Although I don't have any experience with the system myself, I've heard many people say that Savage Worlds works great for Conan. It's supposed to be a very fast and easily learned system, and also extremely easy to adapt to your setting of choice (there are probably Conan conversions floating around on the net).
Unisystem
- Thread starter Hudson
- Start date
Sutek said:
Basically it's D10 + Attribute + Skill vs Difficulty Number
In combat the difficulty number is often the oppoents relevant Attribute + Skill + D10.
The D10's sometimes (AFMBE does, I think Tera Firma too but Buffy doesn't) have a system where the D10 can explode down from 1 and up from 10 so it does have some "bell curve" to it's chances (the chances of getting the best possibility result is not the same as getting the worst or the average, compare to D20 or percentile).
How far you roll above 10, the base level of success, will give bonuses your outcome. It might give you extra damage for example.
That's about it, it is a fairly rules light system.
The AFMBE flavour is grittier and more dangerous than the cinematic Buffy version which in turn favours a more OTT style of play but they're all fairly similar.
Hope that helps......
Sutek
Mongoose
Yeah, thanks. It does help. I was just curious as to what it was that everyone was goin gon about (lol).
I'm intensely un-fond of "exploding" systems, but to each his own. I just think that they make actual skill levels irrelevant and cause players to hope for luck rather than try to make creative decisions. Probably just me.
The system I really like is Hârnmaster. It's a d00 system, but checks use a criti failure (CF), minor failure (MF), minor success (MS), crit sucess (CS) result based on the current skill level of the character. Any value rolled is a success if it's under/lower than the character's percentile based skill (as normal) and is a failure if it's above/higher. Crits are on any number rolled that are mutiples of 5, thus ending in a zero or five. For instance, if a character has a skill of 37, rolls and results would break down like this:
40 = CF, 58 = MF, 05 = CS, 03 = MS
With the numbers above you can see that the chances of crits, either way, increases (in terms ofCSs) and decreases (in terms of CFs) as the character's skill goes up.
I'm intensely un-fond of "exploding" systems, but to each his own. I just think that they make actual skill levels irrelevant and cause players to hope for luck rather than try to make creative decisions. Probably just me.
The system I really like is Hârnmaster. It's a d00 system, but checks use a criti failure (CF), minor failure (MF), minor success (MS), crit sucess (CS) result based on the current skill level of the character. Any value rolled is a success if it's under/lower than the character's percentile based skill (as normal) and is a failure if it's above/higher. Crits are on any number rolled that are mutiples of 5, thus ending in a zero or five. For instance, if a character has a skill of 37, rolls and results would break down like this:
40 = CF, 58 = MF, 05 = CS, 03 = MS
With the numbers above you can see that the chances of crits, either way, increases (in terms ofCSs) and decreases (in terms of CFs) as the character's skill goes up.
Sutek said:
The exploding thing isn't a big deal. IIRC you had to roll a 10 (or a 1) on your roll, and then you'd roll again. On a 1 to 5 it was just a ten, above that it would add something (think it was roll-5) and if you got a 10 you got to add something (5?) and reroll.
When I read the rules I thought "that's kinda clunky" but in practice it didn't come up that often at all. Although in theory you can explode (or implode) infinitely it just didn't happen. Players never came to rely on it and skills, and abilities, did feel very important.
Oh I should add that it's a classless and level-less system.
Sutek
Mongoose
Taharqa said:
Exactly what I was thinking (lol).
It's a threat with the second roll allowing for more rolls though. L5R has a true exploding dice system, but you have a roll/keep system to keep that reigned in. For those that don't know how L5R works, you'll have a stat like 4K2 in which you roll 4 d10 and get to choose the two you want to keep. It allows for "pulling punches" if you decide to keep the low dice, for instance, but any 10s cause a single die to explode, adding to the total of that die roll.
A 4K2 roll can end up as 2, 10, 6, 5. The 10 explodes, and rolls another 10, which grants another roll that ends up a 3 but the total generated on that die is 23 (10+10+3). With the other high die in the initial rolls, the 6, that's a grand total of 29 versus a difficulty range pretty similar to D&D for static events and, in combat and some other skill checks, roll vs. roll checks (meaning your roll is versus the opponent's roll).
I'm just trying to get a handle on what systems people are prefering out there, given the lengthy "second edition Conan" thread and all the talk of "my system can beat up your system" over there. (lol)
Garet said:Valaryc said:
Thats the way i run a game. Also don't let people argue about the rules. Just write down what the problem is, make a quick judgement as GM and move on. Then look up the question after the game and discuss with the players before the next game.
It's usually because of PCs that I have to go into details about numbers, tables and possibilities. For NPCs I just wing it behind the curtain. However the players will asks "doesn't that provoke an AoO", "don't I get a +2 because of X", "how can he do that twice in this combat", "how does my feat X work" etc. etc.
Like Valaryc on the spot I'll either say "that's just how it is for now, I'll check later" or "OK you've got until you're not action to look it up."
It's after the former that I often come on here and ask questions....
Taharqa said:
Yes it's very similar in that way. There's a slight curving of the possibilities away from D20s flat (especially outside of combat) odds but not a great deal.
The lack of classes, feats and complicated combat rules slicken up the system and make it feel rather different from D20.
It's a nice system and I'm a big fan of it, especially for one off or short adventures as making up characters and NPCs is so easy and there's not a big pot of rules to learn.
However personally I like the "crunch" that D20 Conan gives for the way I run my Conan game and given how it's a long term thing the complexity is less of an issue.
As a player in d20 games, I put page numbers on my character sheet for everything (feats, special abilities, magic items, how much weight I can carry based on str, etc., but I got anal about inserting 4pt. text because the other players were power gamers, so I had to be sure I had notes on where I got my stats from when challenged by the other guys. IMO it'llhelp your group if you have your players do likewise.Oly said:Garet said:Valaryc said:
Thats the way i run a game
It's usually because of PCs that I have to go into details about numbers, tables and possibilities. For NPCs I just wing it behind the curtain. However the players will asks "doesn't that provoke an AoO", "don't I get a +2 because of X", "how can he do that twice in this combat", "how does my feat X work" etc. etc.
Like Valaryc on the spot I'll either say "that's just how it is for now, I'll check later" or "OK you've got until you're not action to look it up."
It's after the former that I often come on here and ask questions....
Another thing I used to do for the Conan game, and for any game I run, is to have bookmarks (post-its) tabbing any page I know I need to reference a lot. Write Combat on one post-it, Equipment Chart, etc. That may help, and help you get familiar with how the book is laid out to make future referencing easier.
Speaking of easier, I recommend downloading and printing the NPC sheets Vincent Darlage had made up for NPCs which can be found on the Conan page here at Mongoose. I had been asked on several occasions to make up an adventure on the fly, for which I'd just pull out the NPC sheets and pick whatever level NPC I needed based on the PCs levels. They're very nice and neatly written up. Go here to download them:
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/series.php?qsSeries=7
Scroll down to Free Downloads: Conan - The RPG - Atlantean Edition and open the one NPC Sheets - Instant random characters for the Conan RPG (299 Kb). It has each of the character classes written out from level 1 to 20 IIRC. Hope this helps.
Sutek
Mongoose
Oly said:
Appropriate GM answers for Oly's PC's questions:
FIRST:
Q: Doesn't that provoke and attack of opportunity?
A: Oh, yes, you're right. Take it. (allows PC to roll AoO)
Q: Does a 32 hit (snicker)
A: Nope, misses. Now where was I...?
SECOND:
Q: Don't I get a +2 because of that thing I have?
A: I don't know. I'm not playing your character. Now where was I...?
THIRD:
Q: How can he do that twice in this combat.
A: He has it twice. Now where was I...?
FOURTH:
Q: How does my Feat work again?
A: I don't know. I'm not playing your character. Look it up in the PHB. Now where was I...?
Never let them get the better of you, and never let then see you sweat...
:wink:
