That's interesting, amerigo. I am familiar with Conan through only the films and general pop culture references. I have never read the Conan books, and am not at all familiar with any of the Fafhrd & Gray Mouser stories, much less the Lankhmar stuff. If you don't mind elaborating, what, precisely, is it about these particular legendaria that make Savage Worlds suitable for them but not so much for other fantasy settings?
Hop to it!
Oh, that'll definitely derail the thread!
Rather than address what "low" and "high"
do or
should mean with respect to fantasy, let's just say that pulp sword & sorcery short stories are fast-paced and simply suggest a setting you already know -- Conan's a corsair now, go! -- where Tolkien-esque mega-novels take their time moving through an elaborately described setting that's almost as important as the action.
RobShanti, MMADSEN hits it on the head with your pointed question. Do read some of the original Conan material - it will inspire your game regardless of what you decide to run.
So, let me do this since we are on a major derail. I'll lay out some thinking if I was going to use SW to run LoTR. Will it work for you? Maybe. I'll use the LoTR itself for examples of Savage Worlds "outcomes".
Opening
Much of that is roleplay, but if the PCs were mostly Hobbits the Hindrances would really come into play here. Things like Curiosity for Merry Took would get him in all sorts of trouble (like playing with Gandalf's fireworks).
Fleeing the Shire
You could use SW in a number of ways. You might have the pure chase rules (which have been streamlined in the new Deluxe version) for any pure chases. I would actually blend that in with the new Dramatic Tasks. DTs are a bit like 4e skill challenges, but I find them to work much more smoothly (skill challenges were a great idea with challenging implimentation). The goal here is not for the Hobbits to fight to Wraiths, but to somehow get away under challenging circumstances.
At the Prancing Pony
A great time for Interludes and Hindrances to come into play. Interludes are very simple - draw a card and the suite dictates what type of backstory the PC talks about (tragedy, triumph, etc). You can see them from here
http://www.peginc.com/freebies/SWcore/SWDUpdates_Interludes.pdf
Given the journey-style of the LoTR, you would use these a number of times. It can also be shown how people are changing over the course of the adventure.
Frodo's turning invisible in front of everyone is obviously a Crit Fail (roll of 1/1)
RingWraiths at the old lookout post
Honestly, that whole scene never made sense to me. "Oh no! He has a torch, we must run away!!!!" That is just put GM plot force no matter the system.
Merry and Pippen with the Ents
A fine place for the new Social Conflict Rules. Where there is opposition of an Social outcome, these are nice that the results tend not to be "Yes I win" or "oh, no, I fail". The tend to be "Ok, I'll help some" or "Here is more help, but you owe me a favor". The Ent Moot in this case ends in a tie (no action). Treebeard takes the Hobbits to the edge of the forest. Pippen/Merry are inspired to redirect Treebeard to an new direction. Now there is new information, reopen the negotiation. Now, its an open and shut case.
War!
The mass combat rules are fantastic for things like the attack on Saurman and the Battle at Helms Deep -- presuming you do not want to break out an actual wargame. The rules have mechanics for the PCs to influence the outcome (at the risk of their own lives). Plus, its really easy to run a few "rounds" at the Mass Combat level then zoom down to something very tactical (from the movies - Aragorn doing a bit of Dwarf Tossing for some good old fashion orc killing).
Big skirmishes
Tons of fun will be had when there are orc battles. Most orcs will be Extras for the PCs to mow down ("20!, beat that elf!"). But you toss in a few Wild Cards for leaders and now the fight gets more interesting.
Cave Troll
From the movie - how did Legolas kill the Cave Troll? Simple - Agility Trick. He gets the Troll off balance, shakes him since its such a great manuever, then Called Shot to the Head (+4 damage with only a -2 to hit due to the trick success). One dead Troll!
(SW can one-shot stuff to make some dramatic moments).
The Hobbits would be using tricks and gang up in combat all the time to just confuse the enemies -- they can be effective without suddenly becoming Combat Monsters
Other Rule Thoughts
You can see from the above some of the tools the Savage Worlds could employ to give you a LoTR-style game. Other rule thoughts:
- Magic - regular magic I might look to Solomon Kane / Power point-less methods. I would also look at the Rituals in the Horror Companion to create that "long distance" magic that occasionally comes into play.
- Trappings - one has to read the books, but magic can take on a very personal touch in Savage Worlds. Someone that is in tune with the settling could really bring this to life
- Trappings for non-magical stuff. Decription of fighting styles really comes from knowing the PC and their background. Dwarf PCs would have a nice theme of Edges and such to really bring out the Dwarf in the combat. Legolas clearly loved to do Agility tricks and everything he did would be built around archery and tricks
Well, that is all I have the energy for. My current GM running a Ptolus game has used many of these tools that I have listed above and as a consequence we have the longest running single campaign that has ever occurred in our group (0Xp all the way up to Legendary - it probably will retire at 100xp). Lots of memorable moments that have been brought to life with these techniques. While not pure LoTR in nature, it does show me a skilled GM can get the system to easily do what they want with little work involved (ie, all the work is on the story, not on the mechanics).
