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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MDSnowman" data-source="post: 2011088" data-attributes="member: 6255">Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to the world of Conan... and when I say Conan I'm not talking about the esteemed Governor of California ^_^The Conan RPG is a weighty hardcover tome weighing in at over 350 pages. Art is everywhere in this book, and I mean everywhere, every page has an intricately styled border in full color. One of these pictures, a bare chested woman, with some of the bloody pictures assures that this book will not carry the d20 Emblem, instead simply sold as an OGL product.By and large I really enjoyed the art, but with more than 10 different artists I liked some styles more than others. For example while the border art harkens back to the old Conan stories of the 1930's some art, such as the female archer on page 115 seems like they stepped right out of a planescape adventure. Personally I preferred a balance between the two; the best example is the picture of the sorcerer and his gal-pal on page 192. It strikes a balance between the old style in the Robert E. Howard books and modern artistic techniques.Chapter I: IntroductionI've done a lot of whining about introductions in my previous reviews, but in this case I think it's required. Conan's world is so divorced from Tolkien concepts of Fantasy that a transition from those expectations to the ones in Conan's Hyborian Age is useful. We even get a nice side bar addressing the idea of Conan as a "Low Magic" world. While they try to say otherwise it quickly becomes apparent that to the average D&D player Conan is a "low magic" world and the players get all sorts of perks to combat that fact.Chapter II: OverviewThis is the basic, and this is what will prevent someone buying Conan from needing to buy the Player's Handbook. They go over all the basics here, as well as some of the differences to normal d20 D&D, which I will go over here.Multi-Classing: You don't get penalties for multiclassing, instead you get bonus feats for using, and staying with your favored class.Bonus Skill ranks: Based on your Racial/Ethnic background you get two free ranks in a small (usually 2 or 3) skills, even if they aren't class skills.Three New Statistics: Base Parry and Base Dodge, these take the place of armor in padding your defense, and every round in combat you need to decide if you're going to try to parry oncoming attacks or dodge them (some classes are better than others at each of these), and Magic Attack Bonus, many spells require a separate attack roll to set the DC for their effects, that's where the Magic Attack Bonus comes in.Heroic Character Generation: On top of standard character generation GMs are given the option to simply have their players start with ability scores of 08, and then add +1d10 to that score. This assures stronger than average characters, but once you realize how lethal this world is you'll understand.Chapter III: CharactersThis is where you go to actually build your character. I could literally spend days talking about the nuances of races and sub-races but I'll address only the basics here. There are major races, somewhat generic, and members of over arching  ethnic groups, and one can elect to get bonuses on top of those bonuses by taking a sub-race. Lists of the Major races (and their sub-races) are as Follows.CimmerianHimelan Tribesmen: WazuliHyborian: Argossean/Barachan, Bossonian, Gunderman, Hyperborean, and TauranHyrkanian or TuranianKhitanKushite/ Northern Black Kingdoms: Chaga, GhanataNordheimerPictShemite: Aphaki, Pelishtim, and Meadow ShemiteSouthern Islander/ Southern Black Kingdoms: DarfariStygian: TlazitlanVendhyanZamorianZingaran(What frightens me more than anything is that all of these racial names are on my Word's dictionary!)...Needless to say you won't be stuck playing a Conan clone.Character Classes: before I give you the run down on character classes you need to know a few very important differences.Hit Dice Beyond Level 10: In a very 2nd Edition Style move one gains a fixed amount of hit points dependant on the kinds of hit dice they used before then. Needless to say this curtails huge Hit Point totals at high levels.Ability Bonuses: One gets their normal single ability point to distribute at levels 4, 8, 12, etc. But at 6th level and every four levels there after you get +1 to every single ability score!!! One hell of a trade off for the fact that you're not likely to find anything that boosts your ability scores magically.Okay now that we've had a chance to calm down, the classes...Barbarian: Not your Dungeon Master's barbarian these warriors eventually gain proficiency with all Exotic weapons, and the ability to enter a blinding rage when they overcome will saves to try to put fear into their hearts... okay maybe it's not too different, but it's different enough to be memorable.Borderer: These are men and women charged with pushing back the frontier through exporlation. They have many ranger-like abilities, but by and large they trade in being tough, reliable, and able to thrive in any environment.Noble: "But MDSnowman, there is already an aristocrat class!" And guess what, it sucks... the  Noble is the Aristocrat made mean enough to be a PC class. They're masters of social interaction, and so well connected that tangling with one rivals trying to spook a barbarian in pure stupidity. Nomad: Or as I like to call it, Barbarian and Borderer of the Desert and hills. This class takes enough of each class to gain bite and mixes in enough flavor of its own to stand on its own.Pirate:  ::covers eye:: Arr!! You got it, the pirate gives you sea going abilities on top of the ability to attack, effectively, without the heavy armor other classes may rely on. This is the closest to a swashbuckler class I've ever seen and I like it.Scholar: So you want magic eh? Well the scholar is the only game in town! As such it's a very versatile class, you can make scholars tied to a religion, demons, covens, or just plain independents. And if you're the type who likes to stay home your scholar doesn't even need to be able to cast spells.Soldier: This is the Conan RPG answer to the fighter, the human feat machine, but to reflect his vast military training he also learns how to fight in formation with other, similarly trained soldiers.Thief: Ah the eternal thief, as long as there are valuables there will be Players willing to take them. To aid them in their journey for gold they gain a viciously powerful new sneak attack, and special thief abilities starting at level 6.This chapter rounds out with fate points, codes of honor (as opposed to alignment), and reputation rules (which appear to be the same ones that appear in The Quintessential Rogue).Chapter IV: Skills...Because it's impossible to do a book that's entirely stand alone without them, skills. You get the basic run down; I can't pick out any new skills or any major shifts, so I'll consider this topic closed.Chapter V: FeatsAgain you get a lot of ground already covered in the core rulebooks. But you also get a lot of feats that are all brand spanking new (to me at least), including armored stealth which reduces armor check penalties to move silently and hide checks as long as you're in light armor. You also get a wide variety of feats that take advantage of the new magic system. They're too numerous to mention, needless to say they'll give your scholars, and especially NPC scholars a frightening number of macabre options.Chapter VI: EquipmentHere we find that they have scrapped the normal d20 equipment list in favor of something a bit more.... Bloody (and I do mean bloody all the weapons are illustrated with pieces of their last victim on them.) Weapons in the Conan RPG do massive amounts of damage, your basic hatchet does 1d6 points of damage, while Greatsword does a whopping 2d10! Furthermore every weapon is listed with an Armor Piercing score, more about piercing armor in the next section. Every weapon has their hardness and hit points listed right there for you, and despite these items damage scores you'll be breaking them often, even the might Greatsword only has 10 hardness and 10 hit points (therefore a solid hit from another Greatsword can shred yours).Armor is likewise different. Instead of adding to your defense they simply give you a damage reduction value, and thank the lords of D&D... helmets actually help! One things that did surprise me however is how they handled shields they do increase your defense bonus... but they only effect your parry score when you're in melee and only effect your dodge bonus when defending against ranged attacks.Chapter VII: CombatOh combat... a lot of the stuff that you know and love is still there, so let's deal with the different stuff.Initiative checks: 1d20 + Reflex Save + Dex + Any feats = The fastest Bad A$$ you have ever seen.Armor Piercing: So you want to crush your foe's armor and them in it? No problem, take your weapon's Armor piercing score, add your strength modifier and if it's over the armor's Damage reduction then it only has half it's normal damage reduction. What's that you say? You want to do more damage? All right if you do more than 20 points of damage (after Damage reduction for armor) said armor loses 1d4 from its Damage reduction and if it drops to 0, your foe is wearing scrap metal.Weapon Finesse and Finesse piercing: Some weapons allow you to apply your Dex modifier to the attack and not strength. Nothing new right? Well you don't need a feat to do it, and finesse weapons are potentially more deadly that strength driven weapons. If, while wielding a finesse weapon, you beat the target's defense by more than the Damage Reduction value of his armor, you bypass the armor all together!!Maneuvers: Finally we have combat maneuvers, tricks that anyone can pull off given they have the right combination of feats. My personal favorite is decapitating slash, if your foe provokes an attack of opportunity you have the option of slicing his head clean off of his neck!Chapter VIII: SorceryAh what would Conan be without scary wizards to decapitate. This chapter deals with everything magical in Conan. I couldn't explain it all in one review so simply let me assure you that it is an advanced, and intricate system. I cannot wait for the forthcoming Book of Skelos for more spells to add to the mix.Chapter IX: The Hyborian AgeThis is a long description of the history of Robert E. Howard's world, written by the man himself. Of course the writing style is entirely different than the other authors which makes this part of the book a little tough to read.Chapter X: GazetteerEverything you need to go adventuring in the Hyborian Age. A quick run down of most of the major countries, including their military strengths, and in some cases, possible adventures for those particular areas. You need to read this section yourself to understand everything... again the wealth of information is too vast for me to lay everything on you.Chapter XI: ReligionBecause everything comes back to religion. This section details the gods and goddesses prevalent in the Conan RPG as well as what you can expect each faith to provide. Will their priests cast spells for you? Give you spiritual fortitude? And what will it cost you in tithes to stay on their good side?Chapter XII: BestiaryNow the majority of foes you're going to face in a Conan game are humans... but this section deals with the dudes who are less then human. Demons, Elementals, Man-apes, the works, and of course things that used to be humans, the spawn of Dagoth Hill, Vampires, Ghosts, and Were-beasts. Chapter XIII: Campaigns This section deals with little things that can help you run the campaign easier. This includes the basics like reoccurring themes, campaign models, and the like. But they also introduce some ideas foreign to D&D players. Between adventures, months, maybe even years could pass and the heroes' starting equipment is likely to be far different than they ended the last with. This is an intriguing idea, and it can move a campaign along quite well, not to mention explain any feats, skills, or new class levels your character picked up since the last adventure ended.Final Verdict: This book is without a doubt awesome. It really gives you a solid alternative to the magic heavy worlds that you're used to seeing. In this world your PCs are going to need to be smart, tenacious, and downright mean to survive. The changes they made the standard d20 rule set compensate for the lack of ready to find magical gear, but at the same time drive home how deadly this setting is. In the hands of the wrong GM this book will lead to the deaths of hundreds of innocent PCs. But if its taken up by someone with some maturity and who understands just how amazing this game world can be that GM will have his player's full attention. I highly recommend this book, even if it does cost $49.95.</blockquote>

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