Unleashing Conan: Secrets Behind The Hyborian Age RPG
An Inside Look at the Dark, Gritty Worldbuilding That Brings Conan's Era to Life with Lead Developer Matthew John
Conan: The Hyborian Age on Kickstarter
My video review of the full game
Hi Matthew! I read the core rulebook and I was very impressed with the writing and visual presentation. How did you find the writing and art talent responsible for putting together Conan: The Hyborian Age?
Thank you! For the writing, I (Matthew John) drafted the rules and examples and a handful of our Tales (pre-gen adventures). I've worked extensively on our Conan board game as lead developer for a number of years, writing rules variants and scenarios as well as a ton of flavor texts. When it came to writing the lore material, we wanted somebody with encyclopedic knowledge on the subject, so we reached out to Jason Durall, editor and writer for much of Modiphius’ Conan RPG. The lore presented in those books was exceptional and Jason also wrote Heroic Signatures’ internal “Conan Bible”, so the man knows his stuff. Fans of Conan (nevermind just RPG fans) will really love the succinct presentations of the cultures and lands of the Hyborian Age Jason created for us. For the 20+ Tales found across the 3 books, we brought in other veteran RPG and Conan RPG writers such as Jason Brick and Richard August to ensure our game felt as it should–brimming with blood and thunder; swords and sorcery.
As for the art, our line manager, who had also worked on the Modiphius 2d20 version, reached out to Phroilan Gardner, who had done some cover work on the Modiphius line, as well as working heavily with artists who had already worked on our boardgame line, such as Jens Lindfors, in order to keep the house art style consistent. A few new faces, such as Martin Sobr, were also roped in to add some flair to new scenes and content.
This Conan RPG claims to be designed to be accessible to both new and experienced roleplaying game players. What steps were taken to ensure that the rules are easy to learn and understand, while still providing enough depth and complexity for veteran players?
I was absolutely adamant that this game be welcoming to an RPG-curious person. Everything needed to feel intuitive, and connected. Above all, we needed to streamline. Whenever an extra step or sub system tried to break through into development, we shot it down with the skill of Shemitish archers. Checks, Attacks, and Sorcery all function with the same mechanical resolution. We whittled and sculpted, adding and removing, then testing. We tested on younger folks as well as those who’ve played board games casually to ensure the mechanics were easy to grasp and intuitive. This needed to be easier to pick-up and digest for players and GMs than, say, D&D 5th Ed, which is often cited as being accessible, but is it really? Not incredibly so, if I consider the teengers I’ve tried to teach it to.
This level of customization also helps ensure that complexity scales based on what the player chooses for their character. They just need to learn as they go and as they unlock Skills for themselves. They don’t need to constantly check a chapter to see what their Class might offer them because it is them choosing each new element, not a class.
The game uses both a number as well as step dice for each stat. The number acts as a modifier to whatever you roll with your step die. Most RPGs use either one or another of these approaches but Conan: The Hyborian Age uses both. How did the designers arrive at that decision? And what impact does this approach have on gameplay?
Conan himself is overtly resourceful and frequently bucks expectations. He excels at everything he tries and over his long career he’s become adept at numerous, shall we say, professions. I wanted Player Characters to have this same potential, so it was important to offer customization options wherever we could. This is a points-buy system, so players can get very specific about how they progress their characters. Assigning a Stat Die to a Stat allows even more wiggle room and flexibility and entices both those who wish to find the most optimal paths, as well as those who wish to play things by ear and experiment. For example, a character may choose to dump a lot of stat points into Might because they intend to be a melee-focused character. They may then aim to upgrade the Might Stat Die as well so they are truly formidable at close-range killing. That said, they may also wish to just make their Might Stat high, but not upgrade the Stat die, choosing instead to spend on Skills such as Charge or Hit and Run to make them more mobile while they do the killing.
Some players will choose an Origin that allows sorcery, but there are no obligations that they choose to take Sorcery Skills/Spells. We just wanted to break the options open wide while providing frameworks and breadcrumbs for players to follow as much or as little as they like.
There’s a die that you roll with every throw of the dice called a Flex Die (which is also a step die in that it can be upgraded over time). If the Flex Die roll results in the die’s highest value, then the player benefits from one potent meta-advantage or another. Where did the idea for this Flex Die mechanic come from and what kind of gameplay does it result in?
I think it’s pretty clear now that our game aims to empower the PCs. As well it should, with a Conan game. The Flex Die accomplished a few things for us. One, it allows success beyond the simple pass/fail dynamic. Two, it emulates the way these stories can swing in the favor of the hero, even when their back is to the wall. Three, rolling crits or screaming “20!” has always been a joy in these types of games. I didn’t want to remove that joy. Four, it allows players to mitigate auto misses. Our numbers range in this game is low (ish), meaning these are human characters, not super-heroes, so we can't infinitely boost stats and damage and still retain that feel. The Flex Die allows human characters a chance of mighty deeds even when they’re taxed or on the ropes. Five, it provides options and keeps our Stamina mechanic flowing. We encourage PCs not to hoard Stamina. Even characters with a high Grit will run low if they’re pushing themselves, so we wanted an in-battle means of gaining it back. Six, our play testers LOVED the Flex Die. This told us that some PCs are going to lean into upgrading their Flex Die in order to keep that machine running. Again, it was really about providing more options for PCs.
At the end of every session or so, all characters benefit from completely restored Life Points, Stamina Points and all their conditions are removed. What was the intent behind this “Respite” rule and how have you seen it affect believability or immersion in a story?
Like Robert E Howard’s Conan stories, GMs are encouraged to have clean breaks between Tales. Not sessions, mind you. If you need to continue where you left off because you were mid-adventure when the table got sleepy, those resources should not be restored. But if the Tale is done, then the GM can feel free to skip time, location, whatever, in order to start fresh. Each Conan story begins in this way, and that’s what we’re emulating here. This also allows for new PCs to join in for new Tales, offering a jump-in, jump-out approach for the busy gaming group. Know also (Oh, Prince) that some Tales in our adventure books will begin with PCs having fewer than normal points/resources as they begin the story on-the-run, enslaved, or wounded.
Magic in the game is intended to be both rare and dangerous. Can you explain how the mechanics actually accomplish that feature of the setting?
Magic isn’t rare in Robert E Howard’s stories, but it IS seemingly rare in the setting and not common-place. Your PC is an exceptional character, and can be one of the rare folks who wields sorcery and seeks out its benefits despite the physical toll it takes on them. Those who use it are typically up to no-good, but that’s really up to the player to decide. How much sorcery players and GMs wish to allow in their games is ultimately up to them. If your campaign is set in Stygia or specifically Khesetta, city of sorcerers, I’d imagine sorcery would be more common, you know?
Mechanically, the cost to use Sorcery is usually either Stamina Points, or in the case of the more potent or desirable spells, your Life Points. This means that using sorcery takes a direct physical toll on a character, potentially leaving them vulnerable and weakened. As a PC has a finite number of Stamina Points, and the combat system can be pretty deadly towards Life Points, sorcerers need to carefully balance the risk vs reward aspect of using these potentially powerful skills.
How does character progression in the Conan RPG encourage players to develop well-rounded characters, as opposed to simply specializing in combat prowess?
For me, this comes down to the delectable choices, and all the tiny ways players can lean into and away from approaches, whether combat-oriented or more roleplay focused. Look, I don’t put massive stock into PCs needing to be balanced against one another. As long as there’s utility in whatever approach one chooses, then it doesn’t matter if one character is going to kill another in mortal combat 9 times out of 10. The character who loses that bout will have other strengths and perhaps ways of avoiding combat all together, or getting someone to fight their battles for them. The truth is, you don’t have to be well-rounded, but the degree to which you balance things is all up to you as the options are quite broad. I think folks will really enjoy playing around with different character builds rather than playing endless sessions with the same one, though that is totally viable too. I’ll also spoil that one of our future supplements will likely offer a sort of “Veteran Mode” where old war dogs will find new mechanics and options that fresh characters will not have access to.
A lot of the spells and skills seem acclimated towards combat and combat-related activities. Can the game also accommodate sessions that focus on non-combat activities such as intrigue and social encounters?
Absolutely, yes. Notice, the Wits stat will be very important to PCs who want to work magic in this game. Guess what else the Wit stat informs? Most social Checks such as intimidation, persuasion, social deftness and charisma. In the Conan stories, sorcerers are often behind-scenes, working their treachery with or without magic. Tsotha-lanti and Yara come to mind. Having our Wits Stat combine intelligence and charisma/presence felt 100% right. This is another thing I want to explore further in supplements–more sorcerer-focused Tales so players can embody a cabal of evil bastards like the assassins from Khitai in Hour of the Dragon, or the titular People of the Black Circle.
The core book mentions that there are "many deities out there" in the Hyborian Age. How does the Conan RPG handle religion? Can players choose to worship specific gods, and if so, does this choice have mechanical or narrative consequences?
At this time worship of deities does not offer boons or hindrances. This is more so role-play material. That said, as above, it is something we’re looking at for next time. It was important for us to balance the content of the core book to provide the essentials, while also holding back some key aspects that we want to evolve further in future supplements. Certainly we see Conan receive the favor of Mitra in some of the stories, so it’s absolutely worth exploring.
The sources mention that the Conan RPG's Hyborian Age setting draws primarily from Robert E. Howard's original stories and extrapolates minimally from later pastiches. How did the team decide what material to include and what to exclude?
It was kind of simple really: present the facts as we know them in as enticing prose as we can muster. We got Jason Durall who is a certified veteran of things Conan. As mentioned above, he was a huge figure in the Modiphius game in this regard and he wrote Heroic Signatures’ internal “Conan Bible.” We told him to keep it succinct and not to “make stuff up”. We allow the Tales we’ve written to flesh things out where appropriate and will likely go deeper in particular places for future expansions. For this Core book, where it is the only required book, we wanted enough content to present the world, but not overwhelm with page count, especially if it meant muddying the canon.
I’ve been revisiting a lot of Howard’s Conan stories and they’re great, but there’s a recurring problem with many of them - the harmful racial stereotypes. What steps were taken to address that problematic aspect of Howard's stories for this game?
It’s a great question and one that will, sadly, anger certain folks no matter how one answers it. We are very aware of these aspects of the stories. They should be acknowledged and folks new to this setting should be warned about that kind of content. We’re not suggesting removing these aspects from the original stories, but it is very easy to lean away from certain ugly and harmful depictions from the past and lean into what makes these stories great. Racial stereotypes are not integral to the storytelling and are not something folks playing in this sandbox should highlight. It’s also not something they should bury, as it’s important to contextualize the past and not pretend these things don’t exist. In short, we don’t have “racial” modifiers in this game. We let Origins and a characters’ pasts influence who they are when the game begins, not their race. We do offer a disclaimer in the game that the source material has some harmful and dated elements. It’s not something we are trying to hide, but it’s absolutely not an element of Howard’s stories that we’re going to celebrate or further develop. If a simple sensitivity warning drives you away from the game, I really don’t know what to say.
The core book describes the Hyborian Age as a "treasure trove" of adventure possibilities. What makes this setting uniquely suited for sword-and-sorcery roleplaying?
Forward momentum. Fleet story-telling. Risk vs reward dynamic. Exotic locales. Mercenary ambitions. Prehistoric setting. Moral ambiguity. Vile sorcery that takes its toll. Pseudo-historical settings. These elements are the lifeblood of the genre, and Howard basically wrote THE book on it.
What are the key features or elements that make a setting a Robert E. Howard Conan setting rather than a generic sword-and-sorcery setting?
Hard question to answer because Howard’s world has defined so much of sword and sorcery as we know it. If you mean, how does this differ from the typical D&D fantasy setting (sword & sorcery means something different) then see the answers to the previous question–these elements are very much front and center here, defining the genre, rather than simply hiding in the background. I would even recommend those interested to check out Brian Murphy’s book, Flame and Crimson, if you want an excellent analysis of this cherished subgenre of fantasy.
What were the inspirations for the Tales (adventures) featured in the first two volumes of the Conan RPG adventure books?
Howard’s stories, mainly. By default, we wanted these to be short and quick for a GM to review and easy to run. Some are more “on rails” as we’re adapting a specific type of storytelling; others are more so sandboxes, and we even have a linked campaign. Our top design principle for this game was to make it so that we can have the most people actually play the game that we can. That meant bulldozing things out of the way, so the GM can easily digest the info and run the freakin’ game. We wanted read-aloud snippets in each Tale to set the tone, set pieces, clear antagonists and goals. A lot of these Tales are one or two shots. A campaign would emulate a career more than a single story thread. Each adventure is its own, and if a player misses one, it isn’t a big narrative problem.
How are the Tales in the adventure books structured to emulate the flow and momentum of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories?
This is somewhat answered above, but I’ll add it was about ensuring players did not waffle. Swords and sorcery protagonists do not waffle too much or take hours making decisions (maybe Kull, lol). All of our Tales tend to force decisions on players frequently in order to maintain forward-momentum. Sword and sorcery moves! It doesn’t bloviate. Our Tales keep things moving. And of course we populate these stories with lost cities, prehistoric beasts, vile wizards, enticing offers, clashes between civilization and barbarism and even the odd damsel in distress.
Are there any resources in the core rulebook or these Adventure volumes to assist Game Masters in creating their own Tales?
Indeed there are! We have a chapter dedicated to Game Mastering that provides some great pointers on running and creating your own games.There are more options of this kind in the GM kit which is packed in with the gorgeous GM screen as well.
The core rulebook mentions that GMs should adapt and adjust the rules as needed to maintain a "consistent and enjoyable experience" for all players. What are some common situations where a Game Master might need to deviate from the established rules?
I’m not someone who house-rules much. To me, I prefer to play the game as the designer intended. That said, I totally get that folks often wish to season the game to their liking and we absolutely encourage doing so. If you want to make sorcery more of a burden for PCs to use, then go for it. If you want to eliminate the options for players to use sorcery, have at it. We wanted to provide most of the required elements and let players choose what they like; or rather, we want the GM to decide, after they’ve considered the needs/wants of their players. This can become a sort of philosophical debate, but I think the GM should get final say on things as they’re the ones running the game.
I’d add that we do offer ranges on NPC/enemy profiles that allow GMs to adjust their difficulty on the fly. It also makes it so players can’t quite memorize an enemy’s stats and capabilities. We also have the Rule of Three which allows GMs to make quick decisions on modifiers depending on the situation, without having to check charts for types of cover or various conditions–a modifier always ranges from -3 to +3, and the GM is free to pitch it wherever they see fit within that scale.
What opportunities for crossover and shared gameplay exist between the Conan RPG and the Conan board game?
Most obviously, it’s a recycling of resources and components. Nobody has to own any aspect of the Conan board game to play the RPG. Those who do, however, will enjoy options for miniatures, tokens, game boards, (and I’ve even used the enemy tiles as an initiative tracker for my RPG games). Our pre-generated Tales make use of 90% of our existing game boards, for the purpose of playing out large battles, and our NPC section offers stats for heaps of miniatures folks might already have. On top of the board game components, we have included a set of ‘Area’ rules that can be used as an alternative to the regular range rules. The Area rules allow players to adopt the concepts of moving and making ranged attacks while using our board game battlemaps. You can even use this variant without our boards using dry erase or your own maps on scrap paper, with simple areas/zones marked out. Indeed, it’s my preferred way to play. Going forward, the plan will be to create content for the board game which will allow double-duty for the RPG. More on that later.
The way Origins was done is horrible. It had potential but they dropped the ball on it in every way. The way it's been handled everyone from a certain terrain/region is exactly alike. It has the trappings of a class based on where you're from and needs to either be WAY more flexible or just be done away with. The magic Origins are the worst part of it. Half the Origins are magic based which already doesn't scream Hyborian Age since Howard's writing had magic being extremely rare, yet somehow this smacks of something in High Fantasy with all the magic options presented to players. Sure, they say you don't have to choose spells if you pick a magic Origin, like that makes sense. The magic Origins are all frontloaded for Sorcery use in one way or another....but just don't choose spells and it won't be a Sorcerer! Thanks but like I said, they really dropped the ball on the Origins, badly.