashes of excitement to found in CB1 Conan Unchained! The sequence in which the Player Characters free themselves from the nomads and then take over is actually quite fun and the inclusion of Luck Points encourage the players to be a little more inventive than Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition necessarily might be in normal play.

Ultimately, CB1 Conan Unchained! feels rushed and underdeveloped, an attempt to bring fans of Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition and fans of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition to Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer, but is not really good enough to attract either and ultimately, satisfies neither.

Quick-Start Saturday: Conan: The Hyborian Age

Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she can still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

—oOo—

What is it?
Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start is the quick-start for Conan: The Hyborian Age, the roleplaying game based on the Swords & Sorcery short stories by Robert E. Howard and published by Monolith Board Games SARL.

It is designed to be played by five players, plus the Game Master.

It is a fifty-two page, 16.52 MB full colour PDF.

The quick-start is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is excellent and exciting. The rules are a slightly stripped down version from the core rulebook, but do include examples of the rules which speed the learning of the game.

The themes and nature of Conan: The Hyborian Age and thus the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start, specifically the lurid and sometimes uncomfortable nature of the source material may require the X-Card depending on the gaming group. However, there is nothing controversial or potentially offensive about the content of the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start.

How long will it take to play?
The Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start and its adventure or ‘Tale’, ‘The Seal of Acheron’, is designed to be played through in one session, two at most.

What else do you need to play?
The Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start requires a set of polyhedral dice per player. Each player also requires a single extra ten-sided die which should be a different colour.

Who do you play?
The five Player Characters in the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start consist of a born on the streets assassin, a warrior from the hills, a female wanderer, a sorcerer who can call wolves to his side, and a warrior from the icy north.

How is a Player Character defined?
A Player Character has four stats—Might, Edge, Grit, and Wits. Stats are rated between zero and eight, though most are capped at six. Each stat also has an associated Stat Die. This is either a six-, eight-, or ten-sided die. Skills are not traditional skills per se, but rather special abilities that grant a bonus to a particular action or access to a specific ability. ‘Of the Shadows’ is an example of the former, granting a bonus to all Edge checks involving or detecting acts of stealth, whilst ‘Assassin’ is an example of the latter, enabling the Player Character to apply Edge rather than Might when using one-handed light or medium melee weapons.

Besides Physical Defence and Sorcery Defence and Life Points, a Player Character also has Stamina Points and a Flex Die. Stamina Points are expended to access a range of bonuses or to activate certain Skills. The Flex Die is a special die rolled in addition to any dice rolled by a player for any reason. It can either be a six-, eight-, or ten-sided die.

How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start has a player roll either a Check or an Attack. To make a Check, a player rolls the appropriate Stat Die for the action and adds to it the value of the Stat and any modifiers. ‘The Rule of Threes’ means that the modifiers do not go above ‘+3’ or below ‘-3’. The Difficulty ranges between four and six for Easy, seven and nine for Moderate, ten and twelve for Difficult, and thirteen or more for Legendary. A roll of one on the Stat Die means that the Check or Attack fails.

When any Check or Attack roll is made, the Flex Die is rolled as part of it. When the maximum on the Flex Die is rolled, it triggers a Flex and grants access to various boons. This always includes giving the Player Character a bonus point of Stamina, but the options given in the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start consist of guaranteeing that an attack or action succeeds or inflicting Massive Damage on a damage roll. Consequently, the smaller the die size, the more chance of Flex being triggered.

There is no effect if one is rolled on the Flex Die.

How does combat work?
Combat in the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start is designed to be desperate and dangerous. A Player Character can conduct two actions per turn, though certain Skills or expenditure of Stamina Points can add more. A Move is one action, an Attack is one action, a Focused Attack is one action with a bonus, Defend is one Action to gain a bonus to Physical Defence, and Cast a Spell is one or two Actions depending upon the spell. If a Player Character has enough actions, he can take two actions that are the same. Thus two Move actions or two Attack actions. Range is determined by zones around a Player Character. Melee Attacks use the Might Stat; Ranged and Thrown Attacks use the Edge Stat; and Sorcery Attacks use the Wits Stat. If the result of the Attack roll is equal to or greater than the opponent’s Physical Defence, a Melee, Ranged, or Thrown Attack succeeds, whilst a Sorcery Attack succeeds if the Sorcery is equal to or greater than the opponent’s Sorcery Defence.

Melee and Thrown Damage is determined by adding the Might Stat to the result of the weapon’s Damage roll; Ranged Damage is determined by a Ranged weapon’s Damage die only; and Sorcery Damage is determined by the spell being cast. Skills can also add to this damage.

The Armour Rating of any armour worn reduces damage. Armour worn has other effects, including penalising Sorcery Attacks.

Damage suffered is deducted from the Life Points. If a Player Character has his Life Points reduced to zero, he is heavily wounded and unconscious. If a subsequent Grit Check is failed, he dies. If alive, two Recovery checks can be made per tale or session to restore Life Points.

If a Player Character does die, a Game Master can opt for a ‘Fateful Intervention’. Four narrative suggestions are given, such as the Player Characters’ foes leaving them for dead and allowing them to crawl from the battlefield. All four are appropriate to the genre.

Enemy Antagonists have Life Points just as the Player Characters do. Minions have a Threshold value. If this Threshhold is exceeded with a Damage Roll in a single blow, the Minion is killed.

Stamina Points can be spent during combat to react to a situation in unexpected and daring ways that ordinary men and women do not. This includes to make an additional Move Action, to increase the damage inflicted by a single, successful attack, to increase the Range of a Thrown weapon, and with a Player Character’s final Stamina Point to inflict Massive Damage as per the Flex Massive Damage result.

How does Sorcery work?
Sorcery in Conan: The Hyborian Age is divided into five Disciplines. Each Discipline grants access to a number of inherent spells. Casting spells costs Life Points or Stamina Points to cast. Only one Discipline, the White Magic Dscipline, appears in the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start, and only one Player Character can cast spells.

What do you play?
The Tale in the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start is ‘The Seal of Acheron’. In part inspired by Robert E. Howard’s ‘The Slithering Shadow’ and ‘A Witch Shall be Born’, it opens with the Player Characters with their fellow Dog Brothers in a tavern following several days of battle on the border. A fellow mercenary offers them information about a recently exposed ruin in the nearby desert. Wounded in the recent clashes, he cannot explore it himself, so suggests that he share the information in exchange for a share of whatever they manage to loot from the ruin. The Player Characters may be harassed by bandits (oddly armed with just knives) or wild dogs or hyenas on the way there, but the bulk of the adventure focuses on the underground ruins. The emphasis is on exploration, action, and combat combined with elements of horror. ‘The Seal of Acheron’ is straightforward and atmospheric.

Is there anything missing?
The Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start is complete. It includes a good overview of the genre and core themes of Conan: The Hyborian Age. These are adventure, big risk versus big reward, sword and sorcery, and forward momentum. There is also decent advice for the Game Master on running ‘The Seal of Acheron’.

Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start are relatively easy to prepare.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start provides a solid introduction to Conan: The Hyborian Age and gives a good idea as to what it feels like to play.

Where can you get it?
The Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start is available to download here.

Conan & War

Conan the Mercenary is a supplement for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is the third in the ‘Conan the…’ series of supplements which focus on and take their inspiration from Conan himself at various stages of his life and what he was doing. Over this series, the supplements will track our titular character’s growth and progress as he gains in skills and abilities and talents. Thus this third supplement, following on from Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Thief, looks at Conan as a young man and his life what he did after he left his homeland and took his next steps on his career which will take him from barbarian to king, essentially the equivalent of a Player Character having taken the first steps in his adventuring career. Yet whilst the stats for Conan himself at this stage of his life do appear in the pages of Conan the Mercenary, and so hint at his step as covered in the next supplement, Conan the Pirate, they are more a side note than a feature, for the supplement continues the path south begun in Conan the Barbarian to examine and explore more of the countries of the centre, where East meets West in the Hyperborean Age—Khoraja, Koth, Ophir, and Shem. Not necessarily the most warlike of countries, but the most likely to hire and in need of mercenaries, or sell-swords, dog soldiers, and sword-sisters. Conan the Mercenary supports the role of the mercenary and warfare in Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. It includes new archetypes, talents, backgrounds, and equipment to help players create more varied Mercenary characters and Game Masters more varied Mercenary NPCs; a gazetteer and guide to the fractious lands where the rulers have good reason to employ mercenaries of all kinds, whether that is to protect borders, put down insurrection, buy off rampaging mercenaries, and to strike at their rivals—whether internal or external an array of detailed NPCs and monsters, including unique nemeses; and mechanics to help bring mercenary campaigns and other activities and attitudes to your game, including sieges, battles, skirmishes, small operations, and more.

Conan the Mercenary opens by introducing new options for the Mercenary type character, building upon the content in the core rulebook for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. This includes the fact that the mercenary can have two Homelands (although only gains the benefits of one) to reflect how well-travelled he is, and has access to two new Mercenary Castes, Born Soldier and Child of Camp Followers—the latter tying to the vivid description of the camp followers later in the supplement, and both complete with stories and associated traits, whilst there is just the single new caste Talent, ‘Scrounger’. Similarly, there are two Mercenary Natures—Professional and Blood-crazed, whilst the Archetypes include ‘Asshuri’, ‘Captain’, ‘Champion’, ‘Messenger’, ‘Unseasoned’, and ‘Veteran’. Mercenary Educations add tables for War Stories, Personal Belongings and Garments, notable Weapon and Provenance, possible Mercenary Names. These add flavour and detail, whilst the Mercenary Talents are primarily built around the ‘Veteran’ Talent tree, only available to those who have served in a mercenary company, whilst the other ten Talents, such as ‘Hostage Taker’ or ‘If it Bleeds…’, are available to all Player Characters. The new ‘Tools of War’ begin with ‘Engines of Destruction’, the siege weapons employed by armies and mercenary companies to break castles, fortresses, and cities, but they get more personal with oddities such as the mancatcher and repeating crossbow. Perhaps more interesting for most players is the examination of high quality Akbitanan steel, whose forging is kept secret by the skilled craftsmen of Shem. The resulting weapons can strike fear into the opponents of anyone wielding them and so they are in great demand.

Supporting these new character options is a gazetteer of the lands in the centre of the West—Khoraja, Koth, Ophir, and Shem. Khoraja is a nation founded by mercenaries. They captured the city of the same name from the kingdom of Koth, taking advantage of the mountains which separates it from the rest of the kingdom. It also controls Shamla Pass, not only an important trade route through the mountains, but also the route that a major invasion force would take going north or south. The kings of Khoraja repudiate their mercenary origins, but that does not stop them from employing them. Koth itself employs mercenaries not only to protect its borders, but to put down insurrections that intermittently arise as one city ruler or noble aspires to the throne. The country’s fractiousness severely hampers the efforts of King Strabonus, its much feared and much derided ruler, to chart its future, not helped by the presence of Tsotha-Lanti, the sorcerer who at best is regarded as an advisor to the king, at worst the power behind the throne. Ophir is the opposite of Koth, a settled, extremely wealthy, and decadent nation, unambitious under the rule of its king, Amalrus, but not his wife, Queen Yrrane, who secretly plans to take the throne from her husband. To that end she has gathered the fealty of many mercenary captains who would command their companies to aid the ambitious spouse. Shem, known for its highly skilled craftsmen, is divided between meadowlands and desert, the latter providing a protective bulwark against invaders from the east. In each case, an overview of each country is provided, along with a look at their major cities, traditions, culture and faiths, ruins, notable features and citizens, and more. In each case, the content of Conan the Mercenary is set before the events of Conan’s stories, enabling the Game Master to run them as adventures for her Player Characters.

If the Gazetteer examines the places where mercenaries are most frequently employed or stationed and particular reasons why, ‘Events’ is more about the general reasons for war in the Hyperborean Age—not just war between kingdoms, internecine warfare, barbaric raids, and religious upheavals, but also natural events such as plague and famine, and unnatural events like the rise of a sorcerer and incursion from the Outer Dark. These are relatively short overviews so feel slightly generic. Fortunately, the supplement shifts away from this when it focuses on the NPCs in the setting in ‘Encounters’. This includes both a look at Conan’s involvement in the politics and events of the nations of Khoraja, Koth, Ophir, and Shem, in particular, his command of mercenary companies in the defeat of the Thugra Khotan and later defeat during Prince Almuric’s uprising against King Strabonus in Koth. These are backed up by a good range of ‘Encounters’ or NPCs. Even the most basic of mercenaries, such as the Asshuri, the Free Company mercenary, or Khrajan Solider are all given good write-ups alongside their stats, those done for the persons of renown, such as Thugra Khotan—self-entombed sorcerer in the city of Kuthchemes in Khoraja, King Strabonus, and Tsotha-Lanti, are excellent, helping to bring their ambitions and resulting plots to live and ready for development by the Game Master. Oddly, although mentioned in the gazetteer, there are no stats or write-up for Queen Yrrane and given its focus later in the supplement, there are no camp followers detailed here. Nevertheless, the ‘Encounters’ section enables the Game Master to have her Player Characters encounter them if running her campaign before the events of Conan’s stories.

As with previous supplements for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, ‘Hither Came Conan…’ places our titular hero in the context of the supplement and provides a playable version of him early in his long career. This also ties him back into the contents of the previous two chapters and in doing so, outlines one possible plot for the Game Master. ‘The Mercenary Way’ explores mercenary life in the Hyperborean Age. It is the most entertaining chapter in the supplement, starting with a discussion of camp followers and their way of life training behind a mercenary company. Technically called a ‘tross’, it looks at the different roles—blacksmiths, camp boys, cooks, gamblers, healers, priests, prostitutes, and more—all of which lend itself to a scenario or two, if not a mini-campaign around the ‘tross’. Despite their not being involved in the thick of the action, such a setting still lends itself to plenty of conflict, roleplaying, and social dynamics that would lead to good, if likely grubby and sometimes desperate, storytelling. Several mercenary companies, from the good to the bad, from the Nemedian Adventurers which only serves the King of Nemedia to the Free Companions, are described and a Mercenary Code of conduct is given as well as an explanation of how mercenary companies are structured. Tables provide loot to be taken from a battlefield and a city, events whilst ransacking, and events whilst carousing as a mercenary. The latter are always fun, providing a nice selection of random encounters and events that the Game Master can develop. The loot tables though, do feel as if they could be longer.

Supporting the earlier discussion of reasons to go to war in ‘Event’, the section on ‘Mercenary Adventures’ looks at the types of scenarios and campaigns that the Game Master can run with the supplement. These start with scouting and reconnaissance missions, patrols, securing prisoners, and more before slipping into the weird looking how cursed ruins, ancient battlefields, and even demons and gods of the Outer Dark could get involved in a mercenary campaign. These sections are fairly broad in their overview and should be treated as starting points for the Game Master.

Surprisingly, it has taken to almost the end of Conan the Mercenary to include rules for battles and mass combat. Part of that is due to the format of the series, but it does seem like a long wait. In general, the rules for small skirmishes are provided in the core rules for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, but here they scale up to handle full battles and sieges. These are not wargaming rules, but a means to handle a battle in a more narrative fashion whilst still involving the Player Characters on an individual level. To that end there is advice on ‘Narrating Battles the Howard Way’ and using cut scenes for ‘Heroic Actions’ where a Player Character has an opportunity to influence the battle and be courageous, such as opening a gate to let soldiers through or sabotaging a siege engine. It does add complexity to play and the Game Master should definitely run through a few examples to get the feel for it before running it for her players. There is an example too, which can be studied. Lastly, ‘Heroes of the Age’ adds a pair of potential Player Characters or NPCs developed by backers for the Kickstarter campaign for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. Of the two, Freya the Red would make an interesting mercenary commander for any campaign, whether as employer or enemy.

Physically, Conan the Mercenary is a slim hardback, presented in full colour, illustrated with an excellent range of fully painted artwork. It is well written, is accessible, and comes with a reasonable index. The maps of the nations detailed in Gazetteer are a bit bland though.

Conan the Mercenary opens up new campaign and scenario possibilities, whether that is as a special operations squad involved in civil war or a rebellion in Koth or going to war against the forces lead by Thugra Khotan, as Conan did, or surviving in the tross from one campaign to the next. However, it does take a while before it comes together and begins to feel like a supplement for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, doing so when it begins to draw more directly from the adventures of Conan himself and the characters he involves himself with in Howard’s stories. The book needed more of that and so it comes across as being a rather slight book in places, not helped by it being shorter than other supplements in the series. 

Conan the Mercenary does feel slightly underwhelming in paces, but it shines through where it counts—and that is on the personal level. For the Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of Game Master who wants to send her Player Characters into the heat, blood, sweat, and hell of battle, to let them sell their martial skills to the highest bidder, and have them influence the fate of kingdoms at the point of a sword, Conan the Mercenary unsheathes its sword and strikes the right blow!

Conan & Crime

Conan the Thief is a supplement for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is the second in the ‘Conan the…’ series of supplements which focus on and take their inspiration from Conan himself at various stages of his life and what he was doing. Over this series, the supplements will track our titular character’s growth and progress as he gains in skills and abilities and talents. Thus this second supplement, following on from Conan the Barbarian, looks at Conan as a young man and his life what he did after he left his homeland, at the beginning of his career which will take him from barbarian to king, essentially the equivalent of a Player Character having taken the first steps in his adventuring career. Yet whilst the stats for Conan himself at this stage of his life do appear in the pages of Conan the Thief, they are more a side note than a feature, for the supplement is an examination of the countries of the centre, where East meets West in the Hyperborean Age—Brythunia, Corinthia, Nemedia, and Zamora. It includes new archetypes, talents, backgrounds, and equipment to help players create more varied Thief characters and Game Masters more varied Thief NPCs; a gazetteer and guide to the waning lands where the rule of law and civilisation force the poor and the needy, the greedy and the driven to steal and trade in what is not theirs; an array of detailed NPCs and monsters, including unique nemeses; and mechanics to help bring thievery and other activities and attitudes to your game, including burglaries, heists, assassinations, and more.

Conan the Thief opens by introducing new options for the Thief type character, building upon the content in  the core rulebook for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. This includes the Outlaw, a new Caste, which gives numerous reasons why a Player Character turned to thievery, such as ‘Nobility in All But Name’, ‘A Victim of Justice’, and ‘An Example Must Be Made’, and presents seven new Thief Archetypes: the Assassin, the Bloody Right Hand, the Fence, the Highwayman, the Master Thief, the Relic Hunter, and the Spy. In addition, there are Thief Educations, like Burglar, Rustler, Lock Breaker, Quack Physician, and Thug, enabling a Player Character Thief to specialise or to add thiefly elements to another character type. To these are added themed War Stories, Thief Talents, and kits and weapons. The latter includes the punching dagger, the katar, the duelling sword, and the garrote, along with the typical tools of the trade such as marbles, tripwires, smoke bombs, and more. Augmenting the core rulebook, this enables a player to create an interesting character or the Game Master interesting NPCs.

Supporting these new character options is a gazetteer of the lands between the East and the West—Brythunia, Corinthia, Nemedia, and Zamora. Zamora is famed for its thieves and for the city of Shadizar the Wicked is infamously home to the most notorious of all assassins’ guild, The Black Hand; Corinithia for its merchants and economic power, as well as its fractious cities cannot agree anything more than mutual self-defence, paying for their mercenary armies; Nemedia for being dominated by the Church of Mitra and being obsessed with the ancient cultures and ruins it is built upon; and Brythunia for being a backwater with its fractious clans, one of which could easily turn on the other at a moment’s notice or slight. The fortunes of all four have fluctuated over the centuries, being both conquers and the conquered. In the main it focuses upon the cities in each of these lands, typically the site of Conan’s adventures. So ‘The Tower of the Elephant’ in the city of Zamora in the land of Zamora and ‘Rogues in the House’ between Zamora and Corinthia (here given as Magyar, the Red City), for example. In each case, the content of Conan the Thief is set before the events of Conan’s stories, enabling the Game Master to run them as adventure for her Player Characters, but there are notes for adjusting them to be used after their events too. The emphasis is firmly on the cities in detailing Zamora, Nemedia, and Corinthia, if not least for the fact that the city is the natural home of the thief, and also because they are on major trade routes which the cities’ thieves can prey upon. However, Brythunia is different, suggesting that the fractiousness between its four kingdoms can be scaled down to the village level, and using ‘Brythunian Village Design’ table, to create a rural campaign which might build into something more political.

If the gazetteer explores the cultures and places where thievery is rife, ‘Events’ goes into the types of occurrences that might beset the Thief or that the Thief might instigate. These include Personal, City and Town, and Kingdom-level events, so go from Rivalries, Framed or Set, and Debt, to Wars and Rumours of War, Steal the Heir, and Plague and Other Such Chaos via Gang War, Watch Crackdown, and The Prince of Thieves is Dead! These joined by Unnatural Events like Just Another Snake Cult or Obtainer of Rare Antiquities, and there are notes on combining them too. Effectively all of them work as potential story hooks.

‘Myth & Magic’ discusses the myth of the thief and thievery, in particular, the myth that all thieves hold to, and that is ‘Honour Among Thieves’. It quickly dispels the notion that it is actually practised, thieves typically owing loyalty and friendship, but being fundamentally selfish. It makes clear that thieves do not necessarily worship a thief deity, but rather their local gods, although several gods of thievery and darkness are given, including Bel, the God of Thieves, and the Cult of the Spider God. Potential boons are given for worshipping both, for example, Bel grants a thief who takes him a patron an extra Talent, but expects the thief to leave stolen goods somewhere where they may be easily stolen on a regular basis, whilst the Cult of the Spider God gifts its followers tokens that will poison any non-believer who touches it, a ghastly object used as a means of assassination. There suggestions here too, for the purposes to which the body parts of thief can be put once he is dead, like the Hand of Glory or rope woven from the hair of dead women. A few examples would have been useful here.

‘Encounters’ details a good mix of generic NPCs, like the assassin or the watchman, and named individuals. Several of these come from Howard’s stories as you would expect, thus Yara from ‘The Tower of the Elephant’ or Demetrio, the Chief of the Inquisitorial Council of Numalia from ‘The God in the Bowl’. There are a lot of nemeses here. They are joined by fearsome creatures like the Giant Rat and the Giant Skeleton Warrior, and worse, Yag-Kosha, from ‘The Tower of the Elephant’. These again enable the Game Master to have her Player Characters encounter them if running her campaign before the events of Conan’s stories.

Rounding out Conan the Thief is ‘Hither Came Conan…’ which places our titular hero in the context of the supplement and provides a playable version of him early in his long career. Thieving and criminal campaigns are explored in ‘The Way of Thieves’, which examines how campaigns built around thieves will be different to other campaigns for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. It notes that Conan himself was a thief for just two or three years, that thief campaigns should avoid descending into farce as thieving is serious business, and whether the city authorities or the head of the guild, there will be checks and balances on the activities of any Player Character thief. There is solid advice here and it is supported by guidelines and rules for joining and running a thieves’ guild, along with descriptions of the guilds of note in the cities described earlier in the supplement. The ‘Heists’ chapter presents a chapter of tables with which the Game Master can generate potential jobs and targets and then develop to run for her players and their characters. It comes with a fully worked example. Lastly, ‘Heroes of the Age’ add a trio of potential Player Characters NPCs developed by backers for the Kickstarter campaign for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. Of the three, ‘Jamil the Thieftaker’ is a great addition to any campaign set in Zamora, whilst the boastful ‘Inarus’ feels out of place, being more pirate than thief.

Physically, Conan the Thief is a slim hardback, presented in full colour, illustrated with an excellent range of fully painted artwork. It is well written, is accessible, and comes with a reasonable index.

Conan the Thief switches in emphasis and feel from Conan the Barbarian, exploring thievery and civilisation at the heart of the Hyperborean Age in lands which though often rich—for some, at least—are in decline. Both depict worlds of cruelty, one of the rough, frontier lands, the other of inequality and poverty in great cities. The advice for running a thief-based campaign is excellent, though perhaps a campaign outline for taking a band of thieves from their lives on the street into the guilds and onwards, encompassing a similar two or three-year period to that spent by Conan himself, would have been useful. Similarly, the advice on adapting the stories which the supplement directly draws upon, such as ‘The Tower of the Elephant’, could have been stronger and done with an outline or something similar to help the Game Master, especially given how pivotal these stories are in the Conan oeuvre.

Conan the Thief opens up whole new possibilities for running and playing Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. It expands upon the options in the core rules for the player who wants to create a Thief character, and thus also for the Game Master to create interesting NPCs  for the Player Characters to encounter in a city, perhaps if they are just passing through on the way to somewhere else, However, what the content of Conan the Thief really lends itself to is entirely city-based campaigns built around thieves and thieving, where the Player Characters can all be different types of thieves and have different roles in the campaign. Such that a whole Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of campaign could almost be run without ever leaving that city or even going anywhere near the background and information presented in its other supplements. It is actually a pity that such a campaign does not exist for the roleplaying game.

Conan the Thief is a solid supplement for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, which really comes alive as a campaign supplement. In fact, Conan the Thief would make a good supplement for any Game Master wanting to run a Swords & Thievery style campaign. It is an excellent sourcebook.

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Modiphius Entertainment will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, June 3rd to Sunday, June 5th, 2022.

1980: X1 The Isle of Dread

 1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

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In 1981, Basic Dungeons & Dragons moved out of the dungeon and up a Level. X1 The Isle of Dread was the first wilderness adventure for Basic Dungeons & Dragons, published the year before, and so focused on exploration across a wider geographical area—though not too wide—and discovering individual locations within that area. It was available separately, but was also packaged as the standard module for the Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set, which in addition to being designed to cover character Levels between three and seven, also focused on rules for wilderness travel, exploration, and encounters. If, due to their inclusion in the Basic Dungeons & Dragons boxed set, B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands were a Dungeon Master and her players’ first experience of delving into dungeons and cave complexes, then X1 The Isle of Dread would be their first journey to a far off place in Dungeon & Dragons and their first taste of a world outside of the rock and stone walls underground…

X1 The Isle of Dread is designed for a large party of Player Characters, roughly between six and ten, who should be between Third and Sixth Level, averaging thirty Levels between them. The spur for their involvement in X1 The Isle of Dread will be the discovery of a sheaf of scrolls which are revealed to be letters and map describing an expedition by the pirate and explorer, Rory Barbarosa, to the Thanegioth Archipelago, a thousand-mile sea voyage south of the main continent. He relates how he and his crew reached one island with a small peninsula at its south western tip with access between the peninsula and the rest of the island to the north blacked by a massive stone wall. Standing before the wall is the village of Tanoroa, whose inhabitants stand guard on the wall against incursions and attacks from the creatures on what they call the ‘Isle of Dread’ to the north. Friendly and open to the possibility of trade, the inhabitants told Barbarosa that the wall was built by the gods who also built an ancient city in the Isle of Dread’s central highlands and that the inland city was rumoured to hold unimaginable treasures, including a great black pearl of ‘the gods’! Unfortunately storms and attacks by tribes of cannibals meant that Barbarosa was unable to explore the island fully and was planning an expedition when he died. Now of course, it is up to the Player Characters to hire a ship, set sail for the far islands, and explore them themselves, and perhaps make the discoveries that Rory Barbarosa was never able to!

Rather than leaving it there, X1 The Isle of Dread also includes several suggestions as to how the Player Characters might get involved rather than simply discovering Barbarosa’s letters and then get them to the island. These include being hired by a merchant to investigate and explore the island, purchasing an old ship and hoping that it can get them to the Thanegioth Archipelago, having a Player Character inherit a ship, or simply letting them borrow the money to purchase the ship. Whatever the option, the Player Characters set sail and make the week or more long journey south with the Dungeon Master rolling for encounters on the Ocean Sea Encounter Tables in the Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set and rolling for weather.

Landing on the island, most likely at the village of Tanoroa, the Player Characters will find the inhabitants friendly and helpful. Their society is an interesting mix of the South Seas and the Caribbean, each village being led by a matriarch who is advised by a male war chief and a Zombie Master, who raises the ‘Walking Ancestors’ as labourers and sometimes warriors. Whilst the villagers are welcoming and open to trade, they will not join the Player Characters on any expedition north of the wall, which means that unless they have brought hirelings with them, the Player Characters are very much of their own. Overall, the village of Tanoroa has a slightly creepy feel to it, what with the zombie work force and the question of just what the giant wall is protecting the village from. However, unless the Player Characters commit some faux pas, Tanoroa should serve as a safe base of operations from which they can mount their expeditions.

Beyond the wall itself is the ‘Isle of Dread’, a mix of jungle, low lying coastal swamps and swampy lakes, marked by mountains and the occasional volcano. Some twenty-four locations on and around the island, including the village of Tanorora, are described. They include sharks basking off beautiful beaches, camps of pirates, a deranged ankylosaurus (!), a sea dragon, and more. There are caves infested with troglodytes, rock baboons, ogres, and even a green dragon. Notably, all of these cave encounters use either one of the two cave maps provided, though the Dungeon Master would be free to design her own. There are encounters with new monsters too, such as the nomadic Rakasta, anthropomorphic felines which ride sabre-tooth tigers; the Phanaton, monkey-raccoon-like creatures which dwell in tree villages and can glide from tree to tree; and the Aranea, a large, pony-sized species of intelligent spider, capable of using magic. Some of the marked encounters are not pre-written, but left up to the Dungeon Master to roll on the three Wilderness Wandering Monster tables included with the scenario, this in addition to rolls she will be making regularly on the tables as the Player Characters explore the island.

Eventually, the Player Characters will reach the ancient city where the black pearl can be found. This is on an island—Taboo Island—in the middle of a lake in the crater of a hopefully extinct volcano which stands at the centre of a thirty-mile-wide plateau, some three thousand feet high. The plateau is so high it has its own climate—temperate rather than tropical of the rest of the Isle of Dread—and thus its own wandering monster table, which includes mastodons, pterodactyls, sabre-tooth tigers, and occasional tremor. Having gotten atop the plateau, it will take an eight-hour climb to get over the lip of the volcano on and descend to its base. Here the Player Characters will eventually be welcomed by villagers who live on the lakeshore and who are being attacked by head-hunters. In fact, they will be so welcoming that in return, they will want the Player Characters to deal with the rogue tribespeople.

Taboo Island turns out not to be so much an island, as a temple complex partially occupied by the head-hunters within the upper levels. This actually the nearest that X1 The Isle of Dread comes to including an actual dungeon. The highly detailed complex has three quite distinct and very different levels. The temple itself is ruin, occupied by the cannibals, whilst the second level is partially flooded and infested with traps, and the third consists of a cavern filled with steam and super-hot mud pools and the true villains of the scenario, the Kopru, evil amphibious, fluke-tailed humanoids with the ability to charm others into serving them. This is their first appearance in Dungeons & Dragons, as well as in X1 The Isle of Dread, and the Player Characters’ encounter with them is going to be made all the more challenging by the hot, hot steamy environment and the ability of the Kopru to charm the Player Characters into doing their bidding.

Rounding out X1 The Isle of Dread is half a dozen suggestions for further play on the Isle of Dread, including destroying a Zombie Master in Tanaroa after the village has been attacked by undead creatures, mapping the island, hunting for dinosaurs and harvesting their parts, exterminating the pirates, capturing animals and creatures to bring them back to the mainland, and searching for sunken treasure. These are all fun ideas and could easily be developed by the Dungeon Master. Lastly, there are stats for typical NPCs and write-ups of all of the new monsters given in X1 The Isle of Dread of which there are a lot.

In terms of advice for the Dungeon Master, as a training scenario for running a wilderness scenario, X1 The Isle of Dread is perhaps underwhelming, especially in comparison to the earlier, B1 In Search of the Unknown, which was specifically designed to help the novice Dungeon Master populate and design her first dungeon. Nevertheless, despite being short, the advice is to the point that, “The DM should be careful to give the player characters a reasonable chance for survival. The emphasis is on ‘reasonable.’ Try to be impartial and fair, but give the party the benefit of the doubt in conditions of extreme danger. However, sometimes the players insist on taking unreasonable risks; charging a tyrannosaur bare-handed, for example. If bravery turns to foolhardiness, the DM should make it clear that the characters will die unless the players act more intelligently.” What this makes clear to the Dungeon Master is that the environment of the Isle of the Dread is dangerous, potentially deadly to the Player Characters, especially given that some of the creatures—particularly the dinosaurs—they will encounter will have a high number of Hit Dice and lots of Hit Points. This is further emphasised with, “When describing monster encounters, the DM should rely not only on sight – there are four other senses – smell, sound, taste, and feelings of hot, cold, wet and so forth!” Also, the Dungeon Master should use this as, “…[A] good way to “signal” a party that an encounter may be too difficult for them to handle.” and lastly, “The DM should also try to avoid letting unplanned wandering monsters disrupt the balance of the adventure.”

Then, in addition to X1 The Isle of Dread being the first wilderness adventure for Basic Dungeons & Dragons and subsequently Expert Dungeons & Dragons, the module is interesting because it introduced the lands of the ‘Known World’, what would become Mystara, with a large map of an area identified as the ‘Continent’. Smaller maps of Karameikos and its wider environs would later be included in the Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set, but here there is a full and large-scale map of the Continent accompanied by thumbnail descriptions of its sixteen or so countries and regions and a pronunciation guide for each of their names. Many of these go on to be more fully detailed with a series of setting supplements for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, but even here the descriptions capture the odd mix of cultures and geographies mashed together. Many of the cultures are based on Earth cultures, including Huns, Mongols, Icelanders, medieval Italy, Byzantium, and more, all alongside the fantasy elements of Dwarven and Elven kingdoms, magocracies, and Halfling shires. Further, these are all mixed and pushed together, so famously, the Vikings of the Nordic Soderfjord Jarls sit immediately to the north of the Arabic Emirate of Ylarum, a giant desert. Of course, it feels unrealistic, even nonsensical, but perhaps taken in the context of the Pulp sensibilities of X1 The Isle of Dread, that lack of realism will not be so much of an issue and can even be a feature.

Physically, X1 The Isle of Dread is really very well presented. The maps are excellent, whether wilderness or other location—and there are a lot of them. The map of Continent and its relationship to the Thanegioth Archipelago, as well as that of the Isle of Dread itself, are fantastic. The module is also well written and solidly supported with the new monsters, a rather plain handout of Barbarosa’s letter, and the outline of the Isle of Dread he mapped before he died.

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X1 The Isle of Dread was reviewed in The Space Gamer Number 38 (April 1981) by Aaron Allston. He laid out the groundwork for his capsule review with, “An introductory scenario must, first and foremost, be an enjoyable adventure. It must also provide a “working model,” so that beginning DMs can see how to construct and organize an adventure. And it must be easily read, that the novice referee not become lost and confused with travelling from Crypt 1 to Village 3.” He made clear that, “This adventure goes a long way towards accomplishing those goals. The scenario itself, set on an island whose simple human culture bears tinges of Polynesian and Amerind societies, is relatively tame, but provides some tense moments. Enough variable situations are presented to keep the whole thing from becoming static. More important, in this instance, is the module’s organization as a prototype. It does well here, too; almost all the maps can be removed and the appropriate text descriptions are clearly keyed to the proper maps. This scenario cannot be played cold, which is also a necessary experience for a novice DM; it must first by read through and assessed.” However, he was not wholly positive, adding, “No real problems evidence themselves. As noted, this adventure will not appeal to experienced players; there is a certain lack of color or sweep to the whole thing.” before concluding that the module was, “Recommended to beginners only – but it says so on the cover.”

Anders Swenson reviewed X1 The Isle of Dread in Different Worlds Issue 12 (July 1981). He liked the, “…[C]oncept, design, and execution of this dungeon module. There have been only a few campaign/adventure books among the scores of products published for the hobby, but this is one of the best yet available. The map is flexible in that many sorts of adventures could be worked into the terrain as it is shown. There are many different types and patterns of landforms depicted. Many of the encounters specified for the Isle of Dread could be dropped intact onto other parts of the map.”

More recently, X1 The Isle of Dread was included in ‘The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time’ in the ‘Dungeon Design Panel’ in Dungeon #116 (November 2004). The founder of GREYtalk, the World of GREYHAWK discussion list, Gary Holian, described it as, “The first true module to introduce players to a ‘wider world’ beyond the castle, forest, and cave, Dread tore them from their medieval moorings and sent them careening across the waves to collide with a prehistoric lost world.” Mike Mearls, Co-Lead Designer for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, asked, “Who doesn’t like hopping on a longship and sailing for days across the open sea to battle dinosaurs, pirates, cannibals, and the horrid kopru? It’s hard to believe that all that material is crammed into 32 pages.”

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X1 The Isle of Dread is a great set of tools to run a hex crawl wilderness campaign. With its new monsters and distance from the civilisations of the Continent, the Dungeon Master has the scope to just not run a very different kind of adventure, but also scope to develop areas of her own. After all, there are whole other islands in the Thanegioth Archipelago which are left devoid of detail in the module. Plus with its mix of Zombie Masters, dinosaurs, pirates, and strange mind-controlling amphibians, it has a lush, Pulp sensibility, taking in King Kong, The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, and H.P. Lovecraft. And yet…

In so many places, X1 The Isle of Dread feels flat. To start with, whilst the hook of great treasure is enough to get the Player Characters to the Thanegioth Archipelago, it does not feel enough to quite keep them going. For example, there are no hooks or NPCs with motivations to be found at the village of Tanoroa, although the suggestions for further adventures on the Isle of Dread do suggest one. In addition, although there is a great wall across the narrow isthmus connecting the peninsula to the Isle of Dread, there is no mention of quite what the wall is guarding against. Given the Pulp sensibilities of the adventure and the wall’s obvious nod to King Kong, its very existence is begging for a night-time attack against it to be staged by some great beast. Then there is Taboo Island, barely described bar the old temple, which as dungeon complex is open to expansion, but incredibly difficult to traverse from one level to the next such that the Player Characters may never discover the true secrets of the island. The fact that the Player Characters may never discover the true secrets of the island is the ultimate problem with X1 The Isle of Dread.

X1 The Isle of Dread does not really explain what the true secrets of the Isle of Dread are until two thirds of the way through the module. This is that the Kopru once controlled a great empire which spanned the whole of the Thanegioth Archipelago, thriving in the islands’ hot geysers and mud springs and enslaving native human population with their mind-controlling powers. The temple on Taboo Island was where they were worshipped as gods, but eventually they were overthrown. This is why the villagers on the peninsula fear the Isle of Dread, but cannot say why. Yet there is no sign of the Kopru on the Isle of Dread or any of the encounters on the island, until the Player Characters descend into the temple on Taboo Island—no ruins or hints, or even indications that Koru have charmed anyone on the island and so might be in their service. Literally, the Kopru are simply locked away until the Player Characters arrive and that is a huge, missed opportunity in terms of storytelling to the point where even if the Player Characters do encounter them, they may not realise the true nature of the Kopru and their secrets.

Ultimately, X1 The Isle of Dread needs the Dungeon Master to really work at it to drop some hints and develop some hooks which will draw her players and their characters into wanting to explore more, and it fails to really help the Dungeon Master do that when it really should. However, as a first wilderness module, X1 The Isle of Dread is a fantastically pulpy, fun hex-crawl, rife with potential for some great adventures and stories.