Devils advocate - Why should I play Conan instead of D&D

[Poi]

I bought the rulebook and a couple of supplements, and all I could say is, it's D&D without nonhumans.

So sell me on it.

What's special about this RPG over all the others out there? Don't say Conan himself, because we've all seen Conan type players and NPCs in other settings.

I want to like it, I really do, so sell me!

 

[VincentDarlage]

Several things are different.

1) Racism: Cimmerians hate Picts, etc. I always rather was annoyed with how well all the PC races seem to get along in DnD. A bit of racism is great for conflict - and conflict makes for a good background for a story.

2) Skills actually make a difference. Characters are not defined by their magical equipment in Conan the Roleplaying Game. They are defined by their skills.

3) The atmosphere is different. This is hard to quantify, but it is there.

4) Lower massive damage threshold and weapons do more damage.

6) Not only does a character get to bump up a stat every 4 levels, but at 6th level and every 4 thereafter the character gets to bump up ALL of his stats.

7) The way treasure is handled is better than DnD. There is no "Christmas Tree" effect or "Arms Buildup" as characters go up in levels.

8) Armour offers damage reduction but doesn't make a person harder to hit.

9) Lower hit points. Hit point thresholds work a lot like 1st edition AD&D - after 10th level, a character recieves a flat rate of hit points and gains no more Con bonuses.

10) More active combat. This is hard to describe, but in my DnD games, everyone pretty much uses their favourite weapons over and over. In my Conan games, people break swords, throw their weapons, grab up fallen weapons, use bottles, chairs, etc. with great frequency.

That is but the tip of the iceburg, but I hope it helps.

 

[Padre]

11. The setting. It contains everything you need and still it feels pretty real. Almost every fantasy genre is here and fits with the rest of Hyboria. Right now, Conan is IMHO the ultimate fantasy RPG.

12. The quality. Mongoose does not publish useless stuff like WotC do. No "1000 and 1 Useless Prestige Classes" here. All Conan supplements are above average, most are great and some are spectacular.

13. The magic. It's uncommon, dangerous and dark.

14. It rocks.

15. It kicks ass.

16. It rules.

17. Just read the core book and everything you can lay your hands on. Watch the first Ahnuld movie, read some Howard stuff and if you're not into Conan... then all your base are belong to us.

 

[DasClay]

IMHO

18. Road of Kings: If there is something you need to know, or to get a quick feel for a area, then Road of kings is your book. It gives just enough detail to give you a mental vison, or feel. But is open enough that your not restricted.

19. Reputation: I dont know about everyone elses game, but A good rep goes along way (or a bad on) in conan it can mean the differance between running from bounty hunters all night, to sleeping with high class bed warmers ( wink wink).

20. Combat strategist game: If you have people in your group that loves good combat, this is the game. this unlike Wotc actully gives you a chance to be creative, and makes for some great fights.

21. Combat Time: Combat doesnt take 1 hrs to finnish off one creature.

Would list more, but Im at work....

IMHO

 

[Azgulor]

If you bought the books and the only conclusion you reached was 'D&D without demihumans', I'd take a closer look.

The short version, though:

D&D sucks. Conan rocks.

Azgulor

 

[Finarvyn]

4) Lower massive damage threshold and weapons do more damage.

6) Not only does a character get to bump up a stat every 4 levels, but at 6th level and every 4 thereafter the character gets to bump up ALL of his stats.

Hey! What happened to reason #5? :shock:

I think there is a massive conspiracy here to cover up something, and if only I knew what #5 was I would have definite proof. Oh, wait. I thought I was posting in the Paranoia section.

8)

 

[Damien]

Here's an idea: Play it. You said you already have the core rulebook - so just get your group together, keep the book open to make sure you use all the CONAN rules and not just "D&D rules because they're the same."

After you've played one or two games - you'll know if you should be 'sold' on it or not. If you still feel like it's D&D without Elves after actually playing it - it's not the game for you.


The best way to judge a system is to play it, not have people tell you about it.

 

[René]

In D&D you have the IMHO silly Good-Evil / Law-Chaos thing with equally silly Detect Evil, Smite Evil, Protection from Chaos etc. spells and an annoying gang of so totally evil, evil, evil gods and absolutely divine and purely good beings.

In CONAN there is no good and evil - like in our own world (at least there is no good...).
And there is only BELIEF in gods, but no acting or spell-granting gods. In addition the religion is much more of the "grey" type, e.g. Ishtar gets sometimes human sacrifices without being the incarnation of evil, but she is the main goddess of the Shemitic pantheon - compare with real religious customs in the Ancient Near East!

In short words CONAN is an adult RPG, where D&D is a game for younger people with a strong dichotomy between good and evil, masses of "unrealistic" monsters and almost exclusivley with magic wielding characters (Rogue and Fighter the only exceptions AFAIK; there is IMHO nothing more silly than the D&D-Ranger) - where in CONAN only the Scholar has magic (and not even every Scholar!).


P.S.: To all 18+ D&D-players: don't be angry about "younger players", it isn't intended as an offence, but just my personal experience.

 

[Ranzadule]

People have hit on these so I will simply second some of them:

-Realism in combat
-Better magic system
-More realistic attitudes in dealings between nationalities, races and sexes
-No f-in Hobbits
-The world of Conan is similar enough to our world so that Culture Shock is less of a problem
-Hit points stop being rolled at 10th level
-It's cool
-The suppliments are ace
-I play it
-The related novels are all awesome

 

[Lando The Archmagi]

Well if that wasn't enough reasons to try Conan, here is another if you're in the neighborhood.

-Conan d20: Return to the Throne of Blood.
Try it at Dragon*Con 2005 and win a prize for best roleplayer!
http://www.dragoncon.org

 

[Sutek]

Here's what I feel is the bottom line evaluation (my opinion now, so take it with as much of a grain of salt as everyone else's opinions so far).

More adventure; less fantasy.

In directly reletive proportions, the Conan RPG is more dangerous, more adventurous and more accessible to the casual role player. It's a lot more direct, meaning that because there's no elves, hobbits, dragons and so forth to deal with at every turn, the simple excitement and splendor of a exquisite statue to some dark, ancient god takes on a whole new level risk and reward, for both players and the GM. All spells are difficult to cast, super deadly in execution and exceptionally costly (both in the PP mechanics sense and in the manner of life and limb of unwary followers!) and so magic is both rarely encountered and yet is the most fearful aspect in the game. Weapons behave like they would in real life (heavy ones are intended to chop through armor, while light ones are intended to poke through the gaps and ignore it) and many feats that are low in the standard D&D d20 feat trees are "free" and all classes can do them without needing to fill up a feat slot simply to progress. The wonkiness of 5'steps, flat-footed, and all that is eliminated simply by virtue of two factors: attacks of opportunity are provoked more often and armor provides DR rather than AC (or DV in Conan). In relation to that, the combat experience is opened up through the existance of Parry and Dodge bonuses to DV, a choice each character has to make on the fly in a fight with lithe classes like thieves being more adept at dodging and burly classes like barbarians being more apt to want to parry. Also, linked to combat, there's no magical healing, so damage dealt is potentially extremely deadly. The flip side is that HP better represents loss of stamina or extreme physical exertion and is recouped much faster so it's more like characters get worn down fighting rather than the D&D "pin cushion" syndrome that can seem to occur when, for example, a PC gets hit with 15 arrows and is still alive at the end of an encounter. In the Conan RPG, even a single arrow can bring a powerful character to the brink of death if enough damage can be dealt (ranged attacks can be used to mount Sneak Attacks in Conan!).

There's tons of reasons, and these are just a few of the obvious differences, but I have one questioon for you: Why exactly are we trying to "sell you" on the Conan RPG when you've already bought it??? Just play it and you'll see thje differences. If you want more danger and less reliance of magic and magic items, Conan is the way to go.

(lol)

:wink:

 

[Strom]

Another important thing to me, is that Conan is being fully supported by Mongoose, with a number of great supplements and adventures already available and more on the way. This is no fly by night RPG that has no support. Plus, it is high quality support that can be tailored to your individual tastes for adventure on land, sea or Stygia! :lol:

Not every game you compare to D & D can say it is supported as well as Conan is. If you want something - it probably has already been printed or soon will be!

 

[MadDog]

Originally, when other convinced me to play, I thought it would be rather mundane and boring compared to a typical D&D game. However, I found myself really enjoying it. I find that skills play a more important role, and the game isnt just a quest for "stuff". No more searching for a +5 vorpal backscratcher. Without the presence of easy magic, the game takes a much different tone.

I also like how armor is handled (damage reduction vs harder to hit).

Mad Dog

 

[Michka]

Thank you for this thread. I would love to play or run a Conan game but convincing my fellow gamers... well that's another story. Now I have some ammunition.

I guess the thing about DnD is it's too generic. The game has tried to cover every Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery subject from Conan to Lord of the Rings to Samurii. Worked great in the old days. Now I'm not so sure.

 

[DasClay]

Forgot, bottom line. We all play it! So it must be c00l

 

[Tim]

both are d20 games, both use the same basic mechanic, and with a good group and a good GM both can be a lot of fun. D&D is a system for a game, not a game world. Once you buy D&D you will need to either buy or create a world to play in. It has no real flavor of its own.

Conan is a world that has had a system added to it. Its not generic in any way.

So it comes down to taste.

I like Howards world, his books, and the style of his adventures. Conan allows me to create my own stories for my players in a world that I like. The suppliments also save me a lot of creation time.

My choice, Conan.

Even if Mongoose only published background without rules, I would be willing to buy D&D to play in this world. It's that good.

 

[Sutek]

Thank you for this thread. I would love to play or run a Conan game but convincing my fellow gamers... well that's another story. Now I have some ammunition.

I guess the thing about DnD is it's too generic. The game has tried to cover every Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery subject from Conan to Lord of the Rings to Samurii. Worked great in the old days. Now I'm not so sure.

I think that's another bit of ammunition you can arm yourself with: D&D usually ends up being a case of modifying the environment to suit your players' characters. Traps, monsters and other encounters and obstacles end up being more about giving the Rouge something to sneak attack or for the Paladin to "confront evil" at. (lol) You also tend to have such a range of beasties that too many variations leads to a bizzare, Gygaxian world with no encounter consistancy (fun for hack/slash parties but not for intense role players) or GMs try to make encounters "make sense" and things get boring and redundant.

In Conan, the world is fixed. You know exactly what to expect and most of it, as was said in about the second or third post of this thread, is based on racial animosity and/or nationalities. If you photocopy and hand out the Hyboria sysnopsis written by Robert E Howard that appears in the main book (also available as a PDF from the Mongoose main Conan page, I think) and hand it out to your players to read, I think they'll get a great idea of how they want to fit into that "system". That's a different character approach than D&D in that players tend to make characters for thier powers in D&D and pick them for thier role in society in Conan.

 

[René]

both are d20 games, both use the same basic mechanic, and with a good group and a good GM both can be a lot of fun. D&D is a system for a game, not a game world. Once you buy D&D you will need to either buy or create a world to play in. It has no real flavor of its own.

I'm no D&D expert (never played the game, just own a few rulebooks), since this naive question: I thought the standard setting as described / hinted at the Player's Handbook is the world of Greyhawk (e.g. the gods)?

 

[Azgulor]

both are d20 games, both use the same basic mechanic, and with a good group and a good GM both can be a lot of fun. D&D is a system for a game, not a game world. Once you buy D&D you will need to either buy or create a world to play in. It has no real flavor of its own.

I'm no D&D expert (never played the game, just own a few rulebooks), since this naive question: I thought the standard setting as described / hinted at the Player's Handbook is the world of Greyhawk (e.g. the gods)?

Only in a lip-service kind of way. The D&D core books primarily use Greyhawk window dressing to provide examples of how D&D can be used/applied (such as deities, etc.). The setting doesn't receive anything close to the support that Forgotten Realms or Eberron receives, so it's very questionable to some whether Greyhawk is truly an actively supported setting. You do still see the occasional Greyhawk-specific aritcle or adventure in Dragon and Dungeon magazines.

Azgulor

 

[Tim]

Bottom line, pick the world you want to play in, if it comes with a system you like, use it, if not, use a system that you like.

Conan can be played with standard D&D, it really is about the world not the mechanics, however, the changes and additions to D20 that Mongoose has made makes their version of the system worth using.