Quote from: 3rik;883466Just curious, what is your opinion on BoL? In your opinion, could it be used to run a half-decent Conan game?

It could be used to run an excellent Conan game, it's really the only game out there that actually expresses Conan's leveling technique - Barbarian, Thief, Mercenary, Pirate, Soldier, Brigand, Scout, General, King, etc. but for it to work for you'd have to...

• Accept the rules are pretty light.
• Accept you're not going to get much variation in weapons/armor unless you use Traits/Flaws (which can be problematic as Howard has lots of specific weapons he calls out by name and describes).
• Just accept there's a little genre awareness and narrative aspect to the rules.
• Reskin the Lemurian/generic S&S trappings to appropriate Hyborian Age counterparts.

For me at least,
1. is no problem, just doesn't hit my preferred crunch level.
2. I would probably find a way to make work, even if I hacked the system a bit.
3. This would be my sticking point, but I would just wipe out all those options from the rules and grit my teeth and bear it reading the text.
4. Would be fun.

Once I had decided that Mongoose d20 wasn't going to do it for me, (Class/Level/Feats no matter how well done, was still Class/Level/Feats) BoL was one of the games I was looking at.

In an alternate universe without MRQII/RQ6/Mythras, I might have picked it.

I really like BoL for S&S, but I haven't used it for anything Hyboria-based.

I'm not all that fond of Savage Worlds and RQ6 is too crunchy to my taste but a BRP/CoC-compatible Conan RPG would've been perfect. Alas, I do not like 2d20 much.

QuoteOriginally Posted by 3rik View Post
Just curious, what is your opinion on BoL? In your opinion, could it be used to run a half-decent Conan game?

I played a lot of BoL.  Excellent game.  I agree with what Krueger and Asen wrote above, but will add that I think BoL is best for highly cinematic games.  It would work well for comic book style Conan, but less well for a grittier feel.  You can tone the heroics in BoL down easily by giving fewer hero points, but it is still a very fast and light game and I think the speed of play contributes to the cinematic feel.

Quote from: 3rik;883480I really like BoL for S&S, but I haven't used it for anything Hyboria-based.

I'm not all that fond of Savage Worlds and RQ6 is too crunchy to my taste but a BRP/CoC-compatible Conan RPG would've been perfect. Alas, I do not like 2d20 much.

http://www.strangestones.com/downloads/
There's some good short hyborian age adventures for BOL at the link above. And some other Lieber/Lovecraft inspired adventures easily apapted to a huborian age campaign. I've used most of it.

Quote from: Claudius;883409If you want to play a Song of Ice and Fire game but don't want to use SIFR, I strongly advise that you get the SIFR Campaign Guide, it contains a lot of setting info but very little system info, so it's perfect if you want to run a game using a different system. In fact, I wish Modiphius had taken the same approach (one corebook with the rules, and another one with the setting info) that Green Ronin took with SIFR.

Quote from: CRKrueger;883432Very good.  Everything is cleared (which is why it takes forever), but combine those with the Atlas, you've got some awesome campaign tools.

Thanks, gents. Does either of you own the A World of Ice and Fire tome? And if so, is there anything in the SIFR Campaign Guide that isn't in the big ass book?

Quote from: CRKrueger;883432People who want Fast, Furious and Fun, without the weight of Savage Worlds and Bennie Economies, or Barbarians of Lemuria with a little bit of meat on the bones?  Dragon Age/AGE might fit your bill.

Now there's an intriguing comment. What's the skinny on AGE system? And how come it's not in your Hyborian Age gaming poll?

Quote from: The Butcher;883541Thanks, gents. Does either of you own the A World of Ice and Fire tome? And if so, is there anything in the SIFR Campaign Guide that isn't in the big ass book?



Now there's an intriguing comment. What's the skinny on AGE system? And how come it's not in your Hyborian Age gaming poll?

There is a Conan-Dragon Age conversion
https://dragonageoracle.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/beyond-dragon-age-age-of-conan/

Quote from: The Butcher;883541Thanks, gents. Does either of you own the A World of Ice and Fire tome? And if so, is there anything in the SIFR Campaign Guide that isn't in the big ass book?

I don't have that, so can't answer.

Quote from: The Butcher;883541Now there's an intriguing comment. What's the skinny on AGE system? And how come it's not in your Hyborian Age gaming poll?

I just threw things up there I knew people had used or most likely would, but I forgot a couple obvious ones.

Why not AGE?  None aside from above.  Thinking about it now, here would be the Pros and Cons as I see it of doing Conan with AGE.

Pros

• The Background system (background being a combination of race, culture, and maybe apprenticeship) is light and easy.  Come up with, say Zamoran Slaver or Aquilonian Heavy Infantry or Nemedian Commoner, give it a short list of Attributes, Focuses, Talents, Equipment whatever the character could have.  During chargen you'll roll to see what you actually get.  Simple yet flexible enough to model pretty much anything in any setting, but at not too close a zoom.
• Resolution system - You roll three dice, one of them a different color, the Dragon Die (Stunt Die really).  If any of the three dice come up doubles, you get a Stunt Level equal to the Stunt Die that you can use to power different effects, whether you're chopping, shooting, climbing, or arguing.  There's no narrative control of the type "I swing so well on the attack, city guards show up to help me", it's all pretty associated IIRC.
• You have attributes and a bunch of skills tied to an attribute that anyone can do.  Focus means you're actually better at one of the skills.  More advanced skill that require training or lots of experience are Talents, broken up into three ranks from Novice to Master.  So you can add/chop/mutilate as many skills or Talents as you like without really breaking anything.
• Classes have specializations, so you can branch out, like the Video Game itself, or Warhammer/Shadow of the Demon Lord/Prestige Classes.
• Weapons and armor have enough differentiation to span the Conan works, and you have different Talent groups like Long Blades, Short Blades, Spears, Staves, etc, so you can't be a sword master then bust the same amount of ass with a flail.

Cons

• Class system.  Warrior, Rogue, and Mage, with Warriors generally being more tank-like and Melee and Rogues generally being more maneuverable and Ranged.  Conan of course was tanky when he put on armor and thiefy when he didn't, so you'd have some work to do there.
• Magic. Everything was made to model Dragon Age, which is not the Hyborian Age as far as magic goes, so this would need a complete rewrite.
• The Dragon Die is very wild.  I can barely succeed with 2 1's and a 6 but because the Dragon Die was 6 I do great, or I can roll awesome with 2 6's and a 1, but because the Dragon Die was a 1, it's the lowest effect I can trigger.  In other words, level of Stunt is divorced from the level of number you actually rolled.  Easily hacked though by eliminating the special nature of the Dragon Die, having the level of the doubles determine level of Stunt and add one to the Stunt result if it's a triple.

I'll have to take a look at that Age of Conan hack.

QuoteMagic. Everything was made to model Dragon Age, which is not the Hyborian Age as far as magic goes, so this would need a complete rewrite.

Most systems do not handle Hyborian sorcery well.  When hacking a system for the Hyborian Age magic is usually the biggest problem, especially if you allow player sorcerers - in my experience.

Quote from: Madprofessor;883645Most systems do not handle Hyborian sorcery well.  When hacking a system for the Hyborian Age magic is usually the biggest problem, especially if you allow player sorcerers - in my experience.

43 AD handles it just fine. So does BoL.
Really, the more involved the magic system gets, the farther away you're likely to get from Conan,  IMO.

I'm still on the fence if I will back this KS or not.
If I do it, it will be for the setting/background/adventures, but not for the system.
I also backed Mutant Chronicles, and although the books are great I'm just not too fond of 2d20. We played the Quick Start for MC and my players didn't like the Dark Symmetry rules. They were like: we don't improve stuff, you don't get to spend (as much) Dark Symmetry points and things are even...

I think the system still played quite nicely, but not more than that (and the whole Dark Symmetry stuff, or Doom pool in Conan I believe, was more or less scrapped due to the fact that my players didn't go along for it).

2d20 is certainly not the selling point IMO regarding this Conan KS. I guess I'll play the adventure from the Quickstart soon enough with my players, but we'll use another system (not Rolemaster, although I might be tempted...). Something more akin to DND this time.

QuoteOriginally Posted by AsenRG
43 AD handles it just fine. So does BoL.

I am not familiar wit 43 AD, I'll have to check that out.  BoL magic has some great flavor, but it asks a lot of players and GMs alike.  Its potentially a great magic system for the Hyborian Age, but it can also easily get out of hand - speaking from personal experience - that's not a fault of the game though.

QuoteReally, the more involved the magic system gets, the farther away you're likely to get from Conan, IMO.

As a general principal I would agree.

QuoteOriginally posted by Vonn
I'm still on the fence if I will back this KS or not.
If I do it, it will be for the setting/background/adventures, but not for the system.

I am with you.  The 2d20 system is far from ideal for me as well.  Still, after 2 weeks of debating, ranting and generally upsetting people, I think I will back the project, for "setting/background,adventures" primarily, but I think I'll give the system a 2nd try as well.  If nothing else, it might make a decent change of pace kind of game.

By the way, nice icon.

Yeah it's definitely going to be at least the all-pdf level, maybe the pdfs+Core Rules hardbound or PDFs+Hardbound+"three hardbounds supplements of your choice".  From what I've seen so far of the adventures, spells, monsters, etc. Modiphius will make a great Conan game.  

It won't be a game that fits our needs for a regular, long-term, roleplaying campaign, but since a lot of the adventures it seems will be roughly during the adventuring life of Conan, my group has been talking about just doing the published adventures kind of like the conceit of the One Ring/LotRO.  Conan we all know is doing X, what's everyone else doing?  

Since my campaign is set post-Hour of the Dragon, these episodes will serve as history of my campaign, just like Howard's own stories are.  One of my players already wants to make up a young clanswoman related to Maeve who wants to leave, inspired by the tales of her relative who made the Stand at Thunder River.

Depending on how the Monolith game is, our Conan gaming might be a three-pronged attack.

Quote from: Vonn;883813(...) I guess I'll play the adventure from the Quickstart soon enough with my players, but we'll use another system (not Rolemaster, although I might be tempted...). Something more akin to DND this time.

I've been reading good things about D101 Games' Crypts & Things, a new edition  of which is currently being workd on. I'll likely pick that up just to see how it handles S&S stuff.

Quote from: Madprofessor;883817I am with you.  The 2d20 system is far from ideal for me as well.  Still, after 2 weeks of debating, ranting and generally upsetting people, I think I will back the project, for "setting/background,adventures" primarily, but I think I'll give the system a 2nd try as well.  If nothing else, it might make a decent change of pace kind of game.

I made up my mind...I'm gonna back the project: PDFs + core book in print.

Quote from: Madprofessor;883817By the way, nice icon.

Thanks!