Discussion for the Conan game. :)
Dot, will post IC when I have a moment.
I asked the same question on the G+ Community a while back :)
The timeframe of the "Vultures of Shem" and the Gazetteer in the Core rules is set just before Conan is exiting Cimmeria at age 15-16. The supplements will stat him at various stages in his career, but this allows the PCs to be movers and shakers and encounter some of the personalities Conan errrrrrrr.... encountered with extreme predjudice.
I am sad to say that this is my first real delve into any of the Conan mythology outside of the films of the 80's and the one a couple of years ago with Jason Momoa. I would gladly welcome any suggestions, hints, tips for making this all feel right. :)
That help? :)
|
Yes. Yes it does. =)
(Oh, um, alias for Atlas2112. =)
"hard-baked gulleys."
First off, your intro is -spot- -on-. That quote. That quote -right there-. THAT. is what REH is all about. The little things. The gritty little details. Not wasting eight f**$ing paragraphs on bullshit description that no one likes or is going to read when just three little words will do.
The gulleys are hard-packed. That means hot, dry, firm. Persistant heat, to accompany the persistent chase by the foe. Sweating, thirsty, losing the battle to dehydration as well as the martial combat. All this is said in the immersive (and brief!) details.
Anyway, ya, the thing to keep in mind is that it's "Archetypical high-fantasy". What does that mean? It means every country is it's own race, and most of the people there actually fit the racial stereotype, and live up to it in a hegemonic way. What does that mean? It means the picts -are- wild savages and are proud of it. The Stygians -are- dusky snake-lovers and proud of it. It means the Hyperboreans -are- battle-loving vikings and proud of it. etc.
It means all merchants are shifty-eyed skinflints, all the warriors are violence-loving sword-wielders, and all women are generously-endowed harlots with an eye on your purse, a dagger in their skirt and a plot in their head.
Hence, when your character -isn't- all those things, that makes you -extra- special. =-D
(Or, um, if your character -is- those things, then you can reallllly revel in it and go overboard, because when in Rome.... =)
Thus, if you know where a county is, who the leader is, and a paragraph or two about the county, you have as good a knowledge as you really need to. Keep a map handy in a google-image window and your grasp of the game is halfway done.
Huh. If Conan is 15, then that means that Thoth-Amon is kicking around somewhere.... ;)
(Thoth-Amon is basically the black-magic-wielding nemesis of Conan. Basically Thulsa Doom was made in his image. =)
Oooooooo.....
A word on Conan's origin:
In the books, Conan grew up in Cimmeria, and after the Cimmerians raided an Aquilonian settlement that had been placed too far into their lands, Conan just wanders south in search of adventure.
This is in opposition to the movies, which I'm sure we all known. (If you're playing this game and you HAVEN'T seen Arnie's Conan...what are you doing here? Go see it. =)
Anyway, it sounds like the RPG is saying that Howard's origin is cannon.
.....
Alright, that's settled. =)
Any questions or concerns from anyone about the rules, situation, etc?
I'll try to move things along later today, but I wanted to give the other couple of folks a chance to intro. :)
|
|
Is there an SRD or a quick-rules guide? I thought there was, but I can't find it now, so I may have dreamed it. =)
(Um, on a personal note, I actually don't want there to be a SRD. I kinda like not knowing everything, just learning by what the GM tells me things are. It kinda takes the pressure off to be l33t. I now I don't need to min-max because it's physically impossible for me to be effective, since I'm not even sure what dice I'm rolling. =)
Anyway, the skills things, 2d20, under att+skill is pretty fine. Everything else is a great mystery. Imma need ppl to just say "Dude, roll this now." =D
There is a Quick start. I think it was posted early on in the recruitment thread, don't have time to search it out now.
Standard is 2d20, count each dice that rolls under att+skill. Any modifiers to this are either down to your talents or up the GM to tell you about (or you to bargain for).
Didn't realise this had kicked off sorry, I'll get something posted now.
The QuickStart is : here
It's been updated for the core rule info, so should be ok. :) I haven't had a chance to look at it, but make sure check out info on Momentum, Doom, Fortune Points and how damage works. :)
I love the interactions so far, please keep it up. :)
I'm about to make the next setting post, but don't let it stop you from keeping going as you are.
Three times today I have lost a post. :(
I'll post up the looting results, and indeed you all have some Momentum now. :)
It looks like Kern and Ahmargane seem to be of the opinion to return to the oasis? Sabatus and the caravan might still be out there too...
If anyone has Lore, they can make a Challenging (D2) (Difficulty of 2 successes) to recall anything about the region.
An Average (D1)(1 success needed) Warfare test can determine either the most likely way for the caravan to have gone, or the likely actions of the Shemitish army for the next bit of time.
Wow, I didn't see that the discussion was up. I'll get something posted presently.
|
|
Hey, can I ask a basic question?
Is there a deal with "bonus damage".
Some of the stock characters (actually all of them, I think) have some kind of bonus damage for at least one of the three damage types (ranged, melee, presence).
Is that a thing that PCs can get, or is it just something they threw on to the pre-gens?
(Like, I started thinking about that, and for my character I loaded up on Brawn thinking that Strength = Melee. But it turns out Agility is Melee AND stealth and climbing.
So the benefit to Brawn, right now, seems to level out after 9 when you can wield Unbalanced weapons.)
Thoughts?
It depends on your stat level. Look below for the rule.
Attribute Bonus
8 or less None
9 +1§
10 or 11 +2§
12 or 13 +3§
14 or 15 +4§
16 or more +5§
To determine the damage bonus for a given type of attack, compare the associated attribute for that type of attack to the table above.
TYPE OF DAMAGE BONUS
Melee = Brawn
Ranged = Awareness
Threaten = Personality
So for Kern, his bonus melee damage would be +3 for a Brawn of 13.
|
|
It looks like for Long Term Goals we have "Go to some country that is not Shem." Whether this is Khoraja or Aquilonia, we don't need to decide now until we accomplish a Short Term Goal.
For Short Term Goals we have the choices of either "Go to Oasis" or "Try and rescue royal people."
I think the deciding factor for that comes down to "Have we found enough rations?"
If we find enough water, we should go after the royal caravan because money. Lots of money. Lots and lots. A literal "king's ransom." A wagon in sand will be easy to track.
And, also, we a horse now! That changes everything!
Krieg can scout a head a lot faster, so we should be able to follow their trail...wherever it may go.
But if we find almost no water, then obviously we have to go back to the oasis. After we're topped off on liquid, we can take it from there.
How's that sound?
I'm thinking we have to make a choice. We go for the caravan or head for the water source. I don't think we will be able to spend a few days going for the oasis and then head back. Our water will run out again. Wouldn't the water source be where the army is camped (that is, if they are still around) Have to wait and see what our rolls tell us. I'm thinking we may be better off heading for the supply train where there should be water, wine and food.
Krieg would vote water as well, since he needs a lot for both himself and Swift.
Ummm, actually thinking on languages, can we all actually speak to each other?
I speak Brythunian and left off my other language until working out what everyone else can speak, do I do have Cosmopolitan as well, so can speak more or less to anyone else with cosmopolitan?
I'm not sure if there is a trade language, although if I had to guess, the closest thing would probably be Aquilonian, given how much of the world they control.
|
|
I admit, I don't know if there's a common language. The books always say that Conan is fast to pick up a language, so they don't really go into it. >.>
would probably be Aquilonian, given how much of the world they control.
Ummmm, I don't know if that's an accurate statement. Here is a cannon map.
Aquilonia is considered the most "advanced" country, but, as seen in Conan the Liberator, it was run by a despotic king for quite some time, so it's not really that advanced. And they don't run much outside of their borders. In Conan the Great, their two neighbors, Nemedia and Ophir, gang up and invade it.
I mean, it's certainly _possible_ Aquilonian is a common language, I'm just saying it doesn't need to be. ^_^
Also, I have Cosmopolitan as well. =)
Hmm, given my travels, I may pick Kothic then or Shem, as I learn enough to try and impress the princess?
Though at least I can speak to Gaius. It also looks like any training in Linguistics also is enough to make yourself understood, so I may have to try and pick some of that up before too long.
Sounds good. As Signey was part of the Entourage, it would make sense for her to have either of those.
I'll be posting IC a bit later this morning. Have to catch up both with this game and with my day job. :)
I thought the GM stated that these rolls were 1d 20. Am I missing something?
Sorry, my bad. :)
As heroes, you always roll 2d20. 1d is a difficulty of 1success required, 2d would be 2 successes required, etc...
Are we all in agreement to move on and see if we can catch up to the Caravan?
yup
indeed
Are we all in agreement to move on and see if we can catch up to the Caravan?
OK.
THat's what I gathered. :)
Look for more tonight. :)
Ill be on vacation for the next week. Should be able to post now and then. If I don't feel free to rp me along. Cheers.
Anyone hear from Arknight? Is he okay?
Probably just Easter Holidays holding him back.
My apologies. It looks like the board devoured my most recent posting. However, I guess I should have expected it since I was having connection issues about the same time. :(
I'll get it back up this afternoon (it's mid-am here now..) when I get an opening at work..
Things are set up for possible conflict.
In Conan, the players go first unless the GM spends a Doom point to have an NPC act ahead of someone. I'd like to keep a round to 24 hours, but I'm open to suggestions on how to deal with things in our first combat (if it comes to that :) )
Please post here if have any questions or need clarifications about anything. I'm keeping a close eye now, and hopefully should be able to reply fairly quickly.
edit: for those of you interested, the Players Guide became available today. Check it out. :)
|
|
I'd like to keep a round to 24 hours....
I am _absolutely_ in favor of this rule. We can bot those that we need to bot, but 24 hours for a combat round *definitely* sufficient time. Keep it moving, keep it quick. REH would be proud. =)
Huh, wait a sec, there's a knock on my door. Oh, hey everyone! It's ghost of Robert E Howard! He says that any time he introduced a female character, no matter the situation, he always made _sure_ to give her a physical description that was verbose and alluring. Sometimes those descriptions were unrealistically detailed about her unrealistically sensual body, but he says that he writes fiction so what the hell.
He says he'll give us one more chance to describe the "rolling thighs" and "rounded buttocks" and "lush, bee-stung lips" and "heavy, perfectly formed breasts that could bring sweat to a statue" of the female character before he comes and haunts you. =)
Okay, he's gone now. That was odd. ^_^
|
|
Reposting this for Domi's benefit:
It depends on your stat level. Look below for the rule.
Attribute Bonus
8 or less None
9 +1§
10 or 11 +2§
12 or 13 +3§
14 or 15 +4§
16 or more +5§
To determine the damage bonus for a given type of attack, compare the associated attribute for that type of attack to the table above.TYPE OF DAMAGE BONUS
Melee = Brawn
Ranged = Awareness
Threaten = PersonalitySo for Kern, his bonus melee damage would be +3 for a Brawn of 13.
Also worth noting that damage die are d6s, but with nonstandard results:
1: 1dmg
2: 2dmg
3-4: 0dmg
5-6: 1dmg + Effects (based on weapon quality)
Okay, so to make sure I'm on the up and up, It's 2d20 (lower is better) to hit, and should I hit, I would roll 5d6 and try to get a 1-2 or 5-6
Correct. :) you can always pull extra dice from momentum or by adding to the doom pool as well.
A momentum spent on damage is an additional point per momentum.
I'm working on the round while I have a moment, but may be a couple hours before I can get it posted.
|
|
This game has the most F'd up hit points...
Remember, there are two types of damage: Stress and Harm.
There are two kinds of each of those types, Stress has Vigor (physical damage) and Resolve (mental damage).
Both kinds of Stress heal fully at the end of combat following a short (doesn't say how long, but I'd say 1 minute?) breather, wherein we take a pull of rich red wine and gnaw a rough hide of jerky.
Harm also has two types, Wounds (physical) and Trauma (mental).
You take a Harm when you take 5 or more points of damage from a single attack, or if your Stress is reduced to zero.
An attack that causes 5 points AND reduces you to zero Vigor or Resolve thus causes two Harm.
Harm has different effects: "Mental damage inflicts Trauma, which increases the Difficulty of Awareness, Intelligence, Personality, and Willpower tests by 1. Physical damage inflicts Wounds, which increases the Difficulty of Agility, Brawn, and Coordination tests by 1. The effects of these Harms are cumulative." (pg 23)
"If a character suffers 4 points of Wounds or 4 points of Trauma, the character becomes incapacitated and can only take an action by spending a Fortune point. If the character takes a 5th Wounds point, the character will die." (pg 24)
|
|
@GM Arknight: If you take 10 points of damage from one attack, does that cause 2 Wounds?
Also, when you said
Parry 12(2): 5d20 ⇒ (17, 7, 18, 5, 10) = 57 - Only 3 successes, so he gets hit taking enough damage to drop him, still breathing though.
What exactly did you mean here? Do you mean that he's at Incapacitated? Sorry if this is obvious to everyone else, but when I read it I thought it meant we was still active and fighting.
...Ummmmm, upon another reading...so it looks like I just
It's very Howard.
This game has the most F'd up hit points...
Remember, there are two types of damage: Stress and Harm.
There are two kinds of each of those types, Stress has Vigor (physical damage) and Resolve (mental damage).
Yeah, I'm still getting a good grasp on the details. I do like the split and the way damage works though, because it allows for so much variation other than 'I hit him and do X damage'
@GM Arknight: If you take 10 points of damage from one attack, does that cause 2 Wounds?
Also, when you said
Parry 12(2): 5d20 ⇒ (17, 7, 18, 5, 10) = 57 - Only 3 successes, so he gets hit taking enough damage to drop him, still breathing though.What exactly did you mean here? Do you mean that he's at Incapacitated? Sorry if this is obvious to everyone else, but when I read it I thought it meant we was still active and fighting.
...
Ummmmm, upon another reading...so it looks like I justslaughteredcoup de gras'd an incapacitated man. Uhhhhh..... welcome to the mean streets! =p
I wondered about the 10 point as 2 Wounds, and it took listening to a play example to clarify. It's '5 or More' and 10 is definitely more than 5 :)
However, when you only have 9 Vigor, it does do 2 by also eliminating all the Vigor. :)
I meant for him to drop to his knees clutching his sides. However, I guess I could have explained it better.. LOL With Minions and Toughened, I didn't expect them to last long anyway, I just hoped I would have gotten at least one hit on you all... :P
Lol
"You just took eleventy bazillion damage!"
"Ouch. I guess that's two wounds for me...."=)
Yeah.... LOL I reserve the right to declare extra wounds at any point due to massive damage. :)
|
|
One of the problems of doing a players guide on the cheap is that we don't know several of the basic things. Not having data on basic weapons and gear is one thing. Another is that we don't know the basic. Economy. Like, okay, we have 6GP. And? Is that a lot? I'd like to have that in some small coins because I know a jack of wine should be two coppers. But how many gold to silver to copper?