Robert E. Howard's Conan AMA With Jason Durall & Chris Lites

[CoreyHaim8myDog]

I'm Chris Lites, associate line manager for Robert E. Howard's Conan: Adventures In An Age Undreamed Of....

Starting on March 11, 2016, Jason Durall, our for-real line manager, and I will answer any and all questions about the new Conan RPG. We will also prophesy and give I Ching fortunes.

Jason Durall worked on BRP, Call of Cthulhu, Achtung! Cthulhu….

I've worked on Dust Adventures, Shadowrun, Mutant Chronicles 3E….

Together, we travel around America solving crimes.

Fire away.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I never played any of the Conan pen and paper RPGs, but I read each and every one of REH's Conan stories and have the complete collection in my library and have also collected many of Marvel's old Savage Sword of Conan large comics. The Conan stories are very physical and brutal, though tinged with a bit of the alien science fantasy, mysticism, ritual magic, strange and unique monsters, local political strife, conflicts of cultures, and the generally weird.

Recent Dungeons and Dragons editions are in many ways different. There are numerous ways to win challenges outside of the physical, older modules shy away from science fiction, magic has very strict rules, monsters are statted and usually work in groups, politics and culture are usually simple background flavor, and the Far Realm is as weird as it gets.

How do you take a group of roleplayers used to such systems as Dungeons and Dragons, and ease them into a ruleset that can emulate REH's Hyboria? What sacrifices had to be made to accommodate such players? Is the ruleset more enjoyable with a group of players and a single GM, or would it be better with a single player vs single GM? What is your favorite REH story? Which tales had the most influence on how you designed your RPG?

I also want my promised prophecy and I Ching fortune.

 

[Kai Kaganishu]

Is the RPG set at a certain time? Is there a timeline, metaplot or whatnot? Is Conan King?

And you seem to have interpreted the Conan world much more medieval than pre-BC. Aquilonia is considered medieval france, not Rome (as was depicted in Age of Conan, the game, for example. And the movies have a decidedly antique look to them). How did you come to that idea? Is it to be closer to traditional fantasy fare, which is probably more accessable to people?

thank you !

 

[CoreyHaim8myDog]

How do you take a group of roleplayers used to such systems as Dungeons and Dragons, and ease them into a ruleset that can emulate REH's Hyboria? What sacrifices had to be made to accommodate such players? Is the ruleset more enjoyable with a group of players and a single GM, or would it be better with a single player vs single GM? What is your favorite REH story? Which tales had the most influence on how you designed your RPG?

I also want my promised prophecy and I Ching fortune.

One of the things I like to remember is that many of the tropes of D&D started with Robert E. Howard. Heroic swordplay against weird horrors, seen prominently in AD&D 1E, is very Howardian. So, I think the answer to your question is sort of akin to the sculptor who, when asked how he sculpts a piece, says something like, “I take a block of marble and chip away everything that isn't the sculpture.”

That is to say, you take you basic, D&D style fantasy, and chip away everything that isn't Conan. Sword and sorcery is grittier, deadlier and dirtier. It's the cyberpunk of fantasy. You emphasize the mettle of mortal men above magic and so-called deities. All monsters are rare. Magic items all have names and few of them exist. It's a matter of pairing back the high fantasy bonsai tree to find the S&S tree within.

Conan can work fine with a small group and a GM or one player and one GM. it is not "party" focused, though. You don't fulfill specific niches. You don't all hang out at the inn waiting to get hired for a job. We aren't sacrificing Robert E. Howard's vision for D&D players. That was an early decision. If someone wants to play high fantasy dungeon crawling, there are already great games out there. This is a third option, hopefully.

I probably gravitate most toward Tower of the Elephant or Red Nails, but all of REH's stories and fragments have more or less equal weight in the game's design.

Your I Ching fortune says you will be the Kickstarter pledge that puts us over 500,000 dollars.

 

[CoreyHaim8myDog]

Is the RPG set at a certain time? Is there a timeline, metaplot or whatnot? Is Conan King?

And you seem to have interpreted the Conan world much more medieval than pre-BC. Aquilonia is considered medieval france, not Rome (as was depicted in Age of Conan, the game, for example. And the movies have a decidedly antique look to them). How did you come to that idea? Is it to be closer to traditional fantasy fare, which is probably more accessable to people?

thank you !

The Medieval interpretation is that of Robert E. Howard scholars such as our own Jeffrey Shanks. It applies to the Hyborian Kingdoms—Aquilonia, Koth, Nemedia, Corinthia, and Ophir. Howard always intended them to read as Medieval European-esque. Aquilonia is Medieval France, not Rome. The Rome idea gained popularity for various reasons but is not accurate to Howard's vision.

Our game is not set in a specific time in Conan's career. You could play when he is king, before he is king, or even before he was born. There is no metaplot. Metaplots are pretty antithetical to the episodic nature of Howard's pulp, so we aren't going there. There will be campaigns that have plots, of course, but they won't be world-shaking upheavals like The Sundering, for example. Conan goes from one adventure to the next. His “metaplot” is the arc of his character over time rather than a series of plot points. The game aims for the same.

While the Hyborian Kingdoms are a Medieval analog, many other countries are less "advanced." Stygia, for example, is like Ancient Egypt while others are closer to an Iron Age level of technology than a Medieval one.

As for accessibility? Honestly, we decided very early on to stick to REH exclusively. There's no attempt to make the game appeal to D&D style play or D&D style cultures. There are already games that do that very well. We're trying to capture the essence of Sword & Sorcery as portrayed by Robert E. Howard.

There will be a timeline of Conan's life and the history of Howard's version of our Earth. In fact, our REH expert, Jeffrey Shanks, expects to spend the rest of his life defending the timeline as several competing chronologies have been debated over the years. In our own way, we hope the game contributes to Conan scholarship in addition to being a great RPG.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Saw were the beast book has been unlocked, what can we expect from those pages?

 

[Zak S]

How does the game address the idea that:

-Magic in Conan books shows up in a wild variety and it's implied there are thousands of spells and ways to use magic

but

-The books themselves don't portray wizards as protagonists?

Will the magic system have more stuff in it than other popular fantasy games or less or what??

 

[Zak S]

Also, follow-up:

What is best in life?

 

[Polyhedral_Columbia]

Does Modiphius have the right to mention or portray the various alternate chronologies and adaptations of the Hyborian Age?

If so, besides crafting its own take on the Hyborian Age, will Modiphius at least address these in passing?

For example:

The various chronologies offered for the canonical REH stories:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_chronologies

The various media adaptations (such as the films), each of which is essentially a distinct depiction of the Hyborian Age:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_the_Barbarian#Media

And the parallel Hyborian Ages in the Marvel Universe:

Conan in the Mainstream Marvel Universe (Earth-616)
The Hyborian Age is Marvel Earth's past, circa 10,000 BC

Conan (Earth-9997)
Earth X

Conan (Earth-79213)
Conan traveled to modern era

Conan (Earth-83600)
Thor vs. Conan

Conan (Earth-84243)
Conan joined the Avengers

Conan (Earth-84999)
Conan refused to join the Avengers

Conan (Earth-90816)
Wolverine sent back to Conan's time

Conan (Earth-33⅓)
The world of the Marvel UK humorous comic strips

Conan the Librarian (Earth-9047)
Home to Cookies & Milk

 

[jdurall]

How do you take a group of roleplayers used to such systems as Dungeons and Dragons, and ease them into a ruleset that can emulate REH's Hyboria?

I have found that one of the best approaches to any game is to assume that it's the first contact with a new game, and ease players into the system and setting as if they're experiencing gaming for the first time. This doesn't mean copious "this is how you roll a dice" explanations, but a simple re-enforcement of the setting as you introduce the rules, and a continual demonstration throughout play examples.

What sacrifices had to be made to accommodate such players?

We are not thinking in those terms.

Is the ruleset more enjoyable with a group of players and a single GM, or would it be better with a single player vs single GM?

The Momentum rules make things definitely easier for groups, but the one-on-one game experience will also be supported. Ultimately, though, gaming is a social activity, and not every character can do all things. If we had to identify one place where the rules system and game diverge from the source material, it's that we're emphasizing group play vs. a sole protagonist.

What is your favorite REH story?

"The Shadow Kingdom"

Which tales had the most influence on how you designed your RPG?

I'm the line developer, not the "designer" per se, but the tales I keep referring to are "The Phoenix on the Sword", "People of the Black Circle", and "The Hyborian Age." Probably the latter the most.

I also want my promised prophecy and I Ching fortune.

In the town of the south, a terrible messenger will be forgotten. The dark duke will rise. The empress of evil will seduce the count of the day.

and

62 - Sixty-Two
Hsiao Kuo / Lying Low

Thunder high on the Mountain, active passivity:
The Superior Person is unsurpassed in his ability to remain small.
In a time for humility, he is supremely modest.
In a time of mourning, he uplifts with somber reverence.
In a time of want, he is resourcefully frugal.

When a bird flies too high, its song is lost.
Rather than push upward now, it is best to remain below.
This will bring surprising good fortune, if you keep to your course.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

There is no profit to striving here.
To be content with oneself is the greatest success imaginable.
The enlightened person has nothing to prove to himself or others, and thus may always operate from a position of sincerity, with no pretense or posturing.
His humility is guileless simplicity.
His mourning is selfless compassion.
His frugality is an unshakeable faith that he is but a conduit, letting what is needed flow through him to others, with no loss to himself.