Conan Second Edition

[pawsplay]

I like the look of this in many ways, but I keep hesitating to purchase it. What do I get, above and beyond that offered by other d20-based games?

One thing I noticed is that most opponents are simply members of PC classes. How does that work out in play? Do you have to make efforts to make sure the PCs come across as competent?

Any experiences in play?

 

[Erekose]

You'll probably get a better response on the Mongoose boards:

Mongoose Publishing :: View Forum - Other Roleplaying Games

 

[Aus_Snow]

I prefer the Atlantean Edition, personally. I mean, what a name! No, really. It's also in full colour, as opposed to B&W.

That book plus Road of Kings, and you're good to go. Or, of course, you can use the corebook for other fantasy settings. Or just use the original (and/or other) fiction as your "sourcebooks", and rely on only the corebook anyway.


edit: Oh yeah, your questions. Um, well, combat is a bit more interesting, in general - nice feats for it, it's pretty brutal; that kind of thing. Also, the magic's great - very much suits the setting / style. Hm. And some other "cute" (actually, nice) rules here and there. But is it miles ahead of every other d20 book out there? No. Good, though? Yes. Worth getting, IMO.

furthermore: If you want to use this game "to do D&D", forget it. Just fair warning, not trying to tell you what to do, per se.

 

[pawsplay]

One thing I noticed was a cannibal statted up as a 4th level barbarian. My experience with d20 Modern led me to believe that approach tended to bog down play, not to mention producing very dangerous adversaries.

 

[pemerton]

Pawsplay, I can't offer any actual play experience, only some familiarity with the rulebooks. But there's nothing in the rulebooks to make me think your worries about how it would play are illfounded. My feeling is that running NPCs sorcerors might be clunky, in particular, because the magic rules are quite a bit more complicated than standard D&D magic.

 

[pawsplay]

Hmm, will have to investigate further.

 

[Water Bob]

The Conan RPG is amazing. I play 2E, because I like the rule updates, but there's no denying that the Atlantean Edition is a beautiful book (2E is a big book but in B&W).

I own the entire game line. You're going to have trouble finding the Atlantean Edition unless you want to spend $80+ bucks on it.

My campaign has been running over a year now. My PCs are Cimmerian Barbarians. We haven't left Cimmeria yet. I created a sandbox for my PCs to explore, and they seem happy, for the moment, running around the rugged terrain of Cimmeria.

Here's a link to a campaign development thread I post to here on EN World: CIMMERIAN BLOOD



There's not a lot of discussion there yet, as the forum is new, but the AN AGE UNDREAMED OF forum is dedicated to swords & sorcery type gaming, including Conan.

Thulsa, through his Xoth publishing, has released two very good, very long adventures in this setting, covertable to Conan or playable in another S&S type universe: The Spider-God's Bride and Song of the Beast-Gods.

As mentioned above, there is some discussion still going on about the Conan RPG at the Mongoose "Other RPG" forum via the link posted above.

Got specific questions? Hit me with them.

 

[pawsplay]

I took the plunge.

What level did you start your campaign at?

 

[Water Bob]

I took the plunge.

Good. If you like Conan, you'll never look back. It's a fantastic setting with probably the best version of the d20 system ever written.

What level did you start your campaign at?

1st level. But, I would caution you on doing that. The game is VERY dangerous at the low levels. I started my game with the player characters at age 11. I allowed my players, new to the Conan RPG (and to d20 games), to slowly build their characters over the first couple of sessions. Each session I skipped a year until, at age 15, the characters were fully 1st level.

This gave us some time to learn the game slowly. I set the story around their village. First, I introduced them to skills. Then had them add Feats. Then, I slowly had them play some combat as their characters moved around the animal pen with wooden swords.

When they reached 15, I made them fully 1st level characters, and they began to earn XP. But, I skip ahead in time, sometimes in-between sessions, "OK, it's a year later now...and...". I'll pick up in the middle of the action some time in the future.

I am very careful about what they face at this low level (Ssshhh! Don't tell them that!), and am shepherding them to 3-4th level, so that the'll have a few hit points can don't necesarily have to run every time a combat encounter ensues.

The game "lives" in the level 1-10 range. I'd spend little time at levels 1-3, then slow down from 4-10 and beyond. 6th-8th level is the sweet spot for this game. Take your time getting there, and once you get there, take your time.

 

[slwoyach]

Overall Conan 2e is the best d20 game out there. The only major problem I have is with the scholar; while I like the overall concept of magic sorcerers simply know far too few spells. Thoth-Amon would need several hundred levels of scholar to account for all the spells the novels claim he knows.