“Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet…”
- Robert E. Howard “The Phoenix on the Sword”
Conan is the Rogue / Fighter that all adventurers grow up wanting to be. I’ve always found myself wanting to run (and play!) in a Hyborian Age Setting of Sword and Sorcery, but I really haven’t had a chance to really sit down and sell it to my gaming group. So far I’ve had a few ideas of running it using Fantasy Craft, HERO, or even M&M’s Warrior’s & Warlocks expansion rules but getting people in my gaming group to actually get into the whole setting without falling into the usual D&D mindset is going to be a little difficult.
Sure there’s always the fact that I can throw them Robert E. Howard’s work, since those are easy enough to find, and definitely worth reading, but it takes a whole lot of thought to come up with the proper feel for a badass Sword & Sorcery setting.
Which makes me wonder, have any of you guys played in a truly hardcore Sword & Sorcery setting before? What was it like and was it something that you found enjoyable or meh? I’m very curious to hear what people have played, as I might eventually run a campaign of this genre eventually after the Mage: High School game.
