Conan 2d20: Playing the Investigation

Most of my articles have been about how to GM certain aspect of Conan 2d20 RPG, or at most overviews of how the basic mechanics work. I haven't played as a player, but my group has run for a couple of years, playing once a month or so, and I have noticed a few things.

As I have mentioned numerous times, I really like the idea of succeeding by a measure of success vs a simply black & white success metric of many RPGs, especially d20 based systems. Unfortunately I think this idea gets forgotten outside of combat by players as there is no real chart of spends to use your momentum on when you succeed in an amazing way. As you may have guessed from the title we are going to look at how players can get the most out of an investigation.

Generally, as I have outlined in my investigation post players should be able to simply say, "I search the area" or something similar to gain the most basic clue about where they should go next.

GM: Your party enters the room to find the dead body of your contact sprawled on the floor. Furniture and belongings are strewn about as though there was a struggle. GM: What do you do?

As the player you decide you want to search the body.

Player: I would like to search the body GM: Ok. This will be a D1 Observation test? Player: I roll 2d20 and gain 2 successes! GM: Alright, you gain a point of momentum. GM: As you search the body you find, clutched in his hand, the emblem of the royal guard, apparently torn from his attacker during the struggle.

As a player from a more traditional system with a pass/fail mechanic you will be tempted to think that is that and try and find who the emblem was torn from, but this is Conan2d20 and it contains a measure of success, you as the player rolled 2 successes, you received a point of momentum. Not only did you succeed, but you succeeded well. You could certainly drop the momentum into the group pool for the next player to use, or you could spend it right away.

Page 103-104 of the core rulebook discusses basic types of momentum spends, some of these are broken out into a series of momentum spends. For example: Improve Quality of Success is described as a an often repeatable spend that may cause extra damage, and Increase Scope of Success is described as being able to affect more targets, or increase areas of effects. Both of these we see as combat spends as well, but we shouldn't limit these to the arena of combat.

So you have searched the body but gained momentum in doing so. Why don't we use that to "Increase the Quality of Success"

Player: With my point of momentum I would like to see if there is anything else interesting about the body GM: As your search is especially thorough, you move the body slightly and discover, scrawled in blood, the name, "Cromlach". The name was previously hidden by the way the body was laying suggesting your contact was left for dead.

Now you have even more to go on, which can be nothing but beneficial. Keep this in mind as you choose how many d20s to roll. It may well be beneficial to roll 5d20 as well as assistance dice from your party to search that body and generate as much momentum as possible so you can be sure to find every last detail you can about it.

This can also be helpful if you don't actually know what you are looking for yet. This past weekend my players did a cursory search of a room and succeeded. They found a shipping manifest for supplies that came out of a nearby city. They didn't know it was relevant and so it was glossed over and largely ignored for several hours as they tried to workout their next move.

As a player use everything in your power to let the GM help you along to the next point in the investigation or story and remember they are not at odds to you, they want you to learn what is next, they want you to continue and be successful, but they also don't want to simply hand it to you on a silver platter or railroad you down a given path.

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Firearms in the Hyborian Age? (and some 2d20 stats)

In Marvel's first issue of SAVAGE SWORD, some keen eyed fans spotted what looked quite a LOT like a pistol on one of the pirates that had captured Conan. Unsurprisingly this set off a bit of a firestorm, culminating in some people calling the book trash without ever having read it.

Truly Robert E Howard has no firearms in his Conan tales, but The Black Stranger definitely has pirates, and I don't mean Queen of the Black Coast pirates, I mean Pirates of the Caribbean Pirates. Conan himself gets outfitted in pirate gear, and the interesting part is the gear he finds and uses, this quintessential pirate gear is old...

A man as big as himself was striding toward him over the sands, making no attempt at stealth; and the pirate's eyes widened as he stared at the close-fitting silk breeches, high flaring-topped boots, wide-skirted coat and head-gear of a hundred years ago. There was a broad cutlass in the stranger's hand and unmistakable purpose in his approach. Black Stranger -Robert E Howard.

Even in a more conventional story Howard describes the Barachan Pirates much like we might see in a more traditional pirate setting.

As he came into the waist the crew thronged about him: Zingarans, all of them, half naked, their gaudy silk garments splashed with tar, jewels glinting in ear-rings and dagger hilts. Pool of the Black One -Robert E Howard.

With characters in his stories that are clearly quite late in the medieval sphere of things, some might even say PAST medieval and into renaissance age. Looking again to The Black Stranger we see armor that 100% post-dates the introduction of fire-arms into Europe.

The taller stranger removed his morion and made a sweeping bow. His companions halted, drawing their wide cloaks about them, and behind them the sailors leaned on their oars and stared at the flag floating over the palisade. Black Stranger -Robert E Howard.

The Morion is a distinctive Spanish helmet, so Zingaran in the Hyborian Age, and certainly it we shouldn't use our world as an exact mirror to the Hyborian Age, but the fact remains that Howard took what he liked to make his stories cool, to make his stories sell. If there was ever a place and time where the rule of cool holds true it is the Hyborian Age and the world of Conan.

Moving away from pirates and armor technology for a moment I want to move towards alchemy in the Hyborian Age.

The horde had halted. From the extreme wing rushed a chariot, the naked charioteer lashing the steeds like a madman; the other occupant was a tall figure whose robe floated spectrally on the wind. He held in his arms a great vessel of gold and from it poured a thin stream that sparkled in the sunlight. Across the whole front of the desert horde the chariot swept, and behind its thundering wheels was left, like the wake behind a ship, a long thin powdery line that glittered in the sands like the phosphorescent track of a serpent. "That's Natohk!" swore Amalric. "What hellish seed is he sowing?" The charging knights had not checked their headlong pace. Another fifty paces and they would crash into the uneven Kushite ranks, which stood motionless, spears lifted. Now the foremost knights had reached the thin line that glittered across the sands. They did not heed that crawling menace. But as the steel-shod hoofs of the horses struck it, it was as when steel strikes flint—but with more terrible result. A terrific explosion rocked the desert, which seemed to split apart along the strewn line with an awful burst of white flame. Black Colussus -Robert E Howard.

And again in Hour of the Dragon we have this,

His hand dipped into his robe and came out with something shining – a glistening sphere. This he threw suddenly at Conan. The Cimmerian contemptuously struck it aside with his sword—at the instant of contact there was a sharp explosion, a flare of white, blinding flame, and Conan pitched senseless to the ground. Hour of the Dragon -Robert E Howard.

Clearly the Hyborian Age has the ability to produce explosive powders and the like. In both of these examples it is used by the hands of ancient Sorcerers, so I am not suggesting you can roll into your Aquilonian corner store and buy it, but I am suggesting such things existed to men who knew about it.

So now we have a pretty strong case for technology in the Hyborian Age higher than what was in use when firearms were introduced into Europe. We can simply take this as proof that Howard would gladly pull what was cool and within setting for his stories, if we go that way we need to go no further and realize simple firearms and pirates are pretty common place, and it's probably not that big a stretch to imagine Howard employing it.

Alternatively we can try and explain it via what we see in the Hyborian Age. They had the metal working technology to build 17th century armor, surely they could make a basic gun barrel. We also have proof of explosive and burning powders in the stories. Without any direct evidence of firearms, it's really not a great leap to believe something like a simple matchlock pistol might have existed.

In either scenario we really need to ask ourselves, "Are simple firearms really a complete impossibility in the Hyborian Age?"

Some of you will categorically deny this as a possibility, and that is fine. For those of you I can convinced that these things might exist in fairly small quantities as an interesting weapon, I give to you....

THE MATCHLOCK PISTOL

A ranged weapon for the Conan 2d20 RPG by Modiphius

Name	Range	Damage	Size	Qualities	Availability	Cost	Encumbrance
Matchlock Pistol	C	6cd	2H	Piercing 2 Fearsome 2, Intense, Slow	5	15	3

Slow: This weapon requires the player to remain stationary and use a minor action to load before firing.

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Friday's Forgotten Fiends: The Essence of Beyond

Welcome back to another installment of Friday's Forgotten Fiends! Custom monsters for your RPG table feature stat blocks for Conan 2d20 and Dungeons and Dragons 5e as well as paper 28mm miniatures and VTT tokens!

The candles flickered in the circle around the old wizard. His blade was raised above him in symbolism of ritual sacrifice. The bronze bowl before him held the still warm heart of some unfortunate soul, either human or a large animal, only he knew. with his circle of power intact, his sacrifice prepared he began the chant in some long forgotten tongue taught to him by his ancient master so many years ago. He had enemies, and he intended to summon a dark thing to do his bidding and have is revenge. He would no longer be the laughing stock in his village. He would show them all the power he possessed! After chanting for what seemed like an eternity he felt the very veil grow thin as the air around him grew cold, and in a final motion his blade struck down into the heart completing the ritual and unleashing the dark forces all around him. He could almost hear the great tear open between our two world, as the gash opened, and he called forth his creature. Within moments a dark smoke like foot stepped through the tear, fel energy swirling and coalescing around it. The last thing he saw was a claw of smoke and a mouth filled with row after row of gleaming white teeth. The chamber was filled with the protests and then screams of the wizard as the dark thing took it's price for his desires. When it had had it's fill of his flesh the thing stood and left the chamber, off to do what it was summoned to do. Behind it the great portal slowly stitched itself back together, and in a moment all that remained was the wizard's body as it was slowly consumed by the remnants of the dark energy that game through with the beast. In moments what can only be described as the Essence of Beyond remained, hungry and angry.

These blobs of malignant energy are the remnants of dark sorcery gone wrong, a merger of the one who summoned forth the magic, and the magic itself. They are a manifestation of the outer dark made physical in our world. Typically found on old places of power such as a ruined temple or ancient sunken city, these things feed on our world, and especially on the life forms in our world. These being simple manifestations of power have coalesced into semi-sentient and hostile creatures. Although having no magic themselves, and being relatively easily vanquished, their very nature can make them difficult to pin down and strike, and in that process many warriors have fallen to these.

Conan 2d20

D&D 5e

VTT Tokens

Paper Minis!

And finally paper minis!

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Conan 2d20 Character Sheet that is a form fillable pdf.

A little while ago I built a character sheet that was cleaner and listed the skills alphabetically. I have now added form fillable fields to the .PDF file. It has a few auto calculate fields, so if you notice anything weird, please let me know.

It has been suggested that some people may want to use this as a strictly pencil and paper sheet, so I have included the non-fillable version as well, which should be better for printing. 

2d20 Skill Character Sheet - Form Fillable

2d20 Skill Character Sheet - Non-Fillable

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Conan 2d20: Magic in the Hyborian Age

I will start this by saying that I haven't played D&D in many years, but as it is probably the most played game out there I will be bringing it up as a comparison to how magic works in most RPGs vs how magic works in Conan 2d20.

In D&D you get a long list of spells you can choose from and from that list you can choose what you want to cast for a given day. For an example we have a first level wizard with an INT of 17 (+3). The wizard has 6 spells in her spell book. At level one, she will be able to create a spell list for the day that contains 4 spells from her book. She may then cast any of those 4 spells twice, since a level 1 wizard only has two level one spell slots.

The spells you get to cast have any number of effects: Lightning bolts, fireballs, magic missiles, shields, summoning monsters, etc. They are the stuff of high fantasy, flashy displays of mystical energy.

The magic in Conan is much more subdued and although there is certainly spells that can be used offensively, we aren't going to be throwing magical fireballs at each other. Where D&D gives you a large number of spells to choose from, Conan gives you a smaller number of spells, probably a single spell when you start. I tend to think of these as spell blocks though because although they have a single name, they each have ways to build on the effects. In D&D terms you might not have magic missile and lightning bolt as two spells, they might simply be called, "Magic Bolt". D&D would need a way to channel more energy into the spell, maybe expending 2 spell slots to increase the effect of the bolt from a mere zap to a full fledged lightning bolt.

In the movies we see magic akin to what we might find in the Hyborian Age in the first Conan The Barbarian movie as well as the magic wielded by Merlin in the similarly aged "Excalibur". The magic in these films is very real, and yet often quite subtle. You again aren't seeming glowing hands and the like.

One of the other major differences is the loss of resolve, ie mental hit points, from spell casting in Conan. You could cause yourself to go insane if you cast too many spells without any rest. It lends a much darker and more sinister air to the forces you try and wield in the Hyborian Age.

With all that I am simply trying to set out the ground work for magic in 2d20 for those who are new to it. It is different. That doesn't make it bad. Today we are going to cover the basic ideas behind how casting works mechanically and how it can work for the narrative. There are a few other concerns around a character with knowledge in Sorcery, but that is for another time.

Call Your Dragon to Weave a Mist.....

The simplest form of spell casting in 2d20 looks like this and is known as Casting for Effect.

1. Resolve - Check and make sure you have enough resolve to cast the spell.
2. Minor action - Focus action (skipping this causes complications on a 19 or 20).
3. Standard action - Skill test against sorcery.
4. Complications - Any failed rolls result in a complication. Rolling a complication causes 2 complications.
5. Momentum - On a successful test send and additional momentum you have on stronger effects.
6. Resolve - Reduce your resolve

The second form of casting is known as Testing for Consequences or sometimes called Casting for Consequence. This is not at alternate rule, but it is up to the GM to allow it on a case by case basis. Basically the idea is that the spell always goes off and you are just testing to check for it's negative effects, think of it as Casting to Determine Complications.

1. Resolve - Check and make sure you have enough resolve to cast the spell.
2. Difficulty - Determine the difficulty of the spell. Most start with a base of D1, and each momentum spend you add, adds a level of difficulty.
3. Minor action - Focus action (skipping this causes complications on a 19 or 20).
4. Standard action - Skill text against your spells difficulty.
5. Complications - Each difference between the number of successes you roll vs the difficulty of the spell causes a complication. ie if you roll 3 successes on a D5 spell, you gain 2 complications.
6. Complications - It is POSSIBLE that a failed skill test here still causes a complication as well. There is nothing specifically that says it doesn't.
7. Complications - Rolling a 20 causes a complication.
8. Momentum - Spend momentum as normal.
9. Resolve - Reduce your resolve.

Can You Summon Demons, Wizard?

Let us take a little bit of a deeper look at the ideas presented in the book. Specifically we will start with the following passage:

From the depths of dusty tomes and the tutelage of patrons human and otherwise, the sorcerer collects incantations and recipes for spells, magical creations whose effects are immensely powerful, their histories older than the cities of men. These spells are broad strokes, guidelines by which unnatural forces can impose their will upon the natural world. The combination of spell effects and sorcerous talents comingle to form more complex results and more powerful intrusions of the Outer Dark into the world of humankind. The nature of magic in the Hyborian Age is not strictly codified, and requires the gamemaster to adjudicate on a narrative as well as mechanical basis. -Conan 2d20, Core Book Page 173

It is fairly easy to look at the spells and mechanically cast based on what is listed. That is always an easy thing, but in my books it is a less fun way to play. These games are all about the narrative. Have a player simply cast and then pick from a list leaves a lot on the floor. Instead think of these spell blocks as a toolkit. I strongly encourage you and your players to at least have an idea of the desired effect of the spell, even if it isn't fully realized on the actual skill test. I have a couple of examples below of sorcery in use. Our examples will center around Adara, a Cimmerian shaman.

Adara looks out across the blood soaked sward, the smoking ruins of the fort and dead from both sides litter the ground around her. Her people did not start this war, the constant incursion of the southern kingdoms north to take more land, and finally in an attempt to subjugate her people started this. Finally her tribe had enough, and so her and her people drew steel and assaulted their positions.

GM: You see a large warrior cutting down your people left and right, clearly a Knight and a fearsome opponent, what do you do. Player: Adara casts Form of a Beast. Uhhh, I roll 4 successes so that lets me succeed and spend 3 momentum. I choose Nature's Brawn, Animal Resilience and Roughen this beasts hide and I transform into a bear. GM: Ok, Adara takes the form of her totem animal, the bear.

VS.

GM: You see a large warrior cutting down your people left and right, clearly a Knight and a fearsome opponent, what do you do. Player: Adara summons the energies of the forest creatures, feeling the power of her totem animal flow into her she attempts to take on not just the form of the beast, but also it's strength and savagery! I roll 2 successes, and assume the form of my totem animal. Unfortunately this only gives me one point of momentum so I use that to assume the strength of the bear! GM: Ok, Adara takes the form of her totem animal, the bear.

Mechanically similar, but in my books the second one is more fun and more interesting, even though she was less successful with that test. Certainly the rules say you cast and then can use that momentum however you want, and I am not saying you should pick exactly what you want to have happen from the menu and try and cast it, but instead have an idea of the kinds of things you COULD have happen or WANT to have happen and weave that into the description of what your character is doing.

Even if you go the first route and don't have a clear idea what you are trying to accomplish with the spell, once you have chosen those effects I would strongly encourage you to work those effects into the description of what your character is doing. The spells are a GOLD MINE for narrative ideas and cool effects.

I can't encourage your enough to use these spell blocks as a toolkit to build excellent narrative effects around the magic we find in the Hyborian Age!

Finally some of the core book can be confusing, and should you need it we do have a Sorcery FAQ put together from the days of the Google+ group.

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Friday's Forgotten Fiends: The Boar of Nergal

Welcome back to another installment of Friday's Forgotten Fiends! Custom monsters for your RPG table feature stat blocks for Conan 2d20 and Dungeons and Dragons 5e as well as paper 28mm miniatures and VTT tokens!

The shepherd lounged under a large tree. The air was warm and clear and the sun shone down bright across the meadow lands. A small flock of sheep munched happily on the green grass emitting only the occasional bleating. Arvad was happy with things, predators had been few and far between and his flock grew fat providing wool and food for his family and money for his pockets. In an instant everything had changed, the throng of sheep broken and running in all directions as a Boar or Nergal stalked into their midst killing what would surely be more than its fat belly could eat. It seemed to be killing for sport as much as anything, a keen intelligence in its eyes as it turned and spotted Arvad. With a low growl it stalked towards the small man, sitting shocked beneath the tree. In a smooth action Arvad took up his spear and slid to his feet slowly as the monster continued its slow methodical approach. Leveling the spear, the shepherd planted the spear at his feet as he waited for the infernal creature to come for him. The beast continued its slow approach and as it did its true size began to show itself, easily as tall as a man at the shoulders, gleaming red eyes and yellowed teeth and tusks glistened in the sun, now stained with the blood of his sheep. With a slight pause the massive head is lowered and in a flash nearly one thousand pounds of predator charged towards him. Arvad could do nothing but grip the spear tighter, aim its point, close his eyes and pray to Mitra.......

The giant pig like creatures are some long forgotten remnant of a time best left forgotten, when giant beasts ruled over the lands. They generally favor the northern plains of Shem where the pastoral lands meet the low foothills of the Mountains of Khoraja. Although these creatures are generally solitary they live in small loose knit herd-like communities, coming across one means more are almost certainly nearby. Named for the dark god of death, Nergal, these creatures, although resembling boars are actually fierce predators. It is not uncommon to see them hunt the largest game.

This beast is based on the real life animal known as the "HELL PIG", but I didn't want to simply call it that, I wanted something more... Hyborian. So I went out onto the Internet and looked up gods, I found a nice list on Xoth.net. I did perhaps make a small error in ONLY using that site as it uses all sources for the Hyborian Age, not just REH. There is nothing wrong with that, but I would prefer to use REH as a first source and pastiches as a second source.

Do not worry though, as I found a story fragment on the Internet this morning, The Hand of Nergal, which makes me cheer a little in that the name I have chosen is both fairly fitting and REH.

Don't forget to scroll all the way to the end to see a new feature I am looking to add to these to supplement the stat blocks and VTT tokens!

Alright as Matt from Rogues in the House loves to say....

"ENOUGH TALK!"

Conan 2d20

D&D 5e

VTT Tokens

Paper Minis!

And finally paper minis!

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Friday's Forgotten Fiends: Child of Nethuns.

Welcome back to another installment of Friday's Forgotten Fiends! Custom monsters for your RPG table feature stat blocks for Conan 2d20 and Dungeons and Dragons 5e as well VTT tokens!

The torch light revealed the large vaulted chamber as it slowly slid across the ancient stone. The chamber was buried deep in the mountains, part of an ancient fortress, or so the stories went. The trio of explorers, Dagen, Epas and Volmastes, entered through a small doorway set in the western wall, searching for gold and jewels. Light danced along the walls of this room amplified by the large natural pool of water that sat at its center. Slowly as the torchlight was cast across the room small objects near the pool became visible. Volmastes approached the pool and stooped to investigate and found small candles and bits of parchments. The water rippled as if by wind or a bubble being released far below. The torch, brought forward by the other two, did nothing to illuminate the depths of the inky pool. Suddenly the trio was flung back from the pool as....SOMETHING...erupted from the depths. A mass of tentacles, large and small, studded with claws writhed in the air, pausing momentarily before striking at the awe stricken party. Living ropes of flesh and talons raked at the three adventurers, slicing and grabbing them, one slid around Volmastes and pulled him, struggling, towards the pool. Dagen drawing steel and striking with the skill of a Master of Iado, felt her blade sink in and through the large tentacle, freeing her friend. The remains of the tentacle fell heavily to the cold stone floor, dark ichor leaking everywhere. Epas turned towards Dagen in time to see what was left of the vanquished tentacle erupt into smaller versions of itself, it struck and slashed and wrapped around her with the fierce speed and strength of a jungle cat....

These creatures are never seen fully. Only their appendages that erupt from a body of water to attack and rend the flesh of adventurers. These creatures are often the result of dark magic and pacts between sorcerers and the forgotten gods of the deep, with especially strong links to the worship of Dagon.

They attacked from a fixed body of water, able to move freely within that water and look like a black/red group of triangular shaped tentacles with talons or teeth lining the underside. Smaller tentacles are sound with a similar claw at each end used to penetrate hard prey.

Although the beast is associated with Dagon, I chose to name it a child of Nethuns, a personal bastardization of the god, "Neptune". Players may get it with some thought if you even reveal the name, but it won't be an obvious reveal as to the origins and what the beast represents.

As always below you will find stats for 2d20 and D&D5e for both major and minor tentacles of this horrific beast.

Conan 2d20

D&D 5e

VTT TOKENS!

NOW WITH PAPERMINIS!

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Conan 2d20: Narrative Combat Spends

One of the great parts of Conan and 2d20 is succeeding by measure. The ability to not just succeed but succeed WELL is a narrative gold mine! The base rules have a table of momentum spends for action scenes on pg. 118. A more experienced player with the system will probably be able to look at that table and come up with narrative descriptions for each action and use them to craft a description of their attack. But what about that player with less experience, or one that is shy and has trouble coming up with those things? Below that table is a line that states, "These are in addition to the normal uses of momentum and any others that the players or game master create for themselves."

Like many things in 2d20 they have left it open for us as the players to build upon what they have already done, and so we come to what this article is about: Descriptive combat spends, things like spinning sword slashes, kicks to the chest, shoulder checks and the list goes on and on. So pull up a chair, watch some sword & sorcery movies and read some sword & sorcery books, and lets make up some cool moves for your players to plug into their combat encounters.

We will start with the idea of how we might build some of these from the listed momentum spends and finish off with some ideas that I have come up with that I though would add a lot of narrative depth to your combat encounters.

First up we chain 2 momentum spends together and provide a basic description of what that might actually look like. It should give you a good idea of how you can generate some cool combat narration from the provided list

Chained Momentum Spends	Description
Penetration+Penetration 2m+2m	The sword slashes wildly at the beast before it's keen point is turned and stabbed easily through it's hide. The razor edge of the sword cuts at the Vanir warrior, finding a weak point in his chain armor
Disarm+Swift Action 2m+2m	Conal deftly kicks the shield from the guards hands before his blade slashes at him.
Called shot+Damage 2m+2m	Sven swings his mighty axes catching the hyperborean square in his unprotected neck, blood gushes from the grievous wound.

Lets take this one step further with some of Howard's own words.....

Chained Momentum Spends	Description
Break Guard+Swift Action 2m+2m	But his return spring was like that of a starving wolf. He was inside the lashing arms and driving his sword deep in the monster's belly.... -REH, Beyond the Black River.
called shot+Penetration 2m+2m	A tall corsair, bounding over the rail, was met in midair by the Cimmerian's great sword, which sheared him cleanly through the torso, so that his body fell one way and his legs another. --REH, Queen of the Black Coast.
Penetration + Damage 2m+2m	In the interim one of his comrades lifted a broadsword with both hands and hewed through the king's left shoulder-plate, wounding the shoulder beneath. In an instant Conan's cuirass was full of blood. --REH, Phoenix on the Sword.

Going back to that table on page 118 and our basic momentum spends, we can get an idea of the approximate power of a momentum spend. Items like Disarm and Break Guard cost about 2 points of momentum. We also see my favorite spend, "Penetration". With it we are essentially putting the weapon trait "Piercing" on weapons that do not have it. This should give us a lot of fodder to move forward. Maybe we can add grapple or knockdown to the list? Vicious? Maybe!

I would have no problem adding the following to the table.

Knockdown	2 Gain the knockdown quality on your attack.
Stun	2 Gain the Stun quality on your attack

Some qualities are represented by talents, so we need to make them more expensive for people to use them, or the talents are pointless. For exampple, Killing Strike grants an additional wound for 2 momentum and Blood on Steel provides Vicious 1 for 1 momentum.

Intense	4 If you caused a wound, you may cause another wound. Does not stack with Killing Strike.
Vicious X	2 R Each 2M adds 1 point of vicious. Does not stack with Blood on Steel.
Grapple	2 Gain the grapple quality on your melee attack Grapple is counted as unarmed

And finally I present a table taking all of these ideas into account. This table builds on what we have in the core rules, adding basic narration seeds to a few basic spends. In addition to these we have used the idea of how chained spends might look together and mixed in our new ideas to come up more creative ways to spend your momentum. I hope you enjoy this idea and it helps bring loads of colorful combat to your table.

Description	Effect	Cost
Shoulder Bash!	Stun	2
Trip and Stab	Knockown+Penetration +1 Doom to enemies next reaction	5
Kick to the chest	Break Guard+Stun +1 Doom to enemies next reaction	5
Stab or cut at the joint	Penetration	1R
Recover from glancing blow	Re-roll damage dice	1
Twist blade in the wound	Add Vicious X	2R
Sand in the eyes!	Break Guard	2
Swing through a deadly arc	Secondary Target	2
Pommel strike	+2 damage+Stun	4
Head butt	Stun	2
Cleave the skull	Hit Location+Intense	6
Elbow to the Face	Stun, 1cd +1 Doom to enemies next reaction	4
Hack and slash	Spend 2m to kill 1 minion.	4
Cleave through armor	Piercing 4	2
Slash/smash/stab the head/leg/arm/torso	Choose hit location	2

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Friday's Forgotten Fiends: The Hyperborean Monoceros

Welcome back to another installment of Friday's Forgotten Fiends! Custom monsters for your RPG table feature stat blocks for Conan 2d20 and Dungeons and Dragons 5e as well as VTT tokens!

The "ice age" and it's mega fauna are ripe for inclusion in a setting like the Hyborian Age. They fit so well that they are already common in sword and sorcery and even in the Hyborian Age itself; From mammoths in Conan Exiles and Age of Conan to the saber-tooth tigers written by Howard himself in Beyond the Black River. I am not one to stand back and think, what if.....

This past week Logan of "Rogues In the House" Podcast posted a picture from a facebook group about ice age mega fauna: The Siberian Unicorn. This thing is a great giant rhino the size of a mammoth! How could I not stat it up and bring it to life on the northern planes of Hyperborea or Hyrkania.

Not only am I providing some stats worked up for Conan 2d20, but also for Dungeons and Dragons 5e! So if you have friends who play either, don't forget to point them my way! As always following the stat blocks will be a token for use with your favorite VTT.

His labored breath produced a cloud in front of him. His hands gripped tightly around the wooden shaft and he wondered, not for the first time, why he had come to this frozen hell of Hyperborean tundra. The great beast stood in the ruins of his camp, its cold eyes staring at him, seemingly oblivious to the blood soaked into it's thick coat. The beast snorted, its own white haze billowing from its nostrils. Conal involuntarily took a step back, trying to grip the spear even harder. Suddenly the great beast lowered it's head and with it, the single monstrous horn protruding from its forehead. The beast's charge shook the earth as it thundered towards the single man. Conal braced himself and, at the last second, avoided the wicked horn, but not the the enormity of the creatures gigantic head, which bashed him aside like a child's doll. With reflexes that only a life long warrior might possesses, he rolled up and struck with the spear. He felt the point resist and then slip deep into the beast just behind the shoulder. With a last mournful cry the great behemoth sunk to the earth motionless. Conal stood, bloodied and bruised, and scanned the remains of his camp. As he surveyed the destruction his eyes caught movement and as he turned four more of the great shaggy beasts appeared out of the night, the remains of the herd, called by the death cries of one of their own............

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Friday's Forgotten Fiends: The Jungle Crawler

Friday is here and that means another fiend from a time immemorial! Today I am going to introduce you to a giant creepy crawly, something that should make at least one of your players dread the fact they ever entered that jungle.

The Jungle Crawler

In the wild places across the world forgotten by man. In places that grow lush with life, deep jungles and dark forests, things grow large. Things that time has turned it's back on and allowed to thrive against natures best judgement. In these places dragons roam. But in these places things creep and crawl with hundreds of legs, dripping poison and death.

Today I introduce you to the Jungle Crawler, a giant centipede. Will it's pincers slice through your players armor, or will it's venomous tail inject it's death into them? Perhaps their incessant chittering drive your players mad as these things invade their camp in the night?

Here is is The Jungle Crawler in a toughened and minion variety, may they strike terror into your players.




I am also include a couple of tokens that you should be able to resize and use in your favorite VTT. Tokens created with Token Tool 2.0!



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Friday's Forgotten Fiends: The Gibbering Darkness

Today I want to revisit a creature I came up awhile ago. The concept of this thing was a creature that would assail PCs in Conan 2d20 and cause a wound to a Character. Why would you do such a thing? Sometimes drama and tension can be increased when the PCs feel threatened and there are times when they simply don't in Conan because of how competent that they can be. A mob of these attacking in the deep ruins will generally use it's point of doom to attack first and most likely injure someone before being vanquished. I wouldn't recommend using something like this all the time, but everything in your toolbox has it's place.

The Gibbering Darkness

In the deep ruins of time immemorial there are places, rifts to some black place, where darkness seeps into our world as formless shapes, seeking the life energy of our existence like a wild predator seeks its prey.

The Gibbering Darkness is darkness made manifest, shifting shadows on the wall. Dark places in the corner of your eye. As easily as the dark is vanquished these creatures can be returned from which they came. Do not forget that like the darkness these hide things that are both physically and mentally deadly.

Many an naive adventurer has been reduced to lifeless husk, or worse a mindless husk, as unsuspecting they walked into a forgotten place and were assaulted by the dark mindless gibbering of these things.

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The Search for Clues: How I approached Investigation in Conan 2d20

Introduction

Whenever I write a new adventure for my players I try and include things that are not simply hack and slash. Ways for members less adept at combat to shine and have a great time. I have worked with placing "Trials" into combat situations so the non-combat characters can contribute in a more meaningful way. I like the idea, but often my party tunnel vision's on monsters and villains and won't do anything else until they are vanquished. Generally what I want the trials to do, don't work in this situation.

In my last adventure I wanted the players to start their adventure arriving at an abandoned Asgard village. They would need to investigate the village and figure out what had likely happened and go forward with the adventure from there. Previously i've had things in the adventure that were available for players to find, maybe some ancient script on the wall that would reveal some deeper meaning to the dungeon they were in, add some more COOL to it. Nothing that really *NEEDED* to be found to progress.

With an investigation you want your players to look around and find clues, and then use those clues to draw conclusions about what they should do. If you make this difficult they might not find those clues and end up with no way to progress. What to do!? Well I, like you, went out to the Internet and read a few articles and watched a few videos on running investigative games. What I came up with is the idea that there should be some clues that are going to be found if the players walk into a place and do a cursory examination. These clues are the most basic information the players need to move forward with the plot. Other clues are there and can be found which will add information or a better path for the players.

The Clues

Since running the adventure I have had time to think about this methodology for investigation and might do a larger adventure with it, but until then I will tell you about how I broke down my clues. I felt each clue should have a few basic elements: where it could be found, what skill was used to uncover it, what difficulty it was, what was the result of finding it and what was the result of not finding it.

Finding & Using the Clues

I later decided that all clues should be found with an observation test, and once found a further test could be used to determine something useful from them. This way a player is always rolling against the same skill without the clue being hinted at. This will also allow the keen eyed character to find tracks and the expert tracker to follow them, allowing more non-combat team work for the party. ie A player makes a D1 Observation test to see the tracks, followed by a second D1 Survival test to learn about them. Of course common sense needs to be used, if the clue is a testimony from a dieing man, you probably don't need to find him.

There are times when you will want players to use a certain skill to gain knowledge about the clue, but what if they don't have that skill? Sometimes a secondary skill can be useful. If they found animal tracks, but don't have survival, you may want to allow them to use a skill like Observation, but probably with a higher difficulty.

Setting up the Clues

With this knowledge let's set up the clues following a set of five basic steps.

1. Crime Scene: Describe what happened. This will give you a good founding of what went on in the scene and why clues are what and where they are. We see this all the time in detective and police shows, but from the other end, where the main characters have found clues and have pieced back together their version of the events that placed them there.
   
2. Key Clues: Identify the key clues the players will need to find to lead them to the next phase of the adventure.
   
3. Negative Effect Clues: Pick out things from the description that are key and build clues around them that might have negative consequences if not found.
   
4. Informational Clues: Pick out further informational clues that have no real long term effect on the adventure.
5. Red Herrings: Maybe a few clues scattered about to lead the players astray, and make things more difficult.

Step 1: Crime Scene.
Evening falls, and as most nights recently the village is huddled around their central fire pit for comfort and security. Something has been stalking them. Finally they hear a low growl as a giant cat appears on the edge of the fire light, with terror the villagers panic and run. Only the Shaman stands to stop the beast, striding forward he commands it to stop. He is struck down where he stands, as a giant claws tear through his flesh. The cat stalks the people while small dark humanoids chitter with glee as they pull down and bind villagers, the ones they do not capture escape into the cold night. The cat and the children of the night escape out towards the mountains, with the villagers for sacrifice by their Master on the coming Solstice. A light snow beings to fall..

Step 2: Key clues.
We know we need the players to find evidence that will lead them to the mountain. The easiest one is the tracks the cat and the little people leave behind, but with the commotion I think tracks might be harder to find, especially with the snow that had begun to fall. Instead we will see that the villagers have been stalked for sometime. Our first clue will be notes written by the chieftain about sending a party to the mountains and other similar information to make the players believe the mountain is important. We will place this note in the Chieftain's hut.

Clue	Location	Skill & Difficulty	Found	Not Found
Chieftain's Notes	Chief's Hut	Observ. D0	Notes describe The Chief's council with the village shaman about omens in the mountains. A party of warriors investigated and found ruins of an ancient fortress inhabited by snow apes.	N/A

Players entering the hut and making a basic cursory look into the place will find this clue. It is possible they don't search all the huts and in the end don't find this clue and end up not knowing what to do. As much as I recognize this to be a possibility, I think players who have not found a plot hook and haven't searched all the huts deserve to be stumped a little bit. In short I think they should have to do something to get the clue, even if once that is done there is no dice rolled.

Step 3: Negative Effect Clues.
Now that we have this basic clue let's work from there. We know the cat and little people and villagers would leave tracks. We can make it more interesting by placing this clue in a few areas, maybe in the village where they are hard to find and outside the village where they are easier to find. If the players find this clue we should reward them, maybe give them a safer, faster way to the mountain fortress.

Clue	Location	Skill & Difficulty	Found	Not Found
Animal Tracks	Outside the Village	Observ. D1 -> Survival D3 Observ. D5	Tracks of a large animal lead away. Players use the easy passage through the ruins.	Players use the dangerous passage through the ruins.
Animal Tracks	Inside the Village	Observ. D1 -> Survival D1 Observ. D3	Tracks are obscured by other tracks in the village Tracks of a large animal lead away Players use the easy passage through the ruins.	Players use the dangerous passage through the ruins.

We had a couple of other things happen in our description. One was the shaman being struck down. Perhaps he managed to drag himself to his hut and as the beast crashed in to finish the job, he managed to ward it off with some spell or alchemy? We can add clues to handle this as well.

Clue	Location	Skill & Difficulty	Found	Not Found
Blood	Entrance to Village	Observ. D1 Covered in snow	Blood stains in the snow. Lead to Shaman's Hut	No effect.
Shaman	Shaman's hut	Auto find -> Healing D1 Persuade D2	Tells of the battle with the cat & solstice sacrifice. Cat doesn't cause FEAR 1 when the players encounter it. +1M Gives the players a talisman to ward off the cat.	On a failed test: Shaman croaks a single word, "The Mountain." and dies.
Star Charts	Shaman's hut	Observ. D1 -> Lore D1 Observation D3	Shows how far away the solstice is.	Solstice is one day closer than previously determined.

Now we have three clues associated with the Shaman, one simply leads the players to him, and the others provide information and perhaps a little bit of advantage if the investigation here goes very well. I haven't included basic things such as claw marks on the body or the damage on the hut, but things like this should be improvised pretty easily based on your knowledge of what happened here.

Step 4: Informational Clues.
We also know there was struggles and villagers being bound and taken against their will. Players will probably make this assumption, especially based on other clues, but you can sprinkle a few things around the village to given them a deeper investigation.

Clue	Location	Skill & Difficulty	Found	Not Found
Bindings	Next to one of the huts	Observ. D1 Covered in snow	Iron shackles with arcane glyphs.	No Effect
Small footprints	Around village	Observ. D3 -> Survival D2	One of the Children of the Night erupts from the snow and attacks.	No Effect

Step 5: Red Herrings.
We know villagers ran off into the night from our look at the crime scene. We know not all were taken by the wizard. What happened to them?

Clue	Location	Skill & Difficulty	Found	Not Found
Blood	West of the Village	Observ. D1 -> Observ. D2 Survival D1 Covered in snow	Blood stain leading southwest. See BEAR ENCOUNTER if followed	No Effect

With a fairly simple crime scene description we are able to come up with 9 clues of varying merit, and at least one that will lead the characters the right direction. Hopefully this will give you some inspiration on ways to add clues and investigation into your own game. If you do I would love to hear how it worked out! Of course if you have other ideas or comments on this methodology please drop me a comment below.


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Forgotten Creatures: The Dire Wolf.

The Dire Wolf

The dire wolf (Canis dirus, "fearsome dog") is an extinct species of the genus Canis. It is one of the most famous prehistoric carnivores in North America, along with its extinct competitor, the sabre-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis. The dire wolf lived in the Americas during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs (125,000–9,440 years ago). The species was named in 1858, four years after the first specimen had been found. Two subspecies are recognized, these being Canis dirus guildayi and Canis dirus dirus. The dire wolf probably evolved from Armbruster's wolf (Canis armbrusteri) in North America. The largest collection of its fossils has been obtained from the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.

_{Wikipedia contributors. (2018, December 8). Dire wolf. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:56, December 20, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dire_wolf&oldid=872741641}

We often see creatures taken out of time to populate the Hyborian Age. In Red Nails the dragon Conan defeats is described more like a dinosaur than the modern concept of a dragon. The core rulebook for the new 2d20 lists the Sabre-tooth cat, while the new release, "Horrors of the Hyborian Age", list creatures like cave bears and dire rhinoceros.

In actuality the size of the dire wolf and a regular wolf isn't that great, but this is the Hyborian age, so I think they should be scaled up to match the time.

Actual comparison of average sizes	Hyborian Age Sized
Canis Dirus (‬dire Wolf‭) Darren Pepper http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/c/canis-dirus-dire-wolf.html

So I give to you my take on the dire wolf. A giant version of the wolves found within the pages of 2d20. This version is tougher, and can deal more damage than it's smaller cousins. It is simply more bad ass. Perhaps packs of these roam the frozen north of Nordheim or the vast steppe of Hyrkania. Either way a pack of these stalking your players should be enough to give them quite a challenge. I have included two versions of the dire wolf, a toughened version and the Alpha Dire Wolf.


I'll make note that I haven't had time to actually play test these yet, as I am building them for an upcoming adventure. If you do use them I would love to get feedback from how they worked out at your table. As always I love hearing from everyone, so if you have any feedback please drop me a note!

Until Next Time. Keep it Weird!

Build Your Own Ancient Ruined Well! New Youtube video!

New build video up on YouTube! learn how I built a cool ruined well for my Conan 2d20 game!

Momentum in Conan 2d20! A Basic Guide to Spending Momentum in the Hyborian Age!

As we have discussed in this article on momentum, Momentum is a measure of success and a way to see that things are going in favor of the party. The mechanics around it have had questions raised about how and when it can be spent. This largely comes from the term "Immediate", and the two sources of momentum, personal and pool. We, myself included, have read far too much into how this works. The following is how I understand momentum within the Conan 2d20 rules and up until this morning, I would have described it differently.

Let's start with a few basic definitions.

• Generated Momentum - Momentum generated from a successful test.
• Pool Momentum - Momentum stored from another players successful test.

• Immediate Spend - Can be used at anytime. You do not need to have had a successful skill test to use this spend.
• Regular Spend - Spent after a successful skill test.

What kind of momentum can we spend on a given test?

	Immediate Spend	Regular Spend
Generated Momentum	X	X
Pool Momentum	X	X

Yes that is right. Momentum is momentum and can be used interchangeably. The real difference in these two types of spends is WHEN you can use them, and that may limit where the momentum comes from.

	Immediate Spend	Regular Spend
Successful Test	X	X
Unsuccessful Test/ No Skill Test	X

There is one more distinction between Immediate Spends and Regular Spends.

	Immediate Spend	Regular Spend
Bought with Doom?	YES	NO

For Example: Immediate Spend, No Skill Test The group has stored 3 momentum in the pool and Dianan wants to roll more than 2 dice to attack the skeleton opposing her. Dianan at this time has not made a skill test, and so the only spends available to her are Immediate Spends. Dianan doesn't have any Generated Momentum because she hasn't rolled any dice yet. She can pull from the group pool using the "Create Opportunity" momentum spend which is an Immediate Spend.

For Example: Immediate Spend, Unsuccessful Skill Test The group has stored 6 momentum in the pool. Dianan attacks the skeleton nearest her but misses! Her vigor is sitting at 2 and so she decides to use the Second Wind momentum spend, which is listed as an Immediate Spend. Again she is unable to use any Generated Momentum, simple because her attack failed and she has none. She can still spend all 6 points of Pool Momentum.

For Example: Immediate Spend, Successful Skill Test The group has stored 1 momentum in the pool. Dianan continues her attack on the skeleton! She hits it and does enough damage to destroy it, in addition she has 2 points of Generated Momentum from the attack. She decides to use a Swift Action spend with her Generated Momentum. Her second attack she decides to roll an additional D20 using the Immediate Spend, Create Opportunity, with the last point of Pool Momentum NOTE: She could have used the 1 point of Pool Momentum + 1 point of Generated Momentum for the Swift Action, and the last point of Generated Momentum for the Create Opportunity spend.

For Example: Regular Spend, Unsuccessful Skill Test The group has stored 6 momentum in the pool. Dianan attacks the next skeleton nearest her but misses! She wants to use Swift Action to try and attack again, but since it is a Regular Spend, it requires a successful skill test. She is unable to use Swift Action.

For Example: Regular Spend, Successful Skill Test The group has stored 1 momentum in the pool. In desperation Dianan strikes out again at the skeleton, but generates 0 momentum. Her damage fails to eliminate the skeleton and so She opts to use Swift Action, in an attempt to bash the skeleton with her shield. Since Swift Action with another weapon only costs 1 point of momentum, Dianan can use the Pool Momentum to make this Regular Spend.

I hope this quick guide helps you in your Hyborian Aged adventures! If you have questions or comments please drop them below. Maybe you disagree with this assessment of Immediate vs Regular Spends? Let me know!

Until Next Time. Keep it Weird!