I kind of stopped paying attention to Modiphius' Conan after the KS. However, all but one of the chapters of the rulebook has now been released to the KS Backers. The last chapter released was the Gazetteer and it clocks in at 66 pages and gives a good indication of what to expect from the upcoming Conan the XX books.

I guess given the Conan scholars involved its not surprising that the setting lore would be good, but I also found the presentation to be great. I have really struggled with Conan RPGs in the past as they tend to present the setting in a dry way and lacking real detail. Other than the lore itself, the Modiphius Gazetteer adds some interesting elements, sich as:

- Prof John Kirowan, a modern scholar (and easter egg), looking back at the Hyborian Age as an antediluvian prehistory. This is a light touch but real adds a level of realism that is integral to Conan.
- Quotes, letters, and other IC materials from characters in the setting (who appear in the Conan stories). These is also used to give the Gazetteer an almost Howard like voice in its description at the start of each region.
- Information on campaign type that coincides with the region. The Argos and Zingara chapter has details of piracy, ship crews, sea trading etc. I also liked how each region started with a focus area, like Zamora in the "Thief" region of Zamora, Corinthia and Brythunia. The whole region is covered but the information seems presented in a way to support actual play.
- The material presented focusses on the REH stories, though there is afair amount of material added to connect and embellish that material beyond the single lense of Conan and his adventures.

It will be interested to see if they keep this up with the forthcoming books. My initial strong negative reaction to the Doom Pool has been somewhat tempered by a postive reaction to the mechanics for culture, sorcery and the bestiary, as well as the way talents were bundled up by Skill. But the Gazetteer may actually see this as doing for Conan, what TOR does for Lord of the Rings.

I blew a wad on the KS and am psyched! A lifetime REH fan and long time player of the old d20 Conan. Cannot wait!

I have doubts about the system TBH, especially the Doom Pool. And I have concerns about Modiphius's approach to KS in funding and producing so many books in such a short time. But to their credit, the rulebook, especially the setting lore, has turned out very well. If the series is completed in similar fashion, then it should be good.

So much so, it has me revisiting the system. I posted about removing the unnecessary damage dice for static damage in another thread. Also, I am pretty sure that the Doom Pool can be turned into a pure NPC Momentum pool, which is much less of an issue for me. The system otherwise is looking good. Sorcery and talents particularly impressed.

Gotta say I'm thrilled with the chunk of books coming out rather than the trickle you have to wait through for some projects. I'm a little iffy on the doom mechanic too, having played the preview a bit, but I'll reserve judgement for a while.

It might have been pointed out by someone here, but if you remove spending Doom for complications and environmental effects, it effectively becomes NPC Momentum with added simplified NPC resource management. The adversarial aspect is less than I originally expected and this change would set player expectations to something more usual too.

Definitely happy with how they've been releasing chapters for review. Way more transparency then, say, Monolith's very late Conan boardgame. Grr...

I'm not sold - or even familiar - with the 2d20 system, but the PDF Master still too good a deal to pass up, given that I'd want to read them just as reference no matter what system I use.

The bonus "Oh, and you get everything Mongoose ever did, just for lulz" was pretty nifty, too.

The Mongoose bundle made the thing a no brainer.  I did a playtest, it's posted here, I think removing the buying aspect and just running with straight momentum would eliminate the narrative logic.  Of course, you need to hack the system because restricting some PC actions and NPC actions to just momentum won't make sense.

I am OK with the Doom Pool for NPC momentum and resource management. As you know, I am cool with narrative elements for rules, just not ones that put the GM into an adversial role. As such, its only when the resource becomes necessary for the GM to do stuff that the GM should be able to do regardless, like adding complications and environmental effects, that I struggle.

The amount of Mongoose material is good, but I found the setting lore to be poorly presented for the most part. Modiphius seems a significant improvement in this regard.

Oh and it was your playtest post, that kept me in at a PDF level when I was otherwise out, CRK. That may have been a costly move for me as I am now considering print books

Quote from: darthfozzywig;921519Definitely happy with how they've been releasing chapters for review. Way more transparency then, say, Monolith's very late Conan boardgame. Grr...

Not to derail the thread, but I think Monolith has been great including in terms of transparency. They owned up early in terms of the release of funds and set and stuck with the current date for almost a year now. I guess its a matter of what you take away, and expect from, the updates.

Getting back to the lore, the sidebar on the Black Circle's tower is a good example of a piece that is informative, atmospheric, and inspiring:

QuoteFORTRESS OF THE BLACK CIRCLE

The mighty, snow-covered Himelian Mountains loom large in the midst of all the Eastern nations. They look down menacingly upon the foothill nations of Ghulistan and Kosala like ever-present granite denizens, standing in god-like judgement and permanence. Even from the depths of steaming Vendhyan forests and Khitan jungles, the white wall of Himelian majesty peaks through the canopies like a distant beacon. All Eastern peoples know and respect the "roof of the world" so high above the earth, a permanent barrier once thrust up from the Earth by the titanic continental convulsions that ripped the world asunder. They've buried a multitude of foolhardy travelers and endless secrets beneath tons of snow and ice, while shrouding mysterious magics behind veils of mist and blinding brightness. The mountain fortress of the Black Circle on Mount Yimsha fills folk with wonder and dread across the rest of the continent.

Apprentice sorcerers spend a lifetime of lifetimes in Ghulistan, on Mount Yimsha where the Black Seers sculpt their minds again and again until the original person is entirely lost: gone is the fellow who so carelessly petitioned to learn their ancient craft! Cut off in their fortress though these students are, they come to know the surrounding hill country well, wandering among its hardened peoples during pilgrimages and meditations, testing their new teachings upon them from time to time. The Master of Yimsha encourages this, so long as it is done carefully and not cruelly.

It must take a particular character of the mind or peculiarity of the consciousness to adapt to the Master of Yimsha's mastery of the universe. For that is what the Black Seers possess, a union with the primordial forces that bind the fabric of creation together and yet separate the realms of humanity and the Outer Dark. The Black Seers sense the pulse of all magic, or so it is said, and are able to twist reality — even wring it out completely at times — to pull forth the energies that fuel their ancient craft.

Jealous competitors, many of whom covet inclusion in the Black Circle but whose requests have fallen upon deaf ears, suggest that what the Seers do is not actually magic in the strictest sense, but something altogether unique and different, nothing like the spells they cast or potions they concoct. If there are two orders of sorcerous endeavor, then the Black Seers seem to be of the higher one.

Once fully initiated by its bone-chilling rituals of body and soul, the dark-robed denizens of the high plateau fortress seldom leave it. Just on occasion do they appear in the nearby villages and cities seeking recruits or send ambassadors to lofty capitals and courts, though why beings with mastery of unnatural passage should choose to walk on sandaled feet is anyone's guess. What they desire, they acquire, and what they need to know, they discover. For a hundred miles in any direction the very air crackles with their omnipresent sorcery, as witnessed by the hedge mages who complain bitterly that within their realm they leave only scraps of knowledge unused!

For all their supposed order and enormous powers, the Black Seers' means to perpetuate their order appear as varied as the mountainous peaks that surround them. Fledgling wizards have done no more than pound a fist against their massive gates to gain entrance and inclusion, while aged court mages have labored a lifetime and expired while all their royally-endorsed petitions to the Black Circle have gone completely unnoticed. Seers have appeared before travelers upon the roads or in the homes of peasants and noblemen, extending their hand and an offer of apprenticeship. Where now is the child who disappeared mysteriously from its crib in the night? Might the Black Seers have peered into its infant mind and found something there they desired?

It's very evocative, but, not necessarily anything we didn't already know.  It seems like the purpose is to put forth a comprehensive view of the Hyborian Age, compiled from both original sources (the published works) as well as other sources GMs may not have, (letters and such).

However, the one thing I still am fairly certain we will not see from the Modiphius crew is the type of informed speculative extrapolations that would actually help in the day to day running of the campaign.  

For example, we know Aquilonia is heavily feudal, with the various Dukes and Barons holding an immense amount of forested land as their desmense, meaning farming and economic resource expansion had to come through gaining territory.  We also know that King Conan began a process of taking away some of this land, and opening it up to settlements.  

What we don't know, really at all, are the names of the various Dukes or Barons (other than a couple names) and aside from a couple of key areas, and a couple of extremely sketchy maps, we really know nothing of the interior design of Aquilonia.  Not even anything as simple as this:

Spoiler

Whenever this topic is broached, the people at Modiphius invariably respond saying that they don't want to get to the detail level of "the annual grain output of Aquilonia" which is frankly, quite a disingenuous reply, as anyone making games should know there is a difference in detail between annual grain output and the most basic facts about a country a GM can take and run with.

In Mongoose's run, Vincent Darlage made a decision some found controversial, and decided to add information from the Pastiche writers, in an effort to provide more "official" detail, and then he did what any good game designer HAS to do, he made shit up to fill in the blanks.  Now, being a Howard scholar himself, the shit he made up was perhaps more informed that what others might do, but it wasn't Howard.

As Mike Pondsmith says in that article linked in another thread, if you're taking a literary setting and turning it into a game, you have to extrapolate and fill in the blanks.  Paraphrasing him "No one thinks about where the bathrooms are in Star Wars until a PC wants to hide in a bathroom."

Everything I've seen and heard from Modiphius leads me to believe they are going to deliver micro-details, useful for the running of a specific adventure (and as such could be probably used in different places/times) and not attempt to build a RPG world out of Howard's literary one.

Its a difficult line to tread.

I found the Modiphius information useful from an RPG perspective as it did add material that turned the setting lore into more useful lore for the table. This was mostly by linking material together and by expanding behind what is seen in the REH stories. A good example of this was the detail in the Mercenary, Pirate and Brigand chapters about how such groups operate.

Quote from: Skywalker;921336It will be interested to see if they keep this up with the forthcoming books.

That's our goal.

Quote from: Skywalker;921408And I have concerns about Modiphius's approach to KS in funding and producing so many books in such a short time.

Believe me, there are days when I wish we were doing it more sequential than in a big burst. It is like a cook trying to deal with a stove-top with four burners going, while you're also trying to handle prep and plating for other meals.

Quote from: CRKrueger;921758However, the one thing I still am fairly certain we will not see from the Modiphius crew is the type of informed speculative extrapolations that would actually help in the day to day running of the campaign.
...
Everything I've seen and heard from Modiphius leads me to believe they are going to deliver micro-details, useful for the running of a specific adventure (and as such could be probably used in different places/times) and not attempt to build a RPG world out of Howard's literary one.

That's news to me, and I can pass that along to the writing team.

While I will admit that I'm not fond if the "Messantia has 13,782 residents" and "Brythunia's economy is bolstered by agriculture such as wheat, rye, potatoes, and beets" style of presenting background information, the material we are producing introduces new characters, new location names, and extrapolates profoundly on the canon. The sections on the different ways of life (barbarian, thief, mercenary, pirate, brigand, scout, and king) go into some detail to describe exactly how the day-to-day running of a campaign would work from the players' and the gamemasters' perspectives.

For example, few months ago while working on Nameless Cults, I turned in roughly 2000 words on the cult of Mitra, including the Mysteries and how one progresses within them, which is considerably more than REH wrote about the deity. The core rulebook encounters chapter includes monsters and creatures never appearing in the stories. The gazetteer alone was full of original content.

Additionally, I get frequent emails from the REH scholars saying "is this name new or from pastiche?" and the answer is always "new" (except for one instance where it was inadvertently matching something in pastiche, which happens).

Quote from: Jason D;921830While I will admit that I'm not fond if the "Messantia has 13,782 residents" and "Brythunia's economy is bolstered by agriculture such as wheat, rye, potatoes, and beets" style of presenting background information

Here's exactly what I'm talking about Jason.  Please tell me you are not seriously suggesting that this type of detail is the same level of detail as breaking Aquilonia down into something as simplistic as Northumberland, Wessex, Mercia, etc...

Not the personal households of every Baron and their income.
Not the statistics for their mistresses.
Not the 12 types of trees in Aquilonia and their relative worths by plank length.
Not Harnmanor: Aquilonia Edition.

But simply..."You know those Baronies that so much of politics and conflict in Aquilonia is based around? Here's a list of them and where they are."

You know, something other than a country at least the size of France described with an outline, two rivers and an eastern border of mountains...and that's it.

Edit: Heck, Howard's own typewriter tells us that Conan was responsible for selling the ill-gotten gains of the Tigress.  He was captain of several pirate ships on the ocean and Vilayet and was a leader of Kozaks as well as Afghulis, as well as a general, captain of the guards, and ran his own mercenary company before becoming King...and then was King...all within the primary texts of Howard's books.

If you ignore giving enough Hyborian detail to actually deal with politics, economics, at multiple scales, then it's basically a "Conan game where you stop before either Conan or the PCs can attain the goals Conan did."

Quote from: Skywalker;921408I have doubts about the system TBH, especially the Doom Pool.

You could always run it in GURPS Conan, or your favorite Conan (or not) game system, no?