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I know I'm late to the party, the game's out of print now, and not for sale on dtrpg, but I just came across this second hand.
It looks really good. It seems to put a serious sword and sorcery feeling into the game.
Has anyone tried it with pathfinder? Like, use some of the pathfinder changes (Combat Maneuvers, Skills, Some Feats, Feats every odd level, and Archetypes in particular) and used them with the Conan RPG?
Are 3.x/PF Monsters compatible with Conan? Is there a big power gap I need to accomodate? How hard is it to use, say, a Pathfinder Bestiary for monsters with Conan?
While I like alot of the innovations brought by pathfinder, Conan looks like a great lower powered d20 game, and I'm interested in trying one of those out.
I know I'm late to the party, the game's out of print now, and not for sale on dtrpg, but I just came across this second hand.
It looks really good. It seems to put a serious sword and sorcery feeling into the game.
Has anyone tried it with pathfinder? Like, use some of the pathfinder changes (Combat Maneuvers, Skills, Some Feats, Feats every odd level, and Archetypes in particular) and used them with the Conan RPG?
Are 3.x/PF Monsters compatible with Conan? Is there a big power gap I need to accomodate? How hard is it to use, say, a Pathfinder Bestiary for monsters with Conan?
While I like alot of the innovations brought by pathfinder, Conan looks like a great lower powered d20 game, and I'm interested in trying one of those out.
I play Conan and Pathfinder, I'm trying to change it to Pathfinder, but it's hard work. The Monsters won't work (and most of them don't even have the Conan feel) without some serious work.
Now, what you can, and should, do is: Change Skills, CMB, CMD and feats on a case by case basis. It's important to try and keep feats, PrCs and otherstuff from 1st edition away, they can get really messy, really fast.The rest of the Conan rules are fantastic and REALLY fun to play, although, very deadly.
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I play Conan and Pathfinder, I'm trying to change it to Pathfinder, but it's hard work. The Monsters won't work (and most of them don't even have the Conan feel) without some serious work.
Now, what you can, and should, do is: Change Skills, CMB, CMD and feats on a case by case basis. It's important to try and keep feats, PrCs and otherstuff from 1st edition away, they can get really messy, really fast.
The rest of the Conan rules are fantastic and REALLY fun to play, although, very deadly.
They look alot more deadly. It looks like your Meleers are causing a fair amount of Save or Die in Conan.
What's so bad about 1e and atlantean edition? They looked fairly interchangeable, but for a few tweaks.
Does that include the 1e splats and setting books too?
With Regard to the monsters: You're right, many dont fit into hyborea. But I'm intrigued by the system changes as well as the setting, and I really like the lower magic more deadly feel it offers. But at the same time, I'd like to try to allow access to non-magic, non-gun pathfinder options, because theyre popular in my group.
Is there a Conan Monster Manual?
I play Conan and Pathfinder, I'm trying to change it to Pathfinder, but it's hard work. The Monsters won't work (and most of them don't even have the Conan feel) without some serious work.
Now, what you can, and should, do is: Change Skills, CMB, CMD and feats on a case by case basis. It's important to try and keep feats, PrCs and otherstuff from 1st edition away, they can get really messy, really fast.
The rest of the Conan rules are fantastic and REALLY fun to play, although, very deadly.They look alot more deadly. It looks like your Meleers are causing a fair amount of Save or Die in Conan.
What's so bad about 1e and atlantean edition? They looked fairly interchangeable, but for a few tweaks.
Does that include the 1e splats and setting books too?
With Regard to the monsters: You're right, many dont fit into hyborea. But I'm intrigued by the system changes as well as the setting, and I really like the lower magic more deadly feel it offers. But at the same time, I'd like to try to allow access to non-magic, non-gun pathfinder options, because theyre popular in my group.
What kind of options are you talking about?
1st Edition was made for 3.0, so it has a lot of glitches and over/underpowered options. And trust me, you don't need it, SPECIALLY splat books, use it for fluff, but try to stay clear of the rules heavy stuff (feats and Prcs)
Got it, love it, It's a great game.
I ran a campaign a year or so ago using some of the PF rule changes above. We moved some of the skills together as PF did esp Perception and Used the CMB/CMD rules. Also some of the feats theat were re-worked ie power attack etc. Game worked great with these minor changes.
Use called shots too, they work great with the combat manouvers which can be used for great swashbuckling moments too.
However, you can't change too much around as the game has a different feel. Stick with DR for armour and the really good sorecery rules. I havn't tried it yet but UC dr and armour might give you more options ie bone armour and the piecemeal rules would work well too with DR instead of AC.
You could use some of the PF monsters but it is kind of hard as some don't translate too well, however Demons, devils and some abominations would work. Make sure to change any AC to DR and change any spells to the Sorcery system though. Any creature form the Cuthulu mythos works great too.
Best books if you can find them, across thunder river,Return to the road of kings (world guide), Secrets of Skelos and the bestiary,most of the rest is fluff and not really needed unless your a Conan fan.
There are 3 pc option books , finest, fiercest and fallen, some new rules and lots and lots of archtypes (different to PF in that they are multiclass options, for instance a shaman is a barbarin/scholar).
In short the campaign was a blast and my D&D group loved it.
Try to keep the monster limit low though and rely more on the human element, evil gods and followers and the great sorcery. Try mixing in Cuthulu mythos too and you will get the dark heroic flavour going.
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What kind of options are you talking about?
1st Edition was made for 3.0, so it has a lot of glitches and over/underpowered options. And trust me, you don't need it, SPECIALLY splat books, use it for fluff, but try to stay clear of the rules heavy stuff (feats and Prcs)
I havent seen the actual "First Edition" but I have seen Atlantean Edition. is that one also for 3.0?
You could use some of the PF monsters but it is kind of hard as some don't translate too well, however Demons, devils and some abominations would work. Make sure to change any AC to DR and change any spells to the Sorcery system though. Any creature form the Cuthulu mythos works great too.
]I'm not concerned about which monsters fit, that I can tell from having seen the movies. :P.
What I'm concerned about, is how much the CRs would need to change by. The Conan 2e Bestiary doesn't seem to include anything about the CRs of the monsters in the book.I'm thinking the CR data wont be any good since conan characters essentially have the same quality gear from level 1-20, so I'm trying to figure out where to peg Monster CRs.
Best books if you can find them, across thunder river,Return to the road of kings (world guide), Secrets of Skelos and the bestiary,most of the rest is fluff and not really needed unless your a Conan fan.
There are 3 pc option books , finest, fiercest and fallen, some new rules and lots and lots of archtypes (different to PF in that they are multiclass options, for instance a shaman is a barbarin/scholar).
This looks like some solid advice, and I'll have to hunt down copies of those books and check them out.
The big thing I'm thinking I want to include from Pathfinder are Archetypes - and possibly hybridizing the basic classes to be more pathfinder in style. There are some really solid Archetypes out there.
I've been thinking that the Conan Sword and Sorcery system would be great for a couple other things I'd like to run too, maybe A "The Witcher" styled game, or "Pirates of Dark Water".
It's kind of hard as you say gear is not such a major draw in Conan its all about money and that reputation bonus.
I guess its trail and error, judge what would work for a PF party of that level and see if adding it to the Conan side works as well, power wise they will more than likley be on the same par anyway.
Just remembered there is a 3.5 monster conversion guide floating around somewhere but I can't remember what it was try a google search and you might get lucky, there is a website as well(hyboria.xoth.net) Which has some good ideas on it along with a conversion of the 3.5 Mesopatamia book which might help too.
I'm in the same boat to be honest, my next game after serpent skull is to use the old Al-qudiam, scourge of the slavelords and Savage Tide books and do an arabian style Conan game based in Iranistan with Pirates etc, I need to figure out what I can and can't use first.
As for the archtype books they used to be pdf's of all conan books but looks like Mongoose has taken them off the RPGNOW website. Shame.
Adding the archtypes from PF sounds a good idea too, the borderer nd the soldier class need more I think they are a bit bland in my view, PF archtypes might help to build a few good new classes. Interseting to know if it works though.
Good luck
Ah ha, here you go try this forum post from Mongoose thread...
http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2716
Ah ha, here you go try this forum post from Mongoose thread...
There!
Been thinking about the whole PF class and archtypes thing you mentioned and here are my ideas/thoughts.
The Golden rule: Magic is so different in the 2 systems its best to leave anything magic or supernatural out of it. It's a low magic system where sorcery is feared and mistrusted.
Conan Classes:
Barabarin, Thief and Pirate: Might be worth trying out some rage powers and Rouge Talents and maybe some archtypes but need to be careful as the classes could become to powerful
Temptress: Leave as is nothing compares to this class in PF.
Scholar: Leave as is don't tamper with it, this is a very powerful class, get Secrets of Skelos for some very good extra spells (Flame is very powerful)
Noble: A tough one as nothing really compares to this class either, some bits of Paladin and Cavalier maybe but not much.
Borderer and Nomad: Closest is the Ranger, might be able to use bits from this class and some of the archtypes but remember they dont get spells and animal companions dont exist in conan (too much like sorcery).
Soldier: Scrap the class and use the fighter in PF, most if not all of the archtypes are useable too.
There is a Martial Disciple in the warriors companion whcih is kind of like a monk but has no ki powers. You might be able to use some of the Monk archtypes and no doubt the style feats in UC but again be careful. They do have an option for the scholar to take monastic scholar and supplement spells for martial arts powers in the same book but I dont know what they are like having not used it.
There is also a Beastmaster (in Bestary) which is the Ranger without an animal companion who can command animlals and a healer (heal skill not spells) and Gladiator in the signs and portents mag from mongoose.
PF Classes:
As PF is a magic high fantasy game all the magic using classes will not work for Conan, Witch and Oracle might have the right feel but the magic systems are too differnet and would be very hard to translate over.
The same goes for religion, there are no clerics or Paladins, priests are part of the scholar class again with a very differnt magic system.
The only classes I can see that would fit (and the archtypes too) would be the Fighter with bits from Barbarain, Rouge and Ranger.
Only way I can see you could use the archtypes would be as you say to mix and match the abilites from different ones to get hybrid classes or your'e own, the 2 systems of magic and styles of games don't match evry well and you run the risk of changing the feel too much though
But the on the other hand it could turn out to be very intersting and fun to try it out.
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That's some solid Advice. I think I'm going to give some of this a stab tomorrow, and I'll post what I come up with.
The Golden rule: Magic is so different in the 2 systems its best to leave anything magic or supernatural out of it. It's a low magic system where sorcery is feared and mistrusted.
PF Magic stuff doesn't work as much more than a source of inspiration. As you mentioned, the magic in both is too different.
Barabarin, Thief and Pirate: Might be worth trying out some rage powers and Rouge Talents and maybe some archtypes but need to be careful as the classes could become to powerful.
Hmm. Some good advice. I dont want to boost anything above the power levels in PFRPG, and if PF is more powerful than Conan, Then I'd have to decide which power level to take as my standard.
Temptress: Leave as is nothing compares to this class in PF.
Hmm. You're right. There's nothing like this in PF. There are a few PRCs similar to it in 3.5 though, and I may be able to draw from those PRCs to make A couple Temptress Archetypes.
Scholar: Leave as is don't tamper with it, this is a very powerful class, get Secrets of Skelos for some very good extra spells (Flame is very powerful)
Cool suggestion. I'm not really sure about what I could do with this one at the moment, so at the very least I'll leave it until I'm more familiar with it.
Noble: A tough one as nothing really compares to this class either, some bits of Paladin and Cavalier maybe but not much.
I like the Paladin/Cavalier suggestion.
Borderer and Nomad: Closest is the Ranger, might be able to use bits from this class and some of the archtypes but remember they dont get spells and animal companions dont exist in conan (too much like sorcery).
Really... Animal Companions are too magicky? How is it so different than the beastmaster thing you mentioned?
Soldier: Scrap the class and use the fighter in PF, most if not all of the archtypes are useable too.
Thats not a bad Idea.
There is a Martial Disciple in the warriors companion which is kind of like a monk but has no ki powers. You might be able to use some of the Monk archtypes and no doubt the style feats in UC but again be careful. They do have an option for the scholar to take monastic scholar and supplement spells for martial arts powers in the same book but I dont know what they are like having not used it.
There is also a Beastmaster (in Bestary) which is the Ranger without an animal companion who can command animlals and a healer (heal skill not spells) and Gladiator in the signs and portents mag from mongoose.
I wasn't aware of these. I'll have to look them up. Thanks.
PF Classes:
As PF is a magic high fantasy game all the magic using classes will not work for Conan, Witch and Oracle might have the right feel but the magic systems are too differnet and would be very hard to translate over.
I agree with you that the flavor-wise, I could see either the Witch or Oracle in Conan, but they'd definitely take some doing, since the magic systems are so different.
What about the Cavalier? Do you think the Cavalier would make a good fit?
I'm undecided on hyborea, but I'm really liking the low magic sword and sorcery feel this provides, and I'd like to try out the system for my next game (though possibly still with elves and dwarves and orcs - or maybe a game with some monkeybirds, and the thirteen treasures of rule. Noy Chitat!).
I'm thinking on using PF Monsters as well. I'd have to make a few adjustments to damage and defenses, but that may be doable with a simple conversion chart or something. Hmm. That guide pdf to convert 3.5 stuff would have helped, for sure. I dunno what would be easier.. Toning down the monsters to fit into conan, or going a bit more Iron Heroes and beefing up all the player character levels a bit.
Really... Animal Companions are too magicky? How is it so different than the beastmaster thing you mentioned?
Animal Companions are normal animals made far stronger than other animals of their kind. Any animal a beastmaster commands is still just a normal animal of its kind.
If you have the Green Ronin, Freeport Pathfinder Companion, there is a Nobel class in there.
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Animal Companions are normal animals made far stronger than other animals of their kind. Any animal a beastmaster commands is still just a normal animal of its kind.
Hmm. I guess that makes sense. I always took animal companions to be what happens if you give an animal lots and lots of combat training, and they link it to your level just for the sake of simplicity. I never considered it to be a supernatural thing.
By that same token, I always figured if you drop an animal companion, and that companion got stronger with you, it stays stronger afterward.
But I can see how it could be interpreted the other way as well.
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*Note: About the Animal Companion - I'm referring to the creature being tougher, not the obvious supernatural connection you have with said animal.
I came across a few interesting tidbits though:
1. Mongoose no longer holds a Conan License, which is why the Conan RPG isn't still available.
2. The rules text is OGC, including all classes and feats and whatnot. Everything, with "the exception of the character creation rules detailing the mechanics of assigning dice roll results to abilities and the advancement of character levels" is OGC.
3. The conan stories written by R.E.H., and first published prior to 1964, are public domain. Conan the character is debatable, as he's owned in other stories that came after that and I'm pretty sure he's trademarked.
Which leads me to my conclusion: Obviously with a little bit of doublechecking on their part, but - Any company that wants to do so, could put out a new "Conan" RPG that's either based on Conan 2e, even having the same rules (with the exception noted above). To be on the safe side they may have to not mention some specific characters (incl. Conan himself), but they could use the setting information on Hyborea, and could include quotes from the original stories as well.
Just makes me wonder why it hasn't been done yet, since we don't have any current Conan attention. :P
Conan 2e will do for my purposes - I dont mind making my own revisions and whatnot for my home games, and I don't feel I need something that's currently in print.
I'm trying to peg down some character power levels in Conan, and then I want to try to compare them to Pathfinder. So at the moment, I'm making some Conan characters.
I know I'm late to the party, the game's out of print now, and not for sale on dtrpg, but I just came across this second hand.
It looks really good. It seems to put a serious sword and sorcery feeling into the game.
Has anyone tried it with pathfinder? Like, use some of the pathfinder changes (Combat Maneuvers, Skills, Some Feats, Feats every odd level, and Archetypes in particular) and used them with the Conan RPG?
Are 3.x/PF Monsters compatible with Conan? Is there a big power gap I need to accomodate? How hard is it to use, say, a Pathfinder Bestiary for monsters with Conan?
While I like alot of the innovations brought by pathfinder, Conan looks like a great lower powered d20 game, and I'm interested in trying one of those out.
I play Conan and Pathfinder, I'm trying to change it to Pathfinder, but it's hard work. The Monsters won't work (and most of them don't even have the Conan feel) without some serious work.
Now, what you can, and should, do is: Change Skills, CMB, CMD and feats on a case by case basis. It's important to try and keep feats, PrCs and otherstuff from 1st edition away, they can get really messy, really fast.
The rest of the Conan rules are fantastic and REALLY fun to play, although, very deadly.
i did already, it was amazing, the enemies using the mana, and a barbarian lvl 12th using maneuvers, the ac rule (i recomended you unearthed arcana from 3.5 there u will find rules like this one), and dr, the cracking armor was flavorful (every one has crying for theyre armor at any moment) buy stuffs with silver coins (i also make a new one)
steel 10/1 cp (used for those things one never use like a how cost a glass of beer or something)
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I'd like to ask one big question I missed earlier.
Now, what you can, and should, do is: Change Skills, CMB, CMD and feats on a case by case basis. It's important to try and keep feats, PrCs and otherstuff from 1st edition away, they can get really messy, really fast.
What's the big balance difference between 2e Conan and 1e Conan?
I got the impression from other forums, that if you already have 1e Conan, you shouldn't bother upgrading to 2e Conan, as very little changed. They included some errata that they missed for Atlantean Edition, and added the Temptress to the Core book, instead of a splatbook.
It sounded like a much much smaller change than from 3.0-3.5.
So what big changes make it a bad idea to mix n' match 1e and 2e Conan?
I'd like to ask one big question I missed earlier.
Now, what you can, and should, do is: Change Skills, CMB, CMD and feats on a case by case basis. It's important to try and keep feats, PrCs and otherstuff from 1st edition away, they can get really messy, really fast.What's the big balance difference between 2e Conan and 1e Conan?
I got the impression from other forums, that if you already have 1e Conan, you shouldn't bother upgrading to 2e Conan, as very little changed. They included some errata that they missed for Atlantean Edition, and added the Temptress to the Core book, instead of a splatbook.
It sounded like a much much smaller change than from 3.0-3.5.
So what big changes make it a bad idea to mix n' match 1e and 2e Conan?
There aren't a lot of major differences between the Atlantean Edition and 2nd edition. Some things were cleaned up, some weapons damage dice changed slightly, the Temptress became a core class, Reputation was modified/simplified, etc.
You can largely mix-n-match the two, but it's good to know where they differ and choose which one is the "master doc". The Conan RPG is also light on prestige classes anyway, which are reserved primarily for showcasing different sorcerer specialties.
Nothing comes to mind in terms of "Things that are broken."
If you can find them, the Hyboria's F-----(Fiercest, Finest, Fallen) books are good class-related crunch. It does a very good job of using multiclassing to build a new archetype and spells out the tradeoffs. The temptress class made its first appearance in Fallen, so you definitely want to use the 2e rules over the ones found here.
Scrolls/Secrets of Skelos (Secrets is the 2nd edition version, I think) expands sorcery rules (feats, styles, spells) beyond what's found in the core rulebook.
Love the the game, but sadly my gaming group does not(something to do with it being to easy to die). But if you are looking for PDF's try 4shared.com its amazing what PDF's you can find on there
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I've considered this, as well as the low magic thing.
It would be a fair bit of work to do; but it could be done if you're willing to take the time to crunch a bunch of numbers.
I was actually planning on doing a conversion like this last fall, but I got distracted: Lately I've been experimenting with other systems, and only playing Pathfinder rather casually.
GMing Pathfinder really tires me out. I don't care for dungeon crawls, and there simply aren't enough pre-built NPCs for me - let alone NPCs collected in one place. I feel it has way too much prep work.
So lately I've been GMing other RPGs, and letting other people run Pathfinder. I still follow the pathfinder stuff though, and have been buying pathfinder material just to read.
Medieval Fantasy
1. Legend/Runequest: The core mechanic in this game seems to be absolutely brilliant. It could use more detail in places, and some things could use some rebalancing, but I love the basic powerlevel, the customizeable characters, the lack of classes, and the the lack of levels. At first it had a sortof Conan feel to it, but then I realized that's mostly the combat system. If you include the magic, it's got more of an Elder Scrolls feel.
Legend has rules for running Guilds and Countries if you're willing to grab the (compatible) rules from the last edition of the game (Mongoose RuneQuest II Empires).
A variant on the system is coming out under the name RuneQuest 6, by another company, but many of the same designers. Legend is OGC, RQ6 won't be, but they're supposed to be about 70%-80% compatible.
2. Chronicler (Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Game) has gameplay elements I've never seen in another RPG; and that's really cool. I like the Intrigue system (Social Combat, basically), and rules for running a noble house. Really cool stuff. The newest edition of the core rules has alot of errors, but its still a great book.
5. Lately I actually find myself not so much wanting to run or play Pathfinder, but to convert pathfinder Modules, Setting info, Monsters, NPCs, Magic Items, and Spells for use with Legend and its family of related games, because I still love paizo's ideas, even though their system is not my favorite... It's my favorite version of D&D/d20, but D&D/d20 is only my 5th favorite game system these days (Behind cWoD).
Urban Fantasy
3. Unisystem (Ghosts of Albion/Angel and Armageddon) has a nifty ruleset for if you want to run a modern game. Not sure I'd want to use it for a medieval fantasy game though. I absolutely love the magic system in GoA - it's my favorite part of the game system.
4. World of Darkness Classic is hardly new - but its main system would be my system of choice for a political vampire game, and it has a decent basic framework for the base mechanics of a modern game.
6. World of Darkness 2001 - It has its moments, but I'm not a big fan of it as a whole. The equipment, combat section, sanity/morality and combat feats design I'm not fond of at all, and I really dislike how the setting is written. I do however like the character creation system, the social combat system included in a vampire supplement, the experience progression system, and a few select ideas in some of the random supplements.
If I ran an Urban Fantasy or Urban Fantasy Horror Game, I wouldn't really like to use any of these systems on its own (but if I had to choose, the order is listed above). I would actually mash all three together into a monster of an RPG system, with cWoD as a base ruleset, using the attributes&skills from wod2001, and the rolling mechanics and magic system of unisystem (Ghosts of Albion). I'd ditch the morality/sanity scale, and for character creation I might include a few elements from the Dresden Files RPG and the Smallville RPG. It wouldn't be recognizable by the end.
tl;dr - Putting the Conan Magic system into Pathfinder is doable, but getting an RPG with that sort of feel can be done in some ways that require less work.
Also: Try new RPGs - there are some awesome ones out there. You just might find some new favorites.