Conan & lone wolf

[Desdichado]

No wonder the books are out of print.

Has Howard ever been out of print for any length of time? I know the new editions are the first time that the original Howard versions have been in print for some time, but I clearly remember not only the De Camp edited Conan books being in print during my teenage years, plus an entire line of pastiche novels.

 

[The_Gneech]

...Conan was a rapist. No wonder the books are out of print.

That's Thomas Covenant you're thinking of. The closest thing to rape in the actual Conan stories that I ever encountered was when he chased after the frost giant's daughter (who was leading him to her brothers with the intent of having them carve his heart out -- who do you root for in THAT situation?).

-The Gneech

 

[Ranger REG]

'Fraid so.

A 185 post thread on uk.games.roleplay

A particularly entertaining post towards the end of the discussion

Bah. Never been to those places. This board is where I get my informal opinions of games.

 

[Jonny Nexus]

Bah. Never been to those places. This board is where I get my informal opinions of games.

Well I didn't say that the rows were here!

Actually, given that this is a D20 board, you wouldn't expect to have people here get upset about a game being D20, which I guess is why you hadn't encountered people complaining about Judge Dredd's "D20ness".

But as you can see from the threads I listed, in a non-D20 venue (that includes some people who qualify as *anti-D20*) people can get quite heated at the thought of having to buy a Players Handbook in addition to something that is being marketted as a "game" (as opposed to a "supplement").

The relevance of all that to this thread is that while here, on a D20 board, a game being stand-alone might not be a major selling point, in a non-D20 venue it can be.

 

[MonsterMash]

Personally to add my 2p I have played and like the Conan RPG and will post my review on the reviews site when I can log in on it (currently I get an error when I try).

I have actually made the point in my review that it is a standalone OGL book and I consider this to be a good thing, likewise many of the changes to the rules (magic system, etc).

 

[Ranger REG]

They are working on Spycraft 2.0, which is set to come out this year. (2005) I don't think they are "Modern-izing" it though.

I doubt it, too. They already have an established fanbase for Spycraft.

 

[Ranger REG]

But as you can see from the threads I listed, in a non-D20 venue (that includes some people who qualify as *anti-D20*) people can get quite heated at the thought of having to buy a Players Handbook in addition to something that is being marketted as a "game" (as opposed to a "supplement").

I can see why they may be angry, but it was in the early years of d20 and Mongoose wanted to attract the very large D&D/d20 (aka Player's Handbook owner) fanbase. It was merely a business decision that offer less risk and more return. After all, AEG was able to make Spycraft line successful despite the minority voicing out their grievance of having to buy PHB.

In the end, it's a business decision.

The relevance of all that to this thread is that while here, on a D20 board, a game being stand-alone might not be a major selling point, in a non-D20 venue it can be.

That I agree. When it comes to licensed products, the company have to decide if a lot of fans of a franchise would be mostly D&D/d20 Modern gamers or non-D&D gamers. This assume that the adaptation of the ruleset to the franchise's world or universe is minor.