Knights & Knaves Alehouse

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TRP wrote: I agree with Vile that RQ2 is a better fit than any flavor of D&D for a Conan game.

Also agree. I could run AD&D happily enough, but to answer the original question I never have. Probably I would not be very pure about it, just a game and all that.

Why RQ2 rather than Stormbringer?

I think both RQ2 and Stormbringer would work well. It really depends on what level of experience/power you want the players to begin at.

One strike against Stormbringer compared to RQ is that it's heavily biased towards magic (demon-bound) weapons and armor, which fits the feel of Moorcock, but not Conan.

If I was going to use either I would strip out the magic system for both. I might insert in it's place something like the CoC magic system.

Falconer wrote:Speaking of the TSR Conan RPG, it comes with a rulebook for its standalone FASERIP-style ruleset (which I have no interest in), but it also comes with a 48-page setting guide called The World of Hyboria. Roughly equivalent to WoG ’80 in size and scope, it appears to be a concise and evocative gazetteer, and I look forward to getting my hands on it.

I don't really like it myself. It's framed as ridiculous 'unpublished notes from a 20th-century archaeologist' and what little artwork there is, is horrific. The notes themselves are bare-bones, but not in a very good way. They're almost completely based on Howard's essay "The Hyborian Age" - read that and make your own notes.

That's my main beef with TSR's Conan: They obviously wanted to do a rules-lite FASERIP game, and that's fine, but the campaign material is so bare-bones and unattractive that it's unusable. No references to the stories from which the material came. No gaming-specific info like what kind of terrain/NPCs or cities one might encounter in each area. It really feels like Cook knocked it out in an afternoon on a typewriter, doodled in the margins, and called it a day.

A much better resource IMO is GURPS Conan. That's got all the same material organized in brief Greyhawk-folio style entries with useful gaming info, nearly all of which includes references to the actual REH stories from which it came. In fact, I don't think anything in that book was created whole-cloth, 're-interpreted' or depends on a 3rd-party pastiche, so it's an excellent resource for REH Conan fans in general. The GURPS specific stuff is limited to a few pages, and easily ignored.

Another good resource, which I unfortunately don't have anymore, is FGU's Armies of the Hyborian Age. It's a miniature wargaming sourcebook and as such is excellent. If you're playing a Conan campaign, you're going to want, nay NEED, to have some big mass battles. This is the book you'll want. The rules themselves are your standard early 80's ancients and you could easily just import your own favorite system as with GURPS Conan.

Stonegiant wrote:If I was going to use either I would strip out the magic system for both. I might insert in it's place something like the CoC magic system.

That's a good idea. I'd keep the cults in limited form as I mentioned eariler. Only priests can cast spells, but add the sanity price on top of it. REH's spellcasters were all touched in the head. They ranged from megalomaniac wizard-priests to your run of the mill just plain batshit crazy shamans.

I'd toss in the Sorcery and Ritual rules from RQ3 as well. That's the only cherry I'd pick from that tree.

Ya know. After writing this, I'd probably just use the BRP rules published a few years ago. It has all that stuff in there in modular form. A bit of RQ2, RQ3, Stormbringer, CoC. It's all there in one place. Use what you want and chuck the rest.

Kellri wrote:A much better resource IMO is GURPS Conan. That's got all the same material organized in brief Greyhawk-folio style entries with useful gaming info, nearly all of which includes references to the actual REH stories from which it came. In fact, I don't think anything in that book was created whole-cloth, 're-interpreted' or depends on a 3rd-party pastiche, so it's an excellent resource for REH Conan fans in general. The GURPS specific stuff is limited to a few pages, and easily ignored.

Another good resource, which I unfortunately don't have anymore, is FGU's Armies of the Hyborian Age. It's a miniature wargaming sourcebook and as such is excellent. If you're playing a Conan campaign, you're going to want, nay NEED, to have some big mass battles. This is the book you'll want. The rules themselves are your standard early 80's ancients and you could easily just import your own favorite system as with GURPS Conan.

Thanks for the suggestions. The latter is actually entitled Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age. I’ll have to track both down.

Here are some excerpts from the “AD&D Rules in Hyboria” section from the CB modules. I have only included small tweaks, not the more extensive Fear, Heroism, and Luck rules or a lot of the more chatty info.

The pregens are all Fighters, Fighter/Thieves, and Magic-User/Illusionists.

Only alignments for monsters are designated… Hyboria does not lend itself well to assigning alignments to its human inhabitants.

Conan heals and recovers from ferocious battles quickly.… Instead of the normal rates of healing given in the AD&D rules, characters in the Hyborian World heal 1 hit point per day regardless of rest. In addition, characters who rest a day heal hit points equal to half their Constitution score. All fractions are rounded down.

There are no elves or halflings. There are no organized races of dwarves or orc-like creatures. When dwarf or humanoid creatures appear, they are single cases and are often considered monsters.

[People] do not make or use much armor, generally using nothing more than scale armor or chainmail. Sometimes a breastplate is worn, but it is generally made of bronze or soft metal. Leather armor is common. All normal medieval weapons are available.… The following changes to the costs and availability of items on the Equipment List should be used when adventuring in the Hyborian World.

Equipment List

Armor
Banded	350 gp
Plate	1,500 gp
Splint	350 gp
Livestock
Horse, draft	200 sp
Horse, heavy war	1,000 gp
Horse, light war	600 gp
Horse, medium war	800 gp
Horse, riding	400 gp
Pony	100 gp
Tack and Harness
Barding, chain	1,000 gp
Barding, leather	300 gp
Barding, plate	5,000 gp
Bit and Bridle	15 gp
Harness	5 gp
Saddle	50 gp
Transport
Galley, war	25,000 gp
Ship, merchant, large	Not Available
Ship, war	Not Available

Monsters … In the wild…the most-encountered creatures of the Hyborian Age are normal predators: wolves, bears, lions, and tigers.… Unlike normal predators, these animals are more ferocious and determined, seldom stopping a hunt until killed.… There are few small monsters … with the exception of larger versions of already known creatures—giant rats, snakes, spiders, etc. In size and power, most monsters found are more like the stegosaurus, type II and V demons, elementals, frost giants, iron and stone golems, and lamia. These monsters usually act alone, hunting singly or at the bidding of a spellcaster.

Spellcasters… the title “priest” can be used for any type of spellcaster.… the majority…are magic users and illusionists.

Magic-Users … Magic … tends to be of summoning, illusion, charming, and death types. Magic as heavy artillery (fireballs, lightning bolts, etc.) is very rare.

Clerics with spellcasting powers are virtually unknown… spell assistance will be in the form of information and detection. There may be druids amont the barbaric Picts.[/size]