Musing on Conan themes in RPGs

Bill Zebub

“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
Wanting something hard coded is fair enough, however I feel this is a well-solved problem in RPGs. In a skill based, points based system if a character has invested points in survival skills they don’t have those points available to spend on savoir faire. Similarly, if they have spent lots of points on strength, combat skills, and so on they won’t have points to spend on mental stats and knowledge skills etc.

The only trick is balancing the costs of these in the system and making sure the game requires them in play a commensurate amount.

I was imagining something deeper than skills. Like, resistance to magic or the ability to sense motives. Stuff that can’t really be learned as a skill.

But maybe the skills you pick* determine where you are on the Savagery/Civilized spectrum?

*Except for the fact that I prefer skill-less RPGs now. But it could be traits or whatever.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

dbm

Savage!
I was imagining something deeper than skills. Like, resistance to magic or the ability to sense motives. Stuff that can’t really be learned as a skill.
Point-buy would still cover this for you, assuming there were features to buy.

It’s turning the relationship on its head: you don’t have survival skills and resist magic because you are a ‘barbarian’; you are a ‘barbarian’ because you have survival skills and are resistant to magic.
 

Committed Hero

Adventurer
Another spin-off, similar to this Star Wars thread.

Some themes I would like to see implemented mechanically in a Conan RPG:
  • Off-screen adventure transitions: Instead of playing out all the plot hooks and travel between adventures, I would want to jump from the end of one adventure to the beginning of the next, with some random tables used to explain what happened to my treasure from the last time (because Conan NEVER manages to hold onto it) and how I got there. Mechanically, however, I could see that the quantity of lost wealth affects the results of those random rolls.
Swords of the Serpentine has a good mechanic for the treasure acquisition portion of this idea. You accumulate loot during play in the form of an abstract Wealth rating. You must spend 1-5 points on your lifestyle between adventures (the excess can be used for other things). When you spend towards either extreme you get a Repute rating (Low or High) that functions like temporary Social Class for the next adventure. So someone who doesn't blow a lot of cash gets snubbed by the rich folks - but will be welcomed in dives in the poorer parts of town.
 

Bill Zebub

“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
Point-buy would still cover this for you, assuming there were features to buy.

It’s turning the relationship on its head: you don’t have survival skills and resist magic because you are a ‘barbarian’; you are a ‘barbarian’ because you have survival skills and are resistant to magic.

Sure, but I'm looking for a second order, derived mechanic. That is, you are a 'barbarian' because you picked traits X, Y, and Z, and because you are a barbarian you also get benefit A and penalty B.

It's not by any means strictly necessary, but it adds an implication/consequence to otherwise pure a la carte trait selection, without needing artificial rules (e.g. "class") to constrain that selections.
 

dbm

Savage!
It's not by any means strictly necessary, but it adds an implication/consequence to otherwise pure a la carte trait selection, without needing artificial rules (e.g. "class") to constrain that selections.
But you are proposing a rule that limits that selection. You’re just choosing not to call it a class.
 

Bill Zebub

“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
But you are proposing a rule that limits that selection. You’re just choosing not to call it a class.

No, not at all! If you pick a mix of skills that are..."unusual"...the result might be that you end up on the middle of the spectrum between Savage and Civilized, so you get neither of the advantages, but also neither of the disadvantages.
 

Bill Zebub

“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
Imagine there are four "skills":

Bear Wrestling (Savage +3)
Chanting (Savage +1)
Gambling (Civilized +1)
Parliamentary Procedure (Civilized +3)

Pick your traits and sum the values, where Civilized and Savage cancel out. (So Savage +4 and Civilized +3 together leave you at Savage +1 on the spectrum.). The greater the value in one direction, the stronger the bonuses/penalties.

As I'm describing it it's kind of fiddly, which I don't like, but that's the general idea.
 

I see two things.

No leveling. you are Conan, you don’t start level 1. But your gear and some abilities may change depending on the scenario Conan is facing.

A game oriented for mini adventure. Conan move from an adventure to another. So no boring travelling or downtime. Conan is a pirate captain, is a warlord, or a prisoners, the game can send Conan into various adventure with minimal need to link or explain the shift.
 

pemerton

Legend
Howard stories go into pretty precise and gory detail about strikes and faints and such. The source material isn't particularly "fast paced" from an economy of words perspective. Why should a game be any less detailed?
REH's writing is pretty fast paced, in my view. In this respect it compares very favourably to HPL.

As far as combat is concerned, I think this from Queen of the Black Coast is fairly typical:

And now from the shadows dark shapes came silently, swiftly, running low—twenty great spotted hyenas. Their slavering fangs flashed in the moonlight, their eyes blazed as no true beast's eyes ever blazed.

Twenty: then the spears of the pirates had taken toll of the pack, after all. Even as he thought this, Conan drew nock to ear, and at the twang of the string a flame-eyed shadow bounded high and fell writhing. The rest did not falter; on they came, and like a rain of death among them fell the arrows of the Cimmerian, driven with all the force and accuracy of steely thews backed by a hate hot as the slag-heaps of hell.

In his berserk fury he did not miss; the air was filled with feathered destruction. The havoc wrought among the onrushing pack was breathtaking. Less than half of them reached the foot of the pyramid. Others dropped upon the broad steps. Glaring down into the blazing eyes, Conan knew these creatures were not beasts; it was not merely in their unnatural size that he sensed a blasphemous difference. They exuded an aura tangible as the black mist rising from a corpse-littered swamp. By what godless alchemy these beings had been brought into existence, he could not guess; but he knew he faced diabolism blacker than the Well of Skelos.

Springing to his feet, he bent his bow powerfully and drove his last shaft point blank at a great hairy shape that soared up at his throat. The arrow was a flying beam of moonlight that flashed onward with but a blur in its course, but the were-beast plunged convulsively in midair and crashed headlong, shot through and through.

Then the rest were on him, in a nightmare rush of blazing eyes and dripping fangs. His fiercely driven sword shore the first asunder; then the desperate impact of the others bore him down. He crushed a narrow skull with the pommel of his hilt, feeling the bone splinter and blood and brains gush over his hand; then, dropping the sword, useless at such deadly close quarters, he caught at the throats of the two horrors which were ripping and tearing at him in silent fury. A foul acrid scent almost stifled him; his own sweat blinded him. Only his mail saved him from being ripped to ribbons in an instant. The next, his naked right hand locked on a hairy throat and tore it open. His left hand, missing the throat of the other beast, caught and broke its foreleg. A short yelp, the only cry in that grim battle, and hideously human-like, burst from the maimed beast. At the sick horror of that cry from a bestial throat, Conan involuntarily relaxed his grip.

One, blood gushing from its torn jugular, lunged at him in a last spasm of ferocity, and fastened its fangs on his throat—to fall back dead, even as Conan felt the tearing agony of its grip.

The other, springing forward on three legs, was slashing at his belly as a wolf slashes, actually rending the links of his mail. Flinging aside the dying beast, Conan grappled the crippled horror and, with a muscular effort that brought a groan from his blood-flecked lips, he heaved upright, gripping the struggling, rearing fiend in his arms. An instant he reeled off balance, its fetid breath hot on his nostrils, its jaws snapping at his neck; then he hurled it from him, to crash with bone-splintering force down the marble steps.​

I think @Yora is correct that to emulate this sort of thing, a fast paced resolution system would be desirable.
 

Reynard

Legend
REH's writing is pretty fast paced, in my view. In this respect it compares very favourably to HPL
Everything does.
As far as combat is concerned, I think this from Queen of the Black Coast is fairly typical:

And now from the shadows dark shapes came silently, swiftly, running low—twenty great spotted hyenas. Their slavering fangs flashed in the moonlight, their eyes blazed as no true beast's eyes ever blazed.​
Twenty: then the spears of the pirates had taken toll of the pack, after all. Even as he thought this, Conan drew nock to ear, and at the twang of the string a flame-eyed shadow bounded high and fell writhing. The rest did not falter; on they came, and like a rain of death among them fell the arrows of the Cimmerian, driven with all the force and accuracy of steely thews backed by a hate hot as the slag-heaps of hell.​
In his berserk fury he did not miss; the air was filled with feathered destruction. The havoc wrought among the onrushing pack was breathtaking. Less than half of them reached the foot of the pyramid. Others dropped upon the broad steps. Glaring down into the blazing eyes, Conan knew these creatures were not beasts; it was not merely in their unnatural size that he sensed a blasphemous difference. They exuded an aura tangible as the black mist rising from a corpse-littered swamp. By what godless alchemy these beings had been brought into existence, he could not guess; but he knew he faced diabolism blacker than the Well of Skelos.​
Springing to his feet, he bent his bow powerfully and drove his last shaft point blank at a great hairy shape that soared up at his throat. The arrow was a flying beam of moonlight that flashed onward with but a blur in its course, but the were-beast plunged convulsively in midair and crashed headlong, shot through and through.​
Then the rest were on him, in a nightmare rush of blazing eyes and dripping fangs. His fiercely driven sword shore the first asunder; then the desperate impact of the others bore him down. He crushed a narrow skull with the pommel of his hilt, feeling the bone splinter and blood and brains gush over his hand; then, dropping the sword, useless at such deadly close quarters, he caught at the throats of the two horrors which were ripping and tearing at him in silent fury. A foul acrid scent almost stifled him; his own sweat blinded him. Only his mail saved him from being ripped to ribbons in an instant. The next, his naked right hand locked on a hairy throat and tore it open. His left hand, missing the throat of the other beast, caught and broke its foreleg. A short yelp, the only cry in that grim battle, and hideously human-like, burst from the maimed beast. At the sick horror of that cry from a bestial throat, Conan involuntarily relaxed his grip.​
One, blood gushing from its torn jugular, lunged at him in a last spasm of ferocity, and fastened its fangs on his throat—to fall back dead, even as Conan felt the tearing agony of its grip.​
The other, springing forward on three legs, was slashing at his belly as a wolf slashes, actually rending the links of his mail. Flinging aside the dying beast, Conan grappled the crippled horror and, with a muscular effort that brought a groan from his blood-flecked lips, he heaved upright, gripping the struggling, rearing fiend in his arms. An instant he reeled off balance, its fetid breath hot on his nostrils, its jaws snapping at his neck; then he hurled it from him, to crash with bone-splintering force down the marble steps.​

I think @Yora is correct that to emulate this sort of thing, a fast paced resolution system would be desirable.
I disagree. It's exciting but it is also highly detailed.
 

Remove ads

Top