By Crom! Modiphius is Making a New CONAN RPG

Modiphius Entertainment will be producing the newest Conan roleplaying game. Titled Robert E. Howard’s CONAN Adventures In An Age Undreamed Of, the game is planned for an August 2015 launch, and will focus on Howard's original stories using the 2d20 game system, the cinematic roleplaying rules devised by Jay Little (Star Wars: Edge of the Empire) for Mutant Chronicles. "Modiphius is already working on the roleplaying corebook for Robert E. Howard’s CONAN Adventures In An Age Undreamed Of to be released this Fall. A Kickstarter is planned for the summer to fund a larger range of roleplaying supplements, campaigns, and accessories to follow the core book."

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They've got quite a team assembled: Timothy Brown (designer of the Dark Sun setting), Robert E. Howard scholar and essayist Jeffrey Shanks, Jason Durall (Basic Roleplaying, Serenity, The Laundry), and Chris Lites (Paizo, Savage Worlds, Omni, Slate). Shanks, the HOward cholar, will approve all material and ensure it remains true to the spirit of the original texts. This is, of course, not Conan's first outing as an RPG. There were Conan D&D adventures in the 1980s (when the Schwarzenengger movies were very popular), and a Conan RPG by TSR in 1985; there's been a GURPS Conan, and Mongoose Publishing's successful Conan RPG line with numerous editions and supplements. Conan first appeared in the pulp fiction magazine Weird Tales in 1932.

More info here.

 

[Oldtimer]

It's completely ridiculous. Howard died childless in 1937 in Texas, yet somehow a Swedish Company (Paradox, they make PC games) owns the rights to his work.

A handful of his stories are in public domain in the US, most notably Red Nails, but presumably trying to use those as a basis for anything would get you sued.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/36031

Actually he died in 1936 (June 11). And no-one owns the rights to his works. The copyright has expired for all his stories.
That swedish company is trying to weasel into ownership through trademark law (which is doubtful) and the very nebulous "properties". Any reasonable judge would laugh at them in court.

 

[Erekose]

Modiphius has a history of producing products with dual statistics. Achtung Cthulhu has CoC and SW.

There's an outside chance they may go D&D 5E as well as their own 2d20 system.

I may just be getting old but I'm not sure I can cope with learning yet another game system!

 

[Minicol]

Well, I hope they have better art than that, because it is not really motivating me right now

 

[mrm1138]

Well, I hope they have better art than that, because it is not really motivating me right now

What the--??? How dare you, sir! Cary Nord's work on the Dark Horse's Conan comic is brilliant! I like it even more than the Barry Windsor-Smith stuff of yore!

 

[modiphius]

Actually he died in 1936 (June 11). And no-one owns the rights to his works. The copyright has expired for all his stories.
That swedish company is trying to weasel into ownership through trademark law (which is doubtful) and the very nebulous "properties". Any reasonable judge would laugh at them in court.

The last owner did their very best to ensure no one could release the books, Paradox (the brand owners) have overseen a massive rerelease of the original books by major publishers bringing CONAN to a whole new generation, along with films and other merchandising. So I'd say it's being nurtured pretty well. Reasonable judges have also backed them up in court numerous times as well

 

[scourger]

Here's hoping for a Savage Worlds edition of the new Conan RPG. Tie-ins to the nice minis in the Monolith board game would be great, too.

 

[Superchunk77]

There already is a very conan-esque savage worlds rpg by the name of Beasts and Barbarians. It is everything you need to run Conan in Savage Worlds.

 

[amerigoV]

There already is a very conan-esque savage worlds rpg by the name of Beasts and Barbarians. It is everything you need to run Conan in Savage Worlds.

I second this!

In addition, I picked up a few of Mongoose's D20 Conan sourcebooks - they are very good and (oddly for d20) - light on stats. There might be a core d20 book that I did not get, but I have one on the countries (Road to Kings?) and one for getting that Conaneque feel for your ruins and such.


Now if Conan did come out for Savage Worlds I already feel a tug at my wallet, but we shall see.

 

[moldyderp]

The Hyborian Age is the best setting for an RPG ever; if they intend to be true to the source material. No idea how well 2d20 works, so maybe I won't be a fan of the mechanics, but I'll likely pick it up anyway.

 

[AstroCat]

Excited for this and in general the resurgence of popularity for Sword & Sorcery genre.