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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 3231324" data-attributes="member: 42582">Fair enough - especially as Gary Gygax explicitly cites them over Tolkein as influences.I can't comment on Lankhmar, as I don't know it outside of various D&D adaptations.The Conan stories I do know, and to be honest I'm not sure how well they adapt either. In saying this I've got two classic Conan tales in mind - Phoenix on the Sword, and Tower of the Elephant.In both stories, the protagonist is (in D&D terms) probably a fighter/rogue - one of the less resource-management type characters. Some would say that Conan is a barbarian, but if so his rage works in quite a different way from D&D barbarian rage. In particular, rather than being a per-day ability which definitely does raise questions of resource management, it is more like an ability triggered when a physical obstacle gets in the way of his goal realisation. Mechanically, this might be modelled by a system like TRoS spiritual attributes: a boost to Strength available whenever a physical obstacle to a character goal is encountered.In Phoenix on the Sword, the magical item is not acquired through resource-type play but as a plot mechanism - mechanically, this could be conceived of perhaps as the spending by a player of Fate Points for his or her character.In Tower of the Elephant, the loot is not gained. This thus violates the D&D rules about treasure per encounter. In fact, to model the flavour of a story like this, you need a system where, while a character's goal might be acquisition of loot, the player's goal is something else. Thus, the player goal (and therefore fun) is not thwarted by having the loot be taken away. (By analogy - the goal of a CoC character is to stay sane, but for players the goal is to be scared - thus, characters losing their sanity does not stop the players having the fun for which they came to the gaming table.)OGL Conan goes part of the way in this direction, by abandoning the D&D rules for encounters, treasure gain and XP. Unfortunately, it doesn't really put anything very concrete in their place: there is simply a handwave in the direction of levelling every now and then and handing out the odd fate pont. This puts a big burden on the GM to construct his or her own system of linking player goals with character action.The other thing which I feel a Conan game would need would be a way of integrating more gritty combat with less risk of PC death. OGL Conan goes quite a way in this direction, by reducing high-level hit points, removing the bulk of spells and magic items, and adding the "left for dead" rule; though I think the mechanics for the latter are made needlessly complicated. Once we introduce a Fate Point system for character survival, I don't see the point of putting in an extra rule that your Fate Point may not work - especially as a second Fate Point should in any event be enough to make sure someone comes by and finds the character.Anyway, that's my take on it.</blockquote>

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