Conan Pocket RPG
Conan RPG Pocket Edition
Ian Sturrock
Mongoose Publishing 400pp Paperback $19.99
Playtest review
This volume in the Mongoose Conan RPG series is a small format (trade paperback) version of the Atlantean edition of the Conan Rulebook. As I have reviewed the original edition of the rules I have largely used my existing comments on these.
The presentation is similar to the other books in the Conan series with a narrower version of the normal page borders, the same cover art as other Conan core rulebooks and the diagrams for combat retained. There is no internal art or the quotations from Robert E. Howard. The lack of artwork is not a major loss as this is a rulebook that I need to carry and use rather than a coffee table book.
Conan and the Hyborian Age
Just in case there is anyone who hasn't heard of Conan or the Hyborian Age. It all started back in the 1930s with a writer from Texas called Robert E Howard, who created the character of Conan and published stories about him in
Weird Tales magazine. He did become a popular character and was still published after Howard's untimely death, with other authors completing some story outlines and writing new original stories few of which in my opinion have ever captured the verve of Howard's writing. As well as books and magazines, Marvel comics published a comic book adaptation, notable for Barry Smith's art. And of course there were the movies with the governator himself.
Design and Production
Art and Design
This is a good point of the book. Chris Quilliams cover is really good and for me captures the look of Conan. The design does not waste too much space on pages which are probably about 85-90% text on average. There are diagrams to illustrate combat examples in this edition, which is an improvement from the original.
Physical Production
This is a trade paperback size book with a perfect (glued) binding. I'm not sure this will hold up over prolonged use, but was probably necessary to hit the price.
Content
What's different: the Hyborian age essay by Robert Howard is omitted as is the bestiary and gazeteer. Of the three the bestiary is by far the biggest loss as the essay is printed at many other places and the gazeteer can easily be replaced by the
Road of Kings book, but it is possible to adapt creatures from other D20 RPG without huge difficulties and many times Conan does fight human opponents.
Rules
Now the most important part, how well do the rules adapt the D20 system to get the flavour of Hyborian Age role-playing?
There are no non human player characters, which is appropriate for the setting. Classes available are largely combat oriented; there is no straight equivalent of the Cleric or the arcane spell casters, just the Scholar class.
There are a large number of subraces available for humans based on the nationality and background. In total there are 14 major races and 13 variants on these so there is no lack of variety, but generally a GM will specify which are appropriate for the adventure setting, e.g. a campaign on the Pictish border of Aquilonia is unlikely to have Stygian priest characters. Racial definitions may include characteristic adjustments, favoured and prohibited classes, background skills, bonus feats and languages.
Ability increases come for single abilities at level 4 and every 4 levels after that, with an increase to all abilities at level 6 and every 4 levels after that. This will make high level characters very unlikely to have any negative ability modifiers.
Classes
The classes reflect the Hyborian world with few spell casters, but lots of varied combat types. The full list is:
- Barbarian
- Borderer
- Noble
- Nomad
- Pirate
- Scholar
- Soldier
- Thief
The only class with magic abilities is the Scholar. There are no penalties for cross-classing, but by gaining levels in favoured classes characters receive bonus feats at 1, 5 and 10 levels.
Hit points are generated by die rolls + modifiers up to level 10 and after that a fixed amount, depending on class, is received. This means that higher level characters hit points will be lower than in other OGL games. The range of dice is only between D6 and D10 so the range of hit points between classes is lower than in D&D. At first level all characters gain the maximum possible hit points and given the low amounts of healing available this is necessary.
Skills and Feats
The skills and feats are one part of the system which is closest to the standard OGL rules with there just being an adjusted list of these and many feats having names changed to give more flavour.
Equipment and Money
Compared to D&D money is scarce - characters usually only have small amounts of case and the 'High Living' rule can be used to help dispose of any extra wealth over 50sp. The only coin types are gold and silver. Magical equipment is not easy to obtain and is not normally purchased, but would be received as part of the rewards from a successful adventure.
Most characters will tend to receive a starting kit of equipment and arms based on the sets in the rulebooks or the GM's preference, but there are price lists and starting money tables if the purchase system is preferred.
Fate Points
Characters receive fate points at first level and can at later times at the GM's discretion.
These can be used for a number of purposes, probably most often to preserve a characters life as being 'left for dead', but they can also be used for a 'mighty blow' to deliver maximum damage on an attack, 'repentance' to remove corruption and 'destiny' to make minor changes to the game world.
Codes of Honour and Reputations
There is no alignment in the Conan game which reflects Howard's world, but characters can have a Code of Honour and Allegiances which affect their interaction with others.
Reputations are earned based on the characters behaviour and level, this being used to help determine interaction with NPC, reputation points will gradually decrease for inactive characters.
Combat
This is still basically D20 combat, but changed from standard D&D by there being different combat styles and rules for the effect of armour.
In combat the main differences are the use of a Defence Value rather than an Armour Class for the to hit roll, there are two types of DV, dodge based and parry based. Armour also has damage reducing qualities, with weapons having an armour piercing factor to overcome this.
Finesse fighters can bypass Damage Reduction by getting an attack roll equal to or higher than the DV +DR for the target, which can make some weapons more attractive than in the basic D&D style rules.
Magic
The magic system in Conan is substantially different from the standard D&D system to reflect how sorcery is used in Howard's stories. The limit on use is based on power points rather than spells per day.
Power points are only received by the Scholar class or characters with the Dabbler feat. The number of points received is 4 + wisdom bonus for the Scholar and 2 + wisdom bonus if the Dabbler feat has been selected. Each spell has a cost in power points, with the limit on the amount of spells determined by a mixture of power points and spells known. Additional power points can be gained through sacrifices, energy drains, or rituals. Power points used up to the characters usual base PP can be regained by rest; each Sorcerer has a maximum number of power points.
There are special rules for magic, these are: the rule of success, rule of impermanence,
rule of defence, rule of obsession, rule of the master and rule of the sorcererís soul. These can alter how effective magic is with the rule of success making spell casters potentially very powerful indeed.
Magic use in Conan has the risk of corruption from associating with demons, with this being treated as a cumulative risk. There are other consequences of magic, these being runaway magic and insanity.
There are nine styles of sorcery: Counterspells; Curses; Divination; Hypnotism; Natural Magic; Necromancy; Oriental Magic; Prestidigitation and Summoning.
Pluses:
- Index
- Clarity of layout
- Compact format with little wasted space
- Significantly cheaper than the Conan rulebook
- A Good attempt to get a game with the feel of Hyborian rolelaying using the D20 mechanism
Negatives:
- No bestiary
- No gazeteer
- Less flavourful than the full version
Downloads:
Character sheets and adventures are available at mongooses website.
Overall
Recommended, especially for the travelling DM or a player, who won't need the bestiary. I give it a 7.5 out of 10 rounding to 4 stars.
