Most RPGs involve groups of players pitted against a challenge orchestrated by a GM, but there are times when that guy on the other side of the game table… man,
you just want to slap the overconfident grin
off his stupid mug. If you want player vs player
competition—if you’re looking to provide
your players with a chess match that pits
their wits against real-world prey—you want
the Conflict Roleplaying Rulebook!
This system is fully compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook.
This RPG system is uniquely designed for competitive, team vs. team roleplaying which includes:
Passcards—Double-sided 8x11 templates to adjudicate player character’s hidden movements and actions.
Pre-generated characters and teams for immediate play with easy-to-modify stat blocks for each character.
The Battlepoint System—A simple calculation for ensuring game balance among characters and levels.
Match Types—Different objectives, challenges or scenarios that make each match surprisingly unique.
Map Elements—Magical devices that you place before the match to hinder opposing teams or enhance your own teammates.
Conflict Laws—Universal rules that dictate character environmental handicaps, player interactions and classes.
Team Feats—New Feats that grant bonus and special abilities to teammates when they compete together.
A list of enemy taunts and battlecries. Handy combat charts for easy reference and even a list of funny team names for your group.
For more information on how to play Conflict Roleplaying visit www.ConflictRPG.com
Product Availability
Print/PDF Bundle:
Available now
Will be added to your My Downloads page when your order ships.
PDF:
Fulfilled immediately.
Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at
store@paizo.com.
The rule book is 122 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page dedication, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover and a two page index, 1 page advertisement, 1 page thanks and acknowledgements, leaving 112 pages of content.
That being said, let’s dive in! Conflict kicks off by presenting us the central theme of Conflict – Respect for the opponent. After all, PvP should remain fun for everybody. The first 4 pages make a great introduction to the game and explain the concepts that are different from standard PFRPG games like battlepoints, mappoints, etc. The concepts are explained in greater detail later in their respective chapters, but it’s nice to have an overview including a short glossary in the beginning.
Chapter 2 details the point-buy system for character creation in Conflict called battlepoints. (4 pages)
After character creation, we get three pages on how to start a match and different match types (22 pages) – they include scenarios like Regicide, King of the Hill, Ambushes, etc. Each scenario comes with a short set of complications, alternatives etc. which make the matches more diverse.
Plus: Each match type gets its very own 1 page-illustration, which itself could be the banner of a unit of mercenaries, which brings me to a major plus of the book: It’s beautiful, the b/w-artwork is great and layout and formatting as well as the way in which the rules of the concepts are portrayed makes this file very easy to read and actually made me chuckle once in a while. Given the nature of a good-humored competitive game between players, this is a good thing.
After this plethora of tactical options, we are presented with even more options in the concept of map elements the competing teams may buy to influence the outcome of the battle. (16 pages) They range from healing statues to bursting pods, teleportation squares and the like. The individual elements have modifications (e.g. a healing statue that damages the opposing team instead of healing them) that may lead to bursts of Schadenfreude and interesting gambits.
7 pages are devoted to Conflict-laws, rules that the teams agree upon prior to starting a match. They range from “only classes xyz” to “no side-kicks” and even the possibilities to steal die roles or evoke a 60-second time-out to announce what a player will do with his/her character.
6 pages explain when or when not to use passcards to communicate the movements of the characters to the DM without warning the other team. A sample system for PC-moves with suggested abbreviations is also given.
The next chapter deals with team feats that make the individual players of a team work better together. (4 pages)
Chapter 10 deals with “Player’s Tips & Tactics” (7 pages) and offers both a chart of friendly taunts, advice on character optimization, what would be considered wise feat-choices etc.
The GM gets also a chapter (16 pages) on the particular challenges of being the neutral judge in a Conflict game, complete with condition summaries, a table on armor class and attack roll modifiers , common item hardness and hit points etc. – Neat!
For all the people who want to dive into the action, three teams of pregens are presented, each character also featuring a blank version of his/her sheet to modify. (19 pages)
Finally, we get a sheet and a page with a match type summary.
Conclusion:
I already mentioned that the books is beautiful and well- and concisely presented. However, there were some minor typos, which albeit they did not impair my ability to grasp the rules, did keep the book from getting an A in editing. Apart from that, I can honestly attest that this book makes you WANT to try out Conflict. The tactical options are manifold and can easily be expanded upon, the rules as presented are fun and the system fills a definite niche: Sometimes a player pivotal to your session doesn’t show up, so what do you do? Just whip out Conflict. I also think that this system should be a great way to throw parties, game at conventions etc. With Conflict being a completely different experience from standard role-playing, I have to admit I was quite skeptical at first, but that skepticism has somewhat evaporated. The matches I had were fun and while I as of yet cannot profess to have crunched the numbers or assured that the system is perfectly balanced, I can attest to the fact that really does count here: Conflict makes Pen & Paper/Miniature-driven PvP on basis of the PFRPG fun!
Thus, due to the minor editing glitches and the fact that the boxed set is superior to the solo rulebook, I’ll give this a 4-star rating – check it out if you ever wondered how a team you built would fare against one of your fellow players or whether you and your friends would take on another group of adventurers in a tactically-driven brawl.
Most RPGs involve groups of players pitted against a challenge orchestrated by a GM, but there are times when that guy on the other side of the game table… man, you just want to slap the overconfident grin off his stupid mug. If you want player vs player competition—if you’re looking for a chess match that pits your wits against real-world prey—you want Conflict Roleplaying. Love this book!
PVP for Pathfinder excited me so much, I knew we had to have Mark on the Array. We released the show today.
Solid interview. Thanks for the link, Ed. I haven't, to date, done any *cough* organized, pre-planned *cough* PvP in my Pathfinder or D&D games, so it's a fun concept, even if it's not my natural inclination.
At its heart, Conflict is like any other roleplaying game. You have stats that determine what your character can do, you determine his actions, and you roleplay his exchanges with the world.
Should read:
...any other roleplaying game: You have...
Product Description wrote:
Driving the combat are clearly defined objectives and your team will to win.
...and your team's will to win.
Product Description wrote:
Characters’ classes, abilities, feats and your choices on how to use them are not limited in anyway.
...in any way.
Product Description wrote:
In Conflict, the only thing that limits your character is your team’s ability to execute a strategic plan and of course, the opposing team.
...and, of course, the opposing team.
It may be a good product, but it's never a good sign when there are typos in the product description.
We're thrilled to report that we're now shipping our second print run of the Conflict Roleplaying Rulebook This July's reprint of the Conflict Roleplaying Rulebook now includes all Errata and additional clarifications!
Special thanks to Ryan Costello for his tireless work on the editing.
CONFLICT RPG, COME GET SOME!
SKU 27B1001
MSRP $19.99
Format 122 pp. 8.5” x 11” Perfect Bound
ISBN10 0-9824507-0-2
ISBN13 978-0-9824507-0-3
-----------------------------------------------------------
For more information visit http://www.ConflictRPG.com
Visit the Conflict Books Store to Buy : Hardcopy or PDF
www.Twitter.com/ConflictBooks | BECOME A FAN ON FACEBOOK
Watched a 'grudge-match' Saturday night...played in two scenarios after that, on the Keeper's Keep map. It was great fun...highly recommended. This book is on my short list to buy, I'm thrilled that the rulebook is available as a PDF on their site, hope it's not too long before Paizo offers it too. If you've got players that show up later than the others, this makes for a fantastic 'pre-game' while you wait for the straggler(s) because it doesn't take very long to finish a scenario.
I bought and enjoy the boxed set. I'm running my first game of it this weekend. But the rules do have many typos and the math for the sample characters is as full of holes as a Kandahar Bible salesman.
So my GM rolled this out on us yesterday and we started to moan a bit. But then he told us we could play all these crazy character combination that he originally said no to for the campaign. The characters concepts started to pour out, we started searching the forums for crazy combos and the like . we had a really had a good time with the character creation end. To balance this out this system has what they call battlepoints and was easy enough to figure out and actually worked in evening out the characters a bit.
Anywho, we played the snatch and grab match. Which was funny as heck cause we had to figure out way how to drag the one of the other players off the battlefield into our into our special room. We grabbled the wizard and beat him up for a round. Unfortunately we did way too much damage to him cause, when the other team saw us dragging him away, their archer put two arrows into him and killed him. My team was feaking out cause we didn't think they could do that. But boom there it was in the conflict book, Mercy Killing your own teammate was allowed. which in way, for this scenario is kidda cool.
Anywho, we played three match last night for some good fun more importantly we got all to test out some awesome builds and get them out of our systems.
