Neil Amswych

@Matt John S what are your thoughts on permanent and varying heroes (mentioned above) so perhaps Conan and Hadrathus are the backbone of the campaign but then there’s flexibility in the other heroes? (That would allow one Skuthus hero adventure with a super twist I’m currently working out)

Anyone from Zaporavo, Thak, Skuthus, Zogar Sag and that lot who have character sheets but who are villains. Worth knowing all possibilities (I haven’t finished reading the books but I know Zapo has already died so unfortunately probably not him!)

Totally agree. These are the carry-overs to the final mission, if we go that route. Still, thematically, I far prefer Stygian Assassins to turn up in mission 1 to point to the final mission. There’s something about having black people being the repetitive big bad that just makes me slightly uncomfortable because they don’t really belong in these regions. Unless I’m missing something from the books, in which case tell me.

I misunderstood a map name. So You’re doing final confrontation in Stygia? Then why not do a start in Khitai tower with magical research (Dan). Then I could do an escape from the Witch Hunters through the Khitai streets to set them up as an ever-present threat. Then perhaps a core set map before journeying to Nordheim for two adventures before conclusion in Stygia? That’s 6 or 7 adventures right there.

There could be a little horror element to this in which the Witch Hunters start really powerful and don’t need to progress so the heroes have to avoid them while completing their task, and then in the final battle the heroes have leveled up enough that they can face them in a glorious final boss battle. That would be a very common trop and would have scenarios be not just hack and slash. I’m thinking Neo near the end of the Matrix, Rey near the end of The Force Awakens when the heroes realize their power and can take on the big boss.

Can we add any villains as heroes to this list? An idea is forming about Stygia (assuming Ken is rounding off nicely on Khitai) wherein a local villain is losing control of the town and so he needs the heroes to help him clear out a hidden temple while the heroes need to clear it out to help them in their campaign.

I love the idea of a scenario starting with a magical discovery instead of the cliche of ye olde inn.

Stygian Assassins make much more sense here, as much as I know you want to use the Witch Hunters. It also helps point to the Stygia map for the next adventure.

I like this idea a lot and it can inform other scenarios. For example, if I’m doing Stygia I’m already envisioning a 2-part get off the boat into the dock to find the secret entrance to the temple, and then flip the map once you get in. But if the Temple entrance is guarded by Foo Dogs, you wouldn’t normally see them in Stygia and that’s kind of the point to make it interesting. The other thing your your idea brings up to me is about permanent and local heroes. I know Matt said he wanted people to be able to sub heroes in, but another possibility is to have permanent heroes like Conan and Hadrathus and then local heroes who can be more flexible. So some players get the benefits of leveling up while others get the benefits of playing different heroes, which is fun in a different way. That’s not subbing heroes which means it’s easier to playtest but it does mean that there’s some variance as well. So, for example, when Conan and Hadrathus head to Nordheim, they’re joined by Niord (local hero) and a choice of one other hero from a short list, but when they go to Stygia they leave Niord behind because he doesn’t like sand.

By the way, if any of my ideas seem way too ambitious, please don’t be afraid to say. I have a tendency to do that! Speaking of ambitious ideas, there’s a way to create something that doesn’t require ownership of every boxed set. Let’s say I own only Khitai, Fred in New York owns only Nordheim and Terry in England owns only Stygia. They could each run missions in their own area and team up with the results. Then they each play final scenarios based on the core set so they can all complete the campaign in their own location. Now, I appreciate that’s a totally different way of running a campaign and may not be for now, but it’s at least a very fun idea. Back to earth, though, sequels very often have good guys having to team up with bad guys to defeat an even greater evil (eg Blade II, Terminator 2, etc). It would be nice for us to have some way that a traditional villain could be a hero somehow, especially since we have the hero sheets for them from the KS. Again, though, that’s an accessibility thing because I don’t know if the retail core set has those things. Still, just spitballing ideas right now.

One question to ask ourselves is how many extras are we putting in this campaign? What I mean is that we are already expecting the players have bought every expansion box of Nordheim, Stygia and Khitai. That’s $150 buy-in for the campaign. If we add Yogah and Crossbowmen etc we’re asking for a significant buy-in which may exclude certain players. So, if we assume the boxed sets can we perhaps provide optional adventures for those who have more? “If you own Crossbowmen go to adventure 8, if not go to 9.” It’s more work for us but it makes the campaign more inclusive. Ultimately, I think the writers and playtesters may need some initial top-down guidance in terms of “use these maps, these heroes and these minions/lieutenants/monsters.”

Santa Fe in da house! I would really like to see lots of differing heroes. Instead of subbing, I’m wondering if we could bring in something that hasn’t appeared before - when a character is taken out of battle they’re replaced with the next hero in the predetermined queue. So it’s the forces of good but not necessarily anyone in particular. If the heroes run out of characters, they can’t bring in any more. (It would have to be a healthy list, say 6 possible new party members for 8 adventures). King Exclusive heroes plus expansion heroes. Doing it like this gives some flexibility to players while allowing us some control over playtesting balance. So if in one adventure your Shevatas dies, next adventure you can be Taurus. In fact, a replacement tree could easily be written to enable some balance. I’ll show you what I mean later. I love the external Khitai map so I’d like to plan an adventure on that if possible. If Ken has that, though, I’d love to take Stygia. As I posted on FB, I’d like to see the intermediate adventures not just be to retrieve things because that loses interest quickly. Putting villains/items out of action so they can’t be used in a final ritual could be part of that. Removing sacrificial virgins (!) to a safe hideout could be another. Basically, more than Harry Potter horcruxes. @MattJohn how open do you want this development to be? I find FB groups a great place to regularly discuss things.

Well done, Dan.

After more testing that I ever imagined would be necessary, I present my scenario. It uses maps, characters and tiles that most people own, and the real twist to this scenario is that the heroes are the traditional villains and the villains are the traditional heroes! So, this gives the players a chance to do something they've never done before - have the Overlord play Conan, Shevatas and Balthus while the players get to be villainous with Zogar Sag, Skuthus and Thak (who is an absolute monster in battle). The file won't upload, but here's the link.... https://www.conan-scenarios.com/scenarioPage.php?MissionId=908