Should I buy Conan?

C

Cleombrotus

Mongoose
sorry for a lame thread - i hate these when they appear elsewhere, but i find myself in genuine need of forum input.

i found myself completely appalled (not to mention out of pocket) by the hash that mongoose made of runequest.

i wanted to buy conan when it came out but was put off by the price.

now price is not a problem, but having been burned once, i hesitate to buy another mongoose game.

is conan full of mistakes, rules that don't work and superfluous crap, or is it as good as it looks? i'm really only interested in the rules, not the world which i know is what i want.

the stuff i've read looks evocative and original, but then so did runequest, and it played like a bag of cack IMHO.

so, without hyperbole, does it work?
 
Welcome to the forum, Cleombrotus. :)
Are you familiar with any D20-based game or not ?


Happy New Year everyone ! :D
 
Are you familiar with any D20-based game or not ?
Click to expand...

i've got d&d 3rd edition, but have never read it cover to cover. I like what i've read the but have never actually played it.

i'm an old school runequest player, but i have always loved hyboria. i actually still have a copy of the old tsr conan rpg and both the tsr conan d&d modules, the first of which was a classic scenario. i remember sitting in the queue for the cinema (in the days when long cinema queues were part of the movie experience) waiting for Conan the Barbarian and reading 'Conan the Conqueror' whilst remembering my fake birthday by heart because i wasn't old enough to see it...

ahh, happy days...
 
Should you get it? I've been asked that question several times, oddly, and to each one the reply has been that I think the Conan implementation of d20 is the best version I've seen. It is also wonderfully evocative of the Hyborian Age 'feel'.

Yes, imo, it suffers from some of the 3.5/d20 shortfalls in that the skills are too discrete; grapple is way too complex; and the rest of combat is still, at its core, d20, so is more akin to a tabletop game than an RPG. But if you can cope with that, the rest of the combat, magic and approach is excellent.

I tend to try and avoid D&D but happily run a Conan d20 campaign (bits of which have appeared in S&P).
 
If you like rules-heavy games, d20 Conan may be for you. But if you are quite old-school or like rules-light games like AD&D, you may be disappointed; and d20 Conan is still more "crunchy" than D&D 3.x.

If you still have your AD&D 1e books, I have written a pdf document which imports some of the ideas of the d20 Conan to AD&D without any overhaul of the system. I merged those newer ideas with some in the old TSR Conan game, and the CB modules. The final result allows you to play Hyborian Age games without any problems.
If you want it, PM me your email address.

Cheers,
Antonio
 
We have been through this topic many times. Please check for the other threads. Conan is D20, but more than a little different.

No ALignment
Sorcerery is different, more realistic for the setting.
Combat manuevers
defense and Parry instead of AC.
Magic is NOT almighty.
There is no Divine Magic, just Sorcery.
Armor gets damage, as do weapons
Classes More appropriate to the setting.
Lack of Prestige classes
Sorcery has styles.
Well supplemented, and all editions are totally compatible.
Monsters do not walk around every corner.

You get the picture..

By the way, I love Runequest (Mongoose)
 
Welcome!

I think that the Conan RPG is the best use of the d20 system for ancient, once-upon-a-time, fantasy style RPG (just as Spycraft 2.0 is perhaps the best implementation of the d20 Modern system).

If you're comfortable with rules-lite, quick play, then the d20 system might not be the best for you. However there are other options. Someone here posted a True 20 Rules System adaptation for Conan that looks nice. I've heard of Castles & Crusades, but might need adaptation to fit Hyborian campaigns.

Best Wishes.
 
Castles & Crusades is a simplified D20, with bits and pieces from all the other D&D Game genre. A great system.

However, as it is, I would say to play it in Conan's world, it would require more than a little house rules.

I use the setting of Conan to play it though... Not all the haph-n-staph...
 
Don't sweat it. It's the nature of forums that the same questions crop up over and over because these things get so dense and topics of discussion get totally lost over time.

Personally, I think Conan is the best re-evaluation of the D20 OGL 3.X game engine for a fantasy RPG out there. The Stargate:SG1 RPG is my pick for the best Sci-Fi/Modern version.

Now, systems aside, the resource is huge. There's more Conan info in the RPG than you could probably ever completely use, and (unwieldy D20 rules not withstanding) the rules have been written and rewritten to accomodate the setting instead of the other way around. The word fits within the rules engine, and that's a hard match to come by, quite frankly.

I say "buy it" if you're a huge Conan fan wanting the best Conan true RPG experience you can lay money down for. Otherwise, expect to spend ages houseruling and re-houseruling where the Mongoose blokes have already done the grunt work...
 
I used to play and GM DnD. I got into Conan and I'll never go back.

Buy Conan if you want a world that actualy makes sense. Civilizations and cultures based on the real world, but with enough fantasy to make it great for FRP.

No stoopid elves, dwarves, orc...

Magic that's tough to use, dangerous and usualy in the hands of the bad guys.

Good, bloody combat. Such that even higher level types will sweat.

Characters aren't defined by thier posessions nor thier spells.

Most of the supplements are worth getting.

I've been GMing Conan since it came out a few years ago and it is still great.

Buy it!
 
bradius said:
I used to play and GM DnD. I got into Conan and I'll never go back.

Buy Conan if you want a world that actualy makes sense.
Click to expand...

I'd say like this. For grim and gritty sword and sorcery, Conan is the way to go. For somewhat less grim high-magic hijinx, Eberron.

I like in Conan what I call the "Howardian Dynamic". People willingly throw themselves into adventures, the adventure is the reward in itself, not the gold, the jewels and the fine weapons the players find and heroes aren't all about purity and goodness.
 
I don't know MRQ so I can only compare to D20, and like my fellow posters here have said, I agree that Conan is the best medieval-style D20 version I know.

To paraphrase what has already been said:
Mongoose Conan does a great job gutting the magic/item dependency out of the D20/D&D System. You get more level-based ability increases so there's no need to decorate yourself with rings, amulets, belts, cloaks and whatnot. You get level-based defense progressions so there is no need for magic armour. Every class gets lots of level-dependent benefits, so a level 20 character is a lot more than a level 1 character with more hitpoints.
 
I'm a big D&D/D20 fan. I don't thing orcs/dragons/elves are stoopid.
I'm not a huge fan of everything by Mongoose.

So with that out of the way; Conan is better than D&D. The magic is rare, scary and feels better than Vancian. The classes have more feats and traits, making them more interesting, less "dead" levels and does away with the overimportance of magical equipment.

The races/cultures are well set up to represent Conans world, but even if you aren't running games in the Hyborian age, Conan is well worth buying and using as a basis for D&D type games.
 
Conan d20 is, in my opinion, the best d20 system that I've played. It is -far- better than DnD.
However, it isn't perfect by any stretch. The 2nd edition Sorcery rules need a complete rewrite. Also, the game rules are stretched over several books (though the game is certainly playable with just the core book), so if you are one of those people who feel the urge to have all the rules, you'll have to spend a fair bit of cash.
 
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