Who shall give us the first impression of the new edition?
- Thread starter The King
- Start date
Bjorn the Barbarian
Mongoose
My pre-ordered copy it supposed to arrive between Monday and Wednesday of next week. I'll let you all know.
Masterporg
Mongoose
Now that the "Mongoose bad proofreading" thread has been pulled, can someone who has the book please let us know what differences there are between the Atlantean edition and 2e? (excluding the errors please).
Thanks in advance.
Masterporg.
Thanks in advance.
Masterporg.
Sutek
Mongoose
I'm very eager to hear a comparison too. I have no doubt that I'll get a copy as soon as my local game store gets it in. If I don't see anything posted here before I get mine, rest assured I'll step up and give everyone the low down.
If there's suppposedly total 100% compatibility between AE and 2ED, then I'm curious to see what's truly different. Is it just better explanation, a compiling of previously dispersed material into one single book, more precise wording of rules to avoid confusion...what exactly?
The preview just didnt'cut it in terms of filling in these blanks, and for sure there's no way I'm goin go to find all the threads in the forums that sort of tangentially almost discuss what maybe are some of the possible probable differences...sort of...
(lol)
Anyone have 2ED yet? Speak up!!!
If there's suppposedly total 100% compatibility between AE and 2ED, then I'm curious to see what's truly different. Is it just better explanation, a compiling of previously dispersed material into one single book, more precise wording of rules to avoid confusion...what exactly?
The preview just didnt'cut it in terms of filling in these blanks, and for sure there's no way I'm goin go to find all the threads in the forums that sort of tangentially almost discuss what maybe are some of the possible probable differences...sort of...
(lol)
Anyone have 2ED yet? Speak up!!!
I picked up a copy of 2e at Gen Con a week ago and have briefly read through it.
As far as I have seen there are no real changes from the AE rules, just a few more spells, combat manoeuvres and quick npc stats.
The tables are clearer and the combat chapter has all the relevent info condensed into one single chapter such as a condition summary ,heat,cold,falling damage and the like, making for less time having to look up things in other chapters, books etc.
As a final summary, the chapter layout is clearer than AE,1E and contains a lot more info in a single book, making it great for newcomers to Conan but if one already has AE,the Hyboria's F collection , road of kings and 3.5 core rule book like me, then one may be disappointed as there is little new to see.
P.S I have not read it cover to cover so this is a rough impression.
As far as I have seen there are no real changes from the AE rules, just a few more spells, combat manoeuvres and quick npc stats.
The tables are clearer and the combat chapter has all the relevent info condensed into one single chapter such as a condition summary ,heat,cold,falling damage and the like, making for less time having to look up things in other chapters, books etc.
As a final summary, the chapter layout is clearer than AE,1E and contains a lot more info in a single book, making it great for newcomers to Conan but if one already has AE,the Hyboria's F collection , road of kings and 3.5 core rule book like me, then one may be disappointed as there is little new to see.
P.S I have not read it cover to cover so this is a rough impression.
VincentDarlage
Mongoose
I have a copy of it.
Some differences include better background skills for the races (Darfari, for example, no longer have Profession (sailor)). Defensive Blast has been reworked, the Soldier class has a class ability for every level (including new Formation Combat styles and the new Officer ability), and the Temptress class gains Secret Art instead of sneak attack (although sneak attack is one of the options given by Secret Art). Greatsword damage has been reworked.
All in all, it is a book I am glad I bought.
Some differences include better background skills for the races (Darfari, for example, no longer have Profession (sailor)). Defensive Blast has been reworked, the Soldier class has a class ability for every level (including new Formation Combat styles and the new Officer ability), and the Temptress class gains Secret Art instead of sneak attack (although sneak attack is one of the options given by Secret Art). Greatsword damage has been reworked.
All in all, it is a book I am glad I bought.
Clovenhoof
Mongoose
MadDog said:
In first printing, you were dropped to -1 and dying, which imo is way better than -10 and dead of the AE, and this is how I still handle it in our game.
Yogah of Yag
Mongoose
Clovenhoof said:
Doesn't that reduce the "grittiness" of the game?
(Sounds like the advent of a "nerfing" effect, IMHO.) :?
Rule changes so far don't sound too good. Reworked defensive blast and actions sound nice, but they were something that clearly needed working on.
Reformed weapon damage sounds..well..idiotic. I think it is simply not elegant to throw different kind of dice for one weapon. Having a weapon do 1d10+1d8 instead of 2d10 or 2d8 is pretty pointless. I mean, difference between 2d10 and 1d10+1d8 is in practice one point on the average. In theory it means that the weapon can't cause massive damage without a critical hit anymore. In practice it doesn't really change anything, since a character wielding a two handed weapon will likely have high Strength. That is certainly something I would completely ignore if I bought the new edition. Keeping crossbows and arbalests as martial weapons is not very flavorable either - the whole idea of crossbows was always that they are easy to use, in practice point and shoot weapons. Their AP is still too low as well. Now normal crossbow can't pierce a leather jerkin from 140 ft.
I don't like the new massive damage. It makes combat much less dangerous. I prefer instant death of AE about a thousand times more to the -1 of the original rules. If combat stops being possibly lethal all the time, it removes some charm of Hyboria. Yes, with d10 rule there is still 10% chance to die right away..and you can still bleed to death unattended...but it is just not the same.
Please tell more about the changes in the game. Any new content? The second edition is fatter than AE, so it must have something entirely new?
Reformed weapon damage sounds..well..idiotic. I think it is simply not elegant to throw different kind of dice for one weapon. Having a weapon do 1d10+1d8 instead of 2d10 or 2d8 is pretty pointless. I mean, difference between 2d10 and 1d10+1d8 is in practice one point on the average. In theory it means that the weapon can't cause massive damage without a critical hit anymore. In practice it doesn't really change anything, since a character wielding a two handed weapon will likely have high Strength. That is certainly something I would completely ignore if I bought the new edition. Keeping crossbows and arbalests as martial weapons is not very flavorable either - the whole idea of crossbows was always that they are easy to use, in practice point and shoot weapons. Their AP is still too low as well. Now normal crossbow can't pierce a leather jerkin from 140 ft.
I don't like the new massive damage. It makes combat much less dangerous. I prefer instant death of AE about a thousand times more to the -1 of the original rules. If combat stops being possibly lethal all the time, it removes some charm of Hyboria. Yes, with d10 rule there is still 10% chance to die right away..and you can still bleed to death unattended...but it is just not the same.
Please tell more about the changes in the game. Any new content? The second edition is fatter than AE, so it must have something entirely new?
I am actually quite pleased with all the small tweaks. For example, the sorcery section seems to be more clear.
A few more questions or errors:
Page 252, under the first bulleted paragraph, the 5th line is missing spaces between words
Spells in general: in the older edition, Mighty spells had a symbol notation in the text description, but now no longer do. Is this deliberate ?
Page 262: Calm of the Adept: The caster gains +2 Wisdom. Does this temporary gain give the caster +1 PP ?
Page 265: Under the Blast Wave defensive blast, each PP drives other players (should be creatures ?) back 1D6 feet. Is 1D6 deliberate ? Or did you mean 5' or 10 ' (to fit the grid) ?
Mad Dog
A few more questions or errors:
Page 252, under the first bulleted paragraph, the 5th line is missing spaces between words
Spells in general: in the older edition, Mighty spells had a symbol notation in the text description, but now no longer do. Is this deliberate ?
Page 262: Calm of the Adept: The caster gains +2 Wisdom. Does this temporary gain give the caster +1 PP ?
Page 265: Under the Blast Wave defensive blast, each PP drives other players (should be creatures ?) back 1D6 feet. Is 1D6 deliberate ? Or did you mean 5' or 10 ' (to fit the grid) ?
Mad Dog
Sutek
Mongoose
Yogah of Yag said:
Nah. First print said you were dying if you fail - that's -1HP. Trouble was, it didnt' really say "You are dying and now at -1HP" explicitly. They tried to change it in AE to be worse; that if you failed the save, you just flat out died. This was fine for grunts and punks, but for PCs is stunk out loud.
Making it -1 to -10 on the roll of a d10 seems like a good compromise. You'll still need to be stabilized, but you are definitely dying. My only problem with that is that if the MD total would have taken you below -10, what happens? Still sounds like soe sort of devine intervention, but I'll ahve to read it to really judge.
Sutek said:
Umm, isn't it clear that massive damage is only relevant if the character would not die from the HP damage alone? However, it is true that RAW if a character would drop, say, to -7 HP from the hit that causes MD and he fails a save and rolls 1 from d10, he magically ends up at -1, in practice healing six hit points from a failed Fort save. I hope this is addressed in the rules, saying that worst of the conditions stays or something like that.
Doesn't really matter in my case, since I'll stick to AE version even if I'll buy the Second Edition. I've even thought of ways to make critical hits more deadly.
