Conan 2d20 at Free RPG Day 2017

I was curious about the the Conan RPG because I was actually actually more interested in the new Star Trek Adventures RPG and both games uses the 2d20 system.

I only had about 1-1/2 hours, so I watched part of the game and the GM let me decide what some NPCs did, which was cool.

I really liked the system. I noticed that the Conan Attributes were more combat oriented vs Star Trek's.

• Conan: Agility, Awareness, Brawn, Coordination, Intelligence, Personality, Willpower. 
• Star Trek: Bravery, Control, Empathy, Presence, Reason, Resilience.

The system uses d20s (max 5d20) and d6s (specialty dice for damage).

It is a roll 2d20 and roll low system. If you hit your skill number (something like 7 to 14) or below, you get a success. If the die roll is below your focus number (something like 1 to 3), you gain another success for 2 successes possible for each d20 rolled, for a normal maximum of 4 successes on a skill check. The number of successes needed is up to the GM, but Average tasks take 1 success and Epic tasks take 5 successes. So, how do you get extra successes? You can spend Momentum points to get extra d20s or spend Fortune points for automatic 1's, but you max out at 5d20. Momentum points are gained through extra successes you didn't spend and either kept for yourself or thrown into a party pool for other PCs to use.

The GM has Doom points to influence the game play as most of the rules are in favor of the PCs.For example:

• PCs always goes before the GM's NPCs - unless the GM spends a Doom point.
• Ties in combat go to the Player - unless the GM spends a Doom point.
• PC wants an extra d20? But there's no Momentum points around and doesn't want to spend a Fortune point? Give the GM a Doom point and roll an extra d20.

At the start, the GM gets 3 Doom points for each PC and each PC gets 3 Fortune points.  

Damage uses specialty dice. 1d6:

1 = 1 pt harm
2 = 2 pt harm
3 or 4 = 0 harm
5 or 6 = 1 pt harm + 1 Effect.

An example is the Barbarian PC has a Vicious weapon, so each Effect result = +1 pt harm. So, if he rolls a 1 and two 6s, that's 3 pts of harm + 2 Effects = 5 pts harm and since he had the Talent Blood on Steel, he can spend 1 Momentum to increase the Effect to +2 harm, so the total harm would become 7. (The weapon actually does 6 damage dice, but I simplified it in the example to 3 dice).

Each 5 harm = 1 wound, 5 wounds and a PC is dead. NPCs can take 1 wound or more before dropping, depending on whether they're a mook or not.

So, the game was crunchy and flexible enough for various tactics. Also during play, one player wanted to have the ship tilted towards the bad guys and he wanted to roll a barrel towards them. He paid a Fortune point to change the tilt of the ship just as he pushed the barrel. Very epic.

After 1-1/2 hours, the PCs were still on the boat fighting pirates. I took a look at the scenario The Pit of Kutallu, The players were still on the first scene of multiple scenes, so I suspect they won't finish the scenario after 4 hrs of play.

What I liked about the system is that it codifies what the GM can do on the story level with Doom points and it also allows PCs to influence the scene with Fortune points. Since the world of Conan is about Barbarians and Thieves and Sorcery, I found the combat oriented system appropriate. There's enough crunch in the combat to make it varied and interesting and there's enough rules to allow a player to acrobatically leap past armed slavers to rescue a girl.

Momentum follows the ebb and flow of action in a scene and Doom allows the GM to add tension and complicate a scene.

There's much to like in the system. Hopefully, this carries through to the Star Trek Adventures system.