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Thanks dude.
Pretty much finished the sorcery section, then onto some other minor things, then traits (skills) like:Fast: +2 to all movement related prowess tasks.
Strong Willed: +2 to all Wits tasks against Ensorcelment.
Berserker Rage: +3 to all Hand to Hand combat rolls when attacking, but may not defend against attacks.
Eagle Eyed: +2 to Wits tasks based around perception.
Bowman: +2 to archery tasks.etc..
So I had a quick read through of the rules, they look solid so far.
My only gripe is not with the rules but the small print on colored background which made it tough to read on my phone.(I usually read rules on the train on my way to work)
I was going to play a test game yesterday but that got canceled on account of a visit to the vet as one of our cats came home with a severe limp that turned out to be a dislocated toe of all things.
But, I’ve got the terrain set up and ready to go, so as soon as I have a little spare time I should be able to get a quick first game in.
I’m going to replay a scene from Beyond The Black River where Conan rescues a companion form a pict village as the shaman summons various forest creatures to come and devour the captives one by one.
You can read it here if you wish Link scroll down to IV. — THE BEASTS OF ZOGAR SAG or settle down with a nice tumbler of your favourite drink and read the whole thing
Cheers,
Stroezie.
I was not altogether happy with the way the turn sequence worked, so have changed it, rather than e-mail another copy I am summarising it here:
A turn ends when all the groups have spent as many available Vitality point from their available pool as they wish.
To begin a turn roll a d6 and add the value of all the available Vitality of the groups on your side.
Erland has an available Vitality pool of 6, so he rolls a d6 and adds 6 to the result.
The other side has 2 groups of 2 bandits, each bandit has 2 available Vitality, so they roll a d6 and add 8 to the result.The highest rolling player may choose a group from their side and spend as many available Vitality points as they wish.
Once they have finished with that group, they then choose another group, once they have spent as many available as they wish from all their groups, play passes to the other player.Example, in the above situation Erland rolls 5 and adds 6 making a total of 11. The bandits roll 4 and add 8 making a total of 12.
So the bandits get to go first. The bandit player chooses the group furthest from Erland and spends all of their available Vitality on moving tasks. The player then chooses the other group and spends 1 of their available vitality on a moving task and they leave 1 point in their pool and pass the turn to Erland.Usurping
There may be situations where you need to act first and don’t want to rely on the random aspect of the dice roll.
In this case a hero may spend up to 1 Vitality from their available pool before the turn begins and use this to add an extra d6 to their initiative roll, this must done before the initial roll.So as above where Erland has 6 available Vitality he adds 6 to the d6 roll. However he really needs to get into the temple before the bandits attack, he needs to go first. So he spends an available Vitality point and rolls 2d6 and adds 6.
As you can see, an outnumbered hero starts off at a disadvantage unless they spend their vitality to Usurp the other player.
As the game progresses if the hero has been mighty enough and vanquished some foes, the bad guys numbers decrease and so does their ability to dominate the game with numbers and keep the initiative.Bad guy reinforcements can turn the tide back though.
Could do, but I think for solo play it adds some much needed uncertainty, which the card draw provided, plus people like to be in with a chance of winning the dice roll against the odds!
😀Hmm,
I don’t know, I’m not really a fan of IGOUGO and I kinda liked the card draw mechanic.
For solo/co-op it has the benefit of uncertainty plus it gives you the card with the information of who/what ever is up next.
For the Usurp mechanic you would then decide before shuffling the cards if you wanted to usurp and simply not put the character’s card in the shuffle.
Alternatively you could shuffle and flip all the cards simultanously building a kind of initiative track.
Then if you wish to Usurp roll 1d6( up to Vitality) and move your card that many spaces up the track.
Just my case for cards over die rolls for initiative, feel free to ignore it if you want
Cheers,
Stroezie.
I quite like the cards too, however I want to tie it to Vitality somehow and also avoid writing CROM 2.0.
It is the balance between what is good and what is not going to upset people…
You can do that, the turn is not over until everyone has spent as many of their Vitality as they wish.
So if you had Erland and 3 groups of bandits and the bandits win the initiative you could.Have 1 group of bandits spend all their available Vitality points by moving to close on Erland.
Another group spend just 1 of their 2 available Vitality by moving to block a doorway and saving their 1 point for later.
The last group does nothing as they prepare for Erlands attack.Erland then uses 2 of his 6 available Vitality to move to the group that first moved, he uses 3 of his last 4 and slays the dogs then uses his last 1 to close on the bandits by the door.
The bandits that used only 1 wish to stay by the door so they do not spend their last point, but the group that uses no points now use both to close on Erland and get into base to base contact.
As neither Erland nor the bandits that just rushed him have any points left and those that have, do not wish to use them, the turn ends and we start a new one.In the new turn we have Erland (now Vitality 5 after last turns combat) vs 4 bandits each Vitality 2.
So Erland rolls d6+5 and the bandits roll d6+8. However Erland really wants to go first so he opts to Usurp the bandits and reduces his available Vitality to 4 but rolls 2d6+4 for initiative.
We roll and he wins, he has 4 vitality and uses 3 to evade the fight and run at the bandits by the door.
He rolls 3 lots of Prowess and leaves the stunned bandits behind and arrives at the bandits by the door with 1 available Vitality..
He attacks and there is some fighting and then the bandits that he ran away from use their available Vitality to chase him.There is some very bloody fighting the result of which is that Erland is now down to 2 Vitality and there are 2 bandits left so the initiative is now d6+2 vs d6+4.
Erland can not afford to use 1 of his only 2 available Vitality for initiative, BUT, last turn he managed to get inside the tower and free Eydis, who now joins his side so the Heroes have her Vitality to add to the pool making them d6+7 vs d6+4.
Surely the tide has turn back in Erlands favour!I think this adds a nice tactical element to the game that makes rescue and reinforcements a very real actual factor on game play.
EDIT: It also means that you really do need to prevent the sorcerer from summoning lots of Vitality worth of creatures, not only will they attack you, they will turn the initiative in their favour with their numbers.
I am doing some stats for typical bad guys/creatures/animals that you are likely to fight.
What are the core beasts in Conan stories?Well there’s a flying ape demon in Queen of the Black Coast and some were/dire hyenas.
Then there’s giant snakes, grey apes, various big cats, thunder lizards(flightless dragon/T-rex), living statues(both stone and iron) and a whole bunch of summoned creatures(demons,elementals,ghost…)
Also various eldritich Lovecraftian horrors.
Fish/snake men, vampires…
And of course anything from lowly highway robbers to ninja/jedi assasins and all kinds of sorcery types.
Oh and Tower of the Elephant has a giant spider.
As you are doing more of an arabian adventure I’d add (giant)scorpions, djinn and/or efreet and sand snakes/worms.
Maybe throw in some stats for a camel to, you know sooner or later someone is going to want to try and clobber one.
Well that’s it of the top of my head, if I think of any more I’ll let you know.
Cheers,
Stroezie.
Cool, I had most of those, which is reassuring! 😀
Now… I need a name for the groups of bad guys.
Minions, Goons, Thugs, Lackies, etc?Something that can describe a group of people as well as a group of wolves for example.
Started work on some Chronicles of Simurgh cards and a sheet on which to record Vitality and the Available Vitality.
The cards feature the 3 stats, Prowess, Wits and Vitality.
The sheet has a space to track Vitality and Available Vitality, I shall be using a d6 to note Vitality and some of my 15mm skulls to track available vitality.
I did test the rules with the skulls on the table, which looks ok too.
So I have replayed my first adventure using my own rules.
Took a bit longer in terms of dice rolls as these rules are more detailed than the previous set.
Though still pretty quick…Excuse the lack of pretty presentation that I normally do, this is a quick play test table I made this morning.
I wanted something I can leave out.
I will do proper ones when I return to the Chronicles proper!TURN ONE
Rolling for Initiative.
Erland rolls d6 and adds his Vitality = 9
The Wolves roll d6 and add their total = 16
The Wolves go first.I choose the group on the left first and they spend 1 of their Available Vitality and they move, this is a Prowess task so they roll their prowess and move that many cm.
I remove an Available Vitality marker from each wolf that made a task
They roll a 9, however they also add 4 to movement tasks as noted in the rules. So they move 13cm
They still have 1 Available Vitality point, but for now I turn my attention to the other group who also spend 1 of their Available Vitality in moving, they get a modified result of 8, pretty poor.
Both wolf groups now have just 1 Available Vitality point left,
the group that moved only 8 decide to make another movement task and again roll their Prowess and add 4, this time they get 12.
This takes them right to the bottom of the rocky outcrop.
They however have no Available Vitality so are unable to anything else this turn.
The other wolf group decide to stay where they are and the turn is passed to Erland.Erland spends 1 of his Available Vitality to make a movement task, he rolls his prowess which is 3 and gets 8, more than enough to drop down the rocks and into the nearest pack.
Erland now has 5 Available Vitality in his pool. He uses 1 to attack the first wolf. As the wolf has used all it’s Available Vitality it cannot perform any tasks such as defending itself.
A successful attack will do 1 damage. 1 damage will remove 1 Vitality from the actual stat, and 1 from the Available Pool.
However, a critical attack does double damage, so we roll to see if Erland can kill the wolf with 1 blow.
His 3 prowess means we roll 3d6, we get 1,2,6.
Whilst 9 is not especially high, the attack does contain a 6, which indicates a critical hit.
So the wolf takes 2 damage.
This means its Vitality is reduced to 0 and it is slain!We remove the model and the d6 from the sheet, we can see that Erland is now down to 4 Available Vitality.
Erland attacks again spending an Available Vitality and this time does not get a critical. This is just 1 damage so we reduce the wolfs Vitality by 1 (we cannot reduce the Available Vitality as it has none).
Erland spends another Available Vitality and attacks the unwounded wolf. Again no critical so just a single point of damage. Both wolves are down to 1 Vitality.
Erland has 2 Available Vitality. He uses these to attack each wolf once, again they can not defend and as the wolves only have 1 Vitality left we only need to do 1 damage to each to kill them, so they are both killed!
Erland is down to 0 Available Vitality, the other wolf pack however has 1 available.
They use this to move and roll their prowess of 2 and get 12, we add the +4 bonus they have and they easily make it to Erland.
However, as no-one has any Available Vitality we start a new turn!
TURN TWO
Rolling for Initiative.
Erland rolls d6 and adds his Vitality =8
The Wolves roll d6 and add their total = 8
It is a draw, so we roll again.
This time the Wolves win. Each wolf spends an Available Vitality to attack.
Erland spends an Available Vitality to defend against each one.
Erland is at 3 Available Vitality and the wolves at 1 each.The first wolf rolls its prowess and gets 5, Erland rolls and gets 10.
Erland wins, so the wolf takes a point of damage. As noted above a successful attack will do 1 damage. 1 damage will remove 1 Vitality from the actual stat, and 1 from the Available Pool.
So this wolf has its Vitality reduced by 1 and its Available Pool is also reduced by 1, so now it is on 0 Available Vitality.
The second wolf attacks and we get 6 for the wolf and 15 for Erland!
Not only does Erland win he got a 6 in the roll so scores a critical hit and does 2 damage.
This kills the wolf.
The third wolf attacks and gets 12! Erland gets 8.
So the Wolf wins and as it got a 6 in the attack (there is no bonus for more than one six) it inflicts a critical hit on Erland.
This means Erland takes 2 damage, his Vitality is reduced to 4 and he loses 2 Available Vitality from his pool of 3.The wolf uses its last Available Vitality to attack again and Erland uses his last Available Vitality to defend. It gets a 6 in total but Erland gets 13, a 1, 6 and 6.
Erland inflicts a critical on the wolf and 2 damage is enough to kill it outright.So we have Erland with 4 Vitality and an Available Vitality pool of 0.
A lone wolf with 1 Vitality and a pool of 0.
TURN THREE
We fill the Available Vitality Pool back up. Erland is less formidable now he is down to 4 from 6.
However he has more Vitality now than the wolves so is likely to win the Initiative.
He does!
We could play it cool and as Erland won, he could back off, make the wolf follow him (which would use the wolfs only point of Available Vitality and then rush back in knowing the wolf could not defend, but that is not Erlands way!)
Instead we spend an Available Vitality to attack and the wolf spends its only Available Vitality to defend. Erland rolls 15 and the wolf a mere 5.
The wolf takes 1 damage, and as it only has 1 Vitality left it is slain!Erland defeated the wolves, but not without taking a nasty wound or two in the process.
He heads off now to Simurgh to see what his wolf pelts will buy him!
Thanks. I will be doing some crunching to see how the battles work out over a few dozen fights like I did to begin with then will try out against some bandits and archers…
Then will try out a scenario with a foul sorcerer summoning some undead.
By sheer force of will a mighty hero can dig into their vitality and defy the odds and take the battle to the enemy!
Yeah, once the rules are done there will be a rules page on the site.
Feel free to hit me up via FB if you get any questions that need answering as they crop up.
Assuming you are on FB that is…😀
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