The Thin Veneer

Community rules

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

These are the rules which govern all OOC communication and interaction. We take these rather seriously, so please ascertain that you have read them.

1. Be a reasonable adult

Both literally and figuratively. To participate on this server, you must be eighteen years or older, and you must compose yourself a little. We’re all adults here, and we can resolve most matters like adults. The ability to communicate kindly, transparently, and with tempered emotions is a hard prerequisite to being on this server.

Getting started

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hello and welcome! This page will contain all the information you need to get started with role-play on The Thin Veneer.

Join the Discord

TODO

Join the server

TODO

Make a whitelisting ticket

TODO

Don’t hesitate to ask questions

TODO

Familiarise yourself with the rules

TODO

Resources

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instead of paraphrasing lore, the sources are presented here for your perusing. You will need a torrenting client to download these files. Transmission is a good, simple-to-use, open source client.

Server information

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

In a nutshell

The Thin Veneer is a server for Conan Exiles Enhanced. Our chief focus is role-play in the Hyborian Age, the setting of Robert E. Howard’s stories and of the game itself. The RPG books of Modiphius Entertainment are used as the primary source of lore, and upholding the atmosphere is an important component of the server.

Conflict is a central component of role-play on the server. However, to reduce the friction of conflict as much as possible, we frame it entirely through the lens of collaboration. Conflict is two players building a story together, not two players butting heads. This presupposes a level of maturity from all participants, which we will moderate for.

Server settings

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

While the server maintains relatively vanilla settings, some things have been adjusted to improve the experience from a role-playing perspective. This page is unlikely to be comprehensive, but it hopefully covers the most important changes.

Unmodded

The following changes are to the core game, unrelated to any installed mods.

Hunger and thirst

The rate of hunger and thirst have been drastically reduced. This mechanic would otherwise get in the way during role-play.

Clarifications

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This page contains the server’s interpretations from existing lore sources. These interpretations exist to highlight, elucidate, or disentangle certain aspects of the lore.

Civilisation and barbarism

In his works, Robert E. Howard explores the contrast between civilisation and barbarism. Civilisation is prone to decadence and collapse, in his view. It is cruel, corrupt, depraved in its excesses, and incomprehensibly complex. Barbarians, by contrast, are more vigorous, honourable, and authentic. He depicts a cycle: inevitably a civilisation falters under the weight of its decadence and corruption, and in their fall they are conquered by barbarians. Those barbarians, now having adopted civilisation, will too grow complacent and corrupt in time.

Role-playing rules

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

These are the rules that govern role-play on the server.

1. Always in-character

When you are in-game, you are always in-character, and can be interacted with as such.

There are a few caveats to this:

It would be tedious to walk instead of run most places. When you are running, it may be understood that your character is actually walking in-character.
When engaging in PvE content, your character does not actually kill and re-kill bosses. The exact nature of what your character does can be left vague, or re-interpreted in a verisimilar way.
If all parties agree to let something remain out-of-character, it may remain as such.

There is also an exception:

Whitelisting rules

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

To preserve quality on the server, everyone must make an application to whitelist their character. We try to keep this application process as slim as possible. The whitelisting requirements are listed below.

1. Appearance

1.1 Be human

Your character must be human. There are no playable non-human entities here. This means that your character cannot have fur, claws, horns, tails, non-human eyes or eye colours, et cetera et cetera. Any ‘animal’ feature on your character must be understood as ornamentation or lore-friendly body alterations, such as a horned crown or filed teeth.

Building rules

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

These rules guide the building of settlements.

1. Respect the atmosphere

As per Strive to uphold the atmosphere, you are expected to build in a way that nourishes the ambiance of the Exiled Lands. This means that settlements should be architecturally sound (no breaking the laws of physics), be appropriate for the culture they represent, be functional for the region they are located in, and not contain any elements which are not appropriate for the lore or atmosphere (such as unnatural lighting).

Custom lore

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

There should be very little custom lore on The Thin Veneer. But sometimes, making rulings that have no basis in any source is a matter of necessity. You will find those here.

The serpent bracelets

All within the Exiled Lands wear a serpent bracelet, inventions of the giant-kings to trap humans within. Those who wear a serpent bracelet cannot travel beyond the Cursewall. Additionally, part of their original purpose was to allow open communication between the giant-kings and their slaves. This same magic now allows exiles to communicate freely, regardless of the language they speak. A Shemite speaking their native tongue to a Nordheimer will be understood, even if the Nordheimer has never heard the Shemitish language.

Atlas

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This page contains only a elevator pitches for selected important elements in the lore. Just enough to get you started. For more information, see Resources.

The world

The Hyborian Age is a mythical version of Earth’s past. It takes place some time after the sinking of Atlantis, but long before the beginning of recorded history. In terms of vibes, the world ranges from the Bronze Age up to the Early Middle Ages. It is also a cruel world. It is the stage of war, banditry, blood feuds, executions, slavery, corruption, tyranny, foul sorcery, torture, and widespread social inequity.

Conflict rules

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Conflict is a vital component of the Hyborian Age. Few strangers can be readily trusted, and riches belong to he or she who wields the might to take and keep them.

On The Thin Veneer, conflict should always be an in-character affair. To that end, the below rules describe a collaborative system of conflict. We hope that these rules help separate the in-character from the out-of-character.

All players on The Thin Veneer are understood to have joined this server with a willingness to engage in conflict, and a willingness to be gracious and generous about handling consequences.

Sorcery

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The sorcery system on The Thin Veneer is based on the Modiphius Conan role-playing game found in Resources. If you want to engage with this system, you are expected to read chapter 7 of Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of and chapters 1, 4, 6, and 7 of The Book of Skelos. You need not understand any of the game mechanics presented in these books—the important bits are the lore, flavour, and general ideas conveyed.

Sorcery rules

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

These are the rules which guide sorcery. It is accompanied by the Sorcery article, which explains how the system actually works.

The system is not immensely concrete, and requires a lot of imagination and creative input. If you do not like this, or if you really want a solid and comprehensive system of RPG progression, then we ask you not to make a sorcerer. This system is deliberately narrativist in its approach to role-play.

The Thin Veneer

Community rules

1. Be a reasonable adult link

Getting started

Join the Discord link

Join the server link

Make a whitelisting ticket link

Don’t hesitate to ask questions link

Familiarise yourself with the rules link

Resources

Server information

In a nutshell link

Server settings

Unmodded link

Hunger and thirst link

Clarifications

Civilisation and barbarism link

Role-playing rules

1. Always in-character link

Whitelisting rules

1. Appearance link

1.1 Be human link

Building rules

1. Respect the atmosphere link

Custom lore

The serpent bracelets link

Atlas

The world link

Conflict rules

Sorcery

Sorcery rules

1. Be a reasonable adult

Join the Discord

Join the server

Make a whitelisting ticket

Don’t hesitate to ask questions

Familiarise yourself with the rules

In a nutshell

Unmodded

Hunger and thirst

Civilisation and barbarism

1. Always in-character

1. Appearance

1.1 Be human

1. Respect the atmosphere

The serpent bracelets

The world