...since the late 80s have emphasized “The Hero’s Journey”.
And Conan doesn’t have one.
Howard wrote the Conan stories in the 1930s, before “the Hero’s Journey” writing method existed. Joseph Campbell did not begin championing the monomyth until 1944. Lord of the Rings...
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...wasn't published until the 50s. And Campbell did not perfect his cycle until 1987.
It would take a complete visionary with balls of steel to throw the past 40 years of popular screenwriting into the bin and film Conan’s origin the way Howard wrote it; and then...
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"Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of..."
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...Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet." - Robert E. Howard
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Robert E. Howard never wrote Conan's origin tale.
But, many details about Conan's youth and his homeland DO appear in other stories, poems, and essays that Howard DID write, and also in a letter to P. S. Miller in 1936, just months before his death.
More than one mutual in the last few days has asked what D&D is and isn't.
Since my response can't fit into 280 characters, here's a thread.
I'm sure there's something in here (or something forgotten) to piss everyone off; I may add elements later as they occur to me.
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Fantasy Roleplaying, created by Dave Arneson and his players, is the root of D&D.
Blackmoor existed prior to being codified in any D&D ruleset, so a ruleset does NOT define D&D; each edition's rules are what that designer thought D&D "was".
Based on what I've seen and read...
...Blackmoor seemed violent, spooky, unbalanced, and deadly, but it didn't have to be combat-only (Braunstein wasn't).
Players could play anything, as long as the DM agreed. One PC was a vampire-knight, another was the BBEG in Temple of the Frog as well as a PC.