Conan The RPG: Impressions + Ideas & GM Support

[MrFilthyIke]

Walmart.com has it for 31 bucks right now which is a pretty dang good deal. I have ordered some d20 books from them in the past (Arcana Unearthed among them ) and have had no problems.

I'll back you up, I do most of my RPG shopping at Walmart.com

Best thing, if its broken when you get it (as my B5 season4 was)
you can take it to ANY store and get a refund.

 

[AeroDm]

I still don't quite understand the multiple armor class system in Conan d20. Is there a detailed writeup somewhere that I can be referenced to, or could some noble poster aid me?

 

[Iron_Chef]

I still don't quite understand the multiple armor class system in Conan d20. Is there a detailed writeup somewhere that I can be referenced to, or could some noble poster aid me?

Armor Class is called Defense Value (DV). You get two DVs, Dodge and Parry. You choose which to use each round, though in practice, you only use whichever one you're best at unless the situation disallows it (see below).

Dodge = 10 + DEX mod + Class/Level Dodge bonus + Dodge feat (if taken) + any other dodge bonus (such as from race or class). In order to dodge, you must have 5 ft of free space adjacent to you, or a friendly-occupied adjacent square to duck into. Every time you dodge, you move five feet. You must dodge touch attacks and missile weapons. You cannot dodge attacks you aren't aware of, defaulting your dodge DV back to 10, which is also everyone's flat-footed DV.

Parry = 10 + STR mod + Class/Level Parry bonus + Parry feat (if taken) + any other parry bonus. You must have a drawn weapon or held shield to parry. You cannot parry arrows, bolts or touch attacks. Not sure if you can parry thrown weapons as my book isn't in front of me.

DVs are generally hideously low (making everyone easy to hit), except in the case of high stat mods and a large shield (+4 bonus) in the case of parry. The highest DV I've seen so far is a guy with a 17 Str (+3) and Large Shield (+4) having a 17 parry DV. DVs go up by 1 each at 2nd level unless you multiclass.

Weapons do greater amounts of damage than D&D, but armor reduces it by its DR (DR 4 for a lowly leather jerkin, for example, which can be increased to DR 5 by donning a steel cap). But then, most weapons have an Armor Piercing (AP) score, to which is added your Strength mod. If your adjusted AP equals or beats your foe's DR, then his DR is reduced by 50% for your damage.

You can also Finesse attack with many light one handed weapons, which gives you a chance to bypass your foe's DR altogether. Frex, on a finesse attack vs. a 1st level leather jerkin/steel cap (DR 5) foe with no Dex mod, you must roll a 10 + 5 (his DR) + 5 or better (20 or more, double his DV + DR) to ignore his armor, and I *think* you can't use your Strength mod bonus to damage. I hope I explained that Finesse bit right, I don't have my book, and that was one of the harder things for me to grasp (only coming up once in my first game).

 

[d4]

You must have a drawn weapon or held shield to parry. You cannot parry arrows, bolts or touch attacks. Not sure if you can parry thrown weapons as my book isn't in front of me.

why can't you parry arrows/bolts with a shield? seems like a fairly common tactic...

 

[Iron_Chef]

why can't you parry arrows/bolts with a shield? seems like a fairly common tactic...

Maybe I'm misremembering the rule, as one of my players (the alternate DM) ran off with my rule book to study. I think they want you to buy the Deflect Arrows feat in order to Parry missile fire, but I could be wrong about that, too. I don't have an answer for you, in any case.

On a related note, from my experience running an all archer party (Shemites and Hyrkanians), archery is supremely deadly against unarmored foes, and reduced to 50% effectiveness against armored targets (DR 5 being my sole test).

NOTE: Shemite bows do 1d10/x3 and Hyrkanian bows do 1d10/19-20/x2. They all had +1 mighty bows, so they added their strength mods to damage. Also, each race has different, but helpful, bonuses to hit and/or damage with bows, and free exotic weapon proficiency in their racial bow (or all bows). All had point blank shot and rapid shot at first level. None had better than Armor Piercing value 4, which was 1 short of ignoring 50% of their target's DR of 5.

The fact you can strap a shield over your back to improve your rear DR by +2 made an important strategic difference in dealing with foes thus protected. We had one crazed cannibal climbing an outcroping to get at an archer above, and the Hyrkanians kept shooting at his rear (DR 7), and every hit, he took no more than 1-3 hp damage, made his climb checks, and kept going! We called him the "hungry turtle." The evil freak was hit at least three times by arrows in his 2 round climb, and managed to get up and take out the archer he was after! It was only after archers were brought to his front that he could be taken out. Interesting story, and food for thought for fiendish Conan Game Masters.

 

[Teflon Billy]

the following was posted over at RPG.net by Spatulalad, and it sums up my feelings on playing Conan's world really well (probably better than I could have summed it up myself). read on...

Conan and his world are really, really cool.

Not in a flashy "to teh extreme!!!1" fashion, but in an honest, gritty, authentic kind of way. You can tell that Howard was working with some pretty primal material here, stuff that hadn't been mined before in this way. There are prototypes by the bushel here. Yet as the book notes, this isn't the polite and haughty fantasy of Tolkien and those in his evidently long shadow. Its pulp. Its got dirt under its nails and a lust for life that is vivid in its intensity.

More than that, the world we're presented with is human-centric in outlook. Harshly so to be sure, dark at its extremes, yes, sinisterly mystical even - but its centered on people, good bad and indifferent. They're the ones who call the shots and make kingdoms rise or fall - not omniscient spirits, demons, or angelic fairies.

To take the college jargon further, I'd say its downright Existentialistic. Here we have a world where a barbarian child in a harsh, bloody world can grow up to be a rogue, a pirate, and a king - not because he is divinely predestined to be those things, but because he felt like it. Guts, brains, and balls of brass are paramount - kissing some deity's ass or having a magic stick or pointy ears isn't. Again; traits of the pulp adventure I've always had an affection for - my first RPG was the Indiana Jones game from TSR, for cri-yi.

And this isn't just Howard's writing and setting appealing to me - though I'm certainly more interested in him after reading the game. No. The system plays right into the feel of his work and the themes playing in the background. How can you not like a game system where "Pantherish Twist" is on your character sheet? Or where you can heal damage by getting a flagon of wine? And, surprise, surprise; there are no apologies made for the rampant stereotypes from the different cultures of Hyboria - in fact, they're codified into the racial benefits and penalties.

I cannot express how refreshing this is to see in a genre that seems obsessed with being something other than human and collecting toys. I get this world on a level I can't even say Exalted grabbed me. It is, to sum up, the kind of fantasy I can dig.

 

[d4]

I think they want you to buy the Deflect Arrows feat in order to Parry missile fire, but I could be wrong about that, too.

fair enough. it just seems like something that should be possible. a grizzled veteran warrior just isn't a grizzled veteran unless he's got a couple of arrows stuck in his shield!

 

[FraserRonald]

Hey all

Are any of you lucky so-and-so's with their grubby hands on the Conan RPG book from Canada? I'm in Halifax, and I can't seem to find anyone who's carrying it. Amazon.ca indicates shipping in 5 to 7 weeks. Has Canada done something to offend Mongoose, or is it just Halifax?

 

[Mongoose_Matt]

Hey all

Are any of you lucky so-and-so's with their grubby hands on the Conan RPG book from Canada? I'm in Halifax, and I can't seem to find anyone who's carrying it. Amazon.ca indicates shipping in 5 to 7 weeks. Has Canada done something to offend Mongoose, or is it just Halifax?

Quite the reverse, I like Canada very much and if the UK ever goes down the plug hole, I'll be a resident

We have little control (!) over what Amazon does, so I am afraid you must take issue with them. However, Amazon _does_ have copies of Conan.

 

[Yokiboy]

Running that many NPCs allowed me to dare the epic battles I wanted (which also served to bind the characters together). I had the 10 Shemite NPCs all have the same stats, so running them was easy. I made the Shemite PC keep track of their hit points and split rolling duty between myself and the players.

My hat is off to you IC, I dislike NPCs tagging along with the party IMC, as I always forget about them. I like some of your ideas though, and will give this a try sometime.

Like someone else pointed out, I tend to believe (without having read the Conan rules yet) that combats in Conan might actually run smoother than D&D combats, due to the lesser focus on spells and magic items. Plus I've always preferred human(oid) combatants.

TTFN,

Yokiboy