Best system for Sword & Sorcery

[Waylander the Slayer]

I am looking for a system for a conanesque game. I am well aware of Conan D20, True 20 etc. but want informed opinion of people before I plunk down $$$. The availability of the product in PDF format is also important to me. Thanks for all the help.

 

[Hjorimir]

I think True20 is a perfect system for a gritty sword and sorcery type game. Characters do not have to depend on magic items to be powerful and combat is always dangerous enough to be exciting.

My second choice would be Grim Tales (though I don't know if it is sold in PDF as well), but magic in Grim Tales is very, very low (which may be completely find for what you're looking for).

 

[Waylander the Slayer]

I think True20 is a perfect system for a gritty sword and sorcery type game. Characters do not have to depend on magic items to be powerful and combat is always dangerous enough to be exciting.

My second choice would be Grim Tales (though I don't know if it is sold in PDF as well), but magic in Grim Tales is very, very low (which may be completely find for what you're looking for).

Unfortunately Grim Tales does not come in PDF format. I am leaning towards True20; I want something that is gritty yet rules light.

 

[yojimbouk]

True20 attempts to be a rules-light generic implementation of d20 with three classes: warrior, adept (magic user), expert; and most class abilities from D&D rendered as feats. It also has a skills 'n' feats magic system similar to the Force in the first two editions of Star Wars d20. It isn't intended to emulate swords & sorcery but is easy to build a setting with.

Grim Tales is a low-magic d20 Modern variant that renders the class abilities of D&D as talent trees for the d20M classes. The magic system uses the D&D spells with a totally different mechanic for spellcasting which makes most high-level spells pretty hard to cast. Various options are presented to make the system as gritty or as heroic as you like.

Iron Heroes is a D&D variant built with the intent of reducing the reliance on magic items and spells. The classes are all warrior archetypes with the exception of the one spellcasting class. It's a crunchy system but it does have a swords and sorcery vibe. A revised edition should be out in shops after GenCon.

Conan d20 is another D&D variant built to be more gritty. I believe the 2nd Edition is due out within the next few months so if that's your choice it might be worth waiting.

 

[kingpaul]

Unfortunately Grim Tales does not come in PDF format.

I thought that there was a GT SRD floating around?

 

[GlassJaw]

Unfortunately Grim Tales does not come in PDF format.

Wulf really needs to do this, he's just lazy.

 

[ragboy]

I thought that there was a GT SRD floating around?

It's still dead. The guy that built it lost his server or something.

This is the URL if it ever comes back: http://www.carcere.net/~kirintor/index.php?x=gtsrd/index

And I second Grim Tales, though the PDF thing is a problem.

My other suggestion is not d20 at all: Savage Worlds does sword and sorcery exceptionally well. And it's available in pdf and they've released a base rulebook for $9.95....

I'm not affiliated with the company, but I love their stuff.

 

[jdrakeh]

Iron Heroes does Swords & Sorcery with much aplomb. Grim Tales is kind of like Sorcerer & Sword as it models the public perception of Swords & Sorcery (i.e., low magic, high lethality) very well while being a somewhat poor fit for most of the genre fiction as it is actually written (most S&S fiction is teeming with magic, it's simply magic that the protagonists don't have access to). So, do you want Swords & Sorcery or do you want Low Magic, High Lethality, Fantasy? These are two different things, really.

 

[Azgulor]

My 3 picks would be (in order): Conan OGL, Grim Tales, Iron Heroes. I believe Conan is available in PDF. As stated earlier, a 2nd edition is due out (August?) but hints thus far are that it's consolidation, tweaks, and cleanup rather than a massive re-write. The current version is fully functional, however.

I've adopted Conan OGL as my baseline rules set since swords-n-sorcery is my preferred style of play and the Conan OGL is the most comprehensive D20 take on swords-n-sorcery I've found.

Character classes include Soldier (tweaked Fighter), Barbarian ('nuf said), Borderer (finally, a non-magical outdoor-oriented warrior), Nomad, Pirate, Thief (no sissy rogue), Noble, and Scholar (includes sorcerors). A Temptress class (workable PC class to boot) was added in the Hyboria's Fallen supplement and is rumored to be included as a core class in the 2nd edition. A bandit class was introduced in Mongoose's Signs & Portents magazine and was recently reprinted in the Conan Compendium. It's a blend of borderer and pirate in some ways so it appears it will remain an optional class.

Combat was tweaked significantly to make it grittier. Armor acts as DR (as it should), weapon damage is higher, Massive Damage is grittier, and Hit Die caps out at 10th or 11th level.

The game is also very true to the source material. The authors of the game and supplements go to great lengths to identify non-Howard sources so that Conan purists can ignore them if desired.

Grim Tales tweaks standard d20 (D20 Modern actually) to create a grittier game. It's a terrific toolkit. I use it when I want to build something from the ground-up that isn't covered by Conan. Also if you want a middle-ground between D&D's high-fantasy spellcasting and Conan's corrupting sorcery, GT has a good spellcasting system that allows you to preserve the D&D spells while maintaining a swords-n-sorcery feel. (Thieves' World Players' Manual also does this.)

Iron Heroes has several books out, including a new Companion book. Some of the books will have to be purchased as PDF, however, as the printed copies have either sold out or go for top $. Iron Heroes can do S&S very well, as it removes D&D magic items, replaces core classes with various warrior-variant classes, and modifies spellcasting to fit the genre better. Of the three that I've listed, however, Iron Heroes is the most cinematic. It was designed to maintain the D&D power curve, just without relying on magic to do so. Conan and Grim Tales are grittier.

Azgulor

 

[1upus]

I'll second Ragboy's reccomendation for Savage Worlds. Think it's a fun rules lite system that seems to handle the feel of heroic gaming quite well.

Although, I'm a little hesitant to describe it as gritty. In our games, it tends to accentuate the heroic feel of games....almost a movie hero kinda feel to our games....ie PCs are significantly better than the generic mook.....


However, on saying that, combat and get quite lethal.

Have used Savage worlds for most of their released plot point games and it works quite well. And, their fantasy game Evernight seemed to work quite well, even if it was the first of their releases and seemed to capture the sword and sorcery feel quite well.