Hi all,
So I have been playing 2D20 Conan by Modiphius pretty constantly since the books were first announced on the kickstarter. And I need to say, its been a wild ride.
Overall, I am very happy with the books, the rules and the feeling of satisfaction that I get when I write an adventure for my current group of R.E. Howard Conan players. First, let me clarify something with you all. I am not one of these self proclaimed R.E. Howard scholars who knows what he was thinking or, what he meant with his massive amount of prolific writings. What I am though, is a fan of his ability to write separate, individual adventures, and tie them all together in a way that makes each story a part of a great overall setting and world.
And this is what I think makes story telling for 2D20 Conan different then many other RPGs out there. The rules system in how it is written is designed to capture that same feeling of these individualized stories but then tied as a whole after. And it is after you have several of these games under your belt can you look back and see the great world you are adventuring in.
2D20 Conan is a great system to play with. But for the fans of light, baby biscuit rules systems, 2D20 is
not for them. Its just not. I am not going to pull any punches here, but if you are one of these people who shows up and plays in a few games expecting it to be just a hack and slash style games you are not going to really see what the hype is about. Then there are those people who moan and groan over the complexity of the rules, and their inability to really enjoy it. Sadly this system is not for them either. I feel, that to get the most bang for your buck, a player needs to invest some time to learn the basic rules. But this is also its strongest aspect. If you have players who invest a small amount of time in learning the rules in how it relates to their characters then it pays dividends in the enjoyment of 2D20 Conan as a whole.
The stories told by REH of Conan and his adventures are unique in the way that he never (to my knowledge) wrote a novel about Conan, but independent short stories. You start to read a story about Conan, and its takes place in a setting, just moments away from when the action was going to take place. The daily hum drums of walking through the market, looking for things to buy was just not mentioned other then in afterthoughts by the characters of the story.
2D20 Conan is designed to work in a similar way as the stories told by REH. In such that each adventure for a campaign is setup to run in a episodic nature. Even the GMs toolkit is designed with just that in mind. You write the adventure with the intent of capturing the feeling of playing in a story written by REH. What the players are about to experience is a snap shot in time, usually moments away before the action takes place. The setup to the adventure is primarily left to the GM. He sets the stage, and the players act it out.
The design of 2D20, strongly encourages the use of episodic play similar to the story telling of REH. The very nature of the mechanics makes this happen. In games that are strung out (for lack of a better term) sessions end, XP is handed out and then the next session begins usually right where you left of. This is not the case with 2D20 Conan. In Conan, adventures are separated by "Life In Between Adventures" This is also the time the player characters heal. Ill go more into this later. Where your characters get trained, get rumors, get fame and re equipped. What many people do not fully appreciate , this time period could be considered days, weeks and or months long. It is not the next morning. In 2D20 Conan, you can get yourself wounded during an adventure. And you can get yourself healed, but its only a temp fix. Until you character is given the proper time to heal during the between phases, any wounds your receive can potentially come back and bite you, and bite you hard.
Unlike most RPGs where you get wounded, you can not just drink a healing potion and get back into the action. Wounds in Conan are only patched up, until you get a chance heal properly. Essentially, if in a game session, you get your self wounded, you start to face negative modifiers. In the short term, you can get your self patched up again. BUT if you take a wound again, you open up all previous wounds. The only way to get rid of the chance of these wounds re opening is healing during your down time. This adds to a very gritty nature of life in REH's Hyborea. Essentially, if you go out and get the crap kicked out of you on day one, then its in your best interests to take a few days off and heal up before getting right back into the thick of things.
It is also during this downtime that the player characters still have some adventures, but its not in the forefront at the gaming table. This provides ample material to develop the characters back story and to give you the feeling that even when not fighting evil sorcerers, the characters are still living a life full of fun and adventure. Not only does this provide a chance for players to develop their characters on a personal level, but it allows GMs to use this information to develop their next adventure and to help capture that feel of a "new episode" for the player's enjoyment.
To help capture the feel of playing in one of REH's adventures. The GM should use the information provided by in between phase as potential story elements in his adventure. For example, in one of my recent sessions, a scrawny character managed to get caught up in a brief but torrent love affair with a noble, only to have it ended when she was spirited away. It was a story that was formed based on the outcome of the in between stages. Just background fluff he wrote to help give his character a sense of invested interest. Now, taking that information, I designed a scenario where a person matching the description of his love interest was about to be executed in the public square. The player suddenly found that his character's background story was front and center in that weeks current episode. Of course, there was a twist in typical REH fashion at the end which I was very proud of, much to the chagrin of my players.
So, when you take bits and pieces of every characters in between adventures you can really develop a episodic feeling in your sessions which mimic very well the spirit of REH and his writings.
This allows a GM to start off the adventure essentially any where he or she wants, and it doesn't have to follow some procession from the last weeks game. You were is the capital of Argos one session, the next you could be up to your knees in stagnate swamp water in the jungles of the back coast the next. But to tie the adventures together, you use the information provided in the In Between stage to get you to that point.
And this is what I mean when I say that 2D20 Conan is different when it comes to other sword and sorcery systems. 2D20 Conan is not just a system to play sword and sorcery, its a system to allow you to "capture" the feel of playing in REH's stories of high adventure. And it captures this feeling of being played in an episodic nature very well.
I strongly feel, that a group will short change themselves on that feeling, if the GM and the Players do not utilize the "Life in between" portion of the rules. It really is a very important tool to capture that feeling.
In my design phase of writing my adventures for my group I try very hard to capture that feeling of being in an actual story in REH's world. And I would like to think that I do that, but you will have to ask my players that one.
My closing statement is this..
If you
just want to play a sword and sorcery game, then maybe 2D20 Conan is not for you. But if you want to play in a game that captures the feeling of being in a story written in the fashion of REH, then this is indeed for you. Do not design your adventures as long strung out stories, but design each session to be a short individual adventure to be experienced by your player's characters at a specific point.
Use the "life in between" portion to fill in the gaps. When you do this, and run a few games with a steady group, when you look back.. your story is going to consist of snap shots in time that captures the high (or low) points of the characters, with all the gaps filled in, and you make a great story filled with lore, laughs, and most importantly adventure that you can look back on.
Regards
Jolly
