Hello all,

I've been looking around for a grim sword & sorcery Conan The Barbarian-like game.  I want a game about spilling the blood of your enemies in a barbaric frenzy of gorelust!!!  I want a game about wrestling in some old ruins with a massive lizardman, and before your hands crush the life from his throat your eyes meet for a brief instant and you respect him not as a savage beast but as a man!

This doesn't mean I want a game where someone actually plays as a Conan like character.  Conan is basically an unstoppable killing machine.  I guess I am more interested in the kind of world Conan lives in- dark, grim, a place where magic is rare and scary and dangerous, and where there is still a lot of room for horror.

So The Riddle of Steel really seems interesting and is probably perfect for what I want, but there's sadly no PDF version available from what I can tell.  I'm about to move far far away and don't want a bunch of books to bring with me.  Other games that are probably perfect for me but don't seem to be available as PDFs: Warhammer FRP.

So what are some alternatives (if any?) that are available as PDFs on, say, RPGNOW?

I generally like pretty crunchy systems, but don't mind lighter stuff (is Elfquest considered light?  I used to like that for general S&S stuff).

I've got a couple of the Rolemaster Classic books (Express, and the Monsters & Treasures book) in PDF form and while I like Rolemaster a lot (tentatively speaking, as I've only read this game and not played it yet), I'm not getting the Conan the Barbarian vibe from what I've read of it.

I've got the core library of 1st ed AD&D books but I definitely don't get a Conan vibe from them and I've always felt that while D&D was most definitely inspired in part by a lot of the old S&S stories, it is its own universe with all these strange things going on.  I'm sure you could run a great Conan like game with AD&D (at higher levels possibly) but I like it for what it is and not what it can be made into.

So having said all that, any suggestions are appreciated!

This one looks interesting.

Dont they have a Conan Sword and Sorcery RPG? I would go with that if you want conan stuff in it, or at least get the same feel your looking for, as mechanic wise, I Think FtA! Has a super fast combat system, that rolls very fast. You should give it a whirl. Its fun, and in PDF form.

These may be too light and not crunchy enough but one is free and the other is cheap:

1. Barbarians of Lemuria - Free - http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/Barbarians_of_Lemuria_Free_RPG.php

2. Broadsword - Cheap - Review here http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13301.phtml

You might want to look at ZEFRS, which is based on the old TSR Conan RPG (which used the color-coded chart system found in Marvel Superheroes, among other games).  It is free and available as a PDF.  I have had good luck with it for good S&S action.

http://www.midcoast.com/~ricekrwc/zefrs/


TGA

Quote from: The Good AssyrianYou might want to look at ZEFRS, which is based on the old TSR Conan RPG (which used the color-coded chart system found in Marvel Superheroes, among other games).  It is free and available as a PDF.  I have had good luck with it for good S&S action.

http://www.midcoast.com/~ricekrwc/zefrs/

I've used ZEFRS for a number of S&S games over the last year. Highly recommended.

Quote from: The Good AssyrianYou might want to look at ZEFRS

I will do so!  Thanks!!

Quote from: enelson1. Barbarians of Lemuria - Free -

Free is definitely a price I am willing to pay, thanks for the links, I'll check these out.

Thanks for the great link to ZeRFS (haven't had a chance to look to deeply).

But it did inspire a new thread over at D20 Haven - what would it take to alter 3e/d20 to make is more S&S? I don't want to derail, which is why I pushed the idea over there. I'd love to hear the take of folks who like S&S and who may have altered D&D to suit, as I agree with this:

Quote from: newtmonkeyI've got the core library of 1st ed AD&D books but I definitely don't get a Conan vibe from them and I've always felt that while D&D was most definitely inspired in part by a lot of the old S&S stories, it is its own universe with all these strange things going on.  I'm sure you could run a great Conan like game with AD&D (at higher levels possibly) but I like it for what it is and not what it can be made into.

for more than just 1e...

Thanks again, guys - great links!

You might like Forward... to Adventure! (the link is in my sig).

You'd certainly like The Setting, the default world of FtA! that will be detailed in the upcoming FtA!GN! sourcebook. However, the "default world" implied by the rules themselves is pretty clearly Sword & Sorcery.

RPGPundit

Iron Heroes does grim & gritty pretty well, by all accounts. It is D20, but the classes have been redesigned to suit S&S.

Quote from: Simon WIron Heroes does grim & gritty pretty well, by all accounts. It is D20, but the classes have been redesigned to suit S&S.

Well, it does the sword part well, sorcery, not so much

I don't have any info on Dark ages Cthuhlu.

But I would think they have Swords and plenty of Sorcery.

And how much more Grim and Gritty could you get?

Quote from: droogThis one looks interesting.

Where can we learn about it?

there's a couple of actual play threads for In a Wicked Age on the Forge and some info here

What about the Conan d20 game? I mean if you're looking for Conan-style gaming you can't get more Conan than the Conan RPG.

-=Grim=-