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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801328" data-source="post: 7762634">I wanted to get back to this.  I think a signature feature of Conan stories...maybe nothing that really stood out when they were published but is a distinct difference from RPGs (and from Tolkien, it's worth mentioning)...is that Conan essentially never carries gear from one story to the next.  A key characteristic of Conan is that he is constantly picking up (and mastering) new weapons or weapon variants.  And while magic weapons don't really factor in, there are references to some weapons being higher quality than others.And it's not just his weapons: however much wealth he manages to hold onto by the end of a story, by the next one it's all gone again.Although I've tinkered with systems for weapon quality, and quality degradation, without even going there a feature I would very much enjoy in a Conan-esque 5e game is that during "downtime" you roll on random tables to determine what happens to your wealth and gear, and what you start off with the next time.  The tables would vary by the region in which the next adventure begins, although with some chance of producing a roll that says, essentially, "roll on the table from the region where your last adventure ended".  Or even, "pick from whatever table you like."Gear loss/replacement is important in part because of the absence of magic items: without the possibility of upgrades, once you get your preferred weapon you have nothing to look forward to.  But if you look forward to upgrades every adventure, the excitement remains.  You may be level 8, but once again you find yourself with a club, so that decent spear is a good upgrade, and when you find the finely crafted Broadsword you're psyched.  For now.On a related note, I think it's ok for the campaign to just jump from one location to another between adventures.  The same tables could add some color about what occurred during the transition.  Sure, you could play out every leg of every journey, but this is another example of the difference between generic rules that can be used in Hyboria, and rules that evoke the flavor of Conan.  I'd rather have DM-narrated transitions, because that would feel more like Conan stories.So the first thing you do when sitting down to a new session and a new adventure is roll to see what happened since the last adventure.  Maybe your success in the last adventure gives you "points" to spend to alter the rolls, or re-roll them, or whatever.  Maybe you get some choice in what happened to your money, and what related affect still lingers.  ("You blew all your money gambling, but as a result you now have a new bond with this particular NPC...")Now that would feel like an REH story.  To me.EDIT: And I have to add, for clarity, that I don't mean the above is my ideal for a perfect RPG.  I wouldn't (necessarily) want those rules for a Star Wars game, for example.  It's an example of genre/setting specific mechanics.</blockquote>

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