Conan using Pendragon

[rabindranath72]

I recently acquired the stripped-down rulebook for the Pendragon rpg (the book of knights). I had never seen nor played it, but after reading the small booklet, I am very, very impressed. The system is rules-light (compared to the behemoth that is d20), yet complete, concise and quite elegant. The rules for combat occupy two pages, but they have practically all that one would want. The system is gritty but with wide space for heroics.
And the Traits and Passions system is simply wonderful.

So, has anyone given a serious thought on how to adapt it to Conan?
I know that there is the RuneQuest system out there, which in theory should be close to Pendragon, but looking at it (at least the Mongoose version), it is apparent that it is quite heavier under many points of view, whereas the whole Pendragon fits in less than 10 pages of rules (system, combat, healing, passions and traits included!)
Also, Pendragon only uses d6 and d20, which to me is a boon anyway.

Ideas, comments?

Thanks,
Antonio

 

[The King]

This should be possible. There is a Runequest fanzine (named Enclosure) which proposed to play Glorantha with Pendragon rules and another Glorantha fanzine (Tales of the reaching Moon #18.) offered a full scenario with these rules.
Of course the magic system had to be adapted but it runs pretty well.

For Conan RPG the only difficulty might appear in reproducing special feats (e.g. attacks from behind as well as other special attacks and manoeuvers).
On the other side, the trait and passion system is unique and would be great to give a rule for Conan turning suddenly berserk when confronted to sorcery.

 

[rabindranath72]

This should be possible. There is a Runequest fanzine (named Enclosure) which proposed to play Glorantha with Pendragon rules and another Glorantha fanzine (Tales of the reaching Moon #18.) offered a full scenario with these rules.
Of course the magic system had to be adapted but it runs pretty well.

For Conan RPG the only difficulty might appear in reproducing special feats (e.g. attacks from behind as well as other special attacks and manoeuvers).
On the other side, the trait and passion system is unique and would be great to give a rule for Conan turning suddenly berserk when confronted to sorcery.

Thanks for the suggestions! I have seen the Glorantha conversion on the internet linked from Greg Stafford's home page, and it seems interesting.
I was thinking to "deviate" in a small way from how skills are handled, that is making them a function of the ability scores (possibly starting at the same value) to avoid the use of skill points and lengthy character generation.
Sorcery might be handled by introducing a Sorcery skill, and working from there.
For combat and maneuvers, for my needs the Pendragon ones are more than enough. There are rules for attacking from behind and with grappling (and they are described in only two sentences ) and to bypass armor.

Traits and passions are really wonderful to handle roleplaying matters in a mechanically non-intrusive way. There are rules to handle "fearful creatures", that is characters must check their Valorous traits. If they fail, they escape. It might be a Cimmerian racial benefit that when they fail it, instead they go Berserk (and Berserk is a combat maneuver).

"Races" might be handled much as cultural backgrounds in Pendragon, giving bonuses and penalties to skills and Traits.
Probably "classes" might be introduced as skill/trait packages, to ease transition from Conan d20.

The more I read it, the more I like it!

 

[Hervé]

Pendragon is indeed a fast and intuitive system (quite the contrary of D20!) but that's no surprise. Most of the nice ideas that ever come to roleplaying in the last 30 years have come from Chaosium. Unfortunately, lousy D20 system swept over everything.

 

[Spongly]

Pendragon is good, but it's combat isn't really very "dynamic" - it's more about why you're fighting than a system for running action packed combat. Also, I can see it being quite a lot of work to do a culture write up for every culture in Conan. Other than that it's a good choice - it's magic system is actually particularly good for running sorcerers who rely more on ritual and sacrifice than throwing fire out of their fingers.

There are a whole bunch of good supplements for the older editions that might be handy - Pagan Shores and Land of Giants both have stuff in about Viking types, while Beyond the Wall has painted shamanic Picts....

 

[rabindranath72]

Pendragon is good, but it's combat isn't really very "dynamic" - it's more about why you're fighting than a system for running action packed combat. Also, I can see it being quite a lot of work to do a culture write up for every culture in Conan. Other than that it's a good choice - it's magic system is actually particularly good for running sorcerers who rely more on ritual and sacrifice than throwing fire out of their fingers.

There are a whole bunch of good supplements for the older editions that might be handy - Pagan Shores and Land of Giants both have stuff in about Viking types, while Beyond the Wall has painted shamanic Picts....

Which version are you referring to? The Book of Knights seems to be an updated version of up to 4th edition Pendragon. It has combat maneuvers, plus each weapon has a "special effect" besides simply inflicting damage (e.g. axes potentially reduce the efficacy of shields). There are rules to handle charges, berserk attacks, multiple attacks, wrestling etc., and they are all very easy to use and adjudicate.

For magic, I was thinking about adding a POW stat (much like CoC) to handle sorcery, and port the d20 spells to this system. It does not seem too difficult.

I am working on some example culture writeups, it does not seem too difficult using d20 Conan as a basis. :?

 

[The King]

For magic, I was thinking about adding a POW stat (much like CoC) to handle sorcery, and port the d20 spells to this system. It does not seem too difficult.

That's probably the best thing to do, though you may find great spell ideas in the massive 4th edition.

Anyway, I think all King Arthur Pendragon books can apply more or less to an Hyborian context, especially if one consider Conan as a kind of Arthur, that is unifying most of the factions within his kingdom.

I would even dare say that The Saxons! sourcebook could be adapted to play Nemedians.

 

[Cimmerian Bard]

True enough, Pendragon is an excellent system, one in which I've GMed in the past for a small handful of players. Then again, I'm a huge fan of Arthurian settings, particularly Dark Ages post-Roman ones, as well as the Hyborian Age, of course.

It'd be fairly adaptable to Conan, although the guys at Mongoose have done wonders with the oft-time clunky d20 (and still in some ways antiquated) d20 system. In fact, the Conan RPG is the only d20 system in which I have any passion for anymore, a system that has managed to nix virtually all the silly-isms from core d20 (*coughD&Dcough*) and replace them with a gritty and believable mechanic.

Back to Pendragon, the magic system is very elegant and evocative, and would work fairly well for the more ritual-based spells in which Hyborian Age sorcerers might dabble. And, yes, the Traits and Passions system is just wonderful, the core mechanic behind Pendragon, actually (whereas Skills and Combat Stats are more secondary). I good thing, really, especially for some of us thespian/drama-based roleplayers who like the finer details of our characters supported by a rules system for a change.

At any rate, good luck in your conversion! That being said, although Pendragon is an awesome system, it really was crafted to support a more Arthurian setting (particularly a Mallorian one) -- if you want to invoke a good feel of Howard's world, you really can't go far wrong with Mongoose's Conan RPG, d20 or no. =)

 

[rabindranath72]

Still thinking about it...
Since the cultures as described by Howard are more or less close to real-world ones, I guess one could use the cultural traits and modifiers directly for some Hyborian cultures, namely:
Irish -> Cimmerian
Saxon -> Hyperborean, Nordheimir
Roman -> Hyborian (excluding Aquilonian)
French -> Aquilonian
Pict -> Pict
Occitaine -> Zingara (Argos?)

I would also remove the Romance and Tourney skills; they really do not seem to fit.

Other ideas/suggestions?