”Conan Unchained!” DnD Module: Is This Best In Life? | The Goblins and Growlers Podcast
Conan Unchained!
Episode Introduction
“The GMs forgot the secret of old modules, and we who found it, are just podcasters… Just podcasters. Not Twitch streamers, not gaming journalists, just podcasters. The secret of old modules has always carried with them a mystery. You must learn their riddle, listeners. You must learn their discipline. For no site, no site in this world you can trust. Not Facebook, not Reddit, not forums. Old modules, you can trust.” - Conan’s father, probably
Brandon and Josh sat down on a Saturday morning to watch the first Conan the Barbarian film, and record an episode about the AD&D Module “Conan Unchained!” Join them as they share their thoughts on the work, expanding out to cover some of their opinions on early wargaming D&D, and general thoughts about the Conan films.
About “Conan Unchained!”: Released in 1984 for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, written by David “Zeb” Cook, with art by Jeff Butler. Conan Unchained! includes four pre-generated characters, the adjusted rules for running adventures in this setting, and a full adventure ranging from levels 10-14.
Topics
- Introduction (0:48)
- David Cook before “Zeb” (1:58)
- Book Vs. Movie as source material (3:33)
- The Setting (square peg, round hole) (5:14)
- The pre-generated characters (and why you should definitely use them) (8:23)
- Stats specific to the setting (9:49)
- Comparing Luck Points to Force Points (13:34)
- Fear checks (14:50)
- Keeping in mind the era this was written, and the system it’s for (16:46)
- Hyboria is significantly lower-magic than Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms (18:09)
- Without the Conan pastiche, this adventure is so-so (20:28)
- If you’re wanting to play something like this now (22:22)
- New monsters! But only technically plural (23:07)
- Detailing the pre-generated character sheets (25:43)
- Maps, Atlases, and similar material (27:32)
- Jeff Butler, the artist for the book (31:17)
Additional Resources
- Conan Unchained! On Archive.org https://archive.org/details/tsr09123cb1conanunchainedlevel1014
- Conan Unchained! Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_Unchained!
- Jeff Butler’s website, featuring a lot of his work https://jeff-butler.com/
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The Goblins and Growlers Podcast is produced by Goblins and Growlers, a Richmond, Virginia-based tabletop-roleplaying-game content and events company dedicated to inclusivity through TTRPGs.
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