Posted on by qorvus

Character Creation: Conan the Hyborian Age: From the Streets

Moving on the next of the Origins, we come to From the Streets. All the big cities, and even the smaller ones, have these places, where the poor and desperate grow up, crime is rife and those that live there have to do what they can to survive. The underside of civilisation.

Characters with this origin get +1 to edge checks and attacks, and a choice of the Fleet Footed or Of the Shadows skill, but low lifepoints compared to most.

The archetypical character from such places is the weedy, nimble, quick witted thief.

For stats, we will go with 3535 – 5 in Edge and Wits and 3 in Might and Grit. Quick of mind and body, but not the most physical of specimens.

That gives them a physical and sorcery defence of 7 for both, making them harder to target. Base lifepoints on 22 plus 6 from Grit gives them only 28 total. They also only have 3 Stamina.

For skills, go with Of the Shadows for starters, and take Assassin and Fleet Footed with your starting XP. Of the Shadows gives +1 to Edge checks to stealth or to detect it, which stacks with the Origin bonus, meaning they are very stealthy, at 1D6+7 on their rolls. Fleet Footed means they can move around very quickly, with a bonus move action if they take 2 move actions on a turn. And Assassin means they can use Edge instead of Might for melee attack rolls for light medium one handed weapons. Again that stacks with the bonus from From the Streets. With daggers, short swords and the like, they are very accurate, though they still add Might to damage rolls.

Gear wise, stick with no armour to not impede your movement, a short sword to fighting with and a few daggers for throwing or to use in the off hand.

Astan; Might: 3, Edge: 5, Grit: 3, Wits: 5
Lifepoints: 28
Stamina: 3
Flex Dice: 1d10
Physical Defence: 7
Sorcery Defence: 7
Skills: Of the Shadows, Fleet Footed, Assassin
Armour: None
Short Sword: 1d6+3 damage
Dagger: 1D4+3 damage, Range: Medium

And what about a character that doesn’t stick to the archetype? What about a thug, a brutal enforcer who is more than capable of causing harm to those that get out of line?

For stats, go with a 5452 build; 4 Might and Grit, 4 Edge and just 2 Wits. Muscle bound but not too smart. That gives 6 PD, 5 SD, 32 Lifepoints and 5 Stamina.

For stats, go with Of the Shadows. They can still sneak up on people, and make them regret it if they do. Take Iron Hide, which increase their Lifepoints by 3, and Waterfront Brawler. That makes their unarmed attacks count as Improvised Weapons, meaning they can apply melee bonuses to the attack and make flex rolls on damage. They are actually good with any weapon they can lay their hands on, but if they can’t find any, they can still pummel the enemy.

For gear, at most go with light armour, though no armour works best if sneaking about. But given they are more likely to be in the thick of fighting, they are more likely to need it compared to the thief. For weapons, take whatever you feel like using; bows, swords, spears, axes.

Alcad the Bull; Might: 5, Edge: 4, Grit: 5, Wits: 2
Lifepoints: 35
Stamina: 5
Flex Dice: 1d10
Physical Defence: 6
Sorcery Defence: 5
Skills: Of the Shadows, Waterfront Brawler, Iron Hide
Armour: Light (3 Armour Rating)
Fists: 1d4+5 damage

Posted on by qorvus

Character Creation: Conan The Hyborian Age: From the Hills

Previously, I did a post looking at the Quickstart rules for Conan, but now that I have my hands on the full game, I can do a bit more of a dive into it, and character creation.

There are ten Origins in the book. They aren’t classes exactly, but more backgrounds that shape how you might build your character, each with a few bonuses to help out. Of the ten, five have access to magic, but that doesn’t mean they have to use magic. You can, in fact, develop them in different ways that at first may not be obvious or fit the most obvious archetypes.

I’m going to make my way through the Origins one at a time and make up a couple of starting characters for each – one sticking to the archetype, and another that is different from how you would first expect the Origin to play. Such as one of the spellcaster archetypes being a frontline tank, or a tough melee damage dealer.

The first is From the Hills, who are depicted as hardy warriors who live beyond the frontiers of civilisation, Conan and the Cimmerians being the most obvious examples. They start with high lifepoints and their bonus is that at the start of each Tale (adventure) they choose either Might, Edge or Grit and get +1 to attacks and checks with that stat. It makes them adaptable and flexible in how you play then, which is good in the system. A +1 is a fairly big bonus and you never know where you are going to end up, what you are going to do or even what equipment you might have so being able to match your bonus to the situation is handy.

So first we will go with the typical Archetype of a From the Hills character, a tough warrior, getting in close and swinging a sword.

For stats, we have 16 points to distribute between the 4, with a maximum of 6 in any stat. For this character, who we will call Cianan, I will go a 5452 build – 5 Might, 4 Edge, 5 Grit and 2 Wits. Strong and tough, but not exactly good with people or knowledge. he is there to hit things.

For defences, that gives him a Physical Defence of Edge+2 (6) and a Sorcery Defence of Wits+2 (4), but SD has a minimum of 5, resulting in an ED of 6 and an SD of 5.

Lifepoints is equal to base lifepoints from the origin plus GRITx2. In this case, Cianan has 40 lifepoints, which is quite substantial.

Stamina is equal to his GRIT stat, so he starts with 5 stamina to use.

Each charcter has 3 XP to spend on starting skills, and for a non nonsense warrior like this, Brawler (+1 melee damage) and Charge (1 Stamina, 1 action, make 2 move actions followed by a melee attack action), works well. He can get stuck in quick and hit things hard.

Gear wise you get two weapons or a weapon and a shield, and either light of medium armour. Gear isn’t too important, as this is Sword and Sorcery, and you may not always have access to the same gear you had in the last tale, or any at all. Conan used whatever was at hand, so grab whatever works best. But some Light Armour, a big Great Axe and a Short Bow to shoot at foes you can’t reach immediately are a good way to go.

So there you have it, a quick and easy build for an archetype of the From the Hills origin.

Cianan; Might: 5, Edge: 4, Grit: 5, Wits: 2
Lifepoints: 40
Stamina: 5
Flex Dice: 1d10
Physical Defence: 6
Sorcery Defence: 5
Skills: Brawler, Charge
Armour: Light (3 Armour Rating)
Great Axe: 1d12+6 damage
Short Bow: 1D6+1 damage, Range: Long

If you need to be a bit more sneaky and shooty for a Tale, boost your Edge with your origin bonus, but if you are just going to hit things, go with Might. Grits would be if you think you are going to have to survive a grueling ordeal, or lots of poison.

Now to look at how to build a character From the Hills who doesn’t follow the archetype so much. Not a frontline brawler, but what about a more sneaky, skirmisher type instead?

For stats, go with a 4543 build. Five in edge, 3 in wits and 4 in the other two. That gives a PD of 7, a SD of 5, Lifepoints of 38 and 4 stamina.

For skills, take Fleet Footed (when making 2 Move Actions in a turn, get a bonus move action), Hit and Run (1 Stamina, make a Melee Attack Action, followed by 2 Move Actions, counts as only 1 Action) and Of the Shadows (+1 to Edge checks involving stealth and to detect others).

For gear, at most you would want to wear Light Armour, but no armour works best as you don’t have a penalty to move stealthily then, and for weapons, a handful of Javelins to throw at the enemy and a War Spear for when you get into melee range. War Spear has the bonus of having longer range so you can poke enemies and they can’t strike you back straight away.

There you have it, a very mobile scout and skirmisher, who can wear down foes with javelins, is hard to get to grips with, if the foe can even find them first, and can still contribute in melee.

Eluned; Might: 4, Edge: 5, Grit: 4, Wits: 3
Lifepoints: 38
Stamina: 4
Flex Dice: 1d10
Physical Defence: 7
Sorcery Defence: 5
Skills: Fleet Footed, Hit and Run, Of the Shadows
Armour: None
War Spear: 1d10+4 damage, Range: Close
Javelins: 1D6+4, Range: Medium

If you think you might be forced into melee more often than not, going with Might as your flexible bonus would a good idea, but otherwise stick with Edge for the extra sneakiness (giving 1d6+7 for Stealth Checks) and more accurate Javelins would be the preferred option.

Posted on by qorvus

An early look at the Conan RPG Quickstart

I am a fan of Conan, obviously. It was what introduced me to S&S and REH’s works was what inspired me to try both the genre and short fiction as well.

It isn’t just the stories I like, but also other forms of Conan; comics, movies, games. I kickstarted the Modiphius’ Conan TTRPG and also Monolith’s Conan board game (both of which I want to talk about at some point). I had always thought that the board game had the basis of a decent RPG hidden in it, so as exited to hear that Monolith was also doing a Conan TTRPG.

And now the quickstart guide is out, giving a glimpse at the game to come. While it isn’t a RPG version of the board game, there is a little bit of DNA from it in there. This isn’t going to be a review of it, just some initial thoughts – a proper review will come out when I get the full game.

For a S&S game to feel like one, it should endeavour to be about action and adventure, risk and reward and hopefully be fast paced. You wouldn’t want a system that was heavy on the book keeping – there are places for that style of game but I would argue that it isn’t really for S&S.

The good news is that is what the game aims for and delivers on from what is presented in the quickstart guide. There are more rules as yet to be seen in the full version, but I can’t see them bogging the game down.

The game has just the 4 stats – Might, Edge, Grit and Wits. Very appropriate for a S&S setting.

Might is of course for the physical strength of the character. Climbing, hitting things, lifting.

Edge is an interesting one, and covers both the physical and mental agility or sharpness of the character. If you are sneaking about, thieving, searching, noticing things, Edge is what you use.

Grit is your toughness and will to survive. When you are pressed to your limit, tired, hungry, thirsty, then Grit is what sees you through.

And Wits is about knowledge and interacting with people. And sorcery.

For a S&S system, that is really all you need.

There are no actual skills to be had; you don’t have to worry about having cooking (soup) or basketweaving to attempt anything; you just try it and use the appropriate stat. Makes it quick and fast and very much in the spirit of S&S.

On face value, Edge has the edge for usefulness. The skill checks it covers will see a lot of use, and throw in it also being used for initiative and avoiding being hit, as well as ranged attacks, and it is something you’d want as much of as you can get. On the other end of he scale, Grit appears as if you would get less use out of it, unless the GM is really using a lot of poisons, fear or playing up the survival aspect. But it also provides your Life points and Stamina points, and those you generally want.

In fact, there isn’t really a dump stat, unlike in other systems. A big, beefy brawler may want to drop Wits and a spell caster may feel they can dump Might but all stats are useful to everyone. Which I like. It will be fun to play around with character creation when it comes out – a warrior who emphasises his Wits over Might would be fun to play.

On the combat side, not having to wade through 50 pages of spells or work through a dozen different modifiers will make it fast, but Flex dice and Stamina pools give options for the unexpected and to do more than just swing a weapon.

The addition of minions I also like; it allows the characters to wade through groups of chaff without bogging the game down, but also still provides a threat for those who underestimate them.

Armour & shields function how they should – shields help prevent you being hit while armour reduces damage taken if you are hit. A dagger will struggle against heavier armour, while a heavy axe will get through a lot easier, which is logical.

Character creation isn’t shown yet, but from the pregen characters provided, in keeping with the rest of the system, it looks quick and easy, yet still provides varied characters. Choose an origin, assigned the four stats, pick a couple of skills, choose gear and you are ready to go.

The five pregen characters each use a different origin, and there are others yet to be seen, but each plays different just from those few choices.

Hanzi (From the Streets) is a swift moving, stealthy dagger user who is hard to hit and accurate with his daggers, but low damage.

Aengus (From the Hills) is there to hit things very hard with a big sword but don’t expect much from him on the thinking side.

Mhambi (From the Wilds) is an allrounder and the main ranged character. Decent melee fighter, decent stealth, decent range.

Davor (From the Blood of Jhebbal Sag) is a spell caster – not much good in a fight but can provide healing and, at the cost of his own life blood (which is very S&S), summon wolves to fight for him.

Gudrun (from the North) is the party tank. Decent melee damage, but high defences, armour to soak damage and good health mean they can hold the line.

So, yeah, when the character creation rules are available, I am going to have fun times experimenting with them.

That is just some quick initial thoughts – I may deep dive into the quickstart further in the future, and will certainly look at it in more detail when the game comes out. There are more rules to come, and, as ever, house rules to be made,

One house rule I will probably adopt is one I used in a S&S style modification of the old Cyberpunk rules. (Yes, it sounds odd, but it worked.) In it, any treasure the characters found could be used to buy things of use – or it could be blown on wine, women and song, and that was how they earned experience to gain skills. Very in keeping with S&S, and also meant they got blind drunk and then woke up somewhere new and unexpected with a new adventure looming.

In the meantime, keep your axes sharp and go cleave some skulls.