Product Description
Following on from the tremendous success of Conan the Role-playing Game, Mongoose releases a pocket-sized version, at a price to match. All the detail of the massive original rulebook is included in an easy to read, easy to carry format.
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Finally, someone has done the Hyborian Age justice. Yes, here are typos. Ok, lots of mistakes actually, but nothing critical and the fabulous online support on the Mongoose.com site makes up for it. I’m sure the second printing won’t be all chewed up.
Thats the bad… heres the good…
This book captures Howards Hyborian Age and this work drips with flavor. The D20 rule tweaks in this OGL game are excellent. The artwork is amazing! Best of all, this book is PACKED with information.
The $50 price tag is steep, especially considering the amount of mistakes inside the book, but it was worth every penny. I LOVE this book and so far the only supporting book “Scrolls of Skelos” is just as good.
For this, I give it 5 stars!
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5
This is a great role-playing system, which focuses on combat and skills, and makes magic much less overpowering and tolerable than some other games I’ve played. I particularly liked the armor piercing concept and the defense rules. I knocked off a star only because the editing errors are fairly numerous. Quite a number of pages have entire portions of text cut off, leaving the reader to wonder what they’re talking about.
Amazon User Rating: 4 / 5
I am so pleased to be entering the gaming world of Conan and this game is a great example of how to play a d20 game as well as doing justice to Howard’s works.
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5
This is an admirable effort in many ways, but simply not up to par. Robert E Howards true conan stories are far better than most people realise, largely because of other inferior writers who wrote for the genre and essentally watered it down. The original Conan of literature is far more nuanced and interesting than the naked muscle dude of popular mythology (he often wore clothes, even armor, for one thing, and frequently relied on guile and cunning to defeat his enemies instead of just brute force.)
Thanks to a liberal sprinkling of quotes from the original ficitonal sources, much of this flavor does make it into the book. The basic structure, fairly far removed from D&D with a new spell system and modified combat system, is pretty good in concept, though it suffers in execution.
Damage reduction for natural armor is a cool idea for D20, but when it means that it is almost impossible to hurt a horse with a hatchet or a short sword, something is wrong. Much of these mechanics should have been more broadly playtested, one wonders if they were at all in some cases. There are some similar difficulties with the essentially innovative spell system as well.
The other big issues are the editing and proofreading, which have been amply discussed in other reviews, as well as the cost, which is way too high.
They need to go back, work out some kinks, rethink a few things, hire a new proofreader and find a lower cost printing solution. Then Conan the RPG II might be worth buying. As for this one, it’s worth a look, but I say wait until you can find it discounted.
Amazon User Rating: 2 / 5
This is a great book. I looked at the hardcover version, and while it has alot more pictures (plus they’re in color), the softcover is alot cheaper and has all of the written material. They also fixed some of the typos. The hardcover is a beautiful book, and I recomend it–if you can afford it.
For me (someone who hasn’t read the conan novels or comics), this book is a great low magic setting, and is the way D&D should have been as far as the combat system goes. Armor provides damage reduction, and a characters ability to avoid getting hit, is based entirely on their combat skills and natural abilities. So characters actually parry and dodge blows. All the races are human variants, and the whole thing is very grim and gritty. Adventurers go on adventurers either because they come to them, or to get loads of silver (not platinum and gold) to blow on luxury and entertainment (not to bank ever copper piece just to get another +1 on a magic item). And if you’re a conan fan, this book apparently did a wonderful job of mimicking the original novels.
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5