Name Generator - GGEBoN

I've digitized a good bit of Gary Gygax's Extraordinary Book of Names.

Google Sheets Link

Feel free to make a copy, and check out the source material if you haven't; there's plenty more interesting material in it!

Courtship, Marriage, Heirs, and Fidelity for OSR Domain Play

As your character invests themselves in the world through domain play, they might find it beneficial to find a spouse and produce an heir. The benefits of an heir will be largely determined by your GM, and the system. In my own game: after PC death, an heir with a surviving parent or a loyal, appointed regent to oversee the domain until they come of age allows the player to continue playing and managing their domain, while adventuring as a new character or a retainer. When they turn 13, they may begin to gain experience for ruling the domain (ACKS Campaign Rules), and after they turn 16, a player may choose to play as their heir. The process of producing an heir is as follows:

Courtship>Betrothal>Marriage>Procreation>Fidelity

Courtship

    To begin courtship, make a Reaction Roll. This roll is modified by the difference in Charisma Modifiers and the Difference of 6 mi hexes controlled by both parties, or their families. Example. Count Dewkoo controls 2 hexes but has a -1 charisma mod. Baroness von Agut's family controls only 1 hex, but she is remarkably beautiful, with a +2 charisma mod. Thus, when Dewkoo makes his intentions to court the Baroness, he makes the reaction roll with a -2 net bonus [(2-1) + (-1-2)].

Initial Reaction Roll to establish courtship:

2-: Slanders you to other women/men in town, -1 to all Courtship rolls in this location

3-5: No, and it wont happen

6-8: No, (seeing someone else/not a good time), try again in a month

9-11: Yes, courtship beings

12+: Enthusiastic yes, +1 morale bonus to subsequent reaction rolls

Max morale bonus: +1

Proposal Roll:

    At any time during courtship, you can propose. A reaction roll is made using the same results table as above, except any result of No ends the courtship.

    To increase the likelyhood of a yes, there are some things you can do. Spending a week of downtime and 100g on gifts, three times in one season, gives a +1 bonus to the roll. This bonus stacks up to 4 times, but only if earned over consecutive seasons.

    You can also gain a +1 to the reaction roll for a proposal gift worth at least 1000gp.

Max Morale Bonus: +2

Wedding

    As a dowry, the betrothed parents will give you 1d6*100 gold for every 6mi hex which they control, directly and through vassals (parents without land will give 5d10 gold).

    For the Wedding, roll d6+morale. On a 6+, your spouse had their dream wedding; gain a

+1 morale bonus.

    To increase the odds of providing a dream wedding; add +1 for every 1000gp spent on the wedding (100gp if parents are not landed). 

Max Morale Bonus: +3

Procreation:

    When you spend a week with your spouse roll a d4 and 1+Morale Bonus d8s. If a 1 is rolled on both the d4 and a d8, congratulations! You're expecting! In 9 months, roll a d6; on evens it's a girl, and on odds it's a boy.

    Roll stats for the the child when they turn 16 and become eligible as a PC. Add the higher of either parents modifier to the raw score of your offspring. For example:

    Roll-Mother-Father-Child

Str  12        0        +2      14

Int    9      +0         -1       9

Wis  11     +2         0      13

Dex   5     +1         0       6

Con  11      0        +1      12

Cha   8     +2        -1      10

    Additionally: See ACKS for rules on gaining experience for Domain Management. In that system, a ruler could gain levels proportional to the number of domains they and their vassals control.

Fidelity:

    The life of an adventurer (and a warlord, for that matter) consists of a lot of time away from home. This can be a strain on even the best relationships. With the exception of a defensive campaign or if your liege commands it, when your PC is away from their spouse for too long, there is a chance they will seek the comforts of another.

    Your PC can be apart from their spouse for a season(3 months) plus a number of months equal to their morale bonus. For each month beyond the limit, the morale bonus decreases by 1 and you make a reaction roll.

Add morale bonus & alignment mod (+1 if lawful, -1 if chaotic)

2-:  They are unfaithful, and with someone you know/an enemy to spite you.

3-5: They are unfaithful.

6-8: They they grow impatient at your absence.

9-11:They think only of you and the danger you must be in! +1 to morale bonus (net: 0)

12+: Distance makes the heart grow fonder! +2 to morale bonus (net: 1)

If both parties of the daliance are fertile, roll 1d4 & 1d8. On two 1s, they're expecting!

    Lost morale may be restored by spending a season with your family. Your GM might also come up with more adventurous opportunities to repair your marriage.

Heraldry: NFL pt 1.

 

I'm lazy and uninspired, so I'm ripping off NFL logos to make Heraldry.

Simple Campaign Calendar

 This is a really simple calendar with a perfect 3 month cycle. It is 364 days, with 12 months, and 4 feast days.

Here's a link to the template I use; feel free to make a copy. From there, just copy the template months in order as your campaign progresses. 

If you want some more detail for the calendar, use Donjon. Just paste this code into the "Restore" field, and you've got a set of custom months.

{"year_len":364,"events":1,"n_months":12,"months":["Huginn","Muninn","Valtun","Freir","Plenus","Iuv","Behem","Lavoeth","Plerique","Ederque","Nullusque","Harbardr"],"month_len":{"Huginn":30,"Muninn":30,"Valtun":31,"Freir":30,"Plenus":30,"Iuv":31,"Behem":30,"Lavoeth":30,"Plerique":31,"Ederque":30,"Nullusque":30,"Harbardr":31},"week_len":7,"weekdays":["Solus","Lunas","Marus","Mercurus","Jovus","Venas","Saturnus"],"n_moons":2,"moons":["Luna","Juno"],"lunar_cyc":{"Luna":30,"Juno":28},"lunar_shf":{"Luna":8,"Juno":0},"year":1146,"first_day":0,"notes":{}}

Conqueror's Without Number: Sword and Sorcery Adventures in Planetos

Work in progress: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/print/bxAwiukPe?dialog=true

A Sword and Sorcery hack of Worlds Without Number (WIP by Sine Nomine) and Adventurer-Conqueror-King System for campaigns in the World of Ice and Fire.

I'm a pretty big fan of A Song of Ice and Fire. Since reading the books, I've wanted a way to experience that world. I've read Green Ronin's licensed rpg, but it didn't grab me as getting the full flavor of the setting; there's a lot of Lovecraft and Conan (among other things) lurking below the surface.

 A World of Ice and Fire, even though it isn't aimed at rpgs, is the most flavorful setting for a Sword and Sorcery campaign that I've come across. Definitely worth reading for inspiration.

(South) Westeros Hex Map

These hexes are in the ballpark of 6 miles. Comment and let me know if, and for what, you use this. Cheers! 

Europa Fantastica - Ahistorical Campaign Setting [Work in Progress]

In addition to the hex maps, I've been working on the Theology/Cosmology as well is historical implications of magic on the world. I don't know how well all this well flow or how readable it will end up being; I'm just sort of dumping my thoughts to make the setting more concrete and hopefully inspire some other worldbuilders.

Theology and Cosmology

While I've toyed with the idea of making the setting a flat Earth with a firmament or perhaps a hollow Earth, with the inside being a mix of the Underworld/Fae, I've gone with a real world model for the physical reality of the setting. As for the Theology, in the fashion of the major, real-world religions, the setting assumes a monotheistic Creator. The Creator is both outside of the physical reality of the world, and the persistent cause of it. From this axiom, the rest of the setting will be derived.

Good, Evil, Law, and Chaos

This will hopefully be a brief and concise treatise on alignment. The metaphysical forces of Law and Chaos are synonymous with Good and Evil. What obeys the Laws of the Creator is Good, which breaks them is Evil. Where it get's muddy is in mankind, who think to redefine Law as they see fit, mimicing the Fall. It is here that laws and Good can be in opposition. In human terms, lawful and chaotic refer to one's dispotion toward the way in which man structures power. A great city may be incredibly lawful in disposition, but their decadence causes them to stray from Law and Good, while a tribe of barbarians may value their freedom and lawlessness, but still conform the Law. Thus on the traditional two-dimensional alignment grid, Good and Evil represent the adherence or rejection of the metaphysical Law of the Creator, while Lawful and Chaotic represent a person's ideology.

Creation

The universe was spoken into being; the words of the first order are the deepest magic in existence. The two chief components of reality are form and matter. Before the type which is mankind ever walked the earth, fleshed with matter, the form of man existed as the prototype within the laws of nature. All that has, does, and can exist in the material world has existed since the instant of Creation, in the world of forms. These primordial forms are the limitting factor of alchemy.

Creatures of Form

The first creatures exist only as form. Initially, there were two types: one type with free will, and one type without. The Primordials are without free will, and their existence limits the mutability of reality and its laws. Endowed with free will are The Mal'akh, the agents of the Creator. Those loyal to the Creator only executed the use of their free will once, during The Fall. The Fallen, or Shedim, are intrinisically Chaotic, however their individual goals aren't necessarily evil, in common sense.

Parallel to the Mal'akh and Shedim are the Primordials and the Old Ones. The Old Ones are a biproduct of The Fall. Some Primordials were destroyed in the War of Forms, and the last Mal'akh to fall tried to restore those that perished. It can be argued that she succeeded, however, those she restored were now different. She tried to piece them together, but could not remember all their true aspects. While it cannot be truly said that she was able to create, she had performed the first act of alchemy. It is still argued what her exact crime was (defiance or failure are the main claims), but many believe that one of her titles, The Blind Idiot, points toward the truth of her fall.

The Mal'akh, Shedim, Primordials, and Old Ones will be further detailed in their own post, as well as in the descriptions of other creatures.

Creatures of Form and Matter

While the forms of all Creation existed within their prototypes since the beginning, it would take the passing of time for their types to stochastically emerge in the material. Every snake exists within it's formal prototype, but materially only some exist, some are extinct, and some are yet come; the same is true for every beast, plant, fungus, mineral, etc... Aeons would pass before stars fused gold within their cores, but the form of gold always was. While this is also true of mankind, they were uniquely gifted with both Free Will and Reason, directly by the Creator. However, man was a relative late arrival to the material world.

Ancients, Beasts, Humanoids, and Idols

It is within creation that we will begin to see the first glimpse of true Evil. Beasts are a natural part of Creation, having existed formally before being clothed in matter. All of Creation is Good by its Essence. Conversely, nothing that is Evil was created; it is in the twisting, the perversion of Creation by the Shedim that serves as the basis of Evil. It is inherently lesser, and is destined to lose, but that doesn't preclude it's interference in causing more to fall, joining the Shedim in their fallen state.

Some Shedim entered into the material world, clothing themselves in flesh as they saw fit. They are the most ancient material beings in existence, and are capable of defying Laws of Nature. A few of these are known but many more are suspected to exist. Most notable among the Ancients are The Dragon, The Sphynx, The Leviathan, The Behemoth, The Naga, The Titan, The Coatl, and The Phoenix. Many of these have produced offspring, and as such are more common, each Ancient serves as the material prototype for any they sired. Finally, it is rumored that some Shedim entered the material world to protect man, in an attempt to atone for their defiance. There is no evidence to substantiate this but for the tales handed down in various tribes across the vastness of the world.

 As stated before, human's arrived relatively late to the material world, however their coming was well known by the Shedim. In attempt to mock their emergence from from primate stock, many Ancients began guiding their own alchemical creatures into being, twisting beastial forms into upright abominations. Some were created out of Pride, thinking they could shape something greater than the Creator, while others were born of Wrath, imbued with the sole purpose of destroying humankind. There are many such abominations, but the most commonly known include Orcs, Goblins, Gnolls, Snakemen, Lizardmen, Sahuagin, Deep Ones, Incubi/Succubi, Ghouls, and Elves.

Finally, some Shedim learned to manipulate matter without fully entering into it. A common tactic was entering into great monoliths. They would cause the stone to vibrate, and the structure of some stones allowed for precise manipulation, to the point they began to communicate with humanoids (and subsequently humans). Methods of communication have since become more sophistacted, but the primacy of idols still holds a great sway over humans who encounter them.

Humans, Constructs, Monsters, and Undeath

When the first true Humans, Homo sapiens sapiens, were gifted with Free Will and thus differentiated from their Predecessor, Homo sapiens idaltu, history as we know it began. There was much competition betwen humans and the lingering subhumans, but it was inevitable that humankind would emerge dominant between the two groups. However, their ability to survive and surpass the humanoids, many of which existed for ages before Homo erectus first strode on two feet, was quite unexpected and perplexing. Humans were behind in magic, technology, and sheer numbers, yet somehow they not only survived, but thrived to the point of dominating the other humanoids. A common explanation was divine intervention and aid from the Mal'akh, but a conventional understanding of metaphysics makes this impossibile; most sages now agree that it was with the aid of Ancients and Idols that Humanity survived the onslaught of those early years.

Being like their Creator, Humans have the natural proclivity to create (discover would be more accurate). Aside from art and technologies, eventually Humans tried to create life for themselves. They were at best partially successful in only one of three major methods. 

Humans shaped the first Golem from mud and dust, and imbued them with motion through Sygaldry, literally overwriting the Words of Creation. This magic was forbidden, and likely taught to Humans by some form of Shedim. Having pity on the golem, the Creator imbued this first generation with Free Will and Reason. These new beings, the Golm, have coexisted mostly peacefully with Humanity; the edge cases being conflicts with Humans who continued to create golem. Other magic can briefly animate objects, thus it is only Sygaldry over life which is condemned.

The synthesis of beasts was Man's second folly of creation. Through alchemical processes, myriad beasts would be broken from their form, and twisted into something blasphemous. Most of these proved unstable; some would die almost instantly, others in a long suffering decline, and still more devolving into near-formless, undulating masses of substance. However, some combinations were hearty and stable (many even able to reproduce sexually), and man began to produce these monsters en masse as weapons of war. Some of the most common are basilisk, centaur, cockatrice, griffen, manticore, owlbear, pegasi, and worg. Two through lines in these alchemical monstrosities: any creature made with with Humans or Humanoids are maliciously destructive, and anything tameable required at least half of its stock to be herbivorous.

Finally came Man's attempt to cheat death. While many humanoids practiced some form of rudimentary necromancy, it was Humanity that perfected undeath. The mere animation of corpses, such as zombies and skeletons might be the oldest magic still in practice. Ghouls have existed independantly of necromancy since they were first borne of Gluttony, and the alchemical secrets of mummification were discovered by the snake men, and have thus been ruled by serpent mummy lords for millenia. Also of note are the flesh golem, however their classification as undead debatable. The largest point for their undead status is their tendency to disobey orders.

Humanity's first new addition to the ranks of undead was the wight. This new evil is more than the mere animation of a corpse, it requires the bound soul of a human. The wight has forsaken its free will to eternally power its body. Then came the incorpeal undead. Banshee, ghosts, shades, and wraiths are all the forms of dead humans who refused to depart the material world upon death, and are thus eternally trapped in it. They have a much more natural ability to manipulate the physical world than the Shedim, and material beings cannot interact with the incorporeal without magic. 

Despite their many innovations, none even compare to the Vampire or the Lich. Documentation of vampire only emerged within the last thousand years or so, but some verifiable reports speak of vampire claiming to be older than that; though, the veracity is uncertain. Much else is known about them, including how to destroy them. From a metaphysical standpoint, the Vampire is still a material being, but it has overcome the limitations of human form. It is the only undead that can pass as a living human without the further aid of glamours. In the memoirs of Prince Khashayar II of Meskin, the author claimed to be a vampire and stated he had full lucidity when his hunger was sated.

Many consider the Lich little more than a thought experiment, since there isn't a single account of a verified lich in human history, yet to others, the vast documentation detailing the process of becoming a lich (all of which detail virtually the same ritual) is evidence enough. The sacrificial cost is terrific, but the promise of eternal life while retaining free will and reason is tempting enough that several attempts at lichdom are well documented. To quickly undue any illusions of immortality the reader might have, know that one of the many sacrifices that every single text on the lich mentions is an "infant born but still tethered".

Religions of the World

For a pure definition, Religion is that which is justly owed to God; in the case of this setting, that is the Creator. I have my biases, and you will have yours, so I'll excuse myself further elaboration and get to describing the common ways in which the Humans of this fictional world practice the Virtue of Religion. 

While paganism, in it's litany of localized forms, is technically the most commonly practiced form of religion, it's influence pales in comparison to the two main religions of Eurasia. In the Roman Empire, Sol Invictus is the dominant religion. It is monotheistic, and its central tenant is that God continually incarnates as a Human, and thus man must engage in an eternal quest to find God and elect Him as emperor. In the times between the death of one emperor, and the naming of the new one, the empire is ruled more independently by the Kings. About 100 years ago, the Eastern half of the empire split from the West over issues of succession. The West advocated for the primacy of a single king appointed by the previous emperor in their absence, while The East sought to maintain the balance of the Kings. Within both the Eastern and Western Empires, the practice of other religions is legal but discouraged, and aside from Paganism, the most commonly practiced are Judaism, the Christian Cult, and the Mithraic Cult.

In Asia and North Africa, Gnostic Zoroastrianism has caught like wildfire. Worship of Ahura Mazda is manditory in the Persio-Arab Empire, however the ferocity of the Mohammedans has granted them a exemption from rituals, though tithes are still required. The religion is less centralized in comparison to Sol Invictus, with the kings serving as the high priests, and their vassals as the local priests. This decentralization proves incredibly beneficial for both the happiness of the governed and in turn their economic output. However, it also is a breeding ground for heresies, the worst of which result in civil war. When two priests point at eachother and shout "Angra Mainyu", the common course of action is to let the crucible of battle determine which had the truth of it.

Magic

The various types of magic have been referenced a few times till this point. Onomancy, Necromancy, Biomancy, Alchemy, and Sygaldry are the chief forms of ritual magic, but a more immediate magic exists: spells. Though many names have existed, variations of the phrase "casting spells" is the most common; the term spell was likely derived from "expelling spirits". Most magic is more akin to composing and performing music; casting spells is jazz. Every spellcaster must develop their own idiosyncratic language to manipulate their form and bind the forms of spells to them. Using their body as the medium, they 'cast' the bound spell into the material world, causing fantastic effects. As for what spells really are, it is quite the debate, but a common theory is that spells are lesser Mal'akh and Shedim. Another common belief is that a spell is just a precomposed sentence formed of the words of the first order. Despite their mystery, spells are the most commonly practiced magic.

As for the others, most are practiced in secret, but a few institutions dedicated to the study of magic still exist. Chief among them is the Academy of Alexandria. Egypt was long regarded as the realm of Sorcerer-Kings, and their mastery of magic is owed to the greatest library in existence. A few smaller organizations exist, like the Pythagoreans and the Magi, but the main transfer of magical knowledge is from wizards taking on apprentices, instructing with little more than the few devices and library of books collected in a lifetime.

Chief Historical Departures

Naturally, the introduction of magic and the fantastic into our own reality would inevitably create such a vastly different history, that it's absurd to even assume that the place names would be the same, let alone anything else. However, fuck it. Dragons exist and so does Warsaw.

As you might have surmised reading the religion section, that would be one such major historical departure. In this setting, Maxentius' body was recovered from the Tiber, but his shade slew Constanine I in his sleep, 2 days after he entered Rome. Thus the Edict of Milan was never declared. Christianity would remain the religion of the catacombs until it was legalized in 543, during the Justinian Plague. While their priests ability to repell the hordes of undead garnered them a swathe of new followers, the New religion of Sol Invictus had already been practiced within the empire for 200 years.

As it was implied, the Library of Alexandria was never burned. The implications of this are vast and far reaching. Alexandria grew to be the wealthiest city on the Mediterranean. The Parthian Empire Flourished due to increased diplomacy between the Egyptian Sorcerers and the Persian Magi. This delayed the fall of the Parthians, and in turn the rise of the Sassanids. When the Arab conquests began, the Empire was at it's height and able to force a stalemate and eventually incorporate the Arabs into a unified Empire, directing their conquest toward the blasphemous Romans.

Fin

I've been writing this for hours and I'm just eager to be done for a while, so I am going to post this now, but I will periodically edit it and check for typos/clarity; sorry in advance! Anyhow, thanks for making it to the end.

Europe, Asia, & North Africa 6mi Hex maps.

After much searching, I've found a great hexmap of Eurasia and North Africa:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120330180846/http://admc.pbworks.com/w/page/1397219/FrontPage

All credit for the original goes to ADMC/Ville Makkonen. From his map, I generated the map below. 

However, the size of this map brings hexographer to a slog, and it's also way beyond the scope of the territory necessary for a hex crawl. So, I further divided this map into smaller countries and regions, as you can see below.

The maps will need a lot of love and labor, but hopefully one of these provides a jumping off point for some of you to create a new campaign!

.hxm files:

https://mega.nz/file/vahBTJ5Q#-ySP01LfAOfYhsuY2LreyArQ2W1v-cR508YjChzHuuA

Worth noting:

The orignal map's hexes had a scale of about 27 miles, but I treated them simply as 24 mile hexes. The child map is assumed to be 6 mile hexes. It seemed more worthwhile to have a simple to use map rather than one of greater accuracy.

The maps have a lot of lines on them. This is because I use ACKS and wanted to outline the rough territories that would serve as the various domains of the world. You can delete them in hexographer, or you can open the .hxm file with notepad and delete every line of text that starts, "line    political", which only takes a minute. If you want to keep the lines, I'll elaborate on their meaning.

• Blue- Duchy Borders
• Purple-Principality Borders
• Lavender - Kingdom Borders
• Thin Red - Language Border (I also treat these as Kingdom Borders)
• Thick Red - Religious Border

The Language and religious borders are based on the work done in the original map. The creator made additional maps, which I used to draw the major borderlines. You can read his explanation in the link posted.

Finally, you will notice some oddities and errors with the maps. Chiefly, most of the text labels have shifted away from their corresponding cities. Overwelmingly, they are a few hexes Southwest of where they should be. This is just an artifact of generating the child map; I suspect it's due to the text being fixed to pixel locations while the hexes are their own objects, and something in the scale conversion shifts them incorrectly. Anyhow, it will be a minor nuisance and I apologize for the inconvenience. Additionally, Germany and Scandinavia have a lot of odd characters in their names. It seems like Hexographer processes umlauts differently than it used to, or at least thats my assumption.

I think that about covers it. Oh, except for the fact that theres no Britain map in the file. That's becuase this guy has already made a map far better than one that would be generated from the ADMC map

https://darkagebritannia.weebly.com/

Cheers!

Gameable Media: Savage Sword of Conan #1

I've had the good fortune to stumble upon the treasure trove that is Savage Sword of Conan. I used to read a lot of comics about a decade ago, but I mostly read modern books by Vertigo, Image, and Dark Horse, with the occaisional, exceptional super hero story. This was about 5 years before I got into TTRPGS, and had made an unfortunate judgement call about Conan the Barbarian before ever consuming any related media; muscled, half naked men with swords just seemed lame, and proper fantasy was about sprawling epics.

I fucked up.

This stuff is great. Too often does fantasy inspire me to add to my precious setting, but Conan inspires me to write gameable content.

 I'm going to attempt to read every issue of Savage Sword of Conan, and with each issue, I'll give my opinion on whether I found a story to be: 

• an enjoyable or worthwhile read
• having evocative or particularly outstanding panels of art
• inspiring for designing an adventure, dungeon, or encounter (this will be cetner-aligned for folks who just want to scan for some quick ideas)

Without further ado, my review of Savage Sword of Conan #1

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Right off the bat, this issue knocks it out of the park. The cover with Conan and Red Sonja slaying skeletons is great

Curse of the Undead Man

An adaptation of Robert E. Howard's Mistress of Death, with art by John Buscema

This story is fucking great. Go read it now. Descriptions of the art and what to steal will give away too much.

The art is top knotch. The backgrounds evoke the seediness of the setting. It's both full of a variety of background characters and cramped architecture, furthering the feeling of danger with the decadent city. The characters are well drawn and dynamic, and shadow is used very effectively. If I had to make a criticism, Buscema's closeups are inconsistent. But given the breakneck pace which old comics were drawn, this is an absolute non issue. 

If you need art to inspire your descriptions for the rough underbelly of a decadent city, or imagery of a cultic ritual chamber, give this story a scan.

As for gameable content, this story is the quintessential adventure. An attack by thugs which seeds further mystery, the party organizing in a tavern before venturing out to stop some cultists, and a solid twist which can give DMs nice opportunity for a brief recurring bad guy. Naturally, your players are unlikely to ditch a potentially valuable ring out of superstition like Conan does, so some creativity is required. Sometime after finding Costranno's body with the missing finger, I would have the players hear a rumor about someone found murdered who was trying to sell a ring attached to a finger.

Furthermore, I love the set of the final encounter. Making dynamic rooms is always a great idea, and I would just rip this room as is and put it in a dungeon. A pit with a monster is a great hazard for players to try and interact with, and the mechanism for lowering the cover is something for the less combat capable characters to interact with.

Red Sonja

I'll be much briefer with this one. The story is fine and the art definitely succeeds at presenting an oppulent palace for a decadent despot. If you like scantally drawn women, and pulp that's closer to exploitation then you'll get a kick out of it.

What I'd rip from this are the characters. King Ghannif and his albino bodyguard Trolus make for a dynamic pair. I would make the king a good source of questing opportunity, and possibly a liege for high level play. He should get on their nerves and be a bit despicable, but powerful and materially beneficial to the players. Trolus is where you maintain the sympathy. He should be capable, respectable, and likeable, enough so that his allegiance to the king makes players more likely to ally. He's the adventurer that survived some dangerous delves and military campaigns, and was smart enough to retire early into a luxurious life instead of carving his own domain.

Blackmark

If you want some inspiration for a post-apocalyptic fantasy or a sword & planet locale, this story is worth a read. It's not a full comic; more of a comic, short story hybrid. A couple of panels depict interesting environments and some unique armor design. I also like the weird mutant horse.

The Frost Giant's Daughter

Another Robert E. Howard adapatation, with art by Barry Smith.

I had a feeling that the adaptations are going to be the strongest of the stories, but this was my least favorite of the issue. While it isn't near the level of Curse of the Undead Man, it was enjoyable enough that reading it wasn't the slog that some stories in later issues are. My main complaint is the fight with the giants is a non-scene. Conan had just been in a battle, then trekked for miles through a cold vastness, and proceeds to easily cut down two giants on the same page that they ambush him. However, the strangeness of the ending sort of saves the story. 

The art seems to improve as the story progresses, with the backgrounds becoming more than just empty arctic wastes as the pages turn. It isn't nearly as dynamic as Buscema's art, but it doesn't detract from the story.

I would just straight up steal this story and use it as a wilderness encounter. After the party emerges victorious from a battle, I'd have the daughter approach the heroes and goad them to give chase, maybe saying she's been watching the bandits/orcs/etc... that the party just defeated and knows where they stash their treasure, and then proceeds to lead them into an ambush (she had been planning to lure those you just killed until your party showed up).

---

On the whole, I think you should at least check out this issue, if only for the first story.

5e Features as Magical Weapons and Items - Fighter

Fighter

Heartseeker - A weapon that would rather kill than wound. It scores a critical on attack rolls of 19 & 20. (Improved Critical)

Ring of Swiftness - This ring is forged from a mercury alloy, and bestows greater speed and reaction time to its wearer. While worn on the right hand, it allows it's wearer to act more swiftly; they can take another action when they choose, which is resolved at the end of a round. This ability is lost until the ring is worn for one hour on the left hand. (Action Surge)

Amulet of the Still Wind - An ancient talisman bestowed with the Wind of Peace. Once per day during combat, when the wearer forgoes attacking and moving, they recover 1d12 hit points. (2nd Wind)

5e Features as Magical Weapons and Items - Cleric

Shield of the Sun - This shield stores sunlight and releases it an a bright flash when the bearer is in danger. When the shield is charged, the bearer can force a reroll on a successful attack made within 10 feet. (Warding Flare)

Chromatic Staff - A stave carved from the wood of the world tree; it is imbued with the chaos of uncreation. At dawn, it's bearer can meditate on one of the forces of nature, and attune it to heat, cold, or lightning. Instead of bludgeoning damage, the staff deals damage of the attuned type. (Divine Strike: Nature)

Lightning Chain - This chainmail crackles with static electricity. When struck by a metal weapon, the bearer can release the stored charge into the attacker, dealing 2d6 lightning damage. (Wrath of the Storm)

Mace of Sympathy - A mace made entirely of metal, yet incredibly light. Some legends claim that these maces were forged from the Caduceus. When casting healing spell while bearing the mace, the user is healed a number of hit points equal to the spell's level (Blessed Healer)

Relic of the Conqueror - A finger bone from Ihdon, Lord of War. After spending ten minutes in prayer holding the relic, you receive Ihdon's boon. For the next two hours, you can invoke the boon to add +10 to an attack roll of you or your allies. Each time you invoke Ihdon, it has half the chance of succeeding as the previous invocation. (War God's Blessing)

Gravedigger's Lantern - The light from this bullseye lantern is not for the living. Shining it on a creature draws it closer to death. The next attack that strikes the target deals twice the amount of damage. Once the lantern is opened and the light is shone, it loses this property until it is left for one hour under moonlight. (Eye's of the Grave)

Codex Benedictum - The blessed book of knowledge has literally countless pages. If you spend 10 minutes searching through the pages, there is a 3-in-6 chance of finding information on whatever topic you are currently trying to find. (Knowledge of the Ages)

Diplomacy and Collaberative Worldbuilding

Matt Colville's video on Diplomacy inspired what has been my favorite DMing endeavor: using a game of Diplomacy with your players to create the history of the setting.

First, pick a map to play. I recommend playing on VDiplomacy.com as they have a large variety of maps to play supporting 2 players up to 50. I chose Sail Ho II, seen below.

Next, assign characters or races to the factions. For our game: West was Dragons, North was 'Gods', East was Amazonians, South was Giants. If you wanted to go for a smaller fantasy dynamic, you could go Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, and Humans, or any other creatures/races/factions that you want to establish as players in the steady-state world. 

Once you've assigned the factions, start playing. I highly recommend playing in character. Our game had some gems like: 

When the game is over, you'll have a map showing the different factions, and their regions and control, as well as several still neutral regions that can represent the frontier.

And voila! You now have a world map with a history your players are interested in because they made the history! You may even find that players make characters allied to the faction they played as, creating an awesome opportunity for drama.

And for extra credit, you can do what I'm about to do in my next series of post: track all of the units year by year and make them into NPCs or characters from ancient myth and legend, depending on when you set the campaign in relation to the war.