Aholibamah
First Post
Does anyone use the Conan D20 game elements for D&D? If so how do you adapt them, whether they are rules or setting elements?
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Hyboria/The World of Conan and D&D
- Thread starter Aholibamah
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Melhaic
First Post
I use Conan for my "D&D" as written, and it works great. I wrote up races to match the ethnicities, and that is about the only change I made.
That said, it is a very different game than 3.5 D&D under the surface. The core assumption of powerful spell casters throwing around magic every fight isn't, and there ain't no cleric to bail you out if you are hurt. Players then to be much more careful and analytical about fighting without those. Dungeon delves don't really work that well, but it is great for epic fights (just like Conan stories...)
I've got some more stuff if you're interested.
That said, it is a very different game than 3.5 D&D under the surface. The core assumption of powerful spell casters throwing around magic every fight isn't, and there ain't no cleric to bail you out if you are hurt. Players then to be much more careful and analytical about fighting without those. Dungeon delves don't really work that well, but it is great for epic fights (just like Conan stories...)
I've got some more stuff if you're interested.
Voadam
Legend
I've got the mongoose pocket handbook, the 2 1e Conan modules, and GURPS Conan.
Setting elements: the gods are an easy to use part of Hyboria in a straight D&D game and the setting is pretty ripe for use out of the box IMO. I've used the gods before and been tempted to use the setting.
Mechanical: The classes are neat enough variations of nonmagical martial classes. Allowing normal D&D HD for the high levels should be roughly enough to get them into shape for D&D use. If someone showed interest in playing one in my game I'd look them over more in-depth then, but I don't think I'd have any problems with them.
Setting elements: the gods are an easy to use part of Hyboria in a straight D&D game and the setting is pretty ripe for use out of the box IMO. I've used the gods before and been tempted to use the setting.
Mechanical: The classes are neat enough variations of nonmagical martial classes. Allowing normal D&D HD for the high levels should be roughly enough to get them into shape for D&D use. If someone showed interest in playing one in my game I'd look them over more in-depth then, but I don't think I'd have any problems with them.
Aholibamah
First Post
Melhaic said:
I am.
Hm. Some Conan stories are Dungeon delves--though they tend to be more about mysterious temples and that kind of thing than actual beneath the earth dungeons.
One problem I guess I have with Conan D20 is a lack of published adventure material. It needs a lot more of that. On the other hand I like the magic system in it and the combat system is great. Also I love the setting itself. Monsters are often more out of Lovecraft or something than typical fantasy.
Woas
First Post
I've always wanted to do a Conan/Hyborian type of game. Everything I read about the Conan RPGs though are very general. Is it possible some of you in the know could extrapolate it a little more (without plagiarizing of course)? I hear a lot of "the game is real gritty!" but thats it. Not really how it achieves this sort of gameplay. How do the characters work... weapons, damage, armor. How does a Conan RPG translate into severed heads, torn limbs and awesomely chaotic and gruesome combat that I know and love and want to emulate?
Aus_Snow
First Post
There are many small differences and a few large differences between Conan and D&D 3e, and it would take quite a while to list them all.Woas said:
But OK, you mentioned 'weapons, damage, armour'. Well, the weapons are much like 3e's, except some of them do a bit more damage, and some have AP (armour-piercing) values, which add to the wielder's Strength bonus when overcoming the DR of armour. And well yeah, armour is DR, not AC - up to about 10, IIRC. Finesse fighting is a bit different though - basically, if you are very skilled and/or lucky, you can bypass armour entirely (find chinks, that kind of thing.)
Armour is damaged 1d4 DR whenever a blow pierces it doing 20 or more points of damage.
There are also more feats for making combat deadlier, I guess.
Oh, and HP amounts are a bit different. Classes have either d6, d8 or d10. Also, from 11th level onwards, it changes to a fixed amount of either 1, 2 or 3, respectively.
Anything else you want to know?
DrunkonDuty
he/him
OK, I'll see what I can do.
Conan characters tend to have less in the way of super powers compared to standard 3.5 characters. Oh a barbarian can still go into battle, naked save for a loincloth and do some serious hurt, but the barbarian will be badly hurt right back. Hit Dice max out at 9(d X) with X hit points per level thereafter, like in AD&D. There's no shadow dancing/aura of fire/rain of wank/straight of WoW stuff here. Very much Sword and Sorcery.
Armour is DR. All weapons have an Armour Piercing Rating (from 0 to about 4, IIRC) that reduces the DR. Characters have a Defensive Rating that acts as AC: either a Parry or a Dodge value; Parry or Dodge vs. Hand attack, Dodge vs. Missle attacks. Weapons all do more damage than in regular 3.5. Note the combination of lower hit points and more damage from weapons. Magic weapons are almost unheard off. Magic items are mostly limited to things for sorcerers to use. In fact most magic items are as dangerous to their user as to any target.
Magic system is biggest change. Sorcerers are both much more powerful than in 3.5 (spells aren't just limited to battle field use, a sorcerer can kill from a thousand miles away if they prepare properly) but at the same time much more vulnerable. There are no fireballs or such things. Spells take longer to cast and frequently require expensive materials. If a barbarian with a sword is able to get through to the sorcerer's lair then said sorcerer is likely to get his head handed to him. Oh and its a power point system. Sorcerers have a relatively low number of PP but can get more by being involved in rituals and sacrifices and such. There are feats they can take to make this easier.
As mentioned above there are no healing spells. The critical system is the same as 3.X, there's no special rules for severed limbs et. al. OF course you could always introduce one that does.
There are special manoeuvres, like bull rush and charge, that don't require feats. A character merely declares they are attempting them. These are very Conan-eque, like decapitating strike (this is an exception to the no severing criticals I mentioned above) and my particular fave: "to the hilt" whereby the character does more damage at the risk of breaking their weapon off in their foe. There are also the familiar manouevres like bull rush.
In terms of foes: there are fewer monsters and as such most enemies are humans. Evil sorcerers are of course a fave.
Overall it captures the flavour of the novels extremely well. All of those terrible spells cast by Thoth-Amon and his ilk have made there way into the rules. As have all those shadow-haunting, slithering horrors. The heroes are tough, but not so super human that they can't be taken down by a dozen well armoured low level mooks. Oh and IIRC there's stats for at least 2 types of carnivorous apes!!
I'm using it for a campaign (currently on hiatus due to real life business) with a different setting and a few minor tweaks. (I've introduced bleeding rules, what's the fun of having low hit points and no magical healing unless you have bleeding?) Working very well so far. It's a lot darker and a lot more dangerous than 3.5 so it would come down to what style do you and your group prefer.
I really like it and all my games from now on are going to be using this engine (I'm a sword and sorcery fan, what can I say?) and I do highly recommend it.
One gripe: To my knowledge it doesn't have a mass combat system, which is a shame as large scale battles form a large part of the Conan tales.
hope this helps.
Cheers,
Glen
Conan characters tend to have less in the way of super powers compared to standard 3.5 characters. Oh a barbarian can still go into battle, naked save for a loincloth and do some serious hurt, but the barbarian will be badly hurt right back. Hit Dice max out at 9(d X) with X hit points per level thereafter, like in AD&D. There's no shadow dancing/aura of fire/rain of wank/straight of WoW stuff here. Very much Sword and Sorcery.
Armour is DR. All weapons have an Armour Piercing Rating (from 0 to about 4, IIRC) that reduces the DR. Characters have a Defensive Rating that acts as AC: either a Parry or a Dodge value; Parry or Dodge vs. Hand attack, Dodge vs. Missle attacks. Weapons all do more damage than in regular 3.5. Note the combination of lower hit points and more damage from weapons. Magic weapons are almost unheard off. Magic items are mostly limited to things for sorcerers to use. In fact most magic items are as dangerous to their user as to any target.
Magic system is biggest change. Sorcerers are both much more powerful than in 3.5 (spells aren't just limited to battle field use, a sorcerer can kill from a thousand miles away if they prepare properly) but at the same time much more vulnerable. There are no fireballs or such things. Spells take longer to cast and frequently require expensive materials. If a barbarian with a sword is able to get through to the sorcerer's lair then said sorcerer is likely to get his head handed to him. Oh and its a power point system. Sorcerers have a relatively low number of PP but can get more by being involved in rituals and sacrifices and such. There are feats they can take to make this easier.
As mentioned above there are no healing spells. The critical system is the same as 3.X, there's no special rules for severed limbs et. al. OF course you could always introduce one that does.
There are special manoeuvres, like bull rush and charge, that don't require feats. A character merely declares they are attempting them. These are very Conan-eque, like decapitating strike (this is an exception to the no severing criticals I mentioned above) and my particular fave: "to the hilt" whereby the character does more damage at the risk of breaking their weapon off in their foe. There are also the familiar manouevres like bull rush.
In terms of foes: there are fewer monsters and as such most enemies are humans. Evil sorcerers are of course a fave.
Overall it captures the flavour of the novels extremely well. All of those terrible spells cast by Thoth-Amon and his ilk have made there way into the rules. As have all those shadow-haunting, slithering horrors. The heroes are tough, but not so super human that they can't be taken down by a dozen well armoured low level mooks. Oh and IIRC there's stats for at least 2 types of carnivorous apes!!
I'm using it for a campaign (currently on hiatus due to real life business) with a different setting and a few minor tweaks. (I've introduced bleeding rules, what's the fun of having low hit points and no magical healing unless you have bleeding?) Working very well so far. It's a lot darker and a lot more dangerous than 3.5 so it would come down to what style do you and your group prefer.
I really like it and all my games from now on are going to be using this engine (I'm a sword and sorcery fan, what can I say?) and I do highly recommend it.
One gripe: To my knowledge it doesn't have a mass combat system, which is a shame as large scale battles form a large part of the Conan tales.
hope this helps.
Cheers,
Glen
Frost
First Post
Here is a handy site... this guy did much of this work long before the Mongoose stuff came out...
Hyborian Age d20
Hyborian Age d20
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