Thoughts on the Hyborian Age and Robert E. Howard's worldbuilding in Conan the Barbarian?
>>97458024I like it.
Aquilonia being high medieval is bullshit, the entire setting should be low-tech bronze age.
Did you know? Technically this is the same universe as the Cthulhu mythos.
>>97458073So is Zothique and Hyperborea, but that hardly ever comes up in Cthulu Mythos books
>>97458024>thoughts Casually interesting but not deep dive material. Having enough to run a sword & sorcery game is more of a rule of cool and vibes than worldbuilding. Trying to make a sensibly cohesive in exhausting detail version would be needlessly futile. Howard didn't bother with that shit, wrote about and included what he thought was cool. Do that.
>>97458045Anon, you’re going to summon the sperg… Tech should be bronze through iron depending on the aesthetic of each race.
>>97458024It's good!
>>97458024It's a charming playground for Howard. It's essentially built on the mental images common folk have of the real-life, geographical/historical counterparts of lands within Hyborea. This allows the setting to be populated by the reader himself. It doesn't try to fight your assumptions but leans into them. Plays with them. It's simultaneously rich enough to stimulate the imagination and empty enough to accommodate whatever story you want to tell.
>>97458243No one reads less Yog-Sothery than a "Mythos" writer.
>>97458024A fun setting that most of my friends show little interest in. I don't think they vibe with the pulpy, magical-realism of the setting. I think they prefer something more gonzo and familiar.
>>97458024What is your opinion on traditional games?
>>97458045Fuck off secondary>>97458311>caring about how Howard actually depicted his setting is "spergy"Why are secondaries like this? Stop pushing your gay bronze age headcanon onto the Hyborian age.
>>97458024It's pretty bare bones, the world is just surface knowledge of irl history and vibes.
>>97459064I think that's what impresses me about the setting. He really tried to set up a world that would support his adventures rather than invest his time tabulating every minute detail. Ultimately this created a thrilling, believable universe but one that is surprisingly simple and easy to work with.
>>97459279It's interesting to compare it to REH Thurian age from his King Kull stories, which seems to have effort put into making a cohesive setting wereas the Hyboran age is much more of a theme park where he could doa lot of vaguely historical inspired things without doing much research
