Conan RPG Pocket Edition

[Mark Dunder]

I just picked it up today after waiting a week for it, and who's idea was it to call it a pocket edition? That's what I'd like to know. The doggone thing measures 5 1/2" by 8 1/2" and is 3/4" thick! I don't have any pockets that size. What! Did they use some Frost Giant's pockets for measurements?

Well, anyway. I should be done reading it in about 15 minutes (hardy, har, har). You guys would believe anything.

 

[urdinaran]

Probably will fit in a military-style cargo pocket. I'll try it out when I get home.

 

[Mark Dunder]

On page 9 and I have one major gripe.

GAMES MASTER

I absolutely hate the "s" at the end of Game. I like just GAME Master. It just flows better. Say Games Master, Games Master, Games Master, and you start spitting it up.

One minor thing, on page 6, that last part is a repeat of half of the previous paragraph. No biggy, it had started with a lowercase letter, so I figured something was going on.

CIVILISATION? I wasn't absolutely possitive until now, but Mongooses are from Great Britain, ya?

 

[Yogah of Yag]

Get bigger pants.
I just say ML (Magister Ludorum). 8)

 

[Mark Dunder]

Ok, if I am to understand these rules, than explain to me (other than an example of playing chess, and its effects on those guys) why on page 14, Concentration got Constitution as its key ability (abilities is what I called all talents, skills, weaknesses, and whatnot in my game. In fact, I called my resolution chart, "Ability Result Matrix" or ARM for short) and not Wisdom? Does it explain later on the reasoning behind this? Or am I going to have to change this when I play the game?

 

[Yogah of Yag]

If you're asking why is Concentration tied to the ability CON, I'd have to agree with you. It does sound odd. One would think that it is more a matter of Willpower (=WIS).

 

[Mark Dunder]

The only reason I would give, if I had to explain to me , is that this particular Concentration is just for magical use, and because of the strain this can place on the body, it would need Constitution to be used.

If I were going to explain it. But then what would you use for normal concentration?

 

[Mark Dunder]

Oh! I can't help myself!

What do you call a character that always move at a Jog?

A Hustler! (har, har, har, and hardy har, har)

 

[Mark Dunder]

First Impressions are lasting impressions (except about me ). So tell me, must I divide 150 by 15 to find out how long a Round is? All you gotta do is stick a paragraph in right before Movement, titled "Game Time" or something like that. I tried to look up how long a Round was, but nothing listed in the Index. Also, even though I hate jumpen about, I checked out page 222, to see if Combat might enlighten me. No such luck. Now from playing AD&D, I know a round is 6 seconds, but that's previous gaming experience! (I use 5 seconds myself, just to be different). Some poor 13 year old kid (that could happen!) that had poor math skills, and less than 20 years experience playing RPGs, might just have his poor head pounding with a headache, trying to figure out what and how long a Round was!

Hey! I'm just trying to be helpful. Conan RPG Pocket Second Edition, might have improvements. Right?

 

[ricardo440]

IIRC my mate who has it says they repeat an entire page at some point.

The index or contents was also screwed up as it pointed to pages in the main book, not the pocket book.

 

[Mark Dunder]

Haven't got there yet. But I'm on page 23, and I seem to have missed an entire paragraph somewhere explaining what DC stands for! No help in the index, except to list the page I'm already on and they capitalized (or is that capitalise?) "or". Considering the context of what I'm reading, it could mean any of the following:

Damage Capacity (I'm voting on this one).
Down Code (as in Break DC).
Die Count (I'm pretty sure this ain't it).
Defense Contract (well... the G-men might come after me).
Difficulty Comparison (that'd work in my game!).

Well, I hope somebody helps me! The next chapters on Races, and I'm hoping to get off to a good start!

 

[Mark Dunder]

On page 26 at the top of the 2nd column four lines down it says, "... because Cimmerian gods are not worshipped." Are the authors super certain of that? To me that sounds mighty suspicious. Someone at some point in their history worshipped gods or none would ever have existed for them. Perhaps, a falling away of the majority from "active" worship may have happened, but I would not be so certain someone in their country does not worship at least a teeny tiny amount. After all, what good is taking a gods name in vain, if it has no meaning?

 

[Mark Dunder]

Page 28, a lot of gods for Cimmerians are listed. I recall Conan only saying that "Crom" despises weakness. Not much said about the other gods of this pantheon. I think the authors are taking "artistic" license here.

 

[Mark Dunder]

Page 29, list bonus from Crom, and then denies any gods exist? And then penalizes (penalises?) the player if they should worship another god? Strike out! Not logical! Can't have on without the other. Can't have your cake and eat it too! (gosh, but it is politically correct)

I guess I can ignore that ridiculous paragraph altogether!

 

[Mark Dunder]

Well, I raced through the Races, just touching down here and there. A little boring to me, but might be informative and interesting to others. I may go back now and then for reference. Hopefully, not too much opinion got inserted (that's my job!).

Starting on Classes. May this go well for you all (particularly on your pet scholar class).

 

[Auggie]

Despite any 'hiccups' the Pocket Edition may have, it's still a smart item to get, especially when you already have way too many books to haul to your games The smaller book is a pleasure to have and I see that other Mongoose d20 RPGs are getting their own Pocket Editions.

 

[Mark Dunder]

Yeah, it's a good idea, elsewise, I would have not had the opportunity to get it. As far as editing goes, that's ok, it happens, nobody's buffec.

But I have one more thing to point out about Crom, and then I rest my case. Page 58 bottom of the left column. Entry on Religion; "... whether this is the straightforward worship of Crom and his kin popular in Cimmeria," (italics are mine). Can the multitude make up their collective minds?

Page 59, Bite Sword is hilarious! Not only do you have to have a very strong jaw (with small rubber caps on your teeth), you've got to have one awesome protruding jaw. Call it a muzzle! Try putting a fric'in little knife in your mouth! It better be a single edge buddy, cause your going to cut the edge of your mouth. And you can break your stupid teeth on the metal. If you keep the sword in its' scabbard it just might work. But according to the rules, it has to be out of the sheeth, sheesh! When they say it's an extraodinary ability, they're not kidding.

It's a keeper, gives levity to the game.

Dentist: "How long has this sword biting been going on, son?"
Barbarian: "Ever since I was 15. It all started when I followed my kin on a raid across the border..."

Oh, yeah. That's a good one.

 

[Damien]

Dunderm, just so you know there is an edit feature built into the forums so that people don't need to post five times in a row. Just edit a post if no one has responded yet. Keeps the clutter down.


Sword bite isn't that weird. Though I would never allow it to be used on something larger than a knife. Anything that size and smaller is easy to hold in your mouth. Larger than that is the issue. I guess I could see a small sword if you had a really strong jaw.

 

[Mark Dunder]

Oh, didn't know about the edit, thanks. My posts might get overly long though. Then I would have to change my name to the Sandman.

Yeah, the knife should be ok, a lot of movies use this. The rules do give a bonus for light weapons. But still, it is a little bit "extraordinary."

Which, dare I ask, is my next extraordinary question, of what makes an ability extraordinary. "Farfetchedness?"

I skipped ahead to the Scholar class, being as my interest lies here, more greatly. Under Religion, they could have said that many scholars are secular. Irreligious? This also has a very negative conotation.
Secret cover? Priests of Set are pretty open about the practice of sorcery. You could say it is part of their religion. So which Priests of what religion use it as a cover for their darkest ambition of worldly power? Usually, this comes about because of "state" religions. The only state religion of prominence in the Hyborian Age, is the religion of Set.
I would say this is all a moot point. But that's fine, I don't have to adhere to the rules or opinion expressed or left unsaid, unless such adherence is required in order to play the game. There! Now that all the legalities are set aside, I can continues with the analysis.

 

[Damien]

Which, dare I ask, is my next extraordinary question, of what makes an ability extraordinary. "Farfetchedness?"

I'm not sure if this is sarcastic or not, so I'll answer as if it isn't:

An extraordinary ability is any ability that could theoretically be accomplished by a fairly normal person. Meaning - an ability that does not require something unnatural or magical to accomplish. Since 'mundane ability' sounds stupid, extraordinary abilities are often fairly mundane things.