Conan: Black Colossus Volume 8

Recently I was at Half Price Books when they were having one of their sales. In this instance, it was 50% off on a Sunday so I picked up this volume of Conan for like a fiver. From what I know, there are already several volumes past this one but I'll have to wait for the store to have it in stock and for another sale. Thankfully one of those criteria will be met tomorrow and I'll have to see if the other is when I go there.

And sorry if I'm pitching out so many of those mini-notes on the Conan books but while I've got some time off, I figured I'd better take advantage of it.

In the collected Conan comics that make up volume 8, Timothy Truman is joined by Tomas Giorello and Jose Villarrubia. This collection features a new telling of Black Colossus which has had a few interpretations over the years.

One of the biggest problems this volume faces is found in the early version with art by John Buscema. His line work is fantastic. It's not that the artists here are bad mind you. The artist who does the chapter breaks, Joseph Michael Linser, is top notch and I'd love to see him fully illustrate some Conan.

John's artwork though, is gigantic in scope. From the first page of the original, where Shevatas a thief stands on an outcropping of rock locking over the ruins of Kutchemes, the tone is set. In the new version... it's almost a little too carton like in scope in terms of the line work. It's too bright, too vivid. John's artwork relies on the almost impossible to appreciate details he puts into it. His pages are often packed with illustrations while the new volume uses pages like they were going out of style.

Now mind you, that may be part of the whole publishing bit. When stories like this are told for today's audience, the intent is usually to collect them which requires a certain number of pages and issues to do so. John didn't necessarily have to worry about that and may have had to ram the page with art.

The good news though, is the new version is actually more... useful for mining for role playing ideas. It has a few things that I've mentioned are useful to gaming before. For example, Conan has work as a mercenary. His patron keeps him around because he's the best swordsman he has. Sounds like something players would fall into with their unusual skill sets.

In addition, dreams are a part of the scenario here. The princess who hires the mercenaries Conan is allied with is haunted by visions of a sorcerer who desires her for his queen. She on the other hand seeks out wisdom in the temple of Mirtra and is provided instruction. Dreams and the messages of the gods working their ways on the campaign may seem a bit high fantasy for a Conan tale but they're in both versions. Visions and omens from the gods and supernatural elements shouldn't be overlooked as ways to hint at things.

Conan also discovers that working for mercenaries means that there are those who might not like a potential threat to the status quo. In this case, he makes an enemy of a fellow officer who causes a bit of trouble for him. Having rivals that the party members can't simply kill right away due to time or circumstance can add a level of pressure to the players as they have more things to take into account when they make their plans.

Speaking of that circumstance, having something ready and on hand to throw into the campaign to keep it moving is always a good idea. When the mercenaries here are at rest, Conan's patron finds out that they're not getting paid and so that leads to the mercenaries sacking the town and then moving on. Be prepared to move the adventure forward and push the players so that they're not always just sitting around waiting for the next mission.

In terms of my biggest fault with the new version here, is something that probably wouldn't hurt to throw in the campaign every now and again just to add that dreaded 'realism' to the setting. In this collection, the sorcerer who survived three thousand years and the sacking of his own city, loses his powers because he was so focused on getting his queen that he failed to abide by the terms of his pact with his demon god Set. Love makes people do crazy things. Throwing some weakness like this into your master villain can make them more interesting and rounded.

The Companies

The Great Company

The White Company

Free Company

Company of Siena

The Company of Cerruglio

Cavalieri della Colomba

Company of St. George

Some interesting names pulled from the Men-at-Arms Italian Medieval Armies 1300-1500. I was a little inspired by the old Condottiere...

Condottiere 1300-1500: Infamous medieval mercenaries

I wish I could say that I'm an armchair scholar. But I'm not. Way too lazy for that sort of research a lot of friends I know who can spout off bits and facts like rapid fire machine guns.

But in the modern era, when I want some information on something, I generally know where to look. For example, if I want a thin book with some, usually, great art in it, about a caste of a certain warrior type, I'm pretty sure Osprey Publishing will have it.

I've long had an interest in mercenaries on the battle field. Part of this is from the old book The White Company, part of it when I discovered Glen Cook's The Black Company, and part of it when I discovered Berserk and Griffin's Band of the Hawk. Each one organized around mercenaries.Other books, like the ones written by Elizabeth Moon, have used mercenaries,

Gaming books, ranging from AEG's own Mercenaries book to various other third party resources, like Born of Blood, have also been around. Although my memory does kick in and say, "Hey dude, the Flaming Fist." Yeah, I remember running many a Forgotten Realms campaign where the Flaming Fist were foes of the party, maily because the party memebers were always after new magic items and the quick way to get such items was to attack any NPC that might have 'em. Ah, the glory days of youth.

I haven't finished the Condotteire yet, but it made me curious enough to see what Wiki had to say on the subject. One thing I found fascinating, is that these mercenary armies, essentially in this book and resource if I'm reading it correctly, crop up to a very unique set of cirumstances. This gets into world building. When plotting out the dominos, make sure you know where things are likely to fall.

In terms of ideas, one of the things I like is the idea of a charter, so that these mercenaries can be identified and are not 'mere' mercenaries, but are condottiere.

Another idea I like is the use of famous mercenaries as statues or cast on gold coins. It doesn't always have to be a local member of the nobility, the religious caste, or some weird monster. Powerful individuals that can take a city get recognized here.

Lastly, I like the idea of collaterali. These individuals werestate official who oversaw the use of payment to the mercenaries. He was the one who oversaw the contracts. He was the one who overwent the 'daily admnistration of the mercenary armies.'  Need to know how many men are in the army? Need to know what type of weapons they have? Need to know what level of training they have? Can't trust the mercenaries to be truthful so you have to have you own man on the inside job there.

And this is true today. In many instances, the stock market is a huge gamble that the goods and services these companies are offering are real. I've read many a 'bust' that happened because the promised goods weren't there. If that is happening know, where we have all of this digital technology about us, imagine how much easier it would be in a place where a famous soldier would be unknown in another country?

To prevent abuse it woudl require mercenaries that fully honored their contracts or collaterali who were so trustworthy that they'd likely be killed. I can easily see a game where a group of players, acting as collaterali, discover that the mercenaries in their lords employee are a sham but have enough strength to take down the players if they're not careful about how they go about reporting it. On the other hand, I've dealt with enough players where I can see them taking the mercenaies side and for a side cut of the gold, selling out the defense of the kingdom by falsifying units, weapons, and training that doesn't exist.

Imagine some lord's horror when the ogres attack and those mercenaries that do show up do so in ratty leather armor with spears instead of on horseback with shinny plate armor and bright lances? The players might have a little explaining to do  at that point.