Conan the Roleplaying Game (Conan Series) [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

I had pre-ordered the book, and the initial run had a bad binding process. I contacted Mongoose and they replaced it for free. The current runs have an improved binding that is more what I've come to expect from Mongoose Publishing. Some folks do not like the B&W illustrations, but I like the feel of the B&W. The appearance is very crisp, and the bulk of the book is packed with text, so those 400+ pages are not simply crowded with filler.

The 2nd Edition rules have been well-clarified and many contentions and confusing aspects of the Atlantean Edition have been cleared up. The classes, races and some of the mechanics have also gotten a new facelift, but the entire rules as is are 99% compatible with the vast amount of material that are out for the game, so that's a major plus.

As has been mentioned in another review, the Temptress class is now included in the core classes in the main rule system, and she has gotten a well thought out revision as well. Notably, in place of where the former temptress would have gotten Sneak Attack, the temptress in 2nd Ed now has various levels of Secret Art; With Secret Art, you choose between Politics (which allows you to choose Noble-eseque skills), Sneak Attack (which deals with Sneak Attack as well as allows some addition rules for distraction in melee), or Sorcery (which allows some access to sorcery spells, advanced spells, and special rules to gain power points)

Speaking of sorcery, some of those rules have been revamped, clarified and improved as well.

Overall, especially now that the binding issue is resolved, I applaud the second edition of the ruleset. It's much more concise and user-friendly. And unlike some of the other reviewers, I like the clean black and white layout and graphics. An excellent book!

I'm not going to review in length the ins and outs of the Conan game system since others have done that much better than I could. I'll just say it is a playable variation on the core D20 mechanics and leave it at that. I want to concentrate on what the person that wants to play the game gets for their money with this volume.

First, the game is entirely contained within the covers of this book. There are no fleshed out scenarios included, but a creative GM will either have scenarios to adapt from other game systems or be ready to create their own. The book is player manual, DM guide and monster manual all in one. All you need to add is people, character sheets (available for free download at time of writing from Mongoose's website) and dice and you're good to go. You can't get much better value than that (and usually don't).

That said, there are a couple of things that I find work against a five star evaluation.

The only color you'll find between the covers is on the endpapers, where there are identical maps of the Conan World (one version of it, anyway: a different one is used in Return to the Road of Kings). If you live for the color pages of other D20 games, you'll be initially disappointed in that.

The game could use a better index, but is by no means unique in that.

The pages listing feats, skills and spells could have used a page index column too. Especially the spells, where the alphabetical order of the spell title is not the order in which they appear in the book.

The first time you go through a character generation you'll need to pay close attention to the rules and not dodge about using "previous system knowledge", as the various racial and class-based tweaks to the basic human template can be lost if assumptions are made, and as in anything can be tedious to fix after the fact. I'm not sure anything could be done to streamline the character generation process though. Once you've done a few characters it sorts itself out in your head and becomes a non-issue.

I find the illustrated borders on every page to be a waste of space. If nothing else the page count could be reduced by restricting these borders to special pages such as chapter openings and filling the resulting white-space with text. Not only that, I think that Mongoose might be inadvertently restricting their market in the USA by the PG13 nature of the drawings. Although I agree they are squarely in the Conan mold, I've actually overheard female gamers here in NY say they are put off buying the game by the drawings.

On the plus side, the pages are not glossy and are of reasonably heavy gauge paper. Other RPG games have thinner glossy pages that hold color well (no color means no need of course) but the pages can be fragile. Some rulebook pages tear very easily and I've had a spot eaten through a PM page by a drop of moisture. That won't happen with this book.

All in all I think this book represents phenomenal value for money.

When I first looked into this book, my reaction was of dissapointment since it is a Black and White book. After reading it and comparing it to the early edition of Conan the RPG, I realized not only the quality of the contents but the great improvement in rules and mechanics.

Amongst the new features this 2nd edition has is the Temptress template, the review and re-explained sorcery chapter, the religion and cults information (on how the different Hyborian gods are worshipped according to nation and culture), alliegance and reputation rules revisited, better explained combat, etc. Always keeping faithful to Howard's vision of Conan and the Hyborian world.

After browsing the book and reading the first chapter you'll realize that the lack of art inside is not missed at all, since the contents make up for this, after all you're looking for a rpg, not an art book.