Recommendations from the crew

[Azgulor]

I'm looking to add to the Conan library this month and was looking for some recommendations. Of the following books, which two would you pick and why?

Conan Warrior's Companion (this one's leaning towards a definite-buy)
Cities of Hyboria
Conan: Bestiary of the Hyborian Age
Catacombs of Hyboria

Thanks!

 

[B_Steele]

As all of these were penned by me...I am flattered to be your shopping list!

I personally like the Bestiary and the Warrior's Companion, but the other two books have good uses for some campaigns, too. What kind of campaign are you going to be running?

-Bry

 

[Diabolus]

Bestiary for the win. Having tons of monsters and animals at your fingertips is handy.

 

[Hervé]

Owning the four books, I would say:

1. Cities
2. Bestiary
3. Catacombs
4. Warrior's Companion

This reflecting, of course, only a personal taste...

 

[zozotroll]

I have only bought Bestiary and Catacombs, so I guess that shows my preference.

 

[LucaCherstich]

Bestiary & Warrior's C. are more "crunch"
Catacombs and Cities are KIND OF fluff... which means generic suggestions for cities and catacombs (wrong name to me..."grottoes" should be more adapt) with tables for generatings those things and a few examples.

I usually like the "Fluff" (especially the books by Vincent) but I have found those 2 fluff books not at the same level of Vincent's similar book (Ruins of...).

On the other hand, if you like crunch (and if you like Conan d20, unlike Hervè...) I strongly suggest you to buy the Warrior's Companion.
I find it a good book, one of the best by Mongoose Steele, with new code of honour (the warrior's way!), a few good feats, prestige classes, new weapons, weapon customizations and other options...its only defect is its low page number!!!!!
Bestiary is also an interesting book, especially because at the end you'll find rules for upgrading monsters which are much clearer than in any other d20 sourcebook by any publisher.
But you'll also find many monsters already published elsewhere...

 

[Sourcerer]

Maybe I can hijack this thread before I create a new but very similar one.
I'm looking for a ranking for buying sourcebooks; which are the most important to have in one's library.
As I just recently discoverey the Conan RPG for me, so far I only own the core rulebook, which in every ranking would be No. 1 anyway.

My interest is more on rule-expansions and variation-ideas; I prefer to create may own campaigns, adventures and regions, so sourcebooks mainly covering such topics rather bore me.

Currently I consider buying the Player's Guide, Secrets of Skelos and the 3 Class-Compendiums (Finest, Fiercest, Fallen).

 

[Hervé]

Your first buy MUST be Return to the Road of Kings, the Atlas of Conan's world, by no less than Vincent Darlage. From there, you can start thinking about what to buy next.

Of course if you don't plan to use the setting, you'll find "crunch" books more useful. I'll advice in this case Secrets of Skelos, The Hyboria's serie, the Bestiary and the Warrior's Companion. You won't find much rules in the Players Guide.

 

[Sourcerer]

All but the Finest have disappeared today from the Online Shop, Fallen seems still to be available from other sources, but Fiercest can only be bought for a ridiculous amout of money (far beyond 100 euro, pound or dollar).

I guess I should have bought earlier.
Now the Hyboria's-Series is more or less dead to me, as I have a All-or-Nothing mentality when it comes to series.

That leaves Secret of Skelos and the Bestiary.
The combat rules of D20 are complex enough, so I see no gain in the Warrior's Companion, but I guess I will take a look at it in a shop.

 

[LucaCherstich]

YOu could still get the whole Hyboria's F as a pdf with drivethroughrpg:

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php

 

[Sourcerer]

I might have to do that...

but buying PDFs (same goes for MP3s) always feels wrong to me.
I greatly prefer stuff I can touch instead of mere digital rights.

 

[Diabolus]

I greatly prefer stuff I can touch instead of mere digital rights.

I prefer the digital - but that's because I like to change things. That said I was glad to pick up a copy of both Messantia and Shadizar for $5/ea even though I had already purchased the PDFs on RPGNow.

 

[Azgulor]

As all of these were penned by me...I am flattered to be your shopping list!

I personally like the Bestiary and the Warrior's Companion, but the other two books have good uses for some campaigns, too. What kind of campaign are you going to be running?

-Bry

At present, my Conan campaign is on hiatus. However, I have an ongoing campaign set in the Kingdoms of Kalamar using the Conan system as well. While Hyboria fluff is always good, right now the primary bang-for-the-buck would be material that's useful for OGL gaming in particular and any fantasy rpg setting.

I based the list on the idea that the two crunch-heavy books would be universally useful in either campaign, and the two "setting" books could be utilized for fantasy RPGs in general.

If I'm off-base on any of the items on my list meeting either of those requirements, please advise.

Thanks!

 

[LucaCherstich]

The combat rules of D20 are complex enough, so I see no gain in the Warrior's Companion, but I guess I will take a look at it in a shop.

I found some useful options there.
For example the "Spearman "feat and the "Hoplite" formation soldier options are ways to make spear-users decent fighters.
Now you could take a Lev 3 Soldier (the typical city guard) give him that feat and letting him use decetly the warspear + shield without having to rely just on swords.
To me spears should be wepoans much more diffused than broadswords, at least among soldiers.

 

[Sourcerer]

the "Spearman "feat and the "Hoplite" formation

Even though I only know the preview, I doubt that there will be much in the book that would be new to me.
The Spearman sounds a lot like the Spear and Shield from the Netbook of Feats and the Hoplite formation might be an adaption of Phalanx Fighting from the D&D Complete Warrior.

I am a crunch-junkie, but when it comes to D20, I want crunch that differs from my wide selection of D20 sourcebooks.
The Conan RPG changes some of the D20 mechanics in an elegant way and I like every single one.
Unfortunately the Warrior's Companion doesn't seem to do likewise.

Some of the rules in the preview are even... not really good (sorry to say so, Bryan).
The Sharpening skill is a mere tool to powerplay and even if one would allow it's use, it should be a new skill use of Craft(weaponsmith).
The Headbutting Blade I won't even comment.
The Permanent Damage is an interesting option, but the description is very cumbersome, the chance for it occurs to often and slows combat down too much.

Currently the RPG shop of my choice doesn't have a copy, but when it does I will give the book another chance (browsing it in the store).
But from the preview it doesn't seem to be for me.

Sorry again, Bryan and MGP, I hope my critic is tolerable.

 

[warzen]

The combat rules of D20 are complex enough, so I see no gain in the Warrior's Companion, but I guess I will take a look at it in a shop.

I found some useful options there.
For example the "Spearman "feat and the "Hoplite" formation soldier options are ways to make spear-users decent fighters.
Now you could take a Lev 3 Soldier (the typical city guard) give him that feat and letting him use decetly the warspear + shield without having to rely just on swords.
To me spears should be wepoans much more diffused than broadswords, at least among soldiers.

Get Fantasy Craft. You'll find feats that enable every weapon type to shine.

W.

 

[zorlak21]

I get Conan Warrior's Companion

Conan: Bestiary of the Hyborian Age
8)

 

[LucaCherstich]

how much is that compatible with Conan RPG?

 

[warzen]

I would say "fairly compatible", as it's based on the OGL and not to far from it (we're not talking about M&M here).

let me have a second reading of the weapon feats before having a more definite answer.

but you should buy it anyway. it's a great game and it's even printed by MGP !

W.

 

[Sourcerer]

Get Fantasy Craft. You'll find feats that enable every weapon type to shine.

The use of those feats is problematic at best.

Most weapon feats grant the weapons non-magical qualities like
- Bleed (makes opponent bleed)
- Guard (Defense bonus)
- Lure (grant Feints bonus)
- Keen (like D&D)
etc.

Including those feats means including some other FC-rules.

There are 3 feats for each weapon category (sword, axes, spears, etc): Basic, Mastery and Supremecy that build up such effects.

Additionally some of those feats give tricks and stances, further rules that need to be included.

So I would advise against using Fantasy Craft stuff for Conan RPG unless you want to customize the rules extensively.


On it's own Fantasy Craft is a great system fpr high fantasy!