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

[jdurall]

I just can't justify the price at this point. I'm getting a the core print book of 7th Sea and ALL the unlocked PDFs for a few dollars less ($40) than the lowest price to just get the core print book of Conan. I would have to spend almost $90 to do the same with Conan. It's no wonder the 7th Sea Kickstarter is over a million dollars right now.

First off, I wish John Wick all the best, and am truly happy to see 7th Sea doing so well. I don't know him that well, but we've exchanged emails now and again, chatted about a few things, and he's even doing a smallish supplement in support of a game I created, Lords of Gossamer & Shadow.

As for our own game, I can't speak to the Kickstarter pricing, as it wasn't set by me and I had no influence on how it was established. I do think, given the "forward" unlocking for .pdfs, etc. that the value is quite high.

Since the core Conan book doesn't appear to have much of the magic stuff, I wouldn't really have the option to just pledge for the core book without the Book of Skelos. The only reason I would shift over to using their house mechanics is if magic worked very differently than it does elsewhere and wasn't all memorized-spell-based. Since magic in Howard's stories is very different than what you find in a lot of fantasy, that's the part that would make the game special. If I just wanted a sourcebook, I would just go back to the original stories and other sources of information and stick with Barbarians of Lemuria or Savage Worlds for the ruleset.

The core rulebook contains a chapter on sorcery, with rules for patronage, alchemy, petty enchantments, talismans, lotus use, sorcery talents, and a wide range of spells of various potencies and uses.

It is not, as you say above, "memorized-spell-based."

 

[Psikerlord#]

There are two tracks for two types of injuries: Stresses and Harms.

Stresses are the low-level injuries, scrapes, or even the equivalent of being shaken psychologically. They're divided into two categories:, Vigor (based on Brawn) and Resolve (based on Willpower). When you lose all of the points in one of these categories, then further injuries of that type become Harms.

Harms are divided into Wounds and Trauma, and most heroes have five apiece.

It looks like this:

STRESS
Vigor [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] (based on a 10 Brawn) - when these are checked off, go to Wounds (below)
Resolve [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] (based on a 10 Willpower) - when these are checked off, go to Trauma (below)

These are recovered relatively quickly.

HARMS
Wounds [] [] [] [] [] (most heroes have 5)
Trauma [] [] [] [] [] (most heroes have 5)

These take longer to heal. If a hero takes 4 of these, they must spend a Fortune point to act. If they take all of these points in Harms, they either die or are driven permanently insane/traumatized/comatose.

That sounds excellent, thank you for the mechanics insight!

 

[Psikerlord#]

Hmm, how have you differentiated your weapons - do they use different damage dice, or have special qualities, that sort of thing? Do you have a mechanic for "improvised" or "stunt" like combat actions, aside from the usual push, trip and disarm?

 

[jdurall]

Hmm, how have you differentiated your weapons - do they use different damage dice, or have special qualities, that sort of thing?

As we've laid out in the quickstart, weapons are defined by different qualities, as well as different damage [combat dice] totals.

Weapons might have qualities like Unbalanced (if your strength isn't high enough to use it, you are thrown off-balance when using it), Reach (able to strike at people outside of melee range), Improvised (earns fewer combat Effects), Parrying, Piercing (ignores armor), Stun (can stagger a foe), Unforgiving (if the target has had an exploit action done to them, the weapon does additional damage), and Vicious (does additional damage per Effect rolled). There are more, but those are the ones in the quickstart.

Do you have a mechanic for "improvised" or "stunt" like combat actions, aside from the usual push, trip and disarm?

Combat actions described in the quickstart include Clear (getting rid of an unwelcome condition like "bleeding", "on fire", or "staggered"), Exploit (a catch-all for feints, called shots, etc.), Ready (waiting until someone else acts and then moving quickly beforehand), and Retaliate (striking at someone who is doing something other than fighting within melee range). There are more in the quickstart, and the core rules contain more.

 

[Psikerlord#]

OK I'm off to check out the quickstart rules!

 

[trystero]

How does fighting with two weapon work in this game?

You can always take additional actions by spending Momentum during a round, so if you were holding two weapons, you'd just spend Momentum to take a 2nd attack, though it would be at a penalty.

Specifically, you can always spend 2 Momentum to take an additional standard action, adding +1 to the difficulty of all tests you make as part of that action. One of the developers has mentioned in online discussion -- though of course I can't now find the link -- that it only costs 1 Momentum (instead of the usual 2) to do this if you use the additional action to make a second attack with a different weapon. So there's a slight incentive to carry two one-handed weapons, though sword-and-shield-bash is rewarded just as much as sword-and-dagger or similar offensive-weapon pairings.

 

[Falstaff]

Hello Jason. I have downloaded the quickstart rules and I'm reading it in preparation to run it for my group, and I have a question. This may be something I don't need to worry about until the full rule book releases, but I'm a little confused when I look at the pregen character sheets regarding Skills and Focuses. The rules say you add Expertise to Attribute to get the Target Number. But the character sheets appear to be adding Attribute and Focus together to get the TN. What am I missing?

And BIG thanks to you and the rest of your team for making this game. Long, long overdue!

 

[jdurall]

Hello Jason. I have downloaded the quickstart rules and I'm reading it in preparation to run it for my group, and I have a question. This may be something I don't need to worry about until the full rule book releases, but I'm a little confused when I look at the pregen character sheets regarding Skills and Focuses. The rules say you add Expertise to Attribute to get the Target Number. But the character sheets appear to be adding Attribute and Focus together to get the TN. What am I missing?

And BIG thanks to you and the rest of your team for making this game. Long, long overdue!

Hi Falstaff!

Loved you in Merry Wives of Windsor! (Sorry, I could not resist. Best forum handle ever.)

There was some clarification back-and-forth on the pregen character sheets.

Yes, you are reading it correctly. You add Expertise to Attribute for the Target Number.

However, for starting characters, those values are the same.

Later, players can spend experience on one or both of them to increase them separately.

 

[Falstaff]

Haha, another Falstaff fan; love the guy! And thanks for the clarification.

 

[Stephen D. Patterson]

Conan doesn't lend itself well to conversion to AD&D.