I blew a wad on the kickstarter for Modiphius Conan and as a lifetime avid fan of REH cannot wait for the first hardcopies to arrive.

Ive heard quite a bit of negative chat on the system however and read through some older posts here on the forum but Im wondering if through development any of that negative hype has changed?

I played the quick start rules a bit and found them engaging, not perfect by any means but fairly suitable for the genre and from what I hear they have only improved with play testing.

Whats your take?

Oh, this should be interesting...

Was not impressed by the Quickstart, it wasn't very Sword and Sorcery, more like playing a novel, which is not what I want in a game.

"Negative Hype" - Yay, more "accidental" trolling.

No, the core criticisms of the system were never intended to be addressed through development.  It's a highly narrative system requiring OOC decisionmaking and remains so.

I imagine most of my bugs are your features, so I expect you'll love it.

I can see how the die mechanic helps to emulate the Conan genre. But I didn't care for the die mechanic. GURPS makes playing Conan feel like you are playing GURPS still, rather than playing Conan. I already have REH's books and some of the best Conan coffee table books out there. So have skipped the Modiphius take on him.

Quote from: rgrove0172;940073I played the quick start rules a bit and found them engaging, not perfect by any means but fairly suitable for the genre and from what I hear they have only improved with play testing.

Whats your take?

I downloaded the demo rules from the kickstarter and read them, but have not made any attempt to play with them.  Although the system itself did not interest me, I still backed the project to get access to the supplemental materials (setting information, old Conan game books, etc.) that were made available alongside the 2d20 system stuff.

I'm sure that playtesting has improved the game in the sense of making it a truer and more playable realization of the designers' intent.  However, the issues that people here had with the system were matters of design philosophy, so I expect that they will be unchanged, if not (to our tastes) "worse", in the released product.

Quote from: rgrove0172;940073I blew a wad on the kickstarter for Modiphius Conan and as a lifetime avid fan of REH cannot wait for the first hardcopies to arrive.

Ive heard quite a bit of negative chat on the system however and read through some older posts here on the forum but Im wondering if through development any of that negative hype has changed?

I played the quick start rules a bit and found them engaging, not perfect by any means but fairly suitable for the genre and from what I hear they have only improved with play testing.

Whats your take?

I imagine the final rules will be a better realization of the authors' intent and design philosophy the dislike of the game here appeared by more a fundamental difference in desires from that intent. So its unlikely the final product will be better received by its detractors here unless its a radical departure from the original. That said, if you enjoyed the playtesst then it might be worth looking into. I admit the discussion did make me curious but I'm a pretty casual fan of the genre.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;940084Was not impressed by the Quickstart, it wasn't very Sword and Sorcery, more like playing a novel, which is not what I want in a game.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;940112I can see how the die mechanic helps to emulate the Conan genre.

Can you elaborate on what gave you that impression?

It's unlikely that development has changed things towards appeasing the people here who didn't like it. It would take changing the system, or at least removing it, to achieve that:).

That said, I wait for my KS files to arrive, and then we're going to see if I'd want to use the system, or use Mythras and add the setting material;).

How do the Conan quickstart rules compare with the 2d20 system as presented in Mutant Chronicles 3e? Lighter? Crunchier? Same shit?

I played in a friend's MC3 campaign for a while - until he gave up GMing it, in disgust. Too many annoyances with zone rules, and the adversarial nature of Dark Symmetry Points. I wasn't that fond of the rules bloat that came along what I'd refer to as over-complicated abstraction.

Is Conan the same kind of rules mess?

The problem is that Modiphius is focused on a game to create stories about adventuring in Hyboria where most gamer want to focus on being a character in Hyboria adventuring.

Quote from: K Peterson;940154I played in a friend's MC3 campaign for a while - until he gave up GMing it, in disgust. Too many annoyances with zone rules, and the adversarial nature of Dark Symmetry Points. I wasn't that fond of the rules bloat that came along what I'd refer to as over-complicated abstraction.

Is Conan the same kind of rules mess?

I refer you to the quote that CK preserves in his signature.

Even the the "cutting edge" storygamers for all their talk of narrative, plot, and drama are fucking obsessed with the god damned rules they use.

Modiphius designers are no less obsessed and as consequence the rules for Conan appear no different in fiddleness and complexity compared to their other games.

Most baffling is that they claim that their John Carter game will be a "rules light" version of the 2d20 engine. How the fuck can one come to the conclusion that a game based on REH Conan should not at least get the same effort if they are stuck with the system? Then it would seem as they actually tried working with what they had.

A purly personal speculation would be that maybe a certain mr Malmberg is very infatuated with the idea of having Conan tied to his precious Mutant Chronicles universe on some kind of meta-level.

Or just the crew working on it being so desperate to establish their own house system as an universal engine and damned the consequences. With a heavy dose of hybris. Could explain the hyperbole purist angle they use to pimp the game. But on some level maybe they know how bad fit it is. Thus putting the focus on how purist the game will be , Howard-experts, the artists credentials and what not. Anything not putting the focus on the actual game. Like the playtesting film from the Howard house. The one hour-ish long slow sluggish combat encounter Pathfinder/3,5/4e style. They knew that did not look great so they clipped it down to about 20 mins highlighted instead as promotional material. Continuing spreading hyperbole about how fast, easy and casual the system is on forums.

It is like making a music album. Good lyrics, good looking cover and higly expensive studio equipment cant make up for it if the music is shit or doing something vastly different than what you try to persuade the world it is.

Eventually, a franchise will make Modiphius' die mechanic a hit.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;940169Eventually, a franchise will make Modiphius' die mechanic a hit.

Eventually, the universe will die.

Quote from: estar;940160The problem is that Modiphius is focused on a game to create stories about adventuring in Hyboria where most gamer want to focus on being a character in Hyboria adventuring.

Chatting up your players isn't most gamers.

Quote from: estar;940160I refer you to the quote that CK preserves in his signature.

Even the the "cutting edge" storygamers for all their talk of narrative, plot, and drama are fucking obsessed with the god damned rules they use.

Modiphius designers are no less obsessed and as consequence the rules for Conan appear no different in fiddleness and complexity compared to their other games.

Is this where I poke at you about old schoolers for all their talk about immersion, choice, and surprise are fucking obsessed with the +mods they can get?