Green Ronin's The Black Company

[quigs]

I just got a PDF of this book as a friend turned me onto the novels by Glen Cook. I was amazed to find a lot of similarities between the rules in this PDF, and the ones presented in the Conan RPG.

Having attempted a Conan RPG game once, and ditching it due to lack of interest and a lot of player complaints about the rules system, The Black Company book struck me as being extremely useful to GM's wishing to try a Conan campaign using a different rules system.

If anyone spots this book in the stores, take a peek, or if you just want a bit more info, then this is the perfect place to post your questions. I'll respond as I get time.

 

[Strom]

I saw it at the gaming store - it's a nice looking book. 8)

 

[Lord Jolly the Scribe]

Anyone got a website or something for it?

 

[quigs]

www.greenroninpublishing.com

Its part of their Mythic Vistas line, and is based off of the novels pretty closely.

I just found it interesting that a lot of the rules like Allegiances, reduced massive damage thresholds, low magic item setting, terror and insanity, and such were similar to those proposed in the Conan RPG. The background idea is really neat as well.

Its the kind of format I like to see in these campaign books, relying on the PHB to cover all the basic rules, and only mentioning the changes where necessary and presenting more of the campaign material. Basically it doesn't reprint the PHB information, and just notes that you need that book to play as well.

 

[Damien]

Black Company is a really good book. I have to admit, however, that I never played it. I bought the book but a game just never panned out. In the very last d20 game I ever ran (before I started using the Conan rules only), I did port the expanded rules for Masterwork over. But that's it.

Still, the game is a good one. The magic system, though, is a wee bit complicated. If your gamers don't want to play Conan, which is pretty simple, I can't imagine they'll want to learn the magic system in Black Company. Rightly, the Black Company CS has probably nearly as many rule changes as Conan does.

Good luck, though. Maybe they'll go for it.

 

[VincentDarlage]

I did port the expanded rules for Masterwork over. But that's it.

I really loved their masterwork crafting rules.

 

[Bregales]

I played a Black Company campaign years ago, thought it was a great setup although I'd never read the books, but the GM loved them and we all adapted very well to it with DnD 2nd edition. From what I remember (Mark did a good job with it, getting us into the setting/atmosphere/mechanics), it would convert easily/is compatible with the system for the Conan game. Funny, I hadn't thought of it, but good point. :shock:

 

[quigs]

I could see the Black Company rules being an excellent way to run a military based campaign in Conan, where the heroes are part of a company of soldiers involved in large scale combat, interspersed with small skirmishes and a few monsters here and there.

And yes, the magic system is very complicated but its also quite diverse and flexible as a result. Much more so than D&D's fire and forget system which don't quite match Howard's take on magic. The masterwork rules are really cool, as are the equipment availability charts and the PC backgrounds.

They also have an interesting healing rules set, their own massive damage threshold changes, and the insanity rules are nice and simple, yet robust.

Now to see if I can find this book on amazon or ebay!

 

[Garet]

The Black Company system is really nice. We played it for a year after it came out. The game was finally dropped by the GM when some of the players wanted a more DnD style game :? . So he dropped the game and started running 3.5 again.

The magic system is very nice, but a little complicated. The peeps in our game really did like the magic system who played mages. Using the system they were able to play different types of mages.

We played the company style game and some of us had a great time. The company/command feats where really nice. I was a NCO and took feats that when we went into battle i gave my fellow squad members bonus in the attack or defense. That was very nice.