The Black God's Shadow by CL Moore.

Jirel of Joiry returns in this direct sequel to CL Moore's the Black God's Kiss. This time she must return to that same place she retrieved her weapon and earn her redemption. Is she worthy of redemption or will the dark claim her as one of their own?

The Black God's Shadow was published in Weird Tales in December of 1934, this time CL Moore didn't get the cover, which was given to Robert E Howard's Conan story, "A Witch Shall be Born".

One of the first things that strikes me about this story is that it is a direct sequel. In my other explorations of pulp literature, being mainly Robert E Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and some HP Lovecraft, this is not really done. Certainly Robert E Howard also has numerous characters that span stories, and in the case of Solomon Kane we have stories following each other in a very specific chronology and we see character development along that chronology. As a direct sequel, this story is dealing with events and ideas raised in the first, and revisits some of the same settings. It is not just another story dealing with the same character later in her life.

Overall I again enjoyed CL Moore's Jirel character, and again I found her journey to pull me along with her and want to join her at it's conclusion, whatever that might be. It again strikes me that over the years more has not been done with Jirel of Joiry.

Within this story are several chase scenes. Although these scenes introduce interesting aspects to the environment she is in and do help to build on the in earthly creepy factor, there were times I felt they were a little drawn out. This flight across the same dark landscape as the first Jirel story also made me feel like more of the same at times. However even with these thoughts, I don't think these possible negatives were strong enough to take away from the story.

Despite the slightly drawn out chases and more of the same dark landscape the story moves well and has good pacing. The writing is excellent and I felt it was little more descriptive than the first Jirel story. Aspects of those chases and the descriptions of the things she faces are awesome and terrifying. I also enjoyed the overarching themes of light and dark, clearly not something new, but cool to see in early fantasy literature.

Jirel is again shown as a powerful and fiery warrior. She again seems to give little thought, or at the very least, little care to venturing from our reality to another to accomplish a task she views as correct. In "The Black God's Kiss" she is tormented by another's action and knows she must strike out and gain her vengeance. In "The Black God's Shadow" knowing her error and haunted by it she knows she must return and undo as much of her error as she can. In both of these she is willing to risk her very soul. To me she is an incredibly engaging character.

If you want to check out some of CL Moore for yourself why not click through to my Amazon affiliate link either through the sidebar or by clicking here?

Robert E. Howard House Archaeology

There is currently a push on GoFundMe to help fund an archeological expedition at the Howard house in Cross Plains, TX.

There is a sealed storm cellar behind the house that hasn't been opened in a very long time. They might find nothing, but they might find something cool. If you have a couple of dollars why not support the initiative?

Check out the GoFundMe page for more information!

Why Pulp Fiction?

Escapism is all around us. Today society has myriad forms of entertainment ranging from the written word to the moving picture. We live in a world that has made all of this entertainment and escapism accessible to the masses.

Stories have always been important to us. Since the dawn of man we have found ways to record our exploits and our heroics, but until the modern era these stories were told by word of mouth or perhaps through expensive reproductions laboriously copied by hand on vellum.

Paper, in the Western world at least, wasn’t really needed until the invention of the printing press in 1450. Suddenly we had the ability to mass produce books, but we still lived in a labor intensive society. We still didn’t have time to sit down and consume entertainment like we do now.

Listen to me talk, I complain about not having enough time to do half the things I want to do. In reality though I could make much better use of my down time. In the middle ages and renaissance, living and working by sunlight or lanterns, I simply would not have. I wouldn’t have the luxury I have now.

Enter the Industrial Revolution. Automation of processes brings workers time and an increase in the standard of life. It gives them, for the first time, the ability to have a sustained ability to consume entertainment. Although I am not going to discuss, or hypothesize as to why, we also see a dramatic increase in literacy. (Devon Lemire, 2012)

Now we have paper, the ability to produce the written word and an audience. What becomes of this? If we type “Penny Dreadful” into google we largely get hits from a TV show called “Penny Dreadful”. This TV show about the weird and dark side of Victorian London takes its name from the widely available cheap literature of the day. These magazines, known as a Penny Dreadful specialized in sensational stories and offered the working class a way to get the written entertainment without having to buy the more expensive novels. You should check out this article for a more in depth look at the Penny Dreadful.

In 1900s United States we see the rise of the pulp magazine. These magazines are the direct successors to the serialized cheap publications that came to be known “Penny Dreadfuls”. The collective name for those publications is a combination of the content and the price, the pulp magazine takes its name from the paper used, which has become synonymous with how the content is generally viewed; cheap, tawdry and of no value.

From the introduction of these magazines in the early 1900s to their demise in the 1950s, a wealth of these magazines were produced, and because of this need for content many people tried their hand at writing. Some created iconic characters that have lasted to this day; Conan, Tarzan, Doc Savage, The Shadow.

In the 1950s rising costs and increased competition from books with higher production quality, television and comic books saw this boom in pulp literary entertainment begin to wane and the majority of the pulp magazine companies going out of business. I found a graph stating that in 1950, 9% of US households had television, and in 1955 it had rise to 64%, by 1965 92% of households had television (Understanding Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication). I am sure it’s now close to 100% and although reading is still popular among some, I am sure we all know someone who just doesn't read anymore.

Pulp magazines are often looked down on. Their authors are not held up like “true” authors. They are not typically views as literary masters, or authors that made a contribution. I am not here to tell you that everyone who wrote in a pulp magazine was an expert wordsmith, but to wipe our hands of every author because they were commercial authors being published in the pulps is a disservice to literature. I would argue that these authors writing in the early 1900s have had a significant effect on our culture, as great as any of the large names. They have created ideas and characters that have become our modern heroes, or the basis for them. Who’s work reached a larger audience: Hemingway or Howard, Lovecraft or Lawrence, Steinbeck or Smith?

These magazines defined a large portion of entertainment for the working class for the first half of the 20th century. They were a large part of culture during that time and to ignore their influence on it is folly. The authors of those magazines certainly wrote to get published but that doesn’t make them less. This does not mean that there is not depth in their stories.

The Black God's Kiss by CL Moore.

Jirel stands defeated as Joiry is conquered by Guillaume. Captured and imprisoned Jirel escapes and seeks a weapon to exact her revenge. Is revenge worth it at any cost?

Today I want to talk to you about to a pulp author from the 1930s that is new to me and perhaps to you as well. CL Moore was published in the same magazine that published many of Robert E Howard, HP Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith's stories; Weird Tales. I believe I became aware of CL Moore through CromCast Podcast, and due to their work had a basic idea of the story line of this tale.

The main character is "Jirel of Joiry" a warrior and Lady of Joiry. Although female characters are not unheard of, what sets Jirel apart is that her author was also a woman. Catherine Lucile Moore wrote under the name CL Moore and perhaps this allowed her to get published? This was the 1930s after all. That is supposition on my part as the artists who create the risque covers for Weird tales was also a woman. With that bit of background behind us I thought I would try my hand at a little review of this enjoyable pulp story who's character never rose to the fame of Conan and Robert E Howard or the Cthulhu Mythos and HP Lovecraft.

The Black God's Kiss was published in Weird Tales in October 1934, vol. 24, no. 4. I enjoyed the story and the character of Jirel and will be looking forward to continuing her adventures. I felt it stood on it's own and wasn't just a carbon copy of other heros I had read. It kept me interested as Jirel progressed across her journey with both good visuals and some depth to the story. I highly recommend you pick up this story and give Jirel and CL Moore a try. This was clearly an important character from the time of the pulps that is often overlooked.

The story was enjoyable and it flowed well. I found when I had put it down to go do something else, I was drawn back to the story to find out what would happed to Jirel, clearly the mark of a good tale! There was a few places I had to go back over and re-read to fully comprehend what had happened, but it was very few and I didn't find it hurt my enjoyment of the story. For good or bad depending on your opinion, I felt that CL Moore was less "thesaurasy" than some of the other pulp writers I am familiar with, especially Clark Ashton Smith. I felt this took a little potential flavor out of the story, but substitued it with easy of flow and language across nearly a century.

I think the story was paced well and had a lot of interesting visuals and ideas within it's pages. On it's surface it starts as a simple revenge story, but quickly becomes a question of what is actually worth sacrificing for that revenge. I especially liked this lack of black and white. Revenge wasn't portrayed as a simple right and wrong. Jirel being the hero doesn't instantly make her revenge justified or even a correct course of action. Jirel isn't just a carbon copy of the other Heros of her day, she feels like she has her own motivations, ideas and needs.

"I know. Do you think I'd venture down if I could not be sure? Where else would I find such a weapon as I need, save outside God's dominion?"

Solomon Kane

The company that brought us Mythic: Battles Pantheon in association with Monolith, is going to bring us a new game. A new setting from the Pulp worlds of the great Robert E Howard.

SOLOMON KANE.

We don't know very much about the game right now, but it looks to be a kickstarter and miniature based(as their last 2 games were.)

I will be watching this one with keen interest.

Check out the teaser here:

FG extension going forward

With a more or less working version, meaning I have a working PC and NPC sheet, I look to places where things can be better.

The combat tracker is the obvious one, it can be a powerful tool within FG to track an encounter, but I think it might be better to update it once we have a look at the full core book.  

One of the things I think that is needed is an additional momentum track.  ie one that stores current generated momentum, and that once a turn is complete can be transferred to the stored track.

To facilitate this I would ALSO like to make it easier to see momentum generated.  And for that I am looking at implementing task difficulty for the PC.  This will probably be implemented as a numberfield and perhaps a group of buttons.  Ideally it will be a numeric entry on the Combat Tracker. 

If we know the difficulty we can roll and determine success/failure as well as how much momentum was generated, which can then be transferred to the character sheet.

Anyhow that's all for now!

John Carter Fantasy Grounds Extension

I am posting what I am calling v.9 of the extension for people to have a look at and play with a little.

There are some things that need to be done to make it really slick, but it should be functional for the quickstart.

As this is a MoreCore extension you will need that ruleset as well.

The link here should allow you to download it.

John Carter Extension

There are a few static height anchor issues but that shouldn't affect anything functional.

I will try and get a demo up via livestream in the next day or so. Finally, the only thing the CT will really be good for right now is to see who is in combat, none of the JC fields are linked.

John Carter Fantasy Grounds Extension v.99, a quick tour.

On the last to do list we have the following items:

• Stress boxes
• Spend button for Luck
• Chat messages for momentum and luck spends
• Finish adding in the stat rollers
• Resolve the static anchor issues

After a little more work I can label all of those as completed, except for the last item. There is still some work to be handled with the momentum pools, but for all intents and purposes that are functional.

With that information completed I wanted to take a quick tour of the sheet, and I hope to do a live feed demonstrating it soon.

I wanted to make a quick note that I got an e-mail last night saying 3.3.4 of FG was released. I have yet to install this and I also need to update my verion of MORECORE. This could introduce new errors to the extension, but I can not confirm or deny that at this time.

Initial version of sheet with chat window showing some basic rolls and momentum spends.

Togglable stress & affliction buttons, as well max stress levels which control the useable stress boxes.  Stress on these maxes at 16, but another 4 could be added.

Momentum and luck, momentum can be on, off, selected or disabled.  All selected momentum is spent when the spend button is double clicked.  Luck can only present or not.  I need to cut this back to 5 max as well and change the graphic.  Double clicking on the spend button spends a single point.

Dice selector, defaults to 2.  They can be toggled on and off to set number of d20s to roll

Basic list allowing for talent entries with reference buttons to the descriptions.

Character inventory window showing a shortened list of the inventory from the inventory page.

Weapons list.  Taken from the Conan extension, will probably need some more work for the final JC rules, but functional for the quick start

If you have any feedback or comments, please drop me a note and let me know, I would love to hear your ideas and thoughts on this project!

FOR HELIUM!

JC: FG Extension Update.

As expected I managed to get sometime to work on the project over the weekend. I sadly squandered some of my Saturday in Age of Conan, and although I didn't stream the session I did managed to escape Tortage and begin my quest into the main world.

Even having squandered that time I managed to get a fair it done.

Completed

• Finish inventory list.
  • Completed the core inventory list on the main screen, pulls from same source as the MORECORE inventory tab.
• Add talent list.
  • Completed a working list that ties to the talents tab of the MORECORE sheet.
• Add weapons list.
  • Completed the Weapons list using the 2d20 weapons class, rollable, may need a couple of tweaks, but essentially functional.
• Create graphics for Momentum, Threat and Luck.
  • Created momentum tokens, Luck tokens and threat tokens. Will re-design the luck tokens in the future.
• Create momentum, luck and threat counters as well as spends.
  • Added selectable tokens for luck and momentum.
  • Momentum can be On, Off, Selected or disabled.
  • Momentum can be spent by double clicking the spend button.

To Do

• Stress boxes
• Spend button for Luck
• Chat messages for momentum and luck spends
• Finish adding in the stat rollers and resolve the static anchor issues

Latest version of the Character sheet showing Inventory, Talents, weapons, Momentum and Luck.

Further updates and a screenshot on the JC: FG extension.

Yesterday I gave a quick overview of the extension I am working on. I laid out a few things I felt I needed to complete. Here they are again in review so we can see what I have accomplished in the last day or so.

TO DO

• Finish inventory list.
• Add talent list.
• Add weapons list.
• Create graphics for Momentum, Threat and Luck.
• Create momentum, luck and threat counters as well as spends.

And some new additions

• Stress boxes

1. Add Weapon list -- Complete

• I added the frame and pulled the weapon class and reference window from the Conan ruleset and renamed it to "2d20_weapon"
• Copied over the "strings" document as the weapons entry window relies on it for labels.

2. Add Talents Frame -- In Progress

• I have added the frame to hold the list, but not the list itself

3. Luck, Momentum and Threat Counters -- In Progress

• Not much progress here, but I added frames for notes and flaws, so I know where I can place the counters.

4. Misc Bug fix -- In Progress

• I noted today I had created a control to hold the number of dice being rolled as a stringfield and not a numberfield so it was throwing a type mismatch.

That is it for actual updates, but in the end I have worked on it for not much more than an hour since the last update, either way, here is a screenshot of the current character sheet


New version of the Character sheet showing addition of d20 selectors, weapons lists and various new frames.

FG: John Carter Update & New Channel Video

I got a little more time to work on the JC: Adventures on a Dying World Fantasy Grounds extension. Currently working towards a functional quickstart setup.

Over the past few days I got the lists working for inventory and a set of 5 d20s that can be clicked on and off to determine the number you are going to roll. The dice graphics are the "Helium" d20s from the kickstart page. At present it is a column of 5 dice. 2 highlighted at all times and 3 greyed out that can be toggled on and off. Once the roll is completed it returns the 3 optional dice to their greyed out state.

I need to add a list for the weapons, which I will most likely pull from the Conan system as I am fairly happy with that and add a list for the Talents area. Finally I need to incorporate momentum/threat spends and graphics. It would also be nice to get the custom damage dice operational, which will be another pull from the Conan extension.

So that list looks like this:

TO DO

• Finish inventory list.
• Add talent list.
• Add weapons list.
• Create graphics for Momentum, Threat and Luck.
• Create momentum, luck and threat counters as well as spends.

In other news I have almost finished the next crafting video for the channel, which will have a slightly new format, which I hope people enjoy.

FOR HELIUM! A John Carter 2d20 adventure.

The air was still as the graceful airship slid over the horizon and slowed over the moss covered plains of Barsoom. The ship wasn’t as massive as one of the ships of war, only a small scout vessel, but it stlll proudly flew the colors of Helium. In moments, it settled softly on the ground and two of the Red Men of Helium emerged.

Standing on the plains of Barsoom the two scouts of Helium looked around nervously. They were waiting for a party of green men to rendezvous with them and they knew dealings with these savages could be deadly. However, the knowledge they had of places the Red Men did not go made the danger acceptable to Hor Zak.

Hor Zak, was commander of the scout mission and knew the knowledge of the Green Men could be had, for a price. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity they saw three of the Green Men approaching lazily on their thoats. The mounts and their riders steadily grew larger, as the scouts waited, until the scale of both the Green Men and thoats was impressive.

Finally reigning in beside the two Red Men, they dismounted. Their leader, towering over the scouts, came forward and offering the customary greeting said, ”Hor Zak. “

The scout nodded and returned the customary greeting, “Hortan Gur.”, and then turned to his companion, “Larok! Bring up the chest!”

“Yes, my Dwar!” was the man’s reply as he disappeared for a moment and brought back a small chest full of ornaments of gold and silver from their small ship.

The eyes of all three Green Men turned to look upon the ornaments, and after a brief discussion nodded to each other. The other two loaded the chest, mounted their thoats and waited for their leader to join them. Hortan Gur spoke, “This will do nicely Hor Zak, here is the map we spoke of at our last meeting. Know that my people will not take kindly to intrusion. Until we have further business. “

With the words spoken Hortan Gur, Green Man of Artol mounted his thoat, and his small party returned the way they came.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Some time Later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You stand among your fellow brothers in arms in a vast auditorium deep within the walls of Helium. At the front of the hall stands the beautiful Deja Thoris, Princess of Helium. Her voice sounds clear and true, nearly musical, as she addresses the assembled throng, “Warriors of Helium! I seek volunteers to go to Artol in search of lost knowledge from the old civilizations. A work that could change Barsoom forever! “

Her words echo across the auditorium as a murmur passes over the assembled.

Her words continue, “I will not tell you it will be easy or that the way will not be perilous. The Green Men of Artol will not take kindly to our intrusion, and where they are not, there will almost certainly be the Great White Apes. Who among you will step forward and face the wilds of Barsoom? Who among you will sacrifice for your Princess? FOR BARSOOM!?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Game Details ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you are interested in playing, drop me a line. The current day is February 7th @ 6pm MST! Looking to stream via youtube!

Running on Fantasy Grounds and Discord with pre-generated soldiers of Helium.

John Carter of Mars: FG Extension

I've spent a little more time on the extension for John Carter of Mars. Now that we have the quick start and a basic feel for the rules I have begin adding die rollers and damage trackers into the extension. The image below shows the current iteration of the character sheet.

I need to re-work the frame graphics a little, as well as the title, but those don't really change functionality so I am concentrating on getting equipment and talents operational, as well as a dice selector so you can choose bonus dice when rolling checks.

As you can see I have die rollers added to the attributes column for cunning, and will add these to the remaining rows in the coming days.

There are a few automation things to work on as well, but they are nice to haves and some still need to be implemented on the Conan extensions as well.

If you have comments please drop them below, I would love to hear your feedback.

Conan 2d20 review. How clunky is it? A comparison with Pathfinder.

I have seen a lot of posts. People often read the Conan 2d20 rules and decide without playing them that they are too clunky. They have too many fiddly bits and they are just too slow.

But are they? Does Conan 2d20 present us with a system that is actually clunkier? I aim to answer this in this post by comparing a combat through multiple systems to see how they stack up.

For simplicity our encounter will start with a lone fighter, "Conal", breaking into a dark tomb to retrieve some long forgotten treasure. In an ancient tomb he is attacked by five skeletons.

Conan Zone Layout	Pathfinder Grid Layout

-- Conan 2d20 --

Conal
Agility: 13
Melee: Ex 5, Fc 5. TN 17/5
Coordination: 10
Parry: Ex 3, Fc 3. TN 13/3
Brawn: 12, +3cd
Fortune: 3
Broadsword: R2, 5cd, parrying
Shield: R2, 3cd, 1H, parrying, Shield 2
Armor = soak 2 everywhere.
Vigor: 13
Resolve: 10
Talents: No Mercy (equivalent 3 ranks): Re-roll xCDs

Skeletons (M)
Agility: 9
Combat: 2. TN 11/2
Pitted Sword: R2, 5cd, parrying
Armor: 2
Vigor: 5
Resolve: 8
Fear: 1

DOOM POOL: 3

Round 1

Conal
Conal goes first (Don't need to roll initiative in Conan, PCs always start unless interrupted by a GM doom spend)
Conal moves into a new zone(minor action)
Conal attacks the skeleton. (standard action)
Conal pays 3 doom into the pool and rolls 5d20. DOOM=6
Conal attacks and rolls 5d20 vs D1: 4,15,11,16,1 = 7 successes = 6 Momentum.
Conal rolls 8cd for damage: 5,2,3,4,3,2,3,5. Re-rolls 3 misses, rolls 3,4,4. tough luck. Damage = 6.
Conal spends 1 momentum for 2 points of soak ignored.
Conal does 6 vigor damage, causing a wound, destroying the skeleton.
Remaining momentum to the group pool. MOMENTUM=4
Conal approaches the first skeleton and raises his sword, striking the abomination. Although his sword blow is not devastating it slashes past a week spot in the skeletons ancient armor, through the torso reducing the bones to a broken and collapsed mess.

Skeletons

Skeletons form a mob.

The remaining 4 skeletons all move to engage Conal. They form a mob giving them extra attack dice.
Skeleton mob rolls 4d20+3d20 from doom. DOOM = 3
Conal attempts to parry and rolls 5d20, buying 3 dice with momentum. MOMENTUM=1
Skeletons attack and roll 8d20 vs D1: 6,11,16,11,14,15,4,18 = 4 successes = 3 momentum.
Conal parries and rolls 5d20 vs D1: 4,16,1,11,9 = 5 successes = 4 momentum.
Conal successfully parries the mob of skeletons. MOMENTUM=2
The shambling mob approaches Conal and with only the noise of metal on bone the 4 raise and slice at Conal, with a terrific effort Conal wards off the blows, feeling as if he has gained the upper hand on this undead horde.

Round 2

MOMENTUM reduces by 1.
MOMENTUM: 1
Conal
Conal pays 1 doom into the pool, uses 1 point of momentum and 1 fortune and rolls 5d20 against the mob of skeletons. DOOM = 4
Conal rolls 5d20 vs D1: 20,10,14,8,1 = 5 successes = 4 momentum. MOMENTUM=5. Complication. DOOM=6
Conal rolls 8cd for damage: 6,4,6,6,2,4,3,5. Re-rolls 3 misses, rolls 3,2,4. Damage=8.
Conal spends 2 momentum to increase damage to 10.
Conal spends 1 momentum for 2 points of soak ignored. MOMENTUM=2
Conal does 5 points of vigor to the first skeleton destroying it. 5 damage is carried to the next skeleton. 2 skeletons remain.
Taking advantage of the skeletons being pushed back by his parry, Conal swings a deadly arc of steal crashing through two of the skeletons reducing them to dust.
Conal spends 1 point of momentum and strikes at the remaining skeletons with his shield (Dual Wield, Swift action)

Conal kills 2 with a sword and 2 with his shield.

Conal spends 1 point on an extra die and 2 into the doom pool. DOOM=8
Conal rolls 5d20 vs D2 (D1 +1 for swift action): 11,17,1,19,14 = 5 successes = 3 momentum. MOMENTUM=4
Conal rolls 6cd for his shield. 1,3,4,3,3,5. Re-rolls 3 misses, rolls 2,3,2. Damage = 6.
Conal spends 4 Momentum to bring his damage to 5 and spends one point of doom to gain 2 points of soak being ignored.
Conal causes the other two skeletons 1 wound each.
As Conal's sword slices through two of the skeletons, he lashes out at the other two with his shield. With a terrific crash the impact reduces the remaining two skeletons do nothing more than a pile of bones and a slight haze of dust in the air

-- Pathfinder --

Conal
Fighter
Human Level 1
STR: 17 +3 (attack rolls, Damage rolls)
DEX: 14 +2 (Armor class, initiative)
CON: 14 +2
HP: 12
Longsword DMG: 1d8 Crit: 19–20/×2
Chainmail AC:+6 Max Dex Bonus:+2 ACP:–5 Spell Failure: 30% move: 20 ft.
Shield, light steel: AC:+1 ACP:–1 Spell Failure: 5%
Power attack, Cleave
AC: 10+6+1+2=19
MELEE ATTACK BONUS: 1+3=+4

Skeletons
AC: 16
Hp: 4
Speed 30'
broken scimitar +0 (1d6)
Base Attack = +0
FEATS Improved initiative (+4 initiative)

Round 1

Roll for Initiative
Rolled and sorter for order
Skeleton 5: 20+4 = 24
Skeleton 2: 17+4 = 21
Skeleton 4: 10+4 = 14
Skeleton 3: 9+4 = 13
Skeleton 1: 6+4 = 10
Conal: 4+2 = 6

Skeletons
Skeleton 5 moves to engage Conal and rolls a d20 for his attack. Rolls 15. Conal's AC = 19.

Skeletons move to attack.

Skeleton 2 moves forward 30'
Skeleton 4 moves and attacks Conal. Rolls a d20 and scores a 9. Not enough to beat Conal's AC.
Skeleton 3 moves up and attacks Conal as well. Skeleton 3 is opposite Skeleton 4 and so gains a +2 flanking bonus. Rolls it's 20. Gets an 8+2=10. Still fails to strike Conal.
Skeleton 1 moves forward 30'
The skeletons advance quicker than the undead should be able to. Three reach Conal with 2 close on their heals. Their sword swings are ineffectual, a combination of armor and dexterity cause all three to miss

Conal
Conal attacks Skeleton 4. Rolls his d20 and rolls 9. +4 = 13. Not enough to defeat the skeleton's AC.
Conal being pressed back by the horde of bones strikes wildly but fails to land an effective blow against the skeletons.

Round 2

Initiative
Skeleton 5
Skeleton 2
Skeleton 4
Skeleton 3
Skeleton 1
Conal

Skeletons

Remaining 2 skeletons close.  All attack and miss.

Skeleton 5 swings at Conal! Rolls a d20. 12. not good enough.
Skeleton 2 moves and attacks Conal. Rolls a d20. 12. Not enough.
Skeleton 4 attacks Conal. d20. 16+2 flanking = 18. Not enough.
Skeleton 3 swings. D20. 7+2 flanking, misses.
Skeleton 1 moves up and swings. 4...Misses.



Conal
Conal strikes at Skeleton 4 and rolling a d20, gets a 14+4=18! A HIT!
Conal rolls 1d8 for damage and gains a +3 from attributes. He rolls a 5+3=8! A skeleton falls!
Conal using cleave strikes at Skeleton 2! He rolls a d20 and scores a 15+4 = 19! Another hit
Conal rolls a 1d8 and scores a 2, but with his +3 it becomes a 5 and a second skeleton falls.
Conal slashes out at the skeleton beside him, his blade passing easily across the bones reducing it to dust, his deadly arc continuing in a devastating attack, striking down a second skeleton

Round 3

Initiative
Skeleton 5
Skeleton 3
Skeleton 1
Conal

Skeletons
Skeleton 5 swings out, this time enjoying a flanking bonus, and Conal is at a -2 for his AC from using Cleave.

The skeleton's D20 roll is a 16. +2 = 18, enough to hit Conal with his temporary AC of 17.
Skeleton 5 rolls a 1d6 for damage and scores a 5.
Skeleton 3 stikes next enjoying the same bonuses as his cohort. Rolls a 19. Also enough to strike Conal.
Skeleton 3 rolls a 1d6 for damage and scores a 6.
Conal has suffered 11 damage, leaving him a single hit point.
Skeleton 1 lashes out at Conal, rolling a 13 on a d20. Not enough to hit Conal, even with his -2 AC
Unbalanced by his massive attack two of the skeletons slice out with ancient steel, blood flows and Conal barely blocks the third blade from ending his life.

Conal
Conal swings at Skeleton 5. He rolls 6 on his d20, missing the Skeleton.
Conal staggers and ineffectually swings back at the undead seeking to have him join them.

Round 4

Initiative
Skeleton 5
Skeleton 3
Skeleton 1
Conal

Skeletons
Skeleton 5 rolls a 4, +2 flanking isn't enough to strike Conal.
Skeleton 3 swings and rolls a 17. +2 = 19. Enough to hit Conal.
Skeleton 3 rolls damage. and rolls a 2. Conal only had 1 HP left and so it reduced to -1 and dying.

-- Analysis --

Number of Rounds
Conan-2d20: 2
Pathfinder: 4
Verdict: Conan resolves combat faster.

Number of d20s
Conan-2d20: 22 in 4 rolls
Pathfinder: 16 in 16 rolls
Verdict: This depends on if you like dice pools. We roll more dice in Conan. We roll more often in Pathfinder. Time wise I suspect Conan will win here as I do not think each combat roll in Conan-2d20 will take 4x the time to resolve, and there are times it will be just as fast in my experience

Damage dice
Conan-2d20: I didn't count this. You roll A LOT of damage dice.
Pathfinder: Way less dice to resolve damage
Verdict: I am going to go with Pathfinder. It's simpler to roll a single die and things can be sped up by just rolling damage with your attack die. The upside for Conan-2d20 is with it's effects you can have a lot more interesting things to happen. More damage, grappling, stunning etc.

Narrative guidance
Conan-2d20: Each roll you make tells you what has occurred. How much you were successful by, if your weapon pierced armor etc.
Pathfinder: While providing some it is generally obscured by choosing a simpler resolution
Verdict: Conan, in my opinion provides the player and GM with more ideas about what is actually happening.

-- Final Thoughts --

I am not here to tell you which system is better. I simply wanted to compare two systems, one I feel is a popular game with a combat system people seem to enjoy, and the other a system that often gets a bad rap. The system in Conan reads poorly, but in actual play is a fun and interesting combat system. It is not without it's problems, but all games have some.

One of the interesting things about this comparison is seeing the hero die in Pathfinder, having this occur in Conan against enemies like this is practically unheard of. The system provides players with characters which are by all definitions, heroic.

If you have any comments, I would love to hear them!

Age of Conan: Saga of Zath

Age of Conan

Conan Exiles is approaching it's official release date. Over the last year it has gone from a game, from what I understand, significant issues, to a game that I quite enjoy. Sure it still has issues. I suspect all games do, but in the end I enjoy the survival sandbox concept with a Conan skin.

So Funcom is working hard on this new Conan game, but what of it's OTHER Conan game? Age of Conan.

If you are unfamiliar with it, Age of Conan was and *IS* a MMORPG set in the Hyborian Age. It was released WAY back in May 2008. Nearly 10 years ago. You start with a character in the Barachan Isles and the city of Tortage where you remain until you get to a high enough level and escape to the world at large. As it is 10 years old, there are less servers than there used to be. I believe only one remains. "CROM" in both PVP vs PVE. The game can be played for free giving you access to a lot of content or through a paid membership giving you certain bonuses and access to everything.

Through out your adventure you are given quests, gain experience and levels, new abilities, crafting recipes and your own guild strongholds.

Saga of Zath

Before Christmas Funcom announced that in the new year they were going to start a new server, something they called a SAGA server. We would all be given the opportunity to start fresh and play the game starting at Tortage. The original content would be in place as well as a new quest called "Saga of Kath". At the end of the saga server run, characters would be rolled back into CROM with all they had gained including marks of saga completion.

From the Saga of Zath website

The Saga Quest Shortly after washing ashore on Tortage Island, you are assigned a “Saga Quest” which tasks you with reaching various progression milestones:

• Reach Level 20
• Reach Level 50
• Reach Level 80
• Fulfill your Destiny
• Complete a Raid via the Raid Finder*
• Classic Raid Progression

Completing each stage of the quest awards a special vanity item or account-wide title exclusive to Saga of Zath, along with powerful loot including a Tier 4 Cloak and a Tier 6 Weapon and Necklace for your class!
* The Raid Finder will not be available at the start of Saga of Zath. Don’t worry--we’ll turn it on shortly after the launch.

January 24th saw the launch of the new Server and so I decided to return to Conan's MMORPG world and logged in last night at 8pm MST and made it to pretty close to level 12 in about 3 hours of solid game play, so I have about 8 levels to go to hit the first Zath quest goal. I hadn't played in about 2 years (Christmas 2016), but I quickly remembered the controls and got used to moving and killing.

I have never personally played a wizard class in the game, and have always stuck with combat. I love the way combate is handled, allowing you to swing at various locations and use combo moves, and get rewarded with fatality animations, such as beheading your opponent.

First Impressions

As I mentioned I played for 3 hours last night. I was able to find my way around fairly easily and remembered the basic maps and how to get to them. ie How to find my way around Tortage, How to get to the Underhalls and Whitesands.

Overall it was cool to see the game as populated as it was, even if that meant at times it was actually hard to find creatures to kill on Whitesands Island. ha ha.

As always the game is good looking, and has an amazing and epic soundtrack. It was commented from the other room while I was playing, "I wish Diablo 3 had an epic soundtrack like that." I often turn the music off in games, but in AoC, it is welcome and epic.

I will continue to play a little when I have time and see how far I get.

I will livestream my entire experience over on my YouTube channel, so come and check it out. SAGA OF ZATH

Quickly! To Barsoom!

Today Modiphius released the quickstart rules for John Carter. We get our first taste of the system.

I wanted to jot down what I see as the major differences between Conan 2d20,as I am most familiar with this system, and the mechanics in the John Carter game.

Dice
The system is the same as Conan in this.
2d20+up to 3 bonus d20s
combat dice are calculated the same, 1,2,0,0,effect,effect.

Accomplishing Tasks
The Same
Roll 2d20, buy up to 3 extras.
Roll vs 2 numbers, get under the TN = 1 success, get under the lower value = 2 successes
Opposed tests work the same. Each side rolls, if both succeed, the side with the most momentum wins.
The Differences
Skills vs attributes
Conan uses Attributes+Skills. Skills have an Expertise and a focus and these plus the attribute provide the TN and Focus to roll against. Example: Melee attack: Agility=9, Melee Ex=4, Fc=4. Melee TN=13, Fc4.
John Carter uses attributes. Each test utilizes two of the attributes. Daring+Might for example. The sum of these is the TN and the lowest of these is the target to gain a second success. Example. Daring=5, Might=6. Daring+Might test: TN=11, FC=5

Momentum, etc.
The Same
You gain one momentum for every point above your target difficulty. Task is Difficulty 2, roll 3 successes, momentum = 1
You lose one momentum at the end of each scene
You can spend momentum for various effects
The Differences
No group pool. Players are allowed to save momentum past their turn, but it is stored in a momentum pool with a maximum equal to the players lowest attribute. Players may contribute to another players momentum pool, but it can't exceed it's maximum. Doom becomes Threat
Fortune becomes Luck

Zones
The Same
The world is broken into zone vs measuring squares. Distances are therefore abstractions.
The Differences
New names for the zones
Immediate - Within arms length. (Melee)
Near - not next to, but easily reachable. (Same zone)
Away - areas apart from others either due to distance or obstacles. (Adjacent zone)
Far - Visible range (2 zones over)
Too Far - Out of visible range, beyond the ability to engage without special tech.

Action Phases
The Same
Broken into rounds and turns. Each round is composed of player turns.
Players go first in initiative. GM can interrupt for the cost of 1 threat.
The Differences
Phases are simplified. Movement, Conflict, spoken.
Movement allows moving to any point within away. Moving further costs a momentum..
Conflict actions. Generally things that require tests.
Spoken actions. Simple quips and spoken commands.
Free actions. Not listed in the quickstart, but references are made to it.

Damage
The Same
Essentially broken into stress and harm. Harms are renamed as afflictions.
Having an affliction causes a penalty on the appropriate stat.
Reducing stress to 0 = 1 affliction.
Causing 5+ points of stress in a single attack = 1 affliction.
The Differences
One additional damage category. Confusion. It's Affliction is called "Madness"
When characters take damage they look at the two attributes used in their defend reaction and choose which stress track to take the damage on. Ex. A character parries with "Cunning" and "Daring", this brings the "Confusion" and "Injury" stress tracks into play and either can take the damage.
Blacking out instead of death at 5 wounds.
Optional note that an affliction can be caused at EACH 5 stress if the GM desires

What other differences have you noticed in the rules between the various 2d20 systems and this "lite" offering? Drop me a comment below and let me know!

John Carter FG Extension Update.

Although I have no screen shots I wanted to drop a quick update on progress. I spent part of last night working on templates to allow the construction of the attribute columns for the John Carter Character sheet. I showed the initial beginnings of the character sheet on a livestream last night.

I have about half of the "plus attributes" on the sheet, but need to make a modification on the code that does the calculations. Right now changing Cunning updates all of the "Cunning+Daring", "Cunning+Might", etc attributes, but does not update those plus attributes associated with the other main attributes. ie changing cunning does not update "Daring+Cunning".

It is a good start, and I'll work on the rest of the layout this week once I square that away. As I am trying to mimic the actual character sheet, this will take some time to make it as cool as it can be.

Happy Birthday to Robert E Howard.

On this day, January 22, in the year 1906 a man was born. This man, Robert E Howard, became one of the best known pulp authors of his, or any, time. He was published in numerous pulp magazines, selling many different stories, across numerous genres. Of course his most famous character is Conan, a barbarian from a forgotten time. Conan is the personification of the struggle of the barbaric man vs civilization.

Howard is credited as being the father of "Sword & Sorcery", and was a contemporary of HP Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. These three are often referred to when people speak of the three big writers of pulp fiction.

He was much more than simply the writer of Conan. Howard was a man that loved history and tried to work it into his stories whenever he could. Many of his yarns take place around historical events, where he tells the stories of people intertwined with them. His writing and characters were expansive ranging from King Kull of Atlantis, through to his modern age. Many of his stories speak of everyone living in a connected universe. Kull to Conan, Kull to Brank Mak Morn. Conan to the modern age.

Kull, Solomon Kane, Conan, Breckenrdige Elkins, El Borak, Sailor Steve Costigan, Brank Mak Morn, Dark Agnes and the list goes on. Many of his characters and stories have been adapted to the television and movie screen to varying degrees of success.

Both a man of his time and a man ahead of his time, he has influenced many people and many elements of fantasy.

Today I raise my glass in salute to a great writer.

John Carter FG Extension, a first look.

Spent a little more time on the project last night.  Largely working on graphics items; choosing and modifying.  Although I didn't get THAT much done I did get some work done include creating the start of a new JCM roller to handle the 2d20 Momentum system.


After last night and this morning I currently have a good start.

Complete.
Desktop - updated - will need further updating to allow for tiling, but this is a good intermediary step.
Sidebar - Updated
Decal - Updated
Chat box - updated.  Framedef needs to be updated still. - Framedef updated
Added a titlebar graphic lifted from the kickstarter page, slightly modified.
Dice rolling fundamentals - completed
New character sheet tab added back into the charsheet allowing the build of a JCM specific sheet, still contains CONAN 2d20 at the moment.

To do.
New character sheet graphics
New NPC sheet & graphics
New CT Graphics
Update the roller with proper documentation

John Carter for Fantasy Grounds. The Beginning.

Last night I started working on a re-skinning of the MoreCore ruleset for use with John Carter of Mars by Modiphius.

I have decided to handle the big graphical components first.  Desktop, decal, sidebars, chat box and option buttons.

After last night and this morning I currently have a good start.
Desktop - updated
Sidebar - Updated
Decal - Updated
Chat box - updated.  Framedef needs to be updated still.

To do.
New character sheet graphics
New NPC graphics
New CT Graphics
Update the character sheet to use the new 2d20 system using 2 attributes.

I hope to have some screenshots available tomorrow.