Intimidate Expanded?

[Clegane]

I know that one of the supplements in the Shadizar set covers expanding Intimidate to use Str, Int, or Cha, but I seem to recall there also being a breakdown on how every stat can be used for Intimidate checks, with explanations as to how the forms of intimidate vary between stats.

But for the life of me, I cannot find it. I own every Conan publication and have all of the S&P's with Conan material downloaded, so I assume I'm either overlooking it or I'm smoking crack and it never existed in the first place.

Can someone substantiate my supposition?

 

[rgrove0172]

Hyboria'a Fiercest - Page 54

 

[Clegane]

Much obliged, mate. My player and I -both- looked through that very book. Guess we're both getting too old. :/

 

[Clovenhoof]

Guess we're both getting too old. :/

Somehow I feel that the age average of Conan players is noticeably higher than for fantasy RPGs in general.

 

[Oake]

<--- 29 here and I'm the youngest in our group of 4 :lol:

 

[Jeffreywns]

Anyone polled that one? My group is split with 3 41-43 year olds, 2 30ish and another 30ish "cub" as a floater.

 

[Dpetroc]

We have 38, three 36s, and 26.

Two of them (the 26 year old and one of the 36s) have a MMORPG mentality that has been hard to shake.

 

[Jeffreywns]

Same here on the MMO mentality, but then again the same ones are now complaining their Rangers dont get pets on their Lord of the Rings MMO. I fear a whole generation will only know the works of Tolkien and Howard by "I saw that movie, who's Goldberry?".

 

[Dpetroc]

Same here on the MMO mentality, but then again the same ones are now complaining their Rangers dont get pets on their Lord of the Rings MMO. I fear a whole generation will only know the works of Tolkien and Howard by "I saw that movie, who's Goldberry?".

I agree -- the same is true of Conan -- which is infinitely worse (I mean the LoTR movies were good -even if they warped a few of the characters out of recognition. The Conan films...the mind boggles). Most of my players have limited exposure to Conan - mostly through the SECOND film. It makes it easier because I'm not dealing with too much metagaming, but harder because there is a very distorted view of what Conan should be.

 

[Jeffreywns]

Aaaaand Starship Troopers by the movie alone... the horror!

 

[Dpetroc]

Aaaaand Starship Troopers by the movie alone... the horror!

It is my humble opinion that Starship Troopers the film is a crime against the book. Debate Heinlein's work all you want - but I'm not even sure Verhooven read the dust jacket on the book.

I'm a fan of the book - and the animated series is a significant improvement over the movie (though it was constrained by sony to use the less technological bugs). Hence the avatar is from the animated series and is not a picture of Clancy Brown's smiling face!

 

[Clovenhoof]

I have a very young group then. Most are mid-twens, I am end-twen and we have a cub who's 18 or something. None of them is Howard-literate; I have only begun reading the stories myself, recently.

I think what's currently very popular among the youngsters (teens and early twens) is World of Darkness in its various incarnations; though a while back I heard a game store guy say that Vampire is "out". I know a lot of people younger than me who play Vampire or similar WoD settings.

Those games that have been around for a long time (like Shadowrun ~15 years, D&D ~ invention of the alphabet) probably have a more even age distribution because there are now several gamer generations who started out with those systems.

Conan is still a relatively new game, but is based on pretty old literature -- the stories were already old before any of us were born. I find it interesting that this setting seems to attract mostly people with a few more years on their backs. I have a certain idea why that is so, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Maybe one aspect is that Conan is a world without fairness or balance between good and evil -- it probably requires more maturity in a player to enjoy a setting where you get the short end of the stick by default, being pitted against supernatural powers without having supernatural powers of your own, and any one blow can kill you no matter who you are.
(Note that this is the diametral opposite of Vampire, where the player characters are nigh invincible and immortal and extremely powerful... that's what attracts the teens.)

Thoughts?

 

[Dpetroc]

Hmm...anectdotally it seems like even D&D has an older 'base'. Most of the people I've met over the years who still RPG are late 20's-30's.

As for why Conan may or may not attract an older audience, it might be something as simple as the age of the stories themselves. Younger players seem more heavily influenced by the MMOs, Anime, etc. More recent literature might influence them more heavily than LotR (though that got a boost from the movies), Conan or even Lloyd Alexander.

Although I read Conan at a relatively young age, I'm pretty sure my son will be playing D&D for quite some time before I'd introduce him to Hyboria.

 

[Axerules]

At my gaming table, me and most of my players are in our 30's (33/33/35) with the exception of a young "cub" of 24 years. And recently another 35 years old player left the campaign.

 

[Jeffreywns]

I wonder what the ages and players would be like if this was the Gor RPG forum. I read those books at the same young age, and I dont even recall the author. Also read Starship Troopers the same year as LOTR and the Howards works. Seems my fate was sealed in Jr High as a roleplayer.

 

[Clegane]

Anyone polled that one? My group is split with 3 41-43 year olds, 2 30ish and another 30ish "cub" as a floater.

We've got 3 at 31, one at 32, one at 38, and another 32 'floater.

Interestingly enough, its the exact same group I was gaming with 15 years ago. I guess that when you play with the same crew for 15+ years you sorta fail to notice how old you're all getting.

 

[Krushnak]

im 21 and the youngest in the group with 3 25+ and 1 30ish, im also the GM and the only one to read all the howard stories.

well this has gone way off-topic but im glad that the differences for intimidate were put in because always using cha just got annoying.

 

[Ichabod]

Maybe one aspect is that Conan is a world without fairness or balance between good and evil -- it probably requires more maturity in a player to enjoy a setting where you get the short end of the stick by default, being pitted against supernatural powers without having supernatural powers of your own, and any one blow can kill you no matter who you are.
(Note that this is the diametral opposite of Vampire, where the player characters are nigh invincible and immortal and extremely powerful... that's what attracts the teens.)

Thoughts?

Em, er, uh, er *conniptions*

I find Vampire characters, especially in the Requiem to be total wusses who would be easily enslaved by humans as they are so effortlessly beaten down and are so limited in their ability to function by basic things. A player would have to either be supremely clever (which does not describe anyone I can recall playing with) or have a GM who overlooks the basic retardedness of how useless vampires are without a huge infrastructure of servants to keep them functional and protected.

Meanwhile, in Conan, you can massive damage almost anything at the lowest of levels and your attributes tend to be outrageous in comparison to, say, D&D characters (who aren't under some buff). Invincible and immortal - hardly. But, at least dangerous.

 

[Jeffreywns]

Yeah, sorry about re-routing the topic. But back on track, that alternate intimidate rule has been picked up by my whole group. Hyboria's Fiercest is the book most used beyond the core rules with us.

 

[Valgrim Bragisson]

In our group, we have one guy who's 54, two who are 45 or so, and I'm the youngest at 39. As others have already said, CONAN appeals to an older population, because it's less fantastic and more realistic. REH wrote for an adult audiance, and the game reflects this.

mp