For those that don't know (and, I know a lot of people are unfamiliar with the 2d20 system), this is how the new Conan RPG is going to work, as far as I understand it.
Please correct me if I am wrong about any of this.
Task Difficulty is measured in successes.
Average = 1
Challenging = 2
Daunting = 3
Dire = 4
Epic = 5
Characters have Attributes and Skills.
In order to roll a task, you roll one or more d20 dice. The default is two d20 dice, which is why the system is called 2d20.
Attribute + Skill = Target Number.
When you roll under (or equal) your Target Number, you gain a success.
If you also roll under (or equal) your Skill Number, you gain a bonus success.
Thus, if you had Attribute 9 and Skill 2, you would gain a success for every time you rolled 11 or less. And, you would gain an additional success if the die was also 2 or less.
Example.
You need to complete a task, and the Game Master has said that the task requires two successes.
You have Attribute 9 and Skill 2. Your Target Number is 11.
You roll two d20 dice, and get 2, 14. You rolled two successes. Both successes came on the first die roll. It was equal to or lower than both your target number and your skill level. The second die, you failed the task. Thus, on this roll, you rolled two successes and one failure. Failures cancel out successes. Thus, for the total roll, you failed the task because you only rolled one success (you needed two successes to succeed on the task).
Natural 20.
If you roll a natural 20, this is a Critical Failure. The GM will do one of two things with a Crit. He will immediately do something against the character who made the roll. Like this:
Extending the example above, you are trying to open a locked chest. It's a Challenging difficulty, so you need 2 successes. You have the appropriate attribute 11 and appropriate skill 2, meaning that your target number is 13/2 (13 for less for a success and 2 or less for a success).
You roll 2d20 and get: 20, 9.
That's a Critical Failure and a single success in the same roll.
You don't have enough successes to open the lock, so you failed there.
And, you rolled a Crit that your GM decides to implement immediately...
You feel a sharp, quick pain and look down to see that the lock was trapped, and there is a small red dot of a pin prick in your hand. You're sure that you've been poisoned.
Note that it is possible to both be successful at a task and roll a failure. Had the lock required only 1 success, then you would have opened the lock AND sprung the trap.
This is a part of the rules I'm fuzzy on: Do Crit Failures not also cancel out successes? Or, is it only normal failures? If so, how is a successful task rolled with a failure?
Momentum
Any time you roll more successes than you need, you get Points. This is called momentum. If you need 2 successes, and you roll 4 successes, then you have 2 momentum.
When you roll momentum, you can spend the points you get to do extra stuff.
1 point per extra d6 can be spent to get you extra damage from a successful attack.
1 point spent can get you a called shot with your success. You choose the hit location instead of rolling it.
2 points spent can get you a second hit location. You do normal damage to your original hit location, then you roll for a second hit location and do half damage to that area.
1 point spent can allow you to re-roll any number of dice that you roll for damage.
Stuff like that.
A player can throw any number of dice when making a task.
(I'm fuzzy about this, too. I think it is correct.) More dice gives you more chances to roll successes, but it also gives you more chances to roll failures and Critical Failures.
Bad Points.
The GM starts the game with a certain number of Bad Points. I call them "Bad Points" because the writers of the Conan game haven't yet decided on a name for these points when last I read the beta test rules. "Bad Points" will work for our illustrative purposes here.
The Bad Points represent the obstacles, challenge, and evil forces working against the characters.
Whenever a Player rolls a Critical Failure (a natural 20), two Bad Points are added to the pool (unless the GM immediately imposed a complication on the player, as I outlined above in the example where the character was hit with a poison needle from the trapped trunk).
Anytime a player adds dice to a throw, add a Bad Point for each extra die used.
You don't have to do any bookkeeping with these Bad Points. Just use a token. The game will probably come with some type of token to use. Everybody has a lot of six sided dice. Use those. Any time a Bad Point is added to the pool, drop a d6 token die into a cup. The cup holds the total Bad Points available to the GM. I've read that some GMs who like the system use this as a way to mount dread on the players--a clear glass or bowl used to hold the Bad Point tokens. As they see the bowl fill up, they know the crap is going to hit the fan.
Personally, I don't like this meta-gaming at all. If I want to hit my players with foreboding, I'll do it. Sometimes, I want surprises--I don't want them expecting twists and turns in the game.
Spending Bad Points
NPCs normally act, in this game, after the PCs. Bad Points can be spent to allow NPCs to act before a PC or to even interrupt a PC's turn.
Bad Points can be spent to introduce unforeseen problems. The GM uses these points to make things worse for the players.
This used to be called "bad GMing", when a GM takes advantage and makes a situation worse than it was supposed to originally be.
ANOTHER COMMENT
When I first started my Mongoose d20 Conan game (my first campaign), I used the optional d20 rule called Active Defense. This is where character's don't have static numbers for Armor Class. Instead, the player rolls his defense.
Basically, an AC value is akin to Taking Ten on a defense roll. If you have AC 13, then your Active Defense roll is d20 + 3.
I used this with the Conan game. And, it was fun, to a point. But, I noticed something. The game was less immersive. By having my players roll the defense actively, the players became more aware that they were playing a game. Rolling the die for defense took them out of the story and focused them on the dice rolling.
When I went back to using static AC numbers, with the players no longer fiddling with rolling their defense, what do you know! My players found themselves more immersed in the game. They weren't thinking about the dice roll and if they could beat my dice attack roll. They were picturing the fight in their heads. I would roll behind my screen so that the players could not see my attacks. And, this way, they had to listen to my description of the encounter--which is a lot more immersive than just watching one die beat another--to see if they were hit.
They lived through the experience. They envisioned it.
And, this certainly wasn't happening as often or a deeply when they were rolling their Active Defenses.
I see the 2d20 in the same light. Although it claims to be, it's not an immersive system. It focuses the characters on dice rolling. If focuses them on game mechanics. When, the players really should be focusing their thoughts on living through the action as their characters.
I said above, too, that I dislike the way Momentum and the Bad Points pool affect the game. Back in my AD&D days, I used a rule where a natural one meant a fumble, and a fumble was whatever the GM could make up at the time. Sometimes, I had some neat ideas for fumbles. Other times, I didn't. But, the natural "1" was still there on the die, and I had to make up something.
Also, I found this openness with the fumble led to arguments between me and the players. I'd come up with something that I thought appropriate and fitting to the situation. The player wouldn't like it and think it was unfair--too strict compared to what I had done for another person when his character rolled a fumble.
I ended up with coming up with a standard rule that if a natural "1" was thrown, it meant you opened up in combat, let your guard down, and your foe got a free attack on you (what would later be called an Attack of Opportunity in 3rd Edition).
I see these points in the new Conan game forcing issues like this. I don't see it as a good thing at all. I understand that Momentum can be used by player to have their characters pull of stunts and heroic actions that the player makes up. This is just like my Fumble rule (but in reverse) above. I don't think it will play will and lead to arguments.
As for the "Bad Points", again, I don't like them. I don't want to be forced to do anything with them as a GM. If I want an additional guard detachment to come down the hall, then I'll have them come. Or, I'll roll a Listen check or something like that to see if the guards hear the PCs fighting their comrades. I don't need a mass of Bad Points to have those other guards come down the hall, and I don't want to wait on getting the Bat Points to a level I need them in order to activate my other guards.
So, yeah, I'm against the 2d20 system for the new Conan game. If it stays, there's a 90% chance that I will not be buying the new game. I may not have the game system completely correct, but I think I'm close enough to fairly evaluate it. Again, please. If you see me say something that is incorrect about the game, then please correct me.
I've heard that the company publishing the new Conan game has a history or dual publishing. If they publish the new Conan game using the 5E rules, then they've got me. I've looked at the new D&D 5E rules, and I'm quite impressed. They are less crunch than either 3rd or 4th edition, and they have an early AD&D feel to them. Yet, they still include the more modern aspects of the d20 system (such as Feats). I think WotC hit the ball out of the park with this new edition of D&D.
I would highly welcome a Conan game based on those rules.
