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Conan
The Roleplaying Game

This is the most expensive RPG book I've bought, and in fact, other than college textbooks, the most expensive book I've ever bought. I did buy Stargate SG-1 new, but that was from on online seller, for about $40, total. However having been burned on a couple mail order RPG purchases recently (and expensive ones, including Mongoose's OGL Horror) and not being able to buy from buy.com (they won't ship to P.O. Boxes) so I wouldn't save much anyway, I thought it was best to just bite the bullet, and buy it full price at my local game store. If they had it (they rarely get anything new that I want). And obviously they did, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this (I actually got the last copy, which apparently was being saved for someone, but the clerk didn't know for who, so sold it to me).

I'm not entirely sure why I bought this. I wanted it, obviously, but why? I don't think I've ever read any of the original Conan stories by Howard (though I have read some of the "pastiches" by Jordan and de Camp and wasn't very impressed*), and while I've seen the Conan movies several times, they don't really do all that much for me (though I do find Grace Jones strangely attractive). But somewhere, deep in my head, there was a little voice "Buy Conan. Buy Conan. Buy Conan. You know it looks cool. Buy Conan". Rather than fight it, I gave in. Still, I was also very impressed by the "Slaine" RPG, also from Mongoose and one of the authors of Conan, so it seemed better to spend a lot of money on something like this, then on a lot of junk. (I did almost buy Eden's Fields of Blood instead, but that was $30, and about 40% the size, at least physically. Good thing I didn't have $85 on me, I would have gotten both). Still, I feel no buyer's remorse, and feel mostly satisfied for my money.

Conan is a d20 game, largely based on D&D, though it was released using just the Open Gaming License (OGL), not the d20 System Trademark License (d20 STL), so it's a stand alone game (except for the steady stream of supplements sure to come).

It is however, a heavily modified D&D game. It still feels like D&D, but it doesn't feel like d20 all that much. It reminds me of someone's house rules for 1st edition D&D.

Like normal d20, you roll up your character's stats (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma) using either the fairly standard, roll 4 d6s, drop the lowest, or the more heroic 8 + a 1d10

Then you pick a race and class.

In Conan though, all the races are humans (I could have sworn "Conan the TV Show" had a dwarf in it. Not the talk show, the other one), just different cultures or ethnic types. Most have real world analogs, which could have been a touchy issue (especially given Mongoose's track record of insulting various groups, which rivals my own), but it's handled well.

Conan's world is our own, only before recorded history takes place. The people that inhabit it are very much like humans of recorded history culturely, which really makes no sense, but actually works pretty well. It's very easy to visual what a "Aesir" or "Vanir" are, because you immediately associate them with the Norse. Usually the name sounds like the culture.

Also mixed in are mythological or famous old places, like Ophir, Punt, Kush. Which might drive a history major nuts, but adds a lot of flavor.

This doesn't always work for the best, like "Corinthia", every time I read it, I keep hearing Ricardo Montalban saying "Corinthian Leather" (he used to do some car commercials which had it in it).

It also pretty much has a tie in with H.P. Lovecraft's stuff. HPL was a friend of Howard's, and while I'm not sure Howard's setting for Conan was meant to fit into HPL's universe, they do share a lot of common names and the same tone. Some of the things match up, like the "Outer Dark", out in space where nasty critters live, but some, like "Dagon" seem quite different (HPL's Dagon being a Deep One, Howard's Dagon being a fertility god). Still, if you have Call of Cthulhu d20, you'll be itching to borrow from it for your Conan game.

Anyhow, the culture of the character replace race, and while there aren't that many cases of ability score adjustments (there are a few), each culture has very elaborate racial abilities or modifiers. Some cultures are good at bows, some cultures are good at magic, etc. They seem pretty balanced.

Classes in Conan follow the same basic archetypes of the classes of regular d20 (that is, D&D), only slightly modified and often with a different name. Barbarian = Barbarian, Thief = Rogue, Soldier = Fighter, Borderer = Ranger, etc. While Borderer does sound a bit dorky to my ear, apparently Howard did use that word to describe some people in his stories, so it's fitting (though he apparently also had Rangers).

There are some additions to the standard D&D Archetypes. Like the Pirate, Nomad, and Noble.

The Noble is largely based on the Mongoose "Power Class" Noble (one of those mini-books for $3). It draws heavily from Fading Suns d20, specifically the social feats (which are converted to a Noble's "Social Ability" power), going as far as using the exact same text in some cases, yet Fading Suns d20 is not mentioned in the copy of the OGL in the back of the book, nor is there any mention of a different license. (The Power Class noble did cite Fading Suns d20 in its OGL). So get your Conan book before the inevitable lawsuit! (joke, sort of, if every d20 book on the market with improper OGLs were recalled, there would be like 15 d20 books on the market. But they should know better...)

The Pirate is kind of a Fighter/Thief. Or rather, a sneaky fighter.

The Nomad is a master of archery on horseback.

On the down side, some of the classes have special abilities tied into "Attack of Opportunity" (AoO), something I really hate (basically, when something does something in combat, it may or may not give their opponent a free attack, but it requires you to keep exact track of who is where and remember what actions trigger one and not, all of which is a pain), and drop from my d20 game. Because these special abilities deal with AoO, if you drop that from your game, those classes are underpowered. (Though you can just offer the Player a feat of their choice instead. And actually, the game itself mentions this, which is nice.)

Gone are the traditional D&D spell casting classes. They have been combined somewhat, into the "Scholar" class, which is meant to represent anything from a wizard, to an actual scholar, to a priest. I think perhaps this was a mistake, and there should have been a class for scholars, a class for priests, and a class for wizards, and a class for witches. I mean, if there are several different types of fighting classes, why only one spell casting class?

Anyway, with that exception, the mixture of classes and races work wonderfully - when I first read it, my mind was racing with ideas of characters I wanted to play. A Stygian Priest of Ibis, a Vanir Barbarian. Too bad I'll probably end up GMing.

Characters work mostly the same as in D&D, that is, they have hit points, and get so many skill points per level, but these are modified somewhat. First of all, characters now get background skills. I like this a lot (and do it in my own game) - basically, characters automatically get 2 ranks in 3 or 4 different skills, according to their culture.

Skills apparently seem the same, though there is a confusing note on a chart which I think you need to ignore, it tells you to use really weird skill rules. Most of the text seems to say that you mostly use it like regular d20, that is, class skills cost 1 skill point per rank, and cross class skills cost 2 skill points per rank. With the addition that bonus skill points due to intelligence can be spent on any skill for 1 skill point per rank. (But like I said, there's a line on a chart which says something completely different and very weird, which I think was probably an error on Mongoose's part, something from an early draft they didn't remove complete, since they apparently didn't hire an editor or proofreader or anything)

Next, and this reminds me of 1st edition D&D, characters only get 10 hit dice, that is, they stop rolling for more hit points at 10th level. After that, they either get 1,2, or 3 hit points per level. While this does make the game more lethal, it also makes what order you level up in more important. (Though frankly, the range of hit dice isn't great, most have d10 or d8, only the scholar has a d6)

Combat is pretty much similar to regular d20/D&D, in that a character rolls a d20 and adds his attack bonus and checks the opponents defensive number to see if he "hits", and then rolls points of damage. With the big exception that armor absorbs damage, it doesn't improve the armor class. Spycraft does something similar, as do several other d20 variations, so it's not that new to me, but Conan complicates this.

Characters now basically have 3 different defensive values (or armor classes), one when they are dodging, one when they are parrying, and one when they are just standing around scratching themselves.

Frankly, I'm not sure I grok the reason for having a parry defensive value and dodge defensive value. Yeah, they are different, but in sword fights, I imagine you would use both at same time. The biggest difference is the bonus for parry comes from a character's Strength, while the bonus for dodge comes from a character's Dexterity. (Still, in regular 20, you also have "Touch Armor Class" which in Conan, is the same as the Dodge Defense Value)

Anyway, weapons now have an penetration rating (which d20 Weird Wars did), called "Armour Piercing". But rather than eliminating the defensive value on a 1 per one rating, it's kinda tricky. If the "Armour Piercing" total (the weapon's value plus the strength modifier of the character) is greater than the DR score of the armor, then the DR value of the armor is halved. Intuitive, huh? (That's sarcasm, BTW)

Furthermore, if you fight using the "finesse" style, then you completely ignore the rules for armor, and if you hit by a margin larger than the DR value of the armor, you completely ignore the DR value of the armor. That is, say the DR of the armor is 4. If you need a 10 to hit, if you end up with a 14 or better, you ignore the armor.

Another major change is the massive damage threshold. This is basically a rule that gives really powerful blows (or any type of damage) a chance to kill someone outright. This exists in D&D (and d20) but is set very high. It was set very low in Call of Cthulhu d20 (at 10 points). Conan sets it at 20 damage points, but modifies the target number needed to save so it is 10+ 1/2 the damage received.

So, while it's not like you have to look up charts or do, it's fairly complicated. Once you get the hang of it, it's not bad, but it can be confusing at first. Another minor change is that when you roll initiative, characters add their reflex save bonus to the roll. So high level characters will usually get the jump on lower ones. At least for one round.

To make combat even grittier, you might look into using Bastion Press's "Torn Asunder" which is a critical hit and damage system for d20 (it's also simple enough that it won't complicate combat much).

On the plus side, much of what complicates D&D combat is magic. Conan has an entirely new magic system, which is fairly limited in use in combat. Although the chapter on it is about 50 pages long, it's not complete, a $25, 128 page book on the magic system is coming out soon, so this easing of combat might be only temporary, until that book comes out.

Still, you get the basics of the magic system. Basically, it's a spell point system. Each character has "Power Points", which they use to cast spells, as well as a "Magic Attack Bonus", which generally determines the target number the victim must beat when they make a saving throw against the spell (like a combat attack, the caster rolls a d20 and adds the bonus). The "Slaine" RPG from Mongoose also used this system, more or less. Characters don't get many spell points (4 plus their wisdom bonus to start out with, and +1 for every 4 levels of Scholar they take), and more elaborate and powerful spells need to be fueled by ceremonies or sacrifices.

One thing that strikes me as unbalanced is spell casting characters have the option to expend all their spell points as a defensive attack, doing 1d6 per spell point to everyone in a 10' radius. A 1st level scholar with an 18 wisdom would have 8 spell points (4 as the base, plus 4 due to the wisdom bonus) and so do a total of 8d6 that way. I think that's a bit too much. But the spells themselves seem balanced. If sparse.

It includes a small (10 page) essay on the Hyborian age by Robert E. Howard himself. It's interesting, but vaguely weird, because back then, there was something of an obsession with races and eugenics and such. While Mr. Howard doesn't seem to be prejudiced, the strong emphasis on race and racial purity is a bit weird to modern readers (though in a nice twist, the least evolved and most savage of the human races are the Nordic/Aryan types).

40 pages or so are devoted to a Gazetteer. Like in much of the book, much of the details of Conan's world are not given definitely. "Apparently" and "It seems" is used a lot to describe cultures and customs.

Some countries are given several paragraphs, and include estimates of their armed strength. Other countries merit only a single paragraph.

There are no stats or even descriptions of major characters from the stories. Apparently you will have to buy a book for that ("The Road of Kings" priced at $40!). (If you are interested in running a Conan game not using this rules, and are looking for just source material then you would want to skip this book, and just get that one.)

There are no stats or anything for generic NPCs. Given that d20 features very complicated characters, this is a huge gaffe - if you're going to run Conan, you're going to have to spend a lot of time making NPCs. (There is something on the website, but that really doesn't count, as not everyone has access to it).

There is a section on monsters and such. A lot seem awfully close to regular D&D monsters, especially the vampire and were-critters. Just a handful, I guess they are saving the best for a Conan monster manual (not yet announced but undoubtedly in the works).

The art is generally nice, but none of it is especially remarkable. Kind of odd considering that you often associate Conan with good art (or good cheesecake style art). The art is also surprisingly sparse - usually one very small piece every 4 pages or so (though just about every creature in the bestiary in the back is illustrated.) Also, the border art for each page isn't so great. While I don't mind a topless woman every other page, I do mind it when it's poorly drawn (apparently in crayon), and when her bosom defies the laws of gravity (or perhaps the artist used a blow up doll as a model? Er, not that I know anything about those).

The layout is generally good, but as I have mentioned a few times, the editing and proofreading need work. Lots of typos, lots of weird errors, places where they must have copy and pasted from the SRD but didn't update correctly. Yes, you never do expect much from an 1st edition RPG, but this is pretty bad. The last part of the book, the bestiary, seems to be the worst. Apparently Were-Hyenas don't turn into Hyenas, but into wolves. (Obviously they just copied from the SRD twice, and forget to change all the references from "Wolf" to "Hyena")

Another problem, is that while the book quotes a lot from Howard's original stories, it does so in boxes that are hard to read. The background color is similar to the text color, and for some odd reason (maybe it's a European thing), it uses periods in place of commas. It all adds up to a headache to read.

Is it worth $50? Barely. For a $50 I really expect better (and more) art, editing, and proofreading, as well as overall completeness (not having to buy a $25 magic book and a $40 book with stats for prominent NPCs, at least the guy the game is named after). But the coolness factor of it far outweighs the shoddiness and incomplete factors, and the underlying rules system is pretty spiffy.

B-

* By the time I submitted the review, I had actually just bought "The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian", which although sounding like a porno movie, is a collection of Conan stories by Howard himself, and priced reasonably at $15.00 for a high quality trade 460 page paperback. But I haven't read it yet. That's actually why I haven't run the game yet, I didn't get enough of the feel of the world to do it justice from the RPG book itself...