Vincent Darlage has been one of the driving forces behind the new Conan role-playing game, contributing an amazing amount of textual material about Conan's world. But it's not the AMOUNT of material that's so impressive, it's the quality of the material and its faithfulness to the works of Robert E. Howard. Vincent was kind enough to answer some questions Bruce Durham, John Hocking and I put together, and the result is one of the finest interviews we've yet had the honor to post here at SwordAndSorcery.

I think you have what many sword-and-sorcery/Howard fans would look on as a dream job. How did you land it?

I do indeed have a dream job. To be perfectly honest, I am not entirely sure how I landed it. Here is the chain of events, though. When I was 13, I was introduced to Conan when my uncle lent me copies of Conan the Adventurer and Conan the Usurper. He also introduced me to AD&D. This was 1983. I then spent the next 17 years trying to make AD&D work like Conan.

Fast forward to 1999 or so. I had a new computer and a newly acquired connection to the internet not long before DnD 3E came out. I quickly learned how to make a website and put my AD&D campaign up on it – then, through the internet, I learned about the upcoming 3E. When it came out, I converted my campaign world and made a new site. When 3E hit, I realized I could actually create Conan much better than ever before – so I did it, and put the results up on my web page. While my home-brew campaign interested a handful of people, my Conan pages drew a lot of attention.

When Mongoose acquired the rights for Conan the Roleplaying Game, I managed to be in a Yahoo Conan group when Ian Sturrock asked for playtesters. I volunteered. At some point during the Playtest, I was asked if I would write an adventure. I said sure. Then, a day or so later, I was told to scratch the adventure, would I instead like to write a gazetteer. Again, I said yes. That began my career with Mongoose.

You may well have given more thought to the Hyborian world than almost any other human alive. How did you research the material and from where did you draw inspiration to add depth to areas only mentioned or hinted at by Robert E. Howard?

I think there are others who deserve that compliment more than I (Dale Rippke, for one), but thank you. Good question. First, I reread all the Howard stories that mention (even in the most remote sense) anything having to do with the topic I am researching. Robert E. Howard is always the primary source. If I am familiar with a pastiche, I may reread it (if I liked it). I also re-read any comics having to do with that material (I have a complete collection, except for 2 issues of Savage Sword in the 140's range I am having a devil of a time locating). Anything non-REH is then compared to REH to make sure there is nothing contradictory. REH always takes precedence. Anything non-REH is also measured against my own tastes. I also look at REHupa articles and emails.

I also read and use non-Conan REH material. Most of the spells in Across the Thunder River, for example, were taken from the Robert E. Howard story "Black Canaan." Some of the class combinations in Hyboria's Fiercest, Finest and Fallen come from non-Conan REH stories. As an example, the Brawler class combo (combining Soldier and Barbarian classes) came from the REH boxing stories: "Men of Iron," "The Iron Man," "They Always Come Back," and "Fists of the Desert." The adventure I included in Across the Thunder River was heavily inspired by REH's "Worms of the Earth."

Beyond that, most of my research comes from ancient history and mythology. I try to research the history of whatever it is I think may have influenced REH's thinking when he created the culture, location or character.

How much pastiche information gets in to the Conan RPG, and do you take any flack from fans on it? Where do you stand on the whole pastiche issue?

It really depends. There is very little pastiche material in Across the Thunder River, but a lot in Shadizar. Mostly, the pastiche material is limited to locations and a handful of characters. Yes, I take a fair amount of flak for it. I am usually asked why I use pastiche instead of making it up myself, and my response is usually, "why reinvent the wheel?" Anything I invent is just as much pastiche as anyone else's material, so if I like something Roy Thomas created, why not include it?

Where do I stand…. That is complicated. In general, I don't mind pastiches at all. I have read a lot of pastiches: Sherlock Holmes pastiches; Edgar Rice Burroughs pastiches; HP Lovecraft pastiches; Star Trek pastiches; Dune pastiches; Elric pastiches; Perry Mason pastiches; even Dark Shadows pastiches. Certainly I have read plenty of REH pastiches. Some I enjoy, some I don't.

I really don't have a complaint with pastiches in general. My complaint is the complete rewriting of REH material, such as "The Black Stranger/Treasure of Tranicos" material. "The Flame Knife" and other rewrites also irritate me. I don't like the packaging of REH stories with pastiches in the same volume. One does not see Nicholas Meyer's "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" packaged with Doyle's The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. The Ace/Lancer collection did not differentiate between the authors well enough. As a 13 year old, I did not know the difference – I actually thought L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and REH knew each other and lived during the same time frame. Later, of course, the true situation was clearer – and the truth actually upset me.

I would have no problem with CPI publishing the de Camp/Carter pastiches under separate covers, but I hope never to see another pastiche packaged in the same book as an REH story again.

Now, for a bit of hypocrisy on my part: I very much dislike de Camp's reworking of REH non-Conan stories as Conan stories, but I didn't mind it at all when Roy Thomas did the same thing in the comic book. I am not sure what the difference is. Maybe it is because Roy wasn't trying to trick anyone, somehow, and I get the feeling there was some dishonesty in the marketing/packaging of those old rewrites of de Camp's. As a young, ignorant lad of 13-14 years, I was certainly fooled by de Camp, but was never mislead by R. Thomas.

Does your work with the Conan RPG look to be ongoing?

That is the impression Mongoose is giving me. I hope to continue with the line; I very much enjoy working with everyone at Mongoose.

Do you remain involved, and are you working on other Conan products?

I am pretty involved. I visit Mongoose's boards a lot to answer questions and add to the discussions. I am just finishing my 15th sourcebook for them (7 published so far, the rest should be out in 2006, so far as I know).




Are there any that you're especially looking forward to that you haven't been able to create yet?

Yes. I would really like to write a sourcebook on Vendhya, a sourcebook on Turan and a sourcebook on the Black Kingdoms. The first REH story I ever read was "The People of the Black Circle" and it remains my favorite REH story, so I have always wanted to explore Vendhya further. I am also a fan of African adventures, so the Black Kingdoms would be a fun sourcebook to write.

Are there other characters by REH that you would like to convert into RPG supplements?

All of them. I love REH stories. Bran Mak Morn is one of my favorites, along with Solomon Kane, Kull, Cormac mac Art, his boxing characters, his Mythos tales, the Sword Woman (Agnes), and El Borak.

William King has donated his own rules for sword-and-sorcery role-playing to this SwordAndSorcery.org site, and I've seen a number of posts from Conan RPG fans that compare his rules to the Conan game (favorably for both). Have you had an opportunity to compare them yourself?

Yes, I have; I thought it was a well-written piece with some excellent advice in it on how to run that style of game.

I think some overlook the importance of horror on the field of sword-and-sorcery. With your interest in Hammer films you certainly seem aware of it. Do you think your knowledge and appreciation of the field helped you fashion your Conan RPG work?

I credit a lot of my Conan RPG work on my love for horror. I am not sure how much of that shows through in the sourcebooks, but it definitely shows in the games I run. The adventure I included in Across the Thunder River certainly shows it. I am firmly of the mind that the best sword-and- sorcery is horrific. Most of my reading is in the line of horror – mostly classics of horror. Horror writers understand something about atmosphere that other writers often miss, especially the "genre writers" who seem to dominate the S&S field right now. The old Universal films had atmosphere. The Hammer films definitely had atmosphere – a brooding, decadent atmosphere that managed to feel ancient, somehow.

I remember when I was first reading the Conan stories by REH and I felt as though I had discovered some lost scroll, a window on something ancient. It felt ancient and old and true. Few S&S writers capture that, but good horror writers often manage it.

Monsters should be monstrous and beyond our understanding, not glamorized "alternative lifestyles" with the "dark gift" or whatever other cliché one can make out of a vampire these days. I don't like superheroic vamps that battle equally superheroic werewolves, for example. I am not a fan of Anne Rice or her clones, where the vampires are tragic Goth-idols – I want vampires who are monsters – of the grave, smelling like the grave and as mysterious as the grave. This shows through, I think, in that I don't try to make the monsters of the Conan RPG sympathetic or heroic – they are monsters, pure and simple.

Likewise, the connection between REH, HPL, and CAS is often overlooked as well. You number all three men among your favorite writers--do you think your familiarity with their work helped you shape Hyboria?

Yes. Familiarity with REH, of course, definitely helps, including the non-Conan tales. I mentioned before that I like to include elements from his non-Conan stories into the RPG. It gives a "truer" feel to the whole, I think.

Although HPL's stories are bleaker than REH's, familiarity with them gives me a richer background in what REH was writing and how he altered the HPL viewpoint to his own.

CAS was a wordsmith whose writing simply amazes me. I try to include CAS material in the RPG as well. Roy Thomas adapted a lot of CAS into the Marvel Conan comics, which makes those stories all the richer. Kurt Busiek did the same in the Dark Horse comics during the Hyperborean story arc (the Hyperborean characters of Kiliar'ki, Aishti’ana, and Smia’dha are just corruptions of Clark, Ashton and Smith, respectively). Even the Hyperborean citadel name of Aerie is reminiscent of Weird Tales' letter column name (the Eyrie).

Those three authors (REH, HPL and CAS) understood something many modern authors have seemingly forgotten: atmosphere. Their stories drip with atmosphere and decadence. I relish their stories.

You mention Bride of Frankenstein as your favorite Universal film. What about it makes it stand out?

Atmosphere, humor, and art. It is a beautiful film. Pause the film on any frame and it seems like one is looking at beautifully shot photographic art. Each and every second is beautiful and atmospheric. As a whole, it captures an atmosphere that is hard to describe, but definitely horrific (although few would claim the film to be frightening) and… decadent. James Whale did an incredible job with that film. It is macabre and beautiful at the same time – sort of like the monster's bride is herself. The film also has layers of subtext that make it richer than a lot of films made since then.

Do you enjoy any modern-day sword-and-sorcery writers?

Not really, at least not until I discovered your site last year sometime. I enjoy reading Flashing Swords, and I enjoyed Lords of Swords. I just finished George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, which I enjoyed immensely, but I don't know if really is sword-and-sorcery.

Mostly, though, I am disappointed by modern writers. I think that is because modern sword-and-sorcery is written by genre writers or former gamers who think their RPG game would make a great story. I am disappointed because almost no modern-day fantasy writers even try for atmosphere and horror.

Because of that disappointment, I tend to stick to the classics. I am currently reading Rosemary's Baby (I've never seen the film; I try not to see films based on books until I have read the book, and it took me this long to get around to reading the book). I read Doyle, Howard, HPL, CLS, Frank Herbert, Tolkien, Algernon Blackwood, Moorcock, Karl Edward Wagner, Alexandre Dumas, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allen Poe, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Bronte sisters, Leiber, Lloyd Alexander, and so on.

I tried reading one of the new DnD books that came out when 3E came out (The Living Dead by Lain) but I couldn't finish it. It was horribly written, I thought, and completely lacked the horror atmosphere the title implied.

I really don't get into modern writing styles, I think. I also couldn't finish Coleman's Hyborian Age books, either. Every third sentence was a fragment and that just irritated me (Every third sentence. A fragment. It irritated. Me.). Other modern authors try to explain too much (Piers Anthony tends to use a metaphor, then explains the metaphor, as if the audience is composed of idiots who doesn't understand what a metaphor is). Still other modern characters are too angst-ridden. Other modern writers try to hard to create a "flawed" character, giving the character intentional flaws, then constantly pointing them out, supposedly to make them seem more "human." Conan has his flaws, but Howard did not go out of his way to highlight them. Likewise, the characters in the book I am reading now (Rosemary's Baby for those of you paying attention) also have flaws, but the author never highlights them or points them out as flaws. I guess the old way was to show instead of tell. Nowadays, authors want to tell instead of show. Nothing is subtle anymore.

I tried reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and got as far as book two before I got irritated with his obvious "character flaws;" for example: Rand would complain that his buddy was better with women than he was and he wished he could be that good – and in the next chapter, the buddy would have the same thoughts about Rand! Over and over again. I got the point, but Jordan just kept making the point, again and again and again. Just get on with the story, dude.

However, I was enraptured by George R. R. Martin's novel; he is a master of subtlety. What little sorcery appeared in that novel was completely surrounded by an aura of horror. It was refreshing to see that.

Any gamer visiting your home page can't help but be fascinated by what they find. It looks like a fascinating world. How long have your campaigns been ongoing there, and how many players do you have? Do you play by IM or conference room?

I have been playing in my campaign world of Inzeladun since I was 13 years old, so it has been going on for 22 years. It was mostly a table-top RPG, although I ran some online sessions of it (alongside the in-person games) for about three years. I haven't run a game of it since I started working for Mongoose, so it has been on hold for the past couple of years – although a friend of mine still runs it online in a chat room. I don't know how many players he has; three I think, although I am not sure.

I am gearing up, however, to restart my Inzeladun campaign using the Grim Tales ruleset, along with a few items from Conan the Roleplaying Game.

What kind of writing will we be seeing from Vincent Darlage in the future?

I like to hope that CPI will ask me for an Age of Conan novel or short story… Other than that, I would like to write more short stories and novels of my own. However, for the near future, my public output will probably be just Conan the Roleplaying Game sourcebooks. I love writing them. 2006 should showcase some of my favorite efforts, including a sourcebook on Stygia, which I loved writing.