RQ: Conan?
- Thread starter C. Chapman
- Start date
homerjsinnott said:SteveMND said:You know, altho I personally have no desire to play a Conan-based RPG, I do find it interesting that whenever I thought of the old Second Edition D&D, my mental picture went to that of the movie Excalibur. Yet when I thought of RuneQuest, I alway associated it with the movie Conan: the Barbarian.
But Excalibur was a great film.
It's best for all concerned if we don't mention what Conan was.
We ARE polar opposites!
The whole system is Open; i'm sure a few years from now there will be variants with skills over 100, skills fixed at 100, no skills, some skills and products with the word 'Iron' in the title.
homerjsinnott
Mongoose
andakitty said:
Why, thank you.
Jed Clayton
Mongoose
Personally, I would very much hope (and advocate) that skill percentages in the new RQ are organised a lot like in Elric!/Stormbringer 5th, skills going up well beyond 100%. It's a very nifty, elegant system to me.
In Stormbringer 5th, just for those of you who haven't read it, a die result within 1/5 of your (current) skill percentage is a critical success, so somebody with 160% has their critical on 01-32, for example.
This theoretically increases the scale up to 500%. (SB itself makes fun of this rule a few times, in that the sword Stormbringer is listed with an 880% skill in "Wielding Itself". )
If I remember correctly, the rulebook for Stormbringer 5th even says clearly that a beginning adventurer should be given one weapon skill at 90% or even 100% at least - only to make surviving in a hostile, unforgiving world more likely.
In Stormbringer 5th, just for those of you who haven't read it, a die result within 1/5 of your (current) skill percentage is a critical success, so somebody with 160% has their critical on 01-32, for example.
This theoretically increases the scale up to 500%. (SB itself makes fun of this rule a few times, in that the sword Stormbringer is listed with an 880% skill in "Wielding Itself".
)If I remember correctly, the rulebook for Stormbringer 5th even says clearly that a beginning adventurer should be given one weapon skill at 90% or even 100% at least - only to make surviving in a hostile, unforgiving world more likely.
Jandar said:This theoretically increases the scale up to 500%. (SB itself makes fun of this rule a few times, in that the sword Stormbringer is listed with an 880% skill in "Wielding Itself".
I don't like Stormbriger myself, ar at least "Elric!", the version I have.
The demon weapons are way over the top, especially Stormbringer*, and the magic system is really lame. The so called powerful sorcerer's have puny spirit-magic-like spells, the effects of which mostly mean nothing when compared to even low level demon tools.
Not a good combination
*That is, Strormbringer and the other demon tools aren't that rediculously powerful in the books themselves. It's rather like Sandy Petersen's take on the Cthulu mythos creatures vs. Lovecraft's books.
Adept said:Jandar said:This theoretically increases the scale up to 500%. (SB itself makes fun of this rule a few times, in that the sword Stormbringer is listed with an 880% skill in "Wielding Itself".
I don't like Stormbriger myself, ar at least "Elric!", the version I have.
The demon weapons are way over the top, especially Stormbringer*, and the magic system is really lame. The so called powerful sorcerer's have puny spirit-magic-like spells, the effects of which mostly mean nothing when compared to even low level demon tools.
Not a good combination
*That is, Strormbringer and the other demon tools aren't that rediculously powerful in the books themselves. It's rather like Sandy Petersen's take on the Cthulu mythos creatures vs. Lovecraft's books.
Perhaps you never have read the books?
You use daemons to do things, that is the way magic primarily works. That is when you are not summoning the spirits of the dead, or use invocations to have things done by more powerful entities (the magic Elric himself mostly use). Then, invocations are so very powerful that there is not really any rules for them, only guidelines.
Remember Elric has the blood of a Melnibonéan, and the ring of the emperors to that allows him to call upon ancient treaties his people have with these powerful entities that he invokes. Not many characters in the setting that has access to the most powerful magic. And that is probably why there is no real rules for them in the first place.
And that Stormbringer should be redicilously powerful, that is a given. Just as Cthulu in CoC should be redicilously powerful. It is not as if the player characters are expected to be able to get their hands on stormbringer and wield it.
As a weapon made to kill gods, it's stats are probably only included because it exist in the setting.
Jed Clayton
Mongoose
HyrumOWC said:Skills over 100 are addressed, they even mention skills of 300%.
Hyrum.
I can breathe a sigh of relief now. -- Rock on!!
Thank you, Hyrum.
GbajiTheDeceiver
Mongoose
Matt has posted somewhere before that the rules can handle skills of up to 10,000.
Archer said:
Not all of them, but enough of them to have a feel for the saga and setting. I'm not a big fan though.
Archer said:
And yet some people here call Stormbringer "the best incarnation of the RQ rules ever"? I'm not convinced.
Archer said:
And yet in the stories it's not nearly as powerful as in the game. Elric has trouble getting through armour with Stormbringer on several occasions, both against thick shelled beetles and demon armour. It's a spiffy magical sword, but the treatment in the game is poor and very super-Rune-Quest in style.
The same on CoC. The treatment on the mythos creatures is not one I enjoy. Everything is inflated in power and toughness. The same problem is seen early in sandy's Glorantha material. Especially the various creatures and monsters.
I don't necessarily think SB5 is as good as BRP could possibly be, but it is arguably the best attempt so far. Read and play the mechanics only and you might understand; the Young Kingdoms are an admittedly gonzo, over the top sort of setting, not holding together well at all. The sword Stormbringer, by the game rules, doesn't seem right to me either. The game and the setting have always been so full of holes they resemble Swiss cheese. And speaking of cheese... :roll:...some of the supplements for the game...
But. SOME of the stories, esp. the first ones written back in the 1960's are IMO some of the very best fantasy ever written. And in spite of the flaws in the rpg, all editions, it is fun and it is evocative. The rules are solid, fast to play, easy to teach. Even though they were not thought through for balance, were so very easy to munchkinize and abuse, they represent an excellent, very playable ruleset with just a little care. I have run BRP fantasy games that attracted lots of players consistently for decades. No, not even BRP, as MRQ is soon to demonstrate. Just percentile dice and some common sense.
But. SOME of the stories, esp. the first ones written back in the 1960's are IMO some of the very best fantasy ever written. And in spite of the flaws in the rpg, all editions, it is fun and it is evocative. The rules are solid, fast to play, easy to teach. Even though they were not thought through for balance, were so very easy to munchkinize and abuse, they represent an excellent, very playable ruleset with just a little care. I have run BRP fantasy games that attracted lots of players consistently for decades. No, not even BRP, as MRQ is soon to demonstrate. Just percentile dice and some common sense.
Adept said:
That I have understood.
Adept said:
It is not the magic that makes Stormbringer the best version of the BRP rules, it is the system overall. It is the fastest and easiest to play, in my opinion.
If you want to have more magic in Stormbringer, I recommend checking out The Bronze Gromoire. But most of that magic, I feel is too powerful since it is supposed to be just common spells, not invocations.
And regarding invocation, it is a good thing that there are no rules for them. Using invocations are a very rare thing, and each invocation should be created to be unique. It is more about role-playing than rules.
Adept said:
Well, demon armour and the demonic beetles are perhaps the only things that is powerful enough to resist the blow of Stormbringer. But it is also important to remember that Stormbringer is a fickle sword/daemon, and it is not always cooperating. I guess the stats on page 122 in Elric! (which was what you had if I remember correctly) is supposed to be for a fully cooperating, awakened Stormbringer.
Adept said:
Well, it is probably a thing of necessity. If a group of experienced characters could easily kill most of the creatures, they would loose their "fear" factor. Basically it is done that way so that the game will suit those that insist of playing everything by the rules, instead of role-playing certain aspects of horror RPGing.
Since I am not a GM in CoC, but a player, I do not know what the stats etc. are for the creatures, but I know they are tough, scary, and extremly dangerous. To me that seems very reasonable.
andakitty said:Oh, forgot the point of the previous post. One of the settings that the SB5 rules do best is Hyboria, not the Young Kingdoms. With very little alteration and 'fitting' they are in my opinion the very best rules for Conan games. So far, bar none.
That I agree too.
How I long for a BRP version of a Conan RPG...
Heh. Being a long-time fan of Lovecraft's short stories and such, I actually think CoC made it easier on the players, by actually giving them a chance to hurt them to begin with.
A real RPG based off of HPL's stories could probably be condensed into a single die roll: 1-95, you die horribly in some hideous, grueseome way; 96-99, you go incurably stark raving mad; 00, you managed to survive the horrors you have witnessed without losing all of your mind and can continue on to the next game.
rabindranath72
Mongoose
Not directly related to RQ, but since other game systems have been mentioned...I would say that a Conan game could be run really well with Lejendary Adventures by Gary Gygax. It is a rules-light system, it is percentile based, it is based on broad skill bundles (i.e., you do not have to buy skills rank for rank like in Conan d20 :x ), there are no character classes by default, but one can join so called Orders, which are defined by "groups" of skill bundles which give certain benefits.
Magic and combat are lethal at every stage of character development, but truly heroic characters (like Conan) can be built that have some "quid".
Those interested can give a look at:
http://www.trolllord.com
I am working on a Conan adaptation...as soon as I have something ready, I will let you know.
Cheers,
Antonio
Magic and combat are lethal at every stage of character development, but truly heroic characters (like Conan) can be built that have some "quid".
Those interested can give a look at:
http://www.trolllord.com
I am working on a Conan adaptation...as soon as I have something ready, I will let you know.
Cheers,
Antonio
If only it didn't suffer from Gygax's writing style. 'Avatars' indeed. I looked at it, and serously considered it but couldn't get around that or what looked like a way oversimplified combat system, IMO. Just too much that seemed changed for no other reason than to look different. And 'oafs' for a race? :roll:
rabindranath72
Mongoose
andakitty said:
It would be better to play with a game to get some insights in how it works before giving evaluations. Just skimming a book cannot necessarily tell "the whole truth".
Since we are talking about Conan, what does matter is the game system; races, whatever they are named, are not part of the equation (and besides, one could always change the names).
Thinking of it..."oafs" is hardly worst than "ducks", I guess :wink:
Cheers,
Antonio