I've read pretty much every Conan book Howard ever wrote, and to be honest, that bare chested axe swinging stupid muscle bound brute of a cliche doesn't belong to Conan. Conan was cunning, a thief as well as a warrior, and often wore mail, the loincloth is a myth. Howard said he moved like a panther. He could read multiple languages. The cliche is assumed mostly by people who have never read the books, and at best have only ever seen the movies, which are pale shadows, really. Caricatures. That cliche would hold more truth if you were talking about John Norman's Gor, which I could never get into. Barbarian =/= savage or brute.

I'm totally getting a sword and sorcery vibe from what I've seen of Skyrim. Frank Frazetta influence for sure, especially in the landscapes. Would love to see Elric as an influence. There's no reason why they can't take sword an sorcery as an influence, and yet make it something totally their own, and fully TES.

I for one am look farword to being a strapping nord carving my way through skyrim, I would like to grow my beard as I level, lol.
(it if can't happen In game I'll just have to have it happen in real life)

What's wrong with dragon?! How are they any less cheesey than magic?! Or wood elves?! It all a mater of PO and how it's represented I think this may be a refreshing outting for the dragon.

LOl of course they had diferent aesthetic they diferent place and planes of existence you point is less than moot.

You can already cut of all the armor related skills, they ve been cut off. Now you switch to a plate armor from unarmored the same way you change shirt, istn t that awesome ?

The problem is that we won t stand a chance to speak multiple languages, the thief /warrior / brute is Conan, it reeks brute all the way, howard was skeany and being Conon was his alter ego. You don t butcher many people and survive adverse situations or even being skinny as an terminal sida or cancer person.

There s nothing wrong with dragons.
At least when used as they should in a smart way cause they are always (unless described otherwise) smart.
And what bethesda is presenting so far, is what any third rate cookie cutter would do. Notice the so far.
There s already a strong parallel between dragon and Oblivion gates.

While I know Todd has mentioned that he loves the Conan saga, that doesn't mean Skyrim is going to look like a set from Conan (and not many of the sets from either movie actually apply to a northern theme - his home village, the slave wheel, but after that he goes south. Conan the destroyer has the Ice tower, but it too is not centered in the hard northern mountains. I guess I don't associate the Conan saga with a Nordish theme, Conan is very much Hollywood and goes anywhere/everywhere, where the Nordish themes are quite specific. There is some Nordish influences in Conan, but the similarities end there.

I have alot of confidence that Joel and his team are building something wholly unique and totally awesome, and I don't think we will be making strong Conan comparisons once we get "in-world". The reverse may actually take place where we start comparing Conan to different places in Skyrim. I don't think Conan had anywhere near the level of imagination and depth put into 4 hours of movies as compared to what is being put into Skyrim, but thats IMHO. All speculation right now, but I don't suspect we will have any "retro" worries, more like worries about finding M'aiq or how the heck to speak Dragon!

I agree, and you are very right about Conan. Though the characters in Howard's stories can be very two dimensional, his barbarians were always very intelligent. Kull I think more so than Conan, as Kull was into philosophy, or rather Howard was at the time, and that influenced his Kull stories. Incidentally because I've read a lot of Conan stories--I think Red Nails is my favorite--I am so not looking forward to the new Conan movie.

Not to mention the radiant story system, which again, should add huge replayability.


Bare chested, axe wielding barbarians, cleavagey wenches,...Yay!! right up my street

Is it just me or did this post make no sense at all?

Um nope. I`ve re-read several times and still can`t figure it out

I think the point was that Conan is a brutish/physically powerful character because Robert E. Howard was "skinny"(?) and Conan was his escapist fantasy. In terms of physical health, I believe Howard suffered from a weak heart, but was elsewise pretty robust and he was certainly interested in boxing... if his "weakness" in comparison to his characters must be discussed at all, it would be his possible depression, his dread of mortality, and his unfortunate personal circumstances that were most telling. He committed suicide aged 30, by the way...

But when I (and I believe, the OP) talk about Conan and sword & sorcery themes, I think we're mainly talking about aesthetics and perhaps a lack of modern "fashion" or political correctness in how a world and its characters are presented; the tavern wenches shamelessly sixualised, the heroes larger-than-life, the land harsh and savage but vast and beautiful as well.

Sorry didn't make it very clear, Kinda meant both.

It's also not a given that you need to be a muscle bound one syllable speaking brute who's only tactic is "uuuuuhhhhh, me kill now". A cliche of the worst kind. All my player characters are alter egos, whatever their class or background. Are they all polar opposites of my real self?

@Swidhelm: Yeah, Hollywood's already proven that they can't do Conan. I think I'll avoid it.

The only picture I could find that seems to do Conan justice: http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l584/Rivendell139/Conan.jpg.

I was overjoyed when I read that Todd was a fan of Conan. I know he also mentioned it influencing Morrowind, but since he mentioned Gladiator in the same breath (which is also good) I assumed he meant the movies, which while fun, don't portray the original character.

The OP made a mistake I think, though, in referring it to high fantasy. I'm fairly certain it's low fantasy, as in magic is rare and mixed with real or at least debatable phenomena like medicine and ESP, monsters are usually prehistoric holdovers, like dinosaurs for dragons, pre-humans for trolls and orgres etc.

What most people don't know is that what has become a simple cliche was actually some of the earliest fantasy writing. The first Conan story was published in 1932, as opposed to the Hobbit in 1937. Howard also wrote plenty of "lore" to flesh out his characters, stretching across aeons, describing the rise and fall of civilizations and the evolution of entire species and races.

Most people here have touched on the complexity that actually existed in the character, even if the writing style was simplistic compared to Tolkien. But Tolkien was a professor, and Howard was a boxer. He wrote his stories to contain all the momentum of a fist fight (or sword fight). He was also a contemporary and pen pal of Lovecraft, who is above the reading level of most fantasy authors today. I've tried other authors like Fritz Lieber (which is high fantasy) and although enjoyable, they just seem forced and fanciful. It's hard to visualize stories that are dripping with their own mythology so much that everything does become cliche, and the world seems much more connected and modern despite the setting, just because of how people talk and act, like they've got a telegraph connected to the evil wizards tower, or every kingdom over the horizon.

I would love an "old school" type Skyrim like the OP suggests and I think that Skyrim will approach that. There is absolutely nothing wrong with sticking to convention in rpgs, even with TES, but the story is what will make the game either great or bland. Oblivion wasn't bland because it was more conventional, the bland story and main quest made it bland imo. I hope that Bethesda can write a great story/main quest within a conventional setting without having to resort to going the easy route and creating all sorts of inovative gameplay(kewl) elements in an attempt to cover up a bland story. Writing an engaging story is surely more difficult than creating unique elements for the sake of newness, but Bethesda has the talent and time to give it all to us.

It wouldn't mind having it in the collector's edition but it just seems to me that the feel of Morrowind, and Oblivion isn't "Tight leather thong wearing big briasted barbarian" like on the cover of Arena.

That I am well up for. Arena always reminds me of http://static2.channels.com/thumbnails/Mr-Dekay-Swords---Serpents---NES---Video-Review-e11424594.png cover style for the nes. pretty hard dungeon crawl that was. Me and my bro played that 2player co-op back in about 1990