Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells: Intro & Quick Reference

Recently a member of the Conan Gaming Group, over on facebook, posted some materials to play a custom game of Monolith's Conan board game based around the 90s Cartoon, "Conan The Adventurer". I immediately chuckled and started to think of running an RPG scenario based on the cartoon.

If you have followed along here at all you may be aware I GM at a local convention here in Calgary Alberta, the RPG Alliance, and throughout the year various GMs run monthly sessions. With the current pandemic I thought this might be a perfect time to run this game and advertise it to the convention community. In keeping with the concept of what I wanted, a light fun sword & sorcery romp, I decided to stay away from the 2d20 system, as much as I enjoy it I didn't feel it fit the Saturday morning vibe.

As I continued to look through systems I found various ideas that I thought would work out well, many took ideas from FATE or similar systems, and while I think they have some great ideas, they had a little steeper learning curve. Not because they are complex, but because they are fairly different. My desire for a fun Saturday morning vibe shifted and my rules search shifted to a rules light Sword & Sorcery setting.

Enter "Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells" from Gallant Knight Games & Old Skull Publishing from Diogo Nogueira. It is billed as a rules light rpg with old school spirit and it came recommended from one of the Conan Gaming Group members so I thought I should give it a look. At the time of writing this it was even on sale for $5cad for the PDF, hard to go wrong with that price.

After having a quick look through the shortish rules I decided this system was simple and easy to learn, everything from combat to spell casting was incredibly easy to do. For new players this would be a breeze. I will give a more full review of the system after we play our game using it as our rules, but between now and then I thought I write a few articles about the mechanics and various things I have come up with for the game. So without further pre-amble, I give you the single page quick reference sheet.

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Tool Trunk Thursday: Portable Toolbox

The frigid snows of the north continue to assault the stronghold, but I believe the worst is done now. Surely the winter storms are over and the mental benefits of more sun and warmer weather are felt soon. But I know you are not here to listen to me ramble about the weather. So without further introduction.

Portable Toolbox

All manners of craftsmen in the Hyborian Age are called upon to make repairs away from their shops. These kits are employed by such artisans and consist of basic tools such as hammers, punches, saws, files, etc. Anyone with a modicum of skill can benefit from having a selection of tools at their disposal. Adventurers who are planning to be away from civilization for an extended period of time would do well to take a selection of tools to help with the maintenance of their equipment. If you liked this article then don't forget to subscribe to get the next exciting installment on pulp gaming both Sci-Fi and Fantasy!

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Equipment icons are found on https://game-icons.net/ and are provided under CC BY 3.0.

Remember this isn't the end times, this is humanity working together to save as many lives as we can through proven methodology for fighting new a new virus. Stay Strong.

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

Tool Trunk Thursday: Quill & Parchment

The mysterious Stygian plague continues to haunt the countryside, but I remain safely locked away in my stronghold. I trust my fellow warriors are likewise safe behind locked doors. Brothers and Sisters, we will defeat this scourge sent upon us. Stay strong. Stay Healthy! It is, of course, Thursday and so today we open that mysterious chest once more to see what interesting piece of equipment we might find today.

Quill & Parchment

In the beginning of humanity we told stories around campfires, eventually we sought to record these stories on the walls of our caves with paintings. As we became more sophisticated we began to look to other ways to record our ideas and stories. Writing became available and so scholars and sorcerers began to record ideas and knowledge. Certainly some of these writings can drive someone to madness, but others are more banal holding only basic information about places and things.

These nundane parchments, and the quills to make notes, are far more commonplace and can often be found for little gold to provide information about a region. It is unlikely you will find scrolls with information about Vanaheim in Argos, but scrolls about the Forest of Ghouls between Argos and Zingara will almost assuredly be available.

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Equipment icons are found on https://game-icons.net/ and are provided under CC BY 3.0.

Remember this isn't the end times, this is humanity working together to save as many lives as we can through proven methodology for fighting new a new virus. Stay Strong.

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

Setting up 2d20 on Roll20: The Combat Dice.

I have been playing around with the free Roll20 for awhile, learning how it works and what we could do with it for Conan 2d20.

Conan 2d20 and other 2d20 systems use combat dice to determine damage and weapon effects. We can, of course, simple roll a d6 and note the results but we have a way to make it a little more automated if we desire. This is accomplished via the Roll20 roll table.

The process is pretty simple, and although it is not a perfect solution, it is easy to do and can be done completely with the free version of Roll20.

Step 1: Making the Table

On the top right of Roll20 you will find the Collection Icon. Clicking on it will bring up the tab that gives us control over a lot of the automated processes; macros, decks and rollable tables. Near the bottom you will find Rollable tables. The first thing we need to do is to create a new Rollable table.

Step 2: Naming the table and adding the items

Once we have the table created, clicking on the table name that appeared when we added the new table. This will open up the new table dialog. From here rename the table to "CD" and begin adding each of the following Items: "1","2","0","0","1 + Effect","1 + Effect".

Once you have completed adding your items into the table, it should look like this. When you are happy with it. Hit "Save Changes"

Step 3: Testing the roll

Switch back to the chat dialog box and type the following roll command into chat "/roll 3t[CD]", you should get a result similar to this image. This will show you the total damage that was rolled, but you will have to manually add in any extra damage you get from effects like Vicious(Conan),Sharp(JCoM), etc.

And that is all there is to setting up a roll20 rollable table to handle your Combat Dice in roll20.

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Remember this isn't the end times, this is humanity working together to save as many lives as we can through proven methodology for fighting new a new virus. Stay Strong.

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

Tool Trunk Thursday: Rune Sword

Dog Brothers and Sword Sisters, welcome to another installment of Tool Trunk Thursday! We are 3 weeks into our self imposed isolation to slow the stem of the COVID-19 virus. One of the great things about the Hyborian Age is that we can see the monsters that need slaying, although sometimes maybe our heroes might need a keen edge to do it....

Rune Sword

Before the Hyborian Kingdoms spreads across the world in the west, before the mighty kingdoms of the east, before even Stygia there were people that dwelled in these lands. Their mark upon the world is largely erased by war and cataclysm. Still, some places hold glimmers of those long forgotten kingdoms and times, ancient ruins or tombs untouched by the shifting lands. Some of these even hold rare artifacts like this, an ancient sword forged by some unearthly metal. It's edge remains sharp even after the centuries; it's balance is unlike that of the swords of the Hyborian age.

Warriors using such a weapon gain an advantage in combat over their foes, how could they not?

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If you need to check out any of these great games stop on by DriveThruRPG and pick something up through my affiliate link to help support the blog!

Equipment icons are found on https://game-icons.net/ and are provided under CC BY 3.0.

Remember this isn't the end times, this is humanity working together to save as many lives as we can through proven methodology for fighting new a new virus. Stay Strong.

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

Tool Trunk Thursday: Ground Crystal

Welcome to another Tool Trunk Thursday! As I write this I am half way through week 2 of working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I have also been crazy busy transferring my in house John Carter game onto Roll 20 so we can continue our adventures on Barsoom. Thinking today was Wednesday I didn't realize I needed to post today's piece of equipment until now, at least it is not Friday like last week!? I hope everyone is doing well and is safe. Stay Strong. Raise your sword against the storm.

Ground Crystal

Similar to the blinding sand implemented by the alchemists of the Hyborian Age, this represents a cruder, less "magical" option. Cheaper and more plentiful than hiring an alchemist to craft a blinding powder this ground dust renders an opponent temporarily unable to defend themselves.

This is certainly not going to make you look like a wizard, but hopefully your opponent dies quickly after this, so who cares?

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If you need to check out any of these great games stop on by DriveThruRPG and pick something up through my affiliate link to help support the blog!

Equipment icons are found on https://game-icons.net/ and are provided under CC BY 3.0.

Remember this isn't the end times, this is humanity working together to save as many lives as we can through proven methodology for fighting new a new virus. Stay Strong.

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

Tool Trunk Thursday: Healing Injections

TOOL TRUNK.....Friday? The world is a little crazy at the moment, and while things here are fine, it has apparently screwed with my schedule more than normal. I have more time, but the days have begun to run together with no actual commute to work. Either way I present to you the new piece of kit for your Conan 2d20 game!

Healing Injections

Those brave enough to drink the concoction of an alchemist know that they can be an effective treatment to many ailments. Some of the crazier alchemists have devised ways to get their mixtures into people in a quicker, less voluntary way. Those who seek to help have developed serums that allow the injured and the weak to be rejuvenated through the injection of some mysterious substance found in the Black Kingdoms.

If you liked this article then don't forget to subscribe to get the next exciting installment on pulp gaming both Sci-Fi and Fantasy!

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If you need to check out any of these great games stop on by DriveThruRPG and pick something up through my affiliate link to help support the blog!

Equipment icons are found on https://game-icons.net/ and are provided under CC BY 3.0.

Remember this isn't the end times, this is humanity working together to save as many lives as we can through proven methodology for fighting new a new virus. Stay Strong.

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!