Bran Mak Morn, The Doomed King
Bran Mak Morn, The Doomed King by Bill Ward Most new readers approach the work of Robert E. Howard from the perspective of his most famous creation, Conan. As is only natural, they tend to look at Howard’s other heroes in terms of their relation to the Cimmerian, and look for those elements that later make their way into the much more famous stories of the Hyborian age. Kull is perhaps the most well known ancestor of Conan for, after...
Where to Start With Robert E. Howard
Where to Start With Robert E. Howard by Bill Ward Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) was a giant and a father to giants, his literary creations so potent that they have informed popular culture and permeated mass consciousness down to the present day. But their very ubiquity can obscure and deceive – if two people strike up a conversation about Conan, are they actually talking about the same Conan? What’s going on with all of these...
A Black Wind Blowing: Robert E. Howard and The Weird Menace Horror Pulps
A Black Wind Blowing: Robert E. Howard and The Weird Menace Horror Pulps by Ryan Harvey Robert E. Howard was a pulp professional, always searching for new markets to sell his fiction. Unlike his friends in the Weird Tales bullpen, H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, both of whom kept to a narrow fictional style and a handful of magazines, Howard experimented to target different markets. Sometimes the experiments were a bust. He...
Adventures in Fiction: Robert E. Howard
There may not be a more iconic character in fantasy—and particularly sword and sorcery—fiction than Conan the Barbarian. From his first appearance in Weird Tales back in 1932, the character has influenced how we see any iconic sword-wielding hero. And for that, we can thank Robert E. Howard. Over the years a number of posts on our site have been focused on Mr. Howard and his impact not just on literature, but also on the world of...
Robert E. Howard Deep Cuts
Robert E. Howard Deep Cuts By Howard Andrew Jones Robert E. Howard is justly famous for creating Conan of Cimmeria, probably the best known of all sword-and-sorcery characters. But the best of Robert E. Howard doesn’t begin or end with the world’s most famous barbarian, because there’s an astonishing amount of excellent fiction that the talented Texan created over the course of a few short years. Here’s a quick look at some excellent...
The Best Of The Conan Pastiche Novels
The Best Of The Conan Pastiche Novels By Howard Andrew Jones If I didn’t love the writing of Robert E. Howard I would probably never have bothered with any Conan pastiche. As a matter of fact, those Conan novels on store shelves in the ’70s and ’80s made me so skeptical of Conan that I didn’t try Robert E. Howard’s fiction until years later. I wrongly assumed that because the series looked cheap and...
Gen Con Videos, Part 1: Gaming in the Spirit of Robert E. Howard
Oh yeah, we’re still talking about Gen Con. And in fact, we’ve got not one, not two, but THREE videos that we’ll be posting today that were taken at Gen Con 2019. We start off with a seminar entitled Gaming Appendix N: Robert E. Howard and Sword and Sorcery. It’s a great chance to see how our adventure authors integrate the works of a great writer into their game designs, and the impact he had on their creative...
Films of High Adventure: Robert E. Howard
Films of High Adventure: Robert E Howard By Bob Brinkman The wonderful thing about Appendix N is that the authors’ work often leapt off the page and into other mediums – such as film and television. The works of those authors influenced the early days of D&D and continue to do so. Likewise, the adaptations of their works on screens both large and small, have also conjured forth inspiration for gamers since the early days. When...
Real Life Adventures – The Robert E. Howard House
113 years ago, Robert E. Howard was born. Best known for his character Conan, Howard also created Solomon Kane, Kull the Conquerer, and the sword and sorcery genre as we know it today. If you play D&D or DCC, you have touched Howard’s work, whether you know it or not. To honor his birth, we present this special installment of Real Life Adventures, where intrepid writer-adventurer Marc Bruner visits Howard’s birthplace in Texas....
Adventures in Fiction: Robert E. Howard
There may not be a more iconic character in fantasy—and particularly sword and sorcery—fiction than Conan the Barbarian. From his first appearance in Weird Tales back in 1932, the character has influenced how we see any iconic sword-wielding hero. And for that we can thank Robert E. Howard. In honor of Robert E. Howard’s birthday, Goodman Games sat down with author Harley Stroh and asked about the influence REH had on Stroh’s...
Vintage Pulp Mags Back In Stock!
From Action Stories to Weird Tales, we’ve gotten in a huge restock on our Vintage Pulp Magazine collection! Goodman Games prides itself on being an advocate of the pulp movement, and of the Appendix N authors in particular. As you probably know, Appendix N is the list of books that Gary Gygax read when he was creating D&D, and it’s the same list of books that Joseph Goodman read when he was creating DCC RPG. And now you can...
New Pulp Magazines Now Available!
We have some new pulp magazines! Well, technically, they’re old pulp magazines. Still, they’re new to our store, so…we have new old pulp magazines! Goodman Games has always been proud of our connection to Appendix N, the fabled section of Dungeons and Dragons that explained the influences on the game. Dungeon Crawl Classics was founded upon those books, and what they represent in the fantasy genre. And to that end,...