[CONAN] Have you played Conan? Would like to hear your thoughts.

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

……more……cinematic combat……

What makes it cinematic?

 

[small pumpkin man]

Yeah, Atlantean here as well. There are only a few small basic rules changes between that and 2e, but you get the Temptress class as well (IIRC), which is cool. However, it really does look great in full colour. Same goes for The Road of Kings (1e, not 'Return to ...' [?]) and several other sourcebooks.

I'll also have to agree with GlassJaw about a few of the classes, on second thoughts. The kinda 'Rangery' ones in particular, from memory. But, to be honest, you don't need to use all the classes anyway. One or two might well just sit there, unused, and nothing bad will come of it. IME, anyhow.

Well, I was going to post some thoughts, but you seem to have summed them up. We used Atlantean, found Borderer and Nomad to be uninspiring, but didn't find it to be a big issue overall. I did find that multiclassing hosed your defences somewhat, but I don't think it's a huge issue.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Re: spells, there's Scrolls of Skelos (or, in the case of 2e, Secrets of Skelos, is it?) - and yeah, it's got some other stuff, like items, feats, and so on. Hm, and elsewhere, but I'll have to look around to see where exactly.

And regarding the 'cinematic' descriptor, it could have been assigned because of some of the awesome things that can happen in combat, that don't in most other d20 (and other) games, like weapons getting stuck in people, that kind of thing. But I'm just guessing, not trying to answer for them. I'll let them answer for themselves, of course.

 

[GlassJaw]

Did any of you happen to use the active defense option? That is - you had target's roll 1d20 + defense instead of a static dodge/parry defense.

I've tried it before with success. Overall, I like it. It obviously adds more rolling and can slow things down if everyone is not on top of the rules or what they should be doing.

However, with the modifiers tones way down compared to standard 3ed, it's not too bad and definitely can make for some cinematic situations in combat.

 

[Derro]

Conan is a great game. If you have the budget pick up the class splats. There are three. They all detail each class multi-classing with each other class in a way that is so wickedly cool I just can't describe it. They can even rationalize Nomad/Pirate which I found rather humorous.

For the most part the rules are sound. I think that some maneuvers tend to be a bit hard to qualify for and armor penetration is a bit sloggy but those are my only real beefs.

One of the nice things about Conan is that the arms race of magic item acquisition has been all but quashed. Hell, it even recommends in the GM section that you strip the characters down to nothing but a loincloth and a dagger every now and then. Well, maybe not in so many words but the spirit is there.

Thanks fellas.

Did any of you happen to use the active defense option? That is - you had target's roll 1d20 + defense instead of a static dodge/parry defense.

I'm going to go with the opposite of the above reply to this. I only used the active option a bit and I found it way too swingy particularly at lower levels when Defense bonuses are pitifully low. Give it a try even if it's just in some gladiator style matches, just to see how it feels to you. I didn't care for it much. It's deadly when combined with mob rules.

If active defense is your thing you might try something I've taken to lately and that is making almost all of the dice rolls done by the players. It's simply a matter of defining the static averages of adversary attacks and defenses. Look here to see what I mean.

 

[slwoyach]

Try borrowing a few from Ars Magica, there are an infinity of cool spells on their wiki

G.

It seems like converting from Ars Magica to D20 would be a lot of work, especially considering the raw power that can be accomplished in Ars Magica. That system is very easy to break.

 

[Galloglaich]

It seems like converting from Ars Magica to D20 would be a lot of work, especially considering the raw power that can be accomplished in Ars Magica. That system is very easy to break.

I just use it as a source for cool spells, not the whole system. I haven't found it too difficult to adapt them.

G.

 

[Galloglaich]

I've tried it before with success. Overall, I like it. It obviously adds more rolling and can slow things down if everyone is not on top of the rules or what they should be doing.

However, with the modifiers tones way down compared to standard 3ed, it's not too bad and definitely can make for some cinematic situations in combat.

Yes that is pretty much what I meant, active defense feels a little more cinematic / dramatic in general IMO if you can handle it well, as does various randomly triggered events like weapons getting stuck in people or breaking etc. So long as you can execute it fast.

That said I'm not a huge fan of how Conan RPG does their combat, I like it better than DnD but perhaps not surprisingly I think my own Martial Pool Roll many / keep one system just gives you a lot more flexibility, and I think you have to mix passive and active defense and allow for a way to get around the armor for the latter to realy work right.

But I think both Conan RPG and Warhammer have more cinematic feeling combat systems than DnD

G.

 

[slwoyach]

I just use it as a source for cool spells, not the whole system. I haven't found it too difficult to adapt them.

G.

The problem I have with scholars isn't the variety of spells to choose from, it's that they basically know 1 spell per level. So I guess Thoth Amon is about level 500 according to Conan D20.

 

[Galloglaich]

Yeah I agree i don't like that at all, I prefer my spellcasters to have a lot of relatively low power spells, especially indirect kind that require thinking to employ, there are lots of good ideas for really cool cantrips and low level spells in Ars Magica. Maybe not a perfect fit with Conan unless you change how the Scholar works though.

G.