I'll pass on this one, I still have GURPS Conan and plenty of Howard stories. No need really.

Quote from: CRKrueger;8151014. Pastiche
If I had a criticism of Vincent Darlage's work for Mongoose, it's that he brought in a lot of pastiche elements from Carter, De Camp, etc... even though the "pastiche canon" is of varying degrees of "Howardness" much like Derleth's Mythos differs from Lovecraft's ideas in many ways.  What sources are being used, Howard only or Howard plus others?

Any Conan RPG that uses or references Carter/De Camp is an instant no-sale for me.

Quote from: Omega;815187Any Conan RPG that uses or references Carter/De Camp is an instant no-sale for me.

We didn't recruit two Conan/REH experts so we could use Carter/De Camp.

(I'm always torn about those two. Their non-Conan writings are actually kind of enjoyable, if sometimes trashy or derivative, but they're forever going to be defined as "the guys who wrecked Conan".)

Quote from: CRKrueger;815113Besides isn't trademark a sign, design, logo or expression of something, so for example something using the Hyborian Font or using the exact name "Age of Conan" like the MMO, would be offlimits, but they can't trademark the word Conan if the character is in the public domain, can they?  How many games with Cthulhu in the title do we have?

The point of trademarks is so that the consumer know which company the product is coming from. Which is why if I trademarked Ultimate Acme as a brand of shoes and somebody tries to use Wonderful Acme for a knock off brand then I have a cause of action against Wonderful Acme as the consumer may confuse their product for mine.

If Paradox (or rather it's licensees) is using Conan! as the title for a rpg. And i come out with Robert E. Howard's Conan the RPG. They could also have a cause of action if they were granted a trademark on Conan.

A John Doe could tell Jane "Hey go get that new Conan RPG it is great." She walks into the store and buys Conan the RPG instead of Conan! which the game that John played.

Yes companies can be overzealous and the privilege is often abused. But the basic idea is sound, a company has the right to establish a brand and not have other company confuse the consumer with knock offs.

Despite the public domain status of Conan many of  the keywords that the public associates with Conan IP are under trademark. This makes it tough for a company making derivative of the PD material to market their products.

I should also clarify that as far as the Modiphius crew is concerned, Vincent is a great writer, and his contributions to the Conan gaming world are worthy of praise. He has an immense respect for REH and has done more than any other RPG author to popularize REH's work, and he has left large sandals to fill.

The decision of whether to use pastiche material (however canonical) is one many IP licensees have wrestled with. In our case, we were facing the issue of a ridiculously large and broad swathe of stuff of quality ranging from sublime to sub-par, and chose to hew to the original works are our source of inspiration.

I trust Jason, I don't need a new Conan engine since frankly d100 or Savage Worlds would suit me, but I suspect this will be a lovely game.

Did somebody say Mark Schultz??

If his stuff is all over the book, I'm in, even if I never play it.

Quote from: Endless Flight;815276Did somebody say Mark Schultz??

If his stuff is all over the book, I'm in, even if I never play it.

I'd like to give this a +1, and a hell yeah!

Conan, especially literary Conan hasn't ever struck me as a genre that needs allot of specialized, narrative rules to run effectively. Seems like allot of generic systems could handle it as what makes it distinct is atmosphere and attitude.

My Conan gaming needs are going to be satiated for a while by the Conan boardgame that just kicked so much ass on the appropriately named Kickstarter.  

But I'd totally play any Conan RPG at a con if the GM was good.

As for REH canon vs. non-canon, I would be TOTALLY STOKED (yeah I said stoked) to play in a Marvel Conan RPG campaign based on the Conan comics.

Does the system really require rolling 2d20 as the standard resolution mechanic? That might take some getting used to.

Quote from: The_Shadow;815302Does the system really require rolling 2d20 as the standard resolution mechanic? That might take some getting used to.

2 d20s is the standard. A task's difficulty may add or subtract dice to what is essentially a very minimalistic dice-pool system.
The d20s are rolled against a target number based on stat+skill, and you want to roll low. If you manage to roll several successes, you gain momentum that you can use to pull off a variety of ..stuff.

There are a few complications - you can have a skill focus that earns you extra successes is you roll below a certain threshold, you can have specific talents that changes difficulty, allows for rerolls etc, you can use fatepoints(no matter what they end up calling it, it is a fatepoint-mechanic) to manipulate the rolled result, you can can give the GM a couple of "fuck me up-points" to get extra dice.  

Whatever issues the system has, the dice are not part of it. The 2d20s roll very well.

Quote from: Spinachcat;815301My Conan gaming needs are going to be satiated for a while by the Conan boardgame that just kicked so much ass on the appropriately named Kickstarter.  

But I'd totally play any Conan RPG at a con if the GM was good.

As for REH canon vs. non-canon, I would be TOTALLY STOKED (yeah I said stoked) to play in a Marvel Conan RPG campaign based on the Conan comics.

+1 on the Dark Horse

Quote from: ChrisBirch;815152We'll be unveiling a lot more about plans soon - we're currently confirming the list of planned books with are a lot less geographical supplements and more story orientated plot books. It's a different approach than previous works and I think you'll like it.

There's a lot of great writers to announce, many more major artists as well so we'll have a busy month. The 2d20 system is being tweaked to give a heavier focus on melee, magic will be very very dark, costly and dangerous, or you'll have simple alchemical options for those 'pretend sorcerers' who were much better at convincing people they were sorcerers

Chris, regarding the kickstarter, would it be possible to include stretch goals for additional rule systems in the same way Achtung! Cthulhu did?

Quote from: CRKrueger;814948The basic resolution system seems not bad, you  described it well.  However, then we get all Forgey-Worgey Timey-Wimey  with "complications" and "GM has system-granted permission to amp up the  story with Dark Symmetry points".  Makes my friggin' teeth  itch.

I love the idea of a purist, Howard-only, Conan game. I love the idea of a really nicely produced Conan game with top-notch artwork. I am however, concerned with regard to the choice of rules system, which seems rather needlessly fiddly and perhaps even convoluted for this.

Quote from: Omega;814988No.

They did Conan as its own RPG, by David Cook. And a darn good one too. It uses a percentile system.

The ZeFRS rules are available online for free, with all the Conan serial numbers removed: ZeFRS : Introduction. Also, Evil DM Productions did a ZeFRS version of their sword & sorcery setting Legends of Steel that includes the (slightly adapted) ZeFRS rules: Legends of Steel: ZeFRS Edition - Evil DM Productions | DriveThruRPG.com.

Quote from: ChrisBirch;815149As to the system - well that's a matter of taste - there will be a free preview out in the spring for you to decide on :-)

I'd be interested in checking that out.

Quote from: Larsdangly;814926(...) to do what everyone obviously wants: a   Conan game for Runequest or some other major, well supported system that   is well suited to the genre. (...)

Quote from: Bilharzia;815354Chris, regarding the kickstarter, would it be possible to include stretch goals for additional rule systems in the same way Achtung! Cthulhu did?

This! Making it a BRP/Call of Cthulhu-compatible game would be IMHO an excellent idea.