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Conan came to Glorantha and rode a bison.


Pentallion

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3 hours ago, Pentallion said:

Those size eequivalents are only guidelines.  Not every size 17 person is 6'4".  Not every size 20 person is 6'9".  They could be shorter and more massive.  Such as Conan.  So Size 20, Str 21 is definitely within the parameters of Conan.

I agree they are only guidelines but not to a +/- 3 SIZ range, that's a huge deviation! To be a purist, SIZ 20 is definitely not within the range of Howard's Conan but would be within the parameters of a Conan pastich for sure (which I believe is what you are talking about, approximating him to a Bison Rider).

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16 hours ago, Pentallion said:

Those size eequivalents are only guidelines.  Not every size 17 person is 6'4".  Not every size 20 person is 6'9".  They could be shorter and more massive.  Such as Conan.  So Size 20, Str 21 is definitely within the parameters of Conan.

While I am slightly over 6'5" tall, I fear my SIZ has grown closer to 20 from the original 17 when I first discovered RQ (without much of any advantage but all the disadvantages, like higher wear and tear on furniture). Nowhere near Conan levels of STR, for example.

The RQ rules are quite forgiving on the subject of overweight. Maybe that's just accumulating a Darkness affinity?

Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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54 minutes ago, Joerg said:

While I am slightly over 6'5" tall, I fear my SIZ has grown closer to 20 from the original 17 when I first discovered RQ (without much of any advantage but all the disadvantages, like higher wear and tear on furniture). Nowhere near Conan levels of STR, for example.

The RQ rules are quite forgiving on the subject of overweight. Maybe that's just accumulating a Darkness affinity?

Yup.  I've increased 30% more mass with no height gain in the 36 years II've played RQ.  1.3 x 13 = 17.  So I've jumped 4 size points.  Muscle weighs more than, um, that other stuff so conan could easily be Size 20 while barely 6'+.

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1 hour ago, Joerg said:

While I am slightly over 6'5" tall, I fear my SIZ has grown closer to 20 from the original 17 when I first discovered RQ (without much of any advantage but all the disadvantages, like higher wear and tear on furniture). Nowhere near Conan levels of STR, for example.

The RQ rules are quite forgiving on the subject of overweight. Maybe that's just accumulating a Darkness affinity?

 

45 minutes ago, Pentallion said:

Yup.  I've increased 30% more mass with no height gain in the 36 years II've played RQ.  1.3 x 13 = 17.  So I've jumped 4 size points.  Muscle weighs more than, um, that other stuff so conan could easily be Size 20 while barely 6'+.

We are talking about two very different things. Both examples refer to gaining weight (muscle or fat) over the course of one's life. RQ doesn't cover that well if only because SIZ is not supposed to vary (excluding magical means) and because it doesn't make any distinction between gaining muscle (STR) and gaining fat (ENC). As Pentallion was saying, the SIZ chart is a guideline and can cosmetically be played with quite a bit. A player who was originally STR 13 and SIZ 13 (let's say he described himself as 5'10 and 180lbs) buffed himself over the years to STR 17 and now describes himself as 5'10 and 210lbs. Sure, no problem. It makes a lot of sense that he would gain a lot of mass after such an increase in strength. But unless you house rule it, according to RQ raw, he is still SIZ 13.

However, what I was saying about Conan has nothing to do with buffing up and has only to do with how Howard portrayed Conan's physique. Now in all honesty I can be wrong on the figures (my Conan collected annoted hardcovers are somewhere in Canada in boxes) but if I remember correctly, Howard envisaged Conan at 6'3 and 220lbs which is pretty much SIZ 17 in RQG and when he was 15, he was already 6'0 and 180lbs (still growing at SIZ 14). Could we say Conan was SIZ 18 instead? Sure, why not? Could we instead approximate him at 6'9 and 300lbs? No, not according to Howard's vision of his character.

Can my Conan by a Bison Rider in Glorantha with SIZ 20? Of course! Your Conan Will Vary.

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  • 3 months later...

Howard wrote Cimmeria to be a pretty godforsaken place under low cloud cover with foul weather, and basically foothills around the great mountain that was the home of Crom.  To me that sounds like the Tarsh Exiles and the foothills of Kero Fin, but she is such a cheery deity when compared to Crom.  This of course begs the question of what cult Glorantha Conan would follow?

Options include:

Humakt:  Gloomy sword god, potential for bonus strength via a gift/geas.  A decent match for Crom.

Big Man:  Plenty more strength but no actual write-up yet.  Not really Crom-like, but then, was Conan more than a Crom lay member anyhow? 

Stormbull/Urox:  Conan did his fair share of fighting otherworldly demons who were the Hyborian equivalent of chaos.  It is the pre-eminent berserker cult for humans.

Zorak Zoran:  Violent, gloomy, anti-chaos, antisocial, a good match for Crom, but maces not swords, and not many humans get invites.

Gustbran: Crom is a smith god, possible strength bonus (probably not though).

Hmm... perhaps a human Zorak Zorani from the Kingdom of Ignorance would be a good fit?

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Pretty sure getting Conan would require some godlike rolls, since in addition to being big and strong, Conan is also extremely fast and agile (when he moves he's very often compared to a leopard or other big cat, moving with incredible speed and grace and able to do so near-silently), very clever and canny if lacking in formal education, and charismatic enough that he usually ends up leading any group he joins unless it's led by a woman, in which case he inevitably becomes her right-hand man (it's interesting to note that Conan seems almost incapable of taking orders from other men for very long, but has no problems following the lead of a woman he respects). His POW would certainly be high, though he distrusts magic and was definitely only ever a lay worshiper of Crom at best, so he'd be lacking in spells but would probably be willing to accept enchanted equipment, pragmatic as he is.

For what it's worth, I'd say Crom is something like a combination of Storm Bull and Humakt; he's a gloomy, dour god of battle and warfare who has no demands of his followers but that they fight, kill and die. He despises the weak and so it is worse than useless to call on him for aid: he sends only curses and doom to those who try, and thus his name is typically only invoked in oaths and curses. "But he gave a man courage at birth, and the will and might to kill his enemies, which, in the Cimmerian's mind, was all any god should be expected to do." For all the liberties it took, Conan's prayer to Crom in the film is pretty much the only kind of "prayer" a Cimmerian would ever try to make:

Quote

Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you will remember if we were good men or bad, why we fought, or why we died. No, all that matters is that two stood against many, that's what's important. Valor pleases you, Crom, so grant me one request, grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then to hell with you!

 

Edited by Leingod
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You don't need any racial bonus to get 41 STR + SIZ,  just max rolls (or a Bless Pregnancy) and the right Runes (and you might not need the Runes if you get a good enough Priestess doing the Bless, and don't roll unfortunately - "...no characteristic may be above species maximum...). And Conan definitely needs his "Steel-trap reflexes" to be Conan. He's no genius, but his CON is pushing 20 as well, and his willpower and smouldering personality probably need all the Bless Pregnancy and Rune help he can get... And if you take the film version, he gets probably a few dozen seasons of STR training before gladiator school.

His canonical attitude to magic is definitely informed by the magic of Hyboria, where true power inevitably requires unsavoury moral choices; magic in Hyboria is in no way as tightly incorporated into the life of your everyday folk as it is in Glorantha. If he was Theyalan, he would probably carry the mistrust of the godless Meldeks to extremes, but I don't think he'd balk at Spirit Magic or Rune Spells.

Crom, though, doesn't give any Rune Spells. Or have any priests, and it's not worth Initiating, because He won't tell you any secrets, or give you any return on your sacrificed POW and MPs. You get no access to Rune Spells, Common or Special, from worshipping him. Mostly you get ignored. Maybe your highest Rune is Storm, and you get the STR bonus... and that's Crom breathing strength into you... But that's the extent of the congress with the Divine.

Edited by womble
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17 minutes ago, womble said:

You don't need any racial bonus to get 41 STR + SIZ,  just max rolls (or a Bless Pregnancy) and the right Runes (and you might not need the Runes if you get a good enough Priestess doing the Bless, and don't roll unfortunately - "...no characteristic may be above species maximum...). And Conan definitely needs his "Steel-trap reflexes" to be Conan. He's no genius, but his CON is pushing 20 as well, and his willpower and smouldering personality probably need all the Bless Pregnancy and Rune help he can get... And if you take the film version, he gets probably a few dozen seasons of STR training before gladiator school.

His canonical attitude to magic is definitely informed by the magic of Hyboria, where true power inevitably requires unsavoury moral choices; magic in Hyboria is in no way as tightly incorporated into the life of your everyday folk as it is in Glorantha. If he was Theyalan, he would probably carry the mistrust of the godless Meldeks to extremes, but I don't think he'd balk at Spirit Magic or Rune Spells.

Crom, though, doesn't give any Rune Spells. Or have any priests, and it's not worth Initiating, because He won't tell you any secrets, or give you any return on your sacrificed POW and MPs. You get no access to Rune Spells, Common or Special, from worshipping him. Mostly you get ignored. Maybe your highest Rune is Storm, and you get the STR bonus... and that's Crom breathing strength into you... But that's the extent of the congress with the Divine.

Maybe Crom is the very reason he can start off with all those high stats though.

Heck, maybe he's not really a god in Glorantha, but some kind of cultural echo of Vadrus. ("God's dead, better manage ourselves now!")

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17 minutes ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

Maybe Crom is the very reason he can start off with all those high stats though.
 

Nah, that's his Ernalda (Associate) Priestess mother.

17 minutes ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

Heck, maybe he's not really a god in Glorantha, but some kind of cultural echo of Vadrus. ("God's dead, better manage ourselves now!")

That fits, for my two clacks. Perhaps that's the root of the distrust of the Meldeks: both godless (as far as the Storm Tribe see it)...

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  • 5 months later...
12 minutes ago, rustorod said:

Newbie to RQG, was wondering if I could go a sword and sorcery route?

You could easily run a Conan style game in Glorantha.

Quote

Im re-reading Howard's Conan books and was wondering if that kind off the mark for this setting?

No. Look at page 17:

Quote

[Glorantha] Its heroes are the likes of Conan, Gilgamesh, Heracles, and Rostam, not Lancelot, Percival, and Roland.

 

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11 hours ago, rustorod said:

Newbie to RQG, was wondering if I could go a sword and sorcery route?   Im re-reading Howard's Conan books and was wondering if that kind off the mark for this setting?

You can definitely go down the Swords and Sorcery route. In fact, many of our RQ adventures would be in the Swords and Sorcery style. 

One of the strengths of RQ and Glorantha is that they both suit many different playstyles. You can do Swords and Sorcery, you can play as poor thieves struggling to find enough money to live one, you can be rebels fighting the Lunar Empire, Nomad Braves struggling to avoid being killed by chaos, members of a clan living clan-based lives, adventurers wandering around seeking things to do, HeroQuestors trying to become gods, low-level gaming, high-level gaming and whatever else you fancy.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

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Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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Note that the RULES of the game and the SETTING of Glorantha are distinct.

These rules are pretty suitable for a Conan-esque game.  They are relatively tightly-tied to the setting.

The setting ALSO can be played Sword&Sorcery, but you may need to make some adjustments to achieve your vision...

In particular, magic in Conan is relatively-rare and carries a sort of "always weird, and often evil" stigma; whereas in Glorantha, magic is ubiquitous, nearly-universal, and often very good indeed.

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3 minutes ago, g33k said:

In particular, magic in Conan is relatively-rare and carries a sort of "always weird, and often evil" stigma; whereas in Glorantha, magic is ubiquitous, nearly-universal, and often very good indeed.

I was thinking that too, but I wasn't quite sure if Conan's notable skepticism towards magic was mostly a comic book thing, or whether it was present in the original stories as well.

Nevertheless, a Gloranthaesque Sword&Sandals story will probably contain a lore more, and more casualized (in the sense that it's seen as a normal part of the world, not that it's easy necessarily) magic.

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9 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

I was thinking that too, but I wasn't quite sure if Conan's notable skepticism towards magic was mostly a comic book thing, or whether it was present in the original stories as well.

Nevertheless, a Gloranthaesque Sword&Sandals story will probably contain a lore more, and more casualized (in the sense that it's seen as a normal part of the world, not that it's easy necessarily) magic.

I wouldn't call it "skepticism" so much as that Conan noticed that basically every magic-user he'd ever met throughout his adventuring career was evil and wanted to kill him and came to the obvious conclusion.

Edited by Leingod
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4 hours ago, Leingod said:

I wouldn't call it "skepticism" so much as that Conan noticed that basically every magic-user he'd ever met throughout his adventuring career was evil and wanted to kill him and came to the obvious conclusion.

For those of you who may not have read the complete Conan collection, the Kindle version is currently reduced to £0.49/$0.65 (I've an audiobook version, but thought I'd look at an ebook version to browse)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B074TD8CR7/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074TD8CR7/

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8 hours ago, Leingod said:

I wouldn't call it "skepticism" so much as that Conan noticed that basically every magic-user he'd ever met throughout his adventuring career was evil and wanted to kill him and came to the obvious conclusion.

My Scandinavian tendency for understatements strikes again.

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15 hours ago, Leingod said:

I wouldn't call it "skepticism" so much as that Conan noticed that basically every magic-user he'd ever met throughout his adventuring career was evil and wanted to kill him and came to the obvious conclusion.

With several exceptions. Yag-kosha and Zelata come immediately to mind, but there are others.

Edited by M Helsdon
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