I did manage to watch a GM run a Modiphius game at our local comic shop, and from what I saw the game played quite well. The meta-currency was a prominent feature, although everyone seemed to enjoy it, and the game also felt very Hyborian.

So it seemed to work well in practice. It remains to be seen how well I can GM it, or if it will work with my own group.

Quote from: Skarg;1098514Oh ok, interesting, thanks!

What would happen if you tried to run it without the meta-currency?

RAW... You can't really.

Modi's 2d20 Conan does a lot of stuff off the GM's DOOM! pool.

Monster and NPC abilities need to spend Doom! for the GM to 'activate' them.

You have Fortune and Momentum for the players, and Doom for the GM.

Modi could have designed the Game to just have rolled Fortune and Momentum into one type of metacurrency hero points for the PC's, but nope.

I personally hate the Momentum / Doom dynamic. GM's don't need points to do their thing!

Of course you could house-rule the game to work the way you want.

Quote from: Theory of Games;1098156The true beauty of Conan is the "f*** you" setting. The Hyborian World carries no favors for PCs.

It's fun & nice but, also deadly.

Verily. That was one of the things the two TSR versions make clear. No clerics. No raise dead for PCs and even the villains have a hard time getting that one.

Quote from: HappyDaze;1098161It certainly has the illusion of being deadly, but if your heroes are made on the level of Conan himself (which the Modiphius version certainly provides), then death most often comes from them rather than to them. Modiphius has metacurrency that ensures every scene feels like death is on the table, but it is generally not too likely unless the people at the table (GM and players) want it to happen and spend the pools to make it go that way.

Not really. Conan comes close to death, or actually gets his head handed to him fairly often and then has to figure a way out of whatever situation he has gotten himself into.

Quote from: CRKrueger;1098519It wouldn't change much, be more deadly.

You have Fate Points, which have various uses.
1. Prevent death - Spend a point and you have been left for dead, but healable if someone tends to you within an hour, at which point you're -9 HPs.  Not really an OOC decision to spend, unless you'd rather die.  Can easily be passed off as favor of the gods, etc.
2. Mighty Blow - You can deal Max Damage with a hit, breaking your weapon in the process.  OOC, but could be passed off as extreme effort.
3. Repentance - You spend Points to reduce Corruption.  Getting into storyland here.
4. Destiny - Here we're in full Narrative Authorship mode (to be fair, they require the GM's ok).  You can have a serving wench slip you a dagger while imprisoned, remember that season you spent in Hyrkania and pick up knowledge or a language, etc.  Definitely OOC telling stories about your character.

The game plays fine without them, no core mechanics affected.

Umm, for some reason I read Modiphius as Mongoose.  D'oh!  What I said above applies to Mongoose d20 Conan.

Modiphius 2d20 is a whole 'nother animal.  You basically can run it houseruled without the meta-currencies, but here's what would be affected.
1. You couldn't hit higher than 4 successes on the 2d20, which makes the highest level of difficulty impossible.
2. You'd have to take all the abilities of all the NPCs and monsters and make them usable without Doom, which would make some foes very deadly indeed.
3. A lot of the intricacies of combat rely on Momentum being spent.  Personally I would allow only personal Momentum, no banking it or giving it to others, and using that Momentum to apply Effects only to that singular roll that generated the Momentum.  Then it's really not as much of a metacurrency as a Critical Hit system.  Have NPCs use Momentum just like PCs and take off the Doom Point handcuffs on the GM and just play the thing straight.
4. The characters themselves would feel much more grounded and mundane without being able to buy dice to really kick ass.

Quote from: Omega;1098528Not really. Conan comes close to death, or actually gets his head handed to him fairly often and then has to figure a way out of whatever situation he has gotten himself into.

Yeah, people forget how much Conan gets the shit kicked out of him.
Phoenix on the Sword - Yeah, King Conan is one of the world's deadliest mean, who faced off against 20 men, but without the intervention of a demon...he dies there.  Without Epimetrius tracing the Phoenix Rune on his sword, when facing the demon...he dies there.
A Witch Shall Be Born - Conan is crucified, and if Olgerd doesn't find him and cut him down...he dies there.  The monster Thaug is slain not by Conan, but by Conan's Zuagir archers.
Iron Shadows in the Moon - Conan can do nothing against the titular Iron Men, and after cutting off the arm of a Gray Ape, and stabbing it mortally, still almost dies to its bite.
The Slithering Shadow - Conan fights and drives off Thog, but is so grievously wounded, that without the Golden Wine of Xuthal to heal him...he dies there.

Etc, etc.

Conan's legendary resilience is no more than any other human at the Apex of physical conditioning, like Batman.  His surviving says nothing about Sword and Sorcery, or the Pulp genre, it's merely bog standard Literary Protagonism.

Quote from: CRKrueger;1098533Conan's legendary resilience is no more than any other human at the Apex of physical conditioning, like Batman.  His surviving says nothing about Sword and Sorcery, or the Pulp genre, it's merely bog standard Literary Protagonism.

Not necessarily. Any one of those and many more could have been his last adventure had the author so desired. Keep in mind back then writers were not afraid to bump off their characters as much as modern ones are sometimes. People love to screech "plot armour!" but there really is no such thing unless the author comes out and says the character cant die/lose ever.

Quote from: Omega;1098528Not really. Conan comes close to death, or actually gets his head handed to him fairly often and then has to figure a way out of whatever situation he has gotten himself into.

Conan loses, but he never comes close to death at all. There is the illusion that he's close to death, but the writer is never going to kill him off and the reader pretty much knows this too. The meta-currency of Modiphius' 2d20 game actually allows the game to play much more like this than purely traditional games.

Quote from: HappyDaze;1098586Conan loses, but he never comes close to death at all. There is the illusion that he's close to death, but the writer is never going to kill him off and the reader pretty much knows this too. The meta-currency of Modiphius' 2d20 game actually allows the game to play much more like this than purely traditional games.

Here's the thing, I love me some Conan, but. I want to play in his world, and I want to do it without the plot armor that Conan obviously has in the novels as the main protagonist. So you just sold me out of  Modiphius' 2d20 Conan forever, and if other games with the same 2d20 system are enough alike then those too.

Where's the fun if you are that difficult to kill? What are we? Game Journos?

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1098619Here's the thing, I love me some Conan, but. I want to play in his world, and I want to do it without the plot armor that Conan obviously has in the novels as the main protagonist. So you just sold me out of  Modiphius' 2d20 Conan forever, and if other games with the same 2d20 system are enough alike then those too.

Where's the fun if you are that difficult to kill? What are we? Game Journos?

You don't have to choose to spend the meta-currency as plot armor, but it's an option if you want/need it. Keep in mind that same of the bad guys are so powerful that you might need to use the points offensively and, if you do, then you won't have them to spend defensively. So, survive and creep away or go down in a blaze of glory? Either might be possible, but just spending meta-currency doesn't give guarantees, and that's why there's still fun in seeing how the dice roll.

Yeah from what I can see, Modiphius Conan ain't Savage Worlds. The meta-currency can help make the PCs more capable, and thus make them feel more powerful, but death is always on the cards. All the GM has to do is have a bigger stack of Doom Pts to even things up, then the opponents will be pretty challenging.

I was initially put of by the concept of Momentum/Doom Pts, but after watching it in practice I think it could work well with the right group.

I think in Modiphius Conan it is really up to the GM as to how brutal the game runs. From what I am reading, it can easily be as unforgiving as BRP, especially if the opponents are making use of the same opportunities as the PCs.
I think I also read that there are rules for generating less capable characters, so that will also allow for a much more harrowing time for the PCs, given the threats in the setting.

This game looks like it can be quite deadly, I think it will be up to the GM as to how much.

I think I also read that there are also rules for generating less capable characters, so that will also allow for more challenging play if one wants character death to be more of a present threat.

I have run Conan/Hyboria with GURPS and RuneQuest 3 with good results.  As a player I found  Modiphius Conan to be  a complete clusterfuck as most of the game is about fiddling with Doom, Momentum  and Fortune. Also why the fuck is a Pictish flint hatchet better than a broadsword.

As far as I can work out, only the GM has to account for Doom Pts.

The PCs do have Fortune Pts (akin to Bennies in Savage Worlds, Luck Pts in Mythras, Fate Pts in WFRP, etc).
They are in alot of games, so nothing new there. I think I would only start PCs with one Fortune Pt if I wanted to run a more unforgiving game.

Of course Momentum Pts are the big thing that has a huge presence in the game for the PCs, so I can understand them either loving it, or totally hating it.

Quote from: Gagarth;1098746I have run Conan/Hyboria with GURPS and RuneQuest 3 with good results.  As a player I found  Modiphius Conan to be  a complete clusterfuck as most of the game is about fiddling with Doom, Momentum  and Fortune. Also why the fuck is a Pictish flint hatchet better than a broadsword.

Because of course Pictish anything is better! Me having Pictish ancestry has nothing to do with it... lol Seriously though, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I've run Conan with Hero... and it works well there. I picked up the Modiphius stuff mainly and source material, but it does come across as a bit fiddly.