Conan & lone wolf

[argo]

Conan is doing quite well IFAK; there have been several source books released already and a strong line up is planned throught next year including a mega module. My conan game is doing well and my players are enjoying it even though I have the only copy of the rulebook but you are correct that it is not compatiable with DnD. For us though that is not a bad thing, we play non-DnD d20 games (such as AU, BESMd20, Conan and others) as much as we play DnD. I dont' consider the tweaks in Conan to be pointless but rather essential for the flavor of the game (swords 'n sorcery as opposed to epic fantasy).

The reason I think you don't see much discussion of Conan on these boards is because it would belong in the d20 games forum, which shares space with d20 modern and everyting else, and Mongoose iteself has a very active and also helpful and polite forum dedicated to Conan: I post there regularly. Same reason you don't see much AU discussion on these boards, they are all over at Monte's boards.

As for Lone Wolf, I haven't been folowing that very closely so I can't say. It wasn't a flop per se but I can't recall any new products scheduled for it so I'm not sure.

If you have more questions I do suggest you visit the Mongoose boards Their level of courtsey there is comparable to ENworld so it is a rather nice place to visit.

Hope that helps.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Lone Wolf has three books so far: the main RPG book, The Darklands (gazetteer), and Magic of Magnamund (class book of spellcasters)

 

[Emirikol]

Thanks Argo.

jh

 

[VorpalBunny]

Our group playtested CONAN the RPG and realized it's absolutely not compatable with D&D. It's a completely different game system that just happens to use a d20 for attacks. There are so many pointless tweaks that you'd need a house rule book 40 pages thick for your players to have a clue what's up. Completely different combat and magic systems. Weapon damage charts that vary so completely from D&D as to make them unusable. Every player would have to own the RPG to play the game..or else the 40 page house-rules.

Do you suppose this was what turned people off? It certainly turned my group off. Also, after the debacle with the 1st printing, shelling out more $$$ was not in our best interests.

Did anyone else go through this? Does anyone here actually 'PLAY' the Conan RPG.

jh

I play it and absolutely love it. I'd like to know what you consider "pointless tweaks" though, since I think the game has been customized to Howard's Hyboria beautifully. Straight 3rd edition D&D would never work for a CONAN game - TSR made that mistake already and Mongoose learned from it.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

I just go the Lone Wolf RPG as a gift from the same sister who bought me the original Lone Wolf gamebook, Flight from the Dark, years ago when it first came out.

That little paperback was my first introduction to fantasy and to roleplaying, so when I diesigned the campaign world we use now, it incorporated some important elements from Magnamund.

While the magic system(s) is/are different from D20/D&D, most of the differences I have noticed are aesthetic ones more than anything, e.g. there are no hit points in the LWRPG, but there are End(urance) Points which are identical. It's true, there are also no feats, no AoO, etc., but I'm considering letting these two systems merge and blend together in my campaign in much the same way I've done with elements of Arcana Unearthed.

A few tweaks here and there, and if it works as well as I think it will, I may just have to go out and get Magic of Magnamund.

 

[Emirikol]

There's been this hoo-ha about justifying the changes to the system as being 'essential' to giving the world of Hyboria a feel. I don't buy it and I don't feel it. (deleted so as not to offend anyone) Welcome to Belverus..where we'll tell you what we REALLY think.

jh









..

 

[Emirikol]

Did you ever buy the Magnamund Companion RPG supplement from about 15 years ago? It was pretty cool too.

I'm glad that they did the Lone Wolf RPG, but wouldn't it have been REALLY cool if it was 100% compatable with the Psionics Handbook?

The d20 license was put out there to reduce the number of islands and increase the number of players who could play together.

jh

 

[GMSkarka]

* Reproducing every D&D skill, feat, weapon, and class system but changing them all subtly so there's no useful crossover.

Some people would call this "producing a complete OGL game that can be played without owning any D&D rulebooks."

the simple connection of REH and a couple letters between he and HPL do not make me feel like i'm in Hyboria.

You mean, apart from the mythos elements that appeared in Howard's stories? You have read Howard, right?

* Armor..speaking of changing rules just to change rules and having trivial differences and a complete loss of game balance. Yea, I've heard the "well, conan's not about game balance." That's right, CONAN's not. Conan's just a literary phenomenon. Having an ongoing campaign that's logical for play is what we're talking about here.

I feel that it accurately reflected the effect of armor in Howard's stories.

Broadening out damage doesn't make me feel like I'm scared and could die at any minute. It makes me annoyed at the non-Hyboria feel of this.

Again, I have to ask: Have you read Howard?

* They have 75+ years of stuff on Hybora and the regional maps are practially empty. I chalk this up to 'someone was just to lazy to look through all the stuff out there..' beyond what howard wrote that is (which isn't hard).

The key phrase there is "beyond what howard wrote." The original designer, Ian Sturrock, specifically didn't want to include non-Howard material, and I applaud him for it. If you want to complain about the lack of map detail, go dig up REH and bitch to him about it.

* Commoners..oh, wait, I covered this in "Be D&D or NOT."

OK, so does this huge book of useless crunch really make me not want to play D&D in Hyboria?

I think here is the core disconnect that you're having. This is not D&D in Hyboria---and it was never intended to be. It is an OGL game, yes---but one that is totally separate from D&D. From your complaints, it sounds like you wanted it to be D&D in Hyboria, and are therefore annoyed that it wasn't what you wanted...Which is a bit like complaining that an apple doesn't have the citrus-y flavor you were looking for.

 

[bolen]

what I dont understand is how one knows what is open content and what is not

I have to admit I am a fan but I have only played a couple of times and I may or may not have covered all the rules correctly

 

[francisca]

Anybody else here play in a CONAN campaign?

jh

No, but we'll probably kick one off this summer. I've seen mention of a Mongoose product which is just the Conan rules for $20, so that should help.