What if Conan leaves d20 for anotehr system?

[Sir Hackalot]

Oh God, tell me about it. My group spent two days to play out a simple ambush. Two Days! :shock: :shock:

I really hate to blast this system so much. Particulary to those of you out there that love the system. I still think that the game is playable and would give it another try, but like I said before I would not want it for Conan. I do like Glorantha, I think that the GM just didn't have a good handle on the rules.

I guess I just had a really bad experience with it because the adventure that we went on was so very railroady.

 

[Trodax]

I actually think a Conan Saga Edition based on the Star Wars Saga edition would really be a good game. I have played Star Wars Saga and they really streamlined the system for me. They fixed the skills and made combat move much smoother. Granted, some changes would have to made to make it more appropriate for fantasy but it could be done.

Did you check out Sword and Sorcery Saga? I haven't used it or anything, but it looks pretty cool.

 

[Grazzt]

Hi Scott! Welcome to the boards! I am a huge fan of your work

Yes, I know about E6, it's a quite interesting take on d20 D&D, though even just stopping at 7th level or so makes for very interesting games.

The Chaosium guidelines to convert a BRP character to d20 is to divide the highest percent skill by 10 and subtract 3. With a 100% skill, the level is about 7th, which closely matches Ryan Dancey's breakdown of levels.

For S&S games, even when playing d20 Conan, I never go beyond 10th level.

Thanks. I've actually lurked here for quite a long time; just don't recall ever posting (and if I did, it was under a different name I guess)....ah well.

Interesting about BRP to d20; hadnt seen that. But yeah- as for d20, I generally don't go above 10th anymore either. Characters get too be too "super hero" for my tastes.

 

[Sir Hackalot]

I actually think a Conan Saga Edition based on the Star Wars Saga edition would really be a good game. I have played Star Wars Saga and they really streamlined the system for me. They fixed the skills and made combat move much smoother. Granted, some changes would have to made to make it more appropriate for fantasy but it could be done.

Did you check out Sword and Sorcery Saga? I haven't used it or anything, but it looks pretty cool.

Looks good!

 

[GamerDude]

Sir Hackalot wrote:

I actually think a Conan Saga Edition based on the Star Wars Saga edition would really be a good game. I have played Star Wars Saga and they really streamlined the system for me. They fixed the skills and made combat move much smoother. Granted, some changes would have to made to make it more appropriate for fantasy but it could be done.

The game you're talking about exists, it's called DD4!
More seriously, I also tend to think that Star Wars Saga is the best version of the D20 system, much of the clumsiness of the 3.5 being wiped out.

Actually, SW:SE is like DD3.75, not DD4. SE uses 3.5 with talent trees from d20 Modern. The biggest thing it has from DD4 is the crappy skill system.

But yes, in many ways SE is a great game.

 

[Sutek]

Correct. SWD20 is a rules set tweaking the 3.0 rules to suit the Star Wars universe.

Pathfinder is a better example, I feel. It's more a tweakedn version of 3.5, and the way that they've tried to do the tweaing is very subtle - going through an just ironing out the kinks rather than trying to re-invent the wheel.

Stargate:SG1 RPG is another 3.X system tweak, but geared more towards a feat tree and skill based system rather than really focusing on class or character level.

D&D4e is shite.

 

[SnowDog]

Oh God, tell me about it. My group spent two days to play out a simple ambush. Two Days! :shock: :shock:

I really hate to blast this system so much. Particulary to those of you out there that love the system. I still think that the game is playable and would give it another try, but like I said before I would not want it for Conan. I do like Glorantha, I think that the GM just didn't have a good handle on the rules.

I guess I just had a really bad experience with it because the adventure that we went on was so very railroady.

Just to be sure. Are you referring to RuneQuest or another system?

 

[Sir Hackalot]

Runequest 3rd edition, the Avalon Hill version that came in the box.

 

[kintire]

I can see where the confusion arose, because I am responding to about four different strands here, but MY rant was about Rolemaster.

Third edition Runequest was not QUITE that bad.

I mean, the character generation system was awful, the magic didn't fit the setting and, in the case of sorcery, didn't work and it couldn't model half the things that happened in Glorantha, but I didn't find it that clunky to play.

But then, I started using it after Rolemaster, so maybe I was feeling in a generous mood...

 

[Sir Hackalot]

It is possible that the game wasn't that bad. I have talked to another player about the system and he believes that we may have been playing it wrong. So I might be willing to give another try but only with an experienced GM who know what he's doing.

 

[SnowDog]

:lol: Yes, Kintire and me were ... talking about pros and cons of Rolemaster, so to speak.

I think my only actual gaming experience with RQ was with the the previously mentioned Avalon Hill version. As our campaign was pretty poorly ported from an earlier D&D (Red Box) campaign, using our GM's own setting and very loosely formatted magic we didn't encounter those problems. Sure, it was unforgiving and not as fast as the first D&D (and when you rolled for background and profession it was almost guaranteed to be a civilized farmer ).

Anyway, I would not have thought that a simple ambush would have taken so long. Of course it depends on how large the combat was.

Disclaimer, I didn't play the game for long for reasons that didn't have anything to do with the system.

 

[kintire]

and when you rolled for background and profession

*twitch* *twitch*

 

[SnowDog]

Yes, I think we had to roll from a table whether the character was civilized, barbarian or nomad (or something along those lines). After that you had another table that was used to get the profession based on civilization.

 

[kintire]

And if you ended up as a Primitive Fisher, you might as well fall on your sword right there...

Except you'd miss.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Except you wouldn't have a sword. But maybe you could fall on your fishing pole. And miss.

 

[Da Boss]

at least you could not actaully die or be maimed in cahracter generation :roll:

4th Ed D+D is a good co-operative board game

RQ is a overely complex version of BRP for me - I prefer fast cinemtic action so things like fatigue are of no use.............my version presently allows mutiple attacks and parries (each at -20%, stops if your effective skill reaches ) for any character and has Buffy style Drama Points

 

[SnowDog]

I suppose you are referring to Traveller character generation

Although I have not personally tried the MRQ, it seems to run pretty fast and have heroic abilities.

 

[kintire]

Yes, not the greatest Character gen system, Traveller...

But Mongoose Runequest has pretty much sorted out all the problems with RQ3, especially in the character generation systems. There are a few left over: rolled stats and AP based parries, for example, but generally its sorted out. And the Legendary Abilities work well for Glorantha roleplaying too. At last we have a functioning system that can model gloranthan heroes!

 

[Dantai]

I don't think Conan will work as a 4e game because the powers system will not work well with Hyborian magic, which is meant to be very intricate and elaborate in the stories and the game.

 

[rabindranath72]

I don't think Conan will work as a 4e game because the powers system will not work well with Hyborian magic, which is meant to be very intricate and elaborate in the stories and the game.

You can always limit magic to rituals, and completely ditch the spellcasting classes. Rituals are accessible by everyone, so you can design the most varied rituals without needing an "ad hoc" spellcasting system. Rituals would be much "in tone" with how Hyborian magic is described to work.
Or, if you want spellcasting classes for PCs (NPCs can be handled by the DM as he sees fit) just keep the Warlock, and limit the powers to those with some descriptors, like Charm, Illusion, Necrotic, Fear and Poison. This would remove all "flashy" spells.