Finally a Conan RPG that also seems to feel like Conan. Until now, Barbarians of Lemuria was my go-to Sword & Sorcery game, but that could change now. Conan THA seems to have everything I'm looking for. A fast, action-oriented set of rules, character options that fit the setting, rules for minions and atmospheric, dark sorcery and - very important - lots of adventures that can be prepared quickly and whose focus is the High Adventure! Btw: Yes, I would like to see more of this game on your channel!
I like the optimism. Although BoL, or even something like Savage Worlds, still looks good when it comes to quick rules-light sword & sorcery. This new Conan RPG appears rather thin on content and the mechanics don't feature much that stands out to me. Perhaps that will change after seeing more of it in the future, dunno. Hopefully something changes my mind after release.
I'm all in on it, and really, really want to love it (absolutely love the boardgame), but this seems like a really mixed bag. The Origins look either to general or to specific & limiting, Sorcery doesn't look mysterious or corrupting (healing & snake arrow spells? Really guys...) and the only cost is spending some points. Easy mode PC death & Respite rules feels weak and more 5E than Conan. The Minions rules seem almost as fiddly as just using normal enemy rules (hard to say though), Some terminology just feels out of place, like "Flex" die is face-palm bad, "Stamina" doesn't really describe what those points do etc... Other than the awesome art the mechanics themselves don't seem to be reinforcing that Conan vibe. Hopefully the final release ends up better than the glimpses I've seen.
The Modiphius 2D20 Conan has a lot of setting books which can help if the DM needs help on the setting. PDF’s of them can be found in various places(nowhere legit as Modiphous lost the license), if you weren’t foolish like me and bought the books from a company that lost the license.
I backed it. I like the rules, but as a big Sword & Sorcery fan, what absolutely sold me was the art. Gorgeous, exciting, and unapologetically sensual. Exactly what this kind of book needs. That mini collection as well... not that I need more, but it convinced me to go to the King tier!
I still think the best Conan simulator ever is Barbarians of Lemuria. A Shane they didn't have the budget for cool art, but the rules system and the whole book are golden. Simple mechanics, high customizability
They recently finished a KS to bring the french version of it to the english speaking world. The pages are gorgeous. Plan is to translate the entire french line and then some more if there's enough interest. The core book is currently in printing. Too bad it's not a hardcover, but hopefully it becomes popular enough to justify an hardcover run.
@@Iulian111 I saw this and thought of backing it but I already own every previous edition of BoL (Mythic and Legendary in hardcover). If they release a hardcover I'm liable to pick up this edition as well!
I´m backing the game - I played the Quickstart and it was a blast. Please, keep track of this game and make some more videos for it in the future. Great to see some more pages of the upcoming book in this interesting introduction 👍
Great overview, even for backers like myself. The rule lite action focus seems appropriate for the setting and if one wants to do something more crunchy its easy to just drop in whatever system you like (maybe The Broken Empires) so I'm really happy with this and they already talking about wanting to support it with a lot of supplements and expansions down the line ⚔
Thanks for a great, comprehensive review, it really fleshes the game out. We've been playing the game for about a month now through the Quick Start edition they put out. It's a good introduction to the basic mechanics, and we are loving the system. We can't wait for the release as there are details in character development we need, but the game is definitely worth it. The intro scenarios seem to be geared towards learning how the basic rules work. If you like RPGs and Conan, definitely check this out while the Kickstart is still active.
I backed the board game at the King tier and now I'm back a decade or so later to back the RPG! Definitely hope you do more coverage and a deeper dive into this one. I'm thinking 2025 is the year of Conan, at least in my own personal gaming endeavors.
I am a Monolith fan and have all the Conan board game material. I have not found a Conan RPG to my satisfaction, but this looks like it might be it. I really like the focus on getting the game to the table with adventures over exhaustive setting material. Having straightforward mechanics is also refreshing. Monolith’s Batman RPG is also very good, though it uses a different system derived from d20.
It is awseome, much is re-used from the boardgame, but almost everything shown is just single characters standing in a pose. I hope there's a lot more variety, more full scenes, action pieces etc...
I also posted a link to this vid over on the kickstarter comments section, as I'm sure people will be interested to see the book and what you think of the game.
I'm backing this at a king pledge, basically all in. So thank you for this, it was great to see the book, hope we get more coverage. I'd love to see the figures, I know they are from the board game (I have that) but it difficult to see what exactly you are getting, especially with the stretch goals coming thick and fast.
All the minis are from the Boardgame core box, plus the King box extras (Kickstarter version), plus the boardgame stretch goals box. All the stretch goal minis for the Rpg are from the boardgame Conqueror expansion. If you have the Kickstarter core game and the Conqueror expansion, then you already have all these minis
I have very mixed feelings about this game. The Modihpius one was very clunky and really needed some, weel a lot, of streamlining here and there, but from a very superficial read and Dave's description, this new one didn't won me over for three reasons: 1) the various origins swing a bit too much between generic and specific; you can trace them easily to various Howard's stories, but for me they seem to fall short in covenying the size and scope of the Hyborian world, especially if you want to take a little step beyond the established Howard's stories (which is exactly what any IP-heavy RPG should do). 2) from what little I was able to understand the Flex Die provides a safety net which doesn't really gel with my image of the Hyborian Age, the auto-success seems a pretty big crutch. 3) speaking of crutchs, both the "Fate Intervention" and the paragraph about heavy armor scream of poor design to me; I'm not against them in principle, but they offload a significant amount of authority and responsibility upon the GM.
How would you compare it to the one by Modiphius? Modiphiu's developers and writers were very careful and respectful in their exploration of the S&S genre and its links to Lovecraft.
@H-HWJvN they're streamlined, satisfying, fast, and highly customizable when it comes to character progression. I'm insanely biased because I designed the game, but this is the sword and sorcery RPG I've always dreamed of making. Despite having written splat books for the Modiphius game, those mechanics were not for me. This one is quick to learn, prep, and get to table while also offering satisfying depth. anything that bogged down the action got cut with extreme prejudice.
@matthewsullivan7443 I'll wait for it. I live overseas and the shipping costs now are just impossible; I won't be able to buy the physical copies but I'll wait for the DTRPG PDF. Good luck with the Kickstarter!
Honestly this is more of a play as a Conan clone RPG than a play in an Hyperborean setting kinda game. Conan is an exception in this world. Its a dying, extremely dangerous and harsh world in which Conan strives contrary to the rest of the world. Its not bad per say but it emphasizes on Conan rather than the lore Howard created in the end. I'm more of an Hyperborean fan so this is clearly not for me as its flexibility and focus on HEROISM is completely opposed to what Hyperborea is....... unless your Conan which you are not supposed to be. Also, sorcery is way too present from what I'm seeing. Artwork is hella fine though props on that! Im gonna stick to Modiphius Conan and Hyperborea TTRPG ( Highly recommend this one ) for my Hyperborean fix!
Those miniatures and maps are all from the boardgame, I believe, of which I own quite a bit. I find them to be excellent quality. Monolith can likely offer a decent deal on bulk miniatures because the molds are already made. I may back this one for the PDFs and use them as reference aids for a different system (this system is not to my liking).
I am not a massive fan of the origins, where people from city are either thieves or shcolar, why are there so many magic origins? Magic is supposed to be kinda rare in Conan. But that is really more nitpick in the end. Overall it seems like a bit more hack and slash oriented game, but it might be fun.
On the world...there is a ton information about available to read. I wonder they felt you could explore other sources if you wanted. I backed this and would love more coverage
It might sound heretical but I lean into Clarke Ashton Smith more than Lovecraft in terms of background cosmic horror. Having mechanics accentuate the setting and action is where its at imo as well. Its great to see. Like WEG "d6" Star Wars or some others; when it works it really kicks ass. I wish that the economic realities weren't what they are so that I could swing this, but thats a sob story that is tedious and tiresome so I'll just suck it up. Thanks for the fine video production!
A very comprehensive review of the rpg. The artwork looks great. The mechanics I will have to try out. I wonder how this will compare to the other Conan game being published by Autarch as a supplement to the second edition to the Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg coming out.
Not sure, that wasn't based on the real Conan stuff but some other guys Conan books. Is that even still coming out? Since ACKs is just a DnD20 reskin I'd imagine it may be similar to the Mongoose Conan S20 game.
I think it would take 8-10 minutes to homebrew the mechanics for a knight origin, probably someone from Aquilonia or Nemedia. Or you could wait for an official expansion (not sure if there will be one, or if will contain knights).
In reality there really were a Cimmerian people, and no they were not from England or Doggerland, they were essentially Steppe people in what today would be Russia today, or parts thereof, or some other Asian nation. My favorite is Iranistan. I call California, Californistan so I get where Howard is coming from. Stan just means 'land of'
It seems a lot of GM decision to reign in the sorcery aspect, given there are so many by origins with magical background. I would’ve loved more mechanical variety on the origins, especially the non magical ones. On the death mechanic: every good GM knows the price of character death. So it’s your job to work around it without taking off the edge of death. Never make it super transparent, slightly adjust damage done by NPCs, keep player characters just „at the edge“. Death doesn’t need to actually happen for players to feel adrenaline. That is weak writing in many stories. Where they kill a side character to „heighten the stakes“. writers and story tellers can do that without all the character murder. In the Conan stories you know Conan is not going to die. Yet you feel the threat of it constantly. Another example: what feels more exciting, dying in Solesbourne games, or making it juuuuust in the last microsecond. I bet you would still feel adrenaline if you’d beat every boss without dying in the very last second. In Soulsborne games that is impossible, because you have no DM, that’s why you die constantly. But the death is not what makes those games fun. It’s how tough they are and that as a skilled player you still often only make it by the last second.
Totally different mechanics, Modiphius is roll under 2d20 and crunchier, but much of that crunch also gave it strong ties to the Conan theme. It heavily uses meta currency (Doom & Momentum) for both players and the GM which gives it very strong Conan/S&S vibes and awesome moments. But is can also be fiddly and at times confusing and/or slows the game down, and many rpger's dislike meta currency in general let alone as a central mechanic. As written PCs start too powerful, but the optional starting PC rules help fix this (should have been the default). Combat has a lot of punch & meat & options to it, very satisfying and visceral. Sorcery is super thematic and flavorful, but also quite crunchy, and the way you combine cool sorcery Talents (like Pact, Delver in the Dark, Life Eternal, Ritualist, Curse, Everlasting, Witch Hunter, etc...)with spell knowledge to create tons of effects is freaking awesome, and also makes different sorcerers feel very different from one another. Rulesey but really sells that Conan sorcery vibe. Much more complex, but with a few houserules, incorporating the refinements newer 2d20 games have mode, a few rule simplification etc... we absolutely love it. Not rules lite at all though
Came here just to say that Ludospherik brought the french edition of Barbarians of Lemuria to english and that it is a superior Sword & Sorcery and rules light system to this. The only thing this game has going for itself is the artwork and the IP associated with it. The system is just weird and it would had been better if they just used SWADE, especially since they also made a SWADE version for Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane. They also won't flesh out the setting like the people at Modiphius did, so another wasted potential. Very strange decisions and a very strange ruleset that doesn't do Sword & Sorcery and not even Rules Light true justice. Probably the most disappointing Conan RPG since the TSR era. The minies are cool though. BoL for the win!
@matthewsullivan7443 it really wasn't. We really wanted to like it, but it fell flat. The biggest let down was that despite it being a rules light game, it felt too mechanized and didn't leave room for rullings and narrative flourishes, making it feel more like a more complicated boardgame. As I see it, a rules light system starts that way and becomes in time more complex because the game master makes rullings that become rules at the table. I couldn't make that with it.
Once again Conan is being watered down with too much magic in an attempt to attract a wider player base. Conan is interesting because it's DIFFERENT and having a list of player spellcasters just makes it D&D in Hyboria. How you determined magic is rare is beyond me.
I wanted to back this SO bad...but, The Broken Empires ruined my bank account. Not related-have you taken a look at Outcasts silver raiders? would really enjoy a review on that if it snags your interest.
Totally different mechanics, Modiphius is roll under 2d20 and crunchier, but much of that crunch also gave it strong ties to the Conan theme. It heavily uses meta currency (Doom & Momentum) for both players and the GM which gives it very strong Conan/S&S vibes and awesome moments. But is can also be fiddly and at times confusing and/or slows the game down, and many rpger's dislike meta currency in general let alone as a central mechanic. As written PCs start too powerful, but the optional starting PC rules help fix this (should have been the default). Combat has a lot of punch & meat & options to it, very satisfying and visceral. Sorcery is super thematic and flavorful, but also quite crunchy, and the way you combine cool sorcery Talents (like Pact, Delver in the Dark, Life Eternal, Ritualist, Curse, Everlasting, Witch Hunter, etc...)with spell knowledge to create tons of effects is freaking awesome, and also makes different sorcerers feel very different from one another. Rulesey but really sells that Conan sorcery vibe. Much more complex, but with a few houserules, incorporating the refinements newer 2d20 games have mode, a few rule simplification etc... we absolutely love it. Not rules lite at all though
Checked out the Kickstarter page, saw delivery date of Aug 2025 and then checked out. I have never had a good experience with any Kickstarter with that long of a delivery date.
I have all books from the 2d20. The art is very hit and miss. Some is amazing, then some from Deviantart and generic fantasy. Also it’s not very selective. The style clash, sometimes on the same double page. From what I’ve seen now, this seems much improved and more carefully selected.
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Finally a Conan RPG that also seems to feel like Conan. Until now, Barbarians of Lemuria was my go-to Sword & Sorcery game, but that could change now. Conan THA seems to have everything I'm looking for. A fast, action-oriented set of rules, character options that fit the setting, rules for minions and atmospheric, dark sorcery and - very important - lots of adventures that can be prepared quickly and whose focus is the High Adventure! Btw: Yes, I would like to see more of this game on your channel!
I like the optimism. Although BoL, or even something like Savage Worlds, still looks good when it comes to quick rules-light sword & sorcery. This new Conan RPG appears rather thin on content and the mechanics don't feature much that stands out to me. Perhaps that will change after seeing more of it in the future, dunno. Hopefully something changes my mind after release.
I'm all in on it, and really, really want to love it (absolutely love the boardgame), but this seems like a really mixed bag. The Origins look either to general or to specific & limiting, Sorcery doesn't look mysterious or corrupting (healing & snake arrow spells? Really guys...) and the only cost is spending some points. Easy mode PC death & Respite rules feels weak and more 5E than Conan. The Minions rules seem almost as fiddly as just using normal enemy rules (hard to say though), Some terminology just feels out of place, like "Flex" die is face-palm bad, "Stamina" doesn't really describe what those points do etc... Other than the awesome art the mechanics themselves don't seem to be reinforcing that Conan vibe.
Hopefully the final release ends up better than the glimpses I've seen.
The Modiphius 2D20 Conan has a lot of setting books which can help if the DM needs help on the setting. PDF’s of them can be found in various places(nowhere legit as Modiphous lost the license), if you weren’t foolish like me and bought the books from a company that lost the license.
I backed it. I like the rules, but as a big Sword & Sorcery fan, what absolutely sold me was the art. Gorgeous, exciting, and unapologetically sensual. Exactly what this kind of book needs. That mini collection as well... not that I need more, but it convinced me to go to the King tier!
I still think the best Conan simulator ever is Barbarians of Lemuria. A Shane they didn't have the budget for cool art, but the rules system and the whole book are golden. Simple mechanics, high customizability
BoL absolutely rules.
They recently finished a KS to bring the french version of it to the english speaking world. The pages are gorgeous. Plan is to translate the entire french line and then some more if there's enough interest.
The core book is currently in printing. Too bad it's not a hardcover, but hopefully it becomes popular enough to justify an hardcover run.
@@Iulian111 I saw this and thought of backing it but I already own every previous edition of BoL (Mythic and Legendary in hardcover). If they release a hardcover I'm liable to pick up this edition as well!
@@Iulian111 fffffffffffffffff*ck, i missed it. I hope they at least sell the pdf to non backers later on.
Yeah, the art from the French version of BoL was sorely needed. It's great. Good to see it will be out before long.
I’m on the fence on this one. I already own all 22 books of the Conan 2D20 system by Modiphius and I absolutely loved that game.
From what I've seen so far of this one the Modiphius version nails the Conan (and S&S in general) flavor and vibe far better
I´m backing the game - I played the Quickstart and it was a blast. Please, keep track of this game and make some more videos for it in the future. Great to see some more pages of the upcoming book in this interesting introduction 👍
Great overview. Backed it day one as an owner of the board game and lover of Conan. Absolutely would love to see more coverage of this game.
Great overview, even for backers like myself. The rule lite action focus seems appropriate for the setting and if one wants to do something more crunchy its easy to just drop in whatever system you like (maybe The Broken Empires) so I'm really happy with this and they already talking about wanting to support it with a lot of supplements and expansions down the line ⚔
Thanks for a great, comprehensive review, it really fleshes the game out. We've been playing the game for about a month now through the Quick Start edition they put out. It's a good introduction to the basic mechanics, and we are loving the system. We can't wait for the release as there are details in character development we need, but the game is definitely worth it. The intro scenarios seem to be geared towards learning how the basic rules work. If you like RPGs and Conan, definitely check this out while the Kickstart is still active.
From the Quickstart rules they supplied this looks to be not just a great Conan RPG but a great RPG in general.
❤ thank you!
I am backing. I got the quivkstart scenario and interrupted out Traveller campaign to run the adventure. I thought it was spectacular.
I backed the board game at the King tier and now I'm back a decade or so later to back the RPG! Definitely hope you do more coverage and a deeper dive into this one. I'm thinking 2025 is the year of Conan, at least in my own personal gaming endeavors.
Backed it. Super excited for it. Glad they added a Foundry module to the stretch goals!
I am a Monolith fan and have all the Conan board game material. I have not found a Conan RPG to my satisfaction, but this looks like it might be it. I really like the focus on getting the game to the table with adventures over exhaustive setting material. Having straightforward mechanics is also refreshing.
Monolith’s Batman RPG is also very good, though it uses a different system derived from d20.
Finally, I've been waiting for some Jhebbal Sag love since Conan Exiles. I wanna try this rn.
Art look sexy and cool. This tells me the right people are on it.
It is awseome, much is re-used from the boardgame, but almost everything shown is just single characters standing in a pose. I hope there's a lot more variety, more full scenes, action pieces etc...
I also posted a link to this vid over on the kickstarter comments section, as I'm sure people will be interested to see the book and what you think of the game.
@@charliebananas7334 thanks!
I'm backing this at a king pledge, basically all in. So thank you for this, it was great to see the book, hope we get more coverage. I'd love to see the figures, I know they are from the board game (I have that) but it difficult to see what exactly you are getting, especially with the stretch goals coming thick and fast.
All the minis are from the Boardgame core box, plus the King box extras (Kickstarter version), plus the boardgame stretch goals box.
All the stretch goal minis for the Rpg are from the boardgame Conqueror expansion.
If you have the Kickstarter core game and the Conqueror expansion, then you already have all these minis
Justified text! Thank god!
That art is sooo good! hmm I wonder if I can just get the adventure books
I was just thinking of looking into the older Conan RPG because of some system I've heard it uses, this couldn't have been better timed!
Which older Conan game? There's been a few
I have very mixed feelings about this game.
The Modihpius one was very clunky and really needed some, weel a lot, of streamlining here and there, but from a very superficial read and Dave's description, this new one didn't won me over for three reasons:
1) the various origins swing a bit too much between generic and specific; you can trace them easily to various Howard's stories, but for me they seem to fall short in covenying the size and scope of the Hyborian world, especially if you want to take a little step beyond the established Howard's stories (which is exactly what any IP-heavy RPG should do).
2) from what little I was able to understand the Flex Die provides a safety net which doesn't really gel with my image of the Hyborian Age, the auto-success seems a pretty big crutch.
3) speaking of crutchs, both the "Fate Intervention" and the paragraph about heavy armor scream of poor design to me; I'm not against them in principle, but they offload a significant amount of authority and responsibility upon the GM.
I appreciate the measured, thoughtful input.
Agree
How would you compare it to the one by Modiphius?
Modiphiu's developers and writers were very careful and respectful in their exploration of the S&S genre and its links to Lovecraft.
Yeah Modiphius was great with Conan. 2D20 is hit or miss tho imo.
Well, we brought back the same writers for the lore. 😊 we've just got a more succinct approach here.
@matthewsullivan7443 good to know. Now, what could you say about the mechanics?
@H-HWJvN they're streamlined, satisfying, fast, and highly customizable when it comes to character progression. I'm insanely biased because I designed the game, but this is the sword and sorcery RPG I've always dreamed of making. Despite having written splat books for the Modiphius game, those mechanics were not for me. This one is quick to learn, prep, and get to table while also offering satisfying depth. anything that bogged down the action got cut with extreme prejudice.
@matthewsullivan7443 I'll wait for it. I live overseas and the shipping costs now are just impossible; I won't be able to buy the physical copies but I'll wait for the DTRPG PDF. Good luck with the Kickstarter!
Honestly this is more of a play as a Conan clone RPG than a play in an Hyperborean setting kinda game. Conan is an exception in this world. Its a dying, extremely dangerous and harsh world in which Conan strives contrary to the rest of the world.
Its not bad per say but it emphasizes on Conan rather than the lore Howard created in the end. I'm more of an Hyperborean fan so this is clearly not for me as its flexibility and focus on HEROISM is completely opposed to what Hyperborea is....... unless your Conan which you are not supposed to be. Also, sorcery is way too present from what I'm seeing. Artwork is hella fine though props on that!
Im gonna stick to Modiphius Conan and Hyperborea TTRPG ( Highly recommend this one ) for my Hyperborean fix!
This does look really good, and I’m not even a Conan fan until now.
Those miniatures and maps are all from the boardgame, I believe, of which I own quite a bit. I find them to be excellent quality. Monolith can likely offer a decent deal on bulk miniatures because the molds are already made.
I may back this one for the PDFs and use them as reference aids for a different system (this system is not to my liking).
I am not a massive fan of the origins, where people from city are either thieves or shcolar, why are there so many magic origins? Magic is supposed to be kinda rare in Conan. But that is really more nitpick in the end. Overall it seems like a bit more hack and slash oriented game, but it might be fun.
On the world...there is a ton information about available to read. I wonder they felt you could explore other sources if you wanted. I backed this and would love more coverage
It looks very interesting.
It might sound heretical but I lean into Clarke Ashton Smith more than Lovecraft in terms of background cosmic horror.
Having mechanics accentuate the setting and action is where its at imo as well. Its great to see. Like WEG "d6" Star Wars or some others; when it works it really kicks ass. I wish that the economic realities weren't what they are so that I could swing this, but thats a sob story that is tedious and tiresome so I'll just suck it up.
Thanks for the fine video production!
i have the conan boardgame, its uperfun and beautifully crafted
*superfun
Thanks. just backed it
A very comprehensive review of the rpg. The artwork looks great. The mechanics I will have to try out. I wonder how this will compare to the other Conan game being published by Autarch as a supplement to the second edition to the Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg coming out.
Not sure, that wasn't based on the real Conan stuff but some other guys Conan books. Is that even still coming out? Since ACKs is just a DnD20 reskin I'd imagine it may be similar to the Mongoose Conan S20 game.
@@sethpeterson8261 The version being put out by Autarch is based on the Conan comics and maybe the novels written by Chuck Dixon.
Can I play as a knight like in Modiphius Conan?
I think it would take 8-10 minutes to homebrew the mechanics for a knight origin, probably someone from Aquilonia or Nemedia. Or you could wait for an official expansion (not sure if there will be one, or if will contain knights).
In reality there really were a Cimmerian people, and no they were not from England or Doggerland, they were essentially Steppe people in what today would be Russia today, or parts thereof, or some other Asian nation. My favorite is Iranistan. I call California, Californistan so I get where Howard is coming from. Stan just means 'land of'
It seems a lot of GM decision to reign in the sorcery aspect, given there are so many by origins with magical background. I would’ve loved more mechanical variety on the origins, especially the non magical ones.
On the death mechanic: every good GM knows the price of character death. So it’s your job to work around it without taking off the edge of death. Never make it super transparent, slightly adjust damage done by NPCs, keep player characters just „at the edge“. Death doesn’t need to actually happen for players to feel adrenaline. That is weak writing in many stories. Where they kill a side character to „heighten the stakes“. writers and story tellers can do that without all the character murder.
In the Conan stories you know Conan is not going to die. Yet you feel the threat of it constantly. Another example: what feels more exciting, dying in Solesbourne games, or making it juuuuust in the last microsecond. I bet you would still feel adrenaline if you’d beat every boss without dying in the very last second. In Soulsborne games that is impossible, because you have no DM, that’s why you die constantly. But the death is not what makes those games fun. It’s how tough they are and that as a skilled player you still often only make it by the last second.
Have you played the older Modiphius Conan? I need to know the differences.
They are different systems so there are many differences. Broadly, Modiphius’s RPG is more complex and fiddlier than this version.
Totally different mechanics, Modiphius is roll under 2d20 and crunchier, but much of that crunch also gave it strong ties to the Conan theme. It heavily uses meta currency (Doom & Momentum) for both players and the GM which gives it very strong Conan/S&S vibes and awesome moments. But is can also be fiddly and at times confusing and/or slows the game down, and many rpger's dislike meta currency in general let alone as a central mechanic. As written PCs start too powerful, but the optional starting PC rules help fix this (should have been the default). Combat has a lot of punch & meat & options to it, very satisfying and visceral. Sorcery is super thematic and flavorful, but also quite crunchy, and the way you combine cool sorcery Talents (like Pact, Delver in the Dark, Life Eternal, Ritualist, Curse, Everlasting, Witch Hunter, etc...)with spell knowledge to create tons of effects is freaking awesome, and also makes different sorcerers feel very different from one another. Rulesey but really sells that Conan sorcery vibe. Much more complex, but with a few houserules, incorporating the refinements newer 2d20 games have mode, a few rule simplification etc... we absolutely love it.
Not rules lite at all though
Awesome!
Came here just to say that Ludospherik brought the french edition of Barbarians of Lemuria to english and that it is a superior Sword & Sorcery and rules light system to this.
The only thing this game has going for itself is the artwork and the IP associated with it. The system is just weird and it would had been better if they just used SWADE, especially since they also made a SWADE version for Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane. They also won't flesh out the setting like the people at Modiphius did, so another wasted potential.
Very strange decisions and a very strange ruleset that doesn't do Sword & Sorcery and not even Rules Light true justice. Probably the most disappointing Conan RPG since the TSR era. The minies are cool though.
BoL for the win!
I'm sorry to hear your play experience wasn't positive.
@matthewsullivan7443 it really wasn't. We really wanted to like it, but it fell flat. The biggest let down was that despite it being a rules light game, it felt too mechanized and didn't leave room for rullings and narrative flourishes, making it feel more like a more complicated boardgame. As I see it, a rules light system starts that way and becomes in time more complex because the game master makes rullings that become rules at the table. I couldn't make that with it.
Would you choose this or the Black Sword Hack if you were going to run a sword and sorcery game yourself?
@@Jevonater personally, this game. But Black Sword Hack is excellent.
Once again Conan is being watered down with too much magic in an attempt to attract a wider player base. Conan is interesting because it's DIFFERENT and having a list of player spellcasters just makes it D&D in Hyboria. How you determined magic is rare is beyond me.
Do you think sorcerers have spells per day in this?
I wanted to back this SO bad...but, The Broken Empires ruined my bank account. Not related-have you taken a look at Outcasts silver raiders? would really enjoy a review on that if it snags your interest.
You'll still have the Pledge Manager starting next month, put 1 € do be sure to receive the updates on the project, including PM launch!
@@gillesplantin7350Thanks for the heads up!
Which are the differences between this Conan and the existing one?
The Conan rpg created by modiphius uses its 2d20 system.
Totally different mechanics, Modiphius is roll under 2d20 and crunchier, but much of that crunch also gave it strong ties to the Conan theme. It heavily uses meta currency (Doom & Momentum) for both players and the GM which gives it very strong Conan/S&S vibes and awesome moments. But is can also be fiddly and at times confusing and/or slows the game down, and many rpger's dislike meta currency in general let alone as a central mechanic. As written PCs start too powerful, but the optional starting PC rules help fix this (should have been the default). Combat has a lot of punch & meat & options to it, very satisfying and visceral. Sorcery is super thematic and flavorful, but also quite crunchy, and the way you combine cool sorcery Talents (like Pact, Delver in the Dark, Life Eternal, Ritualist, Curse, Everlasting, Witch Hunter, etc...)with spell knowledge to create tons of effects is freaking awesome, and also makes different sorcerers feel very different from one another. Rulesey but really sells that Conan sorcery vibe. Much more complex, but with a few houserules, incorporating the refinements newer 2d20 games have mode, a few rule simplification etc... we absolutely love it.
Not rules lite at all though
@ thanks a lot
Wooow is Cool 😎🔥🔥
Checked out the Kickstarter page, saw delivery date of Aug 2025 and then checked out. I have never had a good experience with any Kickstarter with that long of a delivery date.
Is 49 euro a bit expensive for the pdfs on a Kickstarter?
Are you comparing this eve no 2d20 conan? As i dont see this being that much superior in art
I have all books from the 2d20. The art is very hit and miss. Some is amazing, then some from Deviantart and generic fantasy. Also it’s not very selective. The style clash, sometimes on the same double page. From what I’ve seen now, this seems much improved and more carefully selected.
This looks cool, but too modern and crunchy for me I think.