Iron_Chef
First Post
[EDIT: March 11, 2004]
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THIS LONG-RUNNING THREAD, READ THIS:
Iron Chef here! You've stumbled upon one spicy meatball of a thread if you love the new Conan RPG.
I've altered the name of this thread from "CONAN: FIRST IMPRESSIONS" to reflect the vast amount of new ideas, house rules and GM adventure support contained in the later pages. The first few pages deal with first impressions and reactions to the Conan RPG, but after that, my house rules and GM adventure design ideas take over, along with tidbits of recent news, errata, and official announcements (such as the special "Sons of Cimmeria" deal for those who bought the first printing).
This is the main Conan RPG thread on ENWorld, and certainly the most important yet in terms of providing crunch. I know there are a lot of pages to sift through, but I believe you'll be well rewarded for your time and effort.
For those in a hurry, or who want "instant access" to my
GM's GUIDE TO CREATING HYBORIAN AGE ADVENTURES, please click here:
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1331
________________________________________
Original thread starting post:
Amazon, despite the pre-order discount, has still not shipped my damn book. I called my game store today, and of course, they had their copies, so I went down and paid $49.95 for one. It's a beautiful, exciting, inspirational book, but I'm already finding errors, poorly explained rules and various irritating inconsistencies throughout (something Mongoose excels at).
Parts of the rules I thought were going to be more divergent to add realism and excitement, like Dodge and Parry, end up just being passive armor classes, rather than a mechanic similar to Palladium's dodge and parry (where you use them to block what would otherwise be a successful hit). This was at once both reassuring and disappointing (no realistic rules to learn where I kind of wanted them).
Spring Attack is missing. It was promised as a "combat maneuver" in S&P but is not in the book as either that or as a feat. Combat Reflexes replaces it as a prereq for Whirlwind Attack in the feats section.
The soldier class does not get handle animal as a class skill, unlike the D&D fighter. My player made up a Meadow Shemite (horse archer) soldier PC who got 2 free racial background skill ranks in Handle Animal, and Soldier as favoured class, but he doesn't get it as a class skill? Doesn't make sense. On a side note, soldiers are often paid to guard, yet they can't get listen or spot as class skills? At least they added search to class skills for 'em.
There are no copper pieces in the game, yet the books always have Conan paying for his drinks and rooms with copper. I don't get that, and while it's no big deal, I still find it irritating.
How characters get bonus skill points at 1st level is not clear from reading the class descriptions, which appear to be standard D&D. You have to turn to another chapter (Skills) to see that you get class skill points x 4, in addition to your Int mod x4 in bonus points at 1st level. The Skills chapter's example description for this is poorly expained. I had to reread it at least three times to figure it out. Very confusing.
In the Profession skill, the character is cited as being able to earn gold pieces per week, when the Hyborian standard currency is silver. I assume this is a holdover from the SRD and somebody not catching it in editing...
There were not enough human "monsters" detailed in the bestiary section. Plenty of animals, monsters and demons, but only three human foes? Belit's Black Corsairs, Pictish Warriors and Turanian Light Cavalry. Should have been more. With all the racial mods and class mods, it is a bit of GM hell to quickly stat out NPCs.
I am having a hard time understanding finesse fighting, armor piercing and damage to armor as well.
I haven't plunged into the sorcery section yet, but I'm nervous it's too complicated vs. the simplicity of Call of Cthulhu d20.
Now, the good parts, which are pretty much everything else in the book I haven't called out above!
The dizzying array of new races and character classes make character creation daunting (even to those familiar with Hyboria), but fun. The different races really come to life, and it's so awesome not to have to choose from the same old tired elves and dwarves or plain vanilla humans. Each race gets a bunch of cookies, some weaknesses, and distinct flavor. Subraces exist, providing extra cookies at the expense of some of the standard race's cookies.
Classes all get "cookies" at every level, as they should, if designers expect anyone to stick with them! The classes are by and large very cool and flavorful, and more powerful than standard D&D ones (presumably to make up for the lack of magical healing and the fact that weapons do monstrous amounts of damage).
The extra bonus feats for following favored classes (one at 1st level in favored class then every 5 levels) seem a nice reward for sticking to stereotypes, and the extra stat increases (+1 to all stats at 6th level!) will also have players screaming with delight.
There don't appear to be any new skills, though some skills do detail new uses.
Feat selection is pretty standard, with some interesting new ones thrown in (mostly combat and sorcery), but I was hoping for more. The spawn of dagoth hill (feat that grants a half-demonic template) is quite flavorful, but must be taken at 1st level, as is Eyes of the Cat (grants low light vision, also available at 1st level only, though barbarians get it free at 2nd level).
The weapons, armor and equipment section is beautiful, and well detailed, but there are no prices for trulls (harlots), which makes it harder for PCs to go wenching properly. For those of you unfamiliar with the books, Conan seems to fork over 1-3 silver pieces for such intimate encounters. I think that buys a "turn of the glass with a lovely lass", but maybe it's for an all-nighter when the girls go crazy for big barbarian studs and prices (as well as clothes) drop.
Detailed slave purchase prices are in there, however.
Overall, I'm impressed and pleased with my purchase. I'll be breaking it in this Saturday when I run the Slaver's Caravan adventure from http://hyboria.xoth.net/adventures/index.htm
Now to sit down and finish devouring the book...
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THIS LONG-RUNNING THREAD, READ THIS:
Iron Chef here! You've stumbled upon one spicy meatball of a thread if you love the new Conan RPG.
I've altered the name of this thread from "CONAN: FIRST IMPRESSIONS" to reflect the vast amount of new ideas, house rules and GM adventure support contained in the later pages. The first few pages deal with first impressions and reactions to the Conan RPG, but after that, my house rules and GM adventure design ideas take over, along with tidbits of recent news, errata, and official announcements (such as the special "Sons of Cimmeria" deal for those who bought the first printing).
This is the main Conan RPG thread on ENWorld, and certainly the most important yet in terms of providing crunch. I know there are a lot of pages to sift through, but I believe you'll be well rewarded for your time and effort.
For those in a hurry, or who want "instant access" to my
GM's GUIDE TO CREATING HYBORIAN AGE ADVENTURES, please click here:
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1331
________________________________________
Original thread starting post:
Amazon, despite the pre-order discount, has still not shipped my damn book. I called my game store today, and of course, they had their copies, so I went down and paid $49.95 for one. It's a beautiful, exciting, inspirational book, but I'm already finding errors, poorly explained rules and various irritating inconsistencies throughout (something Mongoose excels at).
Parts of the rules I thought were going to be more divergent to add realism and excitement, like Dodge and Parry, end up just being passive armor classes, rather than a mechanic similar to Palladium's dodge and parry (where you use them to block what would otherwise be a successful hit). This was at once both reassuring and disappointing (no realistic rules to learn where I kind of wanted them).
Spring Attack is missing. It was promised as a "combat maneuver" in S&P but is not in the book as either that or as a feat. Combat Reflexes replaces it as a prereq for Whirlwind Attack in the feats section.
The soldier class does not get handle animal as a class skill, unlike the D&D fighter. My player made up a Meadow Shemite (horse archer) soldier PC who got 2 free racial background skill ranks in Handle Animal, and Soldier as favoured class, but he doesn't get it as a class skill? Doesn't make sense. On a side note, soldiers are often paid to guard, yet they can't get listen or spot as class skills? At least they added search to class skills for 'em.
There are no copper pieces in the game, yet the books always have Conan paying for his drinks and rooms with copper. I don't get that, and while it's no big deal, I still find it irritating.
How characters get bonus skill points at 1st level is not clear from reading the class descriptions, which appear to be standard D&D. You have to turn to another chapter (Skills) to see that you get class skill points x 4, in addition to your Int mod x4 in bonus points at 1st level. The Skills chapter's example description for this is poorly expained. I had to reread it at least three times to figure it out. Very confusing.
In the Profession skill, the character is cited as being able to earn gold pieces per week, when the Hyborian standard currency is silver. I assume this is a holdover from the SRD and somebody not catching it in editing...
There were not enough human "monsters" detailed in the bestiary section. Plenty of animals, monsters and demons, but only three human foes? Belit's Black Corsairs, Pictish Warriors and Turanian Light Cavalry. Should have been more. With all the racial mods and class mods, it is a bit of GM hell to quickly stat out NPCs.
I am having a hard time understanding finesse fighting, armor piercing and damage to armor as well.
I haven't plunged into the sorcery section yet, but I'm nervous it's too complicated vs. the simplicity of Call of Cthulhu d20.
Now, the good parts, which are pretty much everything else in the book I haven't called out above!
The dizzying array of new races and character classes make character creation daunting (even to those familiar with Hyboria), but fun. The different races really come to life, and it's so awesome not to have to choose from the same old tired elves and dwarves or plain vanilla humans. Each race gets a bunch of cookies, some weaknesses, and distinct flavor. Subraces exist, providing extra cookies at the expense of some of the standard race's cookies.
Classes all get "cookies" at every level, as they should, if designers expect anyone to stick with them! The classes are by and large very cool and flavorful, and more powerful than standard D&D ones (presumably to make up for the lack of magical healing and the fact that weapons do monstrous amounts of damage).
The extra bonus feats for following favored classes (one at 1st level in favored class then every 5 levels) seem a nice reward for sticking to stereotypes, and the extra stat increases (+1 to all stats at 6th level!) will also have players screaming with delight.
There don't appear to be any new skills, though some skills do detail new uses.
Feat selection is pretty standard, with some interesting new ones thrown in (mostly combat and sorcery), but I was hoping for more. The spawn of dagoth hill (feat that grants a half-demonic template) is quite flavorful, but must be taken at 1st level, as is Eyes of the Cat (grants low light vision, also available at 1st level only, though barbarians get it free at 2nd level).
The weapons, armor and equipment section is beautiful, and well detailed, but there are no prices for trulls (harlots), which makes it harder for PCs to go wenching properly. For those of you unfamiliar with the books, Conan seems to fork over 1-3 silver pieces for such intimate encounters. I think that buys a "turn of the glass with a lovely lass", but maybe it's for an all-nighter when the girls go crazy for big barbarian studs and prices (as well as clothes) drop.
Detailed slave purchase prices are in there, however.Overall, I'm impressed and pleased with my purchase. I'll be breaking it in this Saturday when I run the Slaver's Caravan adventure from http://hyboria.xoth.net/adventures/index.htm
Now to sit down and finish devouring the book...
Last edited:
