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

[jdurall]

Is the RPG set at a certain time?

The core book defaults to the beginning of Conan's career, but provides an overview of his saga and what his influence is upon the setting.

Followup books will develop different campaign styles based on phases of his career, almost as if he's an ambassador or herald to those modes of play. The books we're talking about are:

Conan the Thief
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Mercenary
Conan the Pirate
Conan the Wanderer
Conan the Adventurer
Conan the Brigand
Conan the Scout
Conan the King

Is there a timeline, metaplot or whatnot?

The timeline of Conan's adventures will be discussed, but there is no enforced "this needs to happen" metaplot. GMs can use or ignore the events in Conan's life at their discretion.

Is Conan King?

Eventually he will be, if you follow the release order of the sourcebooks. Or the GM can simply decide that their campaign begins with Conan as 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?

This is an issue where the pastiche material (going all the way back to the publication in Weird Tales) is inaccurate or misleading, standardizing that "ancient world" look that's at odds with the actual text. Parts of the Hyborian Age kingdoms are more primitive and less civilized, but others are fairly medieval. One of the biggest clues as to how REH actually imagined the setting is to look at the descriptions of costumes and gear.

For example, in "The Phoenix in the Sword", Prospero is described as wearing silvered mail with a silken surcoat, and Gromel a casque, both of which indicate a higher level of civilization than the furry loincloth Conan's often depicted wearing. Similarly, look to the description of the armor and weaponry Conan's wearing in tales like "Black Colossus" and "The Black Stranger" - these all indicate a much later period than is traditionally depicted in comics, fantasy art, and the film.

As for why our artwork is often leaning that way... it's one of those delicate balances between popular conception and the text. We've got an all-star lineup of artists, and we're giving them a bit of leeway in their depictions of Conan and his world.

Is it to be closer to traditional fantasy fare, which is probably more accessable to people?

The decision was made entirely based on the game being a truer and more accurate depiction of the Hyborian Age than ever seen before.

thank you !

You are welcome!

 

[Psikerlord#]

How are you going to do magic? Will there by at will spells, daily spells, spell points, or some other system?

 

[jdurall]

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

Beasts of the Hyborian Age expands on the core book's bestiary, with an expanded roster of creatures, natural animals, and horrors, including additional such beings suggested by the inter-relation between the Hyborian Age and the Cthulhu Mythos.

A good guideline about what to expect would be Terrors of the Secret War, from Modiphius for Achtung! Cthulhu. Rather than just being a straightforward bestiary, it presents creatures in context, with story seeds and variations based on region and relative power level, and includes a "monster creation system" that allows GMs to customize existing creatures and to create them anew.

 

[jdurall]

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??

So, the core book deals with the most common magic paths and effects portrayed in the stories.

We're in some cases positing that different traditions address the same spells with different window-dressing, so we're including "variations" for spells to reflect that a summoning might work differently if used by a Pict shaman, a Shemitish astrologer, or a Stygian necromancer.

Player characters can use sorcery (it's even an identified skill on the quickstart character sheet) but the relevant talents are what distinguish a non-spell-user from a spell-user. An example from the text is how Conan often recognizes sorcery, and in one tale, even utters a magic charm he read on a wall in a forgotten cave at the edge of Pictland.

There are also "friendly" magic users in the source material, particularly the witch Zelata and the priest Hadrathus, both from Hour of the Dragon, who aid Conan by using the Heart of Ahriman against the sorcerer Xaltotun.

What is best in life?

Varies by day, but lately I'd have to say it's these pretzel croissants from the bakery around the corner from my apartment.

 

[jdurall]

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

We have the rights to use any and all Conan material as source material.

Our decision very early on was to hew only the the REH stories as our base, and develop original content more in tone with that, rather than accommodating a vast amount of fairly contradictory and uneven pastiche material. In some cases this means we're looking at material outside the Conan stories, such as stories REH wrote that refer to the Hyborian Age or use similar themes and locations, or the tie-ins with the Cthulhu Mythos, but we're being very selective about what we add.

There will more likely than not be nods to some notable bits of pastiche, but we would like to avoid creating a confusing sense of "this is canon, this is not" with our treatment of the Hyborian Age.

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

We will not be addressing any of those, nor do we have the rights to do anything relating to the Marvel universe.

The closest we'll come to it is tie-ins with companies like Monolith and Funcom (both of which have been announced), but these will be optional expansions, unrelated to other projects in the game line.

 

[jdurall]

How are you going to do magic? Will there by at will spells, daily spells, spell points, or some other system?

Spells are learned by having certain magical talents. Certain talents simply allow a spell to be learned, and certain spells require certain talents. Spells are fueled (for the most part) by successful Sorcery rolls that generate Momentum. Momentum lets sorcerers do things above and beyond the basic spell's description.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

Spells are learned by having certain magical talents. Certain talents simply allow a spell to be learned, and certain spells require certain talents. Spells are fueled (for the most part) by successful Sorcery rolls that generate Momentum. Momentum lets sorcerers do things above and beyond the basic spell's description.

Is there any built-in way for magic-using characters to design original spells, or are we still looking at spell lists?

 

[jdurall]

Is there any built-in way for magic-using characters to design original spells, or are we still looking at spell lists?

The core book does not include rules for the creation of original spells, but The Book of Skelos should have some guidance along those lines. I don't have the outline handy at the moment, though.

 

[CoreyHaim8myDog]

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

We'll cover all the monster's Howard featured as well as some Lovecraftian type horrors.

 

[CoreyHaim8myDog]

Also, follow-up:

What is best in life?

The open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and the primordial ylem in your hair.

Stygian black lotus is a close second.