Real RPGs, none of that new fangled computer bullshit

[The Brain]

I looked through some of the new Conan books. I was reminded of what I felt about this Conan RPG from the time I got the first books: they have a weird idea of what is important in the Conan stories and therefore what's important in a Sword & Sorcery RPG. There's page after page about culture/politics/religion etc, but fairly little about the actual sharp point of Conan: spectacular locations, weird characters, colorful women (both action heroines and damsels in distress, both kinds oddly enough always half or fully naked), dark magic, furious action, etc. The creature sections are fairly well stocked, I give them that. As I think I've mentioned before things are very dry and abstract. Yay, after battling the monster and risking your lives in other ways you've found the treasure: some fairly abstract gold points! Sigh. And there's no decent How To Spend It section. You kind of wonder why the characters would bother searching for treasure at all. Reading the books doesn't get your blood pumping for GM-ing some sweet Sword & Sorcery. If at least ONE book out of these twenty something total number had been completely about "How do I build a Conan adventure story and location", with concrete tools and adventure hooks, and inspiring examples, then that would have done a lot for the RPG. If they want to write many dry books about politics etc then do so, but write some other stuff too plz.

You have a huge number of books, based on Howard's stories, lots of background material, some nice artwork, in many ways it should have been the definitive Conan RPG. But everything is a tad askew.

NB: I haven't played it, while my impression of the game mechanics isn't very favorable I don't have practical experience with them.

[Syt]

Do they contain incomprehensible Elder Gods like the original stories?

[The Brain]

Do they contain incomprehensible Elder Gods like the original stories?

Yes. There's a lot of Lovecraftian stuff. I would say that pretty much everything that's in the original stories is in the game (though obviously not always implemented the way I would have preferred).

[The Brain]

One additional comment: what information there is on weird locations etc is often about locations from the stories. Sure, those locations should be mentioned and briefly described, but actually adventuring there doesn't sound very attractive. Doing tourist adventures to places players recognize from the stories... meh.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Wish I could play something.

[grumbler]

Do they contain incomprehensible Elder Gods like the original stories?

Yes. There's a lot of Lovecraftian stuff. I would say that pretty much everything that's in the original stories is in the game (though obviously not always implemented the way I would have preferred).

Is it just the Howard Conan stuff, or all the non-Conan stuff retrofitted into Conan?  Does it include all the stuff from the books by Carter, Nyberg, DeCamp, Anderson, etc (i.e. all of the Lancer/Ace stuff)?  Does it include the stuff from the more recent comics?

[The Brain]

Do they contain incomprehensible Elder Gods like the original stories?

Yes. There's a lot of Lovecraftian stuff. I would say that pretty much everything that's in the original stories is in the game (though obviously not always implemented the way I would have preferred).

Is it just the Howard Conan stuff, or all the non-Conan stuff retrofitted into Conan?  Does it include all the stuff from the books by Carter, Nyberg, DeCamp, Anderson, etc (i.e. all of the Lancer/Ace stuff)?  Does it include the stuff from the more recent comics?

Just the Howard stuff. They have very deliberately excluded non-Howard stuff.

[grumbler]

Do they contain incomprehensible Elder Gods like the original stories?

Yes. There's a lot of Lovecraftian stuff. I would say that pretty much everything that's in the original stories is in the game (though obviously not always implemented the way I would have preferred).

Is it just the Howard Conan stuff, or all the non-Conan stuff retrofitted into Conan?  Does it include all the stuff from the books by Carter, Nyberg, DeCamp, Anderson, etc (i.e. all of the Lancer/Ace stuff)?  Does it include the stuff from the more recent comics?

Just the Howard stuff. They have very deliberately excluded non-Howard stuff.

Most excellent!  What about stories like "Hawks over Shem" that were originally non-Conan but just converted by L Sprague de camp with some name changes?  I'm kinda interested in where Howard's ideas ended up in the thought of Conanography.

[The Brain]

Do they contain incomprehensible Elder Gods like the original stories?

Yes. There's a lot of Lovecraftian stuff. I would say that pretty much everything that's in the original stories is in the game (though obviously not always implemented the way I would have preferred).

Is it just the Howard Conan stuff, or all the non-Conan stuff retrofitted into Conan?  Does it include all the stuff from the books by Carter, Nyberg, DeCamp, Anderson, etc (i.e. all of the Lancer/Ace stuff)?  Does it include the stuff from the more recent comics?

Just the Howard stuff. They have very deliberately excluded non-Howard stuff.

Most excellent!  What about stories like "Hawks over Shem" that were originally non-Conan but just converted by L Sprague de camp with some name changes?  I'm kinda interested in where Howard's ideas ended up in the thought of Conanography.

My understanding is that they have limited it to "pure" Howard Conan stories.

[grumbler]

My understanding is that they have limited it to "pure" Howard Conan stories.

Grazie for your patience in answering these questions.

[The Brain]

My understanding is that they have limited it to "pure" Howard Conan stories.

Grazie for your patience in answering these questions.

Prego. I did notice now that the introductory adventure in the rulebook is called Vultures of Shem. Makes you thimk.

[The Brain]

Got delivery of the Cyperpunk RED rulebook. I started reading but immediately T-posed and fell through the ground.

[Savonarola]

My group started playing Cyberpunk Red.  Two of the classes (Rockerboy and Media) are essentially glorified influencers.  The Media character uses social media to share the truth about corporate wrongdoings.  One of our group chose that, then the social media fueled Capitol Riots occurred and everyone realized we were already living in the dark future.

If I ever write a cyberpunk novel the premise will be the corrupt government and evil corporations are oppressing the rabble and the heroes standing up to them are QAnon Buffalo Shaman style kooks. 

[Berkut]

I've been playing a lot of DND 5E.

I really like the amount of content out there, and how the game has been nicely streamlined to make it approachable for new players.

But I am definitely feeling like it is too basic. The combat system basically just comes down to a game of Go where each side tries and mostly succeeds in getting flanking on the other so they can roll with advantage. There is little or no syergy between players beyond that, and no real reason to try to be thoughtful.

Builds are pretty straightforward. Nothing really there to tweak, unless you get into multi-classing, which then becomes (IMO) almost game breaking in its character power ramping.

Overall, I like the game a lot, but I feel like I want and "Advanced" DND 5E. Is Pathfinder that?

[crazy canuck]

Pathfinder is more about skill synergies so that may be more appealing.

I will use this opportunity to make my annual lament about the RoleMaster combat rules not becoming more widely adapted in the digital age.  Remove the need to look up a number of tables to determine the result of a combat action, and that may be more of what you are looking for.