Doctor_Skull
First Post
We've been playing the Conan RPG for about 2 months now (I GM'ed 4 sessions, another guy did 2). There are of course many things about it that are just like D&D, other things that are worse than D&D, some others that are neither better nor worse than D&D, only different. But there are several things that I have found really appealing both as a player and GM.
First of all, there is the de-emphasizing of "stuff." Our characters are fourth to fifth leve and basically have all ordinary equipment. My character has a strength bow, but other than that all the equipment he owns is equal to the starting package with which he began. Each of us has gotten 1 and only 1 dose of "Wine of Xuthal" which is the equivalent of a good healing potion. I haven't drunk mine yet after 2 adventures. One character might have a magic item, the rest of us aren't sure. That's it for magic items. It's really liberating to depend on your own abilities and ordinary equipment, rather than magic items. It's not uncommon to lose all your stuff, and it's then not the end of the world.
There are no clerics or healing magic. If you're hurt, you have to rest. You heal faster in Conan, but still you have to rest. We were worried about how this was going to work out, but everyone is pretty happy with it. No one "has to play the cleric."
Conan isn't exactly low-magic. Evil sorcerers can throw some scary stuff at you and often do. But the PC's aren't magic dependent at all. You can't blow away teams of guards with a fireball spell, you have to do it the hard way (i.e., Greater Cleave).
As a DM I used to get really discouraged once the PC's started throwing fireballs around right and left. Suddenly all the interest would drain away from me. In Conan, that's all gone. THe bad guys might tear out someone's heart with a spell, but no more room-brooms. I'm very happy.
Even if we don't play in the Conan Universe next campaign, I'm strongly thinking of using the rules set as the base point for all my fantasy campaigns from here on.
First of all, there is the de-emphasizing of "stuff." Our characters are fourth to fifth leve and basically have all ordinary equipment. My character has a strength bow, but other than that all the equipment he owns is equal to the starting package with which he began. Each of us has gotten 1 and only 1 dose of "Wine of Xuthal" which is the equivalent of a good healing potion. I haven't drunk mine yet after 2 adventures. One character might have a magic item, the rest of us aren't sure. That's it for magic items. It's really liberating to depend on your own abilities and ordinary equipment, rather than magic items. It's not uncommon to lose all your stuff, and it's then not the end of the world.
There are no clerics or healing magic. If you're hurt, you have to rest. You heal faster in Conan, but still you have to rest. We were worried about how this was going to work out, but everyone is pretty happy with it. No one "has to play the cleric."
Conan isn't exactly low-magic. Evil sorcerers can throw some scary stuff at you and often do. But the PC's aren't magic dependent at all. You can't blow away teams of guards with a fireball spell, you have to do it the hard way (i.e., Greater Cleave).
As a DM I used to get really discouraged once the PC's started throwing fireballs around right and left. Suddenly all the interest would drain away from me. In Conan, that's all gone. THe bad guys might tear out someone's heart with a spell, but no more room-brooms. I'm very happy.
Even if we don't play in the Conan Universe next campaign, I'm strongly thinking of using the rules set as the base point for all my fantasy campaigns from here on.
