I ran my first game of Conan yesterday and it was an unqualified success. The adventure was, basically, "Danger in the Westermarck" from the SoC download. I did four pre-generated PCs (a Tauran Borderer, a Zamorian Thief, a Bossonian Sodier and an Aesir Barbarian) and had the players choose randomly. There were only three players, so I ended up playing the Aesir.
The players encountered 6 Wolves (no problem), a Pict War party of 5 (no problem) and attacked a Pict village with 9 Picts, a Chief (3rd level Barbarian), a Shaman 1st level Barbarian/ 3rd level Scholar) and 2 summoned boars. The party fought tooth-and-nail, but triumphed in the end. I especially liked the part where the Thief was sneaking around a hut and ran into the Chief. The Chief hit him 3 times with a warspear and I rolled a 1, 1 and 2 for damage. Very lucky on the part of the Thief.
Some observations we made (nothing new or earth-shattering):
1) Armor with it's DR is fantastic against unarmored, primitive foes like Picts;
2)A short-term Heal (DC 15) check for 1st level PCs is a challenge;
3) We used Critical Hits & Fumbles and we had one player roll 7 1s during the course of the adventure. He broke his bow on the first shot;
4) I decided to cut the DR of animals in half and it seemed to work pretty well;
5) Some rules snafus came up where the book had made a mistake and these boards had come up with a house rule. I stuck with what was in the book and told the players that it will probably be changed; and
6) We rolled up new PCs after the adventure and the players liked the pregens so much, the PCs they made were almost exactly the same as the PC they played for the adventure.
We are going to do a Conan game now and I really like the ease with which I can make adventures (or use ones that are already made from the people here). It saves me a lot of time, which was one of the concerns I was having with D&D recently. I'm really looking forward to the Across Thunder River book and the GM's Screen when they come out (along with the 2nd printing). 8)
The players encountered 6 Wolves (no problem), a Pict War party of 5 (no problem) and attacked a Pict village with 9 Picts, a Chief (3rd level Barbarian), a Shaman 1st level Barbarian/ 3rd level Scholar) and 2 summoned boars. The party fought tooth-and-nail, but triumphed in the end. I especially liked the part where the Thief was sneaking around a hut and ran into the Chief. The Chief hit him 3 times with a warspear and I rolled a 1, 1 and 2 for damage. Very lucky on the part of the Thief.
Some observations we made (nothing new or earth-shattering):
1) Armor with it's DR is fantastic against unarmored, primitive foes like Picts;
2)A short-term Heal (DC 15) check for 1st level PCs is a challenge;
3) We used Critical Hits & Fumbles and we had one player roll 7 1s during the course of the adventure. He broke his bow on the first shot;
4) I decided to cut the DR of animals in half and it seemed to work pretty well;
5) Some rules snafus came up where the book had made a mistake and these boards had come up with a house rule. I stuck with what was in the book and told the players that it will probably be changed; and
6) We rolled up new PCs after the adventure and the players liked the pregens so much, the PCs they made were almost exactly the same as the PC they played for the adventure.
We are going to do a Conan game now and I really like the ease with which I can make adventures (or use ones that are already made from the people here). It saves me a lot of time, which was one of the concerns I was having with D&D recently. I'm really looking forward to the Across Thunder River book and the GM's Screen when they come out (along with the 2nd printing). 8)
