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David Spangler
United States
Washington
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Back just before SPI went under and was taken over by TSR, I was involved with them as a playtester and as a brand-new game designer-in-training. (One of my designs did survive the take-over and was published by TSR as an Ares game, NIGHTMARE HOUSE.) One day just a week after the take over, I was visiting the SPI offices in New York and was shown a new game that had just about been published. All the art work was done, the rules finished, the board was finished; it just hadn't all been printed and assembled. It was a Conan game.
It looked fabulous! Players played one of the great kingdoms or powers of the Hyborian Age, trying to become supreme in the land. Conan was an independent, mercenary figure who belonged to no one player, but any player could try to gain his services to advance his cause for a turn or so (I don't remember all the details, and I never did get a chance to read the whole rulebook). This, if I recall correctly, could be a double-edged sword, as hiring Conan could bring you trouble as well as benefit, and I think it was possible that under certain circumstances he could even topple your throne! (After all, Conan did eventually become a king.)
Anyway, I sorrowed that TSR never chose to publish that game, and it was lost. Ever since I have hoped someone would produce a strategic Conan board game.
And now it looks like my wish has been granted, and the truly wonderful and creative makers of the War of the Ring war game and Marvel Heroes are going to produce it. Given your track record, I fully expect this one to be big, lavish, exciting, fully capturing the lore and wonder of Conan and his world, and a success.
Thanks, fellows! I can hardly wait! 
[oops, forgot to say, I edited this once for a spelling mistake, and then I'm now editing it again to say I forgot to say why I'd edited it in the first place! --sigh...
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David McLeod
Canada
Ottawa
Ontario
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I certainly like the idea of an independant Conan. Sounds intriguing but who knows if the Nexus version will have such a mechanic. Regardless I am looking forward to trying this one out as I'm a big fan of War of the Ring. I also watched Conan the Destroyer a few nights ago which help raise my interst that much more.
Why can't they make good fantasy adventure movies anymore?
(yes, LOTR was great but gimme MORE!)
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Casey Rogers
United States
Unspecified
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Read the original short stores by Robert E. Howard. They're pretty great!
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Dan Blum
United States
Wilmington
Massachusetts
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DSpangler wrote: Anyway, I sorrowed that TSR never chose to publish that game, and it was lost.
Someone sold a prototype copy of this on eBay a few years ago, although it didn't appear as finished as what you saw.
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David Spangler
United States
Washington
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tool wrote: DSpangler wrote: Anyway, I sorrowed that TSR never chose to publish that game, and it was lost. Someone sold a prototype copy of this on eBay a few years ago, although it didn't appear as finished as what you saw.
That's very interesting. If I remember rightly, some playtest copies had been sent out, though I wasn't one of the playtesters for it and never saw one. The copy I saw at the office was the printer's copy for proofing, I think. There were sheets of character cards, event cards, a map, etc.
Mark Herman was the designer, I believe.
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Marc Hermann was the designer but according to his mail a few weeks ago even he has no complete pre-production-copy of the game.
The new game description on the nexus website sounds indeed like the old rules that DSpangler (= Starshaman ?) saw many years ago.
Is there a connection ?
We will see .....
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Hjalmar Österberg
Sweden
Kalmar
Småland
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As Frank says an independant Conan seems to be the case in Nexus November release. Here is a quote from their product catalog:
"The kingdoms of Aquilonia, Nemedia, Hyperborea, Turan and Stygia will fight with armies, magic and gold to subjugate and conquer; but Conan the Barbarian, the greatest Hero of this age, may turn the tide in favour or against any player, treading his sandals on the jewelled throne of a King or bringing victory to his armies as a mighty General."
Sounds great! Ohh - another wait until Christmas (probably longer then so....)
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Kristian Madsen
Sweden
Uppsala
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Interesting info David! Thanks for taking the time to share this with us.
I too am saddened to hear about this great-but-not-to-be game. And by Mark Herman to booth :-(
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David Spangler
United States
Washington
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kgm3219 wrote: Interesting info David! Thanks for taking the time to share this with us.
I too am saddened to hear about this great-but-not-to-be game. And by Mark Herman to booth :-(
Actually, as far as I can tell, Mark is doing very well and still putting out excellent game designs, often for GMT games. He is the one who started the innovation of CDGs or Card Driven Games with his American Revolution game We the People. The sad thing is that he won't have a Conan game as part of his long and illustrious resume of games that he's created over the years.
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Robert Wilson
Canada
Riverview
New Brunswick
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I found a magazine with the ad for this game in it, I uploaded it, lets see if it passes geekmod
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Robert Wilson
Canada
Riverview
New Brunswick
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sigh , what could have been!!
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Posted Fri Feb 2, 2007 5:23 pm
