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View Full Version : Ask Me Anything About Conan the Cimmerian as written by Robert E. Howard



Hand_of_Vecna
2018-06-01, 07:01 PM
Conan the Barbarian is one of the most iconic characters of fantasy fiction, it is thus not surprising that his name comes up in countless conversations about warriors in games like Dungeons & Dragons. Even in a bibliophilic community like this one, I find that most people tend to be more familiar with the idea of Conan than with the stories by his creator Robert E Howard.

I love the Schwarzenegger films as much as anyone and it was their influence that led me to pick up Conan for the first time when I was burned out at the end of a harrowing week of midterms. I was in the mood for schlock and instead I was blown away. Since then I’ve become a huge advocate of Howard’s work.

I’ve read all of Howard’s Conan stories dozens of times as well as every scholarly article on Conan I’ve come across. If it matters to you, I have an English degree. Ask me anything about the literary Conan.

I'll start off with a couple obvious ones.

What is your favorite Conan story?

Hey, I said about Conan not me.

My favorite Conan story is actually one that tends to be ignored by both academics and various adaptations The God in the Bowl (GitB). GitB stands out for a few reasons; it is one of the few stories where a young Conan appears as a thief, it stands out as it actually has relatively little action. The bulk of the story is a battle of will between Conan and a high ranking member of the city watch. Conan is surrounded and keeps an entire patrol at bay by sneering and matter of factly stating his abilities.

How X is Conan? Can Conan do X?

A few days ago I started rereading Conan with the specific purpose of recording his best feats and claims. I’ll be starting a list in spoilers under various headings such as; Strength, Stamina,Vitality, Swordplay, etc. Each item will be tagged by Period*, Story, and as either Feat, Claim**. Or Narrator Claim. Please don't let this stop you from asking the question, the engagement will help motivate me and I will look up feats out of order if I'm asked for them and can think of them when I set my mind to them.

Young Conan- His earliest adventures as a thief and when he traveled into norse allegory lands.
Mercenary Conan- The bulk of his adventures including being a bandit and pirate captain.
King Conan- Anything that happens after he becomes King of Aquilonia

Sometimes the lines between Young and Mercenary Conan are blurry, Conan isn’t really meant to have a biographical timeline, but I think this marker will be more useful than confusing. Most of his abilities are consistent throughout his career. King Conan may be more measured in his actions, but at least to me he doesn’t come across as an old man Logan type character. I can say off the top of my head that his best one vs. many swordfighting is as King Conan while his best feats of dualing are in the middle of his career, but this could just as well be interpreted as the challenges he happened to face as an actual difference in ability. I’ll be on the lookout for “anti-feats” Conan failing to do things in one time period that he clearly could in another. The only one that comes to mind is that in Queen of the Black Coast Conan has no knowledge of seamanship, while in every other story where it is relevant he is a masterful deckhand.

*Claims- To my knowledge, Conan never lies about his abilities. In fact it often occurs that Conan claims he has an ability from a previous adventure such as “when I was a war chief of the Afgulis” and in one of his next stories Howard would write Conan as a war chief of the Afgulis. I’m not sure if many people consider statements in a third person omniscient narration which are said not shown as less valid than events of the story, but I’ll mark them if for no other reason than so that I’m not misrepresenting the events of a story. If a claim about Conan is not made by Conan or the Narrator it will be documented as such while claims by Conan will simply be marked "Claim".

Hand_of_Vecna
2018-06-01, 07:02 PM
My Power is Maximum!!!

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sO7KlFDMQ2M/Vcr_NqAc3QI/AAAAAAABBPk/hgXV9klG9-w/s1600/fusion-broly-conan.jpg

Name: Conan
Race: Cimmerian
Strength: Maximum!
Stamina: Maximum!
Vitality: Maximum!
Willpower: Maximum!
Agility: Maximum!
Balance: Maximum!
Leadership: Maximum!
Appearance: Maximum!

Jokes aside Conan is a pretty ridiculous powerhouse in his "weight class" of gritty mid-fantasy. As I often say in build threads what world people come from is important to statting them out. Otherwise accurate versions of characters can fall flat or come of as parody in they aren't used in a world that has similar truths to their native one. I've never sat down and done a hard statting out of Conan, but I picture him as the most epic warrior in an e6 world who has taken all of the attribute boosting feats on top starting far above any normal point buy.