What are the essentials of a sword and sorcery setting? What sets it apart from other fantasy genres in setting and tone?
Grit. Lethality. The sorcery, while powerful, is ritualistic and time consuming.
>>96944273Rather than dainty damsels in distress, you're usually rescuing buxom women in compromising positions.
>>96944273Focus on the protagonists and less on grand and epic events and plots.On occasion a S&S protagonist might even save the world, but the character usually stays in the spotlight. The line is blurry and there are plenty of exceptions.
The main character usually isn't a chosen one or at least not a willing one. Like in Black Colossus when Conan is put in charge of the army despite having no royal background or in Rogues in the House where he's chosen to kill the priest because he's a prisoner.Divine intervention is rare. Some gods are totally fake like Issus in The Gods of Mars and the entire plot of The Man Who Would Be King.The remains of lost civilizations are scattered all over the place for adventurers to investigate, usually along with whatever immortal monsters wiped them out. Sword and Sorcery characters are usually entrepreneurs that make the best out of the weird situations they find themselves in. So John Carter was a soldier in the confederacy before he became a gold prospector and finally ended up as a Martian warlord.
>>96944273Ask the worldbuilding general
>>96945156I'd rather make a thread than contribute to more generals
>>96944273Magic is rare, powerful and extremely dangerous to the wielderProtagonists are exceptional, but not to a superhero level, and often flawed in some fashionThreats are rarely at a world-ending scale, and the most dangerous enemies are typically other people
>>96945424I think Conan is absolutely a low level superhero.
Snake people. Or "sneople".
Speaking for like REH/Leiber type stories:Less of a focus on intricate world building. The pulp roots make sword and sorcery more whimsical than most other fantasy even as it is also usually grittier and rougher.
>>96944273>>96945434Sword and Sorcerery is to street level superheroics as high fantasy is to ( or, should be) avengers.People resist this, which causes arguments about what D&D should be because people want to play street superheroics but insist on using D&D for it.
>>96944273>What are the essentials of a sword and sorcery setting?1. Swords.2. Sorcery.
>>96945217>I'd rather shit in the street than in a toilet.
>>96944405>The sorcery, while powerful, is ritualistic and time consuming.I'd also throw in that magic itself isn't the only component in the ritual, it's not just thinking really hard. The ritual itself requires various other components or is constrained under some condition
>>96947303Take the advice for yourself.
>>96944273>What are the essentials of a sword and sorcery setting?Anons have forgotten to mention the most important element: Everyone is scantily clad to emphasis the beauty of the human for and the savagery of the setting.Sword and Sorcery is an inherently savage fantasy. Society is rare or so underdeveloped to be a joke. Strength rules the day and magic is dark, mysterious, and terrifying.
>>96944273Badass, willfull and competent characters. They might or might not use magic but they're relatively down to earth when they fight, this is no wuxia. And of course fighting is of the essence.They don't have a master to respond to, they are outsiders and don't totally belong in any place, altough not necessarily pointing it out as much as Conan did. Fafhrd was a barbarian as well but he doesn't remark much about it.Ultimately the protagonists do it for themselves, not to protect the world (altough this is probably less cut in stone, see Jirel).They don't dwell on internal conflict or traumas and the story isn't based on those (altough they might have been through some shit and bear the scars for it). They are no bastards and they have their own code of fairness (altough this almost surely considers theft from the rich ok, at the very least). They will probably help others when human decency is at the stake.The world tends to have a core of "known" areas/things and the protags tend to explore in one way or the other the outskirts of said areas Note this area can of course be a dungeon under Conan's own castle. The unknown tends to include magic, but it's not a given that the protags are all magic-haters and don't use it (Elric is probably the most clear example; note that magic IS still scary as fuck, but contrast with the relatively safe powers that the Mouser uses). I'd say if the story has no "wondrous" aspects it's not SS.If there is a civilization, it's not particulary comfy. And it tends to have some ancient world vibes. While we can stumble on other races humanity is the only focus.
>>96948186I'm not the one making shitty threads.
>>96949472>Society is rare or so underdeveloped to be a joke.You can also have a society that is is an ancient and decadent.
>magic Esoteric, rare, subtle in art. Proficiency requires decades of dedication. A younger person slinging spells has likely borrowed power from another. >civilization War and conflict is commonplace, mercenaries and brigands are always abound. Places where humans mass are teeming hives of danger and inequity. There is usually a slave trade. >nature more deadly than normal, unusual flora and fauna with uncanny intelligence who target men as prey thankfully animal companions are also smarter
>>96944273is it still sword and sorcery if you play a non-human?
>>96949472>Anons have forgotten to mention the most important element: Everyone is scantily clad to emphasis the beauty of the human for and the savagery of the setting.Yeah Conan totally walked around as king of aquilonia naked. It's like like he's described as wearing a doublet and hose.>Sword and Sorcery is an inherently savage fantasy. Society is rare or so underdeveloped to be a joke.Yeah Aquilonia is underdeveloped. As are all the other kingdoms in the Hyborian age. It's not like howard described them like this>Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west.Yeah all those Kingdoms are just a bunch of savages.
>>96953273>Think conan is the be-al-end-all of sword and sorceryFuck off tourist.
>>96956496Aside from the fact that I don't think there are really many examples of settings which are "savage and naked" (I would say... Fire and Ice?) OP have asked for essentials in SS.Having "essentials" which Conan doesn't have is a little like having supposed essentials of detective stories that aren't in Sherlock Holmes.
>>96951970Are there swords, and is sorcery prominent?
>>96957261I mean, I don't think The Secret of NIMH is sword and sorcery anon
>>96956496Alright then retard, let's see some other Sword and Sorcery settings then>ElricYoung Kingdoms aren't particularly primal or savage at all. >Kane Again, none of the world of the Kane books and stories are particularly undeveloped or savage in any way.>Fafhrd & The Grey MouserLankhmar is a renaissance city and the rest of the world is pretty much medieval as with all the other settings i've listed.>ImaroAfrican sword and sorcery in a tribal world, in this case you'd be right, but nobody reads Imaro anyway.>Clark Ashton Smith (Zothique, Averoigne, Hyperborea) Zothique is arabian nights, Averoigne is medieval france and Hyperborea is by all means not that different to the others.>touristI guarentee I know far more about Sword and Sorcery than you do and i don't get my knowledge about it from sources of media that aren't literary. You are the tourist here.
>>96956496The Kull stories also don't fit your definitions. How can you consider it "essential" if its not in Conan OR Kull?
>>96944415Based. I fucking love buxom women
>>96957377It's a strange phenomen, really. Why would anyone get fixated on the idea that SS is about no civilization when no media does that? Even movie Conan presents quite much cities and such.Reminds me of the "Conan is bronze age" meme.
>>96959708A lot of people's touchstone for S&S fantasy isn't a novel, movie or short story but Frazetta's paintings. People are just extrapolating from a half remembered book cover they saw one time.
>>96945434If you look at his DnD stats, he absolutely is.
>>96953273Why are Zamora women so notable that they had to be called out among the rest?
You aint never going to play in one so why do you even ask?
>Shit is weird but the setting is always coherent and believable>main characters are self-driven>full hyper violence>the stakes are personal, even when you're sacking the capitol it's because you want one treasure in particular or hate one specific sorcerer bastard>the babes are always pretty and the quads are always huge. >[Mandatory] the GM has read an actual bookAlso, Sword and Sorcery is not about grittiness or low-fantasy. That's a complete meme. If you do it right, you can seamlessly dance between the outrageously fantastic and historical immersion.
>>96944273Magic should be like trying to use a non-standard paper size in an HP printer."You want it printed on A3? Yyyyeeaahhh I can do that... what do you mean you want it NOW?"
>>96964131Shit like pic is why I don't take artists who nitpick AI art seriously. The amount of classical art where the illustrator absolutely fucked up the anatomy and tried to hide it is larger than actual on-model art.
>>96964444AI was unironically better when it was like that pic. I genuinely liked how AI was more blatantly unnatural, dreamlike yet coherent, instead of the superficial and subtly incoherent art we get now. That was part of the charm of early AI art.
>>96964444>Quad of Quads4chan has Spoken!
>>96964444That's four beings simultaneous as one. The eternal champion.
>>96965025I know. Look at the hand placements. The artist fucked up whose arms go where.
>>96964131>setting is always coherent and believableWeird thing to post with that picture. Nothing about Moorcock's shit is coherent.
>>96959708To be fair Conan stories do often seem to take place in an at least bronze age adjacent setting. I remember the more pronounced medieval setting of Hour of the Dragon (which I think is what an anon quoted against the bronze age claims) seeming anomalous when I read the Conan stories. Though I think for Howard the elements perceived as being of the bronze age are more orientalism inspired. His stories taking place in and around the crusader states make this more obvious.
>>96965745>Dude le bronze ageapart from stygia and shem which are parallels for ancient egypt and the bibilical levant respectively what parts of the Hyborian age are bronze age? Or do you people just see the middle east and have your minds immediatly go to bronze age instead of the orientalism that howard was actually trying to portray?>it's just the hour of the dragon that has knights and medieval shitThe scarlet citadel, black colossus, the phoenix on the sword, etc.If the Hyborian age is a "bronze age" setting because TWO nations in it are vaguely bronze age inspired then why isn't it a "pirate age" setting since there are pseudo 17th century pirates in many of the stories?Howard's aim with the conan stories was to write historical fiction with weird elements without having to care about historical accuracy. That's all they are. They have more in common with Ivanhoe or the Three muskeeters than they do with something like Tolkien's Middle earth. Why is why Howard put his favorite cultures and historical periods in there. He loved the middle ages, the viking age, colonial america, steppe cossacks/turks, oriental afghanistan and the middle east, outremer, pirates, some parts of bronze age egypt and the levant which is why he put all those time periods into his stories. He did not, for instance, find much interest in napoleonic france or ancient greece which is why there are no parallels for those periods in the Hyborian age.
>>96965232>Nothing about Moorcock's shit is coherent.Mikey Morepenis is a good illustration of how to do Sword and Sorcery right vs. how to do it wrong. He's like if Goofus and Gallant were one writer.
>>96944273Small scale adventure where the main trait is the ever present feeling of exotic mistery and danger. The Player Character should not know and not care about most of what they see around them, its a world that is fraught with danger behind every corner but rarely seen.There is a sense of grandeur and mystique, but the enemy you face are, more often than not, almost mundane, and most of their appeal is given by how large of a shadow they cast.Magic or, rather, mysticism is rare, poorly understood and utterly alien. Its not something you can understand, only oppose.So yeah for a real sword and sorcery, player characters should never be abke to use magic, even if they can percieve it
>>96960316I suppose it's possibile, it still seems kinda strange to me that someone would think "SS is cool" and didn't even see Conan (the movie). It's like... I dunno, thinking you like mecha anime and didn't even see NGE but a pic of Rei.>>96965745Funnily enough Hour of the Dragon is the definitive not-bronze-age story, as it explicitely mentions Stygia having iron as a metal for common use.I'm not even sure WHAT would scream bronze age in Conan. He doesnt' seem like... I don't fucking know, Gilgamesh? Odysseus, if Homer counts?I would think it's a very garbled memory of the secret of steel thing Milius came up with, but even there I don't think it suggests that it's particulary secret, not even in Cimmeria.(I personally tend to visualize the Hyborian Age as more late antiquity/roman, but it's more a feeling. Technologically the differences would be VERY hard to spot)
>>96966151>So yeah for a real sword and sorcery, player characters should never be abke to use magic, even if they can percieve itI would REALLY like to know what Mouser did to like half of /tg/. I can understand not liking Elric and not knowing anything about Kane, but he is cool.
>>96966193I think there's some sort of weird authenticity thing among rpg guys where they feel like they're expected to know a lot about S&S even if they don't actually read any of it. Hence the asspulls in this thread.
>>96944273Magic is dangerous to the user and evil.
>>96945217No one asked what you want. Do as you're told. DO NOT REPLY.
>>96944273
>>96959708>Reminds me of the "Conan is bronze age" meme.Interestingly Lankhmar is sort of selectively Bronze Age, or Early Iron Age. The protagonists have steel swords and so on but the watchmen of Lankhmar are described as wearing bronze helmets, for example (IIRC).
>>96960856Because sex
>>96944405>The sorcery, while powerful, is ritualistic and time consuming.Perhaps try actually READING Conan for once in your life.
>>96949472>Everyone is scantily clad to emphasis the beauty of the human for and the savagery of the setting.Only in the cover art
>>96944273Sword and Sorcery derives from the pulp tradition of episodic fantasy adventures, with the protagonists usually being swordsmen, mercenaries, adventurers, explorerers, thieves etc. facing something weird, mysterious and dangerous. Sword and Sorcery is usually smale-scale, with the conflict not being a cosmic battle between good and evil, but rather a man surviving an encounter with some scary shit or dangerous rogues. If cosmic good and evil are involved, the protagonist is often a third party swept up in the conflict for a short time rather than a long-term servant of either side.Sword and Sorcery tales can be further divided into sagas that follow a chronology, and picaresque tales which have no clear sequence but involve the same characters. Conan is Picaresque, Gotrek & Felix is a saga.David Gemmel is often called the savior of Sword & Sorcery because of the Drenai Saga, which were a bit larger scale than a lot of fantasy but definitely fit the themes. Robert E. Howard is the God-King of Sword and Sorcery because Conan is the single most iconic example of it and is likely to remain so for centuries or millennia.
>>96957323Never saw it, but the simultaneous presence of swords and prevalence of sorcery would firmly make it sword and sorcery by definition.
>>96972579It is not a literal title Anon, otherwise Lord of the Rings would be S&S.That said to some degree Secrets of Nimh kind of is Sword and Sorcery, it just has the unusual take of the characters being mice/rats.
>>96971603The only sorcerer in Conan who was capable of swatting Conan to the wall like a fly was Xal’totun, who was a wizard of a wizard. Instantaneous or passive magic tricks aren’t capable of immediately btfo’ing martials.
>>96971603Yeah, like the instantaneous magic in that story where the main pieces of magic were an enchanted belt, a magic horn that could cause earthquakes that took and entire team of wizards to use successfully, and a magic orb that the evil wizard needed to keep Conan paralyzed to which said wizard retreated after Conan powered through and broke said ord.In pulp, quick magic is the end result of previously finished mystical rituals that one can activate.
>>96972632When Conan himself uses magic (Beyond the Black River, chap. V) it's istantaneous. He just makes a sign in the dirt.Elric and the Mouser are pretty quick as well, no ritual needed. IIRC in Leiber adversaries are as well, might vary in Moorcock's case.
Ok but how do I Sword & Planet?
>>96973795By embracing the gonzo nature of mixing up low tech, low civilisation elements with the space setting. Fallen civilisations, high tech artifacts treated as equivalents of magical treasures (or existing alongside them), aliens as monsters, etc.
>>96944273Magic is powerful and currupting GritLethalStakes are personal
>the protagonist The story follows an outlaw, an outsider motivated by personal gain: greed, revenge, survival or a twisted sense of honor or justice (usually, but not always, jagged, cynical and formidable)>stakes The threats are personal and tangible, not world shattering, the conflict should be close and visceral>world Is a decaying and morally dubious. Therefore dangerous.>Magic A corrupting, unnatural force wielded by villains and power seekers. It is corrupting, evil requires sacrifice.>Action Combat is not a graveful dance, its brutal, desperate and visceral. Action takes precedent to worldbuilding.>Ending Adventures end with a costly victory, usually the protagonist end with enough treasure for the next adventure.
I don't think magic always has to be corrupting, but I do think magic usually has to be dangerous to perform correctly. I also feel like sword and sorcery has to have some elements of dark fantasy to really get the danger and adventure across.
>>96966193I love mecha anime and have seen a grand total of 3 episodes of NGE. Just because something is considered a cornerstone of the genre doesn't mean its the end-all-be-all of the genre.>>96957323>>96972579>>96972586Secret of NIMH is pretty clearly heroic fantasy as opposed to S&S.
>>96975046>I love mecha anime and have seen a grand total of 3 episodes of NGE. Just because something is considered a cornerstone of the genre doesn't mean its the end-all-be-all of the genre.The NGE thing was an example. Read it as "never seen/read/played/listened to and still like the idea".
>>96944273sorcery on one hand, but in the other a sword
>>96944273I would say three things.Is there Magic and if they're magic how does it work? Is it everyone can just wave their hands and say words to cast or is it only for those with the gift and the time to train. (As well as if magic has drawbacks.)What kind of world is this? Is this a mostly peaceful world? Wartorn and wars are normal, or is it swarming with monsters to the point people are fighting back the dark over trying to take over.Also don't forget the feel is this a pulp style where it advance tech can be found. More pure fantasy where you don't have guns, and old world tech laying around, etc.
>>96944273Have you ever tried to just google something? Wikipedia would have given you all the answers.
>>96964514I'll miss weirdAI phase too
>>96972586>the words used to describe something aren't meant to describe itCongratulations, you have just outlined one of the biggest problems with discourse surrounding genres as a whole.But, as always, this will just be deflected with pretentiousness and appeals to authority, or "semantics reee".
>>96944273Just follow this step by step guidehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XUu3_pLPUE
>>96977424It's not a problem at all, it's just the normal way that language works. The same way "lady killer" does not generally refer to someone that kills ladies.
>>96977424ESL problemos
>>96944273Barbarians are a must.
>>96978030Why haven't you committed seppuku yet, Puckee?
>>96944273Another core element that several Anons have missed - a lot of S&S is also a travelogue. Jack Vance's Dying Earth, 90% of Conan, the good Moorecock (and a lot of the bad), the Yor books, et. al. is about going to new places, exploring them, pissing someone off, and otherwise starting shit. Often because the heroes are bored and/or exiled from the last one after they fucked shit up. Even in Newhon the Mouser and Fafhrd frequently find themselves in unknown quarters of the city, places they've never visited that have their own exotic dangers and customs to explore and/or kill. Shit is supposed to be weird and dangerously unfamiliar, not just "lol I read a book about the Hittites".Expand past just classical S&S books, grab some Moebius comics and Victorian travel narratives. It'll add a lot to your ability to create something worth playing.
>>96981348Hrm, let's say 2/3 of the whole stories.Unless you count dungeons or weird markets in the city. (the shit Conan himself in The Scarlet Citadel under his own palace is INSANE, one the most awesome menageries of monsters I've ever read or seen. While I do think DND monsters are oddly enough the strongest part of the lore, I feel we kinda lost that spirit of "dungeon weirdness at full throttle". But I mean, REH is the man that came up with necromancers that summoned dinosaurs from their fossils).Anyway, not a bad thing to keep in mind, just be VERY light on the traveling itself. This is not Tolkien - the protags 95% of the time are already there.
>>96978030https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/1asljbu/art_comm_agarian_warrior_by_pedro_silva/https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/search/image/hzEJ4gtiMhFPMlGOcTas7Q/Kill yourself, puckee.
A lot of them have pulp horror influence. Check out Leiber's "The Bleak Shore" for example.
>>96944273A big burly man with a sword and loin cloth, an evil wizard in dark robes, a half-naked damsel in distress and the ending being the wizard dead and the princess getting plowed by the big burly hero
Robert E Howard's heroes were generally men on the outside of society, half-barbarous or half other. El Borak was half InjunSolomon kane is a weird one, I see his zealous pilgrim faith as marking him as the outlier to a world that is (even with the wars of faith going on) worldly and materialistic. Frankly with his cooperation with Nlonga and a fair lot of his adventures in Africa I'd controversially say that Solomon Kane is basically "Half African" in spirit rather than in fact.Kull is an Atlantean outsider ruling some civilized fops I forget the name of.Conan was a Cimmerian ruling Aquilonia or wandering around the civilized Hyborians.I forget Bran Mak Morn's business but I vaguely recall it being he was smart and astute but he ruled over dumb ass picts.>>96957377>Again, none of the world of the Kane books and stories are particularly undeveloped or savage in any way.Moon of Skulls/Negari/NakariHills of the DeadFootfalls WithinWings in the NightStory where he finds Assyrians in the middle of AfricaI'm reading off wiki for those but I distinctly remember Nakari, the red-bone sympathetic africans he has Nlonga do some weird mind control shit I'm hazy on, the village that got wiped out by the batmonster, assyrians in the jungle, and one with a bunch of slavers in the jungle.
>>96966193The reason for the bronze age visualization is because of the marvel comics since the 80s and the Funcom games continuing the trend. Aquilonia is an army of gunderland pikemen, Bossonian longbowmen, Aquitainian knights and Pointanians who are very clearly provencal occitan. He uses various medieval terminology for the knights like gorgets and other shit I forget offhand. There's no senate, no emperor, no legions, no coliseums in Aquilonia. It also comes from the Arnold movie not being medieval knighty.Once a visual theme has been established by a very popular media it's very hard if not impossible to shake it. With LOTR for instance in the past 20 years I can only cite The Last Days and Merlkir's art for it that went with a properly migration era lord of the rings. The upcoming attila mod Dawnless Days just does the movies Gondor 100%. I do not expect any Game of Thrones fan art, mods, whatever are going to deviate strongly from the HBO designs.
>>96960856Zamora is the biggest nexus for sex trafficking in Hyborea. All the most beautiful women end up there whether they want to or not.
>>96983278There is also the fact that the art associated with the original pulp comics was still heavily influenced by orientalism.
>>96983490I find the barrel-chested 30's strongman version of Conan endearing
>>96977891It definitely is a problem, because words describing a product for sale shouldn't be tantamount to inaccurate and imprecise idioms/colloquialisms used casually.
>>96964169Load paper into the bypass tray. LOAD PAPER INTO THE BYPASS TRAY!!!
>>96944273Radium bullets
>>96972505>David Gemmell is often called the savior of Sword & Sorcery because of the Drenai Saga, which were a bit larger scale than a lot of fantasy but definitely fit the themes. The Drenai novels do dip into the sort of techno-fantasy you might see in He-Man or Thundarr the Barbarian, particularly in The White Wolf and in The Swords of Night and Day, but even then I think Skilganon himself is adequately a sword and sorcery protagonist. Druss and Waylander fit the bill fairly well, I think. Druss fighting in Dros Delnoch is on a level I think with the stakes of Hour of the Dragon, and Skilganon might arguably be fighting for higher stakes in The Swords of Night and Day but it's really a conflict motivated by personal stakes rather than Skilganon wanting to save the world.Thanks for reading my blog. I just wanted the chance to talk a bit about Gemmell. He was taken from us too soon.
>>96983239>Solomon kane is a weird one, I see his zealous pilgrim faith as marking him as the outlier to a world that is (even with the wars of faith going on) worldly and materialistic. Frankly with his cooperation with Nlonga and a fair lot of his adventures in Africa I'd controversially say that Solomon Kane is basically "Half African" in spirit rather than in fact.His puritanism is one aspect that 'others' him (but I think Howard does mention that Kane also has a savage atavism to him that's at odds with his faith - Kane's described as something of throwback to an earlier model of fighting man than those he's contemporaneous with in mindset and temperament), but I think his time off fighting at sea is another fairly large contributor to it. I could be wrong but I had the impression that Kane spent a lot of time as a privateer or in the navy fighting against Barbary slavers and the like.
>>96944273The protagonist is a hot, ripped dude or a hot big titty chick, both scantily clad, both explicitly and proudly exceptional in any field they set their mind to. Their enemies can range from similarly beautiful and mighty, to the most hideous abominations from the pits of hell. And either can hold a noble spirit and become an unlikely ally if the circumstances call for it, as with Carter and the Tharks.
>>96983239>KaneI'm talking about the guy created by Karl Edward Wagner, not the equally great solomon kane.And an adventurer like solomon kane adventuring into deepest darkest africa doesn't mean 16th century earth (which is when solomon kane was set) is a savage world. There are areas filled with savages right now but you'd hardly call the 21st century savage or undeveloped. There are savages, barbarians and uncivilised people in sword and sorcery settings but the worlds as a whole are virtually never savage stone age settings-it is the contrast between these civilised peoples that howard was fascinated by.
>>96959708>>96957377I thought it was more that cities in Conan (perhaps other S&S entries) are implied to be if not portrayed as generally decadent and even a little morally backwards, except for anything Conan runs, but then specifically because he's not a city guy. I freely admit my tourist nature here so if this is wrong, do tell.
>>96983737Maybe hot but the Mouser is presumably not too ripped. And Elric IS hot but clearly skinny as fuck.>>96984728in OG Conan the country in the civilized nations is more or less in line with what you'd expect for a classical period thing. Maybe substitute some highwaymen for low key monsters or unrealistically badass animals.That being said, we really don't see much of him going "in the country". He either is in your city of thieves, in a dungeon or in savage and forgotten areas (not necessarily that far from civlization, but still). Actually in this regard the hyborian age is relatively mundane if you compare it to Newhon or the melnibonean age, yes.
>>96984728I'll add that amusingly enough I don't think even the cities are THAT bad. I mean, yes, Khem is clearly paranoia country, but aside from that they don't scream hell on earth, even when the rulers are corrupt motherfuckers (which appears to be pretty common). I'm not exactly sure where to position them on the whole but funnily enough I'd say the people of King's Landing in ASOIAF seem to have it a little harder overall.
>>96987995>Maybe hot but the Mouser is presumably not too ripped.Why do you think he's called the Mouser? Because of his GUNS.>And Elric IS hot but clearly skinny as fuck.Nonhuman, gets a pass
>>96973795Basically the same except for the obvious like aliums and lost tech and gravity bullshit. Make it less gritty and more romantic, I guess.
>>96978030>puckee spamming his commission againhttps://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/1asljbu/art_comm_agarian_warrior_by_pedro_silva/https://desuarchive.org/_/search/image/hzEJ4gtiMhFPMlGOcTas7Q/>20 times
>>96944273I watched Fire and Ice yesterday. Whatever the soul of Sword & Sorcery is, it is overwhelmingly that.
>>96944273>What are the essentials of a sword and sorcery setting?SwordsSorcery
>>96945434>>96945552
>>96944273You'll know it when you see it. I can't put it into words. It won't be Tolkienesque, it's more Bronze Age / Iron Age aesthetic with some flair added in. Think pulp fantasy covers and posters from the late 20s. Expand that into a setting. There you go
>>96994406Love me swords Love me sorcery Simple as
>>96996795What's this from?
>>96997008Old What If? Comic, i remember it because it's the one where Conan became a pimp of some sort and started a gang of black guys
>>96972505>Reddit spacing>Post that has a lot of words but zero entropyI sniff an automated poster.
>>96983954>There are areas filled with savages right nowAn entire subcontinent of them, and they're spreading. Those savages are nothing like Conan, more like cockroaches, though.
>>96951970Honestly one of the strongest "vibe checks" of S&S is humans only, or super human elf or Atlantean type races, and I say this as a massive furfag who likes weird fantasy races and nonhuman morality or culture taking center stage. The inclusion of non-hostile nonhuman is very unusual in S&S, with the rare expecting proving the rule. (Tower of the Elephant alien man vs all the ape men Conan fights). Much of S&S is human struggle with personal aims, nonhumanoid protags just don't mesh with it.
>>96965894I wonder why we don't see Hyboria denounced as a kitchen sink piece of shit setting. It's just as schizophrenic and anachronistic as Forgotten Realms and any of the other usual suspects.
>>96997436
>>96971603Ah yes, a Hold Person spell that requires an entire group of wizards and ample time to create and which kills a bunch of them when it fails is totally the same as some level 1 D&D caster casting Hold Person in less than 6 seconds and having nothing happen to them if it fails. You're right gaynon pulp magic is totally comparable to ttrpgs and vidya and anime slop.
>>96997525To be fair, a bunch of people dying will be the consequence of your Hold Person spell failing to affect Conan no matter what magic system you're using.
>>96997054>YOU AIGHT CIMMERIAN BOY
I genuinely cannot think of any sign of D&D retardation then trying to apply those rules to magic applied to literature, myth, and legend.
>>96987995>>96988161>And Elric IS hot but clearly skinny as fuck.Femboy Elric?
>>96944273I always thought it's the best sort of in-between for "Low" and "high" fantasy, where you still have above average crazy shit happening alongside being relatively grounded.
>>96997435Because REH's Conan stories are episodic for the most part, so the stark technological contrasts don't stand out as much. And technology tends to be the main thing that differs, the basic tone of his work remains the same throughout. Contrast kitchen sink rpg settings.
>>96973795Usually it's an ultra advanced civilization or set of them set on a world with multiple intelligent races, all in decline. The planet is often also depicted in decline.
>>96974415Oddly enough, Lovecraft got the heart of s&s magic. It's OFTEN evil, but not necessarily. It's ALWAYS dangerous, though.
>>96945434Considering there was an entire Marvel comic book series published with him going up against Cape characters, that's not an unfair assessment.
>>96957377CAS did do some Sword and Sorcery stories, like Maze of the Enchanter.
>>96997088You're just mixing up savages with sewerages anon.
>>96944273Having fun and not looking back.Anyone listing any other priorities is a retard that missed a memo of playing pulp
What would Conan's statblock be anyways? Has there ever been anything official?captcha: tay0ta
>>96998261Gygax statted him out once. Here you go.
>>96998112>not looking backNonsense. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser spend a lot of time consumed with guilt over what happened to Vlana and Ivrian. And Kull broods on his past in Atlantis all the time. This is not an element of the literature at all, it is only a character quirk of some S&S protagonists.
>>96989833>some one complaining about puckee spamming his commissions again.You know, if you quit pointing it out all the time, no one would pay any attention to it, and he would probably go away.
>>96999349He's been doing this for over five years. The only reason it gets pointed out is he's not going away.
>>96999349>>96999466I have to admit I don't see why it's a problem. It's a pretty generic barbarian dude, not some weird fetish shit like that guy who spams his fursona.
>>96999564Puckee has spammed his commissions for 4-5 years as the other anon has pointed out, his threads are all low quality with vague questions just to so he can post his commissions. At one point, he had at least 3 threads up at all times and posted his commissions weekly in various threads. See his "lich" commission he spammed throughout late 2021 to 2022 that he posted throughout the year.https://archive.4plebs.org/_/search/image/0uAsjic8baHEf61Jm2Wu6Q%3D%3D/page/4/He has also spammed his commissions on other threads like the draw thread, trying to pass his paid commissions as fills.https://desuarchive.org/tg/thread/92628290/#92687500Anons picked up on his spam in 2022 and he basically has also infested the character art threads since then, posting at least a few of his commissions in every thread.https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/84892301/#84901094
>>96983490A valid point I forgot about. >>96983720I forgot about Gemmell. I liked his books a lot.>>96983736I was going to lean more on the puritanism but him being early 17th century threw me for a loop. If he was later 17th century then you'd get the idea of him being the refuse thrown aside after Europe ceased being so religious and Cromwell's puritanism ceased being the thing. He might have fought the barbary corsairs but honestly I am blanking off the top of my head of his stories beyond the africa ones, the one against the french guy (nicknamed the fox? Or am I wrong?) with some nice lad and his dame being in peril, one or two spooky germany woods but that's it.>>96997639In doing a roleplay that required I sketch out a worldbuild of magic I've come to realize I do not like that approach to magic one iota. It's necessary for roleplay when you have a lot of players needing a common language but good god not only is it tedious but it sucks the life out of the exoticism and fun of magic. It clearly works for people, Sanderson is super popular and I hear he does that a lot. But it's not for me. I guess it can be helpful to define a broad sense of what is possible, and I assume even Tolkien initially thought of what would be in Gandalf's realm of possibility.>>96997435It's not as commonly seen as Forgotten Realms, but also in the OG stories there's a fine symmetry. Aquilonia meshes with the Picts fine because whatever the situation in Aquilonia, it's the bossonian marches or beyond that which has the issue of the Picts and beyond the black river is literally American frontiersmanism without guns. It works just fine.Shem is standard arabian nights, and most of these places you never actually visit in the OG stories.
>>96997435It was the first and it doesn't feature jarring tech differences, which tend to be the real pain in the ass with this kinda of shit even when done with a modicum of taste.Besides overall I don't think it really has many instance of culture X is immediately next to culture Y which has nothing in common with X. I mean, it HAS the aquilonia/picts one, but overall people just say "ah, crazy ass barbs" and they're fine with that.
>>96983278>There's no senate, no emperor, no legions, no coliseums in Aquilonia.Those guys were Acheron, IIRC, that's the not!Rome of Hyboria. In Conan's day it was already long gone, but I think one of the stories involves a sorcerer trying to raise the armies of Acheron as undead, or an undead/immortal sorcerer *from* Acheron, or something like that. Maybe I'm getting my wires crossed with the comic. Anyway, the weird thing is that Ophir is apparently the Etruscans, which predate Rome.
>>97002571I think that Hour of the Dragon is the one where there's an undead sorcerer who's from Acheron and wants to bring it back.
>>96999084>Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser spend a lot of time consumed with guilt over what happened to Vlana and Ivrian.That's a retcon from Ill Met in Lankhmar which was written long after the OG short stories. And the Circle Curse/Price of Pain-Ease bookends to the first collection of shorts was written after Ill Met and those are the only short stories which mention Vlana and Ivrian at all IIRC. The whole point of The Price of Pain-Ease is also that they basically get over it and stop caring. They do not actually spend a lot of time being bothered by those hoes/memories.
>>97002616Oh yeah, you're right. Xaltotun.
>>96997435Adnd forgotten realms is just fine imo, at least if you exclude the shoehorned in other continents from the end times of 2e and that's easy to do.
>>96999984And again, so what?If you don't like it, just ignore it.
>>96998692Thanks, anon.
>>97003484You're a pretty cool dude, anon. Stay awesome.
>>96998261He's also been statted out in the old Gurps Conan book, as well as in Mongoose's Conan d20 game. And I believe he's also statted out in Modiphius' 2d20 Conan game.And chances are good that he will be statted out in the new Monolith Conan RPG coming soon.
>>97012797>And I believe he's also statted out in Modiphius' 2d20 Conan game.A dozen times, even, because they have him at various ages.
>>96998692he was trained as a gladiator
>>96998261And for completeness' sake, from the official Conan AD&D modules
Do you know of random generators of things like PNG ideas or environments for a SS game?
>>97022267>PNGSpotted the italian itt, kek.Anyways chatgpt is generally good enough if you know how to frame your requests.
>>97025377Hey, apparently OG Cimmerians were (likely) people in nowdays Campania (the mists being fog from volcanoes, Strabo says that much). The identification with steppe people came to be later.You are now imagining Conan singing Funiculì Funiculà
>>97025377Forgive a dumb anglophone, but what is meant by PNG in this case?
>>97028843Personaggio (character)NonGiocante (playing)
>>97028888Oh npc. Thank you italy friend.
