Conan RQ?

[CruelDespot]

I've seen some posts from players that imply Mongoose will never publish a Conan/Hyborian version of RQ. Is that really the case? I had been expecting it would come eventually, since Mongoose already has a license for Conan materials. If not, then why? I would love to see Conan RQ.

 

[duncan_disorderly]

If not, then why? I would love to see Conan RQ.

My understanding is that they have a licence that allows them to produce A Conan game. If they were to produce Conan RQ then they would have to discontinue the current "D20" based version. While this might please some people, it would also greatly upset others - and those others are already buying the game, so why risk losing them chasing possible sales from RQ fans?

 

[weasel_fierce]

A darn shame, but we pretty much have all the building blocks to play Conan RQ anyways.

 

[CruelDespot]

Why not make the Conan books dual-stat? It would still be the same "game", right? And maybe some d20 fans would get curious and pick up an RQ book.

 

[RosenMcStern]

Fine for a game where you have still to publish the core rulebook. Less fine when this could imply reprinting it.

Or perhaps it could be fine for the Mongeese if everyone wished to rebuy the whole Conan series.

 

[Mugen]

Why not make the Conan books dual-stat? It would still be the same "game", right? And maybe some d20 fans would get curious and pick up an RQ book.

This was the idea behind L5R/Rokugan adventures dual-stat books produced by Alterac Entertainment Group.
In the end, they stopped it because it was not interesting from an economic point of view.
Don't forget that you need at least one more rules expert to work on each book, which can be very expensive.

 

[shirosan]

I'm just now in the process of checking out RQ for the first time--how much work would it be to port d20 Conan over to RQ? Has anyone done any conversions?

 

[Magistus]

I'm just now in the process of checking out RQ for the first time--how much work would it be to port d20 Conan over to RQ? Has anyone done any conversions?

A conversion was started http://mrqwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Conan but I have no idea what the status is.

 

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

A conversion was started http://mrqwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Conan but I have no idea what the status is.

Put on hold pending wether we can legally do it or not.

 

[Magistus]

I don't see why you can't as long as you don't copy material from source books. But for npc stats I don't see why that wouldn't be allowed.

 

[Hervé]

RQ Conan exists. Vincent Darlage wrote it for Mongoose but it seems Mongoose changed their mind and decided not to print the book to focus on the D20 Conan 2nd edition. Vincent is still unsure of what he is going to do with it.

 

[Osentalka]

My idea would be the same thing as other people have suggested:

Print a/the RQ Conan book.

After that print all supplements with both stats, D20 and RQ.


Can this be so difficult (or in case of a lisense: so expensive)?

 

[Hervé]

Mine would be more radical. Print RQ Conan and throw the D20 version to the fire! :twisted:

 

[Loz]

Dual-statting has a couple of issues for writers.

First, the extra work. I'm writing the Cimmeria book right now, and d20 character stats work very differently to RQ stats, so there'd be a heap of work involved in effecting a dual statted book. That's what we're paid for, of course, so it's doable, but I know that if I knew I had to dual stat every major NPC and creature, I'd be groaning inwardly.

Second, the page count will be impacted. It either increases, which pushes-up the price of the finished book, or stays the same, which means that usable content is reduced, and consumers still find that they're paying for a book that has x% of content that doesn't really apply to them.

You could always leave stats for one game out of the book and publish as a PDF that's offered for free, but that, again, raises other production headaches.

So yep, dual statted books are possible, but there would have to be a trade-off and I'm not certain it would be a necessarily acceptable one for everybody.

 

[Osentalka]

Thanks for your insights in writing dual stats books, Loz.

Than i have a radical new idea:

Make the book cover only background information and the adventures, but without full npc stats (something notes on rules like chances of finding hidden doors, or what damage you get from falling from the second floor can be given in dual stat, because this takes not much space).
Give NPC stats only as: D20 "Fighter level 4"/RQ Humakti Warrior 75% in Sword".

At the same time publish a free PDF on the Mongoose Website with full stats for both systems!

So the book can be used with RQ, D20, or any other game system, AND a game master is free to use the book as it is, and make up the stats of the NPCs according to the needs of his group, or can go to Mongoose Website and download the D20 or RQ Stats as he wishes.

That wouldn´t affect the stress of the author of the book, but it would help the book not to suffer from dual stats space problems.

 

[Loz]

That wouldn´t affect the stress of the author of the book

I'm so pleased you have the poor old writers interests at heart! :lol:

 

[RosenMcStern]

Unfortunately, Andre has poor writers in mind but forgets that there are players who like to read their stuff in print. Which is surprising, as he is the editor of one of the last "paper only" RPG fanzines.

In any case, I for one would not buy a "background only" RPG book about Conan. If I want background about the Hyborian age, all I have to do is read the books or the comic books, and I have plenty of it.

Still, having a RQ Conan would be a good idea. We have had a GURPS Conan and a D20 Conan, but RQ is the only system that allows your "heroically unarmoured" barbarian, a la John Buscema, to defeat fully armoured guards. The point is that the conversion is more likely to be done by fans, rather than the writers themselves. IIRC there is already a fan site with some stuff, but it is "unofficial". Now if it was possible to publish some semi-official conversion rules in S&P, and then put fan-converted stats for published NPCs on the net, this could be useful. But I suspec there are some copyright/license issues, right?

 

[Osentalka]

All this dual stats idea with PDF supplements for the real stats only was only an idea, to get a RQ Conan main book in the first place.

I don´t need full stats for NPCs, as long as i have a good idea of their capability , their behaviour, and personality. But it helps to have basic stats for NPCs to GET this idea.

Being of topic:
"Tradetalk # 16 - Heroes and Strangers of Dragon Pass" will provide stats for the main characters for "The Path of the Damned" comics, as well as for the characters of "The Widow´s Tale" and "Eurhol´s Vale & Other Tales" fiction books.
I see the need of stats!

 

[weasel_fierce]

Let me repeat my original question:

What mechanical stuff actually needs converting to play Conan RQ ?

We already know the setting.
Magic we can improvise, since it doesnt work the same in any two Howard stories (other than having a 50% chance of summoning an angry monkey)
Character classes.. no such thing in RQ, so no worries there.
Magic items ? Not really.

Grab a few RQ books, the Lankhmar book (if you want the black sorcery stuff)and you're peachy keen

 

[duncan_disorderly]

Second, the page count will be impacted. It either increases, which pushes-up the price of the finished book, or stays the same, which means that usable content is reduced, and consumers still find that they're paying for a book that has x% of content that doesn't really apply to them.

This was a major problem with the dual statted L5R stuff. Every creature, NPC, Spell, Skill, Feat, Legendary ability, Magic item etc etc needs to be repeated for each system. Some things are very dissimilar between d20 and RQ, but would need to be handled somehow. So a book which was 50% Rules and 50% background either compromises on the rule (50% background, 25% d20 rules and 25% RQ Rules) or the background 50% RQ rules, 50% d20 rules - oops, no room for background).

You could always leave stats for one game out of the book and publish as a PDF that's offered for free, but that, again, raises other production headaches.

Quite apart from those production issues, if you assume the split between systems is 50/50, you still have 50% of your players paying for stats and rules they aren't interested in. And that's assuming that they are happy to have half the book as a pdf rather than a book - If I wanted the inconvenience of a pdf I'd have bought apdf in the first place!