I've read through Barbarians of Lemuria (not the Legendary Edition, though), and I still see folks very enthusiastic about this game. Those of you who have played or GM'd it, what's your opinion of the system?
-What does it do well?
-What does it not do so well?
-How does combat usually go?
-Mechanically, how different can characters be from one another?
-What's your opinion of the magic system?
-Is it worth $25 or however much to pick this sucker up?
-How easy is it to use with other settings?
Interested in any and all opinions, good and bad. There's a ton written on this game out there, but I'm curious to see what the worthies on this board have to say in regards to its merits.
C/mon...I want to hear this as well.
My credentials (aka why I know what I'm talking about): I GM'd a game of BoL for two years and have also used the 1930s pulp supplement from Dicey Tales.
Quote from: Zachary The First;603518-What does it do well?
All manner of fast-paced pulp adventure, from fantasy to space opera.
For instance, BoL would do Star Wars better than either D6 or d20/Saga, and I'll predict that it would also be better for this purpose than FFG's forthcoming effort.
Quote-What does it not do so well?
The game's all about rulings rather than rules. If you need a lot of game mechanics to hold your hand, or if you find it impossible to trust a GM, move along now.
Quote-How does combat usually go?
Quickly, and with cinematic flair. It can get pretty deadly, even for experienced and competent characters, so it's worth players' holding back a Hero Point 'just in case'.
Quote-Mechanically, how different can characters be from one another?
Two characters can be almost identical in mechanical terms, yet be completely distinct from one another in play. The game mechanics are written in pretty broad strokes; the detail comes from the interpretation.
However there are sufficient options, purely in terms of careers and boons/flaws, that no two characters need to be mechanically similar. Then throw in the different and distinct approaches to sorcery and priestly blessings, different races, etc.
Quote-What's your opinion of the magic system?
Simple and easy to use. It emulates pulp/sword & sorcery tropes to perfection. Really powerful spells are available but are unlikely to be used by PCs due to the horrific costs (both in terms of their magic points and to their character's body and soul); less powerful spells are about as good as a competent character without magic. Day-to-day magic is really just a flavoursome way of achieving mundane (i.e. heroic/villainous) objectives.
The magic system also reskins with little fuss to become a system for psychic powers (see Dicey Tales #1).
Quote-Is it worth $25 or however much to pick this sucker up?
Yes.
It's also worth splashing out to get the Dicey Tales supplements.
Dogs of War is pretty good and gives you material to support a Mack Bolan/A-Team modern day game.
Barbarians of the Apocalypse is expensive but is a one-stop shop for post-apocalyptic supplementary material.
Quote-How easy is it to use with other settings?
I've run it in the Lemuria setting (Legendary edition version). I've also run the 1930s version. I've played BoL (well, Dogs of War) in a 'Car Wars + Zombies' setting for a few sessions. It copes pretty well; it's largely a matter of reskinning flavour text and tweaking a few rules.
I like BoL, but found it to be more The Savage Sword of Conan in tone and content, than R. E. Howard's Conan.
It seems best suited for one shots or short campaigns. Not sure how well it would hold up in a longer campaign.
I think that it's worth $25.
Man, I'm surprised not more discussion on this one. I thought we had several BoL players around here...
EDIT: Thanks to Al and the other responses so far, though!
Al Livingstone's answer above says nearly everything I could say on this topic, so I won't waste anyone's time by repeating it.
So I'll just mention that some people have problems with the armour rules, saying that heavily armoured characters are pretty invulnerable and a combat between two heavily armoured characters will drag on forever. Personally I've never found this a problem - although my group is playing in the default Lemurian setting - which is a hot country where people tend not to wear much armour. Also, some folks don't like the lack of crunch in the combat system. Again, we've never found this a problem. In our games a PC can come up with a snazzy combat move and the GM can rule on it - but such stuff isn't supported mechanically.
Dicey Tales is golden for a pulp game and is definitely worth getting.
Please be aware I am a total fanboy for this system.
Oh, forgot to say - it's really easy to hack to another setting. Just come up with a few new appropriate careers, boons and faults and you're good to go using standard BoL.
You can also easily tweak the core rules if necessary. Try to get a sight of the swashbuckling version Honor+Intrigue, for example - it has a slightly more involved combat system to the standard BoL mechanic.
I don't really have anything to add to what's already been said. I really like BoL, Dicey Tales and Legends of Steel (BoL Edition).
One reason perhaps, why $25 might be a bit steap for the book would be the poor editing: there's a number of misplaced apostrophes and homophone misspellings. However, this won't affect your enjoyment of the game.
Quote from: HombreLoboDomesticado;604069One reason perhaps, why $25 might be a bit steap for the book would be the poor editing: there's a number of misplaced apostrophes and homophone misspellings. However, this won't affect your enjoyment of the game.
Muphry's Law (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law) strikes again.
:)
What about character advancement? Is it suited for long-term play, say a group meeting every other weekend for 8-12 months for 4 hours a pop?
Got it as a gift, read, and it's... nice, I guess, if a tad lighter and more abstract than I usually prefer my gaming to be. Never actually got around to running it, though.
Not having stats for common animals is a glaring omission in my book.
Of the supplements, Barbarians of the Aftermath is really, really good; it can do Jericho and Gamma World and The Walking Dead and The Book of the New Sun and every imaginable post-apocalyptic setting in-between.
And Honor + Intrigue takes the BoL skeleton and fleshes it out closer to my sweet spot of crunchiness, resulting in a very interesting swashbuckling RPG. I'd love to see an "advanced BoL" using some of the new elements introduced in H+I (especioally the combat system).
Quote from: Zachary The First;604170What about character advancement? Is it suited for long-term play, say a group meeting every other weekend for 8-12 months for 4 hours a pop?
I ran BoL once per fortnight for 2 years without any issues. Remember these two things and you shouldn't go far wrong.
- Advancement is per 'saga', not per session (or even necessarily per adventure).
- Attributes and/or careers higher than 3 may begin to stretch the system.
Quote from: The Butcher;604173Not having stats for common animals is a glaring omission in my book.
Dicey Tales #2 is probably the cheapest way of getting normal animal stats, though it should be easy enough to work them out on the fly using the attributes by size table in the rulebook.
Yeah I forgot to mention advancement when in my post about what people found problematic about the system.
As Al says, you are supposed to hand out advancement points rather meanly. You start with a competant character - already far more skilled than the norm. Like in the original source material, PCs are not expected to change that much.
If you are not into zero-to-hero play, this is a feature, not a bug. If seeing your PC improve steadily, game after game, is part of what you like in rpgs - then you might find BoL advancement an issue,
Quote from: Al Livingstone;604102Muphry's Law (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law) strikes again.
:)
:duh: I'm not a native speaker/speller and I don't thoroughly proofread my posts all the time so thanks for doing it for me. Seems there's more to Muphry's Law than there is to Murphy's one.
What's wrong with the spelling of the word "misspellings", by the way, or does the word simply not exist?
I just found out that
steap is apparently the Old English way of spelling
steep... Interesting.
OK, back on topic.
Quote from: Al Livingstone;604275I ran BoL once per fortnight for 2 years without any issues. Remember these two things and you shouldn't go far wrong.
- Advancement is per 'saga', not per session (or even necessarily per adventure).
- Attributes and/or careers higher than 3 may begin to stretch the system.
I've found that the occasional Hero Point reward keeps players happy without a steady supply of XP.
Thank you all for the advice so far. Any other thoughts/comments/recollections, I'm all ears.
I've only experienced BoL as a player, and my GM is pretty awesome, but this game strikes me as brilliant. At first it looked too broad-stroaked and simple, but I find that the game mechanics design allows for stuff rather than being limited because it doesn't cover certain situations. (Did that make sense?) My group is sort of waiting for the sweet honey-moon days with this game to come to an end, to find that the staying power of the simple mechanics is running out, but so far there has been no sign of that.
I'm seriously contemplating starting a Star Wars game with the BoL rules.
For the record, I have no idea about the magic system (we haven't used it), and we rarely do character advancement in my GMs games.
Quote from: Angelman;604525(...)I'm seriously contemplating starting a Star Wars game with the BoL rules.
(...)
Rules-wise it would probably work very nicely, but have you come up with a list of careers that makes some sense/feels appropriate?
By the way, Dicey Tales #3 will contain a Hammer Horror inspired setting using the BoL rules. Working title "Karpathia".
I consider BoL one of the better games out there. Of course I am partial to rule-light games anyway, so that colours my opinions. But the system is a miracle of economy in the sense that it packs a lot of flavour in a very tight package. As a result, with just a few details BoL characters come out as well defined and rounded as characters in much crunchier systems. The game is also very good at capturing the flavour of the Sword & Sorcery genre and their are a lot of rules that enforce genre emulation.
The magic system is very cool, but it can take getting used to as it very different from the casual D&D or Harry Potter type of spellcasting. Even just casting a minor spell will probably involve a complicated ritual. Casting a serious spell might it itself become the focus of a session. But again, that is genre emulation for you.
It not a game for players that light deep tactics in combat or like to lust over equipment or hoard treasure, in fact the only way to level up is to explain how you squandered the treasure gained in the previous saga - another example of genre emulation.
There are a couple of things, having run the game for a good few sessions that I am not sure about. I find that perhaps there just aren't enough boons and flaws, especially as these are tied to the country of origin of the character. So if you should have two or more characters from the same town there is a very high chance there will be a lot of overlap. Also a good number of the flaws are very circumstantial and depending on the scenario will either never affect the character or constantly affect the character.
Also, as I am used to systems where the degree of success matters, I find the Mighty Success rule on a natural roll of 12 a little underwhelming.
Quote from: HombreLoboDomesticado;604510What's wrong with the spelling of the word "misspellings", by the way, or does the word simply not exist?
'Misspellings' is fine. I'd just highlighted it to emphasise what the issue with 'steap' was.
In any case, your English is far better than my command of your native language (regardless of which one it is! ;)).
Quote from: Al Livingstone;604533'Misspellings' is fine. I'd just highlighted it to emphasise what the issue with 'steap' was.
In any case, your English is far better than my command of your native language (regardless of which one it is! ;)).
When you're a nitpicker concerning homophone misspellings and misplaced apostrophes like me, you're bound to get your ass handed back to you sooner or later. ;) And that's not even considering my terrible mastery of proper punctuation in both English and Dutch...
Quote from: Soylent Green;604532(...)I find that perhaps there just aren't enough boons and flaws, especially as these are tied to the country of origin of the character. So if you should have two or more characters from the same town there is a very high chance there will be a lot of overlap. Also a good number of the flaws are very circumstantial and depending on the scenario will either never affect the character or constantly affect the character.
(...)
Legends of Steel (BoL Edition), a somewhat more mundane sword & sorcery setting using mostly the same rules set doesn't have Boons and Flaws tied to your origin, allowing perhaps for a bit more variety among fellow citizens of a certain city-state.
Your point about the circumstantial nature of some of the Flaws is valid, but it doesn't bother me much personally.
Quote from: Soylent Green;604532(...)I find that perhaps there just aren't enough boons and flaws, especially as these are tied to the country of origin of the character. So if you should have two or more characters from the same town there is a very high chance there will be a lot of overlap. Also a good number of the flaws are very circumstantial and depending on the scenario will either never affect the character or constantly affect the character.
(...)
Legends of Steel (BoL Edition), a somewhat more mundane sword & sorcery setting using mostly the same rules set doesn't have Boons and Flaws tied to your origin, allowing perhaps for a bit more variety among fellow citizens of a certain city-state.
Your point about the circumstantial nature of some of the Flaws is valid, but it doesn't bother me much personally.
Think I was the first to run a play by post game on the BoL forum (or if not the first, the first to have a clearly defined finish to the game, though that was as much down to the player drop out you get in play by post games as anything else). I thought the system leant itself well to play by post - the rules never get in the way and there's not a lot to keep track of. I'm not a fan of licensed settings in RPGs but Lemuria seems to be 'setting-lite' which suited me - I like to fill in the blanks rather than have everything mapped and defined to the nth degree.
If I recall (when the game wrapped I moved onto other systems - in fact it may have rekindled my interest in Tunnels and Trolls for a more high fantasy/heavy on the magic style fantasy game) the player characters start out as being fairly heroic and competent, as opposed to your usual freshly minted pink and steaming 1st level dead man/woman/elf/dwarf walking. I also got the feeling that long term play might highlight flaws (in that mooks and lower strength enemies would prove no challenge, much in the way Stormtroopers become in the Star Wars D6 game) but never got the chance to test it out as the game wrapped up with a definite finish.
I would have liked to have seen the system adapted to a Superhero setting but Simon turned Supers! out instead. A high fantasy/magic setting and system for dungeon crawling might be worth considering using the same system.
I'd recommend the PDF version first, see what you think, run a one shot and I'm sure you'll take the plunge for the printed version. Get it here (http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/barbarians-of-lemuria)
What about Legends of Steel? Good pickup for BoL? I've heard it's a must-have, and I've heard it's ok, but not a must-have.
Love the simplicity and the character creation phase. Especially with the background/skill packages. But have no idea what story/scenerio to run that keeps me engaged.
Quote from: Marleycat;604617Love the simplicity and the character creation phase. Especially with the background/skill packages. But have no idea what story/scenerio to run that keeps me engaged.
Well in its purest form sword & sorcery, and by extension BoL, lends itself best towards episodic play. In roleplaying terms that is both a curse and a blessing. It's a blessing if you have an irregular gaming schedule with fluctuating player turn out. It's a curse in that episodic gaming lack the sort of self-perpetuating momentum of an ongoing campaign.
But that doesn't mean BoL has to be run in an episodic fashion. You can sandbox it as well, though you might need to reconsider the advancement rules in that case. What I don't think BoL would do well is dungeon/hex crawling in that it doesn't really cater for the tactical/logistics challenges of attritional play.
Quote from: Soylent Green;604625Well in its purest form sword & sorcery, and by extension BoL, lends itself best towards episodic play. In roleplaying terms that is both a curse and a blessing. It's a blessing if you have an irregular gaming schedule with fluctuating player turn out. It's a curse in that episodic gaming lack the sort of self-perpetuating momentum of an ongoing campaign.
But that doesn't mean BoL has to be run in an episodic fashion. You can sandbox it as well, though you might need to reconsider the advancement rules in that case. What I don't think BoL would do well is dungeon/hex crawling in that it doesn't really cater for the tactical/logistics challenges of attritional play.
So a good choice for pickup game similar to how Paranoia and Tales of the Vagabond does but Conan vibe?
Quote from: Marleycat;604628So a good choice for pickup game similar to how Paranoia and Tales of the Vagabond does but Conan vibe?
I think BoL is certainly is ideally suited for pick up games. Easy to learn rules, quick character generation and the very loose and accessible setting all work towards that.
That said I'm a little wary of using the label "pick up" game is a little unfortunate because in the mind of a lot of roleplayers it often translates to a somewhat "lesser" or "beer and pretzel" sort of game that lacks any real long term appeal and require no commitment from the players when in fact classics like Call of Cthulhu are also ideal for on shots too.
There are a few free BoL adventures with a Lovecraftian vibe here http://www.strangestones.com/downloads/ if you are interested.
Quote from: HombreLoboDomesticado;604527Rules-wise [BOL] would probably work very nicely [for Star Wars], but have you come up with a list of careers that makes some sense/feels appropriate?
No, I haven't given it much though yet - I'm still contemplating whether or not to do it, although everything is better then WEG's D6 (which I had a 10 years love-affair with before I just couldn't stand it any longer). ;)
From the top of my head, I would use the standard SW RPGs character templates as BoL careers: Luke Skywalker in SW4 would probably be,
Brash Pilot 2, Farmhand 1, (Droid) Mechanic 1, Jedi 0, or something similar. Han Solo in SW4 might be,
Smuggler 2, Rogue 1, Gunslinger 1, (Ship) Mechanic 0.
I have no idea how to handle alien species and the Force though. (Or indeed, SciFi equipment, but that shouldn't be too hard to figure out).
The Lords of Lemuria Website has discussed Star Wars adaptations a couple of times - here is one thread:
http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=515&mforum=d6fantasy
This website is a great place to find ideas on alternative advancement, hacks to other genres, D7D hacks and houserules, etc. It's worth checking out:
http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/index.php?mforum=d6fantasy
Thank you, Gruntfuttock :)
This should be very helpful!
BoL is a freewheeling game that can be seen as the successor of
d6, despite being mechanically different. But it is equally easy to adapt to different settings and genres, and it is becoming a kind of generic system.
In France there are at least two games that hacked the
BoL system, now nicknamed "
Cheap Tales": the SF game
Mahamoth and the multidimensional game
Millemarches, both written and illustrated by John Grümph. Grümph is a big fan of
BoL, having both translated and illustrated the French edition. His art now graces the second edition US rulebook as well. (He even ditched his own
d20 hack,
dK, for
Cheap Tales.)
(Grümph is the new Croc - a very dedicated gamer and designer who creates systems and settings with a snip of his fingers. And when he's not designing he is translating. Like
BoL , Clinton Nixon's
Paladin, or AntiPaladin's
Mini Six. Or illustrating. Or all of the above, leading to a reimagination of Croc's sword & sorcery classic
Bloodlust. Here is the homepage (http://www.leludiste.fr/bloodlust/press/) and download link to the new quickstart set, powered by another of his systems,
Metal.)
Alas, the German
BoL did not use Grümph's artwork.
Spoiler
(http://www.ulisses-spiele.de/media/images/produkt-Barbarians-of-Lemuria-Cover_6ef9_c.jpg)
Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;604887Spoiler
(http://www.ulisses-spiele.de/media/images/produkt-Barbarians-of-Lemuria-Cover_6ef9_c.jpg)
Fucking Europeans plastering their vastly superior artwork and production values all over our solid, reliable, drab games. Who the fuck do they think they are? It's like they invented Western civilization or something.
:D
Quote from: The Butcher;604899Fucking Europeans plastering their vastly superior artwork and production values all over our solid, reliable, drab games.
I greatly prefer the current US cover (which is an edit of Grümph's French cover):
Spoiler
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OwHuSWQwxA4/Tkvw3-Bx0nI/AAAAAAAAAR0/dw2YoDIZaLk/s1600/SmallBoL-Cover-BBG.jpg)
And I like the Portuguese cover:
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nBIibJm7q8E/TuOZA945v5I/AAAAAAAAA1E/Ace_WE2aJnE/s1600/BdL+-+Capa.jpg)
I can't stand the German cover (or interior artwork).
I like BoL in principle, although I find that taking combat-specific careers ends up short-changing the character, since careers don't generally directly affect combat.
Quote from: APN;604541Think I was the first to run a play by post game on the BoL forum (or if not the first, the first to have a clearly defined finish to the game, though that was as much down to the player drop out you get in play by post games as anything else). (...)
As a matter of fact I took part in that game and I do believe you were the first. I was really enjoying it, intent on not dropping out, but alas... :( Still, it was a fun game and I think everybody really enjoyed it.
Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;604909I greatly prefer the current US cover (...)
I also think the German cover sucks. The girl on the Portuguese one turned out looking rather emaciated. I like the US/UK one, of which, by the way, there is a topless and a "bikini top" version :D. Not sure which version was distributed where.
Quote from: HombreLoboDomesticado;604975I also think the German cover sucks. The girl on the Portuguese one turned out looking rather emaciated. I like the US/UK one, of which, by the way, there is a topless and a "bikini top" version :D. Not sure which version was distributed where.
I actually prefer the German cover, which vaguely reminds me of those lush color covers on Marvel's Savage Sword of Conan.
The French cover is very cool too, the style reminds me of Mike Mignola which I think is a great vibe for a swords-and-sorcery RPG.
The Brazilian one is crap, though. Forgive me, fellow countrymen, but this is some stiff competition.
Quote from: APN;604541I would have liked to have seen the system adapted to a Superhero setting but Simon turned Supers! out instead.
League of Heroes (the BoL supers game) is now being playtested. Simon posted a link to download it on the BoL forums a month or two ago, iirc.
Quote from: Dan Davenport;604970I like BoL in principle, although I find that taking combat-specific careers ends up short-changing the character, since careers don't generally directly affect combat.
I'd disagree with this. Careers do so much, not effecting combat isn't such a big deal imho. When I played it, not being able to use those careers to aid combat didn't really make us any less bad ass S&S heroes.
In our BoL Lemurian campaign the players overthrew the corrupt ruler of a city state and put the rightful queen on the throne. As well as lots of spying and a few 'special ops' jobs, there was an army to raise, equip and feed - and two battles to fight. So the Soldier career came in very useful in our games.
Quote from: urbwar;605196I'd disagree with this. Careers do so much, not effecting combat isn't such a big deal imho. When I played it, not being able to use those careers to aid combat didn't really make us any less bad ass S&S heroes.
They definitely do a lot, and I actually love that approach; I'd just suggest that the more combat-oriented a character is, the less bang for the buck he's going to get out of his careers.
Quote from: Gruntfuttock;605214In our BoL Lemurian campaign the players overthrew the corrupt ruler of a city state and put the rightful queen on the throne. As well as lots of spying and a few 'special ops' jobs, there was an army to raise, equip and feed - and two battles to fight. So the Soldier career came in very useful in our games.
So, couldn't the Soldier career be used for stuff like knowing the palace guard's patrol schedule, examining a battlefield to see what transpired before the heroes arrived, recruiting mercenaries for a big job, or getting in good with the city guard?
It sounds as if the careers are pretty broad in what they can apply to as written in the text; is that a correct assumption?
OK, to change it up a bit here, can someone give me a clear example of what each level of magic might contain, and what the cost would be for each?
Quote from: Zachary The First;605220So, couldn't the Soldier career be used for stuff like knowing the palace guard's patrol schedule, examining a battlefield to see what transpired before the heroes arrived, recruiting mercenaries for a big job, or getting in good with the city guard?
It sounds as if the careers are pretty broad in what they can apply to as written in the text; is that a correct assumption?
That's exactly how it works.
It's the stuff you know, also using the career to get a job/get in touch/make friends with similar professionals, and having some idea of what has happened/might happen next (e.g. predictions based on 'military science' in the case of the Soldier career).
Quote from: Dan Davenport;605217They definitely do a lot, and I actually love that approach; I'd just suggest that the more combat-oriented a character is, the less bang for the buck he's going to get out of his careers.
In the game I played in, one of the characters was able to get a lot of mileage out of his hunter career, and he was pretty bad ass in combat. Even though we were in the jungle, my pirate career came in handy, as I could still navigate by the stars, and when we captured some people, I was the one who secured them (tying knots is a skill a pirate would have). I'd say from my experience, that just isn't true.
What good adventures are out there that are usable for BoL? The Conan d20 modules and those done by Xoth Publishing seem good, but what else is out there?
In Post 26 on Page 3 of this thread Soylent Green provided a link to G-Man's free BoL scenarios on Downloads page of the Strange Stones site. There are three Lovecraftian themed fantasy adventures, and two Hyborian adventures (double stated for BoL/BRP).
There is another G-Man Hyborian adventure on the site, but the link hasn't been posted to the Download page – you can find it here:
http://www.strangestones.com/hyborian-bol-adventure-ghosts-of-acheron/
Aside from these six adventures, there is very little around, specifically written for BoL. Follow the link to The Lords of Lemuria site I put into Post 28, and you will find a few outlines here and there if you poke around.
Dicey Tales 2 is worth getting (cost $10 pdf download) as it includes two scenarios (one Lemurian and one more standard S&S fantasy) and also a real world bestiary – you can buy it here:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/108110/Dicey-Tales-%232
If you want to use it for Hyboria (as many do) then the best thing is to get the out-of-print Road of Kings from Mongoose and eyeball a conversion - you can do that easily with BoL and it's better than trying to do anything more involved.
Legends of Steel - BoL Edition has a few scenarios for a standard (non-Lemurian) S&S world - you can buy it here:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/81748/Legends-of-Steel---Barbarians-of-Lemuria-Edition
But BoL is very easy to write adventures for in my experience.
Just go with the careers on your player's sheets and bring in consequences from their past lives. PCs will start with four careers, so why did they leave the three in their past?
The default Lemurian setting has little detail (which I regard as a plus, while others find this an issue), and also many find it too weird (no horses or other familiar animals). One thing that is clear is that two of the major city states are keen rivals, so I used this as background - the drift to an inevitable war. I then took on the PC's interests and played to that against the political situation. They are now known in the world and high in the court of a middle ranking city state. Both major powers are after the support of the Queen they serve, and they will soon be knee deep in spies, assassination attempts and the need to bolster the Royal Treasury for the coming conflict.
This all evolved quite organically - but I do have pro-active players and I'm an improvisational GM, so it was easy for us to play this way. If you are looking for a series of one-off/episodic adventures you will either have to write then yourself, or if you don't have the time adapt the Mongoose material for Conan.
Quote from: Zachary The First;605220OK, to change it up a bit here, can someone give me a clear example of what each level of magic might contain, and what the cost would be for each?
Here's one example for a game a while back. The situation was a barbarian and sorcerer character were in prison to be pitted in the arena the next day against a huge monster critter. The sorcerer declared he will prepare a spell to sooth the monster and help the barbarian defeat him. This falls under a First Level Magnitude Spell the effects of which can be modeled on the Valgardian War Cry Boon (hot tip - if you even need a special effect model it on a boon).
The catch being that one of the requirements to cast a spell (as defined previously by the player himself) is that he needs to be playing a musical instrument. So while the sorcerer meditates for the 1d6 x 30 minutes (another requirement for the spell) the barbarian ( a hot Red Sonya type) flirts with the guards trying desperately to get him to get her a musical instrument of some sort, which eventually he does in the form of a flute.
In arena, the sorcerer spends the fight sitting cross legged on the floor playing the flute while the barbarian faces off the monster. Every round the sorcerer rolls his Mind and his Sorcerer level against the difficulty level of the spell. Whenever he succeeds the critters attack and defence rolls are at penalty (he rolls 3 dice and discards the best one) giving the barbarian the necessary edge to succeed.
The point of the example is to show how casting a single spell in BoL isn't just an fire and forget action to be resolved in a round but something you need to think about creatively and which becomes a major part of the story (yes, I went there, I said 'story'!).
Great example there SG. :)
One point that is worth making about BoL is that one of the ways it really reproduces the feel of the original source material, is that really works fine with just a couple of PCs - and would play great I suspect with just a single PC.
Let's face it, S&S stories usually feature single heroes or a team of two partners. The traditional rpg party of 4-6 adventurers doesn't really feature. (And a common complaint these days is the difficulty of finding players.)
PCs are competent out of the gate and the majority of the world's inhabitants are usually less skilled. So the main threat is big beasties, monsters and bad asses like the PCs themselves. But you still have to be sneaky and play intelligently - the PCs aren't invulnerable.
So a sorceror and a swordswoman is a balanced party (and you don't need one PC to be a sorceror anyway).